Questioner called El Mano: I plan on leaving my job shortly but due to my committment to finish this project, I feel guilty if I leave too soon. What was July 1, 2008 could turn into August 31, 2008. Should I stay or f*&% it and leave as planned? What would you do?

Guruji says: El Mano — does that mean the hand in Spanish? Are you the one that says “Talk to the Hand”?

El Mano, your dilemma is a simple one. Two months is too long. Two months might stretch into another two months and then you might be looking at another delay. Ask yourself this, will your current employer’s business fall apart because you didn’t finish the project? Are you the only one in your organization who can finish the project? If so, then the answer is obvious you stay and finish. If not, then leave on the date you have given without feelings of guilt. But I will be saying this much, business will continue with or without you. Yet most westerners like to be leaving on a good note and with good feelings about their image — that is called pride, hmm. Ergo if you are thinking that you will not be thought of in an esteemed manner then that is something that will keep you bound to frustration and guilt the rest of your life no matter where you go or what you do. I say phooey to that trap! Be free of that and know that you and many others like yourself have given years of time and energy to your occupations and if you believe that you have always done your best, then be satisfied with that and leave on a positive note. Don?t let waves of guilt wash over you, hmm.

But, if there are other aspects to your leaving, start whittling away at the causes by asking: Will you be getting a bonus if you stay the two extra months? If so, do you need the extra money? Will you have to cancel any plans you have made for the summer if you extend your retirement date? Are two more months going to make you suffer in any way if you stay? Will anyone suffer at your work if you don’t stay? After asking these questions then let them all go out into the ether and don?t think about them anymore. Let go of any preconceived ideas about what to do and allow your mind to be receptive to what enters. Then make your decision with a clear conscience. I am hoping to have been of some help to you in your dilemma. The obvious choice is right at the tip of your nose but you don?t see it yet. You will!

Questioner called Stressed Out 50-something Woman: Guruji, I am now on the other side of 50. My issue is I feel that I am too old to be looking young, and too young to be feeling old. I am caught between feeling young enough to compete in the job market against the 20 to 40 year olds, but don’t have the ambition to tolerate the office politics of being the old fart of the group and trying to hide my oldness with bottles of hair dye, anti-wrinkle lotions and botox treatments. I know these so-called aids will not disguise the number of my age on a job application. But I don’t want to feel that I am no longer useful in life. I am single, well-educated and still have lots of energy. I have no one to depend on for financial support and with the economic situation in the toilet, I am scared to death that I will live out the rest of my life in poverty and playing solitaire on the computer.

Guruji says: Your situation is very common and it is one that affects thousands of what the west calls “the baby-boomer” generation. In my world, age is not a factor nor has it ever been one. But in the world of humans, aging has become a disease, hmm. Something to fight against, something to avoid becoming, hmm. I say phooey to that nonsense. Age is an aspect of time and space — it goes with the territory. Yet, I understand your situation. Look at it this way, instead of saying you are getting older start saying that you are now on the right side of 50. The right side of 50 can mean many positive things for you. You don’t have to wear those ugly outfits that seem to be parading around on stick-pins called models, you don’t have to become bulimic, you don’t have to slug down the tequila shooters to prove you’re one of the guys, and you don’t have to feel guilty about having to always look beautiful. On the right side of 50 you won’t have to be worrying about getting pregnant, but you should always be mindful of not throwing good common sense out the window, which you won’t because you are an experienced human being. As you might be saying, “been there, done it”! Hmm. Now, if you are fearing being lonely, that tis another issue, isn’t it, but it has nothing to do with age. Besides there are being thousands of organizations and groups established for the 50 demographic just join one or two or three, and see how many women are sharing the same boat as you. Your age should only indicate that you’re old enough to know better and wise enough to know when to step aside. I say phooey to getting old, hmm. The body is an instrument that your mind rules. The mind is not aging at tall, it tis evolving and expanding.

Now onto more serious issues of being impoverished. There are many forms of poverty. Poverty of the spirit is one of them, and one that can be transcended only if you are willing to endeavor on a path that can uplift your soul and expand your consciousness. Unfortunately, in today?s society the idea of being impoverished amplifies the fact that you won’t be gainfully employed because of your age. With the dreadful economical situation it is difficult to remain positive but you must do so. Sit and ponder what your true purpose in life is and honestly seek within yourself for the answer. You will see that there are many ways for you to be useful. One such way is whenever you sit and meditate or pray please do so by holding humanity in your heart and know that that little gesture goes a long way. As one great living being once said: One hour of sincere prayer is worth a lifetime of service.

So my conclusion is this, you can always feel youthful even when you’re 70, 80 or 100. Youthfulness belongs to everyone from 0-???

Guru Whattanuttananda saying good-by and many blessings to you all!

