Suffering is of two types – Physical suffering and psychological suffering. Physical suffering is to safeguard us from the environment. If we do not have physical suffering, we will not come to know the imbalances in our body and will not be able to take any corrective action. In such case, our body will decay soon and cannot support life. Hence physical suffering is essential for our survival.
The other suffering is psychological suffering. Almost all of our sufferings are psychological suffering. The feeling of depression is the indication of psychological suffering. Every one of us feels depressed multiple times in a day. We feel depressed in almost all the relationships in our daily lives. This is the psychological suffering. If our response to these suffering is that this is the way of life, then we are wrong. If we console ourselves with such statements, then we are ignorant of real life. There is another way of life. In that way of life, we need not suffer psychologically on multiple times in a day. There is no suffering means there is a joyful way of life. To have the joyful way of life we need not change anything outside, we need not get anything to possess. What we need to do is just understand the new way of life and bring in the necessary inward changes within us so that the sufferings are eliminated. Joy remains with us.
If we look in to suffering, the cause of suffering is fear, desire, attachment, and such qualities. If we can be free from desire and attachment, there will not be any suffering in our life and the life will be filled with everlasting joy.
We have already seen the mechanism of fear, desire, and attachment, and concluded that these are unwanted constructed qualities, yet taken a deep root within us. Hence, even though we theoretically understand these qualities are unwanted qualities, we are not in a position to discard those qualities. That is, even though we recognize the fact, we are not able to implement those facts in our life. Yes it is not easy to implement as long as we stay as we are. One thing is certain. If we recognize these facts at least in theory, we are far ahead of the vast population which is under deep psychological suffering, without even knowing the cause of those sufferings. Since we are aware of the cause of our sufferings, which are fear, desire and attachment, our tendency will naturally directed towards eliminating those qualities from us. That is a great step taken in the right direction.
For ending our sufferings, we have to recognize the facts that we are the result of conditioning from the time of creation, both physically and psychologically. To be free from psychological suffering means, free from psychological conditioning happened for millions of years. If we are able to recognize this fact, another great step is taken towards ending of suffering. If we ignore the fact that we are the result of millions of years of psychological conditioning, none of our effort will be fruitful towards ending suffering. If we refuse to recognize or not able to understand this fact, there is no meaning in any of our effort towards ending suffering or achieving peace or whatever it may be. On the other hand, we must be aware enough to recognize the reality as and when we approach reality from any direction. In other words, we must be alert to recognize the facts. We will be able to recognize the fact if and only if we are free from the projection of our mind.
To progress in this direction, we need to have complete freedom. Freedom from anything and everything! Of course, such a freedom is not easy to achieve as long as we remain as we are now. We may discuss about freedom another day. Once we understand freedom and how it helps us to forgo fear, desire and attachment, then our tendency will naturally be directed towards freedom. Once this happens, we are very near to ending all our sufferings and taste everlasting joy.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Comparison
We are living a life of comparison. We ourselves are the result of comparison – our identification or the ego or the self is the outcome of comparison. Also the fear, desire, suffering, and problems are result of comparison. From the time we started perceiving the world in this life, we were taught to compare one and everything. Our education systems make us to compare ourselves and everything else in all aspects, but never taught us how to be untouched by the act of comparison. It is up to us to learn, to be free from comparison and even if we need to compare certain things, untouched by the act of comparison. We explore this possibility, if and only if, we are aware of the richness of the life which is without comparison and see the absurdness of the act of comparison.
The life we know is a life of fulfilling our ego or the self. The ego is nothing but the psychological identification we built about ourselves. How the act of identification performed for anything? Identification of anything is relative to something else. To identify any thing, we need certain other thing with this the first one will be related and identified. On the other hand identification is nothing but the result of comparison. Same is the case of identification of us. There may be certain physical qualities which we identify by means of certain established measurement, which we may consider as not relative to anything else in general and of course we need such identifications. But they have nothing to do with our psychology in lay man terms or with the “Stamps” we are collecting in modern psychologist (Transactional analyst) terms or with the “Karma” in philosophical terms. Hence we are not concerned with such physical identification based on established measurements.
