Imperturbability

Our lives are like ships in the midst of the ocean, subject to continual shaking and breaking, always on the go towards a distant end.

Unlike a ship, we are sensitive to what affects us and there are strong emotions countering us like gushes of wind, turning us around this way and that way.

If the ship that is we are is not strong and firm enough to stand them, there is the risk of us losing control. Even if we do not lose ourselves a strong gush can disorient us dramatically, shaking our mental and physical composure.

A well-built strong ship, filled with goods is able to withstand threats of storm and wind. It is able to sail through troubled waters unperturbed. With correct captaincy it is able to arrive at its destination unharmed in time, to deliver the valuable goods it has been carrying.

A good spiritual practice does the job of a good captain in a ship. He is able to facilitate an unperturbed journey along the troubled waters and weather and so does a spiritual practice.

The best spiritual practice is not based on rites and rituals. By the way what many of us take as spiritual practice are exactly these, ranging from worshiping trees and stones to wearing strange clothes and being in awe of the unknown.

These kind of practices are popular and people believe they help, but this is seriously not what spirituality is. They are not able to bring to one the formidable gift of imperturbability, the culmination of any spiritual practice.

Imperturbability results from knowing things as they are, everything as we confront them. Knowing what we see as just what we see, knowing what we hear as just what we hear, knowing what we think as just what we think and knowing what we taste and feel as just what we taste and feel.

There is no awe-struck ness. There is no misplaced veneration to inanimate or animate objects. There is no connection to any culture, religion, tradition or nationality.

Spirituality is this simple. It transcends all barriers. Not only does it transcends them but makes one as steadfast as a pole well-planted on the ground, unperturbed by the gushes of wind coming from all four corners. This imperturbability is the greatest gain one can make in a life time, a characteristic of a life well lived and wherever he or she was, we may say that place has not been empty, no matter that person was known or unknown to the rest of the world.