Examination of Examples!

As a school kid, I used to love “examples” in the school text books!

The only place where the person (whom we kids 'regarded' as far-more-intelligent than 'even-the teacher'), who wrote the text book, shows his kindness to we-the-kids ... quite liberally... So easy to understand that, even the teacher just ignores the scope to 'further' elaborate an example :)

That was what an 'example' was... any other 'show' of what 'something-would-be-like'... was only a 'sample' (a mild caning on the outstretched palm, by elders, for instance would tell us the trouble in-store for the trouble-we-cause :) ... beware!)

It was the 'easiness' of the examples in maths text book, which made the 'sums' (the problems caused unto us kids, with a very funny-title “Exercise”) look 'far-more-tough' than what it really is!... Reading that 'examples' again and again felt like some wasted-effort, once we had decided that problem to be an 'impregnable-fortress'!

It was thus, we ourselves wove that thick covering over the event called “Examination” :)

The scare created by the teachers and 'parents' was alike, about the thing called 'examination'... It never really occurred to us to even 'examine' the name called 'examination'! The 'process' was utterly simple, and self-explaining, (if only we had the patience to look at it as a two-in-one, example of examination!)...

Years later, I had visited 'north' (where I had worked for a livelihood, for a decade)... this time, for fun...
There, my colleagues and their family had gathered to have a dinner with us (my family was the 'minority-community' and as guests-too, within that drawing room of the 'owner-among-hosts' )....

The kids just played around, with no other visible-purpose known to them for 'such a gathering'...

One of my colleagues, who happened to 'remember' me as an 'example' of how good a motivator can be, (when he struggled with 'promotion' test become a clerk like me), suggested to me “Hey, why don't you speak a few words of motivation/inspiration/whatever-nonsense... to our kids here?.. the schools of this small town does not seem to nurture that-kind-of academic competition like large towns/cities etc”...
And, not waiting to know if I am at least inclined, he proceeded to gather the kids around, and placed me at the centre of that small circle! (With hunger in the stomach, and a delicious fragrance emanating from the dishes, on that large dining table, with the lids kept partially open, ... a very wrong time to indulge into lenghty 'lectures'... I and we the kids knew well!)...

The other negative factor was... the kids are unlikely to gather around thus, a 'next' time!

So, that squeezed me into an unenviable discomfiture of compulsion to squeeze whatever I had to say, into very brief words!

After a few 'initial' gimmicks to 'get-their-attention'... I asked “for whom is that 'exams' at our schools?”... the kids said, “us the kids!! who else ?... ain't we the sole-sufferers? :) ..”
I asked “Really?... Please take a look at it again... That 'driving-test' by RTO , who gives a licence, if we 'pass'... He likes to know, 'if we can drive safely'... and the licence tells that policeman(on behalf of public) later, that we do-know 'how to drive safely'... But, when do we know, if we can drive?... Or, ... when do we propose-to-learn to drive?.. On the eve-of-test?”

They gaped... they seemed to be able to afford themselves a chance for the concept of 'examination' to percolate into them in a 'user-friendly' manner!

I nudged it further into a proper-groove, with a brief utterance “Oh! To me, it looks like.. that exam is either for the teacher (to know how well he taught), or for the parent to know how well the kid had learnt what was taught... etc... but nothing to do with the examinee... who is just a specimen, a sample on the examination-table!”... They had a hearty laugh!

I left it to their choice to ... 'further-examine' the distortions forced upon the sanctity of the concept called 'examination' by everybody around, whether knowingly or not, willingly or not, etc..

Some neighbour drinks to death... spoiling his liver... etc... He is a 'live' example (unlike those deceptively simple examples in the maths text book, which doesn't 'exactly' tell me how to deal with 'tricky' sums!)... he is a living or a dying example (whichever way )... of how 'drinks' can only-spoil, and not nurture health... when we over do it...

Somebody continues the 'growth' in a linear direction, when the nature-designated vertical growth ceases to oblige him.... an example of what it can do with our 'freedom' of movement, health etc!

Hey..... if I fail to examine these 'samples' as my-examples... I fail in my-exam... negative results!

Now came the tough part... I had to 'examine' how well I examine! (Each breath seems an 'example-afresh', that I am alive!.. It is my-examination, whether I pass or fail, when I pass by, failing to notice it... to decide whether I 'examine' well, this 'pull' of life.. exam-pull/example!)

