Shree: Today’s predicament

Shree: Today’s predicament

There were many exchanges of concerns voiced by faculty members today. Themes that emerge from these are:

The young generation is bombarded by tremendous speed of information explosion with their continuous reliance on online media. This seems to have generated a way of perceiving things – short, unfocussed, wavering, simultaneous, unanchored and so on. Some of the repercussions seem to reflect onto:

Long term commitments. Any long term experience and commitment involves self analysis, introspection, contextual study and practice and loads of work. With time, one condenses the essentials, starts to connect with all phenomena and becomes more efficient. There seems to be a favorable proportion of inputs to analysis to output. If the number of inputs far exceeds this relation, then the belief in sustenance, long term commitments, practice, concentration, analysis  seems to wither away. All relationships to work, to family to partners to climate to culture to memory to feelings etc display this requirement of meaningful and long lasting engagement. The biggest calamity is the construct of “self” that relies on inputs, condensation, abstraction, comparisons, practice or application, learning for it to evolve or expand. Marriage, career, education, health, family, rearing kids, sports, hobby, passion – all are long term experiences. Life itself is “long term” – always bound to change and evolve etc. The meaning of life is ever evolving process. In the newest environment of constant change and accelerated pace of change, how will meaning be formed? If one wishes to have an anchored experience, then how should a current environment offer this – or are we headed for anxiety, stress, fear, stubbornness, distortion, fragmentation, fatigue, anger, resignation? Currently students or youngsters are fearful of career, or getting married or having kids, or even trying anything. And we too make a mistake of brushing their concerns but I think ‘we’ (35 to 55) age group are placed in a unique position to understand the youngster's fears and also the values that we have inherited from our parents. We are required to traverse a changing terrain and only we can do it, since we know at least three kinds of worldviews (and the generated experiences because of the worldviews) – those of our parents, us and the youngsters.

Most people fail to comprehend that as signals become subtle and penetrate within, they inform perceptions at a much intimate level and to access those and work with those requires patience and practice and constant engagement. Philosophically we have already penetrated signals of forms, which have made us perceive differences. If ever we are required to work on “going beyond”, then we will be required to work within ourselves and see to it what are we generating and why? Hence life and all the good things require loads of engagement and practice – at a deep level.

 

Another phenomenon that came to the forefront was the idea of “presence”. I “feel” climate through trees, air, sun, temperature, seasons, skin, clothes, activity patterns, body responses, smells, taste, colours and some other things. These integrate to make me say something about the role of climate as a phenomenon. But for this, all the years of observing, upbringing, sharing, seeing, acting, eating, drinking, smelling, participating, would have condensed or shaped the imagination of climate – and automatically without my complete knowledge. Thus the understanding of climate required such a time space and changing patterns to be digested or perceived by me. If this exposure to time and space and observation is short circuited, what becomes of the perception of climate, in that case?! This short circuiting is a big issue with youngsters and that defines their way of relating to “things” or “phenomena” around them. Are they responsible for this or should we also not take the responsibility to understand what is happening in their world of perception? Philosophically, there is always a “presence” of something. It is we who generate a presence. What sort of presence do you wish to generate? What did real space-time presence mean over virtual space-time presence? This is not a play of words, but is far more intimate question to be decoded. What is real and what is virtual and so on? Are there also other states of imagination? What are the role of those states in our lives?

 

Floating: Too much information packed into a single moment is going to knock you off – you will try to resist it, or ignore it, or play numb or be apathetic or be careless or be aggressive to hear your own voice. This is the resistance the mind is generating in the current environment. It will evolve to protect itself against information overload. Cramming information in academic institutions will not at all work henceforth. And presenting “life as a series of information” is certainly going to put anyone off. We better be aware of this nonsensical habit of stashing information. Hence I don’t want to hear what a moment means – it can mean anything! Let it unfold, as is meant philosophically. Are we giving change to life to unfold to them?

Hari Om.