Give Thanks

The year draws to an end.

As every year does, it has brought with it
challenges and opportunities

separations and reunion'
laughter and tears...

It's November

Five days to Thanksgiving...
and I'm just reminded
that it makes sense
to give praise

for all that has happened this year......

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a festival connected with American history and culture. For me, however, the last Thursday of November marks a day set aside for a few quiet moments. It’s a day to ponder upon the way the Universe has been kind to me.

Have I really learnt to ‘give thanks in all circumstances, to give thanks for all things’?

What are the wonderful things that happened to me this past year, since the last Thanksgiving? What were the opportunities I had for learning?

Who are the new people who have come into my life? What are the new opportunities I got to be happy and make others happy?

As I sit, in the quiet moments of that space between night and dawn, on the close of yet another Thanksgiving Day, I feel my heart opening up to the silence of the Universe, and my mind letting go of the tensions and worries of everyday living. And from somewhere, inside my consciousness, from inside my being, there is a wonderful one-ness with creation, and tears flow… tears of gratitude, tears of joy. As I sit in thankful meditation, I get, for a fleeting moment, a glimpse of the tapestry that is being woven by the Great Weaver in the Sky, as I see in how many beautiful ways hundreds of times throughout the year, She Who Has No Name has worked her miracles for me through the hands of countless people.

I realize, once again, that I am not alone, not for one single moment of the day. I realize that I, perhaps small, perhaps insignificant, definitely imperfect am still the receiver of a boundless, infinite Love. And that is immensely comforting.

That’s what I give thanks for on Thanksgiving Day.

When U thot I wuzzn't lookin'

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING
Because others are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.


When you thought I wasn't looking
I saw you hang my First painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately wanted to paint another one.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you feed a Stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make my Favorite cake for me, and I learned that the little Things can be the special things in life.
When you thought I wasn't looking I heard you say a Prayer, and I knew that there is a God I could always Talk to, and I learned to trust in Him.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make a Meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I Learned that we all have to help take care of each Other.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of Your time and money to help people who had nothing, And I learned that those who have something should Give to those who don't.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you take care Of our house and everyone in it, and I learned we have To take care of what we are given.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw how you Handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't Feel good, and I learned that I would have to be Responsible when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw Tears come from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things Hurt, but it's all right to cry.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw that you Cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.
When you thought I wasn't looking I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and Productive person when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking I looked at you and Wanted to say,'Thanks for all the things I saw when You thought I wasn't looking.'

Fundamentalism means loss of innocence

We are living in a world that keeps growing crazier.

When we see 'sin' in everything.

When we discover 'abuse' even in the most ordinary of happenings.

When we forget what innocence and freedom means.

When we sacrifice our God-given intelligence to mouldy religious texts.

Our spiritual growth grinds to a halt.

Conflict happens.

War errutpts.

Jihad will be followed by Crusade.

Crusade will be countered by Hinduditva.

Drop everything.

Get naked.

Return to innocence.

True Theology?

One of the stories collected by a popular story-teller in India goes something like this: Once a parachutist found himself caught up in a storm, and he was swept off several kilometers away from his original destination.

He landed on the top of a tree, and was only happy his life was saved.

He saw someone passing by, and called out to him and asked, "Sir, can you tell me, where I am?" Came the answer, "You are on the top of a tree."

The parachutist said." Are you a theologian?"

At this the other man was simply wonder-struck.

He asked the parachutist. "Yes I am, but how do you know that?".

The parachutist replied. "Oh that is easy. Because what you said is correct, but useless!"
Theology can state many correct things, and yet become quite useless and even ridiculous when it fails to identify its topos, its location.

A general theology would be a theology on the top of a tree, in the clouds.

That is why every theology has to be really located, has to be contextual.

This is what the experiences in our Third World societies continue to impress upon us.

All true theology can only be partial.

Paradoxically, we can say that, precisely because the Ultimate Reality is total, all our theology can only be partial. This is not something new. In fact it has always been so.

