Preface:
Most often, so many people, young or not so young, in contemporary societies feel the ‘disconnect’ with people, their ambient milieus and larger purpose of life. Somehow, if this situation lingers, this disconnect; or lack of fruitful connect, often brings about the very troublesome emotion of alienation – Feeling Of Not Belonging!
Then, often, this alienation may prompt many people to subconsciously imbibe some dysfunctional behaviors and action, with a view to install their diminutive sense of belonging. It is then very natural that such ‘abnormality’ shall seek ‘inclusiveness’ into mainstream culture by validating it in the name of some universal element of human make-up. Only a handful seeks ‘inclusion’ with the might of ‘violence’ but most shall settle for ‘psychological’ positioning for elusive righteousness. This can lead to some sort of populist ‘redefinition’ or ‘repositioning’ of prevalent societal psychologies to validate new yet ‘aberrant’ attitudes.
Somehow, this crucial fact remains that true and real connects is intangible – not physical but mental. Therefore, knowledge always happens to be the real and lasting connect with everything around us. We know it well that lasting wellness can come to us only through entrenched connect with generic elements and as our consciousness is intangible, its lasting connects can come only through intangibilities. Knowledge is the real intangible connect.
This is the most calamitous war unleashed in societies all over the world as many groups of people, with all the might of their ‘perceptional-righteousness’ are trying to install their own subjective and competing versions of – What Is Actual Knowledge...!
So, the spiritualism, religion, science, psychology, politics, history, all compete for labelling and installing their domain of knowledge as the true one. This allows almost everyone to come up with perceptions of what he or she thinks is ‘true knowledge’. This advocacy of body being the ultimate wisdom-receptor in the name of populist psychology of ‘Be Yourself’ viscerality is the front-runner. The world is the battle-field of warring cultural perceptions and subjective ideologies.
In contemporary cultures, the worst casualty is average person’s disconnect with instinctive human curiosity and inquisitiveness. Especially, the young generations feel knowledge is optional, even a burden. There is an insistence on living life, at the cost of ignoring knowledge about life-living essentials. People of any age, whether they are kids, young or old; this inquisitiveness should always remain as primary energy of all actions and behaviors. There is nothing but knowledge that truly connects us with things other than us. Important it is to accept here with all humility that knowledge should always be an evolving realism.
We all know, it is rare that a small kid feels lonely or bored. He or she is always busy connecting physically as well as mentally to everything real or imaginary around him or her. Kids are wired for curiosity and inquisitiveness, even when societies usually smother their innate curiosities. However, as we grow, we stop to actually keep growing. We stop connecting. We stop the crucial linkages of knowledge. Modern cultures insist on education as means to acquire skills about jobs and careers but the crucial life-living knowledge is being sidelined. So, we may be skilled but not truly knowledgeable.
We have to re-learn this mastery of the artistry of being in perpetual connect with this art and science of inquisitiveness about the mystical universe – everything around us, till life allows us time. Knowledge connects, it makes us belong, it keeps us thrilled and in joy of being inseparable part of the colossal whole. Yes, everyone is truly lonely in his or her pursuits of knowledge as this process is intangible and operative at the intangible level of consciousness.
A consciousness filled with connects of inquisitiveness of knowledge lands us at this facilitative time-space realism of happy loneliness. We are then lonely and at our happiest best. This is the facilitative soil for growth and evolution of true ‘Be Yourself’ empowerment...
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… At The Very Outset…
It is indeed a sad but omnipresent truth of the living experience that good and right things are very much in minority. Far more depressing is the fact that the minority of goodness and right is almost always prevailed over by the majority of bad, wrong and undecided. And this can be easily understood.
The wrong and bad is the instinctive and intuitive part of human living behavior-action whereas, the good and right of society is a conscious and inculcated behavior-action. Majority of humans being intuitive, are prone to being ‘manipulated’ by unscrupulous elements of society and become a party to bad, wrong and undecided. Only a few has the good and right with them as it takes a lot of conscious and discretionary awareness and positioning in the part of people, which is very tough.
