Before You Start . . .

Spiritual teacher and humanitarian Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has changed the lives of millions of people around the world for the better. Yet many in the West have not been introduced to his profound and practical approach to living a spiritual life. This book is meant to bridge that gap.

Gurudev’s teachings are twofold. On one hand, he shares his insights on the art of living through his many talks, books, and online videos. His approach to lasting well-being—rather than chasing happiness or retreating from the stresses of life—is about finding balance, peace, and even joy, amid the ups and downs we face every day.

Then, to complement these insights, Gurudev offers effective mind/body techniques to make those principles second nature, not simply something to understand intellectually.

Still, even just reading or hearing his teachings can make a huge difference in how you live your life, how you interact with your family, friends, and coworkers, how you understand the spiritual path, and how you walk it yourself.

Gurudev founded the Art of Living Foundation in 1981 and has been teaching SKY Breath Meditation, a unique meditation technique for health and mental wellness, for more than forty years.

In June of 1995, Gurudev began a weekly tradition of creating a short talk, often on a subject that was relevant to current events or in response to questions posed by audiences at his events as he went from country to country speaking and teaching. What resulted were powerful words of wisdom, accompanied by much celebration, laughter, and lightheartedness.

Gurudev’s talks were then transcribed, and these knowledge sheets were sent by fax to Art of Living groups on every continent to read at their weekly meetings when they sat to do their practice together.

Later, a weekly News Flash was added to chronicle the highlights of Gurudev’s extensive travels—from meetings with heads of state and important religious figures to his students’ extraordinary experiences, as well as humorous moments on the road.

This book is a compilation of many of those knowledge sheets written between June 1995 to 2002, plus excerpts from other talks on various topics he’s given over the years.

For those who may be new to his teachings, there’s a section in the beginning of the book called Foundations, which will serve as an introduction to some of the main principles that characterize his approach to life—and living artfully.

That being said, the book can be read from front to back or simply by choosing notes that speak to you on a given day.

May this collection of insights help you on your journey within, to that all-encompassing love, joy, and peace at your core!

—The editors

Basic Principles of the Art of Living

1. BALANCING UPS AND DOWNS

Life is a play of opposites. Sometimes there’s failure, and sometimes you meet with success; at times there’s gain and at other times loss; sometimes there’s happiness and sometimes pain. These come and go.

When you get something you want, you soar to the ceiling; when you lose something, you fall hard. This isn’t advisable. If from within, we lose our balance, our centeredness, we won’t be able to move forward in life. So wisdom is keeping the equanimity, the balance in life.

When you accept that contrasting experiences enrich each other, life is less stressful. Opposite values simply coexist on this planet.

Creation, destruction.

Joy, suffering.

Pleasure, pain.

But know that you are something beyond that. This understanding is a gift given to the world from the ancient Indian philosophy, the Vedas.

Ultimately, life is bigger than the pairs of opposites. The world is full of paradoxes and life is full of opposites. The art is to embrace the opposites, accommodate the paradoxes, and live with a smile.

2. NATURE OF THE MIND: HOLDING ON TO THE NEGATIVE

Reflect on whether you’re holding on to the positive or the negative.

Actually, life has so much that is positive. Life is made up of 80 percent positivity and only 20 percent negativity, that which causes problems. But we make this 20 percent into 200 percent!

In every life, some good has happened, but the nature of the mind is that it ignores the positive and clings to the negative. And this is what disturbs us.

Observe the nature of mind. If you’re given ten compliments and one insult, what does your mind hang on to? That one insult.

You say, Everything is fine, but . . . We use this quite often: He’s a nice guy, but . . . We put a break there. Be aware of this tendency. Whenever we say but, we can just be aware and say to ourselves, I’m saying ‘but’! Having this awareness makes you very natural, simple, and open from inside.

The most precious thing in life is to maintain the innocence that we have. We’re born with some innocence in us. As we become more and more intelligent, we tend to lose innocence. We become a little more stiff. Dropping the stiffness, we find life is much more rewarding, enjoyable, and interesting.

So when we know this, we’re already one step out of it. Time and again, we must realize I am going on a negative trip and immediately come back to the here and now.

However, when you culture your mind with meditation, its tendency of holding on to negative emotions starts to drop. The mind becomes purer and purer and begins to reflect its true nature, that of acceptance, support, and love.

3. CHALLENGES MAKE YOU STRONGER

Most people wish for a problem-free life. However, such a life, if it were even possible, would be dull and boring. As humans we are shaped by both positive and not-so-positive experiences. Challenging circumstances push people to expand their limits and bring more richness and beauty to the human experience.

If one doesn’t have any problems, that person is likely to end up becoming a problem for others! It’s better to have a problem than be a problem.

