FUUNTU FU Universe No Thanks for U!

 I shall discuss two events from the past. I must point out that the conclusions I draw from these events is completely personal. 

Long time back, when I was doing my undergraduate studies, I had a friend who came from a very poor background. Well, those were the days before liberalisation in India. Most of us were were from lower middle class families. We all could be tagged as pretty poor! But this friend was so poor that he could not even afford to pay for his monthly food bills. Some of our friends decided that we should pull some money and support this friend. We did that. One day, I asked this friend a personal question. We were very close. So, I could ask something this personal. I asked, given that you are getting supported by others during your bad times, would you support other such poor students when you become relatively rich? I can note here that we were studying in one of the best universities of India and we all were deemed to become successful in our future lives. However, my friend remained silent. I was quite shocked. But, I suppressed my shock. I could not understand it. How can someone who gets help in his time of need not think of giving back when he can? 

The second incident happened in 2019. I was visiting my home town. During that time the government of India had taken an interesting approach to help the people of Syria. India, itself struggling with over-population, could not exactly give asylum to many. Instead, Indian government decided to start a fellowship through which quite a number of Syrian students with undergraduate degrees can come to India and study towards their postgraduate degrees for free. The government directly paid the respective universities the tuition fees and also paid a decent amount (by Indian standard) of living allowance to the students. I was visiting one such host universities. I happened to meet some of these students from Syria. After a while the discussion went to the topic of their life in India. I was surprised to note that they had so many complains! They did not like the fact that they were not given Syrian or European food in the mess. They did not like the fact that many of their accommodation rooms did not have air conditioning. They did not like the fact that two students had to share a room. The reason I was surprised was because they were actually getting a much better living condition due to the fact that their host university was a private university. They were getting better hostel and better food than most top class universities in India (because they are government universities and run on very low budget). I was shocked. They were being hosted in a country where most of the citizens do not get four meals a day and most do not get an AC in their rooms. How can they be so obtuse?

Recently, I was discussing these incidents with a friend of mine who is also a therapist. I could find a common thread. In both the cases, the subjects have gone through a lot of hardships. My hypothesis is that going through so much hardship can affect one in two ways. One can end up becoming extremely kind and develop tremendous amount of empathy. The other effect is the one I witnessed in the above two incidents. In that, the person has gone through so much hardship and pain that they thinks that they are psychologically primed to think that now the universe or God needs to pay back. And whatever kindness they may receive from others they feel that, given their past extreme sorrows, they deserve it anyway. They do not see the need to be thankful. 

I must be clear here that this is a hypothesis about a psychological issue. I am not blaming anyone. Like any other psychological challenge, this also needs psychological help. However, before that, we need to accept that this might be a valid explanation and validate it. 

Again, I am not blaming anyone. Blaming someone for being ungrateful for suffering from FUUNTU would be like blaming someone for having depression. 

Without delving too much into politics, I believe, that a study to validate FUUNTU phenomena can also help some of the troubles that asylum giving nations are facing from certain refugees. Like in any other psychological challenge, the first step is to acknowledge the challenge, validate it and develop a long term therapy modus operandi. 

Mind, Models and Meditation

Let us start with a story; a story mentioned often in oriental literature. Maybe, Milinda Panha was the first scripture to mention this. In it, the monk Nagasena asks the Greek sovereign Milinda the simple question of "what is a chariot?". 

“Then, explain sir, what that is. Is it the axle? Or the wheels, or the chassis, or reins, or yoke that is the chariot? Is it all of these combined, or is it something apart from them?”

A "chariot" is actually a model representing the form, the utilities, the combinations and the narratives behind them all. If you think, you would realise that the meanings of the word "chariot" (or for that matter any word) has been becoming richer as we age. This is a model, made richer by our experiences. This is what the Buddhists term pannati. Our brains have evolved to become model-making minds. It is inbuilt into our prefrontal cortex which has six layers (developed through millions of years of evolution). We sense through our senses and immediately make a model out of it. Why? 

This is just my non-expert hypothesis. From an evolutionary point of view, thinking and planning homo-species could optimize the use of resources (including their own time). That made them successful adopters in many different ecosystems. That started making their minds evolve to do more modelling. It went on till we could no longer distinguish between model and reality. Every data carried by our sense organs are immediately converted to models. The more we experience the more complicated and sophisticated these models become. For example, when I see and taste a cheesecake for the first time, I try to compare it with other things I have had and seen before. When encountering a new object we all are like the five blind men who went to encounter an elephant. When I see or taste a cheesecake again I have the existing model of cheesecake which consists of all the cheesecakes I have eaten and seen and the milieu in which I did so. Every extra encounter keeps enrichening my model or pannati.

The models are then used in creating mental simulations. Just creating models as we encounter things is not enough. We do not encounter things often enough. Our brains have evolved to create models and, then, use these models to create mental simulations. These mental simulations are "thoughts". Evolution has made our brains extremely good simulation engines. We keep simulating all the time in order to create as much richness as possible about all the models we have. Recent brain studies have found that neural circuits tend to create almost 90% of the signal inside the circuit. Only 10% of the signal comes from outside. These simulations made humans extremely successful in the race of evolution. By the Red Queen Hypothesis, we kept on improving our modelling and simulating capabilities as quickly as possible. 

The race of evolution has made us to model and simulate a bit too much. Remember, we evolved for millions of years in circumstances where the number of external stimuli was not a lot and it remained like that till the information age. Suddenly, we have too much information to process. We have too many people to deal with. We have too many emotions to work on. Our brains did not get time to evolve to handle this. They are getting saturated and, in turn, getting tired and sick. 