It is almost perceptible now that in the long history of mankind, all major developments in the world had three things in common –
It is Important to know the two prerequisites for the success of any goodness that was initiated for general well-being of humanity. First and foremost is a very aware and proactive media and secondly, a well-oiled regulatory mechanism for fast and steady penetration and reach to the masses as well as the insurance that goodness reached in the right and avowed shape and size.
It is to be clearly understood why all this happens. As we will understand that, we all shall develop very compassionate and affectionately objective view and stand over those people who either play villain to goodness or are simply a misguided lot.
Human ingenuity for pilferage is instinctive; it cannot be completely done away with. It has been said hundreds of years back by a wise man, ‘Nobody can understand and check when a fish drinks water while being in water’. ‘Self’ is an undeniable reality and ‘selfishness’ is also very natural, instinctive and intuitive. It comes out of the genetically designed urge for self-preservation of any living cell. The nobility of human selfishness is however a social product. And this social product is not intuitive but inculcated by right education and objective mind-training.
The fear or care for social approval and reprimand decides the intensity of inclination of selfishness to indulge in ingenuity of pilferage. The basic fear is the fear of majority and the only potent check on human ingenuity. But, humanity has always been unfortunate in the sense that goodness never gets majority backing and ingenuity always does get it.
This rule applies to all bad and wrong things of humanity. Be it the issue of corruption, religious bigotry, religious fundamentalism, religion-based-frauds, superstitions, social evils, etc, in all these the real culprit is the age-old subjective woes of humanity. They are fear, insecurity, gross ignorance, poor societal law-enforcement, undecided value-system of society, etc.
It is a scientific truth that a person who grew up very insecure, fearful, uncared-unloved and undecided shall live to be a man or woman with higher inclination to be corrupt, superstitious, practice religious fundamentalism & narrow-mindedness, be perilously radical and stubborn in social situations and above all an intuitively devious and deviant personality.
It is a simple rule. Sell fairness cream to very fair and already milky-white complexioned young lady and she will laugh at it. Sell the same to a dark-skinned lady and she will buy it in tones. Now, a good sales man is not satisfied as he has been taught to be ingenious. He will convince the milky-white lady that very soon she too shall have dark skins as the sun is becoming more intense and hence she would need the cream. If the lady is insecure, ignorant and full of fear, she will intuitively fall for it and the sales guy will be successful in selling the fairness cream even to her. No confident and secure lady with any type of skin shall buy the fairness cream claiming ‘miracles’ as she shall be a rationalist. There is no harm in the desire to be fair but the problem is with ‘claims of miracles’ and being subservient to this lure and belief.
The same is with all ‘adverts’ of politics and leaderships in any domain of life. Lure and false belief in ‘miracle adverts’, given by anyone in politics or by a leadership is his or her business but one should not ‘buy’ their ‘products’ riding on our instinctive fears, insecurities and love for miracles. Desire for ‘attainments’ in individual is not bad or wrong, however falling prey to our own fears, insecurities and stupidities is, if we blindly buy the ‘miracle-adverts’ of anyone – be in politics, economy or faith domains…
It is observed globally that it is women who largely are the buyers of most miracles of Gods, God-men and other faith-sellers. The sales-men of faith-trade know it very well where the easy market lies. The religion first creates fear and insecurity and then sells its products. The religion of all shades and colors shall tell people that this mortal world is so full of pain, uncertainty and troubles and then the hell awaits all sinners. Believing this is easy as this world is essentially chaotic. Then, the Gods and God-men say, ‘Come to me and I shall own all your troubles. I shall open the door of heaven for you who come to me’. He tells you, the sun shall make you dark-skinned and you cannot avoid the sun. And, only he has the ‘fairness cream’ that is a ‘sure-cure’ for dark-skin. And, he alone has the ‘umbrella’ of UV-protection!
Men are also not behind. With them, it is ‘sexual-potency’ that is what fairness cream is for women. The potion and pills sells with them as they are insecure and fearful about it. The potency-sellers know well, how to cash on to this insecurity.
