Thursday, June 25, 2009

Possibilities

As much number of reference points an object is having, that object can be looked into that many ways. Each one looking into that object from each of these references points may describe the object as many ways as the number of references. The view from each reference may be termed as a dimension for the simplicity of this discussion. For a physical object, such available dimensions are limited.

We are discussing in the domain of life which is ‘physical’ and ‘psychic’ put together. In the physical realm we have fair idea, even if we don’t have; there are established methods to gain that knowledge. The main reason behind this is due to the limited number of references and one can easily study those things. Where as in the psychic aspect, there are no such limitations. Each one can see multiple dimensions in psychological domain and no two persons will see the psychological aspects from the same reference. Hence it leaves limitless possibilities in the psychic domain.

At the same time, psychological domain is also of the physical nature. Psychology is the way our mind operates. Our mind has the root in material – the brain. If there is no brain, there is no mind. The mind is nothing but the working of brain at certain level and hence the mind is also of the nature of physical. The knowledge we have about the mind is limited, even though we have fairly good idea about the nature of brain. The psychological medical field deals with the material aspect of mind or the physical configuration of brain, with limited know how of the operation of mind.

In this psychological domain, there are limitless possibilities available and hence limitless possibilities to live our life, in the psychological domain. Now the question is are we seeing this truth? Are we seeing the limitless psychological paths available for living our lives? Almost every one of us are suffering and enjoying our life, at best, the amount of enjoyment is equal to the amount of suffering and at worst; there is no enjoyment at all. If we know there are limitless possibilities of living our life, can’t there be a possibility where the joy is more than suffering? Have we ever looked in such possibilities? Instead, most of us are willing to live the life as we are living now. Why is this contradiction? Who is responsible for this contradiction?

We are so much into the way we are living now, we don’t even recognize the availability of such possibilities, and hence no chance of looking into those possibilities. We may look in to those possibilities, if we reach the peak of suffering and after that if we have some energy to live, probably we may look into those possibilities. The other possibility is that if we recognize the stupidity of the way we live and if we start questioning at that stupidity, we may look into such possibilities. One more possibility is that, if we happen to listen to certain ideas of somebody else, which influence us certain way, we may look into other possibilities. The danger in this possibility is that we travel further only under the influence of the person or idea which influenced us. There is a great deal of danger in such influence. We may discuss it in another day.

The reason for not looking into the possibilities may be that we have made a firm footing on our “ego” or “self” from the early days of our life here. The “ego” or “self” have the security of its existence with qualities like attachment, dependency, influence, etc. When we look into other possibilities, the very existence of “ego” itself is threatened and hence we are left with the feeling of fear and insecurity. Unless we approach this problem with enough awareness, we will be trapped by our ego itself and hence cannot look into the possibilities.

Probably, this it is a part of evolution process itself. Though every human being has the capability to see the possibilities, only those who are willing to support the evolution process are looking into those possibilities. Out of those who are willing to look into the possibilities, only part of them are really experimenting the possibilities they looked into.
Out of those experimenting into these possibilities, only a few are really experimenting in the path, which can lead to the truth.

If we are really into the right path, hopefully we may not be proud of that achievement and may not want to express it as our success or achievement of this life. If we do so, we surely are not in the right path. Instead, probably, we may be compassionate with those who cannot look into these possibilities. This is not because they are incapable for such a life, but they are unaware of their capabilities.

If the feeling of compassion comes into our being, what else we need? Definitely, we will not be having any complaint about the world in which we are living; instead we will be giving to this world whatever possible by us. The giving here is not for accumulating our ego, but will dissolve it.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Ideals

The harsh reality in our life is that we do not know how to live our life by ourselves. It is the reality for almost everyone exists in this world, probably with very, very few exceptions. As a family we were guided by those who do not know to live their life by themselves. As part of a society/culture we are being guided by those who do not know to live their life by themselves. As a part of religion or sect, we are being guided by those who do not know to live their life by themselves. By belonging to a state and nation we are being administered by those who do not know to live their life by themselves. Everyone needs some ideals to follow to live their life, including the leaders. The ideal may be a person or philosophy or religion or set of moral values established by some body.

The looking for ideals starts at early ages, as soon as the quality of comparison enters into our being. Looking for ideal is a side effect of our action of comparison.

When we were young, our parents were everything for us. Without them no external activity required for our survival was possible and hence they were everything for us at that stage. Our parents become ideals for us at that young age itself, due to the protection and security they provided for us. At that age we were feeling completeness with just our parents. As we grow up, our (psychological) world starts expanding and we need more than our parents to fulfill our needs. Then, whoever fills that gap become our new ideals. For most of us, after our parents, our teachers became ideals. For those who have fewer requirements for fulfillment needs fewer ideals and for those who have more requirements for fulfillment needs more ideals. And it is possible to drag the same ideal to the direction in which we need psychological protection.

When we see that the ideals are formed at as early as few weeks or months of our existence in this world, the obvious question arises in our mind is that if it happens at that young age itself, Is it not a natural process? If it is a natural process why should we avoid ideals?