We are concerned with the identification which generates turbulence in our mind or transacting stamps or imprinting Karmas. Let as try to analyze how the ego is built on us from certain angle of view. Very often children are referred as the reflection of GOD. This is because the children (probably) don’t have any ego, even if they have ego, they have no means to express it. But the first thing we teach them is how to build the ego of their own. As soon as the child get the capability to listen us, we teach them the concept of good and bad, and we start honoring the so called good. The child is already having an ego of its own and the ‘GODness’ is already gone.
The child seeks security for its survival. When we honor so called ‘good’ and discount so called ‘bad’, the child learns it has to be good to have security. The question of such discriminating power of child is not valid because any living organism, whatever it may be, has certain intelligence of its own. The child also has that intelligence. Once the child knows it has to be good, to have security, it starts projecting so called good and start identifying itself with that good. The psychological identification is already there and the child cannot be considered anymore as reflection of GOD. The child which starts identifying itself with majority of so called good qualities are not much threat for the society in general terms, where as the child growing with the identification of so called bad qualities become a huge threat to the society as a whole.
As soon as the psychological identification with certain good or bad quality is formed, the “I” or “me” or “ego” is created within the child. Once the ego is created, the child starts to look everything around it with reference to this ego, the ego grows stronger, and finally we are here as we are now. We do not know how to see anything as it is. We know seeing, anything and everything, only with respect to our ego. That is why the world is termed as Maya or Illusion by certain philosophies.
How the child knows it as good or bad? The child performs certain action and observes the reaction of environment. This action and reaction goes into its memory. It does another action and that also goes into its memory. Now it compares at which action it felt more secured and labels that action as good. Now for extending the feeling of security, the child identifies itself with the so called good action. Hence, even if we are not there to teach the child about good or bad, it has inbuilt mechanism to learn about good and bad, which is the result of conditioning by generation after generation, even before the formation of human species.
As we have seen, the direct effect of comparison is build up of ego and the side effects are fear, insecurity, desire, and all such qualities. We have also already seen that the qualities which are the side effects of comparison are absolute unnecessary for living a joyful life. Hence we don’t need to do comparison at all, at psychological level. How to be free from the act of comparison? If we take a vow like our New Year resolutions, we can never stop comparison. The only way out is understands the mechanism of comparison from its root until the end of all side effects. This does not mean take an imaginary case and analyze it by means of mental projection. We have more than enough live examples within our mind to track from its root to the end. If we can understand by this way, then we are completely aware of the process of comparison and the uselessness of comparison. If we really know something is not at all useful for us in any manner, will we pursue such thing in our life? Same principle applies for psychological process also and if we really understand that comparison will do any good for us, we will not pursue it at all and the desire for comparison will dissolve from us. The key point is complete understanding of the process of comparison. Nobody else can give that understanding to us. It is up to us to understand the effect of comparison ourselves by tracking ourselves and decide whether we need to pursue or give up the habit of comparison. We will be able decide upon this only if we are aware of the quality of life in which the comparison does not have any space. This awareness is possible only if we look deep enough in to our way of life.
The life we know is a life of fulfilling our ego or the self. The ego is nothing but the psychological identification we built about ourselves. How the act of identification performed for anything? Identification of anything is relative to something else. To identify any thing, we need certain other thing with this the first one will be related and identified. On the other hand identification is nothing but the result of comparison. Same is the case of identification of us. There may be certain physical qualities which we identify by means of certain established measurement, which we may consider as not relative to anything else in general and of course we need such identifications. But they have nothing to do with our psychology in lay man terms or with the “Stamps” we are collecting in modern psychologist (Transactional analyst) terms or with the “Karma” in philosophical terms. Hence we are not concerned with such physical identification based on established measurements.
We are concerned with the identification which generates turbulence in our mind or transacting stamps or imprinting Karmas. Let as try to analyze how the ego is built on us from certain angle of view. Very often children are referred as the reflection of GOD. This is because the children (probably) don’t have any ego, even if they have ego, they have no means to express it. But the first thing we teach them is how to build the ego of their own. As soon as the child get the capability to listen us, we teach them the concept of good and bad, and we start honoring the so called good. The child is already having an ego of its own and the ‘GODness’ is already gone.
The child seeks security for its survival. When we honor so called ‘good’ and discount so called ‘bad’, the child learns it has to be good to have security. The question of such discriminating power of child is not valid because any living organism, whatever it may be, has certain intelligence of its own. The child also has that intelligence. Once the child knows it has to be good, to have security, it starts projecting so called good and start identifying itself with that good. The psychological identification is already there and the child cannot be considered anymore as reflection of GOD. The child which starts identifying itself with majority of so called good qualities are not much threat for the society in general terms, where as the child growing with the identification of so called bad qualities become a huge threat to the society as a whole.
