Beware of the Spiritual Hackers

There is a group of hackers who do their business on phone. Their modus operandi is simple. They hack the phone of a person and take numbers from their contact list. Then they call a random number (intended victim) and pretend to be from a bank and claim that their friend has taken a loan and is now missing. They ask the intended victim to pay the loan amount as they have been made the guarantor by the friend. These hackers may also use some other story.

 

Their motive is clear - They want the intended victim to spend maximum time talking to them. For this they may provoke in different ways. They will threaten, tease and insult the person. The person is tempted 'to give it back'. But the more time they spend in talking to the stalker, the more time the stalker gets to hack into their phone. Once they hack in, they pick up numbers from the victim's contacts as fresh potential targets. But more importantly, their banking apps and digital wallets are the targets.

How to deal with these hackers? Simple - JUST IGNORE THEM. Do not fall for the temptation to give it back to them. Just ignore the call and block the numbers. Do this with every number every time they call you. Keep doing this and they will stop calling. If you respond or get angry or try to show them their place, you play into their hands. 

SPIRITUAL HACKERS

These are the spiritual equivalent of the hackers. They are the negative emotions, thoughts and memories that occupy our mental space. We have the habit of dwelling on them for long and allow them to take up our time and energy. We get angry at the past memories or anxious about the future. We relive the arguments that we had and feel the negative emotions associated with the past events. 

The more time we spend on them, the more they 'hack' into our most precious device, our brain. They occupy the space and take up our neural connections creating a pattern which becomes a habit. They drain our energy and keep us from achieving our full potential.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM?

    

Same way that you deal with the phone hackers - By ignoring them. Do not and I mean DO NOT try to resist them. Just ignore them. 

Focus your attention on the things that you are doing. Focus it on the present moment. Instead of fighting with these spiritual hackers, give energy to what makes you happy. This way you create a habit of focusing your attention on things that matter. You are actually hard wiring your brain to do so. In the process, you create neural pathways for the same and a time comes when the spiritual hackers do not have any place in your brain. (Just like phone hackers. In absence of any reaction from you their motive is defeated. And you keep blocking their numbers till they run out of numbers to call you from.)

The best way to build this as per my experience is meditation. Regular meditation that involves focusing the attention on breathing is the best way to train one's brain to focus. Practicing mindfulness techniques is also a good way. For some people yoga works. In your case, it might be by pursuing a hobby. Whatever the way, the idea is to train the brain to focus on what you desire and ignore these spiritual hackers. 

So, pick whatever technique suits you best and start protecting yourself from these spiritual hackers using your own 'spiritual firewall'.     

 

Enso - Zen circle of life

ENSO - The simple circle that symbolizes Zen more than anything else. Zen practitioners and monks try to draw the circle as a part of their practice. In fact, being able to draw a perfect enso is said to be the epitome of Zen enlightenment. 

The circle is drawn on a white paper with black paint and a brush. It is to be drawn in one stroke without dipping the brush in the paint again. Also, it is to be drawn with a free hand i.e. hand unsupported by anything. So, being able to draw a perfect enso shows the development of excellent self control and concentration which is a must for Zen. 

But the simple circle stands for more than that.

Firstly, enso is always drawn in black on white paper, no other color allowed. And in-spite of this simplicity there is an elegance to it. A well drawn enso looks beautiful. In-fact, it looks beautiful not in-spite of but because of its simplicity. A simple circle that is so difficult to draw perfectly and yet looks elegant symbolizes a simple life that is not everybody's cup of tea and yet looks so elegant and beautiful. 

Secondly, enso symbolizes the completeness and the incompleteness of life that coexist at once. Anyone looking at enso knows that it is a circle. Anyone looking at it will see that it is incomplete. But in-spite of being incomplete, it is still a complete circle if you are willing to accept it as that. Life, with all its shortcomings and challenges can still be complete and fulfilling if one has the right attitude.

Thirdly, enso shows the oneness of everything within and outside. The white within the circle is contained within it but is also a part of the white outside the circle. The circle itself merges with the white as it comes to the end of the stroke. That is like life, everything is interconnected in-spite of its seeming separateness. 

Lastly a perfect looking enso is the result of lots of practice, patience and mastery over self control and concentration. This comes from meditation, discipline and mindfulness. These are exactly the qualities needed for a perfect looking life.   

The beauty of this is not that a simple circle represents so much. But the beauty is that so much can be so easily and beautifully summed up with such a simple circle.