Mastering Obviousness
A guide to miss the wonder
Imagine this:
A young girl, only eighteen, stood shaking next to the big fire, her heart pounding with fear. She looked at her dead husband’s body in the fire and felt sick. Tears ran down her face, mixing with sweat. Just as the priest started to push her towards the fire, she took a deep breath and stepped forward. As she walked into the flames, the chanting grew louder. Everyone around her bowed down, honoring her “sacrifice.” The heat became unbearable, and her tears dried up instantly. The last thing she saw was the crowd, their heads low, as she joined her husband in the fire.
The most horrifying part is that this scene isn’t mere fiction; it reflects an actual practice called Sati. In specific periods of India’s history, widows were expected or forced to burn themselves alive on their husband’s funeral pyre.
Doesn’t this practice sound like an old, ancient custom from a time when people didn’t question anything? We may wonder, “What stopped these people from questioning such an absurd practice? How can such a practice continue generation after generation for multiple centuries? If I had been there, I would have put all my efforts into stopping this.”.
Would you? Simple statistics would disagree. Until and unless you are among the rarest of the rare revolutionaries, you would have taken this practice as obvious. Even if someone else had questioned it, your reply would likely be, ‘“Are you new here? Don’t you know it is the Karma of this lady? Isn’t it obvious to you?”
You may say, “But the time has changed now. We don’t take anything as obvious. We question and wonder about everything.” Well, if you observe, it doesn’t look like so. It’s quite the opposite. No matter how intellectual we are, most of us don’t wonder about all the bizarre things happening to us all the time, which are even stranger than the ancient practice of Sati. These things are not just social norms; most are our own reality.
Unbutton your belly button.
Let’s start with something we all share and take for granted: our body. One might say:- “What? Why do I need to wonder about my own body? I already know enough about it. I’ve seen it a couple of times today as well.”
Yes, and this is my point exactly. Just because we see it daily doesn’t mean it doesn’t entail any wonder. How can frequency replace wonder? Let’s understand this with the example of our own body.
Do we ever wonder how peculiar our body is? Our body has pumps, filters, and networks of pipes of different sizes and pressures. We take it all as obvious. Of course, we need to breathe continuously throughout our lives. Of course, we shut down for 6–8 hours daily. Of course, chemical C12H22O11 tastes sweet to us. Even dreams seem obvious once we wake up. “Seeing your long-dead grandfather in a dream? Don’t worry; these are just dreams.”
We consider it so obvious that we cannot think of any alternative design. Imagine if humans used one orifice for both eating and excreting waste. Gross, right? But what if I tell you that we started our journey of Evolution with one orifice only? Yes, having two orifices is an update. Also, does it look strange to us that we use the same orifice for breathing in and out? Who knows if another update is due?
Also, if our intestines absorb water, why must we go through such a long path to get there? Why are we not designed to use our belly button for drinking, like plants use roots? We could have also used our first nine months of experience in that case.
We can quickly spot problems with these alternate designs. But have we ever wondered why and how our bodies are built the way they are?
Yum!!! What a pattern it is!
And then there’s the strangest part: the 3 pounds of flesh inside our skull. Yes, our tiny brain. You may think this brain does not wonder about the whole body but should at least wonder about itself. But what if I tell you one thing our brain is most unaware of? Is it the brain itself?
“The brain is the most complex thing in the universe and it’s right behind the nose.” — brain of Michael Denton
Let’s see why this tiny piece of muscle is so mysterious. Have we ever wondered why seeing, smelling, hearing, and tasting feel so different, even though the brain receives similar electrical signals? Most of us know our brains can’t directly see, hear, or taste anything. It can only read the electrical signals. It doesn’t have direct access to the outer world.
Then, shouldn’t we wonder why we don’t just feel these electrical signals instead? Imagine getting a signal from a million neurons rather than seeing a yummy cake.
Our brain constantly receives millions of signals from neurons and constructs the world we perceive. Yes, everything we see, hear, taste, and smell is a construction by the brain. It constructs our whole world continuously in real-time. If all of this is obvious to us, my brain can’t imagine what actual wonder might look like.
Don’t you know Roarkang?
And not just our own body; we often overlook the creatures we share this planet with. We name them, categorize them, and note down their behaviors. But do we never wonder how different these creatures are? Just imagining how these various creatures may have been perceiving different worlds is terrific.
One may say, “What is there to wonder in a simple dog? After all, it is a dog only.” Do we think that a dog is just a “Dog” only, without thinking that this is only a name our species has given to it? Even a dog doesn’t know that he is a “Dog.” Who knows if we are “Bho.. Bho..” to them? The question is, are we just a “Bho..Bho..” only?
Even in our house, we have multiple strange creatures. One example I can remember has these characteristics:- “It doesn’t walk, jump, fly, or swim like any other. It seems to move in the air on its invisible path. It has multiple legs, each longer than its body, and catches prey along its path”. Anyone looking at it would wonder, “What…? What is this?” We’d casually reply, “Oh, this? It’s a spider. Don’t you know it?” Again, just six letters describe such an incredible creature.
