Monday 29 June 2015

Should I follow my passion or my parents' will?




Dear friend,

There is a saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” 
People’s intentions are good but they end up doing a lot of harm because they are not aware. Even their love can only cause harm to the loved ones.
Intentions don’t matter, awareness matters.
I may have all the intentions of helping my son, my friend, somebody. But how can I help if my notion of help itself is misplaced?
In the name of help I will take away his freedom. 
In the name of help I will make him dependent. 
In the name of help I will give him beliefs, rigid beliefs. 
You see, there is a drunkard who wants to help. What will he end up doing? Someone who is not fully aware, even if he wants to help, what will he end up doing? He will only end up harming. Help will become harm. Intentions are alright, but what about consciousness? What about intelligence? If you are not acting intelligently enough, your intentions don’t matter. They do not matter at all.

What is interest or passion?

The world is full of people who pursued what they call as their ‘interest’, or their ‘hobby’, or even their ‘love’, and kept feeling as frustrated as you probably do. 

See, the influences that others have upon us, we resist them. So, as you are saying, your parents have a certain influence upon you. You want to resist it; you don’t feel comfortable with it. There is a constant feeling that- I am doing something under somebody’s influence or pressure. 

So, you turn to the mind and then we ask the mind, “What do you want?” and the mind comes up with an answer which I call as ‘my interest or passion.
You say, “I want to pursue my passion.”
 You say, “I don’t want to pursue my father’s interest. I want to pursue my interest.”

I am not suggesting that you allow others to influence you. I am saying you are already very-very influenced. 

When the influence is superficial, you call it somebody else’s influence. And when the influence is very deep, then you call it ‘my interest’. 

You know, these are three levels of influence: –

1. When the influence is superficial, you call it ‘influence’.

2. When the influence is deep, then you call it ‘interest’.

3. And when the influence has penetrated the very depth of your mind, then you start calling it ‘my individuality’.


So, the most sick people are those who say that this work is an expression of my individuality. Oh my God! The patient is almost beyond redemption now.
What will happen? What will happen is just that you will pursue what you call as your interest only to be dismayed, only to be even more frustrated.
Right now you are living in a hope, and you are blaming your father. Your hope is that when I leave this and pursue my passion, then life will be heavenly. This is your hope. When you will actually pursue your so-called passion then you won’t even have that hope, and you will be greatly frustrated.
So, what is the way out then? Whatever you are saying, doing or claiming is arising from your mind. This assessment that you have given me that I am in this peculiar situation, this whole story that you have narrated, is arising from your mind. When the mind is cleansed, then this narrative will change. You will not look at the situation in the same way. Right now you are seeing only two parts. One of influence, the other of interest. One suggested by your parents, the other suggested by your interests.

When the mind is cleansed, then many other parts open up. When the mind is cleansed then from nowhere another path presents itself. What path that would be, I do not know. Even you cannot know. But surely there will be a better and a brighter path. 

Instead of choosing between two different kinds of slavery, why don’t you choose freedom? Right now you have two choices, and it is difficult to say which is worse. One entails being a slave to one person; another entails being slave to your own mind, which obviously cannot even be called your own.
None of these choices is a worthy choice. Don’t exercise these choices. Leave both of them. Let your attention go inwards. 

Let the mind have a certain refinement, a certain quality, and then from that quality the right path automatically will emerge. And it is unpredictable. Don’t even try to guess it. Don’t try to speculate. Don’t try to peep in the future. You will see nothing. Are you getting it?
Suppose a mad man comes and asks, “I have to go to New York. Should I travel vertically up or vertically down?” What would you suggest him? If he is giving you two choices; two options are there and he is asking, “What should I choose? Should I fly up or should I dig a tunnel all the way to New York?” What would you recommend him?

He does not need to move here and there. He needs to get rid of the hangover. Don’t just keep making decisions. 

For more clarity just type 'Words Into Silence' in your search box.
As

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