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Ability to "zoom in" and "zoom out"

Zooming in and out is an integral part of our daily life. We often need to focus on the task we perform, right from making tea in the kitchen to carrying out the most complicated tasks like designing rockets. But then we zoom out of the task and move on to the other. If we fail to zoom out, we will be lost in thoughts and will not be able to attend to the task at hand. For example, suppose we are too engrossed in some discussion at the office, and post-discussion, we are not able to zoom out, we will be lost in the discussion, and our efficiency at the other task will suffer. While driving back home, if we are lost in that discussion, our chances of meeting with an accident will increase significantly. 

Similarly, we zoom in on our relationships. Sometimes we spend a lot of time in a relationship and then realize that there is little intersection, and then we zoom out. For example, we had a very strong friendship with a friend in our childhood, but we both grew quite differently, leaving us with very little common ground. We zoom out of the relationship and zoom in to another relationship. That happens naturally also with all of us. In our childhood, we spent more time with our parents. But as we grow, we spend more time with friends, kids, and spouses. Thus, this zooming in and out is a natural process of life. 

Zooming in and out happens with our belief systems, too. I have seen many friends who had a very strong belief system that life is all about material possessions, and the center of their life was earning money and gaining power. Now I see that many of them have zoomed out of that and have zoomed in to another belief system whereby they are seeking some experience that they vaguely call "enlightenment" in different ways. Some are seeking it through Bhakti, while some through Jnana. Some are doing social services to accumulate "good karma" to ensure a "good next life". 

Life is like folders within folders. We zoom out of one folder to see that there are many such folders within the parent folder. But when we zoom out of the parent folder, we see there are many such parent folders, and the process goes on indefinitely. Most often, we just gather courage to zoom out of one folder and soon zoom in to the other folder and start working. We meet failure in one assignment, zoom out, and just zoom in to another assignment. We get cheated in one relationship, zoom out, and enter into another relationship. We realize the futility of one belief system, zoom out, and adopt another belief system. We develop a self-image, it gets shattered, and we try to build another image. We are in a hurry to zoom in. Probably because ultimate zooming out takes us to the state of nothingness, and we are really afraid to confront nothingness. How can we be "nothing"? That's why we are always in a hurry to assign some other meaning to life. That's why we keep passing through constant phases os enthusiasm and disillusionment. 

If someone can zoom in but not zoom out, they are bound to suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) sooner or later. If someone can zoom out but not zoom in, they will have a broader perspective of life, but their understanding will remain theoretical. However, if someone develops the ability to zoom in and zoom out "at will," they become a master of life. They can zoom in and perform the task at hand with high concentration while retaining a larger perspective of life simultaneously. The more they can zoom out and broaden their outlook on life, the less obsessed they will be with the immediate task. At the same time, they will also recognize that to complete the task, they need to zoom in. Thus, they would be able to calibrate zoom in and zoom out depending on the need of the moment. In today's world, parents focus more on developing their children's zoom-in capacity, which is why most kids struggle to zoom out. Consequently, they face mental health issues both at work and at home. It is crucial that we help our kids develop the ability to zoom out, and for that, they need to read books from diverse cultures and authors and engage in regular "dialogues," not "debates." However, for this to happen, parents must first learn to zoom out themselves. 


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