Borders of the world, borders of the mind

So after having an interesting experience in Vancouver - I started thinking about boundaries. A long time ago I once read an essay written by my sister (I wonder if she even remembers!) about how man has gotten so power hungry and drawn all these lines in the world. Claiming this area to belong to him and that area to someone else - dividing lands into countries. She started musing whether someday man will start claiming the sky and the moon. This part of the sky belongs to me hence you can't stand underneath it :)

Well she might not have been too far fetched with the idea of claiming rights on the moon. Apparently U.S.A and Russia have full rights on the moon and they've begun selling acres of it. You get a legal deed sent to you! No kidding - it's actually quite official and worth quite a bit :) Now you can finally look at the moon and say "I own a piece of that!" Oh, the thrill!

Anyway before I get too side tracked and start talking about how commercial everything has become - let's stick to my topic! So in Vancouver, I went through a visa stamping process which like a lot of people turned out to be quite frustrating for me. While waiting in my hotel room trying to figure out whether I will be heading back to India or actually head back to my life I had been living for the last year or so - I really started thinking. The whole idea of visas, of countries - it started to seem so baseless. What if there were no countries? What if it was just Earth and its boundless beauty?

As idealistic as that sounded... I also began to realize how far we've taken the idea of boundaries. We protect what we believe is "ours". We fight, we strive to improve and shield dangers from lands which we beleive belong to us. Maybe if we started adopting Earth as our own, maybe we'd move so much further in preventing global warming and so many other issues, that attack Mother Earth's underbelly. But it's easier staking claim on more visible things I guess.

I remember when I was in high school studying history - back in those early centuries when lands were being fought over. Kings would go out to conquer and expand their territory - it would give them a sense of power. They would build their kingdoms, protect their people and grow stronger. Now that we zoom back to 2009, I wonder how far we've moved. We might have more or less settled on the boundaries of the world - settled into countries that we've been alloted to. But today - I think the real battle is with the boundaries or rather the borders of our own minds.

We have limited ourselves in our thinking - we've grown accustomed to our own lives. It doesn't mean we don't have good heart or pure intentions. But we've found solace in simply living out the routine of a life. Seeking momentary happiness and finding shelter in our safe lives. We've gotten scared and yet gotten used to acts of terror. They don't shock us as much.. the word terror or terrorist is part of our diction now. Some of us have held onto our race with deep ownership and others have shunned people on their beliefs. I wonder if things really were like my utopia.. if we really did embrace Mother Earth as our world - what would happen?

No one would bomb their own backyard... no one would hate their sister or feel the need to prove themselves. We'd prolly get closer to the true meaning of life. Truly discovering ourselves, discovering our humanity - the feeling that makes us the race we are. The most "intelligent" race with powers to do amazing things... to create, to evolve, to provide, to love, to spiritually be whole with each other.. We would be using everything inside of us and find out how deeply we are linked to each other. Every person, every creature, every being of life.

We would be propelled by passion and not invest in outcomes. We would truly be alive and beautiful. We would be amused by difference.. we would not judge, we would not be afraid, we would be safe... we would be grateful, would be humble and would heal, we would open our arms and embrace life as a whole... life, earth...the world we might stick our flags and put up our borders on... but a world which no one can claim rights on... a world that belongs to us.

Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier.

To communicate or to talk

My first blog – what do I write about? There are so many things which have found a place in my mind recently. I guess a lot of it can be put under the word “communication”.

The problem with communication ... is the illusion that it has been accomplished.
So what does it mean to communicate? I guess to a lot of us, it’s probably simply putting together a strand of words, some feeling if we’re lucky, and vocally sounding it. Maybe saying all we can on a topic and moving on. To me that is mere “talking”. But is that the end of human communication? No. We’ve a deep treasure inside of us which we don’t use very often. A gift which gives us the power to truly express ourselves... be it through the play of eyes, a touch, a baby’s babbling or an unspoken love.

Love – it makes us so strong and so weak at the same time. It’s probably one of the most honest forms of communication we have with ourselves, our conscience. It is the bridge which connects us makes us the best person we can ever be … or to our demons. Be it the love of a wife caring for her dying husband for years because she’s not ready to say goodbye. Or be it the love for a country or border which makes a person leave their love, their lives and go out there for a feeling, a desire, a purpose which even they might not fully comprehend. Or the love for a God, the most beautiful painting in the world – still veiled to the deepest of devotees –a love based on belief. Or the love a parent has for their child… watching, slowly trying to understand every movement, every word… truly tapping into human-listening.

Babies are fascinating. They appear to be so helpless in our concrete world – but if you think about it, they have no chains, no barriers to their minds or bodies. They are free in all they do, and say, they are truly fearless beings and have their minds open to the window of the heavens – an ability that only a few will retain.

I once read about a doctor who identified that babies share a universal baby language. And that in fact, he was able to determine what babies mean. For instance, “goo goo gag a” means “feed me” and “Ga GOO ga daba” means “diaper change” – of course this is not very accurate as I’ve all but forgotten my baby-tongue :) As awesome as it sounded, it was pretty interesting imagining doctors listening to 100’s of babies babbling and then finally yelling “Goagl! – uh I mean Eureka!” It’s strange how deep our desire to put things into “logical containers” becomes. Something which we can easily understand and not have to use all our senses to figure out…

So as age dawns on us – is it impossible to communicate? No, not really – I guess we just need to unshackle our minds, remove the layers the world has put on us – layer after layer – of reason, of rules, of appropriateness and truly speak. Release the power inside you which though dormant, is not dead… reach out to the inside of who you truly are and set free the ocean of words, feeling, emotions – speak with hand, eyes, mouth and soul… speak who you are…

And pray someone is listening :)