It’s through challenges and failures that we develop our skills and strengths. Look back and reflect on the many times you’ve failed. Don’t you now feel that those failures were good for you? When you look back at your failures and challenges, you’ll see that you have learned something from them, and that they’ve been stepping-stones for you to move ahead.

For example, a tough boss will bring out your skills and abilities and help your capabilities to grow. You can either get frustrated with that boss, or you can see that they’re providing abundant opportunities to develop skills that will last a lifetime. However, for that to happen, you’ll need to shift your perspective.

For instance, if your boss is disorganized—rather than complain—help your boss to get organized. If your boss is habitually critical of you, practice the art of taking criticism from a rational point of view and commit to self-improvement rather than move toward dejection.

Know that every experience adds dimension, depth, and richness to your life. An example of this is rest and activity. Rest and activity are opposite values, but they complement each other. The deeper you’re able to rest, the more dynamic you’ll be in activity.

4. A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

What happened yesterday? You may have been happy or sad. Maybe you argued, talked, danced, laughed, and cried. Is it here now? Can you hold on to that now?

What happened a month ago? Two months ago? What were you like two years ago? Up until this very moment, isn’t it all like a dream? Could this be a dream? You’ll go to bed today, and then tomorrow something will happen. The day will end, and the next day something else will happen and end. And so on for another ten days, a month, two months, six months—isn’t it like a dream? Isn’t it like a movie?

Events pass, but they give you an impression that they’re permanent. The camera in your mind creates the illusion that they’ll stay and they’re huge.

What is it that you’re hanging on to? Your wants, likes, and dislikes. What is it you dislike and what is it you crave? Where are they? Are they not just fleeting impressions in the mind, coming and vanishing, coming and vanishing?

Those moments stay in the photographic mind and rob you of clarity. You become unable to see anything else clearly. When you’re thinking about what happened the previous day, your mind isn’t alert and awake. You’re unable to perceive things right now.

In photography, when several pictures are taken on the same piece of film, it looks very funny. You may take a picture of a bird and then of someone else. In the photograph, you’ll see the bird sitting on someone’s nose—it’s a double exposure. We aren’t just double exposing our minds. We’re doing multiple exposures.

Wake up and see that all of it has been like a dream and is finished. It’s not here right now. Then where are your cravings?

When you can see this whole flow of events as fleeting happenings and remain untouched by them, you’re happy. Joy springs out of you like a fountain. Every event becomes a game, a celebration.

5. THREE TYPES OF LISTENING

There are three types of listening.

One is hearing through your intellect. You may be reading this while constantly inside you something is happening, where you’re saying, Yes, yes. What he is saying is right. You keep accepting certain things, things that you already know.

And you resist those things that you don’t know. You say, No, how could this be? How can that be the case? No. You don’t let those ideas in but keep them out. In this situation, there’s no need to listen because you are only listening to those things that you already know.

The second type of listening is emotional listening. This is how you listen to music, where nothing really goes in. You simply listen and let go. Of course, you absorb everything, but you don’t retain anything. Neither of these types of listening is complete. In fact, you can’t call either of them listening. It’s hearing.

The third type of listening is a beautiful blend of these two. You hear with a willingness to listen and at the same time, you’re asking questions too. Those questions that come from this type of listening are sincere questions.

The most important thing is to become aware of what’s happening in the mind and observe how we listen.

6. RESISTANCE

To gain peace of mind, embrace the disturbance. Say, All right, I’ll be disturbed for a while now. Why? Because observation reduces the disturbance.

If you resist stress, it persists. The moment you embrace it, it dissolves and disappears. When you stop resisting the storms of life and start accepting them with open arms, they’ll subside on their own. That’s the purpose of all spiritual practices like meditation.

Don’t be in a hurry to get rid of the storms—be with them. Looking for perfection creates imperfection inside you. If you’re peaceful, everything around you becomes peaceful.

You are the center of this universe. Wherever you go, you carry your own mind, and wherever you go, you’ll create your own storms. It may appear to be calm and quiet for some time, but the storm will surface sooner or later. Unless you realize this, nothing will hold. There is no other permanent solution. Don’t resist the storms; instead, see them as an amazing play of your personality.

7. EXPECTATIONS REDUCE JOY

Expectations are just imaginations of the future. They’re your imaginations of what reality could be, but reality may not live up to your imagination. If you expect something, inevitably you’ll be disappointed or the joy you’ll get out of it will be reduced.

For example, your friends have been raving about a certain film. You get all excited to see this movie, and you build up your expectations. When you finally watch the movie, it’s a big letdown. It doesn’t measure up to your expectations. But if you hadn’t heard anything about the same film and had just gone on the spur of the moment with a friend, you’d probably have enjoyed it twice as much.

Someone tells you about some exotic fruit that grows in Thailand. They describe the taste, the color, the smell, until you can’t wait to try this wonderful fruit. Sometime later, your friend gets a hold of this fruit and brings you some with great excitement. When you actually taste it, you find it’s too sweet or too sour or you don’t like the texture. You’re disappointed and so is your friend who expected you to think it’s fantastic.

