Creating new reality with VISION

Rajeeb L. Satyal, Management /OD consultant.

 Whether we realize it or not we mentally see the flash of everything we are about to experience, or about to happen to us. Although it appears that things are happening to us, in fact, we are making it happen through our imagination. To be more accurate, we ourselves manifest every very events that happen to us. This is the highest technical fact of life. On the day-to-day basis, such visualization happens so fast and spontaneous that we hardly notice it. So, not being aware that we are the one who actually create the events around us, we think it is an act of God. In a way it is.Because God is within every one of us. All the time, we are the one who manifests our own "reality" without even being aware that we are responsible for it. In our life, we are the producer, director, actor, and light men of our own life. In that sense, we all are born visionaries. What happens in our life is just the reflection of what we think inside.So if we agree to this phenomemon that what happens actually is played in mind before it actually happens, then we should also agree that, by simply changing the way we think or simply visualising the events we want,  we can deliberately manist ( create)  the reality that we  we want. The importance of visions and visualization process had already been recognized in our religions as well as on day to day level. It  is evident from the common expression: " You get what you expect".

The key word here is " VISION". The process is called VISUALIZATION. The result is the "REALITY" we want. The raw materials for building visions are our imaginations, thoughts and beliefs.

So can  we change  or modify the realities that are adverse to us? Or in other words, can we recreate new  realities that are more favourable to us? Answer is "Yes, we can, and we have, from the time immorial. What we get is what we see. We can control our life through visualization process, right from controlling how we should feel, or look,  to what we want to achieve in life. We can even learn to feel sexy and beautiful, rich, and confident. Sometimes we feel inferior, other time we feel superior. These are all manifested states of our mind/s namely conscious mind of which we are aware and the subconscious mind, of which we are not aware. While the conscious mind represent our present on-going thoughts and beliefs, the subