जतन बिन बावरा रे, मिरगा ने खेत उजाड़ा –
Kabir ji warns – Oh fool, without effort the deers will graze away your growing crops. Be careful, guard your farmland well, else the deers of the senses will spoil all that you are nurturing.
What is the effort required on our part? What are the deers? What is the crop?
Effort required is of – mindfulness. Mindfulness is like a guard on the boundary of the being. Whatever things enter the territory – the guard inspects – watches. He doesn’t allow strangers, or suspected ones inside. Just like that, being on guard, being mindful of the thoughts, the stories, the feelings, the emotions – we can allow the ones which are benefitting ourselves and others, and ignore those repeated loops which are vicious, and the thoughts full of ill will. We can regard them as illusory and not allow inside, not nurture, not follow their dictate.
When ill will is arising, and I know it is arising – will I still be able to follow its dictate???
But if the guard is absent. If mindfulness is not there – of what am I thinking/feeling/perceiving all the time – then I cannot know who all entered the territory. And I would only get to know when there would be too much chaos inside, too much confusion and poison and suffering. Only then I will know that I was not mindful and hence, hooligans entered the territory.
So, the crop that I have to protect is the crop of peace, clear-sightedness, clarity of sky of my inner being, silence and stillness of the being. This is the crop. Inner peace, sanity, warmth, kindness, compassion, wisdom. All this is lost when I am not on guard. Not vigilant. unalert, dosed out, drunken.
What are the deers?
The deers of senses. Senses are the doors to the outward world. Senses are not the problem, but the limited/conceptual/conditioned mind that interprets, that makes sense of the data coming through the senses is clouded, is hazy, is patterned heavily. So, whatever we see through this lens of heavily burdened mind, is distorted. We don’t see Reality, we see distorted perceptions of reality.
So, how can I help myself?
Not to take the things coming through my senses so seriously. So tightly. Not to believe in my own thoughts too tightly. holding them gently, as one holds water in palms. very softly, loosely. Not too tight.
Only then, I can relax, I can be here and now. mindful. relishing whatever the present moment has to offer. Not too tightly clinging to the past, not too tightly clinging to future, or the stories and interpretations of present happenings. All of them have not that much value as I give them.
Taking it a bit easy.
Also, it has to be a relaxed guarding. Not a guard who is too uptight. Else it will drain up and exhaust oneself. One has to find ones own balance.
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So, let us put the only effort required of us. Being mindful. taking care of inner sanctuary.
TheGiftOfCancer 