Zen: The Art of Nothing

I came across an article the other day. It is an article that states facts that most of us wouldn’t want to believe. I would highly encourage you to go through this beautiful article by Joe Vitale about a method of healing called ho’oponopono.

I think it will test the limits of your belief, because this system does what almost no one likes – it puts all the responsibility squarely on your shoulders. It is as simple as this. If you believe it, you can change the world. If you don’t, you can continue to blame the world.

Change is such an intriguing word, evoking both fear and excitement within us. What will it bring? Will it be easy or tough? Will it be big or small? But change isn’t just about the unavoidable effects of passing time – it can also be something we choose. Improvement and growth are changes too. Are you looking for that kind of change? Are you willing to kill the nastiest parts of you so that you can grow?

We always want others to change. Somehow it isn’t a very exciting prospect when it comes to ourselves. We’re so used to the kind of person we’ve become, negatives and all. But wouldn’t you want to be the best person you can be? What if someone makes you meet a rich, successful, powerful, kind, loving and happy person – who looked just like you… and then you found out that it IS you, but when fully developed? Would you be able to live with the half-baked, underdeveloped person you’ve let yourself become? No. And that is why we need to change.

Ok so now you’re wondering, the title talks about changing the world, why am I trying to change myself then? That is because when you change yourself, you change the world. As the article above elaborates, it isn’t just about perception, it is real. When you want someone to change, ask yourself how you can improve instead.

The world is a mirror. When someone is nasty to you, it is really just a reflection of your own nasty self. So if you want a nasty person to change, look for the nasty aspects of yourself. When you nail it, you’ll be surprised how the other person changes.

It isn’t the easy way out, but it is a sure-shot one, and one that will benefit you and help you improve as a person too. We are all just a manifestation of the same universe, the same God. And therefore a change in you will reflect in the world. Because when you grow, the universe evolves. We can change the world. We can help it grow. And we will.

Almost everyone I know, believes that doctors can save them or their relatives from sure death. I’ve seen and heard of many cases where a person went to the doctor with a major or a minor complaint, only to be told that if they didn’t operate on him or her within a few days, he or she may pass away. The person and the relatives then went into a complete panic, resorting to foolish decisions and a number of operations to ‘save their life’.

When we were at Akshardham, Delhi, we were shown a video of Swaminarayan’s life. At one point of time, he chose to meditate under a tree in the forest, when he was informed by a nearby ashram that a man-eating tiger was on the prowl, and would he please take shelter inside for the night. He asked just one question, enough to silence them all. ‘Do you think the doors of your ashram can keep death away?’

Let me add that a few months later, I watched a program on television, that talked of a man – injured and disabled – who spent an entire night unable to move in the African jungles alone and survived unharmed, something that no one could imagine. A man cannot die before his time. Neither can he postpone his death.

Do you think the doors of your ashram can keep death away?
Let me change that. Do you think the doctor can keep death away? Do you really think so? Doctors can prevent suffering. But death? No. However, man is so afraid of death that he binds himself in all kinds of beliefs about it. He thinks that if he pays the doctor enough, he’ll survive. He dies anyway, but the doctor gets richer. People come to me too, when alopathic treatments have failed, thinking that maybe working with their energies will help them avoid death. Well, I’m sorry! No one can prevent death, not me, not you, and not even the best doctor in the world!

There are usually three reasons for sicknesses. The minor diseases usually come for cleansing some negativities from our body. If it involves doctors, then it is usually for clearing past-life debts with the doctor. There are times when people try every possible therapy to no avail, and one fine day, something works like magic – that is because they have cleared all the debts and were probably destined to be cured only by that particular doctor. The third reason for disease, which is slightly rarer, is a drastic change of life-direction. We’ve heard of NDEs and other major sicknesses that changed the entire perspective of that person – they belong to this category. Ofcourse, disease cannot be classified into only one of these reasons, it is often a combination.

Well, now that we’ve understood that death cannot be prevented or postponed, what do we do about it? We need to understand that death is not THE END. You will probably come back to earth and most probably be born or married into the same family! Even if you do not believe in reincarnation, don’t let death scare you. Understand that we are afraid of it because we don’t know anything about it, because religious books scare us about it and because nature has programmed every living being to resist death. The next step is to stop fighting it. By running after doctors trying to prevent death, one will only make his last days more miserable, and spend his last days in a dingy green and white funny-smelling room, probably half conscious and not even able to bid his relatives goodbye.

We all want to make the best of life. Why not also make the best of death? Don’t fight it. Accept it as a certainity, and accept it with grace.

When I first learned Reiki healing, I was told not to be sympathetic with my patients. ‘What?’ I thought, ‘sympathy is good!’ No, I was told. Empathise. Sympathy is a strict no-no.

And with so many years into healing now, I realise how damaging sympathy can be. Everyone says they want to be ‘healed’, but not all truly, genuinely, want it. This category of people subconsciously enjoys the misery they are in, while outwardly projecting their helplessness – and they often convince themselves too, that their misery is out of their hands.

I have, with sadness, watched too many people self-destruct in this fashion, without the slightest idea of what they were doing. These are the people which make the toughest patients – because how can you help someone who does not want to help themself?

Do you do it?
So how do we distinguish between those who genuinely want to get out of their misery, and those who enjoy it? The first detector here is sympathy. How many people know about your problems? Do you tell everyone the tough times you’re going through? If you’ve told more than one or two people about your problems – you know you’re looking for sympathy. And you know that you enjoy your misery.

The Energy Explanation
Sympathy causes a transfer of energy from the sympathiser to the ‘victim’. So those who enjoy the sympathy of others are usually people who are addicted to this technique of gaining energy. Their subconscious mind thinks like this – if people sympathise with you, you feel energised, so tell them all your problems. And then their subconscious invites more problems, thereby making their lives more miserable, so that they have more sob stories to tell. Its a vicious cycle.

If you talk about your joys more than your sorrows, then you know you are heading on the right track.

The Shrugging off of Responsibilities
As a healer, I have another easy technique to know whether the person is really keen on getting out of a problem – I just give them a simple task, something which they must do to improve the situation. And that separates the wheat from the chaff.

If you tell an obese person to avoid chips one day in a week, and get a “Nooooo, I can’t!” reply, you know that they aren’t interested in [i]doing[/i] anything to come out of their situation. They just don’t want to shoulder any responsibility!

The Remedy
Acceptance is the first step towards improvement. If you realise that you are addicted to sympathy, the realisation itself will start wearing off the effects, since everytime to try to gain sympathy, you’ll be reminded of what you are trying to do. Once the awareness comes in, you will start to alter things subconsciously.

Change is not easy, and it gets tougher when it comes to issues of harnessing energy. Learning reiki, or starting with meditation at this stage will help, as it will help you get energy directly from the universe, and you will not have to depend on sympathy to fulfil your needs.

And then, you can start to visualise yourself the way you want yourself to be – and imagine yourself taking up responsibilities, owning up for your actions and your life. Imagine yourself in control of your mind and body, and your emotions.

Finally… I would like to stress on the awareness factor. Observe – yourself and others. Observe everything around you like an outsider, and watch yourself react to situations. Ask yourself why you react the way you do. And if the answer does not satisfy you, then rectify that behaviour. Three simple words. Observe. Detect. Act.