Category: Perspective (Page 17 of 20)

Farming Mindfully

April 19, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

The morning drizzle had just stopped. A flurry of flirting clouds danced over the skyline obeying the wind’s choreography.
Determined to get back on the road again, I loaded up my bicycle and headed up north.

As much as I liked the fragrance of wet earth after a rain, today, I was wishing to ride away from it as fast as I could.
I was heading to volunteer at a farm 60 kms North of Chiang Mai city.
I had heard great things about the farm from fellow travellers. The focus area of the farm is to integrate Farming and mindful meditation. Quite aptly, it was named, ‘Mindful Farmers Community.’

Fascinated by the farm’s core values, I headed straight in its direction without thinking twice.

I would have been better off if I had thought about the terrain though. Even though it was only 60kms away, it was also at a constant 8 percent slope for half of the way. Traversing through a huge national park throughout, I could hear waterfalls all around me. After a point, I couldn’t bicycle anymore, the slope was such. For the next two hours, I was pushing my Bicycle uphill. Halfway up,
I could hear a thunderstorm brewing at a distance. I took shelter at a bus stop and waited for thick black clouds to condense.
The storm lasted for half an hour. Determined still, I kept pushing the bike uphill. I must have been possessed by something, else there was no way I could go on. What seemed like a simple 3 hour ride turned out to be an agonising 9 hour marathon. It was easily the most challenging thing I’ve done in my life.

But finally, I reached the destination at 6 pm. As I made my way into the community late in the evening, I was met with a friendly group of people. I was quickly escorted to my place in the dormitory, shown to the showers and then invited for meditation.
Following that I had a homely meal with all community members.
The place has a kind and accepting aura.
It is special indeed.

Sitting satiated after the sumptuous meal, as I reflect back on the day I wonder,

Notwithstanding where you are,
If you do what matters to you with all your heart,
People will even scale mountains,
Just to experience the deeply divine vibrations you set out into the world.

The wise monk who runs this farm,
Through his mindful work,
Led me all the way up this mighty hill.

And gave me a lesson,
Without speaking a word.

The Buddha’s Sermon

April 18, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Yesterday I went for a little hike up a hill in Chiang Mai. There is a nicely paved road leading all the way uphill to the sacred Temple ‘Wat Phra That Doi Suthep’
It’s a steep road with many bends and corners.

I chose to hike up about half the way to a temple called ‘Wat Pha Lad’ on the trail. It used to be the temple where monks would stop to rest in olden times as they hiked to the main temple uphill.
Slowly and steadily, walking afoot, I made my way to the temple.
On the road, just before the temple, there was a little shrine with a statue of the Buddha inside it.
I wondered why there was this little shrine on the road just before a major temple that stood a bit further from the road, inside the forest.
I looked into the eyes of the Buddha’s statue and prayed for the strength to find my own truth.

After visiting the breathtaking temple nestled in the forest, I started walking downhill, back home. I passed by the little shrine again. After being mesmerised by the ethereal beauty of the temple in the jungle, I wondered again, why this little shrine stands here after all!
And I continued on.

Today, I decided to cycle all the way uphill to ‘Wat Phra That Doi Suthep’. Within one kilometer of cycling I understood what I had gotten myself into.
The steep incline was going to last for 11 kilometers until I reached the temple. The weather was getting stormy by the second. I gasped deeper and deeper for breaths as my heart rate jumped to twice the normal. Drenched in sweat, I pedalled on in the lowest gear, heaving and panting constantly.
About half way up, thick black clouds started to condnese into raindrops. Huge blobs of water started hitting me like torpedoes.
I got a bit worried since I was going uphill and there was a forest all round me.
I could turn back and race downhill to save myself from getting drenched. But I wanted to go all the way up.
I was determined.
I saw a signboard at a distance as I approached it at an easy pace. In moments I could read what it said,
‘Wat Pha Lad 500 meters ahead’

I heaved a sigh, this time of relief.
I pedalled on quickly to reach the little shrine just ahead of the temple I’d been to yesterday.
I parked my bike and took all my stuff inside the shrine to find shelter.
The downpour lasted for half an hour.
In the meantime, I just sat in front of the Buddha’s statue. I saw what I failed to see yesterday. There was a roof on Buddha’s little shrine!
And it saved me from getting caught in heavy rain.

I tried to remember if there were any roofs in the magnificent forest temple I was so mesmerised by yesterday.
I couldn’t remember any.

Grateful for the roof, I understood why there are small shrines leading to all big temples.
I looked intointo Buddha’s eyes on the statue,
And he told me,
‘I am here only to remind you to pray.
Not to me.
But just to pray.’

