Pleasure versus satisfaction

 

PLEASURE  versus SATISFACTION 

(Manufacturing  (un)happiness)

By Abhijit Kamat,  www.stresguru.co.in

20 Feb 2011

Many of us manufacture our own unhappiness. It’s not that  all unhappiness is self created, as some situations we are in , that cannot be controlled. But 80% of the unhappiness is our own product.

It is said that happiness or unhappiness is the state of mind and surprisingly unhappiness is the most common state of mind. [It is a habit or mental formation (samkhara) of this life or the previous ones. Some mental formations or habits of the past lives are so strong, that the soul takes birth again  just to fulfill them in short span (due to very strong desires)].  One major thing responsible for producing unhappiness is DESIRE, want of something that we don’t have, if we have less we want more and more. If we have something we want a better quality product or branded one and so on. When we don’t get what we desire we try more and still if we don’t get we become desperate & unhappy.

Sometimes, our own unhappiness is distilled by saturating the consciousness with feelings of resentment, ill will,  and  hate. The unhappiness producing process  always makes important use of the ingredients of fear and worry. We are either in past, digging out old dirt of insults, anger and bad patches  or in the future worrying about imaginary failures and pains. Merely we are in present working out the plan on the basis of reality.

 

How to develop happiness Habit ?

1. Be aware of your feelings. (Our past mental formations dominate our consciousness.) Develop your awareness skills (consciousness and detachment). Most of the times we act under the influence of emotional hijack.
2. Learn to differentiate between pleasure and satisfaction. We all are the victims of  wanting more pleasure, that it has no end. We feel the pleasure through our senses. And our senses are always hungry. Pl. refer the following desires and evaluate yourself (with consciousness and detachment). If you feel enough, you are satisfied. If you feel the need of more, or some variation, you are looking for pleasures:= Wealth in all forms (money, property, gold, silver, furniture, electronic gadget), tasty food,  Sex, highly  branded clothes,  vehicles, toiletries, etc.
3. Evaluate in advance the negative thoughts that dominate your mind when you are disturbed, like:= anger, sadness, depression, death, debt, separation, guilt etc,  and be aware of them. Forewarned is forearmed.
4. Develop in our heart the habit to be happy. Make a mental list of happy thoughts and pass them several times throughout  a day. When you find some negativity entering in your mind, stop it there and replace it with positive thoughts.
5. Every morning before arising, release positive thoughts into your conscious mind while remaining in bed. Let a series of happy pictures of activities planned today pass through your mental eye. Do not affirm that things will not go well that day. .
6. If you do not get results as per your expectation, try again if there is one more chance or use let go approach and turn to the next one. Evaluate the failures. Forget the failures but learn the lesson.
7.  Have faith in something, God, nature, self-confidence, time,  strengths as it will come at the right time.

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What is meditation?

What is Meditation /  Dhyan/ Chan/ Zen? – misconception &  confusion.

11 February 2012

 Why confusion on the  correct method of Meditation?  One of the confusions is getting the correct information on meditation. Many sects, cults and traditions have followed up various meditation methods for centuries. All claim that their method  of meditation is correct.  Whosoever  is now following up his or her own cult/ method  tries to pull others into his/her method. Many continue to progress  with their methods and similarly many leave meditation  dissatisfied. This dissatisfaction comes because of disinterest, lack of proper guidance, or selection of incorrect method.  Many times ,  people use heavy complicated  words in their reading (or religious) literature, those are beyond the understanding of a common person interested in learning meditation.

Source of meditation:

With the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism their meditation methods also spread out of ancient Indian boundaries. It is said that the original Sanskrit word “Dhyan” when went to China, it was named as “Chen” and later when it went into Japan, it converted into “ZEN”.  ( ref:- http://www.shaolin-wahnam.org/zen.html) . With the advent of time some methods were modified, made suitable to local conditions. However, the basic purpose, remained same, that is  “to concentrate your mind”. However, in today’s world people are looking for fast track solutions with the help of meditation. 

Three stage of Meditation: This concentration is developed in three stages. For a beginner, Dhaarana is about concentration and involves fixing attention on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. Dhyana is a level of mastery of total concentration and deep meditation. Samadhi, the highest level, is total absorption. (These are the various stages of altered states of consciousness in other words).

There are various methods of meditation. A simple meaning of meditation is nothing but anchoring your mind on a single thought ( or thoughtlessness – Shunyata). Where to concentrate? Primarily, any of these six senses. 1) skin (sensations), 2) ears (listening to the own chants of  Divine name, phrase, paragraphs), 3) eyes (internal, external focus), Tongue (chanting Divine name, phrase, paragraphs), Nose (focus on breath, Yogic Exercises of breathing), pl. See next paragraphs….

Purpose of all  Dhyana (or meditation) methods:- The longer the duration of this altered state of consciousness the better. It is said that the enlightened saints don’t have thoughts, its only awareness, a connection to the universe  &  staying in present.

So, how to  begin with  a single thought or no thoughts? Who guides us?  It is said that a person goes to (or pulled to) the Guru of his own at the right time to learn the method that he/she practiced last  birth. Some experts say that Guru is not required. You can get the required knowledge on your own.

It is important to study the teacher, his work, methods  before accepting  him (her)  as your Guru. (Fake Gurus is not  today’s  problems. Shri Ramdas swami wrote it in his spiritual book- Dasbodh in 16th century that, “There are plenty of  so called Guru’s available in the market at throwaway price, check them, test them before accepting from your heart”   ref:-  http://www.archive.org/details/Shri.Dasbodh.of.Shri.Samartha.Ramdas.Marathi)

What happens when you follow someone else’s  method/ Guru? So, to end this , I can only say that,  you check  your inner voice which method/ Guru you would like to follow, else,  this may cause a spiritual indigestion. You can try a method and if you are happy, stick to it. Don’t go by trial and error every time, this will leave you nowhere.

