My friend Ishita asks:
"I am curious ... How does one apply this in day-to-day life ? Say for someone who is in a financial crisis (or undergoing any kind of hardship for that matter)".
In addressing this question, I guess its important to now verify the theory and see if there is any empirical evidence that supports it. In the process we can see how it relates to daily life in general. Its not hard at all to find empirical evidence for this if we just start looking around.
The identification process:
The identification process is pretty straight forward - from our personal experience as well as a glimpse at the profiles in any social networking site can give a good idea. More recently it has taken a more obsessive form of people identifying themselves with all these unreal identifications and even committing suicides (recent news of an IIM-Bangalore student is one of the examples) and a google search on facebook suicides gives enumerous links of people committing "virtual suicides".
Obsessive identification and downfall:
When we start identifying at gross level, and take it to an obsessive level, we begin to see great falls - of people in various walks of life. Identification with money and power - The Raj Rajaratnam scandal says it all. Rajat Gupta, Anil Kumar, Rajiv Goel and other cohorts in the game. I am not trying to be judgmental here. Although I don't see any remote possibility of me being so rich or powerful like them, say for example (one can always dream or free! comes at no cost:-)), if I do become like them, there is a likely probability of me falling similarly too. I can't judge unless I am in their shoes. I do respect them a lot. People with razor sharp intellect, hard working, super-human ambition and powerful. The point here is that one can easily get carried away by these obsessive identifications - money, power, status, pride in one's own achievements, etc. The case of Dominique Strauss Kahn also could be seen in similar vein. A man of great intellect, leadership qualities, charisma, and compassion (yes if you see the documentary Inside job you would realize his genuine concern for the poor and the frustration with the way the whole sub-prime mortgages were handled leading to the worst ever economic crisis in the recent times). Until I clean up skeletons in my own closet, I guess I shouldn't be too enthusiastic in judging :-)
Atma Shatkam and Hardships:
Now addressing hardships. The same principles above that may bring people down can also lift them up during hardships. Here the Buddhist idea of "This too shall pass" can be very apt (this applies to even happier times - neither they do last all the time). Obsessive identification with the hardship can end up doing otherwise - a fall from which one can never rise. So, is there an empirical evidence to this as well? The best example I can give is Viktor Frankl who pioneered the development of logotherapy.
His book "Man's search for Meaning" is a wonderful read. He describes life in concentration camps. How the first day they are stripped to their bare naked selves and all of their identifications so far are destroyed so to speak - all their possessions, family separated (most of them lost their parents, spouses and children), their degrees, their money, homes, everything that could be taken away from them was taken away. Only identification is their jati (Jews) is what they are left with for which they were forced to suffer. The closest of all identification elimination in its stark reality. They don't even have names in the camp - only a number that is given by which they are identified and recognized. They had no other option but to endure the suffering if they can or perish (and many perished while some survived). It is then after pondering on the existential questions, Viktor Frankl inspires himself and others that although life is full of suffering, and one need not identify with this state of affairs that are never permanent. Life beyond this suffering exists, every man should find the meaning of his life. Anything can be taken away but not the basic freedom of how we react to the hardship.
The other examples are Jonas Salk (inventor of polio vaccine) who refused to patent polio vaccine he invented and gave it away for free, the old wise investor - Warren Buffet, and if we keep searching we could find Zen masters like that in our very immediate circles - just look around and we will find them. I do.
Death also can be viewed dispassionately. Loss of kith or kin, or even fear of death wouldn't make any sense when when we are not this gross body any more. In any case if our life wasn't our choice, then why should death be?
Story of a Zen Master:
Sometime ago I read this small story of a Zen Master in Japan (I believe it was from Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now book). There was this Zen Master living in a small town in Japan. He was highly respected, wise sage and many people sought him for advice and guidance in all matters big and small. One fine day, a neighbor's teenage daughter becomes pregnant. Her parents (understandably) get exasperated, afraid of ignominy and embarrassment, threaten their daughter and force her to confess who the father is. The teenage daughter (understandably) being afraid quickly blames it on the Zen Master. The parents go to the Zen Master, ask him and abuse him and say that he should take the responsibility of the child. His response: "Is that so?". He eventually takes the responsibility of the child raises him like a loving father and time goes on. He is maligned, called a charlatan, and the very society that once respected him shuns him. One day, the daughter realizes her folly and confesses the truth that he is not the father. So, the parents and the daughter come back to the Zen Master and seek forgiveness. The Zen Master's response: "Is that so?" and returns the boy to them.
Moral of the story: Get on with your life being untouched by its vicissitudes.
It is definitely easier said than done but worth pondering and making an effort to live like one (Zen Master or also called as sthitha prajna).
Conclusion:
So, in conclusion an understanding and appreciation of the Atma Shatkam can give us an optimistic view of life, recognize the oneness and the perfection in the functionality of the world (which implies one need not be perfect - the interdependence of this world will take care of one's imperfections), recognize that we can choose to remain unaffected by life's vicissitudes, accept it as is, recognize the futility of things can be easily taken away from us (and given to us also - this is implied), the futility of being greedy, covetous, etc. Once we recognize we are not the vicissitudes we face in life, would it be any wiser to be bothered about them?
If we recognize and negate what we are at gross level, then it follows how unwise it would be to focus on those identifications and eventually suffer.
I may have sounded preachy enough already but I guess the topic itself is such. Am writing mainly for my own fun and refining my thinking.
That said, I am posting a recommended reading below:
Yoga
9/29/2011
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