I once quizzed my good friend on how much hike would make him truly happy? He had a number in his mind, "50% more" he said. No, he thought further and hiked it to 100% (more than what he is having right now). Fine, we grant that but suppose, in a week’s time, he was to find out that his colleague got 5% more than the hike we gave him, he would be devastated. Why is this so?
Take a moment... Just think of what I am suggesting here. We do not even know how much we want. Or worse, what we want, to be truly happy. We just want to have more than our colleague sitting next. Now, salary and colleagues were just pointers.
I can even use ‘driving’ to prove my point here. What makes you truly happy in driving? Speeding at 80 kmph? or is it 100 kmph or 120? We don’t know. It makes no difference, does it? In fact we don't care unless we overtake someone. We can find happiness only in travelling 'faster' than somebody. We really don’t have a clue to live happily without comparison, do we?
In fact, there are more than one question that bothers me here.
First, Why do we live in comparisons? My good friend had clearly put a price for his happiness (the 100% hike), right?
Second, why do we compare with only our 'peers', like classmates, people with same years of experiences or maybe degrees or simply we both being Christians or Keralites etc.
Last, Why do we madly 'race' to find some peer always to compare with? That is, if you working in your hometown, you find some peers to gauge yourself. Fine. You land a good job overseas. Suddenly you forget your old 'peers' and you reset your scales. You quickly find new 'peers' for reference! Want more driving lessons? You overtake a Honda and do you stop with that ? Or do you still go on to find another ‘peer’ to overtake?
Hmmm…I don’t think a single answer would suffice. I don’t even know if it can be logically approached. But I can offer some interesting parallels. You see, it is impossible for human beings to live without comparisons, some frame of reference. Why? Well, before we bring on the 'mighty mind' itself under the lens, look at the five senses we have. Sight, Smell, …Touch. Even they all can only sense ‘differences’. Suppose you use a air freshener in your room, you catch the pleasant whiff. Fine. After a while, you don’t feel it anymore. It has not disappeared it is just that our nose reset its base. Now you won’t catch it but another person entering the room can. It is the same with some humming sound you hear. It is a nuisance at first hear but after a while you don’t find it annoying as before. Again your ear just changed its threshold.
Don’t think this is a weakness. It’s a blessing. How else can you tolerate your partner’s snoring. In case you are wondering. No. My wife doesn’t snore.
So you see, our senses are only detectors and not meters that measure. There is no absoluteness anywhere. If you increase it so slowly and steadily we wouldn’t even know. Like global warming! I think our mind is no different. We need a reference or something to compare. Only against something we can check our worthiness through ‘differences’.
Why we do this? Now, that is a bigger question. I think you do it because you are not in union with the ultimate. You still perceive the world as different from yourself. In fact all religions try to put this across. We are all one and the same thing. Whatever you want to call it. God? Fine.
In Sanskrit, they say 'Tat Tvam Asi' or 'Thou art that'.
Once you truly understand what it means. There is nothing left to compare. You feel complete. Till then, the voidness and the duality urges us to compare. We only see comparisons. We exist in comparisons.
I must admit, at this juncture, it is still an intuition for me. Light years to go before I ...
I know we need to dig deeper. Another night perhaps.
Take a moment... Just think of what I am suggesting here. We do not even know how much we want. Or worse, what we want, to be truly happy. We just want to have more than our colleague sitting next. Now, salary and colleagues were just pointers.
I can even use ‘driving’ to prove my point here. What makes you truly happy in driving? Speeding at 80 kmph? or is it 100 kmph or 120? We don’t know. It makes no difference, does it? In fact we don't care unless we overtake someone. We can find happiness only in travelling 'faster' than somebody. We really don’t have a clue to live happily without comparison, do we?
In fact, there are more than one question that bothers me here.
First, Why do we live in comparisons? My good friend had clearly put a price for his happiness (the 100% hike), right?
Second, why do we compare with only our 'peers', like classmates, people with same years of experiences or maybe degrees or simply we both being Christians or Keralites etc.
Last, Why do we madly 'race' to find some peer always to compare with? That is, if you working in your hometown, you find some peers to gauge yourself. Fine. You land a good job overseas. Suddenly you forget your old 'peers' and you reset your scales. You quickly find new 'peers' for reference! Want more driving lessons? You overtake a Honda and do you stop with that ? Or do you still go on to find another ‘peer’ to overtake?
Hmmm…I don’t think a single answer would suffice. I don’t even know if it can be logically approached. But I can offer some interesting parallels. You see, it is impossible for human beings to live without comparisons, some frame of reference. Why? Well, before we bring on the 'mighty mind' itself under the lens, look at the five senses we have. Sight, Smell, …Touch. Even they all can only sense ‘differences’. Suppose you use a air freshener in your room, you catch the pleasant whiff. Fine. After a while, you don’t feel it anymore. It has not disappeared it is just that our nose reset its base. Now you won’t catch it but another person entering the room can. It is the same with some humming sound you hear. It is a nuisance at first hear but after a while you don’t find it annoying as before. Again your ear just changed its threshold.
Don’t think this is a weakness. It’s a blessing. How else can you tolerate your partner’s snoring. In case you are wondering. No. My wife doesn’t snore.
So you see, our senses are only detectors and not meters that measure. There is no absoluteness anywhere. If you increase it so slowly and steadily we wouldn’t even know. Like global warming! I think our mind is no different. We need a reference or something to compare. Only against something we can check our worthiness through ‘differences’.
Why we do this? Now, that is a bigger question. I think you do it because you are not in union with the ultimate. You still perceive the world as different from yourself. In fact all religions try to put this across. We are all one and the same thing. Whatever you want to call it. God? Fine.
In Sanskrit, they say 'Tat Tvam Asi' or 'Thou art that'.
Once you truly understand what it means. There is nothing left to compare. You feel complete. Till then, the voidness and the duality urges us to compare. We only see comparisons. We exist in comparisons.
I must admit, at this juncture, it is still an intuition for me. Light years to go before I ...
I know we need to dig deeper. Another night perhaps.
hmmm... our thoughts are similar...
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