I created this blog to be able to comment in a site which did not accept anonymous users. The blog needed a title. Since I don’t have a gift for originality, I chose this title ‘Notes to myself’ from a book with the same name.
It is one of those books which can change the way we view our lives.It is a collection of discrete thought pieces penned by the author ( Hugh Prather) as he goes through trials and tribulation of life.
The focus of this diary is not on narration of incidents from his life…infact he doesn’t provide any personal detail, except the bare minimum where it is necessary to understand the context. Each thought piece is a truthful portrayal of his mind for a very brief moment. So he notes down how each thought and consequent feelings emerge , criss cross and change his mind from one state to the other – all in one brief moment. And he does this self observation with complete honesty. So there’s no glossing over of petty feelings, no attempt to theorize or conclude, no carefully thought out ‘intelligent’ afterthought.
Rather what you have is an impassive observant second self which catches the original mind trying to suppress some inconvenient thought or aimlessly go round and round in cycles of same thought or trapping himself in some emotion. Most of us do this, some more conscious of it , some less. But the kind of awakened awareness that the author displayed is rare.
And with this awareness comes the joyous realization that our mind can be in our control, that we can stop the mental clutter and aimless chatter if we want to, that we can be happy despite the circumstances and despite the hopeless, irresponsible, fully controlled lives that we may have lived till now – there’s hope for change.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I created this blog to be able to comment in a site which did not accept anonymous users.I came across the title "notes to myself" for the first time through your article! Your post is useful though you haven't started this blog for the sake of blogging. May I suggest you to continue writing more articles on books or any other things you are interested in?
ReplyDeleteNandini
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for liking my blog and sharing your thoughts about the post.
You are absolutely right in pointing out that science/rational mind does not provide you with all the answers. Religion does give answers to the questions that are very fundamental and important. But, there are some issues. Not only different religions give me different answers but also, these answers conflict with each other. Secondly, no religion tells me the basis of reaching on those answers. Religious text just tells me what the “truth” is. Now, we have no basis to choose one “truth” over others. As you said, these are fundamental questions, so we can’t just roll a dice and decide.
There is no shame in admitting that I don’t know something. I am better in having some questions rather than having all the answers without any basis. Socrates once said that the wisest statement one can make is “I don’t know.”