Question:

Didi, silly question, I used to sometimes pluck the flowers from our backyard and put them in an arrangement in water or in a vase, but now when I go to pluck them I feel like I am hurting them and I don’t want to do it, so I haven’t been doing it. I sometimes just take the petals that are falling from the roses that are dying and put them in water. Is it not advisable to pluck the flowers?

Answer:

All human beings irrespective of caste/creed/race/religion are looking for only ONE thing – HAPPINESS. All our actions are geared towards the pursuit of happiness whether it is decorating a flower vase or cooking or achieving the position of a Director in a multi-national or becoming a multi-millionaire or marrying the girl of your dreams.

What prevents us from being HAPPY even when we achieve these things?
A stressed mind. Irrespective of whether one attains position, power, fame, wealth, health, relationships or not, if the mind is stressed, one CANNOT be HAPPY.

So what really is stress?                                                                                                           

Stress means there is something lacking and one is trying to fill it up. One tries to fill it up with people, situations, and things. In reality, a stressed person actually wants peace.

How do you really define peace?
When the mind is relaxed and quiet, it is called peace. So this clearly means that stress is created by a noisy mind.

What causes the noise in the mind?
A whirlpool of thoughts and corresponding emotions is the cause of the noise in the mind.

What creates a thought and its corresponding emotion?
Volition/Intention

How?
If the volition/intention is wholesome/pure/beneficial to all:

• • It creates a wholesome/right/positive thought.
  • That thought, in turn, generates a wholesome/pure/compassionate/loving emotion.
  • This emotion expresses itself through a warm and pleasant sensation in your own body.

If the volition/intention is unwholesome/impure/non-beneficial to all:

• • It creates an unwholesome/wrong/negative thought.
  • That thought, in turn, generates an unwholesome/impure/non-compassionate/hateful emotion.
  • This emotion expresses itself through an unpleasant sensation in your own body. This is felt like a pinch of guilt or pang of remorse or a punch in the gut.

If you pay attention, you will notice that noise is created not just by unwholesome volition, but even wholesome volition is noise. That’s why Buddha said, “It is volition that creates Karma”.

If both positive and negative thoughts are noise, then where is the peace that we are all seeking?
Peace lies in the GAP in-between two thoughts. Meditation is an effort to get established in the void between the 2 noises.

How to get to the VOID when there is noise? 

Recognize volition and nip it in its bud. All you will be left with is the VOID, the PEACE, the SILENCE that you are thirsting for. That’s why it is called Param – Anand [Supreme Bliss].

Then in that Peace, if you put the petals in the water or not, how does it matter? 🙂 Everything is bliss anyways!

Buddha always said that one must not blindly believe anyone. So don’t believe what I say or what the Buddha says. Instead, experiment on yourself and if you feel this is the Truth, then only follow it.