11. Be In Tune With Your Life

Awake! Become Aware! We are not living: we are half dead!

We never live totally, completely. We live in a halfhearted manner. We never do something or experience anything from the depth of our being. Our mind is always thinking of something else. Our mind will be everywhere else, doing everything else except being where we are at the moment.

We are bored because our mind wanders; our eyes have no glow. Let us look at our reflection in the mirror. What do we see? We see a dull, bored looking person staring back at us.

We are not in tune with our own life. We feel our life is very dull, and terribly dragging. Our life is no life!

A small story:

After a long dry sermon, a priest announced, 'Immediately after this benediction, there will be a parish board meeting in the next room.'

After the benediction, when the priest entered that room, he saw an old man sitting on a chair. The priest did not recognize this man. He did not seem to be a local person and the priest had never seen him in his parish. From his dress, like that of a Muslim, the priest was certain he was not a Catholic.

He went near him and quietly asked, 'The board meeting is going to be held here soon. Are you sure you are part of the board?'

The man replied, 'I don't know about your board meeting. I came here to see how many others were also boredlike me after your sermon.'

The priest said board and he understood it as bored!

Wake up. Become aware. Don't spend your life doing things in an automatic mode.

Can we remember our actions today? We live like a man who is half asleep! We do things without involving ourselves fully or completely being aware of what we are doing. We ignore the present.

We brushed our teeth today. But do we recall the cold water touching our mouth? Do we remember the taste of the toothpaste in our mouth or the pressure of our toothbrush upon our gums? Do we remember how we felt after brushing?

We live with no awareness whatsoever. Become aware, deeply aware of every single thing that you do. This is the first step to becoming enlightened.