When you look for things that you don’t
have, you remain incomplete. When you look at what you have, including who you
have in your Life, you are complete!
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| Nithyanand - The Buddha |
Yesterday, I spent a transformational hour with a
young man called Nithyanand, in his 20s, who is visually special (I hate to
call him visually impaired). He lives in Korrukkupet (a Chennai suburb). He
commutes every day to Express Avenue Mall, where he works at an exhibition tour
company called “Dialogue in the Dark” (Google them – go check them out). Nithya,
as he prefers being called, says he doesn’t have any problem when I ask him how
he “manages with Life on a day-to-day basis”: “Sir, we work on getting oriented
to spaces and with basing all our responses to the velocity of sound around us.
I take bus # 18 and get to work pretty much without a hitch. When I do have to
cross the road, I just wait for a good, helpful soul. The Universe always has
such people around. There are so many good people in this world. Someone always
comes by to help me.” There’s a joie de
vivre about the way Nithya is. He is happy, content and
peaceful with the way he is. Actually he truly, simply is.
There is no self-pity. There’s no lament. In fact, there’s so much dignity with
which he conducts himself – even you don’t feel pity for the young man. You
come away inspired. Now, how many times will you come away inspired after
meeting a rank stranger for barely an hour?
Much of our grief and suffering comes from lamenting
over what we don't have. This pushes us into a, often subconscious, depressive
spiral out of which we rarely climb out. But always, when the focus shifts to
what is, the result is magical. The reason why we struggle with making this
shift from what isn't to what is, is that the negative is always seductive. Its
reasoning power is far more logical. The good in us rarely speaks. It merely
states. It does not profess, it doesn't argue, it doesn't convince. Nett Nett,
we succumb to the wily designs of scarcity__what we don't have, what
isn't__thinking. This results in incompleteness. Whereas, with all our quirks,
defects, chinks, blemishes, scars and handicaps, we are complete. There’s so
much abundance in our lives. Such is the way we have been created. To recognize
this complete state of ours, we need to be in a state of total acceptance, we
need to be peaceful.
My learning from Nithyanand: when there is peace
within, when there is acceptance of the Life you have, the focus will shift to
what is. And then the wholesomeness of your Life will become clear to you! This the way,
we__you and me__too, just like Nithya, can become a Buddha – and experience ‘anand’
(inner joy) ‘nithya’ (daily)!
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