How to enjoy your work?

On a certain day, three men were working in one place. Another man came by and asked the first man, “What are you doing here?” The man looked up and said, “Are you blind? Can’t you see I’m cutting stone?” This person moved on to the next man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man looked up and said, “Something to fill my belly. So I come here and do whatever they ask me to do. I just have to fill my belly, that’s all.” He went to the third man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man stood up in great joy and said, “I’m building a beautiful temple here!” All of them were doing the same thing, but their experience of what they were doing was worlds apart.

Every human being, every moment of his life could be doing whatever he is doing in any one of these three contexts – and that will determine the quality of his life, not what he is actually doing. How simple or complex an activity is doesn’t change the quality of your life. With what context you do it changes the quality of your life.

They all are doing same thing yet their state of mind is different. People may not have choice in the varieties of work they can do but everyone has a choice in life to do their work in either of these three states of mind. Wouldn't it be better if you just start doing things in pleasant state of mind rather than whining about it!

So next time you hate your office work, or your studies, you can remember this simple thing. Changing the context can make your life a lot easier.

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Is this world an illusion?

Suppose you are hungry and you see stone, how do you feel? Do you feel anything about stone?
Suppose you are angry and you see same stone, how do you feel? You don't see that stone as stone, you see that as a weapon. The weapon you want to hit someone with.
Suppose the same stone is inside temple, at the main place where you worship. How do you feel? Worship? you will probably put tika on that stone also.
Suppose an animal enters temple and sees the same stone, will it mean something for that animal to worship? But will you argue with that animal if that animal thinks you are stupid to worship stone. No! but if person from other religion says same thing then conflict will arise!

The stone which has no significance at first sight rises to a level where you worship it! Do you know what is the difference? Our eyes see stone, and we know it is nothing more than stone but we perceive that stone differently according to our own emotions.

When great saints said "this whole world and existence is illusion(maya)", they may not mean all existence is illusion. They probably mean, the world we are perceiving is illusionary. When we can see the stone as just stone regardless of any emotion/situation then we become free from maya.

How will our life be if we are not free from maya?
We will not feel like praying or visiting temple when we are happy, we may go on saying god doesn't exist. We will feel proud of whatever we are doing but if we fall in great misery we will be back to praying. No matter whom you pray, you will at least pray.
This is the nature of maya. You see things the way it is necessary for your survival. You won't be able to understand how another sees this world and misery will continue. The whole world is a misery if you are not free from maya.

But once you are free from maya, you will see Happiness as happiness, not mine or your happiness; Love as just love, not as mine, your, others love; Religion as religion, not as mine or others; Temple as temple, not as mine, his or others. This is also called opening of third eye.The third eye does not mean someone’s forehead cracked and something came out! It simply means another dimension of perception has opened up and that dimension of perception sees things as it is. Because the third eye is the eye of vision. The two physical eyes are just sensory organs.

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Root of every war is assumption

Suppose you are a science student and someone comes to you and says,"his grandfather painted the sky blue". What will you do? you will laugh at his ignorance.

Suppose someone else comes and says "it is blue because of reflection of ocean". You may now try to convince them that it is actually because of refraction of light. So at the same time another guy comes and says "you are talking rubbish, sky is not blue". Now what will happen, you will team up with two previous people and against this new person who says sky is not blue.

So, now starts the debate, which if is able to reach to any conclusion will end up with all four believing any of the assumptions above.

All 4 will say,

•  person no 1's grandfather painted it blue
• it is due to reflection of ocean
• it is due to refraction
• sky is not blue at all

But does that debate and conclusion takes them any closer to the truth? Truth is sky looks blue due to refraction and actually sky is not blue! Imagine if someone with this knowledge had been in between these previous 4 idiots, what would have happened? Either they all would have agreed with him or person 3 & 4 would have asked him to choose either side rather than talking 2 things at a time.

And then suppose they all agreed on the last person's statement and then next person comes and says that sky does not exist. Sky has no colour, and one that has no colour can not be seen and why should I believe on existence of such a thing that cannot be seen?

Leave the discussion, but do you realise what is happening in this story? They all have their own assumptions about sky. They go through the debate thinking they will find out the truth but they are only finding common assumptions until someone else has something opposite to say. Neither of them agree with each other from the beginning, but as they go on meeting with new thoughts they are uniting but the unity is against someone and his new assumption.

I wonder, is something similar happening with people who believe in religion or call themselves atheist or some other beliefs? Are they really worried about truth or are they just trying to argue based on their own belief. Won't there be peace if all of them realise that there is no point in discussing about sky. Can't I realise that I don't need to write a blog post like this about the sky?

Does whatever they believe really matter? Will sky lose it's existence if they don't believe it? So why is there war in this world? all because of the assumptions. And the very problem with assumption is that it unites only against another assumptions. Why can't everyone drop their assumptions and be in peace?

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