Copyright Suresh Gundappa 2008
Thoughts are like smoke and you are the flame. When there are too many thoughts the flame is lost in the smoke. Then one feels that one is just smoke — but I know that wherever there is smoke, there is bound, to be a flame… smoke cannot exist on its own
If you want to find your flame then you need reduce your thoughts. In order to allow energy of flame available to you, you need silence your mind. Once flame is available to you then you need not do much planning, flame will guide your life.
Art of Meditation is nothing but finding your flame. Art of prayer is nothing but burning in that flame.
Love
Suresh
I like this a lot! It is really good! I know the picture is copy written.. But did you write this yourself, or did the quote come with the painting??
oh wait, I think I just answered my own question.. Its all you right?
Yes guilty as charged!, Let’s say I was inspired by this photo to write few lines.
oh I see.. the picture is great.. But what you wrote is what hooked me…
makes me want to read everything else you wrote…
Beautiful metaphor.
Hi Suresh,
what a great metaphor for meditation! Noway to describe about meditation better than this! Thanks a lot!
I can understand why the photograph would inspire such an insightful post, Suresh. It is stunning. Both are powerful, yet soothing – thanks for sharing, dear one.
Maybe it’s time I find another way to meditate…because I can hear the call of the flame…
what a beautiful metaphor, dear Suresh…and so true.
I prefer the ‘empty sky and clouds’ metaphor, but this one is quite fitting too.
This one is usually given that consciousness is like the vastness of an empty sky, and thoughts (and, really, all objects within consciousness) are like clouds drifting through it. Neither do they have a home there, nor do they die there, they just pass through and only the virgin sky remains untouched.
There is actually a meditation technique based on this (which is the basis of my preference, that it is not only a fitting metaphor but an effective technique!). The technique is that one should vacantly gaze at a clear sky, whether at night or day, and allow one’s vision to be sucked into the emptiness of the sky. This happened spontaneously to me as a child and I have the memory of it still. What happens is that once the restlessness of the mind is stilled due to the total absence of objects to be grasped (as is the case of a truly empty sky, without the slightest wisp of a cloud), there is the absorption of the look into itself. Sort of like a turn around – awareness mirroring itself, rather than its content.
Truly wonderful.
wow..this is beautiful!
Whenever I’ve stare at the open sky focussing on nothing in particular, after a few moments I see lots and lots – millions and billions of tiny dots of light whizzing around, have never figured out so far what exactly that is… later on found that some others had similar experiences as well… still nobody knew what they were…
Was reminded of this after seeing S.E.K.T’s comment.
nice idea of beautiful photo with meditational thought. your words reflects thoughts of Osho.