Monday 29 June 2015

What is the best way to keep myself hungry for success and not settle?

Dear Friend, 

If you are peaceful, if you are joyful, if you are centered, if you do not always feel like running after achievement, then no change is needed. Everything is alright.

Look at this. When you are running after achievement, what is this that you are saying? ‘I want success.’ When you say that I want change, when you say that I want success, what is that you are saying? ‘I do not accept things as they are. I want something new which I can call as success.’ That is proof enough that there is something unsettled in the mind, that the mind is wandering.

If you are constantly looking towards the future, then you already want change. ‘If I am well-settled and joyful in the present, why will I look towards the future? Obviously I want change. If I am always in the need of entertainment, if I want to watch a movie, if I want to do something that takes away my boredom, then obviously I want change. If my mind does not stay firm at one place, and is always wandering from here to there, then obviously my mind wants a change. If I sit down to do one thing and I find that the thought of another thing is coming into my mind, then obviously my mind wants change. If I keep complaining about the situations, then obviously my mind is wanting a change.

Our life is a proof that we want change. Our every single thought and action is testimony to the fact that we want change.

 We all want change. We feel bored, we feel restless, and we want change. But we are looking for the change at the wrong places. We think that the change lies in the future. We think that accomplishments can give us that change. We think that by becoming something in the future, the change will come. Or we think that change lies in a person or in an object, that by getting something, by getting money, by getting a house, by getting marks, by getting a job, by getting a girlfriend, that change can come.

We are desperately in need of change, but we are mistaken in our diagnosis of what the disease is. 

Yes, there is a great urge in the mind to change but we do not understand that urge. We want satisfaction but we do not really know where that satisfaction comes from. So we are looking for satisfaction at all the wrong places. We are looking for that satisfaction in the entertainment, in pleasure, in company, in success, in relations. But you will not get it there.

You have to understand that what is it that makes you feel restless. Whatever makes you restless, is not your real nature. You are not born to be restless. Find out what keeps you restless and what will really help you get rid of that restlessness. Restlessness is right now. The change that you want, you want that change right now. So, restlessness right now.
Restlessness is right now. But what do you say? ‘Satisfaction will be when I get a job two years later.’ If restlessness is right now, should you search for the cure two years later? If a patient is suffering right now, will you give him the medicine two years later? When should be the treatment be, if the disease is right now?

The disease is today, because you are feeling the restlessness today. So, when should the disease be cured?

Today.

But you do not want to cure it today, you want to postpone the treatment to the future. You say, ‘I will be happy when I get respectability, when everybody will honor me.’ You say, ‘I will be satisfied when I have this and that in the future.’ This is self-deception. The problem is right now, solve it right now. Look at the problem right now. In that looking itself the problem evaporates. In that attention itself, it is found that there is actually no problem.

The problem is that I search for the solution in the future. When I stop looking at the future and look at the state of the mind right now, the mind becomes calm and then there is no problem at all.

So, we have said two things. One, it is certain that we are dissatisfied, there is restlessness, this restlessness is evident in every action. It is evident in the way we walk, we eat, and we talk to others. It is evident in the way we use the mobile phone, it is evident in the way we approach our career. It is evident that we are restless. This is the first thing.

The second thing is that we have found false solutions, false treatments for our restlessness. Those false treatments will not work. Find out the real treatment. And when you try to find the real treatment you will incidentally discover that there is no real disease.

The real disease is that you want treatment in the future. You look at the mind, and it becomes silent. Right now, as you are listening to me, there is no problem. You are alright. You are fine. But the moment the mind starts wandering, again there will be lots of problems.

This lack of attention is the problem. Nothing else is the problem.

AJ

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