'Becoming Airports' evokes many ideas about my true identity. Who am I? Who are the travelers? Who is the pilot? What is my destination? These are important questions to ask and explore.
The airplane represents the means of travel. The place where the plane is flying is the destination. The one flying the plane is me. The lives of the passengers depend on me. If I take a wrong turn, many lives may be lost.
The airport awakens thoughts of many voyages in my mind. In the journey of my life, life moves like a river, taking many turns. I need to learn to move carefully. One mistake can change the course of a life.
As I continue on my journey, I encounter many kinds of airports and many kinds of travelers. As the pilot, it is my responsibility to make the necessary adjustments and accommodations. One mistake could endanger the lives of those traveling with me.
Who am I? What is my identity? Who shapes my identity? I am still on the path of discovery. Patience is my companion, and I am not in a hurry. I trust that, in time, my journey will reveal who I am becoming.
Namaste.
Jagdish P Dave PhD, Psych .D
We all want to move upward in different areas of our lives—whether it is financial success, recognition, or a good reputation. In our pursuit of these goals, there are times when we stumble and unknowingly walk down the wrong path. Instead of looking within to understand where we went wrong, we often blame others for our setbacks. As a result, the cycle of disappointment and misery continues, and we lose our way.
Whenever we fall, our first instinct may be to find fault with someone else. But when we point one finger at another person, we should remember that four fingers point back at ourselves. This is a reminder that true growth begins with self-reflection rather than blame. We need to awaken to the right path by looking inward.
As I was growing up, I learned not to blame others for my shortcomings. Instead, I learned to look within and seek the answers from my own heart. By walking the path of self-awareness, I have become wiser and more mindful of my thoughts and actions. And whenever I find myself taking the wrong path, I pause, reflect, and ask for forgiveness. Each mistake becomes an opportunity to learn, grow, and return to the path of truth and compassion.
Namste.
Jagdish P Dave PhD, PsyD
People are different in many ways. Some rich, some poor. Some literate, some illiterate. Some educated and some uneducated. What is the common thread that runs through such differences, that binds us together? Does telling the truth bring us together? TRUTH is ONE. It is One but is expressesd in different ways. It's like a thread that runs through different beads. We may take different paths to attain the same goal. As stated in the Rig Veda: Ekam satyam bahudha vadanti. Truth is one. It is not my truth or your truth. It is realized and expressed in different ways. In the Bhagavad Gita. the ancient spiritual book, Four paths are described to relize the TRUTH: Gnana marga, the path of self -knowledge. Bhakti marga the path of devotion to God. Karma Yoga, the path of doing selfless action. The fourth path is Sanyasa Yoga, the path of renouncing the world. We follow the path willigly. Each path helps us to be free from the path of ignorance leading to Self- realization.
We may follow the path that shows us how to realize the divinity within us. Follow the path diligently and willingly until you realize the Truth. There is no need to hurry.
Namste.
Jagdish P Dave PhD PsyD
Our mind needs be open and quiet to unerstand and relate to the other person. And the same way the other person's mind needs be open and quiet. Relationship is a two-way street. Many relationships are broken when the mind and heart of each other are closed. Both persons suffer.
Empathy buids the bridge between two people in reltatioships. Sadly, the separation rate and the divorce rate in our country as well as in other industrialized countries is increasing. We need to recognize this problem and need to take steps to work on it. Denying the probem or ignoring it will cause more suffering. What we need to reduce our suffering. We need to wake up and work on solving the problem. It is in our hands.
This is where mindfulness meditaion has been be very hepful to me. In mindflness , we relate to the probem nonjudgementally and compassionately to work on the issue. This approach may take time. It is indeed worth trying. I have walked on this path and have enriched my relationship with myself and with others. l have taken this path and I am helping others who are willingly to walk with me.
Realtionships are very important. We need to enrich them.
Namste!
Jagdish P Dave Phd, PsyD
As human beings we all suffer. We all going through suffering. As Gautam Budhha says Sarvam dukkham dukkham. This the fact of life. Nobody can escape from it. There are two ways of dealing with suffering. Recognise it or deny it. If we rcognize it we can find a way to work through it and be free from it. And if we ignore it or deny it, it causes more suffering. To work on suffereing we need to recognize it, accept it and work on it. Sadly, instead of reconizing it and working through it, we point our finger to someone else. We forget that the four fingers are pointed towards us. We need to wake up and understand the cause of our suffering and work through it.
