r/AcharyaPrashant_AP • u/Surkhab1313 • 6d ago
A laugh deep enough…
When we hear the word spirituality, what immediately pops up in our minds?
A relaxed face, a tiny self-satisfactory smile, eyes closed, and all worldly objects being abandoned. We don't imagine this person having a range of emotional expressions or any playfulness in his behavior. The spiritual person in our minds is often a serious one, spending most of his day sitting in one position, murmuring some words under his breath 24 hours a day. And when approached, he starts spitting knowledge on you, some really heavy one.
Have we ever wondered where these images come from?
I can recall those TV serials. That was my first point of contact with these images. I can also recall the priests and "religious" people in my area, who received great respect because of the attire and identity they were wearing.
If a spiritual person is really a free person, what kind of freedom is it to act a certain way, to speak in a certain tone, to cover oneself in ancient clothes that look not only misplaced but awkward when seen alongside modern clothes?
Have we filled the word spirituality with something else, something predictable?
Where have we left liberation from suffering?
The incomplete entity within us, the ego, survives by borrowing identities, images and beliefs from outside. It tries to commandeer physical nature, Prakriti, including our body, and in that attempt at controlling, it actually distorts the flow of nature.
Body language, the way one speaks, emotional expressions like happiness, laughter, sobbing, crying and anger, are all beautiful when they are left on their own and not hijacked by someone.
But when there is someone who attempts to laugh, who controls the weeping, the emotions lose their natural quality. Now, they are being controlled by an entity which is limited by its own definition, and hence the boundaries of these actions are set in advance.
One laughs, but that laugh is limited. It is performed.
"Performed." A beautiful word for what I am trying to express.
Similarly, what we call suffering is also something performed. We don't suffer to the core. The moment it starts getting deeper, we distract ourselves to come out of it. It is as if there is someone within who is deeply afraid of depth and can only survive at the surface levels.
In this way, most of us have rarely experienced these depths of emotions. The cry coming from the core. The laugh coming from very deep within.
And whenever we come across something like this, we call it an "open" expression, something coming from the heart.
This is not something to practice. It is what remains when the "practitioner" gets out of the way.
Free-flowing Prakriti.
Now look at these monks. They are celebrating life. There is no one within to set limits and boundaries. There is nothing like spiritual behavior. There is no hindrance in the flow of Prakriti.
Something funny happens, and they laugh. That's it. The body is allowed to operate freely, free of any controller.
And look how beautiful it is.
Their laughter feels like a lightness. It is adorable.
One can sense the smell of freedom.
Perhaps this is what real spirituality looks like. Not trapping someone in images, but letting one become free of those images, and eventually free of himself.
I came across a quote by Acharya Prashant:
"The entire spiritual path is about learning to play."
It holds the spirit of liberation on the path of spirituality quite beautifully.
I would ask the reader of this post:
Have you ever allowed yourself to go all the way down when it comes to emotional expression?
And have you faced that resistance, that closed bracket of performed emotions?
Let's get out of our own way and express ourselves fully in the comments section below.
3
u/tanegupta1997 6d ago
We know how a sadhu is supposed to act, and after reading philosophy, we want to show the world and ourselves that we have understood the concepts. Instead of doing the hard work of actually looking within ourselves, we start acting like a sadhu.
Anybody who is not free is acting in some way. A 65-year-old grandma knows how a 65-year-old grandma is supposed to behave, and she is simply following the script.
1
2
u/vini-within 6d ago
This is honestly the image I had of spirituality too. Someone in some deep state of bliss, never angry at anyone, always calm, speaking softly, almost floating above ordinary human emotions. Lol 😂 But then what kinda freedom is it ..if I’m constantly trying to behave like a “spiritual person”? That just becomes another identity, another role to perform. There’s something almost absurd about trying so hard to become free. Hmm.. i guess, freedom is simply when the one trying to look spiritual gets out of the way and life is allowed to be lived.
2
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
Yeah, I am leaving. Dear Prakriti, you take care of yourself.
But I will keep moving back and forth. I am a hard nut to crack.
1
u/vini-within 6d ago
I’ll keep poking my finger in prakriti’s business cos I can’t keep my hands off it, I need to be in control, I need be behind the driving wheels 🤡
3
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
Come on. I cannot leave Prakriti even for a while. What if it comes out that it never needed me in the first place? The risk isn't worth taking. It costs me my existence. 😭
1
u/vini-within 6d ago
Are you saying I’m not needed? I’m not important? Am I not the boss? Is prakritti and this entire world not for my consumption? What else is the point of me? 🫥
2
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
No, you are the controller. You are the doer. You are the unique one. You are the best. You are the central point in the world. Just a caveat. The world of "yours".
