Speak Inside Out

I landed in India at 3am after a five and a half hour flight to Dubai, a three hour hold, and a further 3 hour flight to Ahmedabad. The airport experience was surprisingly efficient; I guess times have changed. India is slowly but surely ridding herself of the stigma attached to her airports. Of course, the blank, expressionless look and the dismissive throw to return your passport at immigration is something that hasn't changed. The drive from the airport was refreshingly peaceful, not a rickshaw or lorry in sight. As we approached our destination the driver decided to take the wrong side of the dual carriageway for 30 seconds to save himself having to drive an extra 10 seconds on the "legal" side of the road... Only in India! I got to bed by 6am and had a much needed 6 hour rest, but I was feeling a little dazed and my subtle body was probably still somewhere over the Arab Emirates. That afternoon, a car and driver had been arranged to drive me to my...

Our aspirations in life are generally governed by the perspective we have at any particular point in time. When we are happy we behave in a certain way and when we are sad we have default remedies which provide a temporary fix to those flickering negative emotions. We can wake up on all seven days of the week feeling different; and for many of us, our perspective in life is usually a puppet, with the hand of our ever-changing desires and emotions playing puppeteer. Introspection can give us a little insight; is our perspective on life properly situated to enable us to transcend the temporary and flickering nature of our desires and emotions; or maybe even transform them? And how can we curb this constant change of perspective? One of the initial struggles we go through in spiritual life is the constant battle between satisfying our senses on a daily basis; and the desire to be spiritually grounded. We desperately want them to coexist, but it’s a fruitless aspiration, we ...

Is there ever an excuse for bad behaviour? Should good behaviour be relative according to the people we have interactions with? In spiritual circles we often speak about care, love; appreciation and respect; and we have heard the saying many times - "We are so humble and respectful in the beginning of our spiritual journey", but as we 'advance' and the years pass by, these values can become a secondary consideration; whereas so called renunciation and detachment seem to take the drivers' seat. An unhealthy understanding like this develops if we allow ourselves to be drawn into the bubble of superficiality caused by a subtle conviction that we are the centre of the universe; and yes this belief can also exist in our spiritual life, where ironically, we are striving to rid ourselves of this mentality. Ok... So we may theoretically understand that we aren't the centre of the universe, but how often does this understanding reflect in our actions? ...