4 Aces and a Joker

Positive thinking, inner peace, egoless, unconditional love, optimism, harmony, humility, responsibility, compassion, justice, simplicity, and reciprocity.  The words given are the result of a google search on the qualities of a spiritual person. However, while we talk about all these in a broader universal context, we do not know where to begin and where to end. Therefore borrowing from a book on Zen habits I want to discuss 4 qualities which can sequentially lead to the highest enveloping quality of universal Love. 

If the purpose of life is to realize the Self and go beyond the gross, subtle and causal states of the Body, Mind and Intellect consciousness then simple things done consistently might help. At all stages of life we are struggling with this process of Self Realization. I must put a disclaimer that the choice of the aces is not mine but I certainly think I endorse this simple choice. Very often reading the scriptures and listing qualities or actions that lead to progress towards a higher purpose of existence is confusing.

A similar confusion awaited me when I set out to define quality in health care. The six pillars of Quality are Safety, Effectiveness, Person centeredness, Timeliness, Equity and Efficiency. So in creating a quality experience which we expect our staff to do they are unlikely to remember what is the most important and what comes first as to be safe one may have to be less effective and to be person centered one may land up being unsafe. So in a book I read the approach was t tell staff that from the patients perspective safety came first, followed by courtesy followed by show or experience and finally efficiency. This reduced the number of things to remember and gave the staff a clear signal of what to give more importance to achieve quality. Above all the purpose of hospitalization is safety and while clinical outcomes are a given expected, courtesy and a patient centered experience lead to creating customer loyalty and if along with this efficient timely care is delivered that would be excellent. However, the most efficient care delivered with compromise on experience courtesy will never be good and on top of it if safety is compromised it can have very negative consequences. This gives meaning to true quality as we prioritize what is needed to achieve the goal of providing quality care with the best patient experience. 

If all this has left you confused, I would like to apologize for my inability to explain. So in the Zen article an incremental approach is advised. Gratitude, in my opinion is the most often forgotten quality required to attain spiritual progress. In fact we are forever complaining and blaming external circumstances for everything that adversely impacting us and forgetting the many things that fall in place correctly to give us advantages in life. We also fail to learn from nature and realize that the order in the universe amidst the apparent turmoil helps us to live propagate and prosper.  So Gratitude is quality number 1, seems relatively easy to implement for all that one needs is to become aware and say Thank you to persons, and to God for providing health and happiness. Even as we may resolve to show gratitude to prevent us forgetting we need to make a conscious attempt to do so. If necessary we can even fake it to feel it. Once it becomes a habit it will lead us automatically to the second quality. 

Kindness come naturally to us towards those to whom we are grateful. Once that happens we even become kind to nature, mother earth and the people around us. It also leads to a respect for creation. Now the question to ask is, how to be kind to people who are unkind and ungrateful towards us? Well the answer is clear gratefulness and kindness towards our brethren will always lead to transformation of the unkind and ungrateful. Just as trust begets trust, gratitude and kindness leads to a reciprocal feeling sooner than one can imagine. 

Both of the above qualities lead to authenticity and genuine realization of one's nature. It is my firm conviction that false gratitude and kindness will expose the person as false and not authentic. The authentic personality understands his strengths and weakness and uses them to progress by building on the strengths and overcoming the weaknesses. We need to adopt solidity of purpose and a flexibility of approach to discover our true Self. 

Lastly, acceptance of the presence of the Self in all creation and all creation in the Self is the path to Self Realization. If we accept that all that happens as part of our karma without blaming the external forces or circumstances we will be free from dualities of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain and victory and defeat. Such a person is free from agitations and becomes a person with steadfast intellect. 

So Gratitude leads to Kindness and both create Authenticity and all three lead to Acceptance. Above all there is Universal Love the Joker in the pack which makes one see oneself in all and all in oneself. Is this possible? yes and if Yes is it easy? The answer is no it is not easy. Use of the 4 aces and the joker is a practical way to do this. 

Vispi Jokhi