Amna Samreen
Nov 2 · 4 min read

How often do we question? There I saw a young boy playing in a field, with a football, with some other children of his age. Their ball after a forceful kick went far away and hit the window in nearby house wall. The cracking sound frightened all the boys, and they began to hide, but in no time, the old man arrived shouting and scolding them. He took the ball in his hand, and said "I will not give it back to you guys!", in an angrily yelling tone. "Why?" asked that young boy, in a passively enduring way, with a little of worry and wonder.

It is natural that with increasing age, we have been becoming habitual to the world, to our surroundings and even to agonies of the world. Unfortunately, we have developed the same tolerance and insensibility to our own thoughts. How often do we answer our minds? How many times have you tried to respond to your own questions? So the matter of fact is, neither do we ask questions, nor do we respond to questions that ever come into our minds. We are becoming mentally carefree and sluggish, responding with no spirit and interest, at all. Just as Rumi said, "I have learned that every mortal shall taste death, but only few will taste life."

We tend to ask questions, specifically on those matters, that arouse our concerns. Just like the boy questioned "why would you not give the ball back to us?" because it was boy's desire to have that ball back to play, or whatever the concern it could be. Similarly, all our questions are related somehow, to our concerns. Now what are our concerns? "What is the food today?", "What should I wear today?" are our casual daily concerns. But the question is, why our concerns are on such a low level of intellect? Any child would like to know how much football costs, because he wants to buy it, and play with it, and that's it; but doesn't want to know how football is made, what is cost, why is it so, what is currency, and why paper is used for it?

The learning occurs, when we question. We question, when we have a concern. We have concern, when we are not habitual and severely tolerant to something. Just as boy asked question, because he was not agreed and comfortable with old man's idea of not giving their ball back. Whatever the question is, whether it is why, what, or how, it is somehow, related to the feeling of unsatisfaction and restlessness, whether it be so minor, that won't even be recognized by the person himself. So what could be the possible reasons of losing this beneficial restless self within us? There can be so many views regarding this, like one might think that he already knows something enough, that he doesn't need to bother to question, and then make efforts to get an answer. Such people are over confident, so they would not try to learn something new. This is why many thinkers have been against over confidence.

"The problem with the world is that, intelligent people are full of doubts, while stupid ones are over confident" ~ Charles Bukowski

And for the same reason, Rumi said, "Sell your cleverness, and buy bewilderment"

There can be other reasons, one of them is the most obvious and natural one. We, as a child, tend to follow our parents and our elders, because our senses perceive them as a guide naturally and biologically. They induce their learned tolerance and insensibility, into our newly growing, empty, and raw selves. While at the same time, environmental phenomena and our surroundings arouse questions and worry within us, our parents and family instill normality and ineffectiveness. Following our fellow humans is the nearest possibility of developing insensibility to our surroundings and thus, becoming mentally plain and lethargic. However, this inevitable problem can be the part of child's mental setup only, which is psychologically dependent on elders' desensitized behavior.

This can not be a problem with mature adult mind, who would want to know things, and also have the ability to research and get answers for himself. All what an adult needs to do, is to get his suppressed thoughts and interests, free from unconsciously learned habituation and disinterest. It’s just like, someone tied the elephant’s baby with chains to some trunk of tree, the baby resisted this torture, but due to his lack of physical strength, it ended up being tied. Then he got bigger and bigger and became mature elephant, who could break the chain easily now because of great physical strength, but it’s mind has become handicapped, that it may not realize the hidden potential, because of this harmfully learned habituation and tolerance.

    Amna Samreen

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    I am a Human just like you