When reality is restricted by identity and rationality is relegated, then, sobriety
is causality and moderation is a mute spectator.
Impact matters-a definite yes,
in all spheres of activity.
But allowing oneself to get
overly impacted or influenced by any particular thought, idea, ideology,
philosophy, concept, culture, stream or subject of pursuit , pursuing what one
likes innately, what appeals one’s emotions, intellect, what gives pleasure to
one’s senses, trying to have a go at what titillates one’s sensitivities,
scrupulously subjecting oneself to social expectations of various hues and
colors, following certain religious edicts and so on are the many aspects of
life of human beings.
What one chooses to carry
along with or decides to dump is again interconnected with many of the
influences of the above.
Sometimes, when one is grown
up mentally or intellectually, the tendency is to evaluate with conscious
awareness.
Then, these influences set in
as a broad outlines of one’s prejudices, identities, perspectives, attitudes,
frames of reference with which one likely to evaluate and to perceive many things
around to choose and decide.
Sometimes, when one is not
that grown up mentally or intellectually, then there seeps in subconsciously
similar outlines set in.
“All of us
have our own inner fears, beliefs, opinions. These inner assumptions rule and
govern our lives. A suggestion has no power in and of itself. Its power arises
from the fact that you accept it mentally.” - Joseph Murphy, the Power of Your
Subconscious Mind
Therefore, the so-called broader outlines, whether
subconsciously seeping in or embedded or consciously chosen, are not actually broad, however well
ensconced they may be in appealing terminologies or appalling justifications.
The fact is none of them i.e.
the outlines are all inclusive or completely pervasive or a please all factor
or panacea or Omni-appealing or Omni-acceptable factor for human species as a
whole or for every individual or for any group.
So, based on what we have
chosen to like or get addicted to or made to follow we end up forming our
notions of reality, ultimate truth and many other lofty terminologies.
Some of us make a living in
the process; some also use them as crutches to lead a life; a few also have the
privilege of or choose to live their life as well either with these so-called
broad outlines and lucky enough also by moving between, beyond and besides
these outlines.
In this process life swings
as a pendulum between many inevitable and inherent polarities.
However, life predominantly deals
through many aspects of life and relates with almost all aspects of living with
two predominant extremes- which are contradictions and which manifest in vast
varieties, different degrees, and innumerable intensities as multiple
psychological actions or reactions- namely, Love and Fear.
That’s why whatever be the
area of life be it in religion, politics, technology, social sciences, for
everything, we come across strong supporters in the form of inspiring
initiators, mighty motivators, powerful preachers and powerful protestors in
the form of diligent dissenters and aggressive opponents.
Obviously moderation takes a back seat.
However, every human being
has also a natural instinct to aspire for a secure, safe, peaceful, calm, happy
environment to live.
So, who, what and how is this
going to emerge out of the very bases which contribute to make life and living
less happy and less peaceful in the first place?
Any operation or process that
emanates from the bases cited in the forgoing paragraphs is not going to bring
in any moderation.
However, for at least a
moderate level of calm or peaceful social life and cohabitation certain amount
of moderation or moderating elements must evolve away from the bases- which seem
at best a utopia or an outright illusion.
Having said all these, there
is also the thing called the natural species’ instinct for survival, more so a
better, calm, comfortable and more secure level of survival persists.
Human beings, as a species
have evolved certain time tested qualities for a better state of living.
In some people these
qualities are natural attributes; in some others they are nurtured as a part of
their socio-cultural milieu; and in certain cases they have to be enforced by
various rules and regulations.
These qualities are again too
many to list out.
However, for the sake of
brevity, we may broadly term them as tolerance, forgiveness, non-violence etc.
These qualities by themselves
my not contribute to happiness, peace and calm but they will ensure to provide
at least a conducive environment to enable happiness, peace and joy to happen.
Balance is all about creating
such an atmosphere.
