When the Greek writer Kazancakis asked an old man, "What are you looking at?" the old man, without taking his eyes off the flowing water, replied: "My life, my son, my life that is passing by..."

As life flows by just like the water in this river, it is hard not to feel sorry for our lives, even the lives of our closest and dearest ones, which we consume with tension and stress, far from knowing how long we will live.

As long as tension and stress are the fashion of our age, no matter how much technology advances, life will get easier, but day by day, instead of getting rid of the chaos we fall into, we fall deeper and deeper and get lost. The biggest misconception we all fall into is to find external causes because we cannot explain the tension! But tension is not something that happens outside of us. On the contrary, it is about what is happening inside us. In our formless lifestyle. In our desire to always want more, better, more, more, more beautiful, to make our ego bigger and bigger. Our constant regret of the past, our fear of the future and the missing of the present, which is the only reality, is our biggest cause of tension...

There are two kinds of tensions, physical tensions and mental tensions. After the release of tensions comes relaxation, after relaxation comes awareness. Or vice versa, awareness first! If there is awareness, relaxation comes automatically, and so the release of physical and mental tensions. The first method is difficult and laborious, almost impossible. Awareness is always the shortest path to peace and balance...

And always relaxation comes harmoniously, automatically, spontaneously, from within awareness. It is very simple for those who can understand the process of mindfulness. In fact, we can use mindfulness all day long without knowing it. We don't drive a car and stay in crazy traffic for miles and hours and die. But we are just aware of things outside, outside ourselves.

"The same awareness has to be used for the traffic inside," says Osho. "When you close your eyes, there is a traffic of thoughts, feelings, dreams and visions inside; they all start flashing."

And in Osho's words: "Whatever you are doing in the outer world, you will do exactly the same in the inner world and you will witness it. Once you have tasted this, the pleasure of witnessing is so great, so otherworldly, that you will want to go deeper and deeper. Every time you find the time, you will want to enter your inner world even more."

When you are sitting on the bus, at home, on the train or on the plane, when there is nothing to do, just close your eyes. That way your eyes don't get tired of looking out and you have enough time to watch yourself. These will be the moments of the most beautiful experiences.

Gradually, as mindfulness develops, your whole personality starts to change. Moving from indifference to awareness is the biggest leap.

All you have to do is learn to be aware of every situation! Take advantage of every situation to develop awareness!

Come on, start somewhere! Take a hold of life! Don't kill life! Recognize and bless the you inside you! Live the you inside you!

As Norman Cousins said: "The tragedy of life is not death, but what we allow to die in us while we live".

Mukaddes Pekin Başdil

Researcher-Author

Source: Denizli Haber