But the difference is that certain theologies claimed to be total theologies are unaware of the fact that they were only universalizing what has been a particular, historically and culturally limited experience.

Here I would like to recall an experience narrated to me by a friend from Nepal who is an expert also in Buddhism.

He took a group of theology students to a Buddhist monastery.

After the chief monk spoke, the young students were vying with each other in putting critical questions to the monk.

One of them argued this way: If Buddhism teaches that desire is the root cause of all suffering and that we should free ourselves from desires, then, there will still remain at least one desire the desire not to have desires. Perfect logic, of course! But the response of the experienced monk was simple: "This means, my friend," said the monk, you are not yet ready for Enlightenment."

We need to first walk a bit on the path to experience and understand it.

This is how every authentic theology needs to begin.

But where does this path lie?

Life is today the path on which we encounter God, and it is in walking on the path of life in a determined context that true contextual theology takes flesh and bone.

Dust and Ashes

Here you see a naked Sadhu performing a painful and difficult act of penance according to the Hindu tantric tradition.

The Western religious teacher, and in particular the 'Christian' onlooker may express dismay, shock, and may even feel disgusted at this 'vulgar' display of the naked body. Some may even call this 'satanism' and 'devil worship'.

The Christian, [and maybe the Jew] has always been so obsessed with 'covering up'. The Christian religious rituals [and jew and Mohamedan] have vestments that are elaborate and cover up one's nakedness. And yet, According to Christian tradition, we aere all created 'in God's Image'.

St. Francis of Assissi was known to have thrown off all his clothes at the defining moment of spiritual revelation. He stood stark naked in front of a whole crowd of the elite and the commoners and renounced his father's wealth. He stood there, sky clad, in all his created glory and said "Now I can truly say, Our Father in Heaven". The Bishop covered him with his cloak. But a few minutes later, he gave away that cloak to a poor beggar, walking away naked. he later wore clothes of coarse sackcloth.

Why are Christians so ashamed of their god-given bodies?

In Hindu tradition, the priest actually strips down to the very basics to worship. To belong to nature. To stand humbled before the Power.

Renunciation in the East has been achieved through the shedding of clothes. Many great Teachers and saints were sky-clad. Mahavir and the other founders of the Jain religion did not wear clothes, but they did cover their mouths so as not to harm tiny insects. Even today, there are many Gurus in the Indian tradition who have renounced clothes.

To be unclad is not to be indecent. One can go around as naked as the day he was born, with a clear mind, devoid of attachment. One can wear the longest cloak and protest his modesty, and yet be indecent and lecherous in his mind.

[series to continue]

Wedding at Cana

Quakers say that God has nothing else but you;
only you -- that's what God has.

This insight has to penetrate deeply.
Jesus Christ. 

The Buddha.
The great 'yes' sayers.

And so, was Mary the Mother of Jesus.
Another great 'yes' sayer.

She's not the pathetic, long faced, woman the Christian artists make her out to be.

Look in the Bible.

There was this feast. A wedding feast.

Everyone was making merry and then- oh no!- they run short of wine.

Wine. the stuff that flows and that which makes Bacchus dance.

If Mary was the sanctimonius, 'no-sayer' and spoil-sport,
the first ever recorded miracle of Jesus would never have happened!


Mary was no 'Naga Mother against Alcoholism'!
She goes up to her son, taps him on the shoulder and says
'They have no wine.' 

Just like any mum would tell her son. (And that's enough of a hint that she wants him to do something about it!)

Jesus, just like the playful fellow that he is, teases her
"Woman, why do you bother me, what can i do about it?"

Mary probably sees the twinkle in her son's eyes.
She tells the servants of the house. 'Do whatever he tells you."

And Jesus asks them to fill the wine jars with water.
And to take a sampling to the Chief steward of the feast.

The guy in charge of the booze takes a sip.

And the steward is amazed.
He tells the servants, "Where have you been keeping this good stuff?'

"Usually the best wines are served first
and when everybody is a bit sozzled, you roll out the inferior stuff.
But you chaps have kept the best wine for later!"

