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One picks up the morning paper and he finds that so many terrible things are happening in different parts of the world. There is enormous confusion, violence, brutalities, the wars, terrorism and endless division caused by organized religions and nations that are driven by their own interest. There are divisions within the same religious groups due to differences in beliefs, ideas, and values. There are divisions within the countries due to power struggle between political parties.
We do get upset by what is happening in the world but vast majority of people shut out the impact by disowning responsibility for the sordid state of affairs, assigning it to the leaders in various fields or to the care of the Almighty. There are, however, serious people who continue to be disturbed by the events in varying degrees but do not find an adequate response to this ugly human situation.
The way things are at present it appears almost impossible that a drastic revolution can take place. This feeling, however, is based on our past experience. We have seen that human beings have not changed during the past thousands of years in spite of so much misery and sorrow arising out of conflicts between religions and nations. We, however, do not realize that this feeling itself prevents us from looking at the problem with a fresh and open mind. Past experience is based on past thinking. If our thinking is the root cause of the problem we cannot rely on past experience to guide our actions. We need to directly look at the thought process that creates the problem.
It is true that there are sharp differences between one person and another and these differences appear to be irreconcilable but we need to see clearly that deeply, inwardly, psychologically human beings are the same. The factors that are common to humanity are very crucial and cannot be ignored. We all face the same life of sorrow, pain, grief, anxiety and uncertainty. We all suffer loneliness, conflict and confusion. Thinking creates problems for human beings the same way. The process, the modus operandi and the mechanism are the same.
People may have different ideas and they may have different opinions but the reason why they believe in something or the other or the reason why they form opinions, prejudices etc are the same. The process of identification and attachment to a particular group or nation is the same. When a person realizes the fact that we are all fundamentally the same his approach to the whole problem drastically changes. He is no longer caught up in superficial differences.
Question has been asked, how is it possible for people to deny their cultural identities? It is not a question of accepting or denying personal cultural identities. We need to ask why human beings have divided themselves into so many different cultural, religious and national identities and what are the implications of this whole divisive process? The fact is that these identities have been imposed on the human mind and we stick to these identities due to psychological reasons.
Faith and belief provide some kind of a false sense of psychological security. If I defend myself physically, that is natural, but when the psychological entity the “me” tries to protect itself psychologically through the process of identification, it creates all kinds of problems for the individual and the society. The feeling that I am separate from you is the beginning of deception, the beginning of illusion. This illusion is the cause of human ignorance.
When we look at the human history and also at what is happening now the problem of attachment to labels appears to be quite formidable and one asks how does it matter if individuals here and there drop the labels? There is a feeling of helplessness because one thinks that an individual cannot do anything to change in the world? This, however, is not true. Human beings share the same consciousness. This consciousness is the result of our relationship with each other. Individual and society are inextricably linked with each other and are constantly feeding each other. Any change in the mind of an individual is bound to affect the human consciousness. The idea that “I will change only when others change” is negligent postponement of an urgent needed action. The real challenge of change does not lie somewhere outside; it lies in accepting the responsibility for the mess that our own thinking has created.
Realizing the fact that all human beings are in the same predicament and that we share the same consciousness we must set aside our own particular ideas, beliefs, opinions and prejudices, likes and dislikes and also our desire for self-improvement, self-enhancement and self-fulfillment, because these also distort perception. Only then can we go deeper into the nature and structure of thought which is creating problems for all human beings the same way. Only profound understanding can bring about inward revolution.
When one realizes the significance of clarity one naturally shares with others thus enlarging the circle of individuals who are keen to respond in full measure to the whole human situation. An individual who has insight becomes part of the blazing movement of understanding.
Sardar Singh
Hey, Somendra, glad to find you here! Like others in this forum, I wish you, too, a creative engagement on this community of ours. How is your daughter?
An interesting question is raised by Mr. Singh: Could one ever rid of one’s superficial labels inherited or acquired through one’s own culture? One claims to be X rather than Y through his identification enforced by his inheritance or a deliberate choice. Can one be free of all such self-enforced components in his perceived identity?
Let’s look at as a challenge. Surely, we can only answer it if we have ever attempted to live without labels. In fact, it has to be brought down to our own personal level in the sense that the answer to this question would be authentic only if individually we could attest to its plausibility or implausibility. In other words, if I say A is true then it must be my experience, my knowledge, my own understanding that would be behind the plausibility (or lack of it) of A for me as far as I’m concerned. What would not do is the automatic leaning on propositions like Mr. P says it is possible and, therefore, it must be true; or, alternatively, even Mr. Q tried to do this but could not succeed, and, therefore, it cannot be done.
So, unless, we, individually, in our own lives actually experience living without labels, every attempted answer would be an opinion. And even if the majority of this world leans one way or another to a specific answer to this question, it’d still be an opinion and not truth. Therefore, to raise the point that one cannot deny one’s personal cultural identity because we were nurtured in it for million years is still an opinion and not truth. To find out the real answer to that question we have to live without any bias or any preconceived notion, without making it a problem, without accepting it as a challenge, without saying it could be done or couldn’t be done, without getting into it because others say it is desirable to live like that.
We are looking into this problem from all possible sides without climbing on a smart answer, desirable answer, legitimate answer, politically correct answer, traditionally correct answer, culturally sponsored answer, etc. Why do we want to live without labels? What’s wrong when somebody says I’m an X and I think only decent way of living is a X way of living? Surely, labeling such as this is based on an opinion, our cultural bias, etc. If this is legit for some, then, by symmetry, it’d be absolutely legitimate to accommodate all such claims where X could be Y, Z, W, etc. What’s wrong with this kind of living? We would have a world where living would be clustered with each cluster standing on an opinion set. We would be living as islands without actually communicating with anyone except broadcasting our own opinions since we would not be able to learn the truth of the whole that we fundamentally are. This is how the world is today. Are we content to live like this?