Freedom, my dear friend, has written an emotional piece, his very own, and it was a pleasure reading it. I could not respond to the number of pertinent issues he had raised by responding  on his comments page and therefore this blog is an extended response.

Freedom’s words are in red and my responses are in black.

Free:

We ought to realize that there are many who talk at a plane, which could be intellectually lower than the planes we normally live and think at. Therefore, to understand them fully, we need to lower down our plane of thoughts. Great teachers do that.

The intellectual level of some others could be significantly higher than ours. Hence, in such cases we need to reason and question ourselves till we attain that state of intellectual awareness.  Good students do just that.

Me:

An ideal has been stated here and none can differ. Communication is a two way process. And it works on wavelengths that are compatible. If those don’t exist we have discord. Switch channels and in between you have static, white noise. When teachers teach and lower their expectations and match their wavelengths to those of the kids, they also don’t expect the children to be running around the classroom, making faces at them or screaming for ice cream do they? If you teach history and a kid insists on deliberately talking mathematics you need to a)  get him to a math class or b) ask him to shut up or c) find out if he is onto a gifted idea where history can be interpreted mathematically. But you may not want to continue in the discordant state at all. So communication is a two way process – receiving and giving signals that are in harmony. If one person refuses to cooperate in this process there is discord.

Free:

That, to me, is intellectual dishonesty. Avoidance of confrontation with those better than us. That is a way of simply avoiding issues which we find difficult to confront.

Me:

Not only is there intellectual dishonesty there is a complete turning of the tables, a chutzpah by which these dishonest types will revert to mockery and insinuation to feel good about themselves. A lot of people flee the scene and jeer from a ‘safe distance’  If it were not pathetic it would be funny. The dishonest onlookers also sit on their comfortable fences and watch and try to build bridges because that is easy. That is where the goody goody comes in dear Freedom. In this ability to pretend that you can ignore what you see and play peacemaker. Such behaviour is so widespread that like corruption it has come to be accepted as peacemaking, diplomacy and goodness. Straight talk is seen as rough rude arrogant angry and malicious,

Free:

So where is this pure originality? What is that we create? Leave a child in a room alone, if possible, for twenty years. Will he come out lecturing the truths of Gita?!! So where is Intellectual-Laziness when we quote from past masters of their field?

Me:

There are many fallacies in this statement.

I often give children an exercise of reading a poem where an alien is described and asking them to draw what they read. I must have done this with a thousand kids across the world in several workshops. You never get the same alien twice!!! That is the power of our originality.

There will always be a new thought, a combination, something from our own life that gives our thoughts a unique colour. When we read great people  and report them in our own understanding we give their thoughts a new life. It has a charm, an imperfection that is of great value. I beg to differ. I don’t subscribe to parroting. Read. Understand. Write your own. Quotes must pepper your work. I am not saying don’t put up excerpts for appreciation but too much of that can wear one down.

Free:

Isnt it funny that for a  subject like history  we are willing to go to classes for years, read books and accept what the teachers say but for the book of life we find it hard to listen to teachers and past masters of the field.

Me:

History is taught in the most pernicious way possible in this country. History must be done through sources and research of evidence and drawing of hypotheses and conclusion by the student himself. The slavery of the written word, written by some oaf with an axe to grind,  and of taking that as gospel is our bane in education. We have stopped thinking.

Free:

We thought differently as kids. We think differently now. We might think differently later. So where are we? Rather what are we? When do our thoughts represent our true self?

Me:

Thoght processes are not fixed and non-dynamic. Thoughts are vehicles to understanding, analysis, modification, wisdom, relearning, and self realization. Original thoughts can be modified. There is nothing permanent in life, not even life so why does anyone want thoughts to have permanence. Now someone will pipe up and say but truths are permanent as if they ‘know’ that truth. Then if they are questioned what pray is the truth there will be a mayhem of slipping and sliding. So dynamism is life… change is life.. and thoughts will change that doesn’t mean stop thinking or acting. There is not fixed frame of reference. It shifts. Must shift. And each situation must be reassessed in its own context and time.

Free:

 The moment some one points out something in us we are quick to jump and exclaim…O that was in anger, dear…or that was in a moment of indiscretion….or that was because of so-and-so’s remarksWe wash our hands from our own original thoughts! Isn’t that intellectual dishonesty? The fact is we conjecture a goody-goody picture of ourselves and would love everyone to think of us as conforming to that picture. Any aberrations are quickly disowned under the excuse of human frailties. Why so? Are we willing to disown the frailties in others too as rapidly?

