Stimulus

‘My childhood determined how I turned out’ was the reply of two brothers to describe their way of life. They shared a common stimulus of a terrible childhood. Their mother died young and their father was an abusive alcoholic who best up his children. The negative strokes had a huge impact on their eventual life scripts.

One brother gave up on his school education. Like his father, he took to alcoholism. He would abuse and beat up his wife and his children, just like his father did. An unfortunate story was being repeated all over again.

His other brother too dropped out from school. He joined the trade of a mechanic and began to earn a decent living. He was a sensitive and supportive husband to his wife and a caring and doting father to his children.

Both were exposed to the same stimulus of a troubled past. Yet their divergent life scripts were due to contrary responses. While one succumbed to the dead weight of his past, the other chose to learn from his past and ensure that it was not repeated.

The stimulus does not determine our response. We have the opportunity to choose our response. There is always a choice available to us. The stimulus may not be in our control but our response is a matter of our discretion.  

response need not hinge on the stimulus

the choice we make depends only on us!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Learned

Our state has recorded over 80% literacy. However the ground reality reflects a strange trait. Half the citizens show a lack of ability to follow simple instructions. Cars zoom past signposts that restrict speed. No parking boards become pegs for parking vehicles. Spit accumulates under the panels that have bold instructions of do-not-spit.

This is surely a common civic phenomenon all over India. It is not about the ability to read or the lack of literacy. It is about the attitudinal paradigms which annihilate the ability of the literate. Where the literate may not be learned!

In fact, most civic signs or instructions are visually graphic enough to be understood even by illiterates. But we literates tend to veer to civic behaviour which we ourselves might find uncivil, offensive or even boorish, when committed by others.

We must examine whether our literacy measures up to the standards of learnedness. We must confirm whether our acquisition of the ability to read is followed by the consecutive learning. Knowing to read, actual reading and appropriate response based on such reading can be totally dissimilar in terms of genuine behaviour.

Robert Pike said that ‘learning has not taken place until behaviour has changed’. It is not enough to be literate; we must use the literacy to good effect and display that learning has happened. We must align our actions to what we have really learned!

The learned don’t just read the sign-board

They align actions to the responsive road!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Flux

During a lecture, a student asked his master, ‘I've been listening to your lectures for years… but I just don't understand. Could you just please put it in a nutshell? Can you reduce Buddhism to one phrase?’

Everyone laughed. Suzuki laughed. ‘Everything changes,’ he said. Then he asked for another question.

Zen teachings in Buddhism insist that everything in life is in a state of flux. ‘Everything changes’ is a deep thought with a wide meaning. The individual is impermanent. Relations are impermanent. Residence is impermanent. The world is impermanent.

Holding onto to things is a root cause for suffering. We need to be aware and accept the ever-changing nature of reality and appreciate the present moment. It's not about letting go; it's really about not clutching in the first instance.

We should stop fretting about the future. We should quit waiting for a better moment. We must learn to enjoy the moment while it lasts, before flux sets in. If we can learn to live in this way, we can find happiness in every instant.

Flux will happen… life will take a turn

Joy is in living not in wishes to yearn!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Pause (a poem)

Pause

Many a cause

Sometimes a short break

Sometimes a breath intake

Pause

Quiet claws

Stop for the station

Transitory punctuation

Pause

Roads at a cross

Short of words to say

Thoughts going astray

Pause

Damp moss

The numb feel

A life going still

Pause

Unsure clause

Too short a rope

Flickering of hope

Pause

Apparent loss

Screams that are still

Grit on downward drill

Pause

Spilled sauce

Palate gone wrong

The end of the song

~ Pravin K Sabnis