You cannot blame men and women for such behavior. Fear and insecurity is intuitive to most of them. It needs a lot of courage, conviction and wise consciousness to stand fearless and securely confident to say a firm no to all these ‘fairness-cream-business’.
… Not easy; the rationalists understand this and that’s why, they are very compassionate and affectionate about all this ignorance and have firm faith that the picture shall change but we shall have to be patient. The disease is so deep and omnipresent that it shall take time. We need to accept that and be compassionate even with wrong and wrong-followers…
Stupidities are ‘Generic’; intelligence seeks ‘Specificity’ – That’s why human problems have commonality, solutions haven’t: this ‘dualism’ is doorstep of excellence & empowerment…!
Preposterous and naively outlandish it may sound, yet, it seems, stupidity of individual as well as collective humanity is generic and that is why visceral to all beings. However, intelligence is specific, not generic, and something, which does not come with innate body-mind packaging; rather, it is cultivated, evolved and is a learned/unlearned attainment…
This is important acceptance – Being ‘oneself’ is calamitous call for perpetuation of stupidities of generic consciousness, we all are born with. However, this ‘Be Yourself’ stupidity needs to be assigned critical test of ‘self-actualization’ process to travel the road to higher consciousness, which is the specific intelligence of ‘Yourself’. Intelligence is not wired in bodies but are evolved and matured through conscious mind and its empowerment through tough objective process of ‘self-actualization’…
Wisdom for humanity – individual as well as collective, is all about ‘specificity’ of time-space management, not a generic facility, available gratuitously. This dualism of ‘generic’ and ‘specific’ attainments and endowments for humanity is doorstep to empowerment. Empowerment is all about knowing and accepting the mechanism of everything, in our milieus around and within our body and mind…
If we see and accept that for every individual; wisdom and excellence arrives in two different shapes and forms –
Once we see and accept the idea of generic and specific subjects, within an individual, we shall have ease in attaining excellence and empowerment. We shall see and accept that most stupidities of life and living come to us naturally as it is visceral and commonly innate in all humans. That is why, across the globe, across cultures and identities, human stupidities and troubles have commonality. However, cultures and societies differ in growth, wellness, peace and affluence because the people have evolved and attained different ‘specific’ intelligence…
As simple as this seems, the reality is – Problems of all humanity, irrespective of time and space are common as they emanate out of humanity’s ‘generic’ stupidities. However, solutions for different segments of humans, in different societies and cultures are not common because solutions come from ‘specificity’ of human intelligence, which being an acquired attainment, cannot ever be common.
That is why, all societies and cultures start with common problems but different societies and cultures have different stages of growth and wellness, as solutions are specifically evolved in time and space. Individuals also look similar and have common problems, as all stupidities are ‘generic’, but some individuals have better solutions and lasting peace and poise, as they have uncommon ‘specificity’ of solutions…
We are all used to believing ourselves as some ‘subject’ or ‘protagonist’, doing everything and being the cause of everything. Modern science however says, there are different ‘subjects’ within the broad subject of ‘self’. Hundreds of years back, spiritualism has already said the same thing.
There is a ‘Generic Subject’, which scientists term as the ‘auto-function’ mechanism of our body-mind synchrony. Then, there is a ‘Specific Subject’. This is our reception-mode consciousness.
In our normal daily life, it is this generic subject within us, which is doing everything, as it is the auto-reactive mechanism. It is in times of distress, confusion, extraordinary situations or crisis that the specific subject, which is an entity of non-reactive, receptive mind consciousness, comes to fore and takes good control of life.
We rise up in the morning, ready to go to work, take a train or drive a car, finish off the daily work, come back in the evening, play with kids, have diner and go to bed. The generic subject handles it all quite well; of course with all its stupidities unleashing themselves in its course, we are not even aware of. Usually, for most moments in a day, we never ever deeply feel our subjectivity – the deep feeling that ‘we’ did it all. We seldom have the need for imagining things with deeper inputs from ‘Me’.