All meditation methods  give relaxation to mind and body if followed correctly. Because, when there are no thoughts, there are no emotions and emotions are the reasons for  your mental energy to drain. All meditation methods give  the same effect. It’s your choice to select the  method you love. Pl. refer my article on Fight or Flight response. There is a science behind it.

 Summary of mediation methods and techniques**

(with the useful links wherever possible for further reading)

SITTING MEDITATION
using the Senses/ organs-	Method description	Narration
skin	Focusing on body’s sensations  – Vipassana	Developed by Gautam Buddha by 480 BC
Ears	listening to the Chanting of the Divine name, mantra, Divine sound  (Naad Brahma),it is a  part of Bhakti Yoga,	To begin with, person gets interested and starts listening to the preaching from the Holy books, attending to the sermons etc. This is not meditation but a simple beginning to it. He needs to develop concentration.
Eyes	Focusing with the open eyes:-Visual concentration- trataka, God in visual forms of idols, gazing at the burning incense tip or single point,Focusing with the closed eyes:- Focusing on the Divine face or status of GOD, holy saints.  Gazing in between the eyebrows,  light (that appears after closing eyes)	This can be combined with chanting.
Tongue	Chanting the Divine name.This method is present in almost all religions. People chant Divine name with the help of rosary (some believe in totaling the daily count). The choice of  the  “Divine Name” is yours, Jesus, mother Mary,  Raam, Dattatreya, Allah, Wahe Guru, and many…	However, the most important point is getting immersed into the Divine name to the extent of forgetting time and space. Then it becomes a habit of chanting in the subconscious mind throughout the day (& night). Mind remains focused on Divine Name.
Nose	Focus on breath, breath exercises  as given in various Yogic methods/ exercise.   Sudarshan Kriya, Kriya Yoga and others. It is a part of Raja Yoga.	Varies from simple focusing on breath (so-hum or ham-sa) to the various breathing ratios (inhale-hold-exhale-hold). Mind remains focused on breath.
Mind	curtailing thinking process, watching the mind and thought itself.  Thoughtlessness or Shunyata meditationThere is another method of getting immersed in logical- philosophical thinking. Here mind gets anchored into one thought. Compassion or karuna meditation- single thought on compassion by Buddhist.	Watching own thoughts, be alert.  Philosophical thinking like the purpose of human life, existence of God etc.
DYNAMIC MEDITATION
Action oriented	Dynamic methods like walking meditation or Tai-Chi fall into this category. However I personally feel that this method works well as an exercise prior to sitting meditation. It helps in removing lethargy.	Mind remains focused on the subtle changes in body during actions. (request to study in details about fake advertisements).
Tip: 1. ** with my little and limited knowledge I have tried to summarize these methods. If anything is missing, Pl. let me know for update/ addition/ correction.Tip: 2.  There are plenty of quacks who pretend to be expert and demand extraordinary things (exorbitant money or  Sex etc etc ) as a fee for teaching meditation.Tip3: You follow  the method you like with sincerity and devotion, you will be guided at the right time to the right people.

YOGA:

4 common Yogas: (karmayoga, Jnanayoga, Bhktiyoga, Rajyoga). pl. find  an important link  for more info.  Explanation to all yogas by Swami Vivekananda http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda

Divine Chanting- Naam-smaran by Dr Kashalikar http://www.archive.org/details/TotalStressManagementsuperliving

What is my method? I follow Bhakti Yoga- chanting The Divine Name. In addition to this, some Yoga exercises to keep body agile and fit.

Thanks for your patience to read this lengthy explanation. Pl. feel free to ask, reply your valuable feedback.

warm regards

Abhijit  Kamat

www.stressguru.co.in

http://stressguru.co.in/training_programs

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guided body scan for relaxation of mind and body (stress management)

Guided Body Scan

(relaxation technique for stress management)

An ancient Indian Yoga technique, called Shavasana is used for mind and body relaxation. It  literally means, lying idle by mind and body like a dead. The practitioner, must relax his / her  muscles  and maintain thoughtlessness. When there are no thoughts there is no stress and  body is relaxed and rejuvenated.

As  a beginner,  this sometimes becomes really difficult as the mind starts sneaking out from grip or the  swarm of thoughts occupy our  mind. So, to control the swinging of mind,  it has to be held over something and in this case it is our body’s sensations.

Method:-

Here, one is guided progressively from head to toes, piece by piece by means of feeling sensations  on various body parts. In this process mind and body both gets relaxed.  After practicing this technique for many days, one needs reduce dependence on cassette and start guiding his own mind. This is infact a  part of Vipassana technique. (Some may like it, some do not.** see footnote.)

Pl. do not forget to give your feedback, suggestions  with love and joy to the following emails.

Abhijit@stressguru.co.in   Kamat_abhijit@yahoo.com

link for downloading (in English) http://www.archive.org/details/GuidedBodyScan

link for downloading (in Marathi)  http://www.archive.org/details/BodyScanInMarathi

**Why some people like a particular meditation technique? What is the results of various techniques? Interesting analysis , See you in the next article. What next: in the next article,  I will try to explain on various types of meditation techniques and common misunderstandings. (next link)

Warm regards

Abhijit Kamat

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