When a child is born, he does not have any fixed ideas or thoughts about anything. He explores every possibility. Slowly, we "learn" so many things from society. What is good, and what is bad? What is desirable, and what is undesirable? What is acceptable, and what is unacceptable? As children, we just copy and paste all these thoughts unless parents really encourage examination, which is quite rare. Most parents want "obedient" kids rather than independent-minded kids. The obedient kids are praised, and the kids who challenge their thoughts are often criticised. That's how "obedience" is promoted and "examination" is discouraged.
An unconditioned mind is capable of examining everything. That's why children have many questions. They will question even the fundamentals that adults have taken for granted. They will question the concept of God. They will ask about the meaning of life and death. They will be curious to know whenever they encounter a new phenomenon. But slowly, with the cut-and-paste knowledge we gather from society, our brains become conditioned. The crucial question is whether this conditioned mind can again examine reality?
Mostly no. Especially, it is almost impossible for people who are successful or privileged in worldly terms. They formed a worldview and championed that frame. Some of us thought that power is the winning formula to champion this world, and therefore, they made efforts to get into those powerful positions. Having reached there, they are comfortable, and thus, there is no occasion to examine what life is. Some gave priority to money and made efforts to do business or get a job that pays a hefty salary, and made a lot of properties and feel comfortable sitting on the pile of wealth he has earned. For some, life is all about networking, and they invest their time and energy in networking and building public relations. They are comfortable with the huge number of contacts in their mobile and e-mails.
Most of us like to stay comfortable. During our teenage years, we set targets for different things, and by the time we reach our 40s, most of us either achieve those targets or settle our expectations down to whatever we have achieved. But, in either case, we stay comfortable with our worldview. By this age, we have a fixed routine, fixed beliefs, and a fixed purpose in life. There are occasions when we feel bored with the routine, but that boredom is not good enough to examine the reality of life. We keep orbiting like an electron around the nucleus in a fixed orbit.
It appears to me that nature brings crisis in the form of natural disasters, and personal crisis in the form of the death of near and dear ones, and also crisis in relationships and finances, to open our eyes to the wider reality of life. However, in most cases, we are so closed that we reject the divine guidance. I have seen many people who have lost their kids. Most of them again make some false meaning of life and go back to a different routine, after a phase of grief. However, some have a life-changing experience and extend themselves to start NGOs and make a difference in the lives of so many people. Some are so disconnected that despite the crisis, they decide to stay back in their limited well, while some come out and connect to the source of light. But why do we need a crisis? Can't we just look around? Buddha didn't wait for a crisis. He could see the suffering of old age, diseases, and death, while his parents made their best efforts to isolate him from reality. We are so exposed to the reality in a world where newspapers are full of news of deaths, disasters, crises, and exploitations, and yet we decide to live inside a cocoon and ignore the reality.
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