As I was growing up, I have made many mistakes and I have learned to recognize my mistakes, owned them, worked through them and and become free them. It is an ongoing journey. As a human being, I do not consider myself perfect. I know that nobody is perfect. We need to remain awake, learn from our mistakes and offer our helping hands to them.
Namste.
Jagdish P Dave
Reality or Truth is One. It is not Two. Reading this passage authored by N. Gordan Cosby reminds me of an ancient saying written in Sanskrit. Ekam Satyam bahudha vadanti. Truth is One expressed by sages in different ways. Sadly some of us may not perceive the Reality as One. Such a way of perceiving the Truth and not following it has caused divisiveness and battles and wars. We see such battles and wars between two nations, USA and Iran causing destruction on both sides.
Sadly we see such divisiveness in families, communities and nations. How many battles and wars have been created and how much damage and destruction has been created. UNO has been created to unite nations of the world for peace. Sadly the UNO has not been able to achieve it.
It is time to wake up. It is time to join heads, hands and hearts and learn to relate to each other as brothers and sisters. A couple of years ago I had visited Auroville, a relatively small town in the southern part of India. I was happily surprised to see people from many countries of the world living together, helping others and taking care of each other. It is like a pilgrimage. Auroville has been considered an ideal town by the UNESCO. I hope and pray we will wake up, loin hands and work together for universal peace. We create Auroville in the community we live in. Slowly but surely we will attain our goal.
Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave
O traveler wake up from the world we sleep in, the world of illusion. The other world is the world of awakening. There are two worlds we live in. One world is the world is the world of sleeping.The other world is the world of awakening. When we live in the world of sleeping we lose everything. When we live in the world of awakening we gain everything. It is up to us to make a wise choice. Wise choice making makes us happy. Wrong choice making makes us miserable and unhappy. I learned the right way to make a choice from my parents when I was a child. Now at this stage of my life I am wise enough to make right choices. I am very grateful to my parents who helped me to differentiate between right versus wrong choices.
My father used to sing a beautiful song. It is in Hindi.
Utha jaga muasfir bhore bahi aba rain kahantaka sowat hai.
Jo jagat hai vo pavat hai jo sovat hai vo khoavat hai.
Utha jaga musafir bhore bhai aba rain kahantak sovat hai.
O traveller, the dawn is coming. How long will you keep on sleeping?
Wake up O traveller, wake up from the deep sleep and enjoy the benefits of awakening.
Namaste.
Jagdish P Dave
We, as human beings, are looking for truth, love, compassion and forgiveness. How can we attain strength , courage, and patience for attaining such attributes? According to my understanding it requires, patience, compassion and kindness. We all love to have such wonderful qualities in our life. Wishes are not enough. We need to invest our energy, have patience and courage to attain such qualities. We do need proof to show it. Truth, love, and forgiveness are self evident.
Such inner qualities do not need any proof. Living such inner qualities in our daily life reveals the truth. It is evident in my personal life.
It takes time, passion, patience and compassion to attain and preserve such qualities. As we say "Rome was not built in a day."
As we know, building an inner bridge that unites us doesn't happen in a day. It takes time. But once we build such an inner bridge we can walk on it and help others to walk on it. If we all make sincere efforts to walk on this bridge life becomes a joy to sing.
May we all follow this path to make this world safe, peaceful and fulfilling.
Namste.
Jagdish P Dave.
According to my understanding there are two faces of honesty. One honesty is with myself and the other is honesty with others. If I am not honest with myself how can I be honest with others? I find it is relatively easy to be honest with myself. It is relativly difficult for me to be honest with others. There is a fear lurking behind not telling the radical truth. In relationships the fear is about hurting people close to me will abondon me. I go through internal and external fear cycles which will drain my enrgy. When I was a child it was relatively easy for me to tell the truth. As I was going through adolesence it became realtively more difficult for me to behave truthfully. I was going through fear cycles. The fear was of abondoment.
As I was growing up I came to realize that the people who love me unconditionally will not abondon me. They will be with me, they will compassionately empathize with me. Slowly and gradually I came to realize that true love liberates me from my self-created grief cycle. It's up to me to act wisely and end the cylce of emotional ups and downs.
When I was a child my father used to sing a song in Hindi:
Utha jaga musafir bhore bhahi aba rain kahan tak sovata hai.
