WRITING | Unclutching



There are a number of subjects I want to discuss on this particular blog post, starting from the divine Paramahamsa Nithyananda, to a little bit about vegetarianism - how I really feel about it and what I've been going through since becoming a vegetarian, what I learnt will actually happen after the Mayan calendar truly ends (21.12.2012), the kinds of meditation I've been feeling guided to do, and a few other things in between. So I initially wanted to title this blog with literal terms that can represent all those different subjects. But I felt Swamiji (Paramahamsa Nithyananda) has endless divine wisdom and eye-opening inspirations that I will dedicate most of the beginning of this blog post to wonderful things I learnt from him - hence the title of this blog post which comes from a term I came to know from him too. Later on I will find a way to discuss the rest of the other subjects I also wanted to talk about. First thing, the actual term unclutching. The term came to my awareness when I watched Swamiji's video on YouTube for the very first time entitled 'Be Unclutched Vol 1&2'. In simple explanation the term can mean letting go, but to me it means a little bit more than just that. According to Swamiji, most of us have the tendency to collect joyful or sad memories in our minds and connect all those unrelated memories through unnecessary shafts which can eventually lead us to the conclusion that that is who we really are in our life story. In the video, while explaining this, he draws a kind of diagram which can immediately help us understand the concept in a simpler way. In my own life, it has gotten to a point that whenever I'm about to bring my mental space to a state of discomfort, by just saying 'unclutch' in my mind, I can immediately stop the process. Because to me the actual term can mean two different things, depending on the situation. It can either mean "Let go. It's not worth it." or "Let go. It's riDIculous." – Please understand, in this particular context, my use of the word 'ridiculous' is meant to have a funnier connotation instead of a judgmental one.

This brings me to my next topic, which is living in the moment. Yes, I know, most of us have heard this idea centillion times before. But Swamiji talked about this in such an interesting way in one of his Q&A videos it gave me a refreshing perspective on the topic. Here is what he said on what does it really feel like to be living in the moment: 

"First thing, living in the moment happens, only when you are really enjoying this moment. We should understand, that we are so much caught in the past, because it always feels that memories are really much more solid than the reality. Thinking that memories are more solid experience than the reality is what we call illusion. Even in your day-to-day life you can see, when you go to some place for vacation or a picnic with the family, first thing you do is take photographs. Smile, stand, take photographs, so that later on you can see the photographs and enjoy. You don't really exactly enjoy the very moment. But you make everything into past, and you know how to enjoy the past. Part of our mind is trained to believe the past is more enjoyable, joyful, blissful, colourful than the present. That is the first thing, which we need to understand."

Next topic I would like to discuss a little bit is vegetarianism. One of the possible early challenges people can face when they decide to become a vegetarian is cynical reactions they get from people around them. Because people who eat meat tend to feel that they are being judged for eating meat, which is entirely not the case. I came to know about this from a lovely and magical vegan mystic called Ma Nithya Sudevi - she has become one of my inspirations these days. She discussed in one of her YouTube videos her own experiences of when she first became a vegetarian, and how teasing was there too. In my case, two questions came up. The first question was, what will the animals eat if I eat their food? And how the animals will eventually die because there will be nothing left to eat. The second one was about how I used to say that we need to live life to the fullest. Doesn't that also mean that we shouldn't care and eat whatever we want to eat too? My response to the first question was, who said I will be eating what the cows and chickens are eating? Apart from the occasional corn perhaps, even then, the abundance of variety of vegetables and fruits on Earth wouldn't make this a real problem. Obviously the question itself has an element of sarcasm to it that it didn't really affect me in any way. As with my reply to the second question, yes that is true, I did say we need to live life to the fullest, and in many ways I still do believe in that. But living life to the fullest needs to also mean respecting the life and body that were given to us to the fullest too, and in that, not eating everything we want as if we are fighting for the breath of life.

The gradual process of me becoming a vegetarian was actually quite short. Some time after my 27th birthday, I started losing my appetite for eating regular meat, meaning the kind of meat that still comes with the bones. At this point it was still okay for me to eat meat in the form of chicken nuggets, or meat on food like spaghetti bolognaise because they didn't really remind me of the actual animals. But about a week or two after that, I consciously decided to stop eating meat altogether. There was of course a part of me that did wonder in the beginning whether vegetarians have to eat plants all the time. Turned out, up to this point, I still eat pretty much the same things, I just don't eat meat. If I decide to order a certain kind of food in a restaurant that comes with meat, I just order it without the meat and instead ask for extra vegetables and sometimes eggs. I still go to restaurants like KFC and McDonald’s if my friends or family decide to go there. I just order foods like fries, salad and fruit pies. I don't know exactly what will happen to my diet in the future, but I do know that right now I still have to take care of my Earthly body. So I need to consciously eat what is available around me so long they don't include animal meat.

Speaking of spiritual growth on planet Earth, we truly are heading towards a time when more and more human beings will become more open-minded and spiritual than ever before. What I've come to learn will happen after the Mayan calendar ends is the shift in our consciousness and thoughts, which eventually will also be lighter in weight. We will explore our beliefs more and come to the realisation that we really are not just some lumps of meat and bones who were created to live and die. We are actually so much more magical than we give ourselves credit for. We perhaps exist for reasons that most of us can't comprehend at this point in time, but as time goes on we will eventually gain more clarity. Enlightenment will also be one of our top priorities in life. It truly will be the beginning of a continuous process of expansion of our consciousness which can then lead us to living in more wonderful and peaceful ways. Most of us will still be presented with with some challenges, but our consciousness towards all those challenges will change, and they won't affect us in the same level of intensity. After all, we are still on planet Earth, we're not in Pleiadian or Arcturian realms where there are no negativity. We're still living beings on Earthly realm and we're unfortunately quite notorious in the Universe for our negativity and diversity of complex systems and beliefs. Either way, I can see the possible dissolving of more and more negative particles into thin air as time goes by, and the many valuable lessons we will come to learn in the process. 