What can we do? We can try to actively limit modelling and simulating. 

1- Limiting modelling: We can try to actively feel what we sense without forming a model. It needs practice. For example, when we see a beautiful sunset, we can try not to see the sunset! Rather, we can try to directly perceive the components, trying not to name anything if possible. 

2- Limiting simulation: This is what we try to do in mindfulness meditation. The trick, it seems, is not to actively try to control the thoughts/simulations. Rather, try to observe the simulation process. Try to observe each thought as it comes and goes. The Buddha gave a nice allegory. He told that the mind is like a naughty monkey trying to jump all over the place. Try to observe the monkey. That will make it shy and it will try to settle down!  

It is funny that we all want to relax and not do anything. But, not doing anything in the mind (i.e. not modelling and/or simulating) is extremely tough. Evolution has made our brain extremely efficient modelling-simulating-engines. Meditation can help in changing the brain structure. Mindfulness can help us to stop saturating our brains!

The Real Revolution

The good old (and definitely wise) Terry Pratchett told (in one of his Discworld novels), "But here's some advice, boy. Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions.". 

A few days back, I was discussing with a friend the state of affairs in China and how (as per him) the Chinese people are fed up with the current form of communism there. He has a great faith that the people will rise and will change the regime. I could not comprehend that. How can the mighty communist party of China fall? We discussed the revolutions in South Africa, India, and the current (ongoing) one in Burma. We also discussed the Arab spring. people rise up. There are violent or non-violent protests. People die. In some rare circumstances, regimes change. We have seen this in Egypt and Ukraine. However, in both these places, only the heads of the state changed. Nothing else changed. 

Bigger changes happened in history when the UK gave up its colonies. Besides all other factors, it was, by a large margin, due to the change of popular opinion in the UK. PM Attlee coming to power after WW II was, in a big way, responsible for India getting independence. And Attlee came to power because of the change in the perception of the common British people. Something similar happened in the Vietnam war. The common Americans wanted the war to end. They were disgusted by the amount of death and cruelty happening in the war. 

So, be it through violence or non-violence, change in the perception of the oppressor is needed for the success of a revolution. 

But what does one do when the oppressor is one's own, like in China or Burma? (PS: It can be noted that I am not trying to put China and Burma in the same box. They, rather, show two extremes. On one hand, we have a fairly small country's military and on the other hand, we have this juggernaut that does what it likes!)

I think, especially in these cases, there is a greater need for nonviolent protest. How long can the common soldiers follow the orders of the Tatmadaw bosses? How long can he keep killing his own friends? At one point, I am sure, the common soldier will reject the high commands. 

What happens after this? Unless society is ready and rich to produce leaders with empathy and compassion, not much will change in the long run. How do we change the world? How do we change our society? Charity does begin at home. We have to start with ourselves. To start, we have to understand ourselves. To understand (as if in a lab) we need to be mindful. In Krishnamurti's words..."To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves; and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not to leave it to others to transform themselves or to bring about a modified change through revolution, either of the left or of the right. It is important to understand that this is our responsibility, yours and mine..."

Work without attachment

 There is a nice and often quoted sloka in Bhagwat Gita. 

Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana । Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani ।।

This means that we have the right to our actions but not to the fruits they bear. Hence, keep working without thinking about the results. This is the most unpractical advice I have ever heard in my life. It makes no sense,......till recently. 

During the lockdown in 2020, my father would explain Bhagwat Gita to me over Zoom. During that one of the slokas we discussed was the 5th sloka from chapter 18. 

yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma na tyājyaṁ kāryam eva tat | yajño dānaṁ tapaśh chaiva pāvanāni manīṣhiṇām ||

It says that one can give up all actions besides three types of actions, viz. yajna, daana and tapah. There are various interpretations of this. My father pointed me to the interpretation given by Indian saint-reformist Vinoba Bhave in his Talks on the Gita (which is a compilation of his talks in a jail explaining Bhagwat Gita to his fellow inmates). 

He points out, very logically, that we are all born with three debts. 

First of all, the earth and the environment contributes to our growth. We are indebted to it. Secondly, our parents, families and society also contribute to our growth. Thirdly, our own body. We are all alive. This means numerous processes and organs are working seamlessly in our body. 

We have not done anything to pay back these loans. Any work we do to pay back the debt from nature and the environment is called yajna. Yajna is not just seating in front of a fire and chanting mantras. That is just one way about it. That is actually done to please all the Gods. And Hindu Gods represent forces of nature. So better yajna would be to serve nature directly. Plant trees, use less/no plastic, do not use products with a known track record of butchering the environment etc.; all these are acts of yajna.

Similarly, anything we do to pay back the debt from society is daana.  E.g. volunteering to teach kids from a disadvantaged background, donating to societal work, even something as simple as doing your job to the best of your ability; all these contribute to society. 

Lastly, anything we do to take good care of our body is tapah. E.g. doing regular exercise and meditation, taking a jog, eating healthy, eating less, doing intermittent fasting etc. 

A beautiful conclusion emerges when we combine the two things we discussed above. If you are doing anything to pay back a debt, do you expect results from it? It is debt anyway, something you owe! How can you expect any fruits from those actions? The moment you are mindful of the fact that a certain action you are doing falls into one of the three categories, viz. yajna, daana and tapah then automatically you lose interest in the results. 

Let us try to be grateful for all the debts we have got from nature, society and our own body. Being mindful of this will help us to forget about the results of our actions. And it will also make our actions better.