Jo sovata hai vo khovata hai jo jagata hai vo pavata hai.
O traveler! Wake up. How long will you continue sleeping?
Those who wake up reap the fruits of awakening.
And those who are sleeping lose the fruits of awakening.
O traveler! Wake up, don't keep on sleeping.
With warm and loving regards.
Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave PhD, PsyD
I like this poetical writing written by Lariv Athem. This writing begins with a question "What would you like" and ends with the same quetion "What would you like?" According to my understanding, we keep our mind and heart open to receive wonders of the world. I was born by the union of two loving and caring parents. Unconditional love creates union between two people regardless of apparent and outward differences. When we engage with others with a loving heart life flows like a river. Outward differences do not create walls beween two people. Walls are created by this way of thinking and living. Instead of divisiveness, true love creates and sustains union between people.
We need to generate, cultivate and sustain such union between people of different caste, color, creed, ideas and status. Following this path is essental in the world we live in.
Sadly the world we live in is highly divided by political, social, ideolgical, and economic, caste and clolor differences.
When I was a child my father used to sing a song in Hindi:
Utha jaga musafir bhore bhai aba rain kahan tak sovat hai!
Jo jagat hai vo pavat hai jo sovat hai vo khovat hai. O traveler, the morning is dawned. How long will you sleep? One who gets up gets blessings, one who keeps on sleeping is losing everything. I sing this song every morning. It keeps me awake. When we awake there is nothing to lose. When we keep on sleeping we lose everything.
I am very grateful to Lariv Athem for offering such a preciou gift to us. May we wake up from darkness and wake up and be grateful to the light coming from within.
Namste!
Jagdish P Dave, Phd, PsyD
Thanks David for your comment. Jagdish P Dave
The opening sentence of this passage authored by Darlene Cohen is very helpful to me to understand the paradoxical nature of my pain. There are two ways of dealing with pain: accepting it mindfully in its most intimate sense rather than rejecting or denying it. In my relatively long life ( I am 101 years old ), I have learned many lessons of living mindfully. When I experience pain I accept it unconditionally, mindfully, let it come and let it go, not rejecting or denying it. Accepting pain unconditionally, and going through it without complaining about it has been very helpful to me. I recognize my pain, go through it mindfully without grumbling, complaining and judging and doing whatever I can to reduce it. I get a lot of support from my family and friends. Denying, suppressing and repressing my pain doesn't help me. I try to understand my pain, what causes it, what sustains it without judging it and letting it come and let it go. This way I feel less pain. Accepting my chronic pain, going through it mindfully and doing what I can do it to reduce it is the way I deal with it. I do not accept the proverbial saying "No pain, no gain." There are ways of knowing and dealing with pain. According to my experience, being mindful of the pain and going through it unconditionally and compassionately is very helpful to me.
Namaste.
Jagdish P Dave PhD, PsyD
In different spiritual practices, runs a common thread, the thread of unconditional love. Unconditional creates oneness, union between two different human beings. Outward differences melt away creating divine oneness, where Two becomes One, divine union. Such a divine union brings two different persons together in spite of apparent and outward differences. It is an experience of divine oneness.
Our mind is usually filled with different sounds and noises. We hear such sounds and noises even between two people who have been together for a long time. Such noises create walls of separation and disrupt the flow of love. The rate of divorces
has been increasing causing pain and suffering. It is time for us to wake up and make every effort to build the bridges of unconditional love and positive regards.
This is hard work. We need to wake up. If we do not wake up, we all will suffer more creating deep wounds in our lives. There is beautiful song in Gujarati, my mother tongue. Utha jaga musafir bhore bhai aba kahantaka sovat hai. Jo sovata hai vo khovata hai. Jo jagata hai vo pavata hai. Wake up oh taveller! Morning has arrived and you are still sleepmg. One who is awake obtains many gifts and one who is sleeping loses everything.
I am grateful to get such a wonderful gift, the gift of Awakening.
Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave
It seems to me that we are looking for truth, love, joy or peace and fulfilling relationships from outside of us. It comes from within. We tend to forget that what we are looking for is right in front of our eyes.There is a beautiful saying in Sanskrit ''Tad dure tad antike." What seems to be far is right now in front of me." We live in illusion. There is a beautiful poem that conveys this truth. A musk deer wandering on the Himalayan mountains is searching for the enchanting fragrance he is smelling. The deer travels here and there . He is looking for the source of the fragrance. The deer does not know that the fragrance is coming from his navel center.
