Discover Peace Within

Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
Jun 01, 2012

Every year, I visit an organisation known as ‘Home’, which takes care of the spastic children in Gangtok. The person managing the Home is a Lama who is a professional meditation practitioner. During one of my visits, he explained to me how the posture and the process of meditation are vital for expanding one’s capacity – and for attaining self power. To meditate, the person is to sit still upon his or her cushion in the lotus position – left foot on right thigh and right foot on left thigh, watching the mind. Whatever arises in the mind is noted, and allowed to pass. The person does not budge from the spot. It is simply a matter of ‘doing nothing’. We are so conditioned to react to stimuli, that ‘doing nothing’ is the biggest challenge – and requires the highest degree of self-restraint. The mind finds all manner of compelling reasons for the person to abandon his/her seat. Many fantasies and emotions pass through the mind. Some are violent, some lustful, some tempting, and some terrifying. We start being assailed by all the mental perversions. These impulses start afflicting us, and need our inclination to struggle with them. We become enmeshed in a sequence of thoughts that carry us away into a kind of dull opaqueness. That is the moment to start censoring ourselves.

All human beings are conditioned in a thousand ways by their experience. We do not live naturally. We live according to our ‘programming’. The effort needed is to apply ourselves to seeing what is going on in us, as it happens. We too readily are overcome by circumstances, and so are unable to remain calm in the midst of the whirlwind of life. 

So the basic training of the person sitting on meditation is to sit still – no matter what wind blows by. It is then that the person notices what comes out of the storehouse of the mind, as it emerges into consciousness. This is the awareness of feelings, the practice of meditation. 

The practice of meditation has given the Lama the ability to operate effectively under moments of great crisis. The Lama had been running this Home for twenty five years. A number of local people were giving financial support for running the Home. Suddenly, one cold night, Sikkim was shaken and devastated by an earthquake. There was no casualty of any of the children staying in the Home. Various agencies got busy with restructuring of the township, and the rehabilitation of the citizens. Probably, taking care of the children living in the Lama’s Home was not their priority. The financial support to the Home also dwindled – and then stopped. This information reached the friends of the Lama. Donors from our town reached Gangtok and provided the needed support. The Lama’s cherished Home was saved. 

We cannot forget the Lama, his love for the disabled children, and the ‘pure awareness’ that helps him cope. I am fortunate to have been associated with the Lama for the last two decades. He has not only taught me love for humanity, but also that peace is to be discovered within ourselves, through inner stillness. υ

Dr. Rajesh Bhola is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities for more than 20 years.