Are You Mad?

Habits are hard to dissolve. Try deleting one letter each from the beginning of the word ‘habit’; all combinations and even the last of letters appears to be meaningful. Habits are good and bad; and there are many in both these categories. Each one of us is sure that all others we have met have bad habits about which they are not at all aware of. The question is on how aware we are on the details and grade of all the habits we inherit. Unless you are aware of what you do, I am compelled to call you mad.

 

Madness is not limited to getting angry or showing severe mental illness only. It also means lack of clear and sensible thinking. Science knows that no human being is exactly what we see with our outward eyes but a combination of subtle and gross energy units called body, mind and spirit. So it is not exactly what you eat that you are but more what you think. Clear and sensible thinking is proof of one’s overall health. Almost all of us are under some sort of personality disorders at some degree. Personality disorders are relatively stable patterns of thinking, perceiving, reacting, and relating that differ from expected norms and that begin early in life.

 

Yes, mind and consciousness keep on playing a big drama here. Whatever you do, your inner conscience supports you with enough of necessary justifications. You will be surprised to realize that the most heinous criminal you have heard of also had a conscience that justified everything he did. Here is the crisis! We need to double check before we speak something, think something or do something. This ends up in awareness. Doing everything with absolute awareness is practically impossible. It took some time for Gautama Buddha to scare a mosquito, which landed on his shoulder. By the time Buddha lifted his hand as if controlled by an operator, the mosquito had sucked enough blood and fled away in joy. However, Buddha affirmed that being aware is the only way to realization. Our road to absolute awareness is through awareness exercises done in daily lives. It is quite an interesting experience to do everything after a double check and being fully aware of what is being done. Awareness exists only in present simple tense, nowhere else.

 

Joseph Mattappally