What better example of the fun-loving, yes-saying nature
of Jesus Christ and his Mother.

Yet , it's so sad that the so-called 'pious Christians' 

have taken the exuberance of the gospels
and twisted them the into a long-faced, painful, hypocritical religion

of enforced piety

of mumbling beads

of a spurious sense of  'holiness'

and there's a 'nay-sayer' at every turn.

The law-abiding fear true Love

To me, the season of Lent is not about Law

It’s not about penance and mortification
It’s not about not eating meat and not going to the movies.
It’s about reconciliation and love.

To the Jews, especially the priests, and the politicians,
It appeared that Jesus would just destroy the law.
So they were angry. And they were right!
In a sense, the law would be destroyed, because a higher law would be coming in.
The lower law would have to go.

Law depends on fear. Law depends on greed. Law punishes you.
The central idea of Law is justice, but justice is not enough.
Justice is crude and hard and violent.
Somebody murders, then the law murders him.
Justice has no spirituality in it, it is mathematical.

You have killed somebody, then the law kills you.
But if killing is wrong, then how can the law be right?
The law itself is very much lacking, it depends on the same evil.

“Law is better than lawlessness, but compared to love, law itself is lawlessness.” -- Osho

Only compassion can allow your being to bloom.
Only compassion can help you come to your highest peak – not justice.

When Jesus started talking about love, the people who were law abiding became very much afraid.

They feared that if the law were dropped, the animal hiding inside of them would jump out, and would tear down the whole society.
They knew that their faces were only beautiful on the outside.
Deep down, great ugliness. Suppressed. Repressed.

When Jesus says, ‘Drop all masks’, they become afraid and angry.

‘This man is dangerous. He eats and drinks. He consorts with prostitutes. He eats with sinners and exploiters. This man has to be punished and destroyed before he destroys society”.

First be reconciled

[LENTEN THOUGHTS 1]

The period of Lent is regarded by ordinary Catholics
As a time for prayer and penance.
It’s a time for mortification, for ‘giving up’ pleasures
Like sweets, or meat, or cinema, or even sex.
Lent is forty days of prayer and abstinence.

The real meaning of Lent is metanoia
The Greek word for renewal.
To become new.

Most Catholics view Lent as something to be enforced.
A stern law to be enforced within the family and in the community.
Some Christians are so scandalized, so shocked
If a priest or a nun is seen to be eating Meat on a Friday
Or having a glass of beer during Lent.

But Metanoia means to make things new.
Not to enforce the law of Moses.
But to bring forth the love of that Jesus preached.
Osho once said “Law is enforced love; Love is a spontaneous law.”

Moses gave commandments.
Jesus gave insight into these commandments.
One can follow the commandments, can ‘observe the Lenten practice’
On a formal, superficial level.

One can become a righteous person, a puritan, a moralist for 40 days
And deep down nothing changes.
The old darkness is still there.
The old unconsciousness is still there.
Nothing has really changed, I’m just wearing this beautiful mask.
Now there’s nothing wrong in wearing a beautiful mask – if you
Have an ugly face, wear a mask, it will at least save others from seeing you.
But the mask cannot change the ugly face.
You have to transform the face too.
Why be so hard on others, who perhaps do not choose to wear masks during Lent?

Moses gave a very crude discipline to society. Primitive.
He couldn’t have done better, there was no way.
Human consciousness in his time existed in a primitive way.
But Moses prepared the way, and Jesus was the fulfilment.
What Moses started, Jesus completes.
Moses laid the foundation. Jesus raised the whole temple.

Lent is not a law of discipline and punishment.
Lent is a time for love.

Surprises

Life cannot be static.
Life cannot be stagnant.
Life must flow.

The other day, I heard somebody say,
"There is no life if there are no surprises."

And this set me thinking.
Every minute is a surprise, because you don't know what's it going to bring.

This past week, I have been travelling.

And oh my goodness, didn't it bring surprises!