To grasp the absurdity, imagine a creature that roars like a lion, swims like a fish, climbs like a monkey, jumps like a kangaroo, and drinks blood like a bat. You’d wonder, “What the hell is this?” And someone says, “Oh, this? This is a Roarkang.” Wouldn’t you immediately ask, “What the hell is a Roarkang then?”
Even though this creature is a mix of familiar traits, we couldn’t stop wondering about it. The spider seems normal only because we’re used to the word “spider.” We’ve replaced the awe of this unique creature with a mundane and dead word. And we call it intelligence.
As Sir Jiddu Krishnamurti wisely put it:-
“The word is not the thing.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
Say Moooooon!!
We might say, “Why wonder? No matter whether it is our body, brain, or other animals, Science has already figured out everything. There is nothing to wonder at all.” But if anyone asks us what science tells us about these things, most would reply, “I don’t know, I’m not a scientist. But I’m sure some nerds have figured it out. One thing I’m sure of is that there’s no magic behind it.” What if I tell you we apply this same obviousness to the facts that are not clear to science as well?
Take the lunar cycle, for example. For a long time, humanity didn’t understand it. Suppose you can return to the period when the science behind the lunar cycle was unclear. Do you think you would find everyone wondering about this strange moon behavior? History tells us that the only thing you will see is a lot of different groups of people with their different obvious stories. Questioning these stories would be considered a sin within that group.
Imagine talking to a member of any of these groups: You: “Why does the moon change shape?” Believer: “Sky creatures are eating it.” You: “How can someone eat the moon?” Believer: “It’s made of cheese. Sky creatures love cheese.” You: “But how does it reappear?” Believer: “God makes it anew after the creatures eat it. Once it’s full again, the creatures start eating it. That’s why we pray to God.” You: “But how do you know all this?” Believer: “Isn’t it obvious?”
This conversation might seem far-fetched. It’s hard to believe that someone could hold such absurd beliefs. Maybe it is pretty far-fetched. But this wouldn't seem improbable once you meet any flat-earthers in the 21st century.
What if I fell?
Even if a “nerd” really comes up with a piece of evidence disproving our story, do you think we would abandon it quickly? History suggests we’d cling to it until a new obvious story emerged that couldn’t be disproven. We seem to jump from one obvious belief to another, desperately trying to avoid falling into a world of wonder.
As a society, we went from “Obviously, the sun revolves around our planet” to “How could anyone believe the Earth is the center of the universe? Are they fools?” We hold onto old beliefs until a new one becomes obvious. Only then do we abandon the old one.
It’s like a person on a footbridge over a river, not leaving his plank until convinced the next one is solid. Sometimes, there might not be a next plank, leaving him stuck indefinitely. All we need to do is whisper in his ear, “You know how to swim.”
One may say, “Isn’t it good then? Why take risks?”. But do we ever question if we need a bridge at all? What if we were meant to swim in the river? What if this is where all the fun is? Who knows?
Alright, let’s get back to digging!
These are not just a few examples of things we take as obvious. Observing lets us easily see that we are oblivious to almost everything around us. This is true even when someone changes our whole surroundings. We are like an earthworm that wouldn’t wonder even when its environment is wholly altered.
What would an earthworm do if we picked it up from a jungle and placed it in our garden? Its whole world has changed. Everything it has ever known is gone. Do you think it would stop and wonder, “What is this place? Why is everything so different? Why does the soil feel different?” Or would it just start burrowing and feeding as usual? We all know the second one is more probable. An earthworm doesn’t have the cognitive abilities to wonder. But what about us? Would we be amazed if someone placed us in a new place? I don’t think so.
The theory of evolution changed everything for us. It shattered our old beliefs, understanding of everything, and even our concept of God. It replaced a static, consciously designed universe with a dynamic one created by natural selection. For the first time, a species came to know its origin. It should have amazed everyone, and the world shouldn’t have remained the same. But what happened? We accepted it, added it to our sallaybus, taught it in classrooms, and continued our everyday life. We never paused to marvel at our new world.
I do know it already…..
And when I say ‘obvious,’ I don’t mean we don’t know about it. Science has made it possible to know almost everything. But can science ever destroy curiosity? Does knowing about any subject make us less curious about it? Shouldn’t it be just the opposite?
Let’s hear from someone who should be the least curious person on earth:-
“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” ― Albert Einstein
According to Einstein, “Knowledge is always limited”. It is not just Einstein; we also know it. So, how can you be so obvious about anything in the name of knowledge when knowledge itself is limited?
Obvious Conclusion
So, we are obvious about everything, whether it is ourselves or something separate from us, fact or story, known or unknown, stable or dynamic. Nothing can make us wonder. Our whole surroundings seem obvious to us all the time. We have replaced the wonders of life with dead facts. Even though science itself is the result of curiosity, we have used it to cease any curiosity we encounter.
We can’t bear a nameless thing. We think we have it all figured out just by knowing the names of things. If we see a falling apple, we say “Gravity” and stop wondering. Most of us don’t even know why gravity works. Isn’t it natural to ask why the earth pulls everything towards it? To your knowledge, there is a specific reason behind it. But, “How would I know that? After all, I’m not a scientist. But I’m sure some nerds have already figured it out, and obviously, there is no magic behind it.”
