Our dislikes

“I am apt mystic saar”... He said, in reply to my query whether he was sure about it (something, that sounded like a judgement, when it was supposed to be only a guess, a prediction!)... That was his possible-best, when trying to articulate his 'optimism'-orientation!

If I had a dislike for his native accent, which affected a foreign tongue vibrating through his vocal cord, I would have indeed missed the 'mystic aptness' that he did carry! He was quite popular for his off-hand predictive statements that did mystify others around... One of our dear colleagues, who was an object of 'dislike' for quite a few, especially when his chants/rants came true, to their own 'disliked-results'...

That sent me thinking about the 'dislike patterns' we carry as 'selective' beings... Our selectivism is not really 'need based'.. perhaps, not even want-based at times, but like-based... Even the most genuine addicts would like that their drinks would not taste so bitter, at least for the first two 'rounds' (later , even the brand would not matter, anyway!).

Just because we find two of us alike, does not always make us like each other, and the other way, 'unlikes' is likely to be a wonderful base for mutual-likes. A dislike doesn't fit in anywhere except when we like to be something that we really are not. And the discovery of the whole process of finding out what we are, is about transcending our likes and dislikes too!

During the phase of volunteering, I found it to be a 'demanding' skill to discover undisclosed dislikes of a few eager-seekers, so that they would transcend their hurdles, silk-smooth... But my hurdle was when I saw that the distinction I had to make was between dislikes of their body and mind! (For example, some people like chana-dal, but their body dislikes it, and instantly shows as skin-irritation-blisters/bulges! ... Some very 'personal' dislikes gets liked by the physical-persona, and their physique too adapts, and addicts to those dislikes, like those couch-potatoes, who dislike a bare-floor to sleep on...)

My earliest memory of 'dislike' was, when my school-teacher decided to initiate me into a new lesson when I just began to like the present one... The new lesson, always felt like an unpleasant stranger! And this dislike began to snowball into a dislike for even the 'promotion' (we were not adjudged as 'passed' .... And one of the elders at home, who perhaps had a dislike for that promotion-without-wage-hike, and he said, 'Oh! So, you didn't really pass the exams, but you were somehow 'promoted' to the next class?'... and it sent me thinking into decide whether it was good to dislike a promotion or a 'pass'!.)

We as kids used to eat anything that was served as 'edible' food... But the taste for dislikes seems to be growing... Kids specialise into dislikes for even 'brands' of noodles, not just the variety called noodles! Even the 'extra' liking for something is about exclusivity of other un-mentioned-dislikes! When such 'dislikes' abound, how do we resist a corruption of mind?... Once the mind is corrupt, how do we avoid our general-dislikes like 'corruption, pollution, etc'?... Then, a 'like', and a likely-future-liking... to keep talking about 'dislikes' is the option to sugar coat it! A mind which is thus caught into likes and dislikes, is more busy with its attention being diverted into grading, classifying, storing etc, of its likes and dislikes, and the grasp of any concept it is true-perspective evades... Attention span finds it easier to make good its escape before the decision of a like-dislike is pronounced! And we try to talk of things like 'acceptance', 'surrender' etc... Now the problem(for some of us) is, perhaps, something like this : “those with whom I like to be, are found in a forum which I dislike, and to further compound it, their dislikes are through absence of response-comments, which includes “me” when it is only supposed to be about my blogs!”.. And for me, it feels almost like fishing in troubled-waters! The best reach for spiritual concepts are when the mind is oscillating between this indecisiveness, only then to have a choice whether to deepen the 'settling-down' into those concepts!

No wonder , we have a “like” button to click on our blogs.. Others are to be simply blocked from voicing their dislikes even!

Likely yours,

psn (3rd December, 2014)