A
very dear friend of mine emailed to tell me that “"quite
admirable, that you go through details like this." (the
details were not much--- it was just doing something additional, and
also related to the basic information I receive... For instance,
when somebody gives us his phone number, it is handy to look up the
address that is 'attached' to this information.... For that, we
need to pre-attach an information a little earlier in our memory
that, the moment we look at a landline phone number, it should 'also
occur' to us that this number belongs to a Government owned service
provider.. Now it is easier to hunt for address from a
directory-search... This saves the hassles for the other person to
respond to our 'yet another query' about his location... Further,
'if and when' we might try to call on him, we can get
somewhere-closeby to that location, and then 'mention the large
landmarks right before us.. the other can now 'very-briefly' tell us
how to reach his place! In a way, it is respecting the other
person's time, mind-time, etc apart from a reverence for him as
another being! Traits like this, contribute immensely towards a
spiritual growth, when it 'fine-tunes' our attitude, which in turn
keeps the negative-emotions a little subdued!
When
I looked back, before responding to this 'remark'... (again, a
default kind of function, that looking back for a credible
experiential-information..) my thoughts ran thus : “I guess, it
becomes more or less like a 'default-functioning'... some kind of
automation, I devised of my own, right during childhood, when I saw
that 'focusing' too much on repetitive routine takes away the mind's
attention too much, I would 'free-up' the mind to relax while I am
able to 'automate the routine functions' ... It is not at all
something new.. actually it is an in-built ability... Most people
apply brakes 'without too much of conscious thinking, once they find
themselves to be a 'good' driver at safety... And yet, maneuvering
requires great attention, since the bottlenecks ahead do not have any
'repetitive pattern'.. they are similar in style (with clothing, we
have similar designs with different pattern! Mem-saabs know this well
where as 'not-so-alert' husbands gape, when she announces "you
have repeated that saree, see, it is so similar!'... and bouts of
arguments ensue...!).
I
had no way to actually 'measure' if I have 'adequately' automated
myself The whole thing is about proper-assessment, about a
repetitive job, the risk of automating it (like, a cashier who learns
to 'mechanically' apply keys to lock a safe, is going to pay with lot
of uncertainty-tension, restlessness, and stress, if he is in doubt,
about 'really' applied the keys... I have experience, of having such
a doubt, and I recall having 'done' it, but the doubt was, whether
the memory belongs to 'today's locking or was it a replay of
yesterday's act?' ..)..
Somebody
used to come to my bachelor-room to learn working-English... It was
night and the power went off.. Pitch dark. In less than 5 seconds, I
lit a match stick, and using that flame-light, picked a candle..
That 'somebody' was amazed! He asked, "how did you manage to
place your palm 'exactly' on the match box?".. I said, 'two
things... I was quite close to its reach.. More importantly, for
the past several years, the match box, its place, its style of
placing, the way it opens, when picked, without fumbling for its
casing to face upwards, the end of the stick that is to be
finger-held, instead of that strike-head, etc.. are consciously
maintained undisturbed... the advantage is, my thought process is
not disturbed too much... It came handy during dark, ... that trapeze artist who does the acrobatics up in the air, can do it even
blind folded, with so many years of practice, if he had also learnt
to trust himself!"
All
this was fine, till that spiritual pursuit began to creep in with its
functionalities, as a tool, to facilitate growth on a steady and
on-going basis... This 'automation' often diluted the awareness
(while alertness was already 'programmed' according to risk, and
viability-factors)... There was a hearsay-story to indicate this: It
seems once Buddha waved his arm the 'second' time, when there was no
fly sitting on his nose, and he explained “the first time, I missed
the awareness of that action”. The fly did not assist for an
action-replay, to oblige Buddha for a live action.. the 'dry-run'
succeeded instead of the 'preceding-style' by those sleeper-cells!
Sleeper cells try to have several dry-runs, with the same objective,
but with different purpose---they do not trust their own
'diverging-nature of mind'! It would lose its attentiveness-towards
purpose, if there is any distraction which makes them apprehensive to
their 'varieties of reactionary type of intense
emotion-potentials'.... usually, fear-based!
So,
I had to 'reprogram' myself, to consciously choose to do those
routine things, in conscious-style too... to keep that awareness,
within the 'conscious-choice' levels.. The benefits were immense..
Even those 'automated' response-and-act-patterns got innovated
further... and of course, needing a re-doing of the
automation-program!
I
guess, some of us here would be interested in this 'possibility' ..
at least to take care of age-related problems of forgetfulness!
Automatically
yours,
psn
(9th November, 2014)
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