PreOccupied Mind

I had to ‘spin’ an illogical story, to illustrate a point. Any resemblance to reality would put off the listener badly enough. Though no harm or loss is a potential threat to me, the purpose of query gets lost (perhaps for an indefinite length of time, like the ‘sine die’ adjournment of our parliament!).

So, the story comes first. A resident doctor of a mental asylum had to give a significant dose of medicine, having prepared the body for nearly 40 days, with those preparatory medicines. Even a day’s delay would entail redoing the 40 days of preparatory doses of medicines. Very unfortunately the nurse in-charge of that patient had to leave abruptly and quite unprepared to be able to make alternative arrangement. That patient was amenable only to that nurse (quite understandable). The doctor was the next person to whom this patient would listen to some extent. Now, the doctor had to take a chance with the patient himself, to administer this dose of crucial medicine. To the best of his abilities, the doctor talks for a while to the patient, to get him to listen to the instructions. The patient, find the doctor ‘unusually’ amenable and quite mechanically reciprocates the mannerism. Using the right moment, the doctor says “ I know, I can trust you to remember carefully, and swallow this medicine tomorrow, one pill before meals three times, three meals…. One pill, three times, ….. three meals….Please remember well!” (The doctor knew too well, only the nurse can make this patient swallow the pill, other wise, appeal to the patient himself thus). The patient, chose to hold the pills tight in the fist, dance and jump, in circles repeating incessantly, “three times, one pill each time, before meals,… before meals.. before meals,… one pill, three times….” . The doctor felt quite satisfied. He could get the patient to repeat this important thing so cheerfully, so many times. So very less chance that he would miss the medicine. The doctor too had to visit else where the next day, and could not even come to see if the medicine was swallowed.
On the day after this ‘tomorrow’ the doctor came on routine rounds, and the nurse too stood by in ‘waiting’. The nurse was happy to note that this patient was dancing and jumping, holding his arm high, waiving the shiny packed strip of pills, and shouting “three times, one pill each time, before meals,… before meals.. before meals,… one pill, three times….”. The nurse was a bit surprised as to why the doctor could not share the surprise and joy at looking at patient’s first instance of ‘response’(after months of treatment) saying thus! The doctor knew that he had to begin all over again for 40 days!
The doctor knew, he did his very best, making reference to that word ‘tomorrow’ only once, so that the patient does not copy our meaning of ‘tomorrow’! It was a chance, the only chance the doctor could take, with the patient.

I had the fortune to observe experienced Master struggling to get across the right kind of instructions while imparting subtle spiritual processes to potential disciples! I don’t know even today, who deserves greater consolation, the disciples, who meticulously follow the practices for long, with utter sincerity and trust, or the master who has none to share his awareness how futile the instructions have gone due to the ‘pre-occupied’ mind with which the disciple received the instructions! (We have that story about Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who asked the Goddess to ‘pause’ when she made her divine appearance acceding to his prayers, and about to impart ‘knowledge’. “what now, ..?” asked the Goddess… to which, Ramakrishna requested, “please make me into a child first, and then impart the knowledge”.)

It is altogether a different story, as to how we came about to be thus, that is for those who are inclined to concur about it, first of all!
I once asked, my colleagues, quite long ago, when they seemed to refuse to understand my logic, and instead tried to impose their ideas, when they dominated the conversation…
What I asked was :
When you speak to me, to explain,
Are you keen that I should understand you,
a) the way you understood it,
b) the way you ‘wish’ that you should be understood (the 'wish' being out of anxiety, and that they may be apprehensive about lack of linguistic skills, apt vocabulary etc)
c) the way, you wish, that I should understand you (essentially implying that I should misconstrue you in total trust and confidently enough, to suit you more!)

Any way, I least expected that my answer to this question would get any attention at all!
Quote:
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100818214925AALuiyo
The question:
Is it difficult to Just Be in moment....................?
Why it is difficult to Just Be in this moment.............?
(Somebody readily had, bore the answer already, so, I will not bore you again, repeating it here)
Unquote:

Now, I think, we understand each other quite well. I have learned and then understood, the hard way, when I look towards response of any kind, to all communications. Speech is silver, but silence keeps me ever guessing, whether it is real gold, of what purity, and at what prevailing-price!
Psn(21st Aug, 2010)