Preconceived notion

Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads

-osho Rajneesh-

Man is a complicated  creature with great capacity for both good and bad.  At his   best he has great concern for the sufferings of his fellow man  and may do much good,  at his worst he can be an animal.

 It must be said that there is  goodness mixed  with the badness in life and that the Human being is a great mixture of both goodness and badness. 

  If there are a great many people who are selfish and are guided only by self-interest there are also  great many who are   concerned about others and their welfare, Things are not all  bad , and much can be in the mind of the beholder.  People  often see others and life as they themselves are, its  like a mirror   ,it reflects what  you  see ,you  make  faces it  does the  same   . . 

I heard this story long time ago about a  a person coming to a new village, relocating,  went to the zen master resident of  that  Village  and asked : Are the people nice in  this Village?

The master asked back: How were the people in the town where you come from? “They were nasty ,greedy, were cheaters and and scoundrels,” said the newcomer.Those are exactly the type of people we have in this village, said the master.Another newcomer to the village visited the master and asked the same question, to which the master asked: How were the people in the town where you come from? “They were sweet and lived in harmony, they cared for one another and for the land, they respected each other and they were seekers of spirit,” he replied. Those are exactly the type of people we have in this village, said the master. 

We can relate with  similar story from   Mahabharata  where Drona once asked the upright Yudhishtira to go around  the city of Hastinapur and find for him one bad man. He then asked Duryodhan to go round  the city of Hastinapur and find one good man. Both returned alone. Yudhishtira said that everyone in Hastinapur is good; there is no bad man. Duryodhan said the very opposite: everyone in the city is a scoundrel and a cheat; there is no good man. And Drona said, "You have told me nothing about Hastinapur but a lot about yourself."

When someone says This  person  is Bad ,this  person  is  Good  they actually mean as per  their Measuring  scale he tops  the  list of  Bad  people  or  Good  people  and  it  is  purely  subjective in  nature .Yes ,understanding of the world depends on the measuring scale we subscribe to. Yudhishtira’s measuring scale failed to identify a bad man in Hastinapur . Duryodhan’s measuring scale failed to identify a good man in Hastinapur. Their opinions about Hastinapur said nothing about Hastinapur but about the measuring scales they subscribed to.

 Fortunately or  unfortunately there is no universal measuring scale to  measure goodness or  badness in  a person as it is purely subjective and comparative .What  I  mean by  comparative is  We always try to compare one person with other person whom  we feel as  Good  or  Bad  and our  measuring  scale measures some  what   similar like measuring   other usual things in  life– this is longer than that, this is heavier than that, this is hotter than that and in the  same breadth we compare  this  Person  is better  than  X , With comparison comes evaluation and judgment, Some things become more desired & more more valuable. When things or person  start becoming more desired and more valuable, then  he is  Good   and  quite opposite when it  is undesirable  and no longer  valuable to  us . Many a time we  are clouded with  preconceived notion  & are  prejudiced about   the person before we  actually  meet them . .

I  am also not  advocating you  to   be  like Yudisitra    to  see only goodness nor like duryodana to  see only  badness   but  at least I feel  it  is better to have open mind  ,not  to  be prejudiced and  have preconceived notion before we actually meet  person  we  intended   

 “It’s not what you don’t know about a person  that holds you back. It’s what you do know that you think is true that is ultimately the most crippling factor. All those things that you think are true about people before meeting are really figments of your LITTLE imagination which  usually  is not true 

. Having  a preconceived notion about who I  am is like picking who you  want to win for the oscars before  seeing the movie ,It is better to make , statement or judgment about someone, after  getting  all the  information , meeting him in person.

-KamalHassan-

 

Commitment & Involvement

Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead and no man yet to be born could do it any better.”
-Swami Viveknanda-
 
There are many beautiful stories about Zen masters  where  if  we really  go  deep  into the core of  the  story  shows the right path to  be taken  in  our  life and more  over  other interesting aspect about  Zen masters are that  they were  not  only great teachers but also  great painters and great artists.
 
once a Zen-Master  who was also a great Painter was asked by the Emperor who had  penchant for collecting  great paintings  from well  known Artists  to paint a Bamboo as  part of his  personal collection. The master said: "It will take time." "How much?", the king said. The master said  "That is difficult to say, but at least two years." The king said: "Are you crazy? You are one of the greatest painters. I was thinking you can just draw it right now for that the Great Master said: ". Drawing a bamboo is not the problem. But first I have to be a bamboo. Otherwise how I do know what a bamboo is? I want to know the bamboo from the inside. So I will have to go and live in a bamboo grove. , I  believe If you want to paint a bamboo,  you have to become a bamboo.” There is no other way.

If you have not felt yourself as a bamboo standing against the sky, standing against the wind, standing against the rains, standing high with pride in the sun, If you have not heard the noise of the wind passing through the bamboo as the bamboo hears it, if you have not felt the rain falling on the bamboo as the bamboo feels it, how can you paint a bamboo? If you have not heard the sound of the cuckoo as the bamboo hears it, how can you paint a bamboo?  Now one never knows how long it will take. . That has been my practice whole life. I paint only that which I have known from its deepest core." The king said: "O.k., I will wait.
 
one year passed. He sent a few people to see what was happening, whether the man was alive or dead. They came and they said: "The man is alive, but we don´t think that he is a man anymore. He is a bamboo. He was swinging with the bamboos in the wind. We passed by his side, he didn´t take any note. We said: 'Hello!' He didn´t hear. We wanted to ask him, we looked at his eyes - they were so empty, that we became frightened. Either he has gone mad or something has happened. And he can do anything! So we escaped. He may kill us! Who knows? He may jump upon us. He´s no more the same man." The king himself went to see. And the master was swinging in the wind, in the sun. And the king asked: "Sir, what about my painting?" He didn´t answer.
 
After two years he appeared in the court. and  said: "Now bring the canvas and the paint, I´m ready. And why were you people disturbing me again and again? If you had not disturbed me, I would have come a little earlier. These fools of your court, they were telling things to me, they were saying: 'Hello!' .. Do you say hello to a bamboo? They disturbed the whole thing. It took month for me again to resettle into being a bamboo and to forget that I am a man. And then you came and you said: 'Sir!' ... Is that a way to address a bamboo? When are you going to paint? ... Has anybody heard that bamboos paint? You are a fool, you are surrounded by fools. I have told you that I will come whenever I´m ready!"Now I am ready ,bring  the canvas .The canvas was brought, the brushes and the colour and within seconds he drew the bamboo. And it is said, that the king wept out of joy. He had never seen such a painting. It was so alive. It was no ordinary painting. It was not from the outside. It was from the bamboo. As if a bamboo had sprouted on the canvas. Not painted. This Great Master was totally involved and  committed.  
 
I remember Reading some where  that  Kamalahassan for his 100h Film Rajaparavai where he  essayed role of Blind  man  it seems spent one  month in  a blind school ,eating talking & sleeping with them  which helped him to get into skin of his character. That  is why if you look at  that movie you feel as if a blind person has acted  not Kamala hassan the actor !

As shiva Khera puts it in a  nice way   in one of his  many inspirational article

“ The kind of commitment I find among the best performers across virtually every field is a single-minded passion for what they do, an unwavering desire for excellence in the way they think and the way they work. Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step.”

We can go  on giving number of example of Great Artists, Businessmen , politicians ,Writers , Doctors ,Engineers etc who have achieved in their respective fields .One hallmark that  sets them  apart from us is  their  commitment & Involvement  in what ever  field there  are in  .
 

Without involvement, & commitment  there is no success. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it..”
`Stephen R covey