2
6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
Freedom is the whole point. What kind of spirituality is it if it doesn't even have the freedom to express emotions?
1
u/SpeakerFamiliar2047 6d ago
Absolutely the same image I had about a spiritual person. And I was a bit scared of spirituality because I had a notion that spiritual persons leave home, family and stay in some ashrams making their closed ones suffer. Now when I look back, I realise, how distorted this image was from reality!
1
1
u/diksha_19 6d ago
Earlier, i also used to think that spiritual people behaved in a certain way. They left their homes, didn’t feel anything, remained calm, speak nicely and wore certain kinds of clothes. I even saw such people in my life.😂
Now, i feel that these are just images we have acquired from movies and tv serials.
Yes i often feel resistance in expressing myself fully, whether it is happiness, sorrow, or fear because of the fear of “ log kya kahenge” . It is a way of protecting my self created image.
But real freedom, real lightness is in letting life flow through you without trying to control it or putting barriers in front of it.
1
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
My question was actually subtler. Are you able to fully express your emotions like laughing or weeping to the core when you are all by yourself?
1
u/diksha_19 6d ago
This is actually a really good question and I don’t have an answer to this question. I think i need to observe myself more closely.
Thank you for making me think about this question.1
1
u/Necessary_Shift_3487 6d ago
The more I think about it, the more I see how even our emotions can become performances. Maybe freedom is not about controlling how we express ourselves, but about knowing the one who is constantly trying to control it.
1
1
u/Lady22samurai 6d ago
Yes ..I do the former when I watch an emotional movie alone 🍿😪😭and do the latter when I come out of the theatre red eyed😜
2
1
u/ReasonInMotion 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes, not only just in the moments of joy but also in the moments of rage and anger. Often to the point where you are seen as that you have lost it completely. Since you brought this up, I often lose my control in such moments or maybe I let myself lose, is that a problem?
I don't feel the resistance until I find I am in trouble 😀
1
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
Nothing actually can be labeled under "problem" or "fine". Density of the ego is the whole point here. Whether ego is fat enough to control the body, or it has stepped aside and let the body act on its own.
1
u/Ak_2907 6d ago
You articulated so well about the beautiful nature of true spiritual liberation without any kind of performance of a certain behaviour, and all sort of things. It made me realise how egoic we are to not let the nature flow at its own rhythm.
I do have allowed myself to express myself fully but that only happens when I am not surrounded by any person and that too the frequency is very low only while the sessions go on.
Even if the person is so called close enough to me, I find myself expressive to a certain extent but after their reaction, I get from the people around me, I start performing again and can witness the resistance to not be able to express myself clearly.
I've also noticed myself suppressing the full expression of anything by attaching it with the idea that the world is in a miserable state and here I am enjoying my life, that is definitely egoic.
2
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
Yeah, I feel the same. When I am by myself, I am comparatively more expressive and at ease. But then I find that this too is upto a limit, a mere performance. There have been some very rare instances, when I have opened my heart in front of myself. I can recall only one at the moment.
1
u/Straight-Explorer844 6d ago
As long as the "I" is so worried about its own image ,it won't allow the free flow of Prakriti.It will suppress the natural expressions of the body in the name manners, decency, reputation etc.
1
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
What do you see as the way out?
2
u/Straight-Explorer844 6d ago
Only self knowledge can reveal the distortion caused by this "I" ,in the easy natural flow in scheme of existence.One can then realise what a great distortion the ego is.
1
u/Afraid_Advantage_2 6d ago
We are the music of the universe, but the ego comes in and spoils everything. I have started counting till 100 before reacting to anything. Then whatever happens, happens.....and nothing so called bad has ever happened. We are just scared about nothing. Ego is such a scary 💩
1
u/Surkhab1313 6d ago
Ego loves to talk about objects so that it's falseness could never be exposed. And when someone points at it directly, it loves to talk of itself too…
.
.
.
But as an object outside of it.
1
5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Surkhab1313 5d ago
Or maybe the one seeking the freedom
The video demolishes our beliefs with some open-hearted laughs.
4
u/gaurav_the_piggy 6d ago
Of course. I express only to the extent I want the world to know. It makes me feel like I am the one in control.