the speaking tree - The Difference Between Existence And Being

Discourse: Swami Sukhabodhananda

A mother was shocked and hurt to hear her son telling lies. So, she took the boy aside and cautioned him about
the perils of telling lies. When you tell a lie, a huge monster with red eyes, and a horn on his head will drag
you from your bed in the middle of the night and punish you badly . Hereafter, i am sure you won't tell lies.
No mother, hereafter i will not tell lies, assured the son and added, You are a bigger liar than i am.
Why do people tell lies? What do people achieve by telling lies? Can you see that the effort needed to protect
one from being caught as a liar causes more tension and that lying causes the unnecessary burden of
remembering one's lies and that is a strain on one's brain? One fills the mind with unnecessary thoughts,
worries, hurts and unnecessary lies. This restricts the space available for any creative act.
People wish to increase their knowledge. In the east, there is a distinction between `knowledge' and `Being'
and the emphasis is to increase one's `Being'. Both knowledge and Being are required.With the transformation
of knowledge into Being, knowledge will not be limited to mere information.So both knowledge and Being are
necessary for transformation.
Anyone can understand that there are different levels of knowledge, but only a few understand that there are
dif t ferent levels of Being which is your presence that is, spe your presence as a good, pure, tr inspiring and
transparent essence. One should not confuse `existence' with Being. The stone exists, plant exists, man exists,
but they exist quite differently. It is here that the idea of Being comes in. For example, the Being of a plant,
stone, animal, man and the Divine is at different levels.
Being is always from the origin, but existence is from birth. Let us consider the Being of an animal. All
animals have existence from birth. A cat, dog and horse all exist; they have a common existence.
But the Being of a cat, dog or horse is quite different.
Their Being is not from birth but from conception.
Just deeply introspect on this. Being is an evolving essence, an evolving presence. This applies to you, me and
everyone else.
If a person gets hurt because someone makes an unpleasant statement, it only shows the level of one's Being.
But if one can forgive the person who has caused the hurt, it shows the level of one's Being at a very different
or higher level.
If one is selfish, it shows one's Being at a certain level. But if one were to serve the `other' with love and
goodness, it shows a completely different, higher level of Being. It is not a matter of judgment but a matter of
clarity leading to immense opportunity for growth and progression on the spiritual path.
So are you working on your Being?
How does one work on Being? It's a vast topic. But do not stop asking the question; try to find an
answer.Resolve right now to make a beginning to transform and support the process of transformation in your
daily life. Reach for higher dimensions so that you can evolve to higher planes and get transformed.
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the speaking tree - Be Careful Of Desire-ridden Karma

Dhruva Bhargava

Our actions are driven by two fundamental forces: Nature and De sire. Driven by intrinsic nature and sheer
needs, everyone and everything around us is involved in natural karma from which there is no escape.
A child cries when it is born for to cry is its natural karma. The sun emits heat and light that ripens our food
and sustains life for that is the sun's natural karma. We cannot expect the sun to radiate coolness, can we? If it
did, it would upset the balance of nature.Indeed, entire existence is joyfully immersed in its own karma. It's
said that there are subtle vibrations everywhere particularly at deep, subatomic levels of existence, and these,
too, presumably , are the nature of the universe.
One natural karma is bound to lead to another. A hungry gazelle searches for grass to eat; else the animal might
die. Hence foraging for food is its natural urge. Sighting grass, the gazelle proceeds to graze. However a
hungry lion that notices the gazelle gives chase as the lion is driven by his own natural urge. And so it comes to
be that the lion kills and devours the gazelle, satisfies his hunger. A spontaneous need is satisfied by an
impulsive action in that moment and no excess is committed.Remarkably , despite the gazelle being killed and
devoured, peace and calm prevails and the natural balance is ultimately restored through inherent mechanism
of checks and balances.
However, let's assume for a moment that the lion becomes anxious about his future, and agonises over a
possibility: what if gazelles become scarce?
So he starts killing and storing gazelles for an imaginary uncertainty . He indiscriminately amasses the
maximum in comparison to his peers so that he can sell them at higher price during shortage. What indeed
happened? Natural karma gives way to desire so that desire gains complete control! Karma driven by
conscious will, purpose, wish and greed is no longer driven by need. No sooner than desire enters the realm of
karma, along comes the ego fuelled by these very desires, creating an unending, vicious cycle. The thin line
between need and greed fades away . Ego brings fear and doubt.
Fear asks, What if i die of hunger?And doubt asks, Will there be enough for me? Deep within, ego is
possessed by a sense of lack that induces it to overindulge, reaffirming its false sense of security and
plentitude. But in nature, there is not enough for greed but enough for satisfying need.
Desire-induced karmas are by choice. We consciously karmas by choice. We consciously create these karmas
which are the root cause of our sufferings. Enticed by the material world and in its desperate pursuit, we lose
our sense of discrimination that enables distinction between need and greed.
While relentlessly pursuing desires we not only create immanent and apparent suffering for others by upsetting
the fragile natural balance between humans, creatures and environment but deep within, we subtly create
suffering for ourselves, too. When ego-driven desires flourish we need strong social structures and laws for
protecting and ensuring social and environmental balance. But unsatiated desire-packed ego finds ways and
means to manipulate and break them all. This is what is happening in our so-called modern world.

