Mostly

“Mother, what is water?” asked the baby fish of the mother fish.

“Water is what you swim in. Water is what you’re mostly made of.”

“But where is it?”

“All around you.”

“But I can’t see it,” said the baby.

“Of course you can.”

“Where?”

“Everywhere.”

“And I’m made of water?”

“Mostly.”

“And after I die..?”

“You go back to being water,” said the mother.

Life Is A Challenge

Most of our questions can be answered. But existential questions cannot be answered. We have to live. It’s a mystery. So when the little fish asked “I’m made of water?” Mother fish knows that this question cannot be answered but we can find out by living. So she replied “Mostly.”

Life is a mystery. It can be lived. It can be known by living it. It is not a problem, it’s a challenge.

Life is possible only through challenges…

There was once a farmer who, after a poor crop, complained: “If God would only let me control the weather, everything would be better, because He apparently does not know very much about farming.”

That’s true! Nobody has ever heard about God being a farmer — how can He know?

The Lord said to him: “For one year I will give you control of the weather; ask for whatever you wish and you will get it.”

In the old days God used to do that. Then He got fed up.

The poor man became very happy and immediately said, “Now I want sun,” and the sun came out. Later he said, “Let the rain fall,” and it rained. For a whole year first the sun shone and then it rained. The seed grew and grew, it was a pleasure to watch it. “Now God can understand how to control the weather,” he said proudly. The crop had never been so big, so green, such a luscious green.

Then it was time to harvest. The farmer took his sickle to cut the wheat, but his heart sank. The stalks were practically empty. The Lord came and asked him, “How is your crop?”

The man complained, “Poor, my Lord, very poor!”

“But didn’t you control the weather? Didn’t everything you wanted turn out all right?”

“Of course! and that is the reason I am perplexed — I got the rain and the sunshine I asked for, but there is no crop.”

Then the Lord said, “But have you never asked for wind, storms, ice and snow, and everything that purifies the air and makes the roots hard and resistant? You asked for rain and sunshine, but not for bad weather. That’s the reason there is no crop.

Life is possible only through challenges. Life is possible only when you have both good weather and bad weather, when you have both pleasure and pain, when you have both winter and summer, day and night. When you have both sadness and happiness, discomfort and comfort. Life moves between these two polarities.

Moving between these two polarities you learn how to balance. Between these two wings you learn how to fly to the farthest star.

Learning from the story Mostly: Life Is A Challenge

Experience Learning

We deplete our vital energy when we live a fragmented life — when our body, mind and soul are not in agreement with each other. Existentially, our body belongs to nature, our soul belongs to God, and in between is our mind which goes through a long process of conditioning by our family and society. Our life exists in relationships and these relationships are very demanding, full of expectations. An individual may not be so strong to fulfil all the expectations. It is next to impossible. As a result, we start being ruled by social conditioning, ignoring our individual needs. In psychological terms, we become fragmented. A fragmented person can never be a happy person, as there’s an inner war going on all the time within his being. In such a situation, there are two possibilities: an individual can either go against oneself or rebel against the society. Both the possibilities create misery for the individual, who keeps struggling his whole life for attaining peace and joy.

It is really challenging to find a way out. It requires a tremendous amount of intelligence to understand this conflict and bring harmony between the conflicting elements of body, mind and soul. Yoga and meditation show the way – the way within. It is very therapeutic. One can begin with the body first, as it is very natural. Energetically one can talk to the body, communicate with it. All Buddhas say: “People need to be taught how to be friends with one’s body. The body has to be loved – you have to be a great friend. It is your home, you have to clean it of all junk, and you have to remember that it is in your service continuously, day in, day out. It is doing everything for your survival, for your life, although you are so ungrateful that you have never even thanked your body.”

Modern medical science is now beginning to recognise what the mystics have always known – that the body and mind are inter-connected and deeply related. The remedy is yoga and meditation. The mind can affect the condition of the body, just as the condition of the body can affect the mind. Again, the remedy is yoga and meditation. Yoga can fix the body and meditation can take care of the mind at a deeper level. According to Yoga Sutras of sage Patanjali, the seventh stage is dhyana, which is understood as meditation in the modern times. It is basically dealing with the distractions of the mind. This way, the real yoga includes meditation also. In Sanskrit, yoga means the union. It is the union of body, mind and spirit. And finally what matters is the spirit, which rules both – the body and the mind. It is the life force together with godliness, the all pervading consciousness.

The prana energy functions at the optimum with the help of yoga and meditation. So one should not stop at asanas only – one should keep going further, deeper and deeper, higher and higher. The deeper the roots, the higher one rises. The roots and flowers are deeply connected. Osho says: “Your biology is your roots and your consciousness is your flowering.” A tree cannot flower independent of its seed and roots. The growth is a continuum; you cannot skip the birth pains, the suffering, the effort, the pushing upwards, and begin with the flower, the bliss, the meditation. There is no choice to be made. If you accept the roots, explore them deeply and consciously. In other words, be where you are; that is the nourishment the roots need to blossom into flowers. And finally, life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.