Sadly we get tired of looking for the fragrance from outside. We need to open our eyes to see that joy, happiness and love come from within.
Namaste.
Jagdish P Dave
I love reading this thought provoking article written by Rev. Stephen Lewis made me think on the serious and profound question of what causes suffering in life? Suffering is universal. Nobody can escape from suffering. There are different kinds of suffering: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual-wholistic suffering. Nobody can escape from suffering. How we deal with it is an important question. Do I face it? Do I escape from it? Do I deny it? We all suffer and we all have to face it. If I suppress it or repress it it will bounce back with greater pain. The alternative is to accept it and work through it in the wholesome way. Accepting my suffering unconditionally and working through it makes me wiser and stronger. Denying my suffering will continue my suffering or will increase my suffering. Choosing the wise way will reduce my suffering and will fill the cup of my life full. This is my experience. I am grateful to my parents for teaching me such a lesson in the early phase of my life. Life is a blessing or a curse. It's up to me to make a wise choice. We all can make the right choice that will enrich our life and the lives of others related to us.
Namaste.
Jagdish P Dave
We like to be educated. Education is not only gathering information but education is for transformation, moving from darkness to light. Education enlightens us. Education expands and deepens our consciousness. How we use our knowledge is very important to me. Knowledge is like a double edged sword. A sword can protect us or it can kill us. It requires discretion.
How we cultivate such discretion is very important. Otherwise the sword which is supposed to protect us may kill us. I am a lifelong student and a lifelong learner. I love to learn new things and I love to share my learnings with others. Offering my knowledge to others as a gift fills my heart with joy and gratification.
I have been both a teacher and a learner. I was blessed to have great teachers in my life. I am very grateful to them for offering me such precious gifts. I value these gifts. They were great teachers in my life. I have also learnt to be my own teacher. Self- learning is very important to me. I may forget what I learned from others. I am a life-long student as well as a life -long learner. The roots of what I have learned by myself go deeper and deeper and I am very happy to serve people and share my significant learnings with others. To me life is like a banyan tree. It is deeply rooted in the ground offering blessings to oneself and to others unconditionally.
May we all become such a banyan tree providing shade to us as well to the world at large!
Namste.
Jagdish P Dave
There are times when I need to make important choices in my life. If I make a wrong choice it affects not only me but other people in my life. How I make wise choices is very important to me. It is not always easy to make wise choices. There have been times in my life when it was difficult for me to make the right choices. When I make a wrong choice it hurts not only me but also people connected with me. This is a great dilemma for me. I believe in telling the truth. Telling the truth is like a two edged sword. It hurts me and creates wounds and hurts the person whom I love. Normally I do not encounter such situations. But there are times when I run into such situations. I believe in telling the truth even though it may cause emotional pain in me as well as in others close to my heart. Truth indeed triumphs, not lies.-Satymeva jayate na nrutam.
Following the truth is not always easy. We need to be aware of the wrong direction we are travelling. We need to be aware of the wrong direction we are taking and have courage and tolerance to drive our life in the right direction. That is the mark of living wisely. People choosing the wise path with such a clear vision liberate themselves from going on the wrong path-Satyameva jayate. Truth indeed triumphs. Inner light indeed shines and helps to show us the right path.
Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave
All of us are endowed with energy. How do we use our energy is crucial. We may use it wisely or unwisely. We may have a sword in our hand. The same sword either can protect us against our enemies and save our life or hurt us if we do not use it wisely. There is a wise saying in Gujarati, my mother tonge "Whicharine yar ucchara vani. "Think before you speak." The words we say can heal or hurt the other person. Discretion is very important in saying before saing.. It is like energy. How we use our energy is very crucail.
We all encounter difficulies in our life. As we say life is not a bed of roses. There are times I have gone thorugh very difficult times in my relatively long life. There were times when I did not have enough enery in my body, mind and heart to function effectively. I believe in a holistic way of living. We have a body which requires food, air, water, movement, shelter, and rest. If I do not use these God-given gifts wisely, I cause problems not only for me bur also for others around me. Creaing , enhancing and sustaining energy is mostly in my hands. I need to be aware of and mindful about using my energy wisely. Living with awareness and mindfulness has been very helpful to me for living holistically.
Namaste.
Jagdish