As soon as the psychological identification with certain good or bad quality is formed, the “I” or “me” or “ego” is created within the child. Once the ego is created, the child starts to look everything around it with reference to this ego, the ego grows stronger, and finally we are here as we are now. We do not know how to see anything as it is. We know seeing, anything and everything, only with respect to our ego. That is why the world is termed as Maya or Illusion by certain philosophies.
How the child knows it as good or bad? The child performs certain action and observes the reaction of environment. This action and reaction goes into its memory. It does another action and that also goes into its memory. Now it compares at which action it felt more secured and labels that action as good. Now for extending the feeling of security, the child identifies itself with the so called good action. Hence, even if we are not there to teach the child about good or bad, it has inbuilt mechanism to learn about good and bad, which is the result of conditioning by generation after generation, even before the formation of human species.
As we have seen, the direct effect of comparison is build up of ego and the side effects are fear, insecurity, desire, and all such qualities. We have also already seen that the qualities which are the side effects of comparison are absolute unnecessary for living a joyful life. Hence we don’t need to do comparison at all, at psychological level. How to be free from the act of comparison? If we take a vow like our New Year resolutions, we can never stop comparison. The only way out is understands the mechanism of comparison from its root until the end of all side effects. This does not mean take an imaginary case and analyze it by means of mental projection. We have more than enough live examples within our mind to track from its root to the end. If we can understand by this way, then we are completely aware of the process of comparison and the uselessness of comparison. If we really know something is not at all useful for us in any manner, will we pursue such thing in our life? Same principle applies for psychological process also and if we really understand that comparison will do any good for us, we will not pursue it at all and the desire for comparison will dissolve from us. The key point is complete understanding of the process of comparison. Nobody else can give that understanding to us. It is up to us to understand the effect of comparison ourselves by tracking ourselves and decide whether we need to pursue or give up the habit of comparison. We will be able decide upon this only if we are aware of the quality of life in which the comparison does not have any space. This awareness is possible only if we look deep enough in to our way of life.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Conflicts
We are living our life with full of conflicts – Conflicts with others, conflicts with environment, conflict with the world and conflict within ourselves. Living with conflict has become our way of life. We are so much into the conflicts and now we are in a state that without conflict, either within or with outside world, we started feeling ourselves as incomplete.
Why is it so? When there is no conflict, there is no outward work for the mind. When the mind is free, it starts turning inward. When it turns inward, it sees the nakedness of us. If we are not matured enough to see ourselves as we are, we will get frightened. To escape from this fear, the mind will start projecting the world based on the content of our memory and in this projection we start seeing ourselves and the world as incomplete.
If we seriously look into this process, we can definitely understand that this is not the way of life for which the human life is intended for. Human beings are the most evolved beings in this world, which is the result of about 13 billion years of evolution. Having the experience of 13 billion years within us and still we live such a life, it is entirely due to our ignorance and not due to our incapability. Unless we express the evolution in our life it will be an absolute meaningless life, whatever may be our projection as our achievement.
As a evolved being, it is our nature to live a life which is intended for human being and out of ignorance we are living a life of conflicts and hence sufferings. To move into the domain of life which is intended for us, the first step must be to recognize our ignorance, which is the most difficult part of this process. It is not difficult because of our incapability, but because of the belief systems in which we are immersed ourselves. The difficulty lies in moving away from all our belief systems. If we could take this first step, there may not be any looking back.
The irony is that most of us lack energy to look into our ignorance. Unless we have sufficient energy within us, we may not be able to look into our belief systems and ignorance with required intensity. Hence, there is a need for energizing ourselves to get sufficient intensity into our looking. Certain methods may be used for energizing ourselves so that we can have an intensive looking into our ignorance and dissolve our ignorance. But one has to have enough awareness of this methods, otherwise will become the slave of those methods.
Coming back to our point of discussion, if we look deep enough into any of our conflicts with outside world, we will be able to find that it has started from a conflict within ourselves. Hence the source of any outside conflict is the conflict within us. If we know how to live a life without any conflict within us, then we know how to live a life without any conflict with the outside world.
