On Becoming 100  

In the Isha Upanishad we find this sutra (verse): "Continuing to act in the world, one may aspire to be one hundred."

At first glance this line may suggest to the reader that by acting properly in this world one can hope to reach the age of one hundred, and such an interpretation is fine because it has positive connotations and urges one to act in ways conducive to a ripe old age. There is nothing wrong with such an interpretation.

But the Upanishads are Scriptures, and Scripture has layers of meaning. Living to become one hundred is the gross meaning if you want to strive to become really old. Go for it. It's a great idea and should be the goal of almost everybody. Few will argue with this goal.

But the line also has a spiritual meaning. In Vedic literature 100 symbolizes the state of enlightenment – that state where the self is experienced and seen as everything, and also, everything is seen as the self in a state of Oneness. The numbers of the 100 symbolize the outer world of phenomena or the sensory world of experience, the relative world, as one zero, the inner world as the world of the Absolute – the other zero, and the one symbolizes the state that represents the joined-together state resulting from the combination of both the relative and the Absolute (usually achieved during meditation).

So, to aspire to be one hundred, in this Upanishad, has the meaning of aspiring to be or become Enlightened. But it also leaves the seeker some helpful hints:

There are two worlds (if you like); one is relative and one is Absolute. The relative world is the world that you can sense – see, feel, hear, taste, and smell, and the very sophisticated mind that assimilates and accommodates all these details thus gathered. The other world is the Absolute – the 'world' of Oneness – in which the inner world is 'enjoyed', first, during meditation, and later, continuously.

Many practitioners, and some seekers have the idea that the mind is the 'enemy', and as such it must somehow be 'controlled' – usually by some radical measure such as mental focus or force or sitting in a sensory deprived space, or by somehow 'changing' the mind, again by mental force or by simple substitution. All of these methods, although they can be used (but only as a long stretch), they are not the suggested way of fruitful meditation at all.

Meditation is allowing your self to enjoy your inner world, and by such enjoyment, sink deeper into the world of the Absolute, and to the extent that the practitioner can achieve this, the relative world becomes less substantial in its existence and experience. The trick is to not interfere with your consciousness in meditation. No, it knows just exactly where it wants to go – it's been there before and it wants to go there again. And my Friends, the place it wants to go is home. Here home. In the Self home. To be and exist as the Absolute Self, or that which it really is all the time except for our petty little egos cutting and dividing it and calling it "I" and "me" and "mine" and thus making the Self seem like the self by dividing the Oneness of "Me" into me and not-me.

Now, although meditation – the one zero of the 100 - provides the method to achieve the Absolute (or rather regain the experience thereof), the other zero – representing the sensory relative world - must not be overlooked. It requires our full participation. You must live in this world. You have no choice really since you have a body that requires feeding and cleaning and excreting and growing and clothing and shelter. Which means you need a job, for which you need the education or the skills and training, and all the associated pain and suffering and trauma, the loves and hates, and all the emotions and thoughts… you get the idea, you know it well – it is the world out there. There is no escaping this.

What the Upanishad line tells us though is that we must not try and escape this outer world. We must embrace it (in meditation, the word is 'enjoy'), and not just some of it, but all of it. Live the full life. Don't hide from the pain or shirk your duty. Do as you must or have to, as it is required, and then, do more if you can for the sake of compassion, such as helping those in need who are really everywhere around you.

For those seekers having found some measure of competency in meditation, the temptation may be to 'escape' some of the difficulties in the outer world by means of meditation. Such action would be contradictory to the advice of the Upanishad line. You must have the full experience of the outer world. For most of us, this is really no problem, because it is all that we have (or so we believe).

For those having no experience of the Absolute, meditation is said to be the way. For those who have mastered meditation, action in the world should not be avoided. It is only through a combination of both the relative and the Absolute – the inner and the outer worlds – meditation and life – that the Totality of Oneness can be fully Realized.

Don't live only in here. If you can live competently in here, then don't ignore the outer world by shutting yourself off to the experience thereof, or as this Upanishad says, you will go into "blinding darkness".

But don't live only out there either. Learn some meditative techniques. It is really not that difficult and it requires only a desire to do so and some perseverance. Because if you live only out there, says the Upanishad, into "even greater darkness" you will go, which most of us know better than we'd like to.

The middle name of Yoga is 'balance'. So, let us not meditate all the time and let us not just 'live' all the time, but let us meditate and live equally, thus aspiring to be one hundred, attain to Enlightenment, or really, simply realize your Self.

Namaste.