Triveni Journal
1927 | 11,233,916 words
Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....
RISK IS COMMITMENT TO LIVING DEATH
FROM A TALK BY ANDREW COHEN
THE WAY to find discrimination is by taking big risks.
Find a way to always be leaning forward, slightly off balance. That means living your life literally out of control. You need to find a way to be completely out of control and at the same time be the most comfortable in that condition of being out of control. Most people are not interested in that kind of intensity for more than an evening or a weekend. That鈥檚 why people take workshops and go to re颅treats, and then return to the mundane. Most prefer to come out of that intensity very quickly but often want to return to it again like a spiri颅tual refresher course.
If you are truly sincere in your desire to be free, be sure that you are living your life with the greatest risk. You have to make sure that genuine vulnerability is being sought, after and found. And once found, you must live your life in such a way that it will never be lost. The way to find the kind of vulnerability I am speaking about is to have your neck stuck out all the time. Live constantly in knowledge, that greater risk could not be taken than is being lived in the present moment. In that risk you will find real peace, true confidence and natural detachment.
Many practice contemplation and discrimination without their prac颅tice being fueled by risk. If contempla颅tion and discrimination are not fueled by enormous risk, then the results are not going to be very extraordinary. The greater the risk, the greater the result. It is risk that creates the kind of space that enables one to see objectively. With no risk, the space that I鈥檓 speak颅ing about will not appear, except in brief moments. With the practice of meditation, may be an experience will occur and some space will be revealed temporarily, but what I鈥檓 speaking, about is something much deeper. I鈥檓 pointing to the possibility of a permanent change, a permanent condition.
How do you cultivate risk? By being sincere. When someone is sin颅cere and deeply humble, then that person will know if indeed they are truly ready to give everything to be free.
Enlightened understanding has to be clearly and directly connected with the conscious recognition of fullness that comes from knowing that one has given everything and is constantly giving everything: all of one鈥檚 breath, all of one鈥檚 blood and all of one鈥檚 passion. Unless that鈥檚 the case, how could there be any peace?
The kind of peace that great masters speak about comes from knowing that there鈥檚 nothing more to give - not just intellectually, but liter颅ally. When you know there鈥檚 nothing more to give, then you have to be at peace.
Risk is commitment to what I call living death. That means you鈥檙e fully ready for whatever it takes to go all the way now, right now, not at any time in the future. The risk I鈥檓 speak颅ing about means路: I鈥檓 ready to take responsibility for the entire burden of all my karma, even if it鈥檚 a billion years worth.
When you are finally willing to bear the full weight of the entirety of your karma on your own shoulders, your relationship to this human birth will be radically transformed.
(Reprinted from Vol. 2, No 1 of Journal 鈥淲HAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT鈥� courtesy - Sridhar Pingali, Amherst U.S.A.)