On 19th of May, I shall turn 40. It’s called the harvesting cycle of life. I’ll be in observance for the entire week. This means: fasting, maun vrat(no speech), no social media / human interactions, and meditating for long hours.
I have avoided celebrating my birthday since 2002-as I learnt to understand the significance of birth & death being one and the same. I have been considered medically dead for 22 days as an infant & I’ve had several occasions close to it throughout my life.
This equation gets imbalanced when as the same body I can only be conscious and involved in the birth of myself & not in my own death ritual. In my spiritual journey they are both one and the same. If I have to accept joyous wishes of looking forward to another year, I must equally accept the unspoken joy of liberation from this body that will happen. Only then will attachment to suffering end.
My process for this week will focus on many borrowed learnings from others:
1. Accepting ANGER & SADNESS as my friends as much as I accept LOVE & JOY unquestioningly.
2. “I don’t know” is a gentler way than “I know”
3. Not striving to compete or compare because it invites anxiety in doing so.
4. Minding my own business.
5. If I want to convey my reality, I can do so WITHOUT comparing, judging or attacking someone else’s reality.
6. My choices have brought me where I am. I cannot blame anyone for this.
7. If I think I am an intelligent being, I will spend more time in accessing the problem-solving parts of my brain than wasting my energy on aimless contemplations.
8. Empty vessels make the most noise. If my voices are getting louder and cloudier, then I am yet to know what nothingness is.
9. The use of any substance, intoxicant (legal/illegal), and attempts of distractions mislead my conscious responsibilities towards other beings and the planet.
10. Life begun by LETTING GO of attachments (the umbilical cord) in order to enter another universe.
(Image sourced online)