We know that survival is the basic instinct for anything exists. All the animate and inanimate beings in this world have strong desire for survival. Without that desire, nothing can exist. As a child, we also had strong desire to survive. We have a brain and hence a mind with memory. Whatever helps us to survive will enter into our memory, since we already have ego of our own – which starts registering whatever helps it to grow, into the memory. Once something is in memory, we are conditioned such a way that thought arises. This conditioning must have again started from the time of first being in this world which had brain and the process is still continuing. Due to that conditioning and due to the working of brain it appears to be a natural process. Now, when we understand the very same process is hindering our evolution, it is again natural to discard that process; because evolution is the very natural process and every animate and inanimate being are constantly working towards evolution. Hence the key point here is the understanding of requirement of ideals in our life. This has to be understood by ourselves

As adults, we start fulfilling ourselves with our activities and the achievements projected by our mind. Hence, at certain level, forming more ideals for ourselves stops at a stage where we are physically able to do whatever required for our survival. But by this time, our mind starts projecting many things out of our actions. Based on the extent of the projection of mind and based on the gap between this projection and reality, our feeling of fulfillment at psychological level will be placed. Now we are in need of ideals at another level - at psychological level, for our fulfillment. Now we consider the people who in reality are close to ourselves as projected by our mind or close to the way our mind wants us to be, as our ideals. Our mind does that projection only because it knows that somebody else is at that level. On the other hand, the projection of our mind is nothing but the result of comparison and the side effect is the formation of ideal in our mind. Once we have an ideal in our mind, we put forward all our effort to become that ideal, but it will never be possible. We cannot become somebody else. We are unique being in this world, with our own chemistry and hence our own properties. If we do not realize this, we struggle to become that ideal, which we can never become, and our life will be nothing but struggle.

In certain cases, we cannot find a live ideal or an historical ideal. In such cases certain philosophy or religion or scriptures may become the ideals. A mind with the bondage of such ideal cannot find the true meaning of any philosophy or religion or scripture. The mind translates the philosophy or religion or scripture according to its ideal, and then tries to follow that philosophy/religion/scripture. At this level of translation and following, it cannot reach anywhere else other than illusion or Maya.

A person can form ideals due to inherent limitation on doing certain things and the need for defending that limitation for the purpose of security required for the ego. For example a person working in a modern office environment and not capable of playing office politics may form an ideal such that, he/she sees a person who has some integrity with respect to office politics as the ideal. This person will start following that ideal and this following is due to the inability to play efficient office politics, but to keep the ego active, need to defend that limitation. In such cases, the irony is that this person looks for integrity where he lacks capability and he does not bother about integrity in other aspects of his life, and hence it becomes a breeding point for conflicts.

Certain other level, we take spiritual Gurus as our ideals on our search for fulfillment. When we have certain level of understanding about us and start turning inward, due to lack of energy and intensity of looking inward, we starts looking for spiritual Gurus. When the method of any spiritual Guru’s expressing themselves suit our way of thinking, they become our ideals and start following them and want to be like them or the way the Guru explain the nature of being (Not like the Guru or their explanation, but the way our mind projects them as being). We just start to follow whatever they preach and most of the cases, without proper understanding of ourselves and what we really need from the spiritual Guru. In that case, again it becomes a mere following of the Guru (as projected by our mind). Hence there is no sense on such following and we can reach nowhere with such following, since we do not know what we really needs. This does not mean we should not have a spiritual Guru. A spiritual Guru may have certain placement in our lives, but we should understand that limit and stop there. When our mind projects the Guru beyond this limit, he/she is no more a spiritual Guru – he/she becomes an ideal for us. Such Guru is just like any other image in our mind, which can do nothing but harm to our life. This is not the problem or mistake of the spiritual Guru, but our own problem – we do not know, why and where we need a spiritual Guru and the role of a spiritual Guru in our lives.

Sticking with some ideal is bondage, whatever great or noble it may be, which breeds desire, despair, incompleteness, pain and suffering, whether the ideal is a person, idea, philosophy, religion, Guru or whatever it may be. The ideal itself is the projection of our mind and it is not real. When we try to reach an ideal or try to become an ideal, we are slipping away from reality. As much distance as we are away from reality that much pain and suffering will be there in our lives.

How to transcend ideals? Like any other problem of mind, the only way out is, understanding the problem itself by ourselves. Nobody else can solve this problem for us. When we look into the ideals we are having, with enough intensity, we will understand how the ideal was formed within our mind. When we have this understanding, we will be having complete understanding about ourselves in the domain in which the ideal was formed. When we understand ourselves in certain area, all our actions in that area will reflect our understanding. Once we reach that stage, there is no more need for any ideals. We will be fulfilled with our actions and outcome of such actions, due to the fact that we have the complete understanding of ourselves in the domain of such action, and those actions will be based on what is needed for situations and for us. When our actions are based on need, there is no choice available to choose or reject such actions. When we do a choice-less action, there are no conflicts and we will be completely fulfilled in the area of such action. When we have fulfillment by ourselves in certain area of our psychology, we do not need any more ideals for that area. Hence the way for transcending the ideal is just look into the ideal – the ideal within our mind, with complete attention and energy. The ideal will be dissolved by itself. We do not need to do anything else.