Conflict arises within us because we are in a situation where we need to choose for any of our actions. It is obvious that wherever there is a choice, there is a conflict. The choices are there because we do not have enough awareness about ourselves as well as about the world and hence we do not really know what is needed out of us. Because of the lack of awareness we start projecting about ourselves and the world. The projection about ourselves and the world are the product of our mind and not real, because we do not have necessary awareness to look into the reality as it is, without the projection of mind. We know about ourselves and outside world only by means of comparison. The outcome of any comparison is relative to the compared. It is not absolute. Hence what we know about ourselves is just the projection of our mind and when we identify all our actions with the projection of our mind, there will be multiple choices available for choose due to the fact that we have multiple images of ourselves and world within our mind and hence conflict is inevitable.
Does it mean that we can be free from conflicts only when we are aware of the absoluteness? The answer is definitely NO. When we are aware that the choices are there, because we have the multiple projections within our mind, definitely we look more intensively and more deeply. The awareness of multiple choices itself give us the necessary energy to look into more deeply. If we look deep enough, we understand the situation completely and understand what is needed for that situation. With this intensity of looking, we lose all choices and hence there are no more conflicts in our action and hence no more conflicts within us. When we are free from conflicts, there are no more conflicts with outside world.
What we need is just the awareness of our thought process. It is so simple. We do not need any GOD. We do not need any Guru. We do not need any Astrologer. We do not need any particular cosmic structure. We do not need any scripture. We do not need anybody else. We just have to understand the game of our mind. Nobody else can show it to us, unless we ourselves willingly look into our thoughts. We need not even forcefully stop the projection of our mind. Let the mind does what it likes to do, but just be aware of the difference between what we really see and what we perceive as seen due to the projection of mind. If we can bring in that much awareness within us, we are very near to have a world of our liking.
Why is it so? When there is no conflict, there is no outward work for the mind. When the mind is free, it starts turning inward. When it turns inward, it sees the nakedness of us. If we are not matured enough to see ourselves as we are, we will get frightened. To escape from this fear, the mind will start projecting the world based on the content of our memory and in this projection we start seeing ourselves and the world as incomplete.
If we seriously look into this process, we can definitely understand that this is not the way of life for which the human life is intended for. Human beings are the most evolved beings in this world, which is the result of about 13 billion years of evolution. Having the experience of 13 billion years within us and still we live such a life, it is entirely due to our ignorance and not due to our incapability. Unless we express the evolution in our life it will be an absolute meaningless life, whatever may be our projection as our achievement.
As a evolved being, it is our nature to live a life which is intended for human being and out of ignorance we are living a life of conflicts and hence sufferings. To move into the domain of life which is intended for us, the first step must be to recognize our ignorance, which is the most difficult part of this process. It is not difficult because of our incapability, but because of the belief systems in which we are immersed ourselves. The difficulty lies in moving away from all our belief systems. If we could take this first step, there may not be any looking back.
The irony is that most of us lack energy to look into our ignorance. Unless we have sufficient energy within us, we may not be able to look into our belief systems and ignorance with required intensity. Hence, there is a need for energizing ourselves to get sufficient intensity into our looking. Certain methods may be used for energizing ourselves so that we can have an intensive looking into our ignorance and dissolve our ignorance. But one has to have enough awareness of this methods, otherwise will become the slave of those methods.
Coming back to our point of discussion, if we look deep enough into any of our conflicts with outside world, we will be able to find that it has started from a conflict within ourselves. Hence the source of any outside conflict is the conflict within us. If we know how to live a life without any conflict within us, then we know how to live a life without any conflict with the outside world.
Conflict arises within us because we are in a situation where we need to choose for any of our actions. It is obvious that wherever there is a choice, there is a conflict. The choices are there because we do not have enough awareness about ourselves as well as about the world and hence we do not really know what is needed out of us. Because of the lack of awareness we start projecting about ourselves and the world. The projection about ourselves and the world are the product of our mind and not real, because we do not have necessary awareness to look into the reality as it is, without the projection of mind. We know about ourselves and outside world only by means of comparison. The outcome of any comparison is relative to the compared. It is not absolute. Hence what we know about ourselves is just the projection of our mind and when we identify all our actions with the projection of our mind, there will be multiple choices available for choose due to the fact that we have multiple images of ourselves and world within our mind and hence conflict is inevitable.
