As we grow older in our lives, we are mostly conditioned to be more walled, more self-centred, and more possessive. This conditioning often comes from our parents, relatives, friends, teachers, and so-called well-wishers who gradually turn their alleged conditioning, into our second nature; either done intentionally or not. Although, it does not take place consciously but is often embedded in our minds through a long wave of generations and passes onto the next ones without even noticing. These mindsets created and appreciated over the centuries for a long- time, often do the work of raw material for manufacturing hardcore, unhealthy and paranoid adults.
I think this is the reason why, while leaving our childhood and entering into adulthood, we go through tough times, which I call 'Shedding'. Shedding, of our natural characteristics and adopting a societal persona for more acceptance and appreciation.
To make a better understanding, what I am trying to perceive, I would like to narrate a small story here, which I read in Robin Sharma's amazing book- 'Discover your Destiny'.
The story goes like this- several hundred years ago, a giant gold idol of Buddha was built and was worshipped by the monks but as there was an attack by the Burmese army, monks covered the Buddha's idol with clay to protect it. It was not until 1957 when this great treasure was discovered by a group of monks. At first, a crack was noticed in the clay by one of the monks, when they were carrying the clay. But later, when they chip away the clay with a hammer and a chisel, a solid gold Buddha statue was revealed to them.
Similarly, often in our lives, we all pile up the heavy clay of outer conditioning and forget that we all are carrying a golden Buddha within us, waiting to be discovered one day which is waiting to be get valued just like a solid and beautiful gold statue of Buddha.
The question that often sprouts me out the most is, ' Why do we fail to discover this golden Buddha if we are carrying it all along?' I think a very simple answer is, we all have lost our connection with our very nature. We have no more purpose left in our lives, even if we have a purpose, it is often centred around ourselves and our families. And as part of our adult mental training, this thought is infused in us that, people will take our advantage and thus we must protect ourselves, and in consequence, we usually build hardcore adulterated defense systems around our innocent, compassionate, and treasure golden heart just like monks did to protect the golden Buddha.
Now, which hammer and chisel would work the best for chipping away this heavy mud and to discover golden Buddha inside us? I wish it would be that easy, by just recommending you a brand name that sells these hammers and there you could go and just pick the hammer and start digging deep, right away and found your golden Buddha in no time, perhaps, it's just a dreamy wish. But seriously, let's face the reality, it's not an easy task to put away the generations' long thought processes which have taken the shape of our family values and morals, and to be honest we also don't want to part away with these manufactured values.
But hey!! here's the good news! the studies have confirmed that neurogenesis, which means that our brains carry enough capacity to produce new neurons that keep on developing throughout our lives. Neurogenesis was earlier viewed by a dogmatic perspective that as we grow older our new brain cells cease to grow and develop, which implied that we cannot develop a new habit or values as we grow, but that's not true in today's techno-savvy period. In fact, there is an incredible diversity of neurons in a mature brain having many specialized areas of function. The Hippocampus, for example, which is a brain region that plays an important role in memory and spatial navigation, alone has at least 27 different types of neurons. These differentiated neural stem cells can produce new neural cells of any type, generally called neuroplasticity which can be increased as much we nourish and feed our brain with new outlooks.
The baseline is, we can develop new habits, new thoughts, new processes, new lifestyles at any age and can bid adieu to the toxic conditioning.
Several ways can help us to discover our long-lost golden Buddha. Personally, one simple trick which I call RAK Kindness has worked very well for me in developing enriched raw material of new neurons for my brain. Now you all might be wondering what is RAK, go to the top and read the title of this article, yes, you are right - Random Act of Kindness a.k.a RAK.
Usually, we think that people are born exceptionally kind, they are born with the innate strength of helping others and society at large. We might also think that helping society means giving donations or sponsoring others or becoming a leader or a doctor or a lawyer to bring change at large and then earning the badge of a compassionate soul.
But I think a simple random act of kindness can make someone's day. It can help in spreading and growing the seeds of trust, kindness, love, the joy of giving, and gratitude.
Random acts may include a variety of acts like complimenting your parents, siblings, friends, peers, relatives, partners, or those who serve you like teachers, doctors, drivers, etc. It may also include planting a tree or making a phone call to a long-forgotten friend or family member or grandparents or feeding the birds or making someone laugh or picking up litter in a public place. These simple acts are infinite if you wish to chisel away a small layer or at least spoon full of mud surrounding your golden heart as well as those around the others also.
I think as a human being also, it is our basic and most primary duty to not let the goodness bury under a heavy load of negativity and narrow-mindedness let go away just to satisfy the untrue value served in the society that pleases no one rather hurt oneself the most.
So, let us discover our inner beauty and decorate it with small tricks like the one mentioned in this article, which is just one of the many other acts but can at least act as a starter in our busy lives. I hope as you finish reading this, you go and compliment your parents or anyone around you, or you might start by adding a simple comment to this post!
Written By-
Nice article. Thanks ☺☺