SHIRO THE ZEN MASTER

Our two-year-old Labrador Shiro is my Zen master. She is my Zen Guru since we are learning lots of spiritual lessons from this little angel. Shiro is one of the key reasons today I am able to see the world with cataracts cleared. Today I am going to tell you about only the present Shiro’s Zen qualities. Because as a child she was an unadulterated nightmare J.

The most wonderful attribute about Shiro is she is too friendly to all the living things she finds on this earth. Her love is universal. She greets everyone with warmth and affection. She welcomes us happily as if she is welcoming her long lost friends, though the separation is just for a few minutes. Either we come home with empty hands or hands full of treats; her fervor for us is the same. She has special motherly affection for puppies and human kids. She is the best friend with whom we can sit all day long and not have to swap a single word. She never misreads our silence. Regardless of where she is, the moment she sniffs a conversation, she enters, takes her well-situated position and heads the board.

Shiro is my healer. She is my motivator. She compassionately swallowed the tears from my dispirited days and never talked or laughed at my back later. She never judges me or pinpoints my low days. She is my inspiration to let go and move forward. She teaches us not to hold grudges on anyone. For Shiro, we are her only family though she makes out our unfairness towards her at times. She has no ego. She accepts what cannot be changed. Shiro is a peacemaker who never entertains quarrels and arguments.

Shiro lives in NOW. She has no worry about the past or future. She seems so contented when she is playing with herself. Shiro is a super ‘napper’. She takes too many briefs out of her day to relax. She sits with her forelegs stretched ahead - sometimes crossed, her head and chest held straight and elevated; her neck rises a bit as she focuses on something; her honey dipped eyes both intense and composed; her face so serene and calm. I am still trying many meditation techniques to attain a state that Shiro resides in all the time. If I sit for meditation and start chanting OM, she licks my face as if she is blessing me for all the bliss. Though we take sunlight for granted Shiro always looks for a patch of sunlight, she gets there, closes her eyes and shows her gratitude to the SUN by taking a sunbath.

Shiro knows no crafty games; her motives are fair and simple. A gentle rub on her belly is her only luxury. She is the very minimalist and is happy to the fullest. During her routine hours, she patiently sits and waits for the magical sound ‘leash’. Once her leash is grabbed she is happily ready for a ‘get set walk’. And she leads her walker like a personal physical trainer. Just being with the family makes Shiro’s life meaningful.

I started calling her Zen master just for a laugh but then I realized she is a Zen master on her own.

SHIRO IS THE SILENT WITNESS TO ALL OUR DEEDS

Happy Birthday Shiro baby!! Thank You. Love!!

Shaila.

Speaking Silence

Silence is the humble language and the sweetest lullaby.

I choose to live in the language and sleep to the lullaby.

My Silence speaks to me when I unhook from the noise, I unrobe my inner self.

All thoughts with tails, horns, fangs and claws in all the vainglory emerge and lose the vigor in my Deep Silence.

Silence shuts my ego down and taps my nothingness.

My interior silence corners me with my True Self.

Silence is my resort from hollow worldly hassles.

Silence sets me with my Soul.

Silence brings in my natural wisdom.

Silence gives me effortless lucid knowledge.

Silence is the energy that makes me strong, it is the power that makes me bold.

My deep inner Silence shows me all the truths of life.

Silence saturates my heart with unconditional love and peace.

Silence is my powerful weapon during rows and rumors.

Space is Silence. Silence is Spacious.

Silence is Nature. SILENCE IS MY REAL NAME.

When I say I prefer Silence, it doesn’t mean to get the wrong end of the stick. I am not tongue tied when I ought to speak.

Thank You. Love!!

Shaila.

MINIMALISM

MINIMALISM. This is not a fad word. This is a synonym for a simplistic lifestyle. This means to have fewer belongings.  

MINIMALISM is undoing the urge of inadequacy - to want more, own more and to become more.  Having less gives us more time, money and energy to explore.

Simple tips for a simple lifestyle:

Stay satisfied.

Re-use and repair.

Own less or they own you.

Buy things to use, not to store.

Buy quality things, avoid reinvesting.

Jump from comfort zones to free zones.

Spend less. Do less. Need less. Talk less. Eat less.

Declutter digital life. Cut off complaints.

Cut back and create more space for new things.

End impulsive, provocative and competitive shopping.

Invest less in goods and more in essential things in life.

Distance yourself from stuff. Get used to the separation. Finally, let go.

Let’s create a pleasurable room in each area of our lives. Life is more valuable rather waste it in organizing valueless clutter. We are bound to this world by a brittle breath. Too many material chattels suffocate us and separate us from the soul.

Minimalism is one of the factors that allow achieving a peaceful and free life. More stuff, more attachments. Let’s reduce the needs and recede. We are not buying anything on this earth, we are borrowing everything. Let’s leave debt free.

MINIMALISM is not just about purging things out. It’s about realizing the purpose of life. It’s about simply knowing how SIMPLE we are.


Thank You. Love!!
Shaila

UNCHAIN THE ELEPHANT

You might have seen a captivated giant elephant submissively standing, held back by a feeble chain. You might also have thought how such a potent, massive animal kept in check by a skimpy chain around its ankle? You know why, it’s tuned that way. When an elephant is a calf, it is tied firmly to a big peg with a sturdy chain to prevent it from roaming around. It edgily forces itself to break free and sooner or later it gives up all its efforts and fixes its mind to stay put. This conviction of vulnerability lasts throughout it’s entire life. Even after the baby turns into an oversized adult elephant, it stays right where it is. This is what we call the ‘Baby Elephant Syndrome’.

Same way most of us are living on invisible strings. Our self-defeating preserved beliefs and someone else’s limited opinions are not letting us free from the ‘Vulnerability Syndrome’. We are absurdly allowing the flimsy strings of cluttering fears and beliefs to bind us. We are very much convinced that we are incapable. And the invisible strings which are limiting us are not around our ankles, but are in our minds. We can break those factually feeble and functionally powerful strings and embrace freedom. For this we don’t have to forge multi-layered hammers, a simple revelation and shift in focus make us liberated.

Nothing is really real. Life here is a never-ending hologram. The reality of someone is not our reality. We can see what we want to see. Our coffee could be bitter one day. Our house can be untidy for someday. I need not be so perfect like my sibling. You are not a singer, but still you can sing. The dresses you choose need not match my mark. I am not a good cook, so what? It’s ok if somebody’s life is not ideal. Don’t tell yourself not to take a break till you complete your work. Get up take a stroll. No problem if he fails attempting something. His failure is part of his learning honey. We need not suffer from someone else’s ego politics and opinions. Or all these invisible flimsy strings get tangled and toughened to pull us more inside our slavery periphery.

Staying in psychological prison is not at all fun. Some memories keep us with the flow of life; some hold us stagnated to stale. We can use our memories and thoughts intelligently without being trapped. Like the elephant, if only we are not convinced that ‘we cannot’, it’s hardly a task for us to break the invisible strings of false norms and go free from the prison that we have created in our minds. Let the experiences of failures not limit us.

We don’t create our freedom, it’s there in us. Let’s look in and unearth our freedom and move beyond the slavery periphery. Let’s not accept the bogus boundaries. Let’s not count upon the past and future. Let’s pull the power of NOW and tread past the mental suffering. Let’s cross our boundaries with all our gifted natural power, like how we emerged from our mothers’ wombs. Let’s build some intellectual scissors to cut off our psychological chords!! Let’s align us with NATURE!!!

Thank You. Love!!

Shaila