Does it mean that we can be free from conflicts only when we are aware of the absoluteness? The answer is definitely NO. When we are aware that the choices are there, because we have the multiple projections within our mind, definitely we look more intensively and more deeply. The awareness of multiple choices itself give us the necessary energy to look into more deeply. If we look deep enough, we understand the situation completely and understand what is needed for that situation. With this intensity of looking, we lose all choices and hence there are no more conflicts in our action and hence no more conflicts within us. When we are free from conflicts, there are no more conflicts with outside world.
What we need is just the awareness of our thought process. It is so simple. We do not need any GOD. We do not need any Guru. We do not need any Astrologer. We do not need any particular cosmic structure. We do not need any scripture. We do not need anybody else. We just have to understand the game of our mind. Nobody else can show it to us, unless we ourselves willingly look into our thoughts. We need not even forcefully stop the projection of our mind. Let the mind does what it likes to do, but just be aware of the difference between what we really see and what we perceive as seen due to the projection of mind. If we can bring in that much awareness within us, we are very near to have a world of our liking.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Recapture
We started of this discussion about the change, we perceive as required in the world around us, to have a world of our choice.
During this discussion we noted that, to have a world of our choice, the first step is bringing in necessary changes within us. Before we change ourselves, as we would like others to be, we can not ask others to change. This implies that we cannot ask the world to change according to our liking unless we change ourselves. If we do so before changing ourselves, we must be mentally imbalanced being. Unfortunately, most of us (At least 90% of human population of this planet) belong to this category. Hence the first step is to bring in necessary changes with in us. To bring in the change with in ourselves, first up all we need to understand the required change. If we do not have the necessary understanding there is not at all any possibility for an inward change.
During this discussion, we tried to understand different qualities with which we attach ourselves. The habit of identifying ourselves with these qualities is the root cause of all our problems and which in turn stimulate us for asking the society to change. This discussion might have indicated about the possibility of a life, which is altogether different from the current life which most of us are living (??). On the other hand, this discussion might have indicated that there is a possibility of life, in which we may be having all the comforts, which we are having now minus the suffering we have and possibly much better way of living.
The key point is that unless we recognize the possibility of such life, which is very much possible for every one of us, we are not going to look into what is that life and hence we are not going to live that life. The type of life, which is unknown for us until now is not meant for only the so-called saints. It is meant for the whole of humanity. Unless we recognize that, we are not going to look into the possibility of living that life ourselves. Unless we look into it, we are not going to get it.
This is because we are entangled with few moments of projected happiness of the life, which we are living and considering as the way of life. We are conditioned so much by our culture, by our religions, by our parents, by our belief systems to such an extent, we fear to look beyond that conditioning. The looking beyond our conditioning is possible only if we realize that our state of conditioning and as a result of that conditioning a whole new way of life is denied to us. The new way of life – all the comforts we are enjoying and much more minus all our current sufferings is possible only if we look beyond our belief systems and question each and every conclusions we have, with out any bias on either direction. These discussions might have been a great step towards recognizing the possibility of such life for ourselves, if we really see deeply into the points being discussed.
We have already discussed few of the human conditions, which bring in duality with in human perception. As long as we are into the domain of duality or as long as we do not understand the space between duality or the continuity between duality, we cannot live a fearless life and hence the other way of life is not possible. The earlier discussions might have indicated that it is actually an easiest task to transcend duality and what we need is a very minor inward change, with that change we can look into existence without any bias. This looking of existence will simply free us from all our psychological bondages. As soon as this happens, our life will transcend to the one we discussed above.
To have such a looking into existence, we need a great deal of intensity. Due to our current life style and current way of education system, we have almost lost our sensitivity to existence. To bring in the necessary intensity of looking the existence, we may have to bring in necessary sensitivity to our system (Physical, psychological, emotional, energy) towards existence. This is the point where we may need to have certain methods. Please note that the methods are just to bring in necessary sensitivity to our system towards existence. The methods cannot do anything more than that. Once the sensitivity is brought into the system, we will be having necessary intensity in all our actions this intensity will lead us to the other way of life, which is all our comforts plus, probably much more much more, minus the sufferings.
