Cruising on Auto-pilot – Growing up in Bondage
Airplanes have technology that is called auto-pilot mode. During long flight journeys, flight captains use the auto-pilot mode. Auto-pilot is a pre-programmed mode for flight operations based on memory of thousands of flying hours, conditions and simulations or what is trendy today as “Artificial Intelligence”.
While in auto-pilot mode, there is hardly any intervention by the captain. However, there are occasions when auto-pilot mode of operating a plane is not used – such as turbulent weather and take-off and landing, just to name a few. Why? The dynamics of such events require alertness and navigation by the captain.
What has this to do with a Blog article related to self-transformation? Ancient tradition of knowledge sharing always uses examples to get across subtle truths.
Let us rewind our lives and do a recap since childhood. As kids, the mind is largely empty to begin with, barring the latent impressions in seed forms. As days, months and years roll by, we go through the process of “growing up”.
What is this “growing up” – have we ever pondered about? Perhaps we just let it happen.
Growing up is a journey in which we use the faculties of our personality such as Body, Breath, Mind and Intellect to interact moment to moment with the people and world around us and gather loads of memories and impressions as experience from each of the interactions. When we go through the same or similar interaction again and again, we start relating with those moments out of the experience we gather.
There are two distinct dimensions to this growing up:
- First is a factual dimension, i.e. gathering information about the world around us and the SKILL to relate with it, for example learning a language to express and interact or learning to ride a bicycle or studying science/maths etc. This is about remembering and recollecting in certain patterns as the objects exist in the world around us.
- Second is a behavioural dimension i.e. how we use thoughts and emotions to relate with people and things around. This is about conditioning the mind with opinions, judgements and memories, or in other words, creating mental associations and identifications.
When we objectively evaluate, we may conclude that our so called “growing up” has been a one-sided process focused mainly on the first dimension, i.e. gathering information and skill about the world around us and pretty much forgetting or taking for granted the second dimension of behaviour. Our present day family life style and modern education system literally makes us forget the second dimension of growing up. ‘Forget’ means, there is no awareness about the second dimension and we hardly enquire into the consequences of such a life.
What is the real outcome of such a journey of “growing up”? It may appear that we have accomplished great things in our external life, be it profession or family, or excellence in varieties of skills. In our pursuit to success in acquiring skills, we repeat speech, actions, thoughts and emotions in our interactions, which eventually become habits. Bunch of habits creates our attitude. Attitude driven behaviour then creates what we call personality, perhaps better known as “Individuality”.
Our life then becomes an expression of this “Individuality”, which is nothing but a fabric woven through habits. But we hardly are aware of this dimension within us.
The beauty here is that we just let this individuality emerge so strong in its expression that it has become a pre-programmed mode of “auto-pilot” in life. Yes auto-pilot, a life where strong identifications, mental associations, opinions and judgements from past memory decide our precious present moment continuously.
In the process we become totally insensitive to moments and scenarios where auto-pilot simply fails miserably, or is better not used at all. All that we experience is a result of auto-pilot habit energy in the name of “Life routine”.
This may sound not so easy to accept, but it is the fact of our life.
Say, your child asked for a soft toy. You may do an elaborate search in the shops and online shopping portals and find one that the child loves. Great, you may even feel proud that you are too good in shopping. You just have used the skills about the external world to do this.
Now, as the child starts playing and relating with that toy, you don’t really pay any more attention. The child starts to sleep by hugging it and the child might refuse to sleep without it. In this episode, how many of us can really analyse how the child uses thoughts and emotions to form habit patterns – one of the circuits in its auto-pilot program. The child has created a mental association and psychological dependency to compensate for something it might be missing around it.
If we list such examples in our life, the list could be endless. How many of us crave for coffee or tea at a particular time of the day and experience restlessness if we don’t get it. It is our habit energy that is living, not us. Our auto-pilot is living our life and not the real pilot within. Are we aware?
We have systematically forgotten that WE are supposed to be the pilot of our life – the pilot who should REMAIN ALERT, AWAKE, FEEL, THINK, TALK and ACT with total AWARENESS of what is happening outside and inside.
This auto-pilot program we all carry within us is the real bondage for us. Strong mental associations and identification in the form of habits simply mask the source of light within. We become one with our habits so much so that our whole existence is totally habit driven.
Take up a challenge of finding moments in the day’s activities, where you are not driven by a habit pattern. You will be surprised to know how little you live outside habits!
This is why masters of our tradition give tremendous importance to transformation of habits. If you want to experience FREEDOM from BONDAGE, focus on your habits and evaluate your auto-pilot program.
First, we need to develop the conviction that both external and internal dimensions of life have to be explored in balanced way. As we learn the skills to be successful in the external world, let us explore the inner world as well.
What is this Inner world and how to transform habit patterns – let us keep it for the next blog article.
Till then can you start observing and becoming aware of your habits within and without? Just do it for fun and note down your observations.
Vijay Muthukrishnan
VERY WELL SAID VIJAY MUTHUKRISHNANJI..Nicely explained the difference of things done with and without awareness. Also with awareness we learn to live in the present .This happens with many of us while doing our practices .Initially it is done with awareness and we enjoy and get the experiences. But with time the practices become habit and as they are done without awareness, we stop getting the desired effects leading to our getting dis enchanted with them ,though they are as potent as ever .Habit means we operate at a mechanical level without being aware and we need to control this tendency to fasten our progress. Thanks for making us aware of this fact