Monday, 16 May 2016

Lantern of heart

Lantern of heart
Shifu: If you only do what you can do, you'll never be better than what you are.
Po: But I like who I am!
Shifu: You don't even know who you are*
*Excerpt from Kung Fu Panda 3

That's the irony of life isn't it, as Shifu rightly pointed out "you don't even know who you are" our understanding is so limited by our intellect. Just a couple of days ago my two years old daughter said she was afraid. I was surprised to know how does she understand what being afraid is like? I know she is really dread of cats (She calls them Manu "Cat in Punjabi") and makes most scared face accompanied with perfect voice and tonality (I am sure her drama teacher will be very happy with her inborn talents) Then I recalled, human brain is wired for fear!  We have senses and mechanise that is hard wired to protect us from danger. one of them is called RAS (Reticular Activity System) the part of our brain that triggers agility in our muscles against foreseen danger.

As humans, we are gifted with an extra ordinary source of power, the conscious mind, which in poetic language is referred as "our heart"  or "guts" or "hunch". In reality, it is nothing but the areas of our brain that performs recording and play back of events and experiences we gather throughout life. Which in turn, becomes our opinions and values. But this human mind with all its peripherals could prove to be a bane or boon, depending upon what use you put it to.

Growing up I was so scared of dark, it was because of my brother's scary pranks I was terrified of the dark, only after few years I realised it was nothing but my perceived illusion. A notion of my experiences which led me to my belief about dark, how true...such is life! We keep scaring ourselves, living in fear due to figment of our imagination, due to the false meaning that we keep attaching about something we don't even know if it exists. I bet if you look at the root cause of the any issue, anxiety, fear or negative emotion it would be because of the false meaning that you have attached.

So next time you face any fear ask yourself this question "Is this real or just some vague imagination" then let your heart (or brain) guide you like a lantern in the dark... Go forth and conquer!!

Faith means living with uncertainty feeling your way through life letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark - Dan Mailman

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