In short, it would be better
that as human beings we may opt for compassion
sandwiched between the inevitable passion and dispassion as a moderator of life,
[1] but with a rider that at the same time, anyone must have, preferably
everyone is made to have complete freedom to explore, experiment and experience
everything without any overbearing restrictions, identity barriers, cultural
constraints or impositions from any other source.
So, by all means everyone is
encouraged to listen to, to read and to learn from every source, every view
without any restraint.
“Across
planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things
can be simultaneously true.” - Ram
Dass.
"Existence
consists in the interplay of a plurality of elements whose true nature is
indescribable and whose source is unknown. Combinations of these elements
instantaneously flash into existence and instantaneously disappear, to be
succeeded by new combinations of elements appearing in a strict
causality." - Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre
"To make progress in understanding all this, we probably
need to begin with simplified (oversimplified?) models and ignore the critics'
tirade that the real world is more complex. The real world is always more
complex, which has the advantage that we shan't run out of work."- John
Ball, 1984, Memes as Replicators, Ethology
and Sociobiology, Vol. 5
After all
life is a constant process of learning and adjustment wherein we can neither
deny nor defy the importance of anything or anyone.
We
need to adopt an attitude to gather knowledge from as many sources as
possible-like a butterfly that hops from flower to flower, from all the extreme
points of a spectrum ranging from what are considered as most important, vital,
exalted to what are deemed as the least worthy and wasteful stuff.
In every field, the
story of human evolution is nothing but the history of impacts, either
positive or negative, made by people who refused to take the beaten track and
no wonder that George Bernard Shaw is reported to have said, "The
reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man adapts the
world to himself. All progress depends upon the unreasonable man”.
Individual human life, after all, is a very short
journey in the ocean of totality of LIFE
but endowed with at least certain advantages over other species inhabiting this
planet and chief among them is to a very great extent the ability to choose and
to decide to create conducive conditions to lead a calm and compatible life
with other human beings, other species and the whole environment.
We can observe and learn that
evolution takes care of almost
everything in its stride but as human beings we also have the option to learn
to carefully evolve in our stride.
We must learn to make
existence the essence and concepts perhaps the shell and not vice versa and
allow both to grow and glow freely together as a part of evolutionary splendor.
Here in I am
reminded of what Sherlock Holmes declares, “From a drop of water a logician
could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or
heard of one or the other. So, all life is a great chain, the nature of which
is known whenever we are shown a link of it.”
Life’s journey is made up of evolving through
multitude of passing phases of romance as links and not remorse of the past or
reveries of remote future.
The series of romances
knitted together: - romances of the senses, of sensible living, of sensitivity
to everything and everyone around us, of joy of learning, of helping and of
giving hope for all and everything to become better, enjoy whatever one prefers
to enjoy without harming or injuring others and also explore possibilities of synthesis and synergy in all relationship that
one has with oneself, with others, with nature, with machines, with different
cultures and traditions etc.
It is only human gullibility that both the ‘pro’ and
‘anti’ brigade in any issue may be or prone to become wrong as they tend to
take extreme positions.
Very often we tend to proceed from the presumptions
that tastes, trends, traditions all over the world may be either similar or
homogenous and worse still, sometimes presumed to be same or uniform and based
on such foolish presumptions attempts are made to homogenize or over simplify
or over generalize.
William
James says, “In the end nothing less than the whole of everything can be the
truth of anything at all”.
But
even what is whole is difficult to
define.
Identities
of all hues while they enable creating social groups at the same time enfeeble
options for universal acceptance.
I have very often held that identity, though inevitable, excessive and exclusive veneration is at the heart of many problems be it in the realm of religion, region, language, tradition, culture, nationhood and so on.
"The
purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue
growing as long as we live." - Mortimer Adler
"Freedom
is nothing but a chance to be better." - Albert Camus
Growth and
freedom involve the broad mindedness to accept different views, perhaps all
views.
'It is better to know something about everything then everything about something' - Blase
Pascal
"When
we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is
responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all
men"-Sartre
Man exists,
turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself- Sartre
Life is
an unmapped atlas consisting of unexplored territories and a jig saw puzzle
without even all pieces available in the box.