‘When you face adversity as you undertake a big challenge,
Your prayers will manifest into the shelter you need to keep you going.’

After two hours of cycling uphill, I finally reached the main temple ‘Wat Phra That Doi Suthep’
On my way back downhill,
speeding past the little shrine,
I smiled,
And prayed.

And in my mind,
Full of belief,
I am ready for the next challenge,
The next ride,
Uphill.

The subtle art of making friends

April 17, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Late at night, I was working on my laptop in my hostel. There were other people around me busy with their own devices as well. The dark room was lit up by the faces of people staring on the screens of their phones. No one breathed a word.

Until a gregarious Irishman walked in through the door. He went on greeting everyone.

‘Hey, howya doin? ‘ Pretty good? Jolly good I bet eh? ‘

He took great care of each person in the room . He greeted everyone and asked them about their day.
He had such an affable energy that everyone felt connected to him instantly.
One conversation led to another and through eavesdropping, everyone got to know each other.
One of us was a competitive bicyclist, one a peripatetic traveler, one a Yachtsman and so on.
He got himself a beer from the little fridge and sat down across me. We had a good exchange of words. Soon he called up the peripatetic traveller to join him for a beer.
The three of us got talking and over the course of the next couple of hours we shared a lot of things close to our hearts.

As the night came to a close he shared his story.
‘A Yachtsman from Ireland, at age 74 he dreams of sailing across the Atlantic to go to the Caribbean. Then he wishes to cross the Panama canal and sail the Pacific like a roaring trade wind.’
His curiosity and childlike fascination about other people’s stories was inspiring to experience.
At a ripe old age, he personified the vitality and spirit of an young, adventurous sailor.

I was enlivened by his sharing.
As we got up to go to bed,
I thanked him for bringing us all together on one table and enabling the exchange of ideas. We were sitting like perfect strangers until he arrived. And now we all felt close to each other, as if we’d been friends for a long time.

‘Thank you Mr. Eugene!’ I said as I hugged him.

“Don’t thank me young man,’
He raised his glass and said,
‘I just chose to say Hello’

Whenever you can,
‘You should too.’

Wonder-struck, sleepless on my bed,
I cherished the most simple advice I’ve gotten to cultivate brotherhood.

‘Just say hello!’

So my dear friend, I ask you,
How are you doing :)?

What’s your Age?

April 16, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Seated cosily on a couch, my new friend and I were sharing our thoughts on life eagerly. Even though I had spoken to her many times over the phone, this was our first meeting in person. We were sharing our life stories, listening and interacting with deep intent.
At a certain point she asked,

‘Can I ask you a personal question?’

‘Yes , surely!’

‘How old are you?’
She asked almost as if she felt that the question might have made me uncomfortable.
I quite readily disclosed my age and so did she.
And we carried on our conversation about splendid things under the sun.
But this moment of inquisitiveness got me wondering about the concept of age.

Why does a purely chronological fact make one feel uncomfortable?

I feel that when one is confronted with this question, deep inside, it feels like a moment of reckoning.
He starts to evaluate the worth of his own self and his time on Earth. It gets him wondering if he is the best he could have been at his present age.
We all have a certain idea about our age. There is a societal checklist so to say, of things you must accomplish before a certain age. Then, there are personal ambitions and goals one visualizes in his ideal self that he must fulfill by a certain time in his life.
But these societal and individual checklists are the best case scenarios, the abstract version of an ideal reality.
If one is judging his worth against these parameters, he’s surely trying to hide his age, because the ideal scenario never exists in real life.

In my opinion, we should rethink the concept of age altogether. We have a certain, non negotiable biological age. There’s no denying that.
But I feel we represent a different age at different moments in life.
We are youthful and alive in the company of friends, carefree and childlike when around kids, a curious student in front of our old teachers, avuncular mentors for young students, and always a child for our parents.
We are 4 years old at one moment, 24 at another. It depends on the context and the company ,doesn’t it?

One can only truly feel comfortable in his age when he is aware and accepting of how our age morphs from time to time .
For me my biological age doesn’t matter so much.
As long as I am old enough to be responsible of my actions and youthful enough to be childlike as situations arise,
I have made peace with the number of trips I’ve made around the sun.
I turn 28 soon.
But that, as they say, is just a number !

Choosing to Smile

April 14, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

After a 14 day ride up north from Bangkok, I finally reached Chiang Mai yesterday.
The great thing about travelling on a bicycle is that you get to transition from one place to another. The shift in place is not sudden like a train, bus or an aeroplane journey where you travel from point to point.
And with the slowly changing landscape, food, flora and fauna, I also noticed another discerning change.
This change was about people.

