The world according to me

You need to come to a full and complete realisation that your world is entirely of your own making. It is held in your mind and is shaped by your thoughts, perceptions, experiences, responses etc to what is a neutral and meaningless set of events. Once you realise this you go from a position of dependency and powerlessness to complete empowerment. You become the creator of your own world rather than being a puppet and victim.

While creating software we use tools to mockup screens of how the user interface should look. We make tweaks here and changes there and when we find one design that is acceptable we finalise that as ‘the look’. This happens in all spheres of product design. It also happens in the world that we carry around in our mind. Tweak a thought and your mood can shift from hopelessness to optimism. reframe a perception and your rosy world can suddenly collapse into misery. In Photoshop, we can take an image and tweak it such that in a few minutes it will look totally different from the original image. We can do that to our world as well. Try sitting back and shifting your perceptions around a bit. You might come up with an entirely different world-view. The world according to you, completely made-over, enhanced and latest version.

Can something so changeable, so malleable, so unreliable, be the real thing? Obviously not. Then where is the real world? Wherein lies reality? Shouldn’t we all be trying to find out? Shouldn’t that be our primary concern? Instead of living immersed in a dream world where the only liberation is death of the body-mind? Shouldn’t we all be trying to wake up?  Shouldn’t you?

After-note: Today, for me clarity has returned after writhing for some days in unconsciousness. After thrashing about in turbulent waters, gasping for air. Who is it that pulled me out, that saved me from drowning? It must have been my real self, the Atman, who responding to some impulse in me to break free, must have brought about some shift in consciousness. No matter how the world might shift and change, the Atman is always there, steady, changeless. My lapses into unconsciousness will only cease when I fully realise that I am It, that I and the Atman are one. Then the world might shimmer and dance like a plaything but I will be the player only engaged in play, and cast aside the world when the play is done.