Have You Ever Met A Swami?
An interesting week. I was invited to go to dinner at a friends house - he was hosting a well respected Swami from India. At first, I thought "I am supposed to be travelling this week so forget it". Then I thought, what is a Swami anyway. I googled - in essence, a Hindu monk who spends their life studying their inner self. Hmmm....I have never met a "real" swami so why not. I ended up spending two evenings listening and discussing with him. What got me interested:
It is a few days since I wrote this blog and I am currently travelling in California. As I have thought these points through, they continue to make sense to me. Reflecting on my own life, there are patterns to living a more fulfilled life - through my travels and interactions, I observe people and see destructive patterns as well as constructive ones. Often, I say to myself "huh, I wish I knew that when I was younger".
As far as Mind, Body, and what he called Intellect - I have been focusing on assessing the three components since last week. A plant, for example, consists of a body. Animals, for the most part, have a mind and body. What makes Humans special is that we have a mind, body and intellect. Our mind comprises impulses, feelings, likes, dislikes. The intellect is that which thinks, reasons, judges, decides. When the mind propels an action without the intellect's guidance, then the action is said to be impulsive. When the intellect guides the mind in action, the action is considered intellectual. According to the Swami, the attributes of the mind which determine its character:
Source of likes, dislikes, attractions, aversions
Has a natural tendency to ramble into the past or the future
Generates endless wants and desires
Develops attachments, possessiveness to objects and beings.
He also said that the human mind, left uncontrolled by the intellect, behaves like a child - impulsive, heedless, irresponsible.
And to build Intellect - one needs to develop the habit of questioning, thinking, reasoning. He emphasized that Intellect and Intelligence are different - Intelligence comes from acquiring information, knowledge from external sources. Intellect comes from within.
I have to admit, for the next few months, I am experimenting with ways to work on training my Intellect as much as the other parts of me. It appears that what the Swami described above fits me to a tee :).
As far as acquisition and enjoyment, well...no arguments from my end. Guilty.
The point he made though is there is nothing wrong with that as long as one understands that the enjoyment comes from the process, not the acquisition. The joy from the acquisition is fleeting and becomes shorter each time. True growth comes from using the journey to acquire as a personal growth process and letting go of any attachments afterwards.
I get it.
Suddenly, I thought of the song by STING - If you love somebody, set them free.
Maybe we start with ourselves?
But then again, what do I know? I'm just making my way in the world.
In brief, he is 85 years old and has spent the last 60 years of his life researching, studying and writing about life and, ultimately, what makes a person happy. He was born wealthy (his father even gave him a Rolls Royce upon graduating), has four different degrees and doctorates, and realized that there must be something more to life as the people around him were just as miserable if not more so than anyone else.
I thought to myself, anyone who spends 60 years of their life contemplating a topic, I would be privileged to listen to what they have to say. I can discern the information later on. So like a kid listening to a storyteller, I sat, listened, and asked to listen some more.
I have to admit, I am still processing a lot of what he said. But here are some points I do get:
A. There are patterns to living a better, more fulfilled life. It is just that we are never taught these patterns - not in school, not by many parents, not by the people around us. Thus he has spent a lot of his life figuring out a pattern that he wants to share with the world.
B. A human being is composed of Body, Mind, and what he defines as Intellect. We continue to work out and develop our Bodies (diet and exercise), our Mind (knowledge, emotions, intelligence) but we have been neglecting the development of our Intellect (the ability to think freely, logically, the faculty to reason and judge without bias).
C. All human beings are driven by acquisition and enjoyment - acquiring a partner, a home, a car, etc...and enjoying. Nothing wrong with that...other than knowing to what end?
It is a few days since I wrote this blog and I am currently travelling in California. As I have thought these points through, they continue to make sense to me. Reflecting on my own life, there are patterns to living a more fulfilled life - through my travels and interactions, I observe people and see destructive patterns as well as constructive ones. Often, I say to myself "huh, I wish I knew that when I was younger".
As far as Mind, Body, and what he called Intellect - I have been focusing on assessing the three components since last week. A plant, for example, consists of a body. Animals, for the most part, have a mind and body. What makes Humans special is that we have a mind, body and intellect. Our mind comprises impulses, feelings, likes, dislikes. The intellect is that which thinks, reasons, judges, decides. When the mind propels an action without the intellect's guidance, then the action is said to be impulsive. When the intellect guides the mind in action, the action is considered intellectual. According to the Swami, the attributes of the mind which determine its character:
Source of likes, dislikes, attractions, aversions
Has a natural tendency to ramble into the past or the future
Generates endless wants and desires
Develops attachments, possessiveness to objects and beings.
He also said that the human mind, left uncontrolled by the intellect, behaves like a child - impulsive, heedless, irresponsible.
And to build Intellect - one needs to develop the habit of questioning, thinking, reasoning. He emphasized that Intellect and Intelligence are different - Intelligence comes from acquiring information, knowledge from external sources. Intellect comes from within.
I have to admit, for the next few months, I am experimenting with ways to work on training my Intellect as much as the other parts of me. It appears that what the Swami described above fits me to a tee :).
As far as acquisition and enjoyment, well...no arguments from my end. Guilty.
The point he made though is there is nothing wrong with that as long as one understands that the enjoyment comes from the process, not the acquisition. The joy from the acquisition is fleeting and becomes shorter each time. True growth comes from using the journey to acquire as a personal growth process and letting go of any attachments afterwards.
I get it.
Suddenly, I thought of the song by STING - If you love somebody, set them free.
Maybe we start with ourselves?
But then again, what do I know? I'm just making my way in the world.
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