Q1. How do you lead a stress-free life? How do you become fucking zen? How do you have a heart rate of 55 all the time, any time? How do you control your temper, needs, desires? Yet, all these things---greed, desire, need, stress---have lead and continue to lead to growth. Is growth achievable without stress? Maybe. You could avoid growth, but that would lead to decay. Or you could grow as much as you can without stress. But the modern world doesn't exactly allow you to grow without stress. Another way is to love, love much. Think of that person you love most and just hope, want, wish to see them happy. Imagine them happy. If you can, go hug them tightly, and know that they exist, and that the existence of such love is happiness in itself. But love only so much that you let them be themselves; even if it means that they occasionally do things you don't agree with.
Q2. How to grow balls? Because balls are very useful, colloquially speaking, and sometimes literally. You can't please everyone. Balls help you overcome the desire to do so. You can't make everyone like you, respect you, and appreciate you. And it's not necessary for them to. You don't need it. But do you really not need it? Do you really not want that person, who disrespected you other day, in one way or the other, to have thought a little more about how you might have felt about it, and how it had ruined your day? That's why, it's good to grow balls. And then, once you do that, you may realize, that it was never about you. It was all about someone else's bad day in life. And someone else's bad day at work. And sometimes, it's because you were actually in the wrong and you really deserved it. It's also good to laugh at yourself more often. It can make growing balls easier. And it's also just better that way. And no matter what, don't stop being kind, even if you've grown loads of balls.
Q3. How can you respect everyone? How can you be more humble, not like humble-out-loud for everyone to see, but really, humble-in-the-head, deep-down-in-the-soul kind of humble? How can you be kinder? How can you hurt less? Sometimes, it seems, that knowledge and humility are incompatible with one another. The more you learn, the more you deign down upon those who cannot learn. And yet you have this zeal, this want to learn which you cannot and should not tame either. Humans are born out of and live by their condition. You are no better than someone who can't get abstract math. Tell yourself that, a few times, until it begins to sound as obvious as it should have always been. What if they just weren't born with the brain chemistry that allowed them to do so? And what if they never got the help that you got growing up to be what you are now? How are you better than them, then? Find that person. Who loves, gives, learns, with the best that they were given; and who definitely cannot comprehend abstract math. That person you admire, is what will make you know what true humility feels like.
Q4. How to want? You do not know, often, what you want. And what you need. And you confuse the two. Often, you just want what they want. And sometimes they want what they cannot get. Want what is true, sublime, pristine and forever. Because wanting well is living well. And want happiness for others, especially for those who want it for you too. And want for those who do not have what you have; because that's the hardest sometimes, to fulfill.
Q5. How to get high? Because everyone gets high in some way or the other and the body needs it too. You feed on vicarious pleasure, or you feed on a drug. Maybe something innocuous like food. Or you breathe. Because you're used to it. So why not do it properly? Wake up early morning. Do some yoga, or go on a run. (I know, bloody hard.) And then when you're done, breathe. Do some pranaayaam. And then, finish it off with bhastrika. Take in a long, long breath, so long you feel the top of your lungs bursting with air. And exhale sharply, forcefully. Repeat as many times as you can. Hopefully 100-200 times. Unlike other things that help you think, like coffee and cigarettes, this actually lowers your heart rate; and the absolute control and calm of mind you achieve is, quite inexplicable. You're happier too. It's a high, totally. So avoid coffee. It kills. Reject tobacco. It kills much faster and it's disgusting anyway.
And remember, all of the above needs a constant effort to implement. Until, of course, hopefully, it will become second nature. And then, you're probably Zen.
Q2. How to grow balls? Because balls are very useful, colloquially speaking, and sometimes literally. You can't please everyone. Balls help you overcome the desire to do so. You can't make everyone like you, respect you, and appreciate you. And it's not necessary for them to. You don't need it. But do you really not need it? Do you really not want that person, who disrespected you other day, in one way or the other, to have thought a little more about how you might have felt about it, and how it had ruined your day? That's why, it's good to grow balls. And then, once you do that, you may realize, that it was never about you. It was all about someone else's bad day in life. And someone else's bad day at work. And sometimes, it's because you were actually in the wrong and you really deserved it. It's also good to laugh at yourself more often. It can make growing balls easier. And it's also just better that way. And no matter what, don't stop being kind, even if you've grown loads of balls.
Q3. How can you respect everyone? How can you be more humble, not like humble-out-loud for everyone to see, but really, humble-in-the-head, deep-down-in-the-soul kind of humble? How can you be kinder? How can you hurt less? Sometimes, it seems, that knowledge and humility are incompatible with one another. The more you learn, the more you deign down upon those who cannot learn. And yet you have this zeal, this want to learn which you cannot and should not tame either. Humans are born out of and live by their condition. You are no better than someone who can't get abstract math. Tell yourself that, a few times, until it begins to sound as obvious as it should have always been. What if they just weren't born with the brain chemistry that allowed them to do so? And what if they never got the help that you got growing up to be what you are now? How are you better than them, then? Find that person. Who loves, gives, learns, with the best that they were given; and who definitely cannot comprehend abstract math. That person you admire, is what will make you know what true humility feels like.
Q4. How to want? You do not know, often, what you want. And what you need. And you confuse the two. Often, you just want what they want. And sometimes they want what they cannot get. Want what is true, sublime, pristine and forever. Because wanting well is living well. And want happiness for others, especially for those who want it for you too. And want for those who do not have what you have; because that's the hardest sometimes, to fulfill.
Q5. How to get high? Because everyone gets high in some way or the other and the body needs it too. You feed on vicarious pleasure, or you feed on a drug. Maybe something innocuous like food. Or you breathe. Because you're used to it. So why not do it properly? Wake up early morning. Do some yoga, or go on a run. (I know, bloody hard.) And then when you're done, breathe. Do some pranaayaam. And then, finish it off with bhastrika. Take in a long, long breath, so long you feel the top of your lungs bursting with air. And exhale sharply, forcefully. Repeat as many times as you can. Hopefully 100-200 times. Unlike other things that help you think, like coffee and cigarettes, this actually lowers your heart rate; and the absolute control and calm of mind you achieve is, quite inexplicable. You're happier too. It's a high, totally. So avoid coffee. It kills. Reject tobacco. It kills much faster and it's disgusting anyway.
And remember, all of the above needs a constant effort to implement. Until, of course, hopefully, it will become second nature. And then, you're probably Zen.
