Simply Being | Simple Being

Tag: mind (page 1 of 3)

Maps & Stories

I see the irony in writing a post about storytelling. 😆

Several years ago there was a series of incidents that I can term “dramatic,” and that’s because I am now telling the story. At the time these events were transpiring, it was anything but. We were simply responding to what was happening as it occurred in the moment, and there was no experience of drama as such.

A crazy car accident (the police officer remarked, you should buy a lottery ticket), an expired drivers license, a house break-in and all jewelry lost… all in a week. Pretty dramatic, I know! 😄

Most of us live largely in the world of stories. We share them endlessly, and we take them as truth. “A map is not the territory,” said Alfred Korzybski. Similarly, a story is a mere retelling, and it isn’t even an accurate one. Plus, we aren’t always storytellers with integrity. We edit and manipulate the storyline (sometimes, unknowingly), and we take it as truth, and we convince others, also.

Truth is accessed only in the present moment. Everything else is a story. When we are fully present, there is no space/time for story creation. The mind exists as a faithful ally, willing and able to serve fully.

This Time Tomorrow

I just read this book that was about time travel but then it was also a book about aging, caring for a dying parent who was young, vibrant, filled with joy, oozing creativity, and then this endless, repetitive effort to go back in time and tell that person, don’t smoke! Eat healthy! Don’t eat meat! Please go jogging… and so on, all in the hopes of averting a future in hospice, and yet the woman at the center of all this sees so clearly that Time Does Not Miss, and she took one winding path after another, going to sleep each night at the same spot, and waking up elsewhere each time, and yet all paths led to the hospital, hospice care—no smoking, be damned. And this makes me all wonder about time, and whoever said that it’s an arrow—do we need clarification—because an arrow has direction, right? And in this story, so you’d think, and yet I am reminded also of something someone said about directionless time, and yes, all this likely comes across as gibberish, or newbie fan gibberish, coming from someone who’s read about time travel for the first time, hehe… but make no mistake about it, for I Have Spent A Lot Of Time thinking about Time, and it’s probably funny… for, didn’t someone say that they contemplated the nature of reality only to realize that it didn’t exist? If all this science fiction-time-reality talk feels terribly weird as it emerges from the mind of this 44-year-old (really, now?), make no mistake, yet again… for this 44-year-old is herself stuck in the strangest of time warps, and ALL of it is her own creation, a web she spun herself, for the love and fun and joy of it all.

(Thank you for reading.)

Pleasure/Entertainment

Yesterday, on a whim, I wrote: “When restless or bored, DO NOT seek entertainment.” A number of people responded: Then do what?

To reach for entertainment, to seek to be entertained—when you feel restless or bored—seems totally natural. What else is one to do? Watch a Netflix show, browse dance videos on Instagram, munch on a handful of raisins—all fun, harmless options that engage the mind and give a little bit of pleasure.

Here’s the thing, though. Pleasure and entertainment are entirely opposite in nature. To derive pleasure from an activity requires keen participation and active engagement. Entertainment only asks that you sit back and watch.

Does anyone pick gardening, or cooking, or dancing as entertainment options? I imagine not. These activities require YOU to do the “work.” Ask any gardener, or cook, or dancer… and they will probably tell you how pleasurable these activities are. We watch gardening shows, cookery shows, and dance shows with a lot of enthusiasm… because they are entertaining. (Not necessarily pleasurable, though.)

When I feel restless or bored, entertainment serves as a filler… but it doesn’t alleviate the boredom. And I am left feeling vaguely unsatisfied. In fact, I think seeking pleasure may be a better alternative… at the very least, I will be keen, attentive, engaged. The other option is to do nothing, obviously. Be still, silent, quiet and watching.

Pure Sense

Recently I wondered, are we truly capable of experiencing what the senses bring our way?

Because it seems that when we encounter a sensation—pleasant, unpleasant, neutral—the mind faculty steps in to intercept the pure feel of the experience. It then relates the sensation to a past experience, or a future expectation. Or, a scene from a book or film. Or, the mind itself is transported to a past time and place. So, a plate of sev puri takes you back to Andheri railway station, eating street side chaat. A whiff of petrichor brings to mind Kerala, monsoons, loneliness… or perhaps “Rimjhim gire saavan,” featuring a tall, lanky Amitabh Bachchan and a petite, adorable Moushmi Chatterjee. Or you are drawn back to your own youthful romance conducted along the Marine Drive promenade, tetrapods and lashing waves for company.

It doesn’t really matter what images flash across your mind, or where you are transported. You are someplace else, no longer here and now. The taste/touch/scent/sound/sight sensation is not important any more because its sole purpose appears to have been to act as a connector to an ever-expanding trove of memories, ideas, hopes, expectations, fears. And it makes a real proper mess with our idea of time because we are no longer sure… Am I dreaming of the past? Did this event actually occur? Or maybe I am day dreaming? Is this from a film I loved? Or is this something I wished for but it never really happened?

Ahh, it is a lovely mess.

This tendency of referring back from an immediate sensation to a story, an idea, a familiar concept is an old habit. These stories and ideas stand in for the actual sensory experience, and what we are feeding off are the stories, not that steel tumbler of filter coffee at MTR, or plate of rajma chaaval from Guru Da Dhaba, or a youthful Aamir Khan crooning “Papa kehte hain…”

(And this is a powerful habit… hence the inability to see that Andaaz Apna Apna is a silly, bad movie!)

And this is also why we sometimes continue to eat foods we don’t really enjoy, or watch films featuring our once-favorite actors, or wear clothes that don’t fit (literally and metaphorically). Why? Because of the compelling stories attached. (And we don’t even derive any actual pleasure from these activities.)

If these stories vaporized, we’d see the experience for what it is, and we could have a spontaneous response to it . “Oh, this sambar is too spicy for me.” “Sonu Nigam has a lovely voice.” “Why do I drink tea twice a day? I don’t really like it.” “I adore wearing my black skinny jeans, I just do!”

And we’d also be able to see that we are truly dynamic beings who can savor and draw pleasure from a variety of experiences… Unlike what the stories might have us believe.