As with the kinds of meditation I feel guided to do, at this point I like to do two kinds of meditation, each time one after the other. I usually do it once a day and in the early afternoon when my surroundings are most calm. I first like to do a health kriya meditation by Paramahamsa Nithyananda - which is a 21 minute guided meditation comprised of sitting and breathing in a particularly unique way accompanied with visualisations in the mind. After that I would rest my usually cramped legs for several minutes before continuing with my next meditation which I personally call the Dharma Sangha meditation. It’s a kind of deep sleep meditation in the lotus position that lasts for 37 minutes. Here I play a more spiritual meditation music from Tibet which in simple explanation tells the stories of the different deities Dharma Sangha encountered during his 6 year meditation in the forest. Dharma Sangha is also another one of my inspirations today. In the long run, I truly believe meditation can really change us in unique and positive ways. Energy sensations we can experience during meditation can eventually bring us more awareness and more awakened senses - especially if we make the conscious choice from the beginning to awaken our Kundalini too (this particular process must be done with proper care). Anyhow, meditation can truly offer a different way of clearing our minds while at the same time helping us reorganise our priorities in day-to-day living.

In the end, I strongly believe that it is wise to question everything that comes into our awareness. Not in a paranoid or judgmental way, but in a way that is patient and open-minded. Understand that if we decide to truly contemplate our existence just a little bit longer, we will come to realise that we're so much more than what many people consider to be reality or worldly facts. By this, I'm not saying that we're all magical beings who in the near future will go beyond Earthly reality and be able to fly or glow in the dark (although, yes, in the realm of possibility, the chances of those things happening in the future are there too). What I'm saying is that we exist as divine creations for special and wonderful reasons. And one of those reasons is to share our soul's purpose and talents with the world, to contribute something in any way we can. And the truth is, many of those reasons and answers are not really out there, some of them are, but most are deep within our souls to discover, understand and explore! I end this blog post here for now, I want to thank you for reading.

WRITING | Change of Pace



It really is true, these past couple of weeks (even months) have been pretty intense for all of us. We are all going through massive changes in our lives as we are approaching the new year, or the so called end of the Mayan calendar (21.12.2012). I am grateful, though... grateful in knowing that we're all in this together, we're all learning together, we're all leaving the past together, and together we are on our way to new beginnings. One of the biggest challenges in my life these past couple of months has been communication. It's been extremely difficult for me to find ways to communicate what I'm going through inside. I used to find it easy to express myself, through art, or through close friends. But because of the rapid changes that have been happening in my life, especially in my professional life, I got very busy and secluded in my work, and ways to communicate I used to have to no problem with became blocked. Thus I've been working extremely hard to find answers that can help solve this problem, to find more ways that can bring me to a new way of speaking my mind and heart, and well, pretty much a new way of being in general. One of the most effective solutions I have come to find is writing. Perhaps expressing everything verbally at once wouldn't exactly be easy, which is why by writing messages/emails, mobile texting, BlackBerry or WhatsApp chatting have been good outlets for me to overcome my communication block. I have started to open myself up more and more through these outlets and have been feeling better and better since then. Another thing I wanted to talk about again is my quest for perfection. I now feel perfection is something that we can actually achieve once in a while, just not all the time. I know some people don't think this way, they believe that perfection doesn't exist. But the word 'perfection' itself exists for a reason, a reason that only our own souls can understand. We all have choices, even the simplest things in life can be perfect for us, whatever those things may be. Maybe drinking tea or coffee in the morning, or simply achieving good work can be perfect for us in some moments. In a few days, months or years time we might change again, but at this point in time, our choice of what's perfect for us is alright. Another thing I wanted to address that some people might have in mind is weight loss. Yes I have been losing weight, only because I've been taking better care of myself. By evening walks, and also by a change in my diet, which has resulted in the weight loss. I now take good care of what I put into my stomach, a concept I simply couldn't comprehend in the past. I used to weigh 81 kgs now I weigh 68 kgs. Speaking of my diet, one of the biggest changes is turning vegetarian. I became a vegetarian some time after my 27th birthday. It hasn't been that long, though it's been quite a change for me and the results have been mostly positive. I've been feeling a lot calmer, and lighter, and I guess the weight loss is partly due to this too. I have also begun meditating, to find more peace, clarity, answers and inspirations from within. Here is the thing with meditation, some people think it's a particularly religious thing. It can be, for some people, but not really entirely in its entirety. I think in the beginning we can find our own ways to meditate. We don't have to follow all the rules right away, though with time, naturally, we will find better ways to improve our meditation. One good example is sitting up straight for a long period of time, this can be quite challenging for most of us, which is why in the beginning we can simply rest our backs against something, and maybe with the support of a pillow too. Same goes with music, I know some say that meditation means quieting our minds, but if we worry that we're going to get bored and uninspired if we just sit straight and do nothing, we can put some music on that can help relax and inspire us. When I say music that can help relax and inspire us, I am strictly speaking about the kind of music that have especially upbeat, positive (and slightly magical) vibes. No slow violin music, no popular or hipster music with dramatic undertones. I mean truly peaceful music, or simply meditation music that can best fit our interests. All in all, I believe that if we can find the courage to constantly evolve, change and improve, all will constantly turn out great and wonderful! I end this blog post here for now. I want to thank you for reading... talk more soon next time.

THE Y LABEL | Pleiadian Sea 2013