My daughter has a goldfish in a small round glass vessel. She has named it Mooney. We noticed a very interesting thing about Mooney. When she sleeps, she remains almost stationary in the water and we come to know that it’s bed-time for her. But whenever we look at her for a little longer even from a good distance, she wakes up and starts moving. How does she come to know that somebody is watching her? Maybe some innate self-defense instinct.
But how true is it with us too!! Our behaviour changes when someone is watching us. We try to be nice and civil when being observed. Only the watcher here is the outside world, people around us. We try to do things according to others, to please them or to seek attention, approval and appreciation from them.
The entire spiritual quest is to create the watcher inside us. When we find one inside, our dependence or the sense of approval and appreciation from the outside world diminishes. That really frees us. We become the observer and the observed, both.
Now the question is how to do it. Well, the starting point is the body. Body is our vehicle. It’s not us. We are travelling in this body. That’s why keeping it fit is so important. Now, in the beginning, we need to be aware of our body sensations. Touch Meditation, as I call it, is when we focus on touch; feel it fully, it’s all nuances. Start by feeling the water from the shower on the body or touch of the soft bathing soap and lather on the skin or your moving hand. Just feel it, no verbalisation of feeling. Go inside the skin to experience it. FEEL.
Practice it for some days. You will start feeling your body little different from yourself. Notice this DISTANCE. This is the door. Next can be one other sense say, hearing. Focus on that, even while sitting in a Mall. You will be surprised to hear so many voices and sounds which you have not heard before.
Then comes a time when you can feel your emotion (mind) the way you had felt your body. Feeling or emotion has a corresponding effect on the body; the two are so inter-related. With little practice you can feel or see the emotion rising inside you – positive and negative both. This is the stage where you can see yourself separate from your emotion or mind. Now the Observer has made his presence felt. All your thoughts or actions can be observed from a distance. This is what is called ‘Saakshi Bhav’ (Witness Mode) in Bhagwad Geeta. This is the key to Self-management..
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