When we use the methods, great care must be taken not to get attached with the method. If not, we just stuck at the method and our progress towards the better way of living will stop there. The methods may give a false feeling of satisfaction, which we can any way drive from our current way of living. Due to the falsity of this satisfaction, we will be in a much bigger trap. The key point here is the awareness of existence at all times. If we lose the awareness for a brief period, we may fall in a trap, which will be again same as our current way of life.
In addition to the causes of suffering of our current life, we may discuss the overview of few of the methods given by Indian culture towards improving our sensitivity towards existence. It is to be noted that the method suitable for one person may not be suitable for another person, which is due to the chemical composition of individuals. Hence it is up to the individuals to follow certain method suitable for them to increase the sensitivity of their system.
If we condense the content of this discussion, it may be stated as below.
1. Realize the possibility of a better life for every one of us
2. Bring in necessary inward change to live that life
3. See the necessity of inward change to have such life
4. Bring in necessary intensity in our actions to see the necessity
5. The intensity shall be brought in by improving the sensitivity of our system to existence
6. Sensitivity of our system towards existence might be brought in by means of certain methods
7. Choose the right method for the individuals based on individual composition
8. Recognize and understand the trap in each step.
During this discussion we noted that, to have a world of our choice, the first step is bringing in necessary changes within us. Before we change ourselves, as we would like others to be, we can not ask others to change. This implies that we cannot ask the world to change according to our liking unless we change ourselves. If we do so before changing ourselves, we must be mentally imbalanced being. Unfortunately, most of us (At least 90% of human population of this planet) belong to this category. Hence the first step is to bring in necessary changes with in us. To bring in the change with in ourselves, first up all we need to understand the required change. If we do not have the necessary understanding there is not at all any possibility for an inward change.
During this discussion, we tried to understand different qualities with which we attach ourselves. The habit of identifying ourselves with these qualities is the root cause of all our problems and which in turn stimulate us for asking the society to change. This discussion might have indicated about the possibility of a life, which is altogether different from the current life which most of us are living (??). On the other hand, this discussion might have indicated that there is a possibility of life, in which we may be having all the comforts, which we are having now minus the suffering we have and possibly much better way of living.
The key point is that unless we recognize the possibility of such life, which is very much possible for every one of us, we are not going to look into what is that life and hence we are not going to live that life. The type of life, which is unknown for us until now is not meant for only the so-called saints. It is meant for the whole of humanity. Unless we recognize that, we are not going to look into the possibility of living that life ourselves. Unless we look into it, we are not going to get it.
This is because we are entangled with few moments of projected happiness of the life, which we are living and considering as the way of life. We are conditioned so much by our culture, by our religions, by our parents, by our belief systems to such an extent, we fear to look beyond that conditioning. The looking beyond our conditioning is possible only if we realize that our state of conditioning and as a result of that conditioning a whole new way of life is denied to us. The new way of life – all the comforts we are enjoying and much more minus all our current sufferings is possible only if we look beyond our belief systems and question each and every conclusions we have, with out any bias on either direction. These discussions might have been a great step towards recognizing the possibility of such life for ourselves, if we really see deeply into the points being discussed.
We have already discussed few of the human conditions, which bring in duality with in human perception. As long as we are into the domain of duality or as long as we do not understand the space between duality or the continuity between duality, we cannot live a fearless life and hence the other way of life is not possible. The earlier discussions might have indicated that it is actually an easiest task to transcend duality and what we need is a very minor inward change, with that change we can look into existence without any bias. This looking of existence will simply free us from all our psychological bondages. As soon as this happens, our life will transcend to the one we discussed above.
To have such a looking into existence, we need a great deal of intensity. Due to our current life style and current way of education system, we have almost lost our sensitivity to existence. To bring in the necessary intensity of looking the existence, we may have to bring in necessary sensitivity to our system (Physical, psychological, emotional, energy) towards existence. This is the point where we may need to have certain methods. Please note that the methods are just to bring in necessary sensitivity to our system towards existence. The methods cannot do anything more than that. Once the sensitivity is brought into the system, we will be having necessary intensity in all our actions this intensity will lead us to the other way of life, which is all our comforts plus, probably much more much more, minus the sufferings.
When we use the methods, great care must be taken not to get attached with the method. If not, we just stuck at the method and our progress towards the better way of living will stop there. The methods may give a false feeling of satisfaction, which we can any way drive from our current way of living. Due to the falsity of this satisfaction, we will be in a much bigger trap. The key point here is the awareness of existence at all times. If we lose the awareness for a brief period, we may fall in a trap, which will be again same as our current way of life.