Me:

Yes lots of people do that… they are just dishonest… simply dishonest. The need to be liked is so great that they will push their integrity into a garbage bin and be accomodating. The ability to stand alone with a conviction is a great strength. Those who stand on such strength are also hated by those who find them a mirror to their own falsity. It hurts. But it is not that person who is hurting you, it is the truth about yourself that is hurting you. You can point to frailities only if you can point four fingers at yourself. True. Never disputed that. As Burtus said…… I, LL, have the same dagger for myself….

Free:

You allow your mind to run riot, you allow your mind to act arbitrarily, you allow your mind to react to all stimuli at the slight pretext, you allow all internal and external stimuli to control yourself through your mind and then you say you are free? Are you not slave of your mind? Then how are you free? So how can you have original thoughts? At what stage were you free?   The fact is we all are struggling to reach the state of freedom. Every particle in this world is striving for this complete freedom. That is Karma. Complete freedom must accept all. Truth must accept false too. Complete acceptance has to be the defining aspect of any truth. Truth is infinite and hence it cannot negate anything. Freedom means complete acceptance of all that is. And that includes all thoughts, all variations. To restrict it to me and mine is to limit the infinite possibilities. And that is degradation.

Me:

Here we go into a hop from the specific {individual mind} to the infinite {truth that encompasses falsehood}. This is a classic obfuscation scenario. Observe how we flit all over the place and say nothing. Lol. 

Why should you allow your mind to run riot? If you are rooted in reason and not in personal ego? To assume all of us do that is nonsense. Some of can actually stay the path. The freedom definition coming in the middle of the originality argument is a good red herring. It invites you to take a toss into a sea of definitions,  where you can get conveniently lost. Nice try. I shall not talk of freedom here and get muddled coz you are certainly muddled.

No one is asking you not to quote. One is saying quote and comment. Give us a piece of ‘your’ mind. We yearn to see it. And just a word of caution. Vivekananda was but a human and all that you speak of for me is part of his predicament too. As I said we have this slavishness where if one of us say something of import there is all this noise and protest. If Mahatma Gandhi says whatever it is gospel.. never examined even in passing. Religion like history defies examination. Greatness is a given once it is achieved.  That is what I am going on about. Examine. All .

Free:

Many brilliant books are written everyday. But none have been able to influence the nations as have the Bible, the Koran, the Gita etc. They too contain no magic. No secret thoughts. It’s the personality which matters, the character of the person, his/ her beliefs and the force of conviction. That is one reason why they are still quoted. For no amount of creative brilliance can match the power which they exude.

Me:

Blindness is an endemic human condition. I am not saying these books are not of brilliance or worth, but their following belies their study or examination.

The number of believers are no proof of their worth. Habit, tradition and a lot of fear is reason for this following.

Free:

I also admit that the truth has to be reasoned out by us alone. No books. No theories. No lectures. The greatest book is within me. My life. My experience. My perceptions.

Me:

I love that. But how many would keep their mouths shut and pray in the privacy of their bedrooms? No we have to scream about it. ‘protect’ our gods, ‘kill’ for them, say we are better than the rest and jeer at them. Quote books we don’t know a damn all about. I agree.. do look inward. But not all men as you said in your first para are given the gift of reason or intelligence or introspection. What of them? How does one save the criminal who has been abused in childhood? How does one save the slow person who has been born with a handicap? How ? how? Not everyone is endowed with this amazing power. So? I am pinning you to answer that one.. don’t escape, lol.

Free:

We need some absolute fixed points to gauge ourselves.. There are many ways to reach such a state. Some reach it through meditation. Some reach it through faith. Some reach it through reason. There have been masters in this field who have experienced this level of calmness in their thoughts. And what they thought matched with their actions. They too provide a frame of reference to us. And that is all they do. Rest, of course is our battle. All along it’s a difficult lonely path.

Me:

Aah who fixes those points? Who decides? Is the person who fixes them right? Or are we going to all be subjective about the points? Chaos? Back to square one buddy. You are assuming so much.  Read all the masters … all of them.. listen to all everyday folk,  for who knows who the next Vivekananda is?

Free:
And that is why I quote my Vivekananda. For he otherwise brings sanity and calmness to the monkey of a mind that resides in me. That is not Intellectual Laziness but The Way of Tao, for me.

Me:

Now you will have to explain that last line in a new blog. The Way of Tao. ((((J)))) hum toh annadi hai..