Sample of yours,

psn(29th November, 2015)

Right versus Rights!

Oh!

Had it been the other way... :(
That we didn't have to face the 'nature' around , armed the way we are with our right and rights!....

Perhaps, life would have been much easier :)

Not that it is easy with people... Just that it feels easier with people, than with nature.. and that prompts us to keep trying at it!... {We even forget, that the 'people' too are a part of the 'nature' too, with the exception of robotics :)... and at subtle levels, they too are, for sure!}...

Am I right? (am I correct?)...
is this not my right ? {fundamental rights enshrined in constitution... or , by virtue of my brutal power, which is a threat to the other.... like 'the one holding a gun at me is always right :)... etc}

Why at all do these two matter?... the two kinds of rights?... other life forms do not refer to them at all... {But we, ... how often?... Just look at the nature of our thoughts! Yes, in-the-light-of this right/rights :) .... }

The problem doesn't seem to end there!

The 'rights' seem to even dominate the need-even to verify the correctness-wala-right :)
And it begins, and even stays throughout, with the fundamental-right of 'expression'... Vote-bank politics thrives on this 'freedom' of expression, and media business flourishes due to this !

Well, spirituality is supposed to be about 'transcending' nature...
Then obviously, we need to adhere to nature's rules, a little... Nature doesn't recognise our right-&-rights ... Our only 'right' is to align ourselves the 'right-way', that nature allows us, to be natural... (our natural state!.. within).
Maybe, one of the reasons, the ancients never felt the need to look at being-right, and asserting-rights, the way we keep-doing today!... Dunno!

I try to wonder... what if we people, for a while... just 'try' to focus on “is it the really-right thing?” (without interference by our mind, even at its subtlest levels, about asserting our rights about it, in any way or form)... Oh!... it seems to ask for too much, really! Why else would those Nobel prize be awarded later on to an other person who successfully negated the earlier Nobel laureate? Somewhere the right and rights got badly mixed up, pushing the functionality of the intellect's pure form to a little back-ground ! Would it not have been better, if not easier, to start off with the “discoveries” of the subtlest forms that is possible,...... that nothingness!.. Dunno!

Anyway,
I guess, it is a worth-exercise... to try at least... to see if it works... very consciously allowing that 'was it the right thing' to have a say over our-rights to assert that we are invariably-right-always!

(Incidentally, my teacher camouflaged this 'concept' in one of the exercises, and the double-camouflage was ....that he shrouded it even from a discovery that it was the core-element that would even decide the success rate, that we would 'possibly' taste .... at a spiritual program!)

Wrongly.... and-yet, yours,

psn (20th November, 2015)

The 'why' of our actions...

It is too difficult to 'guess' .... why a person does something regularly/frequently...

I loved the game of caroms... But, it was not as a sport.... not for health(physical or mental).. ... not for entertainment... etc.. There was a 'hidden' agenda ! But as a consequence.... I could not avoid the incidental benefits... Skill improved...

People felt, I ought to participate in 'tournament'... they just pushed me into it.. a few prizes came in... There again, my hidden agenda worked better, when I could 'very-keenly' observe other players on a regular-basis!

One such player friend said, "Do you know... there are a few people , who just mastered the skill at this game for 'purely' their bread & butter/livelihood... ?"

I normally wait... for the other to finish saying something... (lucky that I do.. else I would have missed to get the corollary-wala-comment, which, for me.. was more educative !)

He added...

“they do not bother to play it as a 'game'... they do not participate in any tournament.. they just sit in a rented room, at a prominent place, and wait for 'customers'...
The 'customer'... is usually a carom-lover!...
They (the customers)... for example...place two white coins 'stuck' at the centre of the opposite edge, a black one sandwiched tightly between the two whites.. Now, this 'bread winner' has to 'attempt' to somehow-pocket that black in a single stroke with the striker (as per the rules of the game)... If he does it, he earns the rupee note offered as a 'bet' by the customer... if he fails, he has to pay-back double of it (2 rupees), to that customer... Usually, he does pocket it.. and the customer is 'entertained' watching the skill!”