In addition to the causes of suffering of our current life, we may discuss the overview of few of the methods given by Indian culture towards improving our sensitivity towards existence. It is to be noted that the method suitable for one person may not be suitable for another person, which is due to the chemical composition of individuals. Hence it is up to the individuals to follow certain method suitable for them to increase the sensitivity of their system.
If we condense the content of this discussion, it may be stated as below.
1. Realize the possibility of a better life for every one of us
2. Bring in necessary inward change to live that life
3. See the necessity of inward change to have such life
4. Bring in necessary intensity in our actions to see the necessity
5. The intensity shall be brought in by improving the sensitivity of our system to existence
6. Sensitivity of our system towards existence might be brought in by means of certain methods
7. Choose the right method for the individuals based on individual composition
8. Recognize and understand the trap in each step.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Violence
For most of us, if we can change the world as we like or if we are capable of ending something in the world, the first thing we would like to change or end is the state of violence in this world. Depend on our state of mind and angle of view we see violence almost everywhere. Whenever we perceive violence, we will go to the peak of anger yet due to our inability to counter that violence we accept it and proceed on our way. If we like to end the violence around us, like any other quality, we need to understand violence. Without understanding violence, there is no possibility to end it.
Our general idea about violence is about physical abuse. Terrorism, war, gang war, killing or physically abusing people for some cause (Whatever be the cause) are generally considered as violence. These activities take place when the idea of a person or group is not accepted by the other person or group, and the first person or group enforce the ideas over second person or group by means of physical abuse. The physical violence takes place when the second group is physically capable of resisting the enforcement of first group. If the second group is physically incapable and psychologically also week, they just accept the idea of first group for their survival or forced to accept the ideology of other group. In this case there is no physical abuse. But the idea of one group is enforced on the other group. Is it not violence? We generally do not consider this as violence as it does not get the attention of larger population and silently accepted.
If we analyze the cause of any sort of violence, whether it is violence at the level of society or at the level of individuals, the starting point is that one side wanted conformity for its ideology from the other side. The other side either refuses this idea and in that case physical violence takes place or accept that idea but suffer psychologically due to the inability to resist that idea, which is against their own ideology.
Based on the above discussion, violence can be defined as want/need of acceptance of one’s ideology by others, whether it happens at physical level or psychological level.
If we do not want somebody to do certain action towards us, first up all we should be restrained ourselves from doing similar action. Otherwise it is foolishness and arrogant to expect others should restrain from such action. If we are in a group and we want the group to maintain silence, first we need to maintain silence. This is understandable to everybody. Similarly, if we want the world to be free from violence, we should make sure that we are not infusing any violence to anybody.
Let us make an honest assessment of ourselves with respect to violence. Are we not subjected to violence multiple times a day by almost everyone we encounter? Are we not subjecting violence to almost everyone we encounter? If we see honestly, we constantly subjected to violence by others and constantly subjecting violence over others. The irony is that all our life we are undergoing this fact and we are now so insensitive to violence, unless it happens in physical level. One aspect of change we need to have within us, to change the world as we like, is to bring back the lost sensitivity to ourselves.
We want our wives/husbands to live as per our idea and enforce our ideas over them. We want our parents/children to live as per our idea and enforce our idea over them. We want our friends to accept our ideas and enforce our ideas over them. We want our subordinates to accept our idea and enforce it over them. We want everyone related to us to accept certain ideas of ours and we try to enforce that idea to them. We are also a husband/wife of somebody. We are also parent/child of somebody. We are also friend of somebody. We are also subordinate of somebody. Hence we are constantly subjected to violence and subjecting violence over others. The intensity of violence depend on the intensity of attachment/possessiveness with the relationship.
Unless we end these phenomena within us, we are not in a position to end the violence in the world. If our reaction to this statement is that this is the way of life, then we have to accept everything, as this is the way of world; and then why should we worried about the violence we are seeing in the world. If we want to end the violence in the world without ending the violence within ourselves is exactly same as wanting the group to maintain silence, but we make noise even as we are part of that group.
