Reality of Rose

 In a previous blog, we discussed about pannati, mental models we create to perceive the world around us. Today, we shall take a deeper dive into this subject. My father often states that "a rose is made up of everything in the universe except the rose!" It took me a long time to appreciate this statement. 

If we look at a rose and think a bit, we can link every part of the universe to it. Each part of the universe (in both space and time) has played a small part in creating this beautiful flower that I hold in my hand. Any tiny change in the cosmic history or in the evolutionary history would have created something completely different. Then we can think of all the processes (social, economic, geographical, political) that has caused this flower to end up in my hand; viz. shipping across seas, going through different borders, coming to this form through hundreds of years of meticulous breeding by passionate farmers/clergies, all these and many more processes have given rise to this flower. We can also think of the soil, the water, the farmers, energy from sun etc. which created this flower. In a way, this rose that I hold in my hand is made up of everything in the universe except "rose". How? Because "rose" is not a physical thing. "Rose" is a mental model we have created to represent this thing that actually holds the whole universe in itself. Of course, this is not true only of the rose. We can consider any thing or any person or any animal or plant. The same logic can be applied. "Amit" (myself) is made up of everything in the universe except the pannati "Amit"!

From here, my father takes a leap. If we want to make a nice dish, we need to make sure that each ingredient we add to it is of good quality. Making the best masala-chai will need us to use the best cardamom, organic A2 milk, good quality large grain tea from Assam, fresh organic ginger and so on. Similarly, to have a happy and content "Amit", I need to make sure that all the ingredients (to make "Amit") are of the best quality. Which means that if I want myself to be happy then I need to take good care of everything in the universe. When everything in the universe is of good quality then only a happy "me" can be created!

This is a great mental exercise. We just need to think of anyone or anything we really care about. Maybe it's ourselves or our kids or our pet. To make sure that that person is of the best disposition we need to make sure that every part of the world is taken care of. 

If I like myself, I have to take care of the world, its trees and bees; it's snails and whales; its men and machines. 

Crimes and Compassion

Early this year (2022), I discussed with a few friends about starting a daily group mindfulness session online. We have been practicing it on most of the weekdays since then. I was not sure if I was getting any benefit from it. 

Then, in June 2022, I got the news on Oslo Shooting. It was a horrible action and the shooter was a radicalised Norwegian Muslim. Usually, I would have reacted to such an incident with intense hatred towards the perpetrator. However, this time was different. As soon as I came to know more about the shooting and the shooter, I felt a momentary intense sense of pity for the shooter. How loveless his life might have been. How abjectly depressing his life must have been. No sane and happy person decides to go and kill complete strangers. When I felt this, I thought do I want him to go free? And it took me a while to see the right logic. 

Compassion for the criminal should flow in as naturally as compassion for anyone else. But does it mean that the criminal should get less or no punishment? I am no criminologist. I do not know what kind of punishment for the criminals is best for the society. Hence, I will let the law of the land follow its due course. Personally speaking, I would like the Oslo shooter to have the strictest punishment in some really bad jails (definitely not in Norway). But, I will still feel compassion for him for having a loveless life. 

Compassion for a criminal does not mean the advocation of forgiveness. For example, a kid can be very nice and naive. But, if they, by mistake, touch fire then they will burn their hand. The fire does not decide to burn them not because they were a kid. Similarly, we can feel compassion for the criminal and, still, advocate for strict punishments.

Evaluating Evolution!

 Yesterday on my long flight from Istanbul to Cape Town, I was musing over the whole sanitization-security phenomenon. Due to Covid, we all have been using way too much sanitisation process. HEPA filters are trying to kill all kinds of microbes. But, without these microbes, we really can not survive. In fact, the human body has almost ten times as many bacteria in it as human cells! And, can we even call these non-human cells? They are an integral part of our body and without them, we won't be able to function. When humans evolved, we evolved together with all these microorganisms as well. We did what scientists call co-evolution. We evolved as a single entity. This musing gave me an exciting insight. 

For many years I have had a query. Why are there so many species if each species is trying to survive? I have never had an easy-to-understand answer. Co-evolution did the trick for me. Individual species never evolve on their own. They evolve together with other thousands of species. There is a deep interconnection. "Fittest" does not apply to each individual species. It applies to the whole group of species. A nice allegory would be a clockwork. The battery of species together makes this beautiful clockwork we call an ecosystem. The clockwork of living organisms keeps on evolving to become more successful to be in the earth, together. Each species are like small gears and pegs in this big clock. They also evolve. But the goal is not to become the fittest survivor. Rather, the goal is to be a better wheel or gear to make sure that the clockwork ticks perfectly. Mere "survival" is not the goal. It is co-evolution....almost community-evolution! Selfishness has absolutely no place in nature. 

Let us get back to our human cell vs bacteria discussion. We argued that by all means the microbes can and should be considered as parts of our own bodies. Then, by following the community-evolution discussion, every other species and living thing is also part of our own body, is not it? It is not some emotional plea. It is a science-based hard fact. Every living species is a part of our own body. We have evolved together. Hurting other species is the same as bruising parts of our own body! Self-mutilation is a sign of an unhealthy brain. Harming the environment is a sign of an unhealthy brain. Maybe this is what the Buddha meant when He told "this is because that is"! On this world environment day, let us hope that more humans are cured of this illness. 🙏

Hats and Hatred

 I was having a chat with a close friend who attended a wedding function of an ex-royal family (in India). The ancestors of this particular royal family were terrible people and were infamous for the tortures they used to inflict on their subjects during the Raj. And they never apologized for those barbaric acts of their ancestors. I hate the fact that they enjoy all the wealth of their ancestors without owning the bad-karmas! My friend mentioned that the host family was not so bad, actually. This conversation made me suddenly realize something fundamental. 

No human is actually bad when we interact with them in close proximity (to their heart). (I am using the word "they" as a singular-gender-neutral adjective.) 

The core human.....flesh and blood....primal emotions and feelings......that human is simple and very likeable by everyone.  

When that human puts on a hat and adds a tag (be it boy/girl or rich/poor or Indian/American/German or Metal-fan/Classical-fan, etc.) they, immediately, attract some humans and repel some others. The more hats that human puts on, the more tags are added. With more tags, more groups of humans start liking or disliking them and they start liking and disliking others accordingly. 

Soon, the emotions evoked are not just limited to hate and love. More the number of hats one puts on more complex the hat stack becomes. This, in turn, gives rise to all sorts of complex emotions between humans. 

Conclusion: If you want to love all then try to put off your hats one by one. If you want to like someone then try to look at them without all their hats.