4 8 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 8 If Faced with a Conflict of Choices Between Two Opposites, Have Both – You Will Become a Bi-Polar Magnet Simply put, as in the Hindi proverb, “have dono haathon me laddoo” – “sweet balls in both hands”. The statement as the title of this writing has a sound philosophical basis and practical applications thereof. The truth of the matter is: there are no conflicting or contradictory forces in the universe. All is complementary. When one would go to swami Rama with a question like: “Maharaji, should I do such and such this way or that other way?” He would look at one and reply in a deep voice coming from the heart, “Yeeesss”. That was often his only answer. One had to contemplate deeply and resolve the apparent contradictions between the two choices and arrive at an answer in which the positive elements of both choices would be included. That is how you have it both ways. Yoga Masters (Masters, not those who are declared to be masters by PR companies) often present the disciples with contradictory choices in daily and practical life and the disciple has to develop the spiritual skill to resolve the apparent contradictions, and reach samādhāna, a resolving, bringing together the apparent conflicting factors and parts, and thereby arrive at a holistic reality. This means: • to find the positive concealed in the negative; • to free the mind of the habit of being in conflict, by learning to resolve the conflicts; • to de-condition the mind of its conditioning, to lift it from habit patterns, to free it from running in set grooves, and thereby; • to develop fresh insights of positive nature into relationships, communication and events as well as philosophical realities and truths; • to liberate the mind and consciousness above what Vedanta calls upādhis, conditioning produced by our involvement inmāyā. This device is only a small part of age old systems of wise sages. The riddles in the Vedas, ulat-baansiyaan of Kabir, all such, are part of the same liberating systems. So also, is the vast repertoire of kōans, in Japanese pronunciation of Chinese gong-an (pin-yin) 公案 as taught in the Chinese Ch’an school, Japanese Zen, Korean Son, Vietnamese Thien, (derived from Pali jhāna, which is derived from Sanskrit dhyāna) schools of meditation, especially in the Soto and Rinzai Zen. A kōan forces one to come out of set grooves, mental habituations and dichotomous conditionings. For example, the well known kōan: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” The master forces the disciple not only to study the answers given by previous masters but to find his/her own answer in all-absorbing meditations. The system is based, among others, on the principle that between two opposites there is a third option lurking, much like the way Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s thesis and antithesis produce a synthesis. If you cannot decide in which of two companies you should invest your funds, take the best qualities of both and invest in a company that has those combined qualities. This is just a simplified answer. There are CEOs among the disciples of the author, who have followed such advice in making their business decisions and have succeeded.
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