We all have experienced a hard wired feature of our brain where it video graphs. What do I mean? okay, if you were old enough to form memories in 84, do you remember how did you come to know about Indira Gandhi's assassination? You probably know exactly where you were, surroundings in great detail, your immediate actions for next few seconds etc.
Such memory formation goes for all emotion forming events and, biggest (most crucial for survival) emotions are threat or opportunity perception. Now, nothing generates those two emotions like things that don't fit patterns we are familiar with. if there is something unusual, we see it either as threat or opportunity. (which can explain why those who are not insecure, their acceptance distribution has higher standard deviation and fatter tails, may even welcome away from mean things with some scrutiny while insecure societies fear things out of pattern like deaths, their acceptance curve very very steep.)
Unrelated to this post, but this has significance wrt to 'diversity' issue. you see, we don't need 'diversity' as a goal. What we need is unity and strength. Acceptance to diversity is just a by-product of that. Difference between these two goals is like allopathic vs Ayurvedic. Allopathic approach is where you try to suppress systems' innate efforts to help itself or its cry for help and claim victory when no cries are heard. whereass working on imbalance and helping system regain its strength is what Ayurved achieves.
anyway, I just got diverted. Point is, if we perceive something as extremely unusual, we are more likely to remember it. Now, I rarely 'studied' in school / collages and mostly cant even tell what I studied, let alone what were the contents. Yet, I remembered a fictiony fact that was taught in school. it was that Ganga flows throughout the year! Can something be any more fictiony than THAT? (I seriously think studying this as 'fact' in school prepared me to read Issac Asimov as 'future history' writer much later).
Such memory formation goes for all emotion forming events and, biggest (most crucial for survival) emotions are threat or opportunity perception. Now, nothing generates those two emotions like things that don't fit patterns we are familiar with. if there is something unusual, we see it either as threat or opportunity. (which can explain why those who are not insecure, their acceptance distribution has higher standard deviation and fatter tails, may even welcome away from mean things with some scrutiny while insecure societies fear things out of pattern like deaths, their acceptance curve very very steep.)
Unrelated to this post, but this has significance wrt to 'diversity' issue. you see, we don't need 'diversity' as a goal. What we need is unity and strength. Acceptance to diversity is just a by-product of that. Difference between these two goals is like allopathic vs Ayurvedic. Allopathic approach is where you try to suppress systems' innate efforts to help itself or its cry for help and claim victory when no cries are heard. whereass working on imbalance and helping system regain its strength is what Ayurved achieves.
anyway, I just got diverted. Point is, if we perceive something as extremely unusual, we are more likely to remember it. Now, I rarely 'studied' in school / collages and mostly cant even tell what I studied, let alone what were the contents. Yet, I remembered a fictiony fact that was taught in school. it was that Ganga flows throughout the year! Can something be any more fictiony than THAT? (I seriously think studying this as 'fact' in school prepared me to read Issac Asimov as 'future history' writer much later).
I mean, come on, aren't rivers those beautiful long and wide sand areas that sometimes have some water too in it? Brain then did what it does with highly unusual information. it just recorded it.
Decades later standing at the banks of Ganga, I finally saw how those words were simple fact and not fiction. (which promptly made me forget that I once considered it fiction - after all can I be so stupid not to understand facts? and re-remembered only after someone expressed disbelief at concept of a river flowing all year)
What words could not have prepared me for, came couple of years later sometime in August / September. Mighty Ganga started swelling day after day, hour after hour. it was no longer about unimaginable amount of water or its vast spread. All you felt was FORCE of Nature when it was in quite a mood to display it. It was impactful, something that would instinctively generate fear but when you were viewing it from absolute safety, it felt like excitement. I visited Ganga every day, every morning and evening and then every couple of hours as she swelled, surged. Standing there and seeing that force was intoxicating almost. It didn't appear that anything could distract you from looking at it tirelessly.
But, Ganga had a lesson there for me. after few days, excitement fatigue started setting in. Previous amount of force didn't give same amount of excitement and later, even fresh surge started losing its novelty. I was tired of excitement. With the lesson taught, Ganga finally started withdrawing its Raudra roop.
We generally use term happiness for happiness that is peaceful as well that is generated out of excitement. This episode displayed how the later is unsustainable and brings its own fall. first one on the other hand gets better and better more you get it.
Why I thought of this now? We do see all round us (and within) that लोकैषणा > पुत्रैषणा > वित्तैषणा. Does then it mean a hopeless world? if No, why not? Because those are paths of excitement driven happiness and someday, one is sure to feel tired and go in search for something more sustainable. i.e. (लोकैषणा > पुत्रैषणा > वित्तैषणा) < (ज्ञान गमन प्राप्ति)
Decades later standing at the banks of Ganga, I finally saw how those words were simple fact and not fiction. (which promptly made me forget that I once considered it fiction - after all can I be so stupid not to understand facts? and re-remembered only after someone expressed disbelief at concept of a river flowing all year)
What words could not have prepared me for, came couple of years later sometime in August / September. Mighty Ganga started swelling day after day, hour after hour. it was no longer about unimaginable amount of water or its vast spread. All you felt was FORCE of Nature when it was in quite a mood to display it. It was impactful, something that would instinctively generate fear but when you were viewing it from absolute safety, it felt like excitement. I visited Ganga every day, every morning and evening and then every couple of hours as she swelled, surged. Standing there and seeing that force was intoxicating almost. It didn't appear that anything could distract you from looking at it tirelessly.
But, Ganga had a lesson there for me. after few days, excitement fatigue started setting in. Previous amount of force didn't give same amount of excitement and later, even fresh surge started losing its novelty. I was tired of excitement. With the lesson taught, Ganga finally started withdrawing its Raudra roop.
We generally use term happiness for happiness that is peaceful as well that is generated out of excitement. This episode displayed how the later is unsustainable and brings its own fall. first one on the other hand gets better and better more you get it.
Why I thought of this now? We do see all round us (and within) that लोकैषणा > पुत्रैषणा > वित्तैषणा. Does then it mean a hopeless world? if No, why not? Because those are paths of excitement driven happiness and someday, one is sure to feel tired and go in search for something more sustainable. i.e. (लोकैषणा > पुत्रैषणा > वित्तैषणा) < (ज्ञान गमन प्राप्ति)
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