I smiled...
I now asked this 'player-friend' “what has prompted you to share this with me?”
He said, “I have been watching you at the game, for nearly some 8 years now... I couldn't guess your real-motive, for pursuing this game... You just walked out, too-casually, when a win was certain, just because the opponent became desperate and turned glaringly-unethical, and even the appeal of 'tournament-committee' did not impress you ( later, the 'secretary' decided to sponsor a special-prize, during the 'prize distribution ceremony'... and even that turned into a politics!.. But a politician was the chief guest... so he handled that 'politics' well, saying, “I will bear the cost of this prize, ... so no more allegations of 'misuse' of sports-funds”... )...”
he continued... “ you were never disappointed by loses of games... it never affected your performance at the game!... that intrigued me!.. I felt, you do look 'closely-similar' to those 'bread-winners'... though you do not intend to make it a living, or a source of fame etc!... “
He summed up saying.. “perhaps, you might now be persuaded to share your real-intent!”...

“Oh!”.. I said.. “it is no big-secret... Just that.... I thought nobody around might be interested in my-interest-in-it :-))
It so happens, this game serves like a 'mirror' of my mind's steadiness... that is all... and I guess, it leaves no choice about whether other's too are going to be 'even-aware' of this aspect... it works on others too , quite similarly!”...

Now, this whole exercise ... spread over these years... even opened up the possibility to take a look at 'not-so-well-polished' mirrors of other kinds too... Almost any activity, its object, its objective, etc.. do provide a 'mirroring-effect'..
Slowly, the intricate inter-meshing, inter-weaving ... of how we respond, through our actions, revealed its innermost secrets to me!

Spiritual masters, do try to find out the 'why' of a disciple's keenness to undertake a spiritual quest... (And, I was interested in their 'how they do it'... the finding it out!)

Therefore yours,

psn (14th November, 23015)

Joyousness of an occasion

Ever since the ancient times, the known stories of mankind tells us of conscious efforts towards reviving that feel of joyousness periodically.

The periodicity snowballs and shapes itself into a ritual and tradition that belongs to the race of that region... The commonality of such ritual strives towards perfecting the possibility of its happening... It is thus, that the 'available' technology comes into its play :)

Today, when the symbolism itself is lost, even a very prominent occasion of manifesting our joyousness like 'Deepavali' seems to fail to evoke a genuine inner experience.. ...

We now seem to struggle even with simple acts like greeting others!

This is what I felt, when I saw a spate of copy-pastes pouring into my handset (that 'smart' version of phone), and I found myself gaping at some talent of some unknown techie who lights up the screen to create a make-belief sense of that joy!

Sweets are outsourced.. (But it brings along with it, a lot of uncertainties, in the form of health hazard, when the ingredients are trying to maximise the profit margins!)...

Even those fire crackers , which I saw as a kid being prepared 'then & there' at a remote village of Andhra where my 'well-to-do' aunt and her family generously distributed to the people around to en-Joy in togetherness, has now become a thing of anxiety, when some imported and cheaper version causes more injuries to the health of innocent kids (the 'central' government felt constrained to publicize an advertised 'warning' to be wary of such harmful fire-crackers! So that's the greeting now! Only soldiers in a big war used to be greeted thus, when they prepare to face the 'front' line of a conflict with the other nation!)....

It is not entirely without 'any benefit'... the following few weeks would for sure benefit a lot of hospitals, and doctors, and keep them quite busy :)

On my part, I felt it to be a duty towards my own 'self' to re-examine, whether all those spiritual exercises that I had undertaken this-far, had failed to evoke even a bare minimum of that joyousness that was assured of, when the ancients had 'marked' this phase of moon to become an occasion and an event, taking into account all the factors that are going to contribute positively towards it ?...

Well, even my task becomes a bit-arduous, when I could not manage to relocate myself (that forest hermitage, a Vaanaprastha)....where I ought to belong at this 'stage of life' or at this point of time (age wise), again due to external factors, more so :)

And it is only therefore, that in 'addition' to it, I need to discount the other social factors before affording myself, a 'sense of Justice'... Oh! This very 'approach' seems to afford myself the 'sense of Joy', that I am not quite off-the-track! I can overlook so-easily the inability to feign a reciprocal greeting, matching that of others, since the 'form' of joyousness that I experience evades a description that carries a popular sense!

Wishing for ourselves (all-of-us, so that I get included with you).. the true sense of Joyousness that belongs to our spirit, as enshrined by our ancients who marked this occasion (this annual phase of the moon), to bring forth unto us, ... a very happy Deepavali !

