Reverential Attentiveness

“Keep an eye on him always, he will be doing some simple job at the kitchen”, said the Zen Master to the inmates of his Spiritual hermitage, while introducing a new inmate who wasn't a fresher. On the other hand, this inmate was very close to 'making it' any time now!

I can imagine the plight of the other inmates, who have to maintain a heightened level of attentiveness, having no support from the situation outside, to fuel their reverence-potential towards an ear-marked candidate, because, this new one was not going to 'demonstrate' anything in a visible way!

I was yet again amused to view an interesting video clip, where the task of 'training' kids into attentiveness was outsourced to a structure and its ambiance rather than the designated teachers!

https://www.ted.com/talks/takaharu_tezuka_the_best_kindergarten_you_ve_ever_seen

Toddlers can't even be reached....

This kindergarten-age was looked at as a crucial stage, hoping to retain the innate attentiveness, to a maximum possible level, and perhaps, hoping thereby to develop a sense of reverence, towards 'deserving' things/persons/whatever...

Yes, as a kid, I too faced the problem of according respect towards elders, 'just for the sake of it'! I could clearly see too often, that their grasp of the situation doesn't deserve the 'prescribed' levels of respect that is mandated.

It is here that I confronted two abstract concepts which looked like overlapping each other... Respect and reverence...

As adults we find it quite easy, to 'respect' a chair/position/title/etc... where as reverence is something quite personal, and doesn't warrant an exhibition always. When we only fear, we use gloves to handle an un-insulated wire, supposed to be carrying an electric current.. But it is that sensible-caution, which perhaps does invoke a subtle 'reverence' which might persuade us to look at the intrinsic worth of that wire, to see if it really deserves a 'gloved' handshake, and then extend our palm towards it!

When it comes to spiritual-related 'stuff' that comes down to us over generations (Our very genes might be 'stuffed' :) ..., or we might be thrust upon with stuff, which is situation-based, like the society where we are born, its traditions, rituals, scriptures, etc... ), the reverence part becomes the most difficult thing for us to invoke, and without it, the bare-respect part becomes too burdensome!

My admiration for the ancients of Indian spirituality comes out of a discovery of 'how they even managed to ensure' that some-reverence manages to creep in, (not just that they also-looked-at, the difficulty about reverence-without-experience!... One mild-electric shock, and the kid 'can' now remember to be cautious with that plug-socket/wire, etc...!) .... they managed to ensure that some reverence does creep in, even when the badly-mangled/deformed/diluted version of the rituals/traditions/culture reaches down the later generations!

I was a little fortunate... Quite a number of incidents did help me to 'distinguish' the places where respect was not mandated, and yet the reverence was richly deserved!

A real life example: At the very second day of my reporting for work (yes, the job where I retired), I happened to ask of a subordinate staff (the lowest level designation at the workplace), to fetch a book of entry, and its related papers... I was 'supposed' to utilize these services of that person, and he was supposed to comply with my request (yes, it was a polite request, not the 'usual-ordering' which was also 'quite-in-order' :) ...). He did comply, and very gracefully too... He looked aged, almost about to retire, but that did not matter, as long as the 'uniform' that he wore, spoke for him. But, to my utter surprise, the chief representative of the 'staff-union' met me later and insisted that I 'apologise' to him, for having told a 'work' to be done to that sub-staff! I was a 'kid', and did not waste time to argue or even-learn from 'heavy-weights' from 'union'... I simply blurted out those magical words which bought me the freedom-from-trouble, and everybody around nodded a look of approval, almost saying, 'good for you, that you learn so well, and so quickly!'...

I did not have to wait for too long... (but I did 'resolve' to wait sufficiently long enough to ask that person-himself, since he did not quite approve of such 'apology', but none would hear him!).. He, the sub-staff, took me aside, and said, 'Don't take it to heart, ... that forced-apology... I hereby make a 'return-apology' to you on their behalf... these people, they make a mountain out of a mole-hill... I just do my duty, to whatever extent I can”.

After some two days, another colleague, who was a bit amazed at my calm (not quite easy to gulp-down a forced-apology!), explained, “See, all the staff members have decided, that nobody shall ever “tell-him” what he needs to do... he already does a lot more than what can be expected normally from anybody in that job... and over the years, he earned a 'respect' thus!... you were new, and did not know about this 'background'... and the 'union' did not like to perpetuate a bad-precedent, so the leader was in a great hurry, to put-down any dis-respect to that man!”...

I found a clear indication, that I was to 'keep an eye' on that person doing a humble/menial job!

To this day even, I look at the 'act' of that union leader with a lot of 'reverence' (and quite-possibly, even he was oblivious of the spiritual-benefit of his own act...!!!). And I found 'this-reverence' to be a clue, which I use for my own 'camouflage and concealment'... yes, as a converse-theorem of it!... In army, when they teach 'camouflage and concealment' they first teach 'why things are visible to us'.. I learnt it quite well, when they linked it as 6 S(sisters), and 1 M(mother).. the 'M' stands for 'movement'... Figure out the 6 S's for yourselves!

Respectfully yours,

psn(14th May, 2015)