The human mind is quite restless to complete the story about everything—the story about ourselves, the purpose of life, others, their nature, history, mythology, and everything else. That's why it fills in the blanks. We know very little about a person and presume many things, and when we meet them, many of our assumptions get shattered. Sometimes we get surprised to know how people perceive us.
The human brain is a meaning-making machine that constantly makes meanings. Probably that's a survival need, and human beings have been able to survive due to that. While driving on the road, at night, we can see only a very small area where the beam of the headlight is focused, but since we have to drive, our brain makes assumptions about the route, the condition of the road ahead, and so many other things. Of course, the traffic signals help us navigate. Nowadays, we have Google Maps also helping us decide the route. But our direct awareness of the road is quite limited, and the mind makes a lot of meaning as a result of the interplay of the visible road, Google Maps, and the signboards. The light beam is focused on the road and not the trees on the side of the road.
Similarly, we interact with so many different types of people and keep making meanings about them. We make decisions in our lives based on that. While driving, we have to make decisions on a real-time basis. Similarly, we have to make decisions on a real-time basis depending upon our understanding of the different people we are dealing with. We have to make crucial decisions in our lives about marriage, friends, colleagues, etc, with a piece of very limited information available at our disposal. We make meanings about the nature of people with the headlight focused on their behaviour.
However, this is where the signboards and Google Maps may help us. Psychology is the study of human behaviour, and a good understanding of Psychology helps us understand the hidden intentions of people. Signboards have been placed on the road by the people who have actually travelled on the road, and therefore they know where the road is narrow, where the speed limit needs to be reduced, and where a sharp turn. If we know how to read these signboards, they can save us from major trouble. That's the reason why an understanding of Psychology is a must for every student so that they know the difference between the conscious and the unconscious, the survival instincts, inauthenticities, inferiority and superiority complexes, the complex phenomenon called fear, and so on.
While understanding of Psychology provides us the ability to read the signboards, understanding of Philosophy is like the Google Map, which has mapped the entire terrain through satellite and live data, including our own vehicle. When we meditate, we get to observe our own thoughts. We observe sensations in different parts of our bodies. We understand what happens to us when we get angry, when we shout at others, when we are full of fear, when we are greedy, and when we are ambitious. We understand that the sensations in different parts of our bodies undergo swift change depending on our mood. We also see that all these sensations appear as well as disappear so quickly. We get a Google Map of what is happening in different parts of our body. That gives us awareness to make informed choices rather than making the choices unconsciously and repenting later on. Google Maps has traffic maps of all the places in the world. Not only do we get to know about ourselves when we live life in a meditative mode, but we also get to see what is happening inside others. That helps in making informed decisions rather than playing blind. The most significant part is that we get to realize the temporariness of all the sensations in our body, and therefore we start understanding life from a very wide perspective rather than being fixated on the visible road ahead and making meaning of the entire life based on that.
Comments