The Dog Psychology

Yesterday, I had got a very weird thought. Its, what if I would have been an illiterate and if someone would have given me a book of some Noble Prize winner Author? How would I have reacted then? What would have been the meaning of that book to me? What would have I been done with that book?

This thought wrestling was going on while I was standing at one of the road in the evening. While this thought wrestling was going on in my mind, I was still concentrating upon the happenings of the road. Suddenly a very beautiful imported car passed through me. And that car was being followed by a dog barking maniacally. Perhaps any Noble prize winner author’s book would be holding same meaning to me would I have been illiterate like that of the imported car holds meaning to that barking dog.

But then another thought popped up in my mind. It was how a dog would be reacting when it sees a new model car on the road. Does the new model car hold any importance to them and they changes their barking style or it’s just another car over which they would have to bark fanatically.

I think the Dog psychology holds true in many of our actions which we think is very humanly.

Agree to Disagree

Sometimes there are incidents which apparently seem to be bringing no any significant outcome. But a little close understanding of the incidents brings out something which is unique and treasuring. I was mollycoddled with one of the person whose enthusiasm is quite contagious and thought is so spontaneous and deep. What is most salient is his way of handling things. He always sees things as a case study and any case study cannot have one standard solution and every solution is correct. So there is never any incident of disagreement with any one. The same was the case when I was talking to him. While talking, he never has crossed my thought but only has said his point of view. When one is speaking from his heart, it’s always better to not disrespect his thought even if there is some disagreement. No one can be such a lowbrow to speak such trumpery. And he was doing the same thing with me. I really liked that. After quite a long talk with him on various matters, the net take home for me was :-

1. See situation as case study, you will end up with the best solution after a little brainstorming.

2. It’s not always a good idea to disagree. Learn to agree to the agreement or agree to the disagreement.

Religious Confusion

This is the first time when I have been in any foreign country. This was Thailand. A beautiful island country, blessed a lot by the kind nature. This beautiful country is situated in western half of Indochinese peninsula and the northern two thirds of the Malaya peninsula in Southeast Asia. Formerly called Siam, this country is surrounded by Burma (Myanmar) on the north and west, Laos in the north and northeast, Cambodia in the east and Malaysia on the south. Thailand is still practicing constitutional monarchy. This country is highly influenced by the new religion of India as more than 95% of the population here are Buddhist (Buddhism has been started from India, so a liberty can be taken to call it "The Religion of Indian Origin"). Though this country is worlds’ second largest tungsten producer and third largest tin producer, but the main source of income here is tourism.

We were having our National Sales Conference there. We were there for 4 days and we literally had utilized those 4 days in a real good sense. We were in Phuket, a port city of the Thailand.

There were lot more things to notice, but the most striking feature that has attracted me was the improvisation of the religion here. For any place to be a tourist spot, especially cross country tourism, it needs to be open about sex. Thailand is not any exception in that. Cyprians here is one of the major attractions for tourists. Sex sells here and its legal. Make no mistakes, even the girls in the flash trading are also Buddhist, rather modern improvised Neo-Buddhist.

I happen to be sitting in one of the road side bar of Phuket’s most happening street “The Bengala Street” enjoying my drinks and observing people around, a beautiful girl came near to me and asked if I can buy a drink for her.

Oh why not.

And I didn’t have taken much time to order a drink for her. She was one of the bar girl, employed there to entertain the customers. She accompanied me and started talking to me. After knowing my intention of not flirting with her and just enjoying drinks and observing the happenings around the street, she diverted her talk from initial flirting with me to knowing me and my country. This again was a gesture of showing extreme professionalism since I buy drink for her, she need to accompany me till my drink finishes off.

I asked what she is doing apart from this bar job; she said that she is studying political science in one of the college of Phuket. She is doing this job as she can make easy money here for maintaining her lifestyle. When she came to know that I am an Indian, the very first reaction she had was, “OK so you are from the place of Lord Buddha”.

Yes, but what religion you are practicing?

To this she replied that she is ardent Buddhist and she wish to spend her later life in understanding the dharma.

Considering the fact that Buddhist are very much ascetical about their Dharma, I quoted one of the teaching of Lord Buddha, that is know as “The Four Great Vows”, which has been written in “The Dhammapada”:

“However innumerable beings are, I vow to save them;

However inexhaustible the passions are, I vow to extinguish them;

However immeasurable the Dharmas are, I vow to master them;

However incomparable the Buddha-truth is, I vow to attain it”.

And asked, if what she is doing is right as per Buddhism?

She replied that everything which is required to bring livelihood of any individual is supported by Buddha. And anything which brings pleasure to the life of others is not insane.

Wow, this is another definition of Buddhism. And this definition was definitely been developed by that lady immediately.

The most important understanding here was, every religion give enough space to their follower to mold it as per their own convenience. But the only thing which cannot be molded is faith, faith over the Dharma, faith over the philosophy and faith of the teachings of the religion. Though this was an individual opinion, but opinion develops from the community and surroundings. So this may be the understanding of her community. So there would be lot of people who would be having same thought about religion.

Sometimes we make pre-mature opinion about anyone without trying to understand them. We often have a habit of considering ourselves smart enough that we think that just by seeing the cover of the book; we could reckon the content of it. The same was my thought process before talking to that bar girl. I thought that she is meant to be flirted and such kind of girls are completely dumb-ass and know only the language of flesh-trading. After talking to her, her name was Amy, she proved my thought very immature. She really was smart and intelligent enough to prove anybody wrong who are coming there with a pre-occupied opinion, like me.