Acharya Prashant: Our normal life is our nemesis. And it is our nemesis precisely because it appears normal. It is not normal. It is normal only by comparison. It is normal only relative to your neighbour. It is the life that your neighbour is leading. It is the life that the market is advocating you to lead. So, it appears normal to you. It is not normal. It is the root from where all your troubles are arising. Get rid of everything that is normal about you. Would you, Pratima?
Get rid of everything that is regular about you. Get rid of your so-called health and your actual disease will vanish. The people around who offer comfort, solace, you don't look at them as trouble, right? But does it not occur to you that if they are agents of comfort in your life how is it so that discomfort erupts so often? Your food, your lifestyle, your thoughts, your stubborn insistences, the way you wake up, the way you keep your time, the way you spend your time, the way you relate to people, all of that appears in no need of correction, right?
You are mistaken. You will have to look at everything. Why do you keep your hair the way you do? Why do you look the way you do? Why don't you run? Why don't you lose some weight? Why do you eat what you eat? Why do you watch what you watch? Why do you read what you read?
Please don't preserve anything. Don't insist upon saving anything. The way you walk is the way your life is. The tone of your voice is your destiny. Catch yourself speaking in that normal tone. Have you seen that there is a stubborn particularity about the way one walks? Different people, different personalities have different ways of walking. The way of walking is the way of the mind. The way you eat food, the way you cross your legs, the way you stand up. Do you sleep facing the sky, the roof, or do you sleep with your back to the roof? How do you sleep?
It's not immaterial. You have to ask yourself why do I sleep on this side? You'll have to ask yourself why are you friends with such-and-such people? Why do you prefer that particular shop and shopkeeper? You have to ask yourself why do you like that particular genre of movies? That favourite actor of yours might actually be the representative of all your troubles. If you can understand why you like that actor, you can also understand your entire life, or your favourite restaurant or your favourite musician, or your favourite memories.
What do you love to remember? That is what constitutes the self. What else is the self? All this. This is what the self is. This is what suffers. Understand the self and you have gone beyond suffering. Why do you smile the way you do? Why do you use your left hand more than your right hand?
Please....!
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