Book Notes
Reading.
How do we read? Perhaps many would say they read for pleasure, recreation, entertainment, the news, and some read their favourite authors. Readers of the many different types of fiction become attached to the drama, and perhaps the outcomes. Harry Potter is a recent example of this. Others read for instruction and learning. Few, if any, read for becoming.
A small reflection. Many think that food is just the fuel that enters the body via the mouth and exits the body as waste material. Food, in fact, is anything that enters the body through any of the five senses. Whatever we take in impacts on us. The finest part of the food we eat is carried to the mind via the bloodstream. The gross part is excreted. Food is what we see, hear, touch, taste, smell.
So this is a new definition of reading; reading as food for the mind. Food for thought. The wise in this world teach us "As you think, so you become". So food, taken in any form, affects the mind. What we read, goes to the mind. Lets look to the wise again. We read before, 'As you think, so you become;' now we add feeling to the mix. "As you think and feel, so is the result." Jack Hawley tells us to read this book 'unhurriedly, with sincere, exaggerated feeling.' He wants his readers to get the most out of this book. "As you think and feel" tells us that is what sort of world or reality we create. Jack Hawley wants us to create our lives, to feel your way with all your effort as you read. Masticate, chew, ruminate on food for your further reflections.
If we can explore this metaphor for human life just a little further, integrity is the harmony of what you think, say and do. So if you think, if you feel, if you say and do all in harmony, you would be acting and living with full integrity. Doing anything with any of these elements out of kilter would have us not living in harmony, not living out our truth, nor would we be at peace. Hawley, in the guide to readers in this book on page 13 tells us to live our life, acting as if we already understood and surrendered to the teachings in these pages. That is human becoming, for you become what you think, say and do. That is life with integrity. Reading something intentionally with sincere, exaggerated feeling is reading for becoming.
Sometimes the question is asked, 'How shall we judge a man, how shall we know the inner character of man?' Actions reveal character; character is based on values within, which guide choices. So choices, which result in action, show a man's heart and character. This is why integrity, that unity and harmony between thought, feelings, words and deeds is so central to human authenticity.
Thousands of years ago, Krishna delivered the Gita, the Song of the Lord, in the middle of a battle. It was given to one who did not want to participate in that battle. He wanted to shirk his duty, go home, forget all about it and hope that tomorrow would be a better day. Perhaps a few stiff drinks, some good company and a good sleep would make it all go away. From 5000 years ago, a modern illustration of people confronted with both their duty and their problems today.
The Gita begins with the human condition of pain and suffering, and the reactions of the mind. Arjuna, the one who is asking Krishna the questions, is reluctant to fight. Krishna tells him none of this is real. Real in spirituality is that which is eternal, indestructible, unchanging. So what does reading for becoming have to do with what Krishna tells Arjuna? Well, the answer is, 'What are we becoming?' More peaceful, or more troubled? On the surface of the planet, there are troubles everywhere. Within man himself, there are internal frictions, demands, desires. Outside man, there is the body, the circle of friends, relationships. All demands, all frictions, all competing values for attention, time and your money.
What are we becoming? A people filled with chaos and frictions, or a people filled with inner peace? As we have explained, what is outside is food. Most of it is garbage, and there is another truth to be discovered here. It is often said, 'Garbage-In-Garbage-Out'. The whiz-kids and psychologists have finally discovered this is not the right formula. The real formula is 'Garbage-In-Garbage-Grows'!
The human mind is not a garbage dump. Nor is the human person a garbage-collector. The mind is indisputably the best computer in the business. What do we do with it? What is the operating program?
Krishna tells us that everything outside us is not real. There is something within, (not the mind) which is real, indestructible, eternal. Perhaps the true source of unrest in humanity today is due the fact that all have not discovered this reality within. It is the soul. It is called the Atma in many parts of the world. And Atma is the word Krishna uses.
So Jack Hawley is telling his reader to act, to feel, to do, to be. This is a solution to all the frictions and unrest and lack of peace mentioned above? Yes. There is knowledge, deeper and more profound than head knowledge. There is never-ending bliss (not pain, not pleasure, not happiness, they are all trick jobs); there is a life of peace with no chaos within nor without. There is an inner life, an inner knowing, an inner truth, an inner peace. It is called the Atma. It is the operating system installed by the Source itself; it is an operating system which is One with the Source. It is the operating system in everybody. Where is the path to this? How do we attain this, how do we live this and make it our reality?
Every week, we put the garbage out. We take the container out onto the roadside, and leave it there for the garbage collection truck. Putting the garbage out is akin to seeking the Atma within. We began by saying that everything that goes INTO the human person is food of one form or another. It somes in through the senses (see, hear, touch, taste, smell) and the finest part goes to the mind. Reflection and feeling, thinking, saying, DOING, on this Atma is the solution. In the first set of extracts, Krishna tells Arjuna, "to seek anything else is to seek ignorance". Seeking the Atma, the darkness of ignorance, delusion and anguish is disspelled. The spell is lifted, when you gain knowledge and experience of the Atma, the true self.
Thus begins the human journey to true humanness.
The Essential Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita book is a shorter, bare-essentials Gita, aimed at people who have never had the opportunity nor a guided way to approach the Gita.
Krishna's teachings are the same, but are rearranged under five chapters that correspond to the five big spiritual questions:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- Who, or what, is the Divinity that many call ‘God’?
- What is my relationship to that Divinity?
- Is it even possible to live a spiritual life, and if so, how?
This is tailor-made for daily spiritual reading. What is read, reflected upon, stays in the mind during most of the day, and causes further reflection, integration and application in daily life. This is a rare book that leads the devotee along the path to PRACTICE.
For International readers, this book is available from the Sri Sathya Sai
Books and Publications website
For Australian residents, $15 plus (postage included), from Sai Books, 24 Kenilworth Ave, Wonga Park, 3115,
(Margaret and Randall McDonald), phone (03) 9722 1740
email books[at]saiaustralia.org.au