The Easier Alternative Is Not Necessarily The Better One.

It is easier in life to choose the path of lesser resistance, the ‘natural’ (natural to the temperament) alternative. Let’s see what this means. There will be repetitive phrases in this writing- I hope that this does not divert the reader from the main objective of the writing, for it is important.

It is easy to accept the first available alternative than it is to look for the not so obvious ones and to think them through, and to make the mental and emotional effort to look for other alternatives.
It is easy to hit back whereas it might be better to hold back and wait and make an active effort to reframe it all- but it (that reframing) needs effort and patience- and these two don’t come naturally, they come by training in forbearance.

It is easy to ‘just do it’, - whatever that ‘it’ is, without waiting to think it through. (Even as important a matter as investment in stocks- people ‘just do it’, and repent!)

And, now, it is easiest to only think about something and not do it – not do anything at all- and feel okay about it while in reality one is just being complacent.

It is so easy (and is so very evident everywhere) to let ourselves be fossilized in our thoughts and behaviours – than it is to make the effort to remain mentally, physically and emotionally supple and agile. In other words, it is so easy to degenerate – let the degeneration creep in speedily- than it is to be able to marshal one’s energies to remain fresh. Aging is okay, degenerating with the passage of time is not. It is important to think this through and act upon it than to just pay lip service to it, write about it and then let it pass by silently.

It is easy and effortlessly inevident ( though it is there out in the open for all to sense it) to let the mind take the path of least difficulty and be unaware about it- not only so-  but to be insolent and arrogant about the appropriateness of what one is doing and bringing about in the following of the easiest and the first available path of thinking and action. This causes considerable damage and loss of opportunity – in growth- in all senses. It is easy to let the guard off and yet to continue feeling secure about being watchful and on guard! It is the natural thing to be blind to it but not quite acceptable to be so once one knows what is happening.

It is easy to write a diary of scattered thoughts and feel satisfied about one’s contribution (to the field of writing) than it is to gather one’s energies, apply them and come out with a focused piece of writing! (I don’t denigrate the importance of diary writing for giving oneself the space to one’s thoughts, and its therapeutic potential in personal growth)

It is easy to be something, or even, be nothing, than it is to just be. The first two are appearances- studied ones- and the latter is the reality of how it all is. ‘Just be’ hides within it a state of intense application which when persisted with leads to deliverance – the ultimately worthwhile effort.

It is easy to let the habits and habitual ways of thinking hold sway over our days and to let life pass by, enslaved to these habitual ways- than it is to be aware, and then to act upon and against the flow of the force of the habits. It is easy to accept the inevitability of the force of the habit than it is to even catch oneself being captivated and enslaved by the snare of the habit. It is very easy to accept the hypnotability of the habits than it is to be aware of them and act in better ways.

It is easy to live on auto-pilot, and paradoxically surprising to see that one’s flight lands some place else just because a set of habits (auto-pilot) took over while the pilot slumbered away.
Remember, this piece is not about achievement in the outer world, it is about inner mastery and deliverance. The outer world most likely will benefit, though it might just not, but the inner world will certainly be free of the snare of ‘Maya’. That is no small a thing! A non-thing, actually.

Arre Kuch Nahi Hota Hai!

That one extra mouthful, the one extra swig, the one lazy evening spent not exercising- all these, in one or the other individual, when pointed out, they retort back, Oh come on, nothing can happen! Meaning, dont chastise me, no harm can come to me by just this one infraction
of behaviour. Is it ever just one- does it ever stop after one act of ommission or commission? Experience confirms that it - the infraction- goes on and on, under the assumption that just a little infraction cannot harm!

Honestly, yours truly also has reacted and behaved like that: the unneeded piece of sweet, or cup of tea, or the avoided but needed spell of exercise, the one more(and completely unnecessary) video clip on the net all of these, and more.

It is the more ominous acts of ommissions or commisions that go to make a chain of harmful actions and habits that undo an individual: the one time tax evasion leading upto a large and sustained one, the one time unethical act forming into a habit of thievery, the one more indulgence in an unhealthy habit leading upto an irreversible and complex health condition.

