Last week, I got an opportunity to attend one of those training sessions that you hope will dramatically turn your life around...its an arid habit of mine...I like attending sessions that don't leave you with something concrete...this way you can't be quizzed on it in the future ;)
Jokes apart, it had been a while since I had done any training...and I wasn't in a mood to participate in another functional lesson...so the choice was simple...something based on soft skills fitted the bill...CHANGING MINDSETS was the way to go...honestly speaking, I was more charged up by the fact that I was in Gurgaon after a while rather than being excited about changing my mindset!
Anyways, so there I was racing down from Noida to Signature towers at 7 in the morning...the location befuddled me but thankfully it wasn't a big deal to find it...hmm...45 mins too early for the session and I expected no one to be present...there she was sitting before anyone was there...
Social rituals dictated that we exchanged pleasantries...I introduced my self to her...and then she did the same...
The word "psychologist" has always had me running for the doors - imagine one with a MA, Phd with 3 published books and regular appearance on national television and radio!!!
Before she could completely strip me (excuse the pun, I intend to convey the idea that "before she could completely do a pyscho analysis on me and categorize me into one of the personality types based on the first four sentences I said" ;) ), some other people entered the hall...disaster averted...
As we commenced with the session, she asked each one of us why we were attending this programme...being slaves of the so called corporate culture, every one started giving what I would call superficially polished answers, praising it and similar jibberish...when my turn came, it had to be...well...different...(don't YOU judge me)...I told her that I wanted a break from my routine work...and that I was looking for something refreshing...(Wrong thing to say as I found after two long days)...
The first day was all about Mind dynamics - associations, deletion, distortion, visualizations for the major part of it...albeit all done through experiential learning to keep us awake...some matrix about competency and consciousness to catch our imagination too...and then she told us that the next day we were going to be watching THE SECRET (yes...the movie on which the book by Rhonda Byrne is based on...FYI..very few people know that the movie came first and then the book).
The next day came...buzz in the air...free movie after all... :)
The screening began..for good one and a half hour, it kept us engaged and the remainder of the day was spent on discussing learnings from the same...obviously there were a host of other activities which I am going to keep aside to get to the topic of this post...
The reason why I wrote this post is to discuss the two varying schools of thought...
The first one talks about what the Secret prophesized...the LAW OF ATTRACTION...the theory behind ASKING, BELIEVING and RECEIVING...the Universe being a genie waiting to fulfil your every wish...something what Mr. Coelho echoed in The Alchemist about the universe conspiring to give you anything you wanted (which was very unpolitely plagiarized in Om Shanti Om)...Positive thinking...and similar old wines being served in newer bottles.
In a sense, I think it lays stress in the notion that your thinking greatly effects the eventual outcomes...to a certain degree, I am convinced on one level that they do...I will take it one step further...to put this thought into action...summoning Mr. NEO aka Mr. Anderson from the Wachowski's Matrix...the dialogues between Morpheus and NEO (which is btw an acronym for ONE) where they discuss the eventual dilemma being the CHOICE - the blue pill or the red pill...even the theory of quantum physics suggests the possibility of parallel universes existing (leading to the concept of multiverses) depending upon the choices one makes....
So, in a way the above two when superposed on each other mean that your thought backed up in the physical world by means of choices of actions that you take will result in a certain outcome - that you are the dictator of your destiny...what you wish and choose is what you get...
The second thought talks about the group that subscribe to the understanding that everything around us is a clever devise by the almighty aka God to make us believe that we are in control - whereas in reality, he has already devised the outcomes of each of the thoughts and choices we think we make (and no, not the reality that we humans perceive -I am referring to the real truth). Its such a complex intertwining that we live in an illusion thinking of ourselves as masters of our fates where we are just playing out our parts (as Shakespeare referred to). Citing Merovinjian from Matrix: "Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without". Then are we really Masters or mere Slaves?
So, what is the truth?
At times, you feel that you are in total control, the captain of this ship...only to be hit by the waves of this unsettling sea...and then to blame destiny for it...
I am sorry...I don't know...its a question left best to the Platos and Socrates and Aristotles of this world to contemplate upon...even Einstein remarked "God doesn't play dice"...probably to convey his struggle with this answer...
Feel free (if you can) to think about what you think about this dilemma...share them if you like.
I will head back to my vodka and the soothing tunes of Shriman Ghulam Ali...
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