Quite often, we are forced to inquire into ourselves, what could be the problem with us, when we are not able to acquire a certain habit, a trait, a way of thinking.....
To get this inquiry process on amidst children, I sometimes ask them, why is it that they are unable to 'hang on the resolve' to be like some hero that they had read about in a story book, a good movie, etc.
And then comes the classification problem. Are we just over-apprehensive about things, or are we 'at times' pessimist, or is it a case of 'clever' negativity? (Actually, it is fun watching the reactions when we float an unorthodox/unconventional idea about some project, dealing with some problem or something like that. The reasons and reactions get interwoven so well, and people are at 'their very best' in resisting deviations from 'known' path. It almost feels like having placed them under a powerful magnifying glass, and observing them with effortless ease!).
Some of these traits percolate down the generation crossing borders, 'cutting across party lines' etc. For instance, that 'treatment' towards an 'assessee'.... Tax assessee... If we are to be called an assessee, there has to be an assessment. But when the number of assesees is just unmanageable, why not 'deem' that acknowledgement of a tax return filed/submitted, as an 'assessment order'? As long they have the authority, they are at liberty to call it, deem it, or even damn it, anyway they like, and we remain that humble, subservient, used-to-bowing-down “lagaan-paying-people”. Yes, it had started perhaps from the “lagaan” era, where the basic purpose of 'tax' was to meet war-related expenditure, and therefore, the ability to pay the tax was never the criteria, the war needs, and perhaps the whims of the 'local' authority decided the quantum of tax. Many generations later, if something prevents the tax people from calling that 'acknowledgement' as a 'waiver' of assessment, instead of 'deeming' it, that 'something' which is still inside them, is worthy of recognition. Recognising a problem is the major half of approach towards solving it. Diagnosis, is the medical term which seems to give us a reassurance, despite it going wrong very often.
To those who are serious about realigning themselves to give a try, and attempt to change their very 'basics', I would suggest that they start with their 'default' responses, and observing them seriously, from within. Initially, nothing much would 'seem' to happen. That is simply because, the observation is superficial, and deceptively too. Even this observation has to become 'a bit' by default, and then, there is an instance of impartial, impersonal, witnessing aspected observation. It is then very significant. Now, even if we are unaware, unconscious of this type of observation, this instance, it is still a 'productive' one. It would open up the possibility to change of our 'chemistry within'!! (To illustrate an example, please see, if it is possible to 'observe' our response when our name is called out by somebody, all of a sudden, in a crowd, from our behind, our back, our rear-side.... or whatever that is... The response is instantaneous, reactionery, and with least time gap. Was there not a period of time, when adults around had struggled to teach us to respond to our 'name', and we were faced with a problem of trying to comprehend, as to what that concept called 'name' is, in the first place! With all those pet names, funny names, there was no uniformity at least, to figure out that we do have a 'name' and not mood-based nomenclature! And now, we are addicted not just to a name, not just that tag , designation, etc, but a whole bunch of 'default' reactions! ). As if to add to the problem, there are wonderful 'sayings'.... “A door half closed is also half open!”... It is a thousand times open for an ant, hundred times open for a rat, ..... and we are quite flexible... if that movie is a sought after one, and the ticket bought in 'heavy-black-rate', we manage to slip through the crowd jamming that half-open door at movie theatre, 'manned' by a hefty door-man, who struggles to collect, tear one half, (the counterfoil), and then 'regulate' the entry! At a theatre, we have no mind-time, quality-time, or whatever, to 'think' of that door as half closed. It has always been just open! When the movie is over, both the doors are 'left' open, and we, so 'right-minded', find it invariably very narrow to come out of it!
And so this question, we hope leads us to that precious little bit of freedom, right within us!
(Actually, there was a better and straight to-the-point question, which almost went , almost escaped, unnoticed.... So, I would just give the link, here and leave the rest to 'rest'...
The question quoted below might perhaps, inspire a look at the link above, and the answer , I feel, has to be sought afresh, from within.
(I don't know where to 'squeeze-in' this bit of a comment, but, I do have to mention it somewhere, to reassue those, who find 'trust' as an effortless response, that traditional methods are far more effective--cost-effective, time-effective, effort-effective etc---..., and with all its super-scientific in-built tools too, it has been the choice of ancient masters..... chanting.... )
psn(5th July, 2011)
Don,t we know much more about the world than we know about our selves?
My Answer:
The question really is, are we aware of what makes us perceive the world, the way we do?
Because,
"what we know 'about the world', is just the way we perceive it, the world happens inside us. The experience of the world is inside us!"...
A mosquito bites us, and if we are engrossed in that novel, we don't know... The pain sensation is very much there. One drop of our precious blood is lost to that mosquito, though we may be shy of blood donation. Hopefully, the mosquito 'may' spare us some dreaded viruses...
If we are colour blind, the world we know is black and white only.
A mentally ill person may go back to child hood state, and may forget the world he knows.
So the world we know, is essentially a bundle of memories.
..
When we know ourselves, the world would never be the same for us , ever again! Knowing ourselves well, the way those spiritual masters 'defined' it, also ensures, that we don't depend on our memory or its stupid interference, when we experience ourselves, moment to moment, in its highest potential, in its deepest experience.... And then on,.. even that 'much about the world' , that we know becomes dimensionally different, at will, in full awareness, and very consciously.
A very deep question. The only question perhaps, the answer for which opens the key to the answers of all other questions.