Namaste

Guruji, I have difficulty making decisions. In fact, even when I do make a decision I’ll be racked with worry about whether it was the right or wrong thing to do. It drives me crazy. Can you shed any light on this dilemma?

Guru Whattanuttananda answers: Yes, yes, this is big problem affecting most people in the world, hmmm. Sitting on the fence too long is what the westerners are calling it. Hemming and hawing, and teeter-tottering, hmmm, I am liking these terms. Where I come from we are calling it doubting and indecisiveness. To remain in doubt and uncertainty is suffering. Yet, human beings are not wanting to make mistakes and this is understandable. But how is it that you will ever be knowing if you made a mistake unless you first commit to making a decision to doing something, hmmm?

The problem is not in making a decision. I dare say most people would always make a decision if they knew without a doubt that it was the right one. But it cannot always be so? There are necessary lessons to learn in making mistakes. Yet, most people are not willing to accept responsibility for making mistakes – it carries too much guilt. And guilt is the yoke around the neck that becomes a heavy burden, and confines you to a life of misery. Guilt causes doubt. Of course, there are some choices you will inherently know to do or not to do. For instance, you will not be petting a rabid dog, and you will not be wanting to drink battery acid, because you know these things are harmful. So my point is, sometimes one must plant their flag into the ground and be standing firm by their decision. And only afterwards will you be knowing if it was the right or wrong thing to do. Once you are knowing this then you can move on with your life. However, I will be saying this much, before you make a decision, first be asking yourself, what is it for? Once you honestly know the purpose then you can be making your decision without the burden of guilt.

So, in conclusion, there is only one solution to indecisiveness– make a decision or you will stagnate into a murky pool of uncertainty. Instead of saying: perhaps, maybe, I think so, I would like to, I should have, or I could have, these are all passive phrases. Be strong, be certain and say, yes I will or no I won’t. Try it for a change, and see how much you move forward in your life.

Question: Guruji, I have a problem with being on a spiritual path, and wanting to fulfil my dreams. My question to you is this: Can I attain freedom as well as be successful in reaching my goals?

Guru Whattanuttanda answers: I have been asked this question many, many times. What if I am telling you that your only goal is to be knowing yourself, and once you have recognized this fundamental truth, happiness and joy will be flowing like an endless spring, hmmm? Yet, most people are not understanding what is their “true Self”. They are believing that once they attain this so-called spiritual freedom then they will not have to worry anymore about their health, about their finances, about their love life, about being popular and not lonely about having control over their lives, etcetera, etcetera. I am telling you this much, that is a bunch of phooeyness. Oh sure, you can have success in the world, you can be a famous singer, a powerful politician, an Olympic gold medalist, or a Nobel prize winner — but is that giving you true freedom? Is that bringing you true happiness? No, it is a fleeting moment that appears as happiness and only makes the person feel good about themselves for a very short time. And then the next feeling of lack will rise to the surface, and now another goal has to be fulfilled. What a bunch of phooeyness? Real Freedom means knowing who you truly are — that is it! Not Mr. or Mrs Jones, the Prime Minister, the Actress, the Beauty Queen. You must realize that you are not just a body mass, you are an endless source of energy that has myriad forms of expressions — we are all created from the same source and it is this that most people remain unfamiliar with – because they are too much concentrating their energy on the external. Too much they are worrying about what the other person is doing or getting. Too much they are worrying about the future, whether they will have enough of this or that. I am saying, cease and desist from such needless phooeyness. I say ponder this: If you could focus just a little amount of the energy that you put into worrying so much about the future or about being successful, into each second of thinking about God, imagine how much more you will be able to know your true Self. If you are thinking about God as much as you are thinking about your new house or the new car you are going to be buying, know that that same amount energy will bring you closer to divine consciousness. Another layer of ignorance will be removed and once you realize this, no one or nothing can ever take that knowledge away from you — that is freedom not found in this egoistic world.

The goals to which you are asking me about are nothing but empty desires that you have given some believability or credibility to when you are feeling a state of deficiency or lack. And you are thinking that pursuing some worldly goal will fulfill this lack or emptiness. This is wishful thinking. But, nothing is wrong with having a goal. When your mind is quiet and calm, then you will feel the inspiration to pursue a course that is undeniably the right one, whether it will bring you riches and fame or destitution, you will not be affected by the outcome. You will be accepting all that occurs – sometimes you will do so with a smile on your face and sometimes you may grumble a little, but the outcome will not affect your state of happiness because you are not acting out of lack.

That is all for now until next time. Guruji is saying good-by and keep on flowing with the stream of life!

Guru Whattanuttananda copyright by Adele Nieto 2007

Questions for Guru Whattanuttananda

Seeker: Guriji, What is the secret of life?