We should not forget that there is no escape from natural karma but we can certainly free ourselves from ego
and desire-ridden karmas by clearly identifying where our needs end and greed begins.It's we who have to
responsibly draw the line and consciously choose between the two, individually and collectively.
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the speaking tree - The Spiritual Highway Of The Buddha

M N Kundu

Driven by an incredible metaphysical quest, Prince Siddhartha be came an ascetic, adopting an austere
lifestyle, trying every possible way in order to attain Self-realisation. With sustained effort and willpower,
enlightenment did come to him one day with perfect luminosity. Being the Buddha, the enlightened one, he
shared the philosophy of his path with those suffering around him, as a means of overcoming
suffering.Gautama Buddha's Middle Path relates more to the middle segment of creation in its present moment
than to the so-called theoretical discourse on Creator, genesis and end of creation. He is more suggestive than
explicit on the questions that relate to the metaphysical ultimate.
The present life is full of suffering caused by ageing, disease and death, which we know are part of life but yet,
we do not strive to rise above them. Even understanding that suffering caused by these calls for a solution is a
noble truth. The root cause of suffering lies in craving or attachment with transitory reality. The remedy lies in
extinction of the flame of desire for which we need to follow an eightfold path. These constitute the four noble
truths for contemplation and action in an adequate manner.
The Buddha's eightfold path starts with right discernment of the reality behind the superficial apparent. This
leads to right intention that is translated into action through right speech and right livelihood.The mystery of
life is untied with right effort which consists of right mindfulness or observation of the wheel of karma and
universal flux of phenomena.Finally, right contemplation on ultimate emptiness emancipates from the bondage
of the cycle of unending misery-go-round. Behind this deceptively simple teaching lies a profound philosophy
about the characteristic of `being'. The Buddha found that `being', like all created things, is impermanent, made
up of suffering arising out of craving. Our craving causes us to imagine impermanent objects as permanent
whereas there is no such thing as permanent self. As fire appears to have continued existence although it
changes from moment to moment, so does the self.Everything has a cause and everything becomes a cause.
The illusion of continuity is caused by endless chain of cause and effect. The aim is to get out of this cosmic
misery-go-round.
The Buddhist concept of nirvana is literally extinction of the flame of desire and thereby dissolution of the
impermanent self. But what comes next? He never used any positive means of describing this ultimate, and
emptiness is also a dependent concept meaning absence of divisive selves which owe their e to craving.
existence to craving.
The Buddha categorically refused to pinpoint what exactly nirvana entailed or what happens to an enlightened
soul after death. As it is impossible to conceive the concept of emptiness, the Buddha never attempted to
explain it and left it open to interpretation. It has been explained that nirvana is extinguishing all objects and
thoughts into one singular undivided consciousness underlying everything. That consciousness is
undifferentiated, unqualified and one without a second. It is closer to the vedantic concept of Brahmn.
The greatest contribution of the Buddha lies in giving us a probing path without any fixed belief system
associated with religions. Spirituality concerns direct experience of realisation over and above any belief

system. Hence the Buddha steered a middle course between absolute denial and positive affirmation. He
wanted us to develop absolute awareness of the entire cosmos and empathetic compassion for all sentient
beings. The rest being silence, is required to be experienced in silence.(Today is Buddha Purnima.)