I Don't Know - The Beginning of Knowing

Once there was a turkey, he was getting old and hence weak. He could not find sufficient food. His friend a bull saw his  plight and told him, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings. That way you will get stronger  and hop around a bit. So first day the turkey nibbled on some of the droppings,  gained some strength.He perched on the first branch of the tree. Next day he had some more and could fly to the second branch. The third day to the third. After a week it could fly to the top of the tree. He sat their like a king beaming looking around.

One day a farmer was passing by. He saw a  fat turkey perched on top of the tree. Thanks giving was near and he thought wouldn't it be wonderful, if he could have the turkey for the feast. He  took his shotgun that was slung across his shoulder and took aim and shot the poor turkey. He then carried  it away happily to his wife. They then cooked it and had a grand feast the next day.

So what is the moral of the story. 

Moral of the story is bull shit can take you to the top but cannot keep you there, for long.

Story was just to highlight that most of our life we are talking things which we don't even understand , bull shit in fact. This has come from the notion that more we talk about  some thing , the more knowledgeable we will appear to the society.

There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Earlier we used to live in times where survival of the fittest was the norm. Now it is survival of the well informed. Next era could be survival of the wisest.  

What is different between information and wisdom. Information is accumulation of all the ideas,  happenings around in every sphere of life. People are afraid to appear as uneducated. You may remember coming across an individual who appeared so knowledgeable , seemed to know everything under the sun. You just had to ask a thing and pat will come the answer

I had  an acquaintance  who could talk at length on any topic. Seemed to know all about

countries without having visited them. Initial admiration turned to consternation when all talk happened to be one way traffic. Sort of verbal diarrhea. A wise person on the  other hand will talk frugally, choose words carefully and hopefully give a few simple things to take away which has power to change our life or to change our thinking.

World has always been  about one persons opinion against another persons opinion. 

We seem to think that if we don't  know answer to any question we would stand out as a fool or looked down upon. Everyone is trying to educate you about something or the other. 

Little do we realize that I don't know can be a great journey. Some   questions are more important than answers. Today we have internet , we just have to have a question in our mind and immediately we google it . Internet is a great tool . We don't have to memorize much, answers are available at click of a button. Life  is great that way. 

But what about existential questions. Where we have  come from , where we will go. Is life a continuum or it is just a temporary phase, how universe came into existence, what makes us happy and so on. These existential questions are experiential and they cannot be instantly answered. They are revealed to you when you are ready. So hold on to these questions dearly. Run from those who want to give ready made and instant answers. This is your  own journey. You have to learn by trial and error. Meeting people of different wisdom traditions. Learning and applying their thoughts.

Let "I don't know" lead you to something bigger and greater. Stay uneducated.

The Life Remote

              

After a hard days work you come home. You look for the favorite piece of furniture, your couch. You then become the perfect "couch potato". Then what do you do. You grab the potato chips packet and rip it open and put a few mouthful. Then you look for the most important thing. "The Television Remote".

The television remote gives us a feeling of achievement, power. We can change channels

at will , make actors appear and disappear at will. 

If you don't agree with me think of the times, when you did not have the remote in hand and you wanted to watch the all important football match. A family member had the remote. The anguish, helplessness you felt at that time. If only you had the remote in hand.

Now you may agree and say, yes a television remote is important but not so important an object to talk about at length. To allay your fears, i am talking of another remote. Your Life Remote, the 

remote with which you control your emotions/ state of affairs, your inner well being.

Just as a television remote is important, so also your life remote is equally important. 

Consider a situation. You get up in the morning. Lovely morning, great sunshine , birds chirping, cool breeze wafting across your room. Suddenly, your eyes rest on the wall clock . It shows 8:30 am in the morning. 

Your heart skips a beat. You realize you are late for the all important office meeting.

You immediately get up,   brush your teeth, skip the shower, wear your formal clothes and rush down the stairs. You get into your car, turn on the ignition and hit the road. Today your driving skills would be put to test.

You have barely gone a hundred meters you come across a cyclist coolly cycling in the middle of the road, humming some tune.You apply the brakes. You are totally out of tune. You shout at him and ask him to take the cycle lane and not block you.

You again step on the gas and you have barely driven 500 meters that you come across an old lady who at that moment decides to cross the road. Auspicious time for her, perhaps. You again apply the brakes thanking your stars for not having hit her. She gives you her blessings but you are in no mood of any blessings. You want to curse her  but etiquette prevents that. You have to check your anger and rising frustration at all these events.

You accelerate , this time there is no room for any further interruptions. But as you approach your office you realize that the whole world has descended upon . Every one wants to reach office in time.

You finally get through the traffic and reach your office. You are anxious , fearful for being late to the meeting.

You open the meeting room door only to find looming figure of your boss. He yells at you and tells you, Govinda, the only thing you  are consistent in life is, coming late. You feel a sense of shame and hurt being ridiculed in front of your colleagues. You quietly make your way to the cubicle with drooping shoulders. You want to just vanish from the scene.

As you sit in your chair soaking in the whole situation , out of nowhere few of your colleagues appear. Each wants some task or the other to be done. You dismiss them curtly and they quickly retreat hurt.

You now sit there blaming the world, situation. Everyone is to blame but yourself for your state of affairs, your emotions.

If you dig deeply then the cyclist , the lady who crossed the road, your boss, traffic etc all were just excuses to trigger a reaction within you. You decided to part with your life remote. You gave privilege to them to  change your emotions. 

You may argue that you could have avoided all these situations by getting up early. Perhaps. But these situations can pan out, in different ways during the day. 

Just as you guard your life remote so preciously so also you should guard your life remote and not part with it.

The privilege of how you feel should rest only and only with you.

So an exercise which may help. Every evening /night before you hit the bed. Go over the daily event without judgement. Relive those events where you gave away your life remote to a person or situation and the other person  or situation was able to change channels within you. Once you are aware of those situations you can take charge and remedial  steps. 

So be protective about your life remote and be in charge.