I bicycled mostly through rural Thailand. Even though people did not speak English at all, they offered helped in the best manner possible. They would smile more often. Without any reason I would find myself smiling at them as I passed by their field of view at a leisurely pace. And over the past two weeks, I learnt to smile at strangers.

As I reached Chiang Mai yesterday afternoon, I stopped at a public park to rest.
Being the second biggest city in Thailand, it has a sizable population. Tourists thronged the city to celebrate the Thai new year ‘Songkran’ in huge numbers.
Sinking in the feeling of having safely reached the city, I smiled, just like I did at the village folk in rural Thailand.
I looked into the eyes of people passing by and smiled genuinely, like a child.
I was happy and I wanted to share the energy.
But I was met with reserved smiles, guarded hearts looking at me curiously.
For a moment I wondered,
‘Why aren’t people smiling?’

Equally perplexing was the way people were reveling in the streets with uninhibited laughter and festivity of Songkran celebration. People were splashing water at pedestrians and passer-by and laughing their hearts out.
But the kind, natural, sincere smile was missing everywhere I saw.

In a few hours, I had to accept the reality of how a city gets used to individuality, at the expense of a collective community.

My smiles became much guarded in a day, just to not make other people uncomfortable.
In my eyes however, there still was unbound happiness and wonder.

As I walked past a big building in the city today, the security guard and I exchanged a glance. And we both smiled at each other in perfect consonance. What a welcome change it was !

Deep down I know, he still has a little part of the village in his heart,
As do I.

While we cannot change a city’s culture,
We can surely influence the culture through our interactions, our immediate surroundings,
In the little world we dwell in.

As I write, I am looking at a flower and wondering,
‘The flower is only looking to transform itself from a bud to a bloom, not worried about where it is in the world.
It only expresses its energy and graces the little world it dwells in.

We as creators of culture are confronted with a choice.
And in the interest of more smiles,
We should always yearn,
To Bloom.

On sculpting your identity

April 13, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

You.
Yes you, my friend.
Grant yourself a few moments of perfect stillness.
Take a deep breath.
And Imagine.

Imagine who you currently embody. Your mind, body, thoughts and soul.
This is what you represent.
You’re a being in incessant flux, becoming and evolving.

Accept it.
This is YOU in the present moment.

Now imagine the version you wish to embody.
What do you represent?
How do you ennoble the people around?
Do you shine in your own glory, and invite people to do the same?
Visualize and believe in it.

Now,
Think of your present self as a chunk of marble.
And your better self as the finished work of art, the timeless sculpture you wish to create.

Now, let me share a story about the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo.
When Michelangelo was asked about his creative process of sculpting, he simply quipped,
‘You have to see the sculpture in the block of stone and chisel out the bits that aren’t the sculpture.’

Drawing a parallel,
each adversity,
each challenge,
each responsibility you willingly take represents the chisel your stone like self has to go through to inch closer to your better self.

Then, the question remains,

Can you visualise the better version of your self?
If so, are you ready to weather adversity, face challenges, embrace responsibilities that shall sculpt you each living moment?

It is a slow process.
It takes time.
It takes mindfulness.

But it also takes you closer to your better self.

So I ask you, my friend,

Are you ready,
To begin the journey,
Of Chiseling
Your own self?

Uphill

April 12, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

After spending a comfortable night at a Buddhist temple-school, I prepared myself to leave early in the morning. My little monk friends were just arriving from their alms gathering run around the village. They all had one thing to share with me from their alms-pot. Someone offered Soy milk, another a pack of noodles, a Thai snack…
I looked at them all and asked,
‘Can we eat together?’
‘Chai Chai'(Yes-Yes) they said and we enjoyed a nice breakfast together.
I told them I am going to Chiang Mai next, 150 kilometers further uphill. Following an incredulous gasp, they all started giggling. They must have thought I am crazy.
As I parted, they all lovingly sent me off.

I reached a town called Lampang in the afternoon. I had two flat tires on the way and I had to fix them on the Asian Super highway under the afternoon sun. I was quite exhausted when I reached a little Mom and Pop store in a quiet corner. I stopped and asked for something vegetarian.
Flustered by the unusual request,
The old store lady brought me a cup of instant noodles.
I sat and ate like I’d not seen food in a few days. She also brought bananas, water and grape juice.
I shared that I am cycling up north to Chiang Mai.
I gestured that my ride since morning has been uphill. She nodded as she turned the table fan towards me.
She exuded such motherly care that I didn’t want to get up and leave the shop.
She refuse to charge me for food. I got away with atleast paying for the instant noodles, ‘Mama’ as they call it in Thailand.

