I want to share a short real life example that I hope will change the way you look at yourself and your role in this life forever. The wisdom in this example challenges your subtle intellect and awakens your spirituality to question your real-self and role in this life. As soon as you begin to practice this awareness, spiritual healing starts to replace your sufferings with peace, health, and wellness.
Do You Ever Question This After Watching a Movie?
A friend comes back after watching a movie. He can not stop talking about how good the movie was. The story touched him in many levels. Sometimes he laughed and another he even cried. I asked him why he liked so much. He liked it because the actors played their parts so real and the story unfolded beautifully not knowing what will happen next. These are main hallmarks of any good movie. He enjoyed the movie even though he cried through the tragic, depressing, and sad parts of the story. But if similar tragic events happened in my friend’s life, he wouldn’t enjoy the experience of suffering as he did while watching the movie. Why is that?
This is a question that warrants a closer observation. Is it because we enjoy watching tragedy in other people’s lives? I hope not. Or is it because, we engage with the movie as a witness knowing very well that all characters in the storyline are just actors. Each actor also knows it is a temporary role and not their real self so they also enjoy and do their best to play their role. In fact their real self is observing to make sure that their character comes across real whether it is rich, poor, good, funny, or tragic role. And after the movie is over, everyone goes on their new and separate ways.
Doesn’t That Sound Familiar?
Now think subtly. Isn’t this what happens in our life? We try to perform our role on this “stage” of life to the best of our ability in good, sad, or bad times. While performing, if we strictly identify with the physical self playing the character role permanently, we suffer. On the other hand while performing if we identify with our higher spiritual self (individual consciousness), we realize the character role we are playing is temporary, and our higher spiritual self is overseeing as a witness. Remember, my friend really enjoyed the movie as a witness. So it is with our life. Identify with your higher self, become and live as a witness, and enjoy while performing your physical role with full vigor and conviction. With such awareness, you enjoy playing any role just as the actors enjoy playing their roles in the movie.
Now Put This to Work for You
Can you cultivate this subtle shift in your awareness about your self? It will not be easy, especially the way we are programmed to live. You need to give your self time to reflect. Be among people with such attitudes. Read inspiring, motivating, and thought provoking writings, books, or poems. Recently I came across a wonderful collection of inspiring and spiritually healing poems and other work by an artist, Milo Adorno. Do whatever it is you need to do to cultivate this spiritual awareness.
I am not saying you have to enjoy your sufferings. I am saying that living with such spiritual awareness you can enjoy the experience of healing while suffering. One common theme that was found in most 70 and older healthy people aging gracefully was their ability to accept and then let go of the tragic events in their lives.
You see spiritual awareness causes subtle mental shift that creates powerful healing effect that permeates health and wellness through out your mind and body. In fact the impact of spiritual healing on our mind body health is far greater than the foods, herbs, or any other supplements.
Tags: Universal Consciousness, Wellness
One reason why we can enjoy a film but get too caught up in real-life drama, is that while the film is made by humans, this movie is a mind-boggling work by God.
Practicing His presence amidst all dualities of life and realizing that it is a dream within a dream, wouldn’t be easy without daily meditation, right living and devotional surrender.
The intellect can fail miserably in handling this situation, because its discriminative faculty is also founded on sensory perceptions and experiences – ever fallible as they are. It is only at the soul-level that this can be resolved by developing a witness approach (sakshi-bhaav), and without regular practice of deep meditation that level cannot be accessed.
My Master, Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (author of ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’) explains it beautifully thus : When the movie inside the cinema hall gets too touching, you just have to turn back and look at the projector’s light beam to realize that it’s only a story, and that the same light passing through the film produces all that melodrama of hero and villain. Similarly, in meditation we can turn back within and look at the Great Light in the third eye to realize how passing through the film of delusion the same Light creates the story of good and the evil. We have a choice of relating to the ‘projection’ or the ‘projector’.
But everything said, this journey in consciousness is not easy and needs a practice usually spanning over many lives, which is why we need a Guru who is God in human form and appears when the disciple is ready. The length or difficulty of this journey does not reduce its worth – in fact, we all are already on that course, and no one will be written off ; we are all Buddhas in making. Everyday, under the Guru’s guidance and grace, we can move a micro wee bit towards the Goal.
Hans, I appreciate your beautiful assessment and techniques you shared to pursue this path. Many shall benefit from it. My sincere thanks!
I agree with, fully! As viewers we experience the film. And we can take advantage of the situation and grow as a result of we lived there.
I really appreciate this article! Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
Thanks for your encouraging feedback!
What an insightful, well written post! I love your approach and easy, sweet demeanor. Movies oftentime inspire me to look at the role I am playing in my life, so I truly resonate with this.
A profound and very helpful reminder of the true perspective on Lfe. Thank you!
Rakesh – well written article. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks everyone…today was a perfect day to receive this message. I was open and needing it. Wonders never cease. The replies were beautiful and affirming of our collective walk–spanning distance, time. Blessings to RS and the community.
Very well written, a superb example that one can relate to easily! Thanks for sharing, Rakesh!
How amazing is the Universe – or God or the One energy or whatever it is we call this life-giving, mystical force through which we have life and awareness. I have been trying to learn this, Rakesh, about being the observer and knowing that my spirit is just playing the game of life here…and yet it is so very easy to get caught up in our emotions and experience of life that we forget, time and again, this clear perspective.
I see that you wrote this article a long time ago but you were moved to email it out just now, at a time when I need it most. THANK YOU for such a wise insight and timely reminder and many blessings to you.
So glad that this simple truth resonated with with all of you. May all of you live with this awareness and experience wellness as a result throughout your life.