Eggs in many baskets!

It has taken a long time to realize the shifting of the gear that would be taking place in my thoughts over the months or maybe – a few years from now.  

I don’t know about you, but I was lead to believe that “focusing” on a particular goal in life (most of the time it is “work oriented” for boys) will eventually give you results. It would build your character, define your self, and well – lots of money/ fame and so on will follow…..you just need to push yourself to attain the goal or strive towards the ‘perfection’ that you have defined for your self.

I don’t doubt the above approach, however, at least I have seen other parameters in life getting compromised just for the sake of attaining what I consider precious. I am more interconnected with many other things besides work and those, too, need nurturing. Relationships, parents, friends, hobbies, sports, ‘me’ time and so on – all these, I think, compliment my mood/ drive/ inner urge to keep doing good work. How can we say that these things are to be neatly compartmentalized? They are not. In certain times of the day, we tend to focus on one aspect more than the other, and perhaps there are phases in life (months or years) when we focus on one aspect more than the other, BUT all coexist and all have an important role to play (or do have an important position in my life). 

Mostly, in a hyper aggressive environment and fiercely competitive world, I made the mistake of not emotionally investing in other intimate things besides work. As time goes by, we get what we have sown. There is no ‘other time’ where you should ‘start’ doing something else before you achieve what you are doing now….it doesn’t happen as per such plans. And then you realize the limitations of sequential planning and compartmentalization! Or such thoughts that make you believe that you should always be “prepared” for something or should always keep on trying to find a purpose in your actions and go for it! (Crap!)

It is a mistake to consider that work is everything and one can sustain oneself only by work. Not anyone of the above parameters (by themselves) will last long enough to sustain our thirsts or well being. We need all. And therefore, it seems proper, to be engaged/ involved in everything we do – no matter it might look silly at that moment. Not all things are done for efficiency or achieving perfection or for reviewing or for learning…many may be done out of emotional love, or to give you peace or to feel loved or worth or whatever. We are humans, and we seek love and give love in all dimensions (not only work). 

I think it is funny, that our worth is simply spoken in terms of work output or money or business or profit –as if we don’t seem to have any other parameter to be spoken about! If this is what the world is tending too, then we need to seriously think about our own mental health.

At least I have decided to take things easy and listen to all the signals the environment gives me. Not everything in life is good or perfect at the same time and neither will it remain that way. Therefore, the energy we need to sustain ourselves may come from a very different source, provided we have emotionally invested in it. Parents/ friends may encourage us sometimes, at other times we have to go alone, yet sometimes sports or hobbies may make us forget past traumas and help us bounce back, whereas ‘silence’ and observation of the daily pranks of a toddler may reveal wonders of the world! 

Therefore, be normal! No one is asking you to prove yourself and neither there is God up there to take an account of what you have done so far!! Whatever it is, we do it NOW and embrace it NOW!

Composition of our thoughts

The mind map comprises a range of thoughts that keep getting played every second of our existence. I am not here to tell you why we encounter ‘thoughts’  - this is far too complex a question where all civilizations have tried to deal with this fundamental issue. We do have phenomenal philosophical stuff that responds to this issue. 

However, lets accept that thoughts are bound to occur and affect us in extremely intimate manner than we can imagine – so much intimate than it is hard to question them and to distance our inner ‘selves’ from these thoughts. In other words, ‘we’ are thoughts and what we think, we believe it to be true. Other word for subjective truth can be said to be a perception (or a dream – philosophically speaking). Each one of us lives a dream, expresses some definition of belief/ truth that we tend to consider absolute. A lot of debate has already handled these issues related to the idea of subjective truth and universal truth, so I choose to let it pass. I am not adding anything new, neither it is my intention.

However, as a start, if we choose to accept our thoughts as something to be believed or as something that generates some ‘action’ that we hope should benefit us, then we need to be aware of what we keep thinking about. Being fully aware of our thoughts can generate the idea of ‘control’ of our lives and this awareness can’t be underestimated. 

So what do we think?

A part of our thoughts are about ‘emotions’ or feelings – Personally, I consider this important. In an age of hyper control  and hyper digitization, it is preached that these emotions need to be in check always all the time – since they make us ‘vulnerable’. Ridiculous! I think, if emotions weren’t there, no kind of art or humanities would ever exist. No spontaneity would exist and no creativity would exist. Being human is being emotional (extent of which may vary from person to person). Emotions help us heal past traumas, make us bind together and works as a glue to everything. My past experience teaches me that emotions need to be given their own space and no excessive curtailment of the same should be done. It is because emotions do not always obey the dictates of the intellect, we are afraid regarding the idea of loosing control or appearing vulnerable. I am not endorsing the idea that everything should be let loose and emotions are the ultimatum in life. But annihilating their existence is equally bad.

The other component of our thoughts deal with formulating plans, methods, reviewing, calculating, quantifying, assessing and acting on past actions – This is important to give ‘clarity’ to the haziness of feelings/ emotions. It helps to know the absolute facts of a situation at times. This tendency can be expanded, can be proven, can be taught, can be applied everywhere. And therefore, (for better or worse) most of our experience of life is governed by this dimension of thought. This dimension is always concerned with ‘finding’ some kind of purpose or passion and nudges us continuously to perfection (maximum productivity). Generally, these thoughts tend to make one very critical of everything and seem to take on an ‘advocacy’ stance! Not only you remain a little annoyed with everything, but you will annoy others too! You will probably “hurry up” in your life if you choose to engulf yourself with such tendencies.