However, when there is a crisis, a problem, this generic subject lands in trouble as it has the nature of handling ‘routine’ things, which is instinctive. Problems need specific inputs from subjective imaginations and it is a domain of the reception-mode consciousness of specific subject.
For majority of us, our lives are dominated by the action-mode generic subject and this is because, it is this subject, which deals with routine affairs. The trouble is; we all live in a culture where most success benchmarks are of action-mode. Naturally, the generic subject is hailed as the ‘winner’ and star-performer.
Sadly, reception mode is considered regressive and primitive. It is neither put to use quite often nor is it relied upon as effective tool. The usually ‘winner’ reactive-subject is unconsciously assigned the task of even problem solving and this subject further aggravates the trouble by precariously dressing it up. Generic stupidities should never be assigned the task of ‘specific’ intelligence…!
The reactive-mode generic subject does not seem to have this ‘winning’ ability and leisurely timeframe to ‘undress’ a problem to arrive at ‘naked’ solutions. The receptive-mode specific subject is the ‘master’ of this art, on whom we usually do not rely and relegate to backseat.
The trouble most of us have is this: We have blurred the fine line of distinction between the two modes. Even when, we are supposed to be in ‘receptive mode’, we are ideating in ‘actionable’ patterns. We all live in such a contemporary societal space where every reception is culturally required to be converted into action mode.
Someone said it very innocently but sincerely – “Even when I am hugging and kissing my lover, I am not focusing on the joy of love and satisfaction of intimacy but on the idea that whether I am ‘performing’ well enough as a lover!” Our obsession with ‘actionable’ and ‘performing’ consciousness is corroding the potential joys and abilities of the receptive-mode subject.
There is a Japanese term called Shikan Taza, which is practiced by Zen masters. The word literally means ‘Just Sit’. There are many interpretations of the term as a ‘meditation-art’. However, what it means, in its holistic form is – “Sitting in a state without any tangible and intangible thought for action”.
It is essentially a practice of arriving and staying at ‘receptive-mode’ mechanism of consciousness. Shikan Taza then opens the doors for higher consciousness, where perspective is holistic, assimilative and integrative. Here, problems are naked, unburdened of the dressing up of actionable-fabrics.
In Yoga and Vedic traditions of ancient Oriental world, we also have many such meditative techniques, which look like similar art. This only goes on to establish that wellness and goodness needs, across humanity, irrespective of cultural differences are the same and even the art and science to attain this are similar.
Contemporary world, where the ‘self’ is more challenged for wellness than ever before as we live in very complex world, demanding mad-multitasking, for which our brain is not designed. Also, fast-paced life with competitiveness for survival and wellness being very high, the ‘self’ is always in drift and flux. Once we undress this flux and drift and stand with bare consciousness, we can see, the real, the actual and truly aware ‘self’. This is the process of rising above the stupidities of ‘Be Yourself’ viscerality…!
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...For Finality Of Fruition
It is not that people await good times, the good times also await good people to come and hoist the potential seeded in the soil of future. Good words also wish for good readers, to be in reception of and be in linearity of the innocent intent, which ride on the shoulders of the words, for the finality of their fruition...
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… On Navigation And Expression Of Intent
There has to be a humble admittance – Any word, however well meant and well spelt, is a possible suspect of misinterpretation. There is a simple reason. People are in different consciousnesses and culturally as well as personally inclined to a specific value-summation of utilities. As a writer, it is a huge temptation to take liberties, with not only imaginations but also with the words, as against their common and popular use. Do kindly accept my latitude with language and personal coinages of words, as I understand, many times, they may not conform to popular usages. I share with you whatever is part of my consciousness. All wisdoms say, what stays with you is what sinks in. Wisdom is what we internalize. I share with you whatever I have internalized in my life. This may not be mainstream stuff; but may have utility in some meaningful way. I believe, as a reader, you shall enjoy this novelty and pleasant awkwardness of the writing.
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Thanks For Your Magnanimity, The First Chapter Begins...