Gurugita Insights

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This page was referenced in my visit to Seattle, WA in case you need more context.

After chanting the Gurugita on May 19, 2002, there was 15 minutes of meditation. As I was medititating, various challenges of the week past would come up. There had been four. The most obvious was the delay in getting back the results of my drug test so that I could start working for Bekins. After taking the test it would be more than a week and a half before I could start working (which was about a week longer than I expected). Each day I was hoping to start the next day only to learn that the results were not back yet.

However, I was able to use that time to investigate what it would take to switch my Commerical Driver's License (CDL) from Texas to Washington (so that I could upgrade from trucks and buses (Class B) to also drive tractor trailers (Class A)). To switch my license, I needed a physical address in Washington. Well I had some dear friends, Narayani and Pradeep (I had met at the ashram) who live in the Seattle area who would almost certainly not mind having my mail sent there, but I hadn't been able to reach them for the past few weeks because I had an old e-mail address and phone number. Friday evening (May 17) I got their phone number from Narayani's sister, Gayla, but they were out of town that weekend. That of course was a continuing delay with switching my license, getting my mail, and even getting a library card. Sigh.

Also, I had gone by Labor Ready three days and been there at opening time but never gotten out as they don't seem to follow the sign in order hardly at all (many people went out who arrived after I did). That was three. Fourth I had been playing e-mail and then telelphone tag for a few weeks to find out what the local Mensa group was doing and hadn't really been able to connect.

Now all those things are pretty minor, really, but they made me a little anxious (I wanted to get on with my new job, getting mail, and such), frustrated, and even, dare I say it, aggravated. As I was meditating I remembered all that as well as the yoga teaching that all misery and suffering in the world is self-inflicted. I believe Shakespeare wrote, 'Nothing is good or bad but that thinking makes it so'. So, I conceptually understand that what happens to us is often beyond our control, but how we respond to it (and perceive it) is up to us. Even so, it is so easy to slip into those perspectives where we get anxious, frustrated, or aggravated. The best way to reduce misery and suffering in the world is to start with eliminating the self inflicted misery and suffering in my own life.

On reflection, nothing at all bad happened last week and I could just view the week as an unscheduled vacation. Further, the challenges which caused all the delays were really a blessing to remind me how easy it is to get all caught up with things that are really quite unimportant in the larger perspective.

On June 3rd, I went to the audio broadcast Satsang from Oakland, CA. The theme was a contemplation of the scripture/teaching which asks how a person who is full of anger, greed, ... can ever really help another person. As I considered that I realized that if I am full of anger, fear, or whatever then I will only really be able to help them materially. In that case, their suffering will almost certainly return as that is the nature of material efforts to help others. It is only when I myself have adopted a more internally focussed perspective that I can help others with the true cause of their suffering (which is an incorrect understanding of their situation). So, that is yet another reason why the best way to reduce misery and suffering in the world is to reduce it in myself first.

This page was last updated on March 15, 2007.