Think back to the times you had high expectations and things didn’t work the way you’d hoped. Remember how let down you felt.

Now think of a time when something good happened when you least expected it. Remember the joy you felt.

Can you let your expectations go . . . right now?

8. DON’T BE A FOOTBALL OF OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS

You forget one thing: People’s likes and dislikes are like bubbles or ripples on the surface of water. Why do you give so much importance to thoughts? One minute the thought is there; the next minute it’s not. Everything is changing. In this changing world, what changes most are thoughts. It’s like trying to hold on to a wave that is disappearing.

Someone may think that you’re such a nice person. How long does it take for this to change? You may do good things and people criticize you. Someone may even do horrible things and be admired. So why base your life on someone else’s opinion?

Wake up. Let anybody have an opinion. Let them. You move on. It appears to be tough, but once you take this step, it’s not so tough. Opinions of people come and go. They think bad about you; then they think good about you. All this happens. So, in any situation, it isn’t worth wasting your time on what those people are thinking about you.

The main thing is, don’t be a football of other people’s opinions. Many times, you do things because others want you to do it. No need! Be strong in yourself and see life from a bigger perspective.

9. DISPASSION IS LETTING GO

Every night, when your head hits the pillow, what do you do? You simply let go. You let sleep take over.

Breathe in. How long can you hold that? At some point, you have to let go. So, while passion is like breathing in, dispassion is like breathing out. We have to let go. Unless you have dispassion, passion will turn into depression.

Dispassion may appear to be a very big, philosophical thing: Oh well, to be dispassionate means maybe I have to become a recluse and go to the Himalayas, with a necklace of holy beads. No, it’s an inherent quality in human life to let go. After you’ve heard or seen something, if you’re unable to let go of it, do you know what that state is called? Trauma.

Traumas are those experiences that your mind catches on to and is unable to let go. So, in some sense, we’re traumatized to varying degrees.

If you’re traumatized, you can never feel passion or dispassion, compassion or love. Your trauma puts a block to all these qualities. So, see life from a bigger context. At the end of the day, the curtain is going to fall, and the show will be finished. We must be aware of this.

10. THE MIND WANTS ENDLESS JOY

People who are single think they’ll be happy if they get married.

Married people think they were better off when they were single.

There’s a deep desire for some joy in the future: If I change my town, I will be happy. If I change my relationship, or my job, or my company, I will be happier.

A child thinks that when he or she grows up and goes to college, he or she will be happy. A college student says, Once I get a job, I’ll be happy. A manager says, When I become the director, I’ll be happy. Postponing happiness to sometime in the future can make you miserable right now.

Pleasure can also tire you. How long can you look at something beautiful? Eventually, you’ll get tired of it; your eyelids will shut. How long can you smell a beautiful fragrance? People working in the perfume factories are sick of perfumes. If you like donuts, how many can you stuff in your mouth? How much ice cream can you enjoy? How much music can you hear? For how long can you enjoy touching and being touched?

The world is full of pleasure for the five senses, but the senses have their limitations. Still, the mind wants endless joy. An attitude of So what! Let it be, whatever, takes away the feverishness in you and brings you to that state of dispassion, or centeredness.

Dispassion is NOT apathy! Often, we think dispassion means being unenthusiastic, depressed, and not interested in anything. This is not dispassion!

Dispassion is the lack of feverishness. Dispassion is full of activity and enthusiasm, yet devoid of feverishness. Dispassion toward the enjoyment of the five senses or spiritual enjoyment, the outer world or the inner world, is one of the foundations of wisdom.

Dispassion is the only way you can be centered. There’s no other way.

11. THE PURPOSE OF ALL CHANGE IS TO POLISH YOU

Everything is transitory. Everything changes. Nobody is all bad. People get into different moods. Their moods change, and their behaviors change. Their likes and dislikes change. Your likes and dislikes change. Your way of looking at things changes. Events change. No event stays and remains the same. So, everything is changing.

The purpose of it all is to polish you. You’re polished in joy, and you’re polished in sorrow. You’re polished in this event and in that event. So, everything in the world polishes you.

Just move lightly. Move above the events, knowing they’re all there to polish you, to refine you, and they don’t have any real attraction or juice. They’re like the straw that’s left when the sugarcane is crushed. Fiber comes out on the other side, but all the juice is removed. It’s only good as fuel. If you know this, you’re able to drop the events. When you think that you’ll get some juice out of straw, you’ll go on crushing it.

Once you know there’s no juice in it and that it’s just straw, there’s no effort required to drop it. It drops off you. When you wake up after having a dream, you don’t say that you’ll renounce it or drop it. You don’t make an effort to drop it. Once you wake up, the dream is gone.

Wake up and see! What is this world?