I bicycled on for another couple of hours, all the way, Uphill. It was difficult. At some points I would just laugh out loud wondering how difficult it was !
As the evening set in, I started wondering about finding a shelter. I searched for temples nearby but there were none around the Asian Super highway.
Eventually I stopped at a highway police station to catch a breath.
I sat on a bench and wondered, I am not going to be able to cycle another 30 kms uphill today. I must put an end to cycling for the day.
I looked around to find a highway police man come towards me with his phone.
He used a Thai-English translation app to communicate with me.
His translation read.

‘Do you have a tent me dear friend?’
I nodded animatedly.

‘You can set it up right here and sleep tight for the night.’
I couldn’t believe how eager he was to help.
Later on he came to me and led me to a room with a bed in the police station.
The translation on his phone read,
‘You can sleep on the bed. No need to set up your tent.’
I hadn’t felt so grateful in a long time.
I wrote in his phone,
‘You have a kind soul.’
He smiled like a child.

Right now, I am sitting in the comfortable bed that my Policeman-friend generously offered me.
And I wonder,
‘Why are all these amazing people helping me so much?’
‘Is it because I am on a bicycle?
Or because I am Indian?
Or do I look in need of help?’

Then I realised,
More than anything else,
I am being helped,
for the spirit of choosing to ride,
Up the hill.

How many friends do I have?

April 11, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

‘So, do you know anyone in Thailand ?’ asked one of my friends over dinner.

‘Hmmm, do I need to know someone in Thailand?’

‘Yes! It is a country you have never been to. It helps to have a connection that will be of help just in case.’

‘Well, I don’t know anyone.’ I smiled apprehensively.

Yes, I did not know a single person in Thailand before coming here.

But every single day since I’ve been here, I meet a new friend.
Now that I think of it, I would tell my friend,
Yes, I have many friends in Thailand.
I don’t know them all yet!

They keep coming and sharing their love,
One day at a time.

Today I met many little monks at a Buddhist monastery. I don’t know names of all of them. But we smile when we pass by. They kindly shared their living space with me for the night and brought me dinner. The warm energy of comradeship surrounds the whole space.

After this brief jaunt of a few weeks around Thailand, my perception of a friend has changed.

Earlier if I were asked to count my friends, I’d make an effort.

But now, if a little kid asks,
‘How many friends do you have?’

I would only be able to say,
‘I cannot count them out. Because I am yet to meet all of them!’

To a new day,
With the promise of meeting another friend !

Harnessing Help

April 10, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Back in school we had a story in our textbook that I still remember vividly.
There was a huge trunk of a fallen tree blocking half of the path leading into a nearby town. Most people chose to do nothing about it. They just passed by from the other half of the road that was still accessible.
However, a little boy saw this scene and was determined to change the situation. He kept his school bag aside and started to push the mighty trunk out of the way.
The onlookers were amazed by the boy’s spirit. One by one the onlookers joined him, as did the people passing by. Before too long, the trunk started to roll. Everyone put in all of the energy that they could and soon enough, the trunk rolled out of the way. The road was clear for everyone to use safely.

Where did the energy to move such a mighty trunk come from?
It came from a little boy’s mindset.

There are seemingly insurmountable problems all around us. And we have learnt to navigate our way around these problems to live a life of compromise.
We tend to feel that people are too busy with their own lives to help fix a situation that needs collective effort.
But the parable of the little boy only reaffirms us with the faith that if you are willing to take responsibility of a mighty problem that plagues all, helpful hands will manifest around you.

So, it is never a problem of there being enough help available. There always is help around, albeit in latent form.
That help can always be galvanised.
The only question is,
‘Am I willing to take the first step?’
‘Do I have the heart to take a humongous responsibility?’

If so, the trunk will roll off the road.
It is only a matter of time.

When only your mother reads your blog

April 9, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

After four years of indecision and procrastination, I finally started posting my work online a month ago. While I am extremely happy that I’ve been publishing a blog post a day since March 1, 2018, I wonder if I am sharing the best of my work or not. At the moment I do not have as much feedback as I would like.
But I have one constant source of feedback.
My mother.
She reads my posts everyday and shares what she thinks of it. It is an adorable gesture, but it makes me think as if she’s one of the few that comprise of my readers. At one point I thought to myself,
‘Well I just have one member in the audience it seems!.’

Then I wondered,
‘She was the only audience when I learnt to stand on my own feet when I was 12 months old. Also, when I spoke my first words, when I started to hold a pencil, when I could wear a shirt by myself.
All the crucial ‘firsts’ were done with my mother as the only onlooker.
In fact, this rings true for each one of us, doesn’t it?
So now when I think of her as the only loyal reader I have, I feel as if I am up to something good,
something memorable.
Akin to standing on my own feet.
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