All Comments By David T. Matta

Thank you, Jagdish, for your your beautiful reply. You say, "Mindfulness awareness helps me find my original pure face not affected by the judgemental and critical eyes of others." If you allow me to add " and also from the critical eyes of myself." This would be completeinvisibility.

Thank you, James, for highlighting the resemblances and differences between moral and social activism and the need to become self-absorbed but actively engaged while keeping the lid on judgmentalism. So much food for contemplation.

I did not understand the story. What did the young learn at the end of the day juggling between two useless acts: Watching tapestry and gardens and being careful, if not obsessed, with a useless activity of not spilling two drops of oil? Isn't this kind of multi-tasking the source of our problems? When I eat, I know I am eating; when I walk, I know I am walking, etc., is the way things should be done and attended to. There is no need to think or watch something else.
The young man will spend his life balancing between two contradicting demands without fully succeeding in either and realizing the secret of happiness.

Hi Nilesh,
I do not totally agree. Both condemn an inflated sense of ego and postpone the verdict on the ego until unexpressed reality is experienced without a doubt. They use different semantics on the way to describeultimate reality and both of the languages are grossly inaccurate and can easily be misconstrued and mis-characterized.

“Yato Vacho Nivartante, Aprapya Manasa Saha” – The Realm of Reality is there from where the mind along with speech returns disappointed. (Taittiriya Upanishad). This is true for both traditions.

The questions still bewilder me until today. I do not understand the claim about no-self, on a practical level, that is. Yes, one can present convincing arguments about it that may refine our view about the self. But I do not think it will have any real significance until it is fully experienced.

In the meantime, as a person troubled by emotions, I am satisfied by not asserting a no-self view but rather working hard to decrease the negative impacts of such a view, beginning with the inflated sense of ego.The Dalai Lama in one of his videos is very clear about developing a healthy sense of self, not a denial of it. The view of reality as it is comes in time, and it is fruitless to force it by intellectual understanding.

The leaky bucket reminded me of the job I had and was not satisfied with and later quit. Aside from the material compensation, it was a waste ot time and a source of stress, I thought. But then, I met some of the people I worked with and found how they appreciated the advice and learning I gave to them then and that changed their lives. So the lesson is an activity may not be rewarding to you but it will for others that are affected by it. And this is good enough. Thank you, Gopal Dada.

Gratitude tothe past and responsibilityto the future while being mindful of the present. We are interconnected indeed across time and space.