All these are the result of the above mentioned attitude- arre kuch nahi hota hai, just let me do it. There is even a technical name to this attitude: short term hedonism. And its counterpoint is here: https://albertellis.org/yolo/

And then there are people who lead a straightforward -if boring- life, and they feel smug that they have none of the harmful habits, and expectedly, they look forward to a peaceful long life. They are convinced that they have done no wrong and thus have absolved themselves of all blame with regard to not ever having done the wrong thing.

And then one day the world comes crashing on the straightforward one. And they wonder what wrong they did. It needs no special ability to know that the world does come crashing on the people that did the wrong things as well, and it comes crashing sooner rather than
later.

So what happened? Why did the virtuous ones get a whole lot of trouble when they did not do anything wrong? Where did they miss out? What did they miss out? We are not even talking of the karma-theory here, though that may operate. The focus of our topic here is different.

The focus here is this: even the most virtuous ones amongst us have -will have- at least one area of behaviour where he or she absolves himself or herself of any wrong doing- and this is a blind spot. One does not know that he or she is harming oneself. The background attitude-
arre kuch nahi hota hai-, hidden from awareness , is at work. The straightforward one may not steal- never ever- but he may also not ever exercise, to give an example. And the exalted
one may fall into an irreversible and disabling health condition. What wrong did I do, the vitruous may ask, and really he could have done no harm and yet the world comes crashing in on him. The only mistake he may have made would be this: arre (by not doing -----, ) kuch
nahi hota hai! That mistake of assuming that by a small infraction of not doing the right thing on a sustained basis, he could still escape the accumulated effects of not having acted when he should have- that- is the undoing.

What is my area of nondoing, the non performance of something that would one day lead to my undoing?

Anxieties on Replacing The Car's Battery With Some Help from the YouTube !

When a car’s battery dies, you get it replaced. At least that is what I had experienced over the years.

Like mobile phones, cars have gotten more sophisticated and, again like mobile phones, in some cars it is difficult to get the battery out in the first place. This, I did not know!

So when you dont know, you go to someone who does. For me, it was a man, just down the road,  who ran and owned  the agency  dealing with car batteries. I requested him to come and have a look and if necessary, to replace the battery of my car. He looked a sophisticated gent, a coat, a p-cap, a French beard and an accent to his language to sound authentic. I was confident he would get the job done fast and nice.

He asked me to snap open the spring lock to the car's hood from near the steering wheel, which I did obediently. The hood budged just a little but thereafter would not open ajar.So far, I had not needed to open the hood of this car since its purchase. Turn by turn the two of us struggled to get the hood to open widely but to no avail. Then, I thought of the brilliant idea of looking it up on YouTube, and sure enough there was a  video clip showing how to open the hood of this particular model. The gent approved of this idea and smiled benignly. I was not amused.

Now, I remember that in the previous cars I had used, the  battery housing unit  inside the hood was  placed such that removing it and replacing another in its place used to  be a very simple exercise. To my surprise, this car’s battery was placed in an extremely complicated manner with a lot of paraphernalia attached to it in so compact a manner that even a small spanner  could not be easily maneuvered into place to get the battery out of its holding unit. I looked at the gent, this time, asking for assurance that he was up to the task. Imagine my shock when  he  smiled and asked me if I would once again look up on the YouTube for the method of removing the battery of this particular model of the car!

Now my heart raced. What if, I thought, while attempting to remove the battery, this expert damaged the vital parts so snugly placed in close vicinity of the battery. I would then be in more trouble than what I had started out with. The battery man read my concerns and did not tinker any further.

He sought out his friend, a mechanic, to help him out. The two of them wriggled the battery out and replaced it with a new one . The moment they had done it, my troubles began again. For this time these two were lost on how to reconnect  the complex electronic sockets they had disconnected  from  the battery terminals before dismantling the entire configuration!

The chap who was called for second opinion was experienced, however, and with some cajoling of parts, was able to refit the assemblage.  

I heaved a sigh of relief as the car responded immediately to the mechanic’s command to me to apply the “self” – which is quite a Buddhist exhortation! (he meant for me to apply the ignition ). 

As the duo rode off after taking their dues, I wondered what some patients may feel as they entrust their own selves to the doctors! At the very least their anxieties must be addressed by proper communication. On the doctors’ parts, they should only take up what is within their forte!

And, I know for sure that doctors do look up the YouTube, but they do it before  they take up complex issues!