ASSESSMENTS
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- How can you tell if you have truly renounced?
- What is karma?
- What happens to us when we have attachment to the action as “doer”?
- What causes the cycle of samsāra, birth, death and rebirth.
- How can a person break out of the cycle of samsāra?
ART OF THE DAY
© 2020 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved
ART OF THE DAY:
THE KARMIC CYCLE
MATERIALS NEEDED
Paper, Pen, Pencils, Eraser, Markers
PROCEDURE
Engage in a short discussion about what is the cycle of samsara (you can refer to the explanation given below in the “inference” section) and ask the students to draw a representation of it in any way they want. Once they are done, ask them to share their drawing and to explain in their own words how attachment, desires, action and result are related to one another.
ART OF THE DAY:
THE KARMIC CYCLE
INFERENCE
As long as we have attachment to the action as 'doer', which in turns creates an expectation of reward or punishment, we are caught in the cycle of karma and saṃsāra. Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental patterns or vāsanā after death. However we have no unfulfilled desires, karma, saṃskāra or vāsanā left when we renounce attachment to 'doership' and become a mere witness to both the action and the result. This means we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action. Such a person breaks out of this cycle of saṃsāra.
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY
Materials required:
Have material required to
do power manifestation
(blindfold, kumkum,
bhasma, paper, pen, scale,
etc.).
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY: GOOD OR BAD
PROCEDURE:
Tell the students to choose any power and to practice manifesting it for the next 11 minutes without being attached to the result. Tell them to simply remain as a witness and to allow Paramashiva to flow through them while chanting Mahavakya. At the end, ask them about their experience. How does being a witness feel? Was part of them hoping for a particular result to occur? Did they feel any emotion (pride, fear, disappointment, frustration, etc)?
End the activity by discussing the importance of completing with our mental patterns of "good", "bad"...
INTERFERENCE
Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental patterns or vāsanā after death. Saṃskāras or root patterns are the carried-over incomplete desires and they cause the cycle of saṃsāra, birth, death and rebirth.
WORKSHOP OF THE DAY
© 2020 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved
WORKSHOP OF THE DAY:
VAAKYARTHA SADHAS - WITNESS
PROCEDURE
Ask the students to write a list of all the actions they perform on a day-to-day basis. Then ask each student to share what expectations they have attached to these actions. Finally, ask them to discuss how their expectations impact their state and how they can come out of the cycle of samsara.
CONCLUSION
Attachment to action and to the results of action creates more desires. When we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action, we become a mere witness and break out of the cycle of samsara.
© 2020 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved