King Solomon and the Magic-Ring
An emperor once went to the most coveted spiritual guru of his time. The guru was supposed to have some magic mantra. He once told that “If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy.”
Quest for Matra
Emperor went to the guru to get the same mantra. The guru offered him a ring that had a small chit packed within it, which supposedly contained this mantra of life, but it came with a condition. The condition was that the emperor shall not open it until he finds himself in the worst situation of his life. Emperor accepted the condition, wore the ring and left.
The Inevitable War
Many years later there was a war with the neighbouring state and the entire army of the emperor was bogged down. Emperor was on his horse and was being chased by the enemy soldiers. He could ride faster but wasn\’t able to outpace them. At one point the land ended and there was a 100feet deep cliff. On the other side were the approaching enemy soldiers.
The Realization
At this moment emperor remembered the meeting with Guru and thought, what worse time could come. This is the right time to open the mantra and he took out the chit packed in the ring and eagerly opened it. Guess what was written. The chit said, \”This too shall pass\”. And the emperor felt relieved immediately. He surrendered to the enemy and after many years of struggle was able to get free and again built his kingdom from scratch. But as he went from this rags to riches thing, he reminded himself of the quote again, \”This too shall pass\” and did not associate any unnecessary ego with his newfound kingdom.
Impermanence
This is one of the teachings of Buddhism on Impermanence. Nothing is constant in this world. Neither Happiness Nor sorrow. Only the breath, the being, the energy is something that stays. Everything else keeps on changing form. This teaching of impermanence helps us be in an equanimous state in both times of joy and sorrow.
How I used these teachings to stay worry-free
Here I want to share how I have stayed happy working from home with almost zero travel for more than a year. It is pretty effortless these days to get depressed and anxious about these unpredictable times. Lately, I have been using a few zen tips to help myself stay mindful and have helped to focus on the right things.
1. Early to bed and early to rise: Though an ancient adage, this has always helped to stay on track in life. There is plenty of research on circadian rhythm and biological clock, which proves how this basic habit can give a great boost to our overall productivity and well being. I choose 6:00 am as my early time. You can choose what early time suits you (prefer to keep it on or before 7:00 am). Also, ensure that you are having enough sleep. There is a lot of research on sleep cycles, proving our REM sleep cycle is multiple of 1.5 hours. What this means is that we get into a deep sleep state every 1.5 hours. This is that healing time when our beady heals from the cosmic energy. Four or Five of such cycles are appropriate (translating to 6 or 7.5 hours of sleep, respectively). You may use the Sleepytime website for helping you find the appropriate sleep and wake up time.
2. A Meditation routine: While we may not have found time earlier to get into that meditation mode but now we can\’t complain about the time issue. Even if you are working from home, you are already saving plenty of time on travel. Use 30 minutes from that to boost your inner body. There are plenty of resources to start with your meditation practice, though my best ones are:
- Headspace App: There are plenty of awesome meditations out there which help us understand the process of meditation in a pretty lucid manner. They are even running a Covid-19 free program at this point.
- Mindfulness in Plain English: A perfect book to start in these tough time. There is a youtube version audiobook available for the same here.
- The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now: Another awesome audiobook by the father of Mindfulness Ven Thich Nhat Hanh
3. Few minutes of Exercise: A few minutes of spot jogging or a few sit-ups/ push-ups will keep our body energized and alert. Without a sound and alert body, none of the other intellectual endeavours would ever be possible.
4. The Attitude of Gratitude: This time is also beautiful to reflect upon the great wealth of things we have always taken for granted. At this moment, we can truly appreciate how something as simple as having a sound mind and body means. Look around your room. You will find plenty of things to be grateful for. Look through the window. You will find how grateful you are for the chirruping birds, the cool breeze and the lush green gardens. There is so much the world has provided to us. This is the time to express gratitude to these and maybe jot a few lines in your gratitude journal.
5. Breathe – that\’s the best form of meditation: Breath is a tool we all have been using for the whole of our lives. But do you know it is the most effective tool for meditation as well? Let me tell you how. Our meditation aims to get back to the present moment and get rid of all our anxiety and worries. Breath can not be a past or future breath. It has to be in the present. Let us focus on our in-breath and out-breath. Let us consciously bring ourselves to the present and free ourselves from shackles of past and future.
6. This too shall pass- Stay positive: A lot of these tough times are characterized by negativity floating all around in abundance. It is important to be aware of the situation and have empathy for any loss someone else may have had. It is equally important to not go down the negative spiral of anxiety and worry wondering how the future might be. Most of this time, we are actually posing this question to ourselves, will this even end. So to that let us apply King Solomon\’s Mantra, \”This too shall pass\” and continue on this joy-ride called life.
7. Guilt about the past and anxiety about the future is meaningless: Nithya Shanti, in one of his recent talk, talked about this quote to help us stay in the present moment. There is nothing we can change about something we have done in the past. There is for sure a lot of learning and change that is required, which one must learn and implement from the mistake. But guilt does not help in any way to get better at it. Instead by being that change in the present moment, we can fare much better. The same holds for the future. Ajahn Brahm, a Buddhist monk often quotes, Why do we have to always think what If things go wrong, why can\’t we instead think what if everything goes on perfectly, which in most cases does.
The learnings can be summarized in this beautiful quote
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.
Summary
Let us start using these tips and Stay happy and worry-free. Let us not focus on what can go wrong and instead focus on what can go right.