Sagar Khadka
There once lived an enlightened Master in Japan. He used to be recognized as a Man of happiness, may be his happiness was contagious. One day, an ordinary man seeking the secret of happiness, visited the Master. When the ordinary man reached the awakened master’s residence and saw him gardening, the man asked, “Master, where can we find happiness?”
The master simply replied, “There is happiness in gardening.”
The man was puzzled. Gardening? He had asked a deep, spiritual question, and the Master gave what seemed like a trivial answer. Still, he stayed. The man murmured to himself, “I am asking such a huge question. And, he replied that happiness can be found in gardening. What a nonsense! Maybe he didn’t listen to my question properly, so let me talk further.” The Master brought coffee to him, and to an ordinary man.
While the master was sipping his coffee, the man put the same question, “Where can we find happiness, Master?”
“There is happiness in drinking coffee.”
The story ends here, but you will get an answer.
I want to begin by recalling few incidents. What incidents? Incidents those are personally relevant to me. In fact, they are my own lived experiences. I believe, they too, might mirror your lived experiences. I could directly jump into the techniques: how to improve consciousness. However, events, I believe, are quite necessary to explain as they can resonate with your struggles, and it will help to realize the need for improving the consciousness ability. Consciousness, however, is not a destination, awareness is the final resort.
Around 14 years back, during my school days, while I was doing my school assignments, something surprised me. You could even say that it shocked me. I was writing on my notebook, and suddenly I noticed that I wasn’t focused on what I was writing. My hand was moving, the words were forming, but my mind was elsewhere. In other words, I was there yet not really there. What a paradoxical situation! This was indeed a troubling moment for me as I realized how much my ability to stay focused had deteriorated. I tried to make an effort to bring my consciousness to the moment but in few minutes or even in seconds, I used to lose my consciousness. Such situations had occurred multiple times before, but fortunately, that day I became aware of the state of my concentration. Maybe an apple has fallen number of times, and people have observed, but failed to discover gravity. The sudden realization of Newton made it possible to discover the gravitational force. I meant to say that realization often comes suddenly.
Nevertheless, I asked a question to myself, “Why am I losing my awareness?” Couldn’t I remain aware all the time to the activity that I am involved in? I didn’t find any person whom I could ask these questions, and also there was a not internet facility like today where I could goggle, search, and get the answers. The questions remained unanswered inside me. This was haunting me deep inside because I was really concerned, and seeking methods to make my consciousness robust.
Slowly, I discovered that such habit exist while I was eating and walking. I am eating, may be, but my mind has gone somewhere else or feeding on past events. I may be walking, but I am thinking different incidents. Never imagined or thought that ability to be conscious to the act I am engaged in would be critically weakened. As I mentioned in the preceding paragraph I would try to bring my attention to the present moment, but I would quickly relapse into my usual distracted state. The problem had been identified—the disease diagnosed—but the cure was still unknown. I began to ask: Why has it happened so? Is it natural or some psychological disorder? Can I improve my ability to be conscious? If yes, then where are the techniques, and who can teach me? I went on contemplating multiple questions. I remember a couple of incidents where I bought something from the shop, but forget to pay the money. Not sure if it has happened to you. However, I can think this relates to you as well. Although Freud stated, ‘We are all neurotic, and if someone says, “I am not neurotic,” that in itself is a sign of neurosis.’
One day, I heard a story that truly revealed the answer I had been seeking for a long time. Once Buddha was delivering a discourse to his disciple, and suddenly a housefly sat on his forehead. Buddha then gently moved his hand towards his forehead so that housefly could leave. The housefly flew off. However, almost immediately, Buddha again moved his hand toward his forehead—this time, there was no housefly. Surprised, one of the disciples asked the Buddha, “God, I understood that first you moved your hand to your forehead because there was housefly. But I couldn’t understand why did you move your hand next time although there wasn’t any?” Buddha with serene, sanguine and composed expression replied, ““My dear, at first, I moved my hand mechanically—that is, I did it unconsciously. So the next time, I moved my hand consciously.”
This story shook me immensely as it disclosed the method that I was desperate to know. It transformed me. Just as, Archimedes cried out ‘Eureka! Eureka!’ in his discovery, by the same token, the similar was reverberating in me—only silently, deep inside. We do many activities in a day, but rarely become aware of our activities. To reiterate, you may be eating food physically but the mind often the times has gone somewhere else. You may be walking; however the mind is feeding on the past events. Even though you may be riding/driving your vehicle, the mind has lost into a different world. It’s as though we have everything but we don’t have our self. Why are you in stress? Do you know? That’s true because of some unexpected incidents or behavior from someone. However, this is half right. On the contrary, it is not hundred percent correct.
You are physically here, but you are contemplating on the old events-the mind does. The gap is created between your physical body, and your consciousness. That gap is responsible for your stress. It’s not delayed if you start from now, and from this very moment. The consciousness has gone somewhere, bring it to the present. I know it might be difficult, but you also know that difficult road often leads to the beautiful destination. Patience, endurance and perseverance are required initially, but if you make a habit of practices, you will see wonder and magic in life. It is worthless to explain here unless you practices. We have been living with this similar habit from the beginning, that’s why difficult. But consistent practices and patience will work for sure. When you go into the sunlight, and suddenly enter into the room-you won’t see properly, and you have to wait for some time because the pupil in our eye which has got smaller to limit balance the amount of light entering. It takes a time to gets wider in the dim light. Just wait, be patient and you will see everything properly. You practice, be patient and see the blissfulness.
(Sagar Khadka has completed his Master’s in Conflict, Peace, and Development Studies, and he is a peacebuilding practitioner.)