Another aspect of violence is violence towards one self. It is the need of forcing oneself to behave certain way or perform certain action for the purpose of conformity towards certain values or belief system or cultural compulsion, or to gain social respectability. Most of us are knowingly or unknowingly indulging into this violence. We do not want to perform certain action, but for the purpose of survival we do that action. It is violence to oneself. There are many such actions in our day-to-day life, which we are forced to perform by ourselves to maintain the social respectability even though we are against performing that action within ourselves. This self-violence is more dangerous than physical violence and psychological violence towards others. The violence towards oneself will destroy or dampen the possibility of evolution of that person.
Unless we attempt to end the violence we are indulging to ourselves, we will not be able to end the violence towards others. Unless we end all our violence within ourselves, there will not be any possibility of ending the violence of humanity. Hence if we want the world to be free from violence, we ourselves must be free from all sort of violence.
Our general idea about violence is about physical abuse. Terrorism, war, gang war, killing or physically abusing people for some cause (Whatever be the cause) are generally considered as violence. These activities take place when the idea of a person or group is not accepted by the other person or group, and the first person or group enforce the ideas over second person or group by means of physical abuse. The physical violence takes place when the second group is physically capable of resisting the enforcement of first group. If the second group is physically incapable and psychologically also week, they just accept the idea of first group for their survival or forced to accept the ideology of other group. In this case there is no physical abuse. But the idea of one group is enforced on the other group. Is it not violence? We generally do not consider this as violence as it does not get the attention of larger population and silently accepted.
If we analyze the cause of any sort of violence, whether it is violence at the level of society or at the level of individuals, the starting point is that one side wanted conformity for its ideology from the other side. The other side either refuses this idea and in that case physical violence takes place or accept that idea but suffer psychologically due to the inability to resist that idea, which is against their own ideology.
Based on the above discussion, violence can be defined as want/need of acceptance of one’s ideology by others, whether it happens at physical level or psychological level.
If we do not want somebody to do certain action towards us, first up all we should be restrained ourselves from doing similar action. Otherwise it is foolishness and arrogant to expect others should restrain from such action. If we are in a group and we want the group to maintain silence, first we need to maintain silence. This is understandable to everybody. Similarly, if we want the world to be free from violence, we should make sure that we are not infusing any violence to anybody.
Let us make an honest assessment of ourselves with respect to violence. Are we not subjected to violence multiple times a day by almost everyone we encounter? Are we not subjecting violence to almost everyone we encounter? If we see honestly, we constantly subjected to violence by others and constantly subjecting violence over others. The irony is that all our life we are undergoing this fact and we are now so insensitive to violence, unless it happens in physical level. One aspect of change we need to have within us, to change the world as we like, is to bring back the lost sensitivity to ourselves.
We want our wives/husbands to live as per our idea and enforce our ideas over them. We want our parents/children to live as per our idea and enforce our idea over them. We want our friends to accept our ideas and enforce our ideas over them. We want our subordinates to accept our idea and enforce it over them. We want everyone related to us to accept certain ideas of ours and we try to enforce that idea to them. We are also a husband/wife of somebody. We are also parent/child of somebody. We are also friend of somebody. We are also subordinate of somebody. Hence we are constantly subjected to violence and subjecting violence over others. The intensity of violence depend on the intensity of attachment/possessiveness with the relationship.
Unless we end these phenomena within us, we are not in a position to end the violence in the world. If our reaction to this statement is that this is the way of life, then we have to accept everything, as this is the way of world; and then why should we worried about the violence we are seeing in the world. If we want to end the violence in the world without ending the violence within ourselves is exactly same as wanting the group to maintain silence, but we make noise even as we are part of that group.
Another aspect of violence is violence towards one self. It is the need of forcing oneself to behave certain way or perform certain action for the purpose of conformity towards certain values or belief system or cultural compulsion, or to gain social respectability. Most of us are knowingly or unknowingly indulging into this violence. We do not want to perform certain action, but for the purpose of survival we do that action. It is violence to oneself. There are many such actions in our day-to-day life, which we are forced to perform by ourselves to maintain the social respectability even though we are against performing that action within ourselves. This self-violence is more dangerous than physical violence and psychological violence towards others. The violence towards oneself will destroy or dampen the possibility of evolution of that person.
Unless we attempt to end the violence we are indulging to ourselves, we will not be able to end the violence towards others. Unless we end all our violence within ourselves, there will not be any possibility of ending the violence of humanity. Hence if we want the world to be free from violence, we ourselves must be free from all sort of violence.
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