Quote of the Day – January 23 2013

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens

Why do so many of us desire to have answers to questions spoon-fed to us as opposed to actually putting thought into not only what the question is but how we can apply it to ourselves and our life. Case in point  (an example from a friend of mine)

AN EXERCISE ON THE CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF ANY GIVEN TOPIC:

Step 1. BRAINSTORMING (Otherwise known as ‘Listing the Possibilities).

The importance of this step is so that we can have a variety of possible explanations before we can even go onto step 2 – to decide WHICH of the possible explanations are more likely.

First, an analogy for discussion:

“At a Yoga Retreat, at the very end of being taught a Kriya technique, it was question time.. and after a while an Australian girl piped up nonchalantly… “So, what does it all mean, really?”

She asked it as if in passing… as if it didn’t matter so much.

And the teacher replied to her, “What you just asked is the ‘WHO AM I?” question… and you have to increase in INTENSITY for that question… until nothing else matters, before you are even in the STATE OF MIND to HEAR the answer.”

Now upon hearing this story, a woman I know got incensed that the guru would play what she saw as head games and impose his ‘trip’ on her, No matter how I tried to get her to see the story as an exercise in ‘thinking’ about and through the question rather than  avoiding thinking by criticizing the teacher’s method, she refused getting more and more incensed. Now this woman I respect a lot and the amount of energy and vehemence she put into avoiding thinking about why the teacher may give that instruction to the girl tho thinking the question through brought out at least 5 different possibilities each of which I could apply to how I learn things…

NOW – What possible explanations are there for what happened in this analogy?

POSSIBILITY No 1. IMPOSING. “it leans into the dogma of “you don’t understand unless you are on my plane of understanding…to me, this is a form of mental masturbation …. You have to be at my “level of intensity”..how preposterous!!”

POSSIBILITY No 2. SPOON FEEDING. She was a blind girl buying whatever she can get from any so-called teacher.

POSSIBILITY No.3. ENGAGEMENT. He was trying to get her to engage.

POSSIBILITY No.4. AVOIDANCE. “That is not your own understanding, you just gave some story about some guru, I want to hear your understanding.”

POSSIBILITY No.5. POINTLESSNESS. “There is every other option..we could go on to infinity with creating “the end of the story” or “The point to the story” but what does that accomplish?”

What other possibilities are there?

The above has made me wonder at a trend I see a lot. People unwilling to engage and learn from situations and stories that enter their lives. I have benefited so much from actually thinking about what people are saying to me that this puzzles me greatly
Blessings, G
 

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Night Skywatch by G A Rosenberg

Simply Red Mandala by G A Rosenberg