Joyously yours,

psn(10th November, 2015)

Diplomatic Answers

Politicians engage in it (diplomatic answers) most of the time....

To say an 'yes' to this observation, it doesn't need our-own-diplomacy :)

But, try to be 'diplomatic' with an expert attorney who cross examines us as a 'crucial' witness in a case involving an alleged crime of massacre of a huge magnitude! Even the Judge is wary of not-objecting to it (that diplomatic answer...).. Every body is concerned to get to the bottom of 'the' truth!

“Never try to lie to a doctor and a Vakil” ... it just means, diplomacy doesn't save ... (the 'other' side is anyway going to get at you!)....

And yet,
we find quite a lot of us, engaged into such 'diplomacy' most of our waking hours! (Hey, even here I am being a little diplomatic!... Was it 'quite a lot of us'?... or.... ? well ... :) a smiley is the diplomacy !)

A sentence is a group of words that makes a 'complete' sense... (when I took upon myself a spiritual journey, I had to re-examine the nature of sentence, in a 'yet-another-way' ... :)... Every valid sentence is a kind of conclusion, assessment, judgement etc... one way or the other!...
And it is always ... only a 'mind' that would churn out a sentence.. That is verbal thoughts!... When such 'sentence-wala' thoughts are 'conspicuously-absent'... we tend to 'claim' that our mind was 'blank'!... Really?

Really-so, is it ?

When I looked around , just sitting on the chair, comfortably seated.... not a sentence-wala thought.. for a few moments... it did 'seem'... as if I too was 'blank'... a mind that is still... I just glanced around... a 180° turn, with no specific purpose ... there was nothing in it... but then a question occurred “what if, there was one object in that room, which the mind could not 'identify'?”... (like some new alien creature made a small movement at a corner?)... The glance-across would have applied an instant-brake at that object/creature/whatever!...
It simply translates thus: 'the mind 'identified' every single object in that hall/room, and applied a well-known-label... or an algebraic-label (let us call it 'x'..!!) at least...
This labeling... is it not a complete sentence (not exactly published by the mind-yet?)?.... The 'process' of identifying... does it not involve a huge thought-process, involving a vast amount of data exchange?... The data base of memory provides the label... I tried to imagine the 'codes' if it were written down in a design-format, instead of 'low-level-language' which computers use as a default-template of its embedded system!

Oops!... Non-verbal thoughts!!! The size is incomprehensible!

Well, in that case... try with verbal thoughts , as an humble beginning... I felt...

That is when I looked at diplomacy... diplomatic answers... :-))

Diplomacy is a very good tool... to get along with worldly-life... but when it is not really-warranted, a habitual-offender finds the spiritual journey difficult, when this diplomacy works like a spoke in the wheels! (Healthy relationships, obviates any kind of diplomacy in its interactions... The chief-of-armed forces was being undiplomatic, when he said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.".. as the 'result' of attacking the opponent by surprise, and inflicting huge damage to lives and property! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto%27s_sleeping_giant_quotation )

Is/are... our 'answers' to questions asked-or-unasked.... (even answers within ourselves... more-so, within-ourselves)... 'the' bare truth?... was my concern (my-own, of course... applies only to-me, and for-me! That's diplomacy again :) ...)

The mind feels 'throttled' initially... 'acceptance' faces a 'genuine' challenge... diplomatic-acceptance collapses!

If we sustain, and manage to cross over that breaking-point... prioritising becomes a little effortless!

When people around (or we ourselves , within), try to ask for 'why-so'... the answers often turn a little diplomatic,... and truth is avoided... if not avoidable, it is camouflaged... if not possible, it is at least sugar-coated... to make it as soft as possible on the listener! It is only when relationships are not relevant, with the other... we are 'blunt'!... Now, when it is our own internal relationships, within ourselves, with ourselves... is it not our-mind that needs the pampering?... Then, that-diplomacy assumes sophistication!... When we decide, diplomacy doesn't work any more within-ourselves... acceptance dawns!.. When acceptance doesn't find any resistance, it deepens!

I leave it to the readers, to try to find out for themselves, their 'areas' and expertise at such superfluous diplomacies... My indicative examples would seem too stupid, primitive and non-enthusing!

Diplomatically yours,

psn (6th November, 2015)