Awareness is agnostic to the senses - Meditate with your eyes open

If it is possible to shoot arrows in the dark and hit the target, and if it is possible to play a complex musical instrument like the guitar with your eyes closed, it is also possible to meditate with your eyes open. Eyes open or closed doesn't make any difference because meditation is an exercise of a higher awareness which is agnostic to the senses. Meditation is about awareness. One can close one's eyes while meditating, but can you close your ears also? How about closing your nose also so that you won't get distracted by any smells lingering around? Can you stop your skin from sensing changes in temperature or from itching while you are meditating? Can you stop yourself from passing gas or from yawning while meditating? If not then why close the eyes only? If you can't focus with your eyes open, you can't focus with your eyes closed also. A person who merely shuts his sense organs and pretends to meditate while he is entertaining thoughts pertaining to sense objects is a hypocrite. A yogi can meditate at any time. He can meditate while sipping tea (zen meditation), and even when he is in the pot.

Practise AND Detachment

The mind is restless and turbulent like the wind. It can be controlled by a combination of disciplined effort and detachment. Both detachment and practice of controlling the mind are required. Detachment makes the mind stronger but disciplined practice directs its attention to the present.

Practice controls the mind in the short term and detachment in the long term. Both are required for balance. One cannot be too detached if one is living in the world. So you attach. Then the mind wanders. Then you control it with practice and discipline. If you are unable to control even then, detach. But if you detach too much, you cannot do your work and live in the world effectively. Hence attach again. It is an iterative process. Detachment alone will make you a sanyasi. Detachment with practice and discipline will make you a Karma Yogi.

Standalone intellect that is not actionable is a facet of the ego

Intelligence when restricted to spiritual contemplation also becomes a facet of the ego, as in the case of intelligent as well spiritually oriented persons who use their intelligence mainly on the theoretical level for discussions, debates, theories, arguments and counter arguments. It becomes a form of spiritual elitism. It should instead be actionable intelligence that takes one to realization. The mind should be channelled as a tool to generate actionable intelligence for the fulfillment on one's dharma. When the intelligence is disconnected from dharma and Karma Yoga, it becomes a facet of the ego.

Action - body - Senses - mind - intellect - ego (regular person without awareness)

awareness (that itself has a direct link and control with ego, intellect, mind, senses, body etc) - action (realized)

are the layers (you can represent it better in a circle with action also connecting to the body).

Awareness has a direct link with action, but the ego has to go via the mind, senses and body to the left. In a realized person, there is action with awareness simultaneously, and this creates knowledge, which is stored in a temorary memory (e.g., cache) in such a manner that it can be easily expressed as action.

The realized person does not use the intellect as a standalone module. It is used and controlled only through awareness. The intellect becomes a part of awareness and is operated only through and by awareness.That is how the intellect, mind, and senses remain in control. When a person is aware, he can override the mind, intellect, and senses, and also detach himself from the mind,body and senses. This awareness is existence, truth, consciousness and bliss.

Judging people V/s Judging situations

Judge situations and deal with them effectively. Don't judge people. People are a lot deeper than situations. There is a lot more to people than how you relate to them. Labeling people is the hallmark of the ego. Don't fall prey to the ego. Act in the present according the situation. Don't let your past impressions colour your actions in the present.

There are no 'difficult people' for those who are nonjudgemental. One is better off with an open mind than a judgemental one. Only an open mind sees the other person for what he/she really is and not just one of the 'types' of difficult people.

If one falls victim to the ego game of categorizing others into different categories of 'difficult people', it will have a direct impact on one's personal spiritual growth. This categorizing game is created by the ego to preserve itself and to protect it from attack by others. As the ego becomes better at this categorizing game, it strengthens itself at the cost of the true self. It becomes less compassionate towards others who it treats as outsiders and 'difficult people'. It sees them as 'difficult people' and not fellow human beings who have their strengths and weaknesses. The objective of spirituality is to transcend the ego, not to protect, preserve and strengthen it.


'Difficult people' who challenge our narrow world views help us learn about ourselves and grow spiritually. 'Easy people' or 'Easy going people' who agree with whatever we say and do irrespective of its merit, praise and flatter us, and strengthen our egos create barriers to our spiritual growth.

E.g., to Duryodhana or Dhritarashtra, Vidura would be a 'difficult person', perhaps even a controlling or competitive type of person, and Karna would be an 'easy going person' who always agrees and never argues with him. But Vidura advised Duryodhana to avoid doing things that would lead to his destruction and destruction of the entire Kuru clan and Karna encouraged him on the path to his destruction by supporting all his activities (including insulting draupadi, surrounding and killing Abhimanyu etc) and and gave him the confidence that whatever he was doing was right and he should thus continue along the same path.

Intent V/s Desire

Freedom from desire makes you truly free. It is desire that keeps us looking to the future instead of living in the present. A person who is free from desire can actually experience the present moment and delight in it. He can actually smell the coffee and not just gulp it while reading the newspaper or watching TV.

To start a business is an intent. It is more than a desire. It is more of a conscious choice to fulfil a certain purpose. Desire is more of a temporary feeling. Intent is based on a planned and systematic decision backed by action. Intent is more conscious, and involves awareness. Desire can be at a subconscious or sensory level (e.g., desire to buy a product when you watch an ad for it or desire to watch a movie while viewing its trailer) even without involving a higher awareness. It is more automatic and governed by external stimuli. Intent is towards fulfilling a purpose (e.g., based on your individual dharma). Desire can be mere neediness or identifying a want or need that is presently unfulfilled. Intent is accompanied by belief and faith. A person with intent does not feel unhappy in the present because what is intended is not yet within his grasp. He works his way towards making the it happen while maintaining his faith. He does not feel unhappy because what is intended has not manifested yet.


A Karma Yogi will make a conscious decision with awareness on his goals and objectives with intent and orient his actions to fulfil that intent. However he will also detach himself from the result and hence not feel unhappy over the result. He will quickly move on to focus on the present and continue fulfilling his intent. He does not identify with the end result and focuses only on the intent, goal and his actions towards fulfilling them. Also intent may be more long term so it is never the end whereas desires are more short term so unhappiness is more likely to result.

e.g., for a person whose intent is to have a fulfilling and rewarding job or business, even if he fails in one interview or in one project, he does not give up, saying that his desire was not fulfilled. He will continue to focus on what he can do in the present by improving his skills and continue the process. In the case of a short term desire (e.g., to marry a specific girl, or to pass a specific exam), if that desire is unfulfilled, it seems like the end, and many young people commit suicide because of such unfulfilled desires. A person with intent will appear for the exam better prepared again or try to woo the girl again (if she is not yet married) or move on in life to find someone else who will also love him (the intent being internally focused on him having a good marriage and not focused on the girl who is external). Intent is formulated from the inside based on internal aspects like one's nature, talents, purpose etc whereas desire is focused on external objects that are outside of one's control.