Simply Being | Simple Being

Tag: life (page 1 of 9)

sVaastha

The mystery of “health” is yet unresolved.

In India, the term “svAstha” is used to denote health. Now, svAstha simply means “established in oneself,” and we can safely say that health (or good health) is an integral aspect of being established in oneself. (What does it mean to “be established in oneself?” I wish I had a good answer.)

Does (good) health imply absence of disease? Or does it mean an ability to live and breathe fully, regardless of disease condition? Can health be tracked on multiple parameters? Or is it a state that defies all measurable parameters? Is there a universal definition of good health? Is good health same as immunity?

No two humans are alike, and it seems that there is not a universal prescription for good health, or for warding off disease. There are a zillion recommendations around diet and lifestyle and exercise, and there are as many individuals who appear to lead healthy lives WITHOUT following a single one of those recommendations. I know people who have survived cancer, undergone multiple surgeries, and live with chronic pain… but you wouldn’t know any of that from speaking with them—such is their zest for life. There are people who talk endlessly about health and fitness but there is such a defeated air about them that one wonders, what is the point? I know healthy individuals in their 80s, and it may be that their longevity owes itself to their disciplined lifestyle but then I also know others in the same age group who appear healthy because they have an inexhaustible, fearless appetite for life. I know young people who consume mindfully but live fearfully. There are individuals who take all manner of supplements and there are those who have never swallowed a multivitamin in their life. Really, what gives?

What is one to do? What recommendation can one follow?

Maybe what is essential for good health is a kind of “system integrity,” and I don’t know if there is an actual term for this.

A kind of honesty in how we live life, a sense of truthfulness to our own selves about our wishes and fears and desires, a simple clarity in expression, a habit of looking fear in the eye, a habit of living comfortably and side by side with fear, or grief, or regret, a willingness to see our internal tendency to push or pull, grab or shove or hide, to rush or dawdle, an intention to breathe fully through all life experiences.

Perhaps what one needs is sufficient love and faith in Life’s essential dynamism and intention to guide us in every way, including food, exercise, lifestyle, relationships, career, etc.

Indeed, the healthy ones are those that appear to be imbued with this inner love… love for? God, World, Life, whatever. Perhaps this is a complex phenomenon but maybe it is also simpler than the simplest, and so simple that this mind cannot comprehend.

unique beauty

Guruvayur Temple, Kerala

There is a woman I follow on Instagram, and let’s just say that she is a lot of things I am not, physically speaking. She is petite, curly-haired, plumpish, chubby faced… cute as a button. So, I get “cute” a lot myself but she and I look nothing like each other. I find her very beautiful, so much so that I can scroll endlessly through her profile, leafing through her posts and pictures and videos. Also, she writes beautifully. (Beautifully different from my own writing which I find beautiful, too.)

All this to say that beauty (or our experience of it?) is a singular and unique experience, beyond any kind of comparison and/or competition. My mother is beautiful as she uniquely is, and there isn’t a question of if/how she is more (or less) beautiful than anyone else. I am beautiful in a way that only I can be, and it has nought to do with how my looks fare on any scale, Indian or international or whatever.

And this is likely why I find my friends so beautiful, each one looking wholly different from the other. Reminded of something an Art of Living teacher once said, “Praise is unqualified.” I didn’t get it at that time, and maybe I am still unclear about the true import of that statement… and yet, I wonder if the sentiment may not be extended to “Beauty is unqualified.”

And if we were to extend the idea even further, it makes sense that our experience of ANYTHING is absolutely and utterly unique, beyond comparison to anything else. Radical, no?

patterns

Just a thought… perhaps, maybe, think about it. If we disbelieve in patterns, do they cease to exist?

So, this notion of “this way,” or this kind of habit, or this type of feeling, or “I am like this,” or “I am this personality,” and so on… Now, instead of tracing said “object” backward and forward in time and making it into a trend or pattern or personality trait, whatever… if, instead we saw it as a unique instance (instant?), then this supposed pattern would be just that, a solo point. What we call a “pattern” would simply disappear because… there isn’t one! For, each instance is unique in time, and there is nothing truly in common between the various instances, ergo, no pattern or programming.

So also, no “me,” I think? Because “me” is also a pattern.

(Trust me to come up with pretty language.)

And that’s why

Recently I found myself saying, “…and that’s why I Ieft that class.” Next instant I wondered, is that true? Is that truly why I left? Could I ever say with complete certainty that THAT is the reason?

No, not really. All I can say with certainty is that I stopped going to the class. As for the reason why (assuming there is one), I cannot really say what that is.

I will be the first to admit that I am not what you’d call a reasonable person. Not that I am unreasonable but I hardly ever use reason to decide on a course of action. Perhaps I employ reason to plan a course of action but even that’s largely suspect, truth be told. And I know that this kind of “unreasonable” behavior is sometimes aggravating to my loved ones. (Not my parents, I think… I suspect they are of similar orientation.)

I found this scrawled in an old notebook. “What is ‘too soon’ or ‘too late?’ Who is to know? Our perspective of time is so limited—we can never comment on whether an event happened before or after time. All we can be sure of is that happened when it had to.”

Now, the rumination above pertains to the timing of events but I can see that it applies to their cause, too. Truly, we can never know the why. Yes, we are highly skilled at constructing the why, and we have elevated that skill to a science. Yet I wonder if we may be better served by dumping all construction and reconstruction efforts, by being “unreasonable,” by being with what is, sans reason or explanation or justification… not to anyone else, not to our own self.