The Crux of the matter - summary of the blog so far

One of the greatest and most pressing issues facing humanity is the lack of awareness in most people. Most people just react to external stimuli and are not aware of what drives them or their actions. Externally people might be free but they are bound by the chains of their limited viewpoint, prejudiced thought, narrow-minded behavior and the inability to think outside the box. We, the people, assume and firmly believe that we are free and act according to our own volition - but it is not difficult to see that in reality we are driven by our petty minds, by fear, jealousy, greed, spite, misplaced ambition etc. Indeed, we are not even aware of this.

Awareness is the consciousness and deep understanding of how and why we think, act and behave the way we do. The first step towards awareness is to become aware of our general lack of awareness. Awareness imparts the ability to think clearly, logically and compassionately with an open mind without any preconceived notions clouding our decisions. Awareness has nothing to do with education or bookish/technical knowledge. Even people with higher degrees in education, experts in technical fields, noble laureates, great artists and people with encyclopedic knowledge are afflicted with lack of awareness. This malady afflicts not only individual persons but also families, societies, companies, nations and religions. It is due to the lack of awareness that people and societies make imprudent decisions, take unwise actions and, because they miss the big picture, base their life and actions on their prejudices, narrow-mindedness and preconceptions.

This lack of awareness is the cause of many ills in this world. It makes us desire money over happiness; it makes nations, religions and societies presume their superiority over others; it causes nations to go to war over oil; it turns people into terrorists; it causes us to turn a blind eye to the suffering of people in less developed countries while we covet their natural resources; it causes nations to crave nuclear weapons; it kills our compassion and respect for others; it decreases productivity in individuals and companies; it causes us to treat symptoms instead of getting to the root cause of problems. Finally as an example of the ultimate greed, avarice and total lack of awareness, we are causing humanity to self destruct by damaging nature and environment in numerous ways and thus destroying our planet.

Awareness would make us make us realize these facts; it would make us work for the common good of people while being inter-dependent; people would respect other cultures, religions, nations and ideas; it would result in the preservation of nature; it would improve productivity in individuals and companies.

The sad truth is that most people are even unaware of this lack of awareness! And others are apathetic towards it. This trance into which the humanity has fallen can only be broken when people are awakened from their stupor of day to day life to which they have become accustomed.

Sickness simplifies things

Being aware is also being simple. With awareness comes simplicity because when we are aware we don't make things complicated, we don't let the mind wander aimlessly or struggle unnecessarily.

When we are simple we realize what the truly important issues are. We realize that most things we normally worry about are not really that important. There really are very few things that are truly important and worth losing sleep over (or losing the precious hours of our life over).

This realization sometimes comes through in sickness. I was not feeling well for the last few days and as has happened when I have been sick before, I once again realized that I would give up a lot of things that I think important just to be in good health.

Money, career, successful entrepreneur, owning a better house, wearing brand name clothes etc look trivial when you understand what the really important things are: health, family, compassion for everyone, being alive to life, awareness itself.

With this realization and awareness, it becomes clear how not to lead our lives as we realize the 'un-awareness' in our life. That is a good start to awareness.

Now, if only we could find the secret to simplifying our lives and being aware without falling sick....