A lot of surprises.. that one couldn't really call pleasant at that time.

Like finding out that for some strange reason my bank hasn't credited
an important cheque, that I was banking on to do some shopping!

surprise... you've got to change that programme.

Like being caught in the middle of a freak thunderstorm
that turned into pouring rain and hail
that caused a whole lot of traffic jams
on the way to Delhi Airport... that was a surprise
and the greaterone was that I didn't miss the flight
the storm caused congestion at the airport

and that resulted in the most breathtaking surprise of all
watching beautiful Bangalore at night from the air
like Diwali and Christmas rolled in to one
the entire cabin fell silent as we slowly cruised above
the soft lights of the garden city...

and a thought crossed my mind
The pilots who bomb cities must be having this beautiful view.
How beautiful and peaceful, Baghdad must have looked
or any other town on planet earth...

And yet, how could they push a button....

To destroy...????

Imagine all the people, living for today .....

Man made God in his Image

The fundamentalist has very definite ideas about God.

He knows what God likes.
What God dislikes.
Whom God will punish.
And who is God’s enemy.

The Moslem fundamentalist will wield the Koran.
The ‘Born Again’ Bible freak will shake the Bible at you.
The Militant Hindu will thump you over the head with scriptures written and unwritten.

And they all have so much in common.

The religious bigot will tell you:

That there is only one God and that it’s his one.


That there’s only one book [or compendium of books] that’s true, and of course it’s the one he has.
That only those who listen to his God are the chosen, the elite, the saved.


That all others are barbarians, idolaters, kafirs, outcastes.
That his God doesn’t like variety, free thought, or independent reasoning


That everybody who has a different God is attacking his God and his Religion
That his God is all-powerful.

Strange, these all powerful Gods

are imprisoned within the confines of their little books
These Gods have no other thoughts or will or freedom

than those attributed to them by their own prophets.

Lord as Elephant and Mouse

The other day I was visited by an ‘upright’ - or should I say 'uptight'  Christian couple. 

They sat uncomfortably in my living room, pursing their lips. After a while they asked me, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?”

 “Sure,” I said, “Jesus Christ is an historical fact.”

“Then why is it that you have all these Hindu gods all  around your house?” they persisted.

They were obviously perturbed by the Ganesha figure outside my door. And the  Ganesha statues and artwork that adorn my living room. 

"And why not?" I countered. 

Spiritual iconography is very much a part of any tradition. And the icons in the Hindy tradition have really deep meaning, if you have the grace and knowledge to decipher them.

Ganesha is a wonderful representation of the power of God. 

The power of the almighty. The power of mind over matter. The power of Nirvana.

One of the names of Ganesha:  
Vighna-mochan. 

The remover of obstacles. 

The Ganesha symbol is an elephant headed man astride a mouse. The elephant is the biggest animal in the jungle. Nothing can withstand the charge of the elephant. He can tear a path through the densest and most tangled of forests.

The tiny mouse can cut a passage through the highest mountain. He can tunnel under the hardest rock.

Put the elephant and the mouse together and you have it!

A wonderful representation of the remover of obstacles.

I love my Vighna –mochan. 

Ganesha

The remover of obstacles. 

God.     Allah.     Christ.  The Lord.

At times of perplexity, in times of trepidation, when the tangles and the thorns of the dark forests of the unknown challenge me, or an insurmountable wall blocks my path.

The Lord comes to me as an elephant. And as a mouse.

 Christians believe that  God being everywhere. 

 Muslims say there are a thousand names for Allah.

Pity some people can’t recognize Her.

The Time is Now

My friends and others I know
have asked me so very often
to put my 'maverick monk outlook'
in a book, so others can 'benefit'
or 'be challenged'

Well,
here's a space....

What'll I talk about?
What should we discuss?

You set the agenda.

Leave a comment or email me
sikkimkrishna@gmail.com

For starters
the famous maverick monk non-negotiable

Everyone has the right to speak.
The right to be taken seriously, however,
Depends entirely upon what one has to say