How ever one chooses to commit to a path and engage in inner work, essential change cannot be anticipated when inertia and inaction prevail. Achieving ease and equanimity is no exception. Intuitively, we know that becoming fully aware requires transcendence of our habitual, instinctual reactions. This transformative awareness can be elusive because automatic or unconscious responses dominate our lives. These deeply rooted tendencies frequently thwart our personal development, because we remain identified with robot-like thought patterns and emotional reactions, unaware of the pain that accompanies egotistic grandiosity and the illusion of independence.

To illustrate the profundity of such a transformation we have only to glance at famous historical Awakened ones such as Ramana Maharshi or Nisargadatta Maharaj, who carried out their simple daily tasks without any pretense or drama — no grand poses for spiritual seekers’ benefit unlike in modern times. Ramana would tend to gardens as well as complete various domestic chores, such as chopping veggies on occasion. Nisargadatta would occasionally spend some time mopping his meeting hall’s floor in silent, methodical rhythmic pattern. In India this ability to maintain compassionate awareness constantly while ‘being’ as pure Awareness itself is admired greatly and considered remarkable and exceedingly difficult. That’s why even so-called ‘realized’ folks like us will usually maintain various levels of struggle before even the faintest glimmers become perpetual. As Nisargadatta explained to one of his interlocutors:

"For some time, the mental habits may linger despite the new vision — that of the known, happy past, which has gone, and of the unknown, perhaps sorrowful future which must ensue. Do not worry if it happens."

Eventually one comes to the understanding that no identity worth saving will survive once its ultimate shallowness reaches our realization which is the death-knell of all self-centric delusions because when we totally turn off the power, all the static dissolves and a deeper truth remains untouched.

As the Indian tradition often says - one’s final undoing of all mental and emotional habits: then the fan stops spinning. When even fleeting identifications fade, real joy arises beyond the influence of external pleasures or pains. This revelation of authentic being untroubled by attachment or fear becomes indomitable strength.

 Sitting under my favourite tree — like a lamppost: I was lost in silence, then suddenly I erupted in thought. To me it's amazing how easily human mind distracts us from reality or just floats in daydream (in thought-wave-somnambulism). I noticed the constant chattering and thought-provoking idea spinning and then I looked around and realized the incredible silence.

And what do we think happened afterward? Oh yeah...my monkey mind popped in, started observing everything, this tiny creature — what is it eating? How clever — that it is opening a nut without any tools! Then I decided — I would join the real game — the cricket match that’s going in different field nearby.

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“Your mind is unquiet, and distractions pull you away from being present in immediate experience.”

Our thoughts bring us endless suffering. How are we to transcend and overcome these thoughts so as to achieve real silence, awareness, stillness in our lives?

The key here lies in learning observation skills of thought itself - observe thoughts just as a mirror reflect the image but non-judgmentally.

One of my favourite quotes is from Sri Nisargadatta (Quoted from I Am That):
“How painful it is—to be aware of the pain of Awareness”

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