We keep eating food of different tasty food. Many such food items feel good for the tongue, however, harm our internal organs like the gut, intestine, or liver. Since the gut, liver, and intestine are silent organs and keep playing their role without us being aware of their contribution, we take them for granted. The noisy tongue dominates our food choices and in the process, we end up damaging our health since we can not stay healthy with unhealthy internal organs.
Similarly, our mind is quite noisy as compared to our body. Our thoughts dominate our consciousness. Vis-a-vis the thoughts, we have very little awareness of our bodies. There are so many different sensations in different parts of the body, almost the whole of the day. However, we are so lost in our thoughts that we hardly stay aware of those sensations till they are alarmingly painful. We keep getting lost in the world of thoughts because we are fixated on our thoughts. Due to excessive fixation on the thoughts, we lose awareness of the body's sensations. During Vipassana camps, when we get over the fixation with the thoughts, we get the awareness of the sensations back. Excessive fixation on thoughts results in many psychosomatic diseases because that disturbs the flow of different neurotransmitters and hormones and brings about many disorders in the body.
In almost every family there are similar dynamics. There are certain members of the family who remain generally silent. They keep performing their roles silently and keep supporting the family. However, there are other family members who are very vocal about their rights. When it comes to the distribution of resources or decision-making, the voice of the loudest of the members is listened to first, and generally, the silent members take a back seat. It is often seen that such selfish individuals slowly and gradually take over the control of the family which results in the disintegration of the family and the split of the family into smaller nuclear units.
There is a learning from all these examples. Probably, our existence is very fragile. It is possible only with the right balance of all the forces of nature. Life on Earth is possible only with the right distance of Earth from the Sun, the right angle of tilt of the axis of the Earth, the right speed of revolution and rotation, the right atmosphere, and the right balance of different gases in the atmosphere of Earth. Similarly, we have a very delicate balance of different elements and organs inside our bodies. A slight shortage of Vitamin D may damage all our bones, a deficiency of Vitamin A may damage our eyes, thick blood may result in heart attacks, and a deficiency of potassium may result in cognitive disorders. We do not make any conscious efforts to balance these vital elements and yet the body unconsciously maintains the fine balance of all the elements.
However, there is a tolerance limit for all the silent systems. When due to the fixation on one or another thing, we overdo certain things, the silent systems give up at a certain point in time and then it is very difficult to recover the silent systems. Our internal organs give up when we get over-attached to our tongue and keep eating unhealthy food for a long period of time. The same happens with our body when we get overattached with the mind and thoughts and keep feeding negative thoughts to the mind. The same happens in families, organizations, and countries. When selfish people take over and the self-less are made to suffer, families, organizations, and countries break down.
An aware person will always be attentive to the role of these silent players in his life and will therefore not take them for granted, While eating the fatty items, he would be aware of the stress these fatty items create on the internal organs. While overthinking, he would be aware of the impact on the body. While promoting the egotist and selfish members in a family, organization, or country, he would be aware of the cost of the systems. On the other hand, an unaware person will get fixated on taste, thoughts, and self-interest and will end up making his life hell. We always have a choice to stay aware and live happily or to turn a blind eye to reality and fall into the trap of fixations.
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