That’s
why it is better to go with the tide of the inevitable evolutionary churning
process of life in all spheres of life and preferably immerse any topic or
subject matter, primarily and basically with all their intrinsic
elements/components/aspects/attributes intact, into a cauldron which has a
mixture of all these- knowledge based analysis; limited perception- based on
frames of reference and scales of observation; skepticism; criticism;
intellectual scrutiny; compassionate emotionalism; humane socialism; rational
thinking- as rational
approaches refine what is otherwise viewed as contrasts that divide into variations
that seek synergy; contextual relevance based prioritizing [ which includes too
many components] , traditions, practical viability, psychological comforts,
aesthetic sensitivity, scientific scrutiny and so on, and churn the
cauldron without clinging on to any particular restrictive social, cultural or
political or religious identity or ideological constraint.
This
process inevitably may bring out lot of outputs.
We
can exercise our freedom and sometimes select and choose some of the outputs.
Sometimes
the outputs will draw us.
Sometimes
away from all or any of our intended searches and seeking, outside the circle
of these known paradigms, almost tangentially serendipity will drag us to an
oasis of serene clarity.
Ken Wilber in his work ‘ No Boundary: Eastern
and Western Approaches to Personal Growth’ like these two small pieces, “ Even to say ‘reality is no-boundary
awareness’ is still to create a distinction between boundaries and no-boundary!
So we have to keep in mind the great difficulty involved with dualistic
language. That "reality is no-boundary" is true enough, provided we
remember that no-boundary awareness is a direct, immediate, and nonverbal
awareness, and not a mere philosophical theory. It is for these reasons that
the mystic-sages stress that reality lies beyond names and forms, words and
thoughts, divisions and boundaries. Beyond all boundaries lies the real world
of Suchness, the Void, the Dharmakaya, Tao, Brahman, the Godhead. And in the
world of suchness, there is neither good nor bad, saint nor sinner, birth nor
death, for in the world of suchness there are no boundaries.” And "The ultimate
metaphysical secret, if we dare to state it so simply, is that there are no
boundaries in the Universe. Boundaries are illusions, products not of Reality,
but of the way we map and edit Reality. And while it is fine to map out the
territory, it is fatal to confuse the two."
On a lighter
vein is Reality the jigsaw puzzle involving these things: Nothing, Everything, Anything, Something.
Even as Jarod
Kintz says, “ Nothing, Everything, Anything, Something: If you have
nothing, then you have everything, because you have the freedom to do anything,
without the fear of losing something.”
We
must not hesitate to analyze anything and everything in depth from as many
angles as possible but also ultimately find out the points of or areas or
domains of synthesis/synergy leading to harmony and unity with all variety
and/or differences in tact. This is will be the automatic progression of life
experience and life itself.
What
is DIVISION after all, if we unwrap
it in acronym as follows;-
Differences are
Inevitable;
Variety is
Inherent and
Synergy is
Indispensable to
Operationalize
Nicely certain commonalities among all and everything in life…
We
started with impact and here is an impactful speech
1] In
ThinkEdu16 conference in concluding session Sri Sri Ravishankar answered
spontaneously very well to VC of a university in very simple terms how to avoid
irrational depressions due to high expectations and corresponding
disappointment.
He
used just three very effective words. He said you definitely need 'Passion' to
perform effectively but 'Dispassion' to carry on with
shortcomings and failures. He said when you succeed in Passion you
enjoy, when you have this 'Dispassion' then you do not 'hate yourself' between
these two if you have 'Compassion' then you do not hate or blame others. So
he said you need Passion, Dispassion and Compassion -all the three.
I
think this simple mantra can contribute enough moderation and sense of balance
which is the ultimate test of a matured person.
No
one starts and must not start or cannot start all aspects of life in
moderation.
Aggression,
passion, influence, impact, intensity are the things that spice up the
adventure of life but then everyone must grow out of these experiences into a
matured balanced person acting with moderation.
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