The Container

A deep trauma or some deep longing or a sense of loss is a profound experience to have – not by choice, but by eventuality or as a result of retrospection. If given a choice, it is a terrible feeling to have in mind, but who are we to decide what feelings get generated in our minds with the passage of Time?! No matter what we do and anticipate things for our own safety or security, there are things which happen which we haven’t planned for or visualized and some other feelings leave an impact on us. 

This is where we should leave room for such feelings to come, reside with us and go. My critique on too much planning is that this tendency leaves out no room for ‘other’ feelings to arise despite those which you have considered or visualized and when they enter your mind, you are at a loss of how to deal with them or accept them. 

Thus, it means that certain thoughts arise in our minds (generating certain feelings) that we had not anticipated. Deep reflection may reveal certain aspects on which, our thoughts depend. In fact from the moment we are born and till we die, our mind may be visualized as a porous container - in which thoughts ‘come’, then they transform into something else in this container, and then they leave out certain traces back to the outside. This container can’t be sealed. Therefore, inside-outside interaction is inevitable. 

What are the characteristics of ‘this’ container, that give rise to thoughts? The container can be said to be formed from the notion of ‘place’ and ‘time’. Our body can be said to be a ‘place’ and our aging process can be said to be ‘Time’. The dynamic play of place and time is brought into action, the moment ‘this’ container gets created (i.e. when we are born), otherwise if there is no container, there is no idea of place or time. This container just keeps getting modified as place and time changes – resulting in millions of thoughts. 

The sense of loss indicates our resistance to these two parameters – place and time. We want control and do not wish to encounter change in bodies, or aging processes or any other ideas or people or circumstances or situations or objects….let everything freeze!! How is that possible? And why do we resist change? 

The answer lies in considering the container as a static entity by assuming that it should not have any pores and the container should not change at all. But if it is understood that the container is only a notion that is created for survival (it is incidental), then it is realized that the inside and the outside of the container are our own temporary creations and there is only “space” that is fundamental. The rise and fall of ‘containers’ will continue to happen for eternity!