And we now mention the component of contemplative thoughts – where ‘time’ dissolves, our own self dissolves, we introspect, we only observe and we just witness our self. This dimension of thoughts makes us realize that ‘we’ as existential phenomena are larger than summation of all kinds of thoughts. This dimension tells us that although thoughts maybe real and affect us tremendously, we can still change them at any point in our lives – for we are not just thoughts, but something more transcendental in spirit.

I conclude by saying that all above components should be given appropriate mental space to exist in our minds. All components compliment each other. To experience life “fully”, it is important to feel all above components of thoughts that our mind generates. 

Thus, a great person is the one, who knows this and who acts on his/her thoughts but also knows the limitations.

Can thoughts be controlled?

There comes a point in life, when you doubt the validity of your own thoughts and the actions that result from those thoughts. Bang! The most fundamental dilemma has been put forth to you! 

So far in life, you assume that the events happening around you were a result of a logical process of analysing situations and developing a response. In childhood, when the mental faculties of thought are not yet sharpened, we are completely influenced by the environment around us. Whatever we see, observe, hear, smell, taste, touch -we take it without any kind of a filter or analysis – it is very direct and it therefore affects us tremendously. Our mind is like a sponge, absorbing whatever comes in its way. Some are lucky to receive good experiences, whereas others encounter challenging situations from the beginning. 

As we grow up, we start to analyse what is happening around us and within us. We realize that the environment affects us (and this can sometimes be harmful to us) and we should see to it that the environment has a positive effect on us – thus starting  series of thoughts and actions to make sure that we benefit in the most positive way (regardless of what the environment offers us). However, things don’t always go as per our plan or our expectations always. And we again get hurt, despite the best intentions and plans and precautions we take. 

Sometime later, we start to sense, that how we choose to perceive environment defines the experiences we create for our selves. Therefore, it seems like the ‘pot’ of mud is made by two hands simultaneously – ‘us’ and the ‘environment’. For making of this ‘pot’ that we call ‘life’, BOTH hands are required to work in sync and the quality of the earthen pot (life) is linked with this relationship between us and the environment. 

What this means that external events occur and we are a witness to them. Our thoughts regarding them can either make us strong or break us. Sometimes, I feel, thoughts are the only reality we create for us – otherwise, the external events have no meaning that way. Thus, the need is to know what we are thinking and how we are thinking. Whatever pain, sorrow, pleasure, joy we experience – we have attracted for ourselves. Thus, we can change the way we perceive things. That is the only thing (and the only reality) that we should care for. It is difficult to imagine that our mind can never be empty, because that would mean no experience at all and that would mean – no tangible meaning to exist! 

So are things happening ‘outside’ or they happening in ‘our heads’?!! Tricky question. Maybe both happen. It is a mystery why we keep clinging so much to people, things, events, ourselves....when we know everything will change. And if everything will change, why do we regret at times, why do we get angry and why do we expect that things should have happened in particular ways? Why do we seek solace or why do we expect attention or approval? If only we realize that we need to have faith and keep moving and be positive, we would be freer than we could imagine.

Values

Values are important. Every era, consisting of a specific ‘place’ and ‘time’ creates a system of values which people believe. These become our guiding force to understand the Past, Present and Future.

At its core, values deal with spiritual aspects (going beyond the limitations of place and time) and generally prompting us to discover those things that are fundamentally unchanging and which form a base of human existence.  What are these values then? And how did they get generated?

We always interact with the environment around us. Based on where we are born and where we go, we encounter the experiences of ‘places’ and ‘time’. Places may mean the idea of geography – climate, topography, resource availability, flora, fauna and people themselves. What has dictated our universal response is the urge to survive and sustain ourselves. With this urge, we choose to deal with climate ( specific place), optimize natural resources and cooperate/ negotiate with each other. That creates architecture responding to a given context and generates multiple meanings of perceptions and conceptions of spaces.  Generations of interactive efforts with the environment leads to an idea of history/ culture/ memory. Although geography and history can be linked as a linear process, spiritual realization indicates moving beyond these parameters – which again, we sense as we continue to interact with the place. Therefore, can we say, that our responses are informed by geography, history and philosophy? 

As far as we can recall, climate in India has led to a very people centric idea of space creation. In other words, we seem to be surrounded by people, have to deal with people, have to consider their opinions and have to rely on one another for sustaining ourselves. Spaces so formed, seem to be multi functional, multi user and dense. Notions of privacy are blurred and what is created is a shared sense of community. Not that this is a romantic experience, but this is what it is – as natural as the rising Sun! And I am not saying that this is a perfect thing, it has many layers of complexities and contradictions. Therefore, any effort in conceiving an architectural solution (at least in India) is required to respond with the local climate and people’s needs (by “people”, we mean everything that spans from the immediate ‘client’ to the ‘society’ that comprises of ‘us’). Thus, in this background, can architecture be – just ‘form’ oriented? Can architecture only cater to ‘visual’ delight? Or does the understanding of ‘aesthetics’ include a response informed by climate and people? Thus, what we are referring to is the ability of architecture to create meaningful/ profound experiences in our minds. In other words, can we feel architecture as a medium to create an experience (spiritual at its highest intention)? 

The contemporary times involve quite a different set of value systems. There seems to be an urge to constantly prove oneself, push oneself, articulate oneself, define oneself, think only about oneself, meticulously ‘plan’ oneself, be sure of oneself and reach some destination as quick as one can. Thus, ‘I’ comes before everything else – even before people, climate, history and philosophy!! I am not quite sure regarding the quality of architecture this contemporary value starts to create. I am not quite sure, if phenomenal considerations to the aspect of ‘privacy’ will achieve beneficial results for humanity. Greatest of examples in architecture achieve a value of spirituality – connecting with generations and across places. Are we now only supposed to consider the reality of the ‘momentary’ gratification/ relevance, as compared to the eternal? 

Choice is ours.