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As I was reading this essay written by AkikoBusch, a song I had heard a long time ago came to my mind. The song is written in Hindi by an anonymous poet. The title of the song is Mukhadakya dekho darpanamein? Why do you look for your face in the mirror? There are two mirrors: inner and outer. In the world we live in, I see many people seem to be interested in showing their faces in the outer mirror such as Facebook, Instagram or other popular social media. A question arises in my mind what motivates people to show their faces in the outer mirror. Is that their real self? Is there a discrepancy between the public self and the private self? Am I a two faced person? Do I need validation for being myself in the eyes of others? If I am contented with my face as it is then there is no need to be recognized and validated by others.
Mindfulness awareness helps me find my original pure face not affected by the judgmental and critical eyes of others. Sadly, we live in a world where our face is judged by the color of our skin, by the race or by the class and by religion. When I meet someone racially different from me I become mindful of what passes through my mind. Am I looking at that person with clear eyes or colored eyes? Practicing mindfulness frees me from the judgmental and critical voices arising in my mind. Reading and implementing the teachings of mystics and words of wisdom of enlightened spiritual teachers have helped me evolve spiritually. Clear eyes liberate me from my conditioned mind and such inner clarity helps me relate to others as children of God. Namaste!
1 Comment
Debbie Podwika
4/17/2021 02:04:26 pm
I found both the post & your comments interesting. I think there are a variety of reasons and those reasons are different depending on many factors. I think first of age. Young people who are trying to find their identity for the first time. Those who do not feel confident in themselves because they do not know who they are yet. Those who may not fit in at school/friends and find friends online help a bit. I also find that older people also are wanting more connections. First, with keeping up with family who may live away. Then they may find groups that help with loneliness like teens. The Pandemic then cranks this up even more since we are all locked in our homes and not able to see people and talk to them like we use to. Now as for those who provide say their opinions on matters, I think it can be good and bad. It is good to have deep conversations but then again being online and many times conversing with a stranger people find it easy to not see those conversations happening with a person who has feelings and to not realize lack of voice tone, facial indicators, etc. can lead to hurting others, even if not intentional. I'm not sure the idea of the outer self being manipulated to show a different best self is any different than when one is not online. People do that in many ways, dressing a certain way, the car one has etc. They are just now taking a picture and putting it online for "more" to see. The problem is now online they are getting the feedback with a "like" etc. that they may not have gotten just walking or driving. I think that is just party of maturing and finding it is not important in life. I think what is lacking both online and offline is the deep meaningful caring conversations with people. The authentic connections. Also realizing that we can have a difference of opinion and still care for someone. I'm surprised you & the poster did not get into the idea of "cancel culture." People do not realize we are all on different points of a path/journey, and just because one has not reached a point we would like them to be at does not mean we should cancel them out and tell them get off the path of life (learning). We should not be "ruining lives" because one still needs to grow. Leave a Reply. |
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