The magic place called: Here and Now
We all have our own truths based on our life experiences. And we are quite justified to hold them. They are shaped in our reality. Some truths are our childhood memories, our education, professional degrees, our interaction with the people and world around us.
Everyone around us have their own realities and they too are valid truths. Our truth or realities are based on social, traditional and educational assumptions and can easily be called inclinations or biases. Our experiences pass through these filters before we hold them as perception or opinions.
Are our realities simply our interpretation or our personal truths. Can our truths be called our judgements? We always try to seek answers from people around us about situations and happenings and we long to know the truth.
Some of the valid questions can be:
· Why and how we are alive every next moment?
· How do the day and night never fail in their cyclic rotation?
· What forces are controlling the universe?
· Why looking at sun makes us so hopeful?
Scientists are exploring and every day there is emergence of some new discoveries. We keep brushing up our scientific truths every now and then. We are successively living a very uncertain life holding our certainties. We are still very ignorant and full of information and knowledge. We keep taking new information and keep aligning our truths accordingly.
I find deep longing within all of us for love, connection, understanding, peace and fulfilment. What is this state? We look inside us and look towards spirituality. We look for the meaning and purpose of life and our spiritual well-being.
We want to understand or make sense of our lives.
Discovering truth can mean removing these filters like assumptions, judgements and biases. This journey is a difficult journey. It pushes us to understand our own pre-conceived ideas while accepting others realities and experiences.
Finding truth is making efforts to find out truth beyond our judgments, biases, illusions in every living moment.
It can happen when we connect with every one in here and Now, removing the filter of memories of past or actions. There is always something new to hold, to grow our perception and knowledge. When we are ready to gain new information, we should also be ready to let go of older information we are holding dear.
I have seen people who disliked certain foods, developed liking for them after a heart attack or some other illness. Same happens with diets and dietary management, may be we need to think about foods and diets objectively.
We all have an image for ourselves and when we come across a notion, an idea or information which contradicts this image, we immediately reject it. For example, if we think we are masters of a subject and we know it thoroughly, we may not be open to receive more information and we will only defend what we know to conclude we are knowledgeable. It is illusion of knowledge, it’s called cognitive bias.
May be being open is letting go of our biases or closely held values to be ready to receive information and knowledge from everyone.
I am learning few very good techniques to overcome my biases.
Being a student. To literally understand it, I restarted my student journey six years back. Every day was revelation how little I know and how much more I am yet to learn.
Playing with a toddler: Toddlers years are time of great cognitive, emotional and social development. There are so many firsts during this period taking the first step, saying hello for the first time, learning to play and interact with others and taking turns. When we play with toddler we are not only pulled into their energy and also into their openness to try new things.
Walk on the beach: Go to a beach and watch the waves in the sea. How they come together harmoniously and rise by integrating each others energy and how beautifully sand let those waves wash it off while soaking in the water and letting it go.
Learning from our own children: As parents we think we have responsibility to guide our children towards better habits, exposing them to right information, help them evolve. What we forget is that our own children are learning not only from us but from the world around as well. They can teach us a thing or two about life.
Most of the time we are the only obstacle in our progress as we defend ourselves with our opinions, biases or judgments. When we constantly check in with our own selves about where we are physically, emotionally and spiritually we may find it easier to be in the present only. The magic place called “Here and Now”. It may not be the most comfortable place but it is the place of learning and discovering our truth.
