Gerald D'Cunha

  “Some only survive on your reaction. Let them starve.” Christine E. Szymanski   I t’s neither possible nor necessary to acknowledge each and every thing that comes our way; let alone react to them.   Yet, that’s exactly many of us seem to be doing… We try to stop on our way to see every passerby, every passing vehicle, every passing activity, every passing argument, fight or sight… and react. Every morning and every night, and through every day, we all receive a thousand things – good, bad and ugly – in our ‘inbox’, both digital and non-digital.   Do we have to stop to ‘read’, internalize, react or respond to each one of them? One of the fall outs of this crazy digital world is, that all kinds of people try to send us all kinds of stuff… It’s not possible to stop and acknowledge them or respond to them… There is, always, a choice to decide the privacy settings of our own choice; there is an option to click ‘Not interested’. Likewise, in life outside...

  “In the province of mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.” John Lilly W henever there is sadness, depression, irritation, anger, anxiety and violence within me, I can trace its source to my one kind of psychological attachment or the other. Often, the most common source of my ‘mental unrest’ is the attachment to my deeply-rooted beliefs, ideologies and prejudices. Like, if I am excessively attached to my religious beliefs, or, if I am a die-hard devotee of a particular political party, its ideology or leader, then, any challenge or questioning of my belief can send my mind into a tailspin – causing a very reactive behaviour from me… This is evident whenever I watch a religious, political, racial – or any kind of – debate. If I have decided to take side – route for one particular faith, ideology, leader etc., then, my mind can easily turn into a ‘mob-mind’… I cheer with the mob; I boo with the mob. My critical thinking, therefore, goes out in the wind!...