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Pravin Kumar
Age: 60 Zodiac: 
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 Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 8:01 am |
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We have talked about two phases that are related to the spiritual journey: purityof the body and purity of thought. Emotions are at a deeper level than the body and the thoughts. The purity of emotions is the most important quality. On the spiritual journey and in meditation, the purity of emotions is more useful than that of the body and of thoughts. This is so because man does not live so much according to thoughts, he lives more according to his emotions. It is said that man is a rational animal, but this is not true. You don't do very many things in your life as a result of thinking, most of what you do is influenced by your emotions. Your hatred, your anger, your love -- all these are related to your emotions, not to your thoughts.
Most of the activities in life originate from the world of emotions, not from the world of thoughts. You must also have noticed that you think one thing, and when the time comes you do something else. The reason for this is that there is a fundamental difference between emotions and thinking. You may decide that you will not become angry; you may think that anger is bad but when anger gets hold of you thinking is left aside and you become angry.
As long as a transformation in the world of emotions does not happen, just thinking and contemplation alone cannot bring about a revolution in life. That's why on the spiritual journey the most basic point is the emotions. So this morning we will discuss how to bring about the purification of the emotions.
Of the many dimensions that emotions cover I would like to emphasize four. I will talk about the four aspects through which emotions can become pure. These are also the four aspects that can reverse and become a womb for impure feelings. The first of these aspects is friendliness, the second is compassion, the third is cheerfulness and the fourth is gratitude. If you were to include these four emotions in yourlife you would achieve purity of emotions.
These four each have their opposite. The opposite of friendliness is hatred and enmity, the opposite of friendliness is hatred and enmity, the opposite of compassion is cruelty, violence and unkindness, the opposite of cheerfulness is sadness, misery, anguish and worry, the opposite of gratitude is ingratitude. Someone whose life and emotions are in the four opposite aspects is in a state of impure emotions, and someone who is rooted in the first four aspects is rooted in pure emotions.
You should find out what influences your emotions, what moves your emotions. It is true that instead of friendliness, enmity and hostility are more prominent in your life? Is it true that instead of friendliness you are more easily moved by enmity, by hostility? Are you more easily impressed by it? Are you more easily triggered by it? Do you get more energy from it? As I said earlier anger has energy, but frienliness also has energy. Someone who only knows how to generate the energy of anger will miss a major dimension in his life. Someone who has not learned how to awaken the energy of friendliness is someone who is powerful only in hostile situations and becomes weak in friendly situations.
You might not be aware that all the nations in the world become weaker during times of peace, and during times of war they become more powerful. Why? -- because theydon't know how to create the energy of friendliness. Silence is not a strengthfor you, it is a weakness. This is the reason why India, a nation that has talked so much about peace and love, became so powerless -- because ordinarily the only way to feel strength is to be hostile.
Hitler wrote in hs autobiography: If you want to omake a nation powerful then pretend that you have enemies or create real enemies. Tell the nation that there are enemies everywhere, even if there are not. When people believe that they are surrounded by enemies it will generate much strength and energy.
This is why Hitler pretended that the Jews were the enemy -- it wasnot true -- and for ten years he preached and explained to the whole country that, "The Jews are our enemies and we will have to protect ourselves from them." Much energy was generated. All of Germany's strength came out of hostility, all of Japan's strength came out of hostility. Today, the power of America and Russia also comes out of hostility.
Up to now the history of manking shows that we only now how to generate the energy of enmity; we don't know about the energy of friendliness. Mahavira, Buddha and Christ laid the foundations for the energy of friendliness. They have said that non-violence is power. Christ said "Love is power"; Buddha said "Compassion is power." You hear it, but you don't understand.
So I say to you, think about your life. When do you feel poewrful? -- is it when you feel animosity towards someone or is it when you are feeling peaceful andfull of love towards someone? And you will see that you feel powerful in hostile conditions, and when you are in a state of awareness and silence you become powerless and weak. This means that you are being ruled by impure emotion. And the stronger the impure emotions are, the less you can enter within yourself.