GW: Secret. What secret? You’re here, aren’t you? Why it tis secret? I can see you . . . you can see me? What more do you want to know — seeing is believing, isn’t it? We call things that we don’t know about a “secret” but I tell you, there is no secret. You know everything there is to know for where you are in this life. What you are not knowing about is how to be using your own knowledge. You are always wanting someone to be telling you how to live. I say “phooey”! You are knowing how to live. You wake up in the morning, you use the toilet, you eat breakfast, you are going to work, or you are doing whatever you normally do. What tis the secret there, hmm? Why making such big deal about “secret”? I know as much as you know about life?

You are thinking that if I am giving you a mantra to say over and over, something magical will happen and you’ll have everything you want, hmm? I say that you will get a headache repeating over and over the same thing. Mantra is good for people who have monkey minds. All it does is keep you from thinking too much.

Better to be asking yourself “are you happy in this moment”? If answer is yes, then what more to ask for. If answer is no, then ask same question again in 5 minutes. Keep asking until you answer “yes”.

Seeker: Guriji, What is the purpose of this life?

GW: Oh sure, you are wanting me to tell you what to do so you can live a better life. Isn’t it better if you figure that one out for yourself? For I will tell you this, get rid of ego. That tis the only thing keeping you from living a better life. You are too attached to your physical identity. Ego is like wearing raggedy, smelling clothes, stinking up the joint. Why put so much importance on your measly, little, itty-bitty, temporary existence as Jane, Joe, Bob, Carol etcetera, etcetera? Be natural. Stop pretending. Stop pretending that you don’t know what the purpose of life is.

You see someone old falling down on the sidewalk. You walk over to help this person get up. No one is telling you to do that, you just do it, that is your purpose in that moment. Someone you know is ill so you call on the phone or are visiting with that friend to cheer him or her up. That is a natural purpose, isn’t it. Your boyfriend, or husband is cheating on you, you are feeling pain in your heart, but your heart is still beating, and it will go on beating afterwards. Yet your instinct is to be hitting him over the head with a frying pan, that is ego reaction, and not a wise thing to do. Better to go to the pet store and buy a cat or a puppy and take care of them, that is a purpose, and they will not cheat on you.

Seeker: Guruji, I’ve been seeking for freedom and I can’t seem to find it. Is it because I would have to give up my career to seek freedom whole-heartedly?

GW: Freedom, what is this nonsense? You don’t look like you are bound and tied to me. What freedom you are talking about? Freedom from stiff back? Freedom from crying children? Freedom from worry? What is this freedom you refer to?

Seeker: You know, the kind of freedom that makes you impervious to the suffering and anguish that is going on in the world.

GW: Ohhhh, I seeee. You are wanting to have this freedom so you can be living your life the way you are wanting to without incurring any pain or suffering, hmm?

Seeker: Yes, that is what I’m asking about.

GW: Where are you from, may I ask and what are you doing for a living?

Seeker: Yes, I live in Los Angeles. I’m an actress.

GW: I am liking James Bond movies. He never gets shot, can fall from a plane and not get killed, and is always saving the world from the evil doers. Have you been in any movies?

Seeker: I’ve starred in two pilot movies, but the networks didn’t pick them up. I have just completed the lead female role in an independent movie. I play a rich, cracked-out addict that cannot come to terms with life, because life is too painful for her, so she spends all her inheritance on drugs and parties.

GW: That is the most curious thing about movies, isn’t it, they make movies about things that humans already do in life. Why do people want to be seeing movies about what is already happening all around us? Go to see a Bollywood movie. Most colourful and always they are singing.

I will say this much, you are starring in the biggest role of your life, right now, right here. You are producer, director, actor, etcetera, etcetera. You should all get academy awards for playing in this big movie, hmm! See, this movie is what is preventing you from having freedom or moksha. Stop identifying with this movie . . . and get to know who you are. Just like when you finish filming, you will go home and you are still Jane or John. Who you really are doesn’t change, hmm! So it tis with this movie we call “life”. Once you see it is only another role, you will play along with it knowing that who you truly are does not change, hmm.

If you are wanting to know that when you achieve moksha, liberation, that you will not suffer or feel any pain — the answer is no. There is nothing to be achieving that will prevent you from feeling pain physically and mentally. Suffering from physical pain cannot be avoided sometimes. If you break your leg, it will mend. If you contract a disease you can seek a cure. Mental suffering is different. It tis a changing of attitude, hmm! If you lose a loved-one you will grieve, but the suffering will be in your mind. The time for not suffering is all up to you. You give suffering a time limit. Nobody but you can end it.

Ask Guru Whatanuttananda any question and he will answer it!

Guru Whattanuttananda copyright by Adele Nieto 2007