Eve Ensler’s TED Talk

For over a year now, I’ve been a huge fan and avid watcher of the videos posted on the TED website. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and is a conference for bringing together creative and intellectual minds from all over the world to share their experiences. The videos are talks given by eminent scientists, artists, psychologists, activists and reformists as they share their collective wisdom on a wide range of topics that, while being extremely relevant in the context of our present, have far reaching implications for our future.

Today, I came across a very riveting talk by Eve Ensler at the 2005 TED Conference. Eve is an American playwright and activist, best known for her play, The Vagina Monologues. In this eloquent talk, she shares the timeless wisdom of insecurity, first proposed, so far as recorded history goes, by Eastern philosophies and reinterpreted in so many different forms ever since!

Eve’s message in this talk, despite its apparent somber connotation, is surprisingly both comforting and exhortative!

My first Haiku

I recently discovered Haiku, a form of Japanese poetry, while reading The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality and have, since, been fascinated by the concept of expressing a momentary experience in poetic form, as simply and minimally as possible, while remaining faithful to the original essence of the experience. In this respect, I think Haiku is to poetry what Impressionism might be to painting. As an example, here’s one that I found in the above book that very succinctly expresses the joy of living in the present:

I am cutting wood,

I am drawing water,

It’s so wonderful!

Last evening, I met up with two friends I hadn’t seen in a couple years. We hung out at the beach until very late in the night, drinking an exquisite Glenlivet, while sitting around a bonfire, amidst the calming sounds of waves crashing onto the shore. (As an aside, it’s amazing how, sometimes, utter chaos, such as that constituted by waves, can actually lead to something that is at once random and beautiful!)

On our way back, we stopped by what seemed like a reservoir. It seemed like a very profound place and time — perhaps the pleasant Glenlivet buzz had something to do with it! So, while my friends were taking pictures, I stood out on the edge of the water, soaking in the beautiful view that was formed in the night. Despite all that I apparently found lacking up until that time, that moment, strangely, felt very comforting!

I have tried to express the experience of all that was around me in that moment in the following haiku, my first one. I’m not sure if it can technically qualify to be a haiku but it, nonetheless, expresses what I had felt:

The rays’ gleeful dance on water in the moonlit night,

The crickets’ chirping, the wind’s gentle caress;

Nature’s sweet embrace is so comforting!

Sadly, as with everything else, that moment, too, passed! And here I am, writing about it as one would about a distant memory at best!

The Search for Meaning and Purpose

Looking for a meaning and purpose in life as an end towards the fulfillment of one’s own desires can be a slippery slope, driven by a subtle yet chronic self-deception on part of an inherently needy mind that is perpetually seeking approval and acceptance from the external world, just so it can perceive a sense of belonging despite itself.

Often, our limitations and failures induce in us a fear of being criticized, judged or rejected by those, whose opinions we have come to count upon. In an evolutionary sense, this is probably the fear of isolation and abandonment of an individual by the group, and which may also be strongly reinforced during one’s growing up years. When confronted with failure, our anxious mind experiences the illusion of a void, which it must then seek to fill up, as soon as it arises, with ideas and concepts that can somehow explain and rationalize the failure away. Some of us may internalize such feelings and experience guilt and shame, while others may externalize them in the form of aggressive behaviors.

Alternatively, we may be tempted to look for patterns in our lives and imagine some sort of purpose, after all, to justify the choices we make, and to have some notion of a direction even through failures. Admittedly, it is very hard to determine if there isn’t indeed a purpose to life or to the universe at all! But it is extremely tricky, nevertheless, to assume that there must be one that is in a sense predestined and tailored for each individual, or even collectively for everyone.

Instead, we’d rather become aware of our inherent neediness as the reason for our search for a meaning in the first place, and strive to not give in to the almost compulsive and subconscious urge to seek acceptance, that at times makes us want to run away and at other times to cling to ideas, concepts and people, when in fact they are all in constant flux all around us.

Does that mean that the universe is purposeless and random? More importantly, what do we do during those moments when the void seemingly threatens to destroy our very identity? It might be interesting to think about whether a mere ‘awareness’ of the void’s illusory nature can free us of it during such moments, and whether that alone wouldn’t qualify the cultivation of such an awareness as a noble purpose of life!

Dua (Prayer)

This one came to me in a moment of extreme emotional anguish!

 

Kabhi yun mujhe pyaasa rakkha, ho gum koi sehraa mein jaise
Aur kabhi yun meri pyaas bujhaayi, ho kareeb koi dariyaa jaise
[sehraa = desert, dariya = river]

Aankh khuli to qadmon ke nishaan paaye saahil ki reth par
Pyaas buhjaayi thi jahaan, saraabon ke the wahaan silsiley jaise
[saahil = beach, qadmon ke nishaan = footsteps]
[saraabon ke silsiley = series of mirages]

Ab bhi mila karta hai woh, yakeen dilaata hai aashnaa hone ka
Janmon se uska koi bada karz, mujhe aaj bhi ho utaarana jaise
[aashnaa = friend, karz = debt]

Gar tu bhi mera gumaan nahin, to karde aazaad meri rooh ko
Qaid hoon apne hi maGzh mein, dozaKh mein ho koi kaafir jaise
[gumaan = fantasy, rooh = soul, maGhz = mind, dozaKh = hell, kaafir = infidel]

 

There’re a couple other ones that I shall soon post! Happy reading!