WHO ARE
YOU?
MEDITATING
BY THE MOUNTAIN SPRINGS IN THE FRENCH ALPS
I think
it was VSNaipaul,one of the greatest artists of the English Language when it
comes to its useful expression, who said: People stand in line to be Ordinary..
Was he
resonating what Nietzsche had earlier said:
Cheerfulness
of a Slave who has nothing of a consequence to be responsible for, who does not
value anything of the past or the future higher than the present.
I am
sitting by the mountain springs, thinking about what is happening here in
Europe, in USA and in Asia.. and of course always being grateful for my
association with American Indians and my two good friends in Asia: Brother Joe
in Bogor and MC in KL.
When you
are traveling through Europe, one sees another face of humanity, changes too
rapid that no one has a good understanding of what is happening and how to deal
with this new arrivals of humanity and values and perceived threats and loss of
values..
Very
early on in my life, I had begun to think about Individuality (Free Spirit was
a popular term then, Free from What I used to wonder), while still living in
Australia.
It did
not take me too long to realize that oppression of Individuality was at play
everywhere one turned:
RELIGION
How much
more ridiculous than the Government of Malaysia (while claiming to represent
all religions their concern is Islam), which is now on the brink of banning any
one who is not a Moslem using the word Allah to denote God!!
Would
they now try to ban Ole and Ojala as well?
NATIONALITY
The
French assure us that they are colour and religion blind and only thing that
matters are people are French, thus creating Nothingness to the Other humanity,
without realizing Nothingness is where they are headed.
EDUCATION
The best
example of loss of Individuality among my colleagues: I am a Doctor, meaning without my White Coat,
I am nothing.
American
Indians have taught me from the beginning of my association with them: I am a
friend who happens to know a little Medicine.
Hobbes
16th century pronouncement while in different context, gives us an
idea of the Individual Prisons that we build for ourselves.
Individuals
ruled by appetites and aversion, pursuing their own interests, and locked in
perpetual mutual enmity.
My good
friend MC in KL and Brother Joe would immediately recognize this individual
attitude to be much against what we had discussed about, of being a Good
Person.
Attachment,
Aversion, Lack of Compassion, Ego.. the basis of so much unhappiness in this
world.
We are
so lucky that so much Knowledge and so much Wisdom is so easily available to
us…at home and abroad.. among our friends and those who cross our paths.
We must
make time to learn..
The
greatest gift any one person can give another is TIME.
My
brother Joe would include in this gift of Time, his expertise to being in a
position to help others. He would add: Impossible to be happy fi you are only
helping yourself..
As Dalai
Lama has said: If you want to make
another person happy, be Compassionate
If you
want to be happy, be compassionate..
It is
nice to sit here ,listening to the gargle of the springs from the mountains. I
am reading through some lectures given by the great Philosopher, Jiddu
Krishnamurty in Amsterdam in 1955. I am happy I know about him, the time is
ripe to learn and understand his words..
A
society that does not pay attention to the “individuals” within that society
will decay, that is what happened to the Great Moghul Dynasty, the mighty
Ottoman Empire, the Persians, the Egyptians..
It may
not be a coincidence that these societies gave rise to greatest nationalists,
religious fanatics because there were pools of people with neglected
aspirations that could be easily manipulated. (France and Britain to lesser
extent are in similar quandary)
To be
free, we have to allow the Other to be free, allow ourselves to be free of
Religion and Authority… in the ways and words of American Indians Spiritual
Belief system transcends them.
I was
very naïve when the First American Indians I met asked me: Who are you?
I am a
Doctor; those were the words that came out of my mouth.
I didn't
ask you what you are, but who are you?
It took
me many years of travel, learning about various cultures, meeting some
wonderful people, before I could even muster a reasonable answer.
The
process of understanding the question was more important than the answer
itself.
If I am
only for myself, who am I ?, the great Rabbi Hillel had said.
We do
not have to decay along with the societies we live in, whether it is France or
Malaysia but live in a Mythical World where the expression of our individuality
is not measured by your belief or parochial or social or regional measures, but
by the Universal measures, which remain the same for all of us.
THAT IS
WHEN YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE..
