Writings
Smriti
May 2007, Hong Kong
We judge people by the actions they took in the past, the external happenings & circumstances surroundings them. It is how we frame a web of reference points to support the memory of someone or something. One could experience a witnessing of relationships of all kinds crumble or distort in an instant after years of stability, for they were like a mirage and never real, existing as mere social convenience. When one reference point collapsed, the whole structure fell. Unrecognisable, not being able to be ‘labelled’, people shun away from such events or people with unspoken, implicit fear. They are the exact reminder of how perceptions of human mind are false and fragile.
Smriti is memory, one of the functions of our mind. It is what sustains us to function and operate in the physical world. A child learns heat burns when his fingers touch the flame. He also builds up a habit of stopping at road crossings because his mother has told him to do repeatedly. Smriti is also what binds us to the past. It is the basis of conditioning.
Almost unavoidably, we become bound by notions grown out of our individual conditionings. As we try to distil our intention, minimise the unnecessary ‘attachment’ that comes with our actions externally, cultivate a freshness of perspectives, even spontaneity only stems from a meditation practice.
