The 'How to......?' Syndrom
An advert for a workshop I saw on the Internet made me feel both amused and sad. It's title is 'How to Love'.
I thought love is our innate capability and therefore is not something one has to learn to acquire from anyone else. Even my cats know how to show their love and affection towards their 'mummy' (that's me). How comes humans who are on the top of the evolution ladder have to be taught how to love? Have we failed the evolution or has evolution failed us?
'How to be happy?', 'How to live a fulfilled life?', 'How to get healed?', 'How to manage stress?' 'How to stay in good health?'.... The HOW TO workshops or books cover almost all the major aspects of our life. It seems that civilization and progress has produced individuals who are capable of making computers that are more intelligent than ourselves and making killing weapons that are capable of wiping out ourselves and all other life forms on this planet; and yet who are so frail and fragmented that they need to be led in every single step by 'experts', doctors, 'teachers', 'healers' and therapists.
Modern science has pushed the boundary of human knowledge further and further out in time and space. Scientists are asking questions such as 'What was before the Big Bang' and 'What is beyond the universe'. But even if we found the answers, would it have any significance on our daily living? Would it shed any light on questions such as 'How to love', 'How to be happy' and 'How to live a fulfilled life'? For some reason I don't think so. External knowledge is doing nothing but pushing us further and further away from ourselves - from knowing and understanding ourselves both as a race and as individuals. Lao Tzu says,
To understand others is to have knowledge;
It seems that we are chasing after knowledge at the cost of illumination. We are groping in dark in the hope of grasping something meaningful out there, be it love, happiness, fulfilment or success. But will we ever if in the process we are losing the self ?!
This is a photo showing a space station against the Sun. We are not even noticeable in the scale of the Universe! Are we over-estimating our powers in trying to figure out the mystery of the Universe? Perhaps there's more hope if we turn our gaze inward and try to find clues from within ourselves.
I thought love is our innate capability and therefore is not something one has to learn to acquire from anyone else. Even my cats know how to show their love and affection towards their 'mummy' (that's me). How comes humans who are on the top of the evolution ladder have to be taught how to love? Have we failed the evolution or has evolution failed us?
'How to be happy?', 'How to live a fulfilled life?', 'How to get healed?', 'How to manage stress?' 'How to stay in good health?'.... The HOW TO workshops or books cover almost all the major aspects of our life. It seems that civilization and progress has produced individuals who are capable of making computers that are more intelligent than ourselves and making killing weapons that are capable of wiping out ourselves and all other life forms on this planet; and yet who are so frail and fragmented that they need to be led in every single step by 'experts', doctors, 'teachers', 'healers' and therapists.
Modern science has pushed the boundary of human knowledge further and further out in time and space. Scientists are asking questions such as 'What was before the Big Bang' and 'What is beyond the universe'. But even if we found the answers, would it have any significance on our daily living? Would it shed any light on questions such as 'How to love', 'How to be happy' and 'How to live a fulfilled life'? For some reason I don't think so. External knowledge is doing nothing but pushing us further and further away from ourselves - from knowing and understanding ourselves both as a race and as individuals. Lao Tzu says,
To understand others is to have knowledge;
To understand oneself is to be illumined.
[Tao Te Ching as translated by Arthur Waley]It seems that we are chasing after knowledge at the cost of illumination. We are groping in dark in the hope of grasping something meaningful out there, be it love, happiness, fulfilment or success. But will we ever if in the process we are losing the self ?!
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| Photo by Dani Caxete (Spain), Source: MSN news |
This is a photo showing a space station against the Sun. We are not even noticeable in the scale of the Universe! Are we over-estimating our powers in trying to figure out the mystery of the Universe? Perhaps there's more hope if we turn our gaze inward and try to find clues from within ourselves.
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