What is it that prevents you from entering withing yourself? Try to understand this very important point. Your hostility is always focussed on the outside; this means that hostility happens towards someone who is outside of you. If there were o one on the outside hostility could not arise in you.
But I tell you that love is not focussed on the outside: even if there is no one on the outside love can still happen within you. Love is intrinsic, friendliness is intrinsic. Hostility needs the other, it is related to the other. Hatred is triggered by the outside, love wells up inside. The spring of love flows from within, the reaction of hatred is provoked from without. Impure emotions are created on the outside, pure emotions flow from within.
Try to understand this difference between impure emotions and pure emotions. The emotions that are triggered by the outside are not pure; so your love, the passion that you call love, is not pure because it is triggered by the outside. Only the love that flows from within, that is not triggered by the outside, is pure. That's why in the East we say there is a difference between love and passion: we separate passion from love.
Passion is triggered by the outside. Buddha or Mahavira have no passion in their hearts, they have love.
Jesus was passing through a town. It was noon and he was very tired. The sun was very hot so he stopped to rest in a garden under a tree. The house and garden belonged to a prostitute. She saw Jesus resting under the tree in her garden. No one like this had ever stopped to rest in her garden; she had never seen anyone like this before. She had seen many beautiful people, she had seen many powerful people, but this beauty was different, this wholeness was something not of this world. She was so pulled by her attraction to him that before she realised it she had already reached the tree.
When she went close to Jesus and began to look at him, his eyes opened andhe got up to leave. He thanked her saying, "Thank you for the shade that your tree has given me. Now I'm going. I have a long way to go."
But the prostitute said, "If you don't come inside my house for a little while, I will feel offended. Please stay for a while. This is the first time that I am inviting someone into my house. People come to my door and I send them away. This is the first time in my life that I am inviting someone in."
Jesus said, "Once you have invited me into your heart, I have already become your guest. But I have a long way to go so please allow me to leave. I have already received your hospitality."
But the prostitute said, "This hurts me. Won't you even show enough love to enter my house?"
Jesus told her, "Remember, I'm the only person who can love you. All the other men who come to your door don't love you. I am the only person who can love you The others who come to your door don't love you because they don't have love. They have come because of you. With me, my love is within me."
Love is like the light of a lamp: if no one were here the light would still continue to fall on emptiness, and if someone were to pass it would fall on them. But the passion and desire are not like light: when they are triggered by someone, these energies move towards them. That's why passion is a tension. Love is not a tension. There is no tension in love, Love is a state of absolute calmness.
Impure emotions are those which are influenced by the outside. The winds from the outside give rise to impure emotions within you. And pure emotions are those which come from within you; the winds from outside don't influence them. We don't think of Mahavira or Buddha in this way, that they loved -- but I tell ou that they were the only people who loved. But there is a difference between their love and yours. Your love is in relation to someone; their love is not a relationship, it is a state ofbeing. It is not a relationship -- their love is not a relation to someone else, it is their state of being. They are compelled to love becausethey have no other choice.
It is said about Mahavira that people insulted him, they threw stones at him, they put nails into his ear and he forgave everything. I say that this is not true: Mahavira didn't forgive anyone because only people who get angry can forgive. And Mahavira did not have pity on them because only those who are cruel can have pity. And Mahavira didn't think that he shouldn't behave badly with these people because only people who behave badly think like that.
So what did Mahavira do? Mahavira was helpless, he had nothing to give except love. No matter what was done to him his only answer would be love. If you throw a stone at a tree full of fruit you will get only fruit as an answer, there is no other way. The trey is not doing anything, this is its helplessness. And if you drop any kind of bucket into a river full of water, whether the bucket is dirty or clean, made of gold or iron, the river has no choice but to give you water. There is nothing great aout the river, it is helpless to do otherwise. So when love is a state of being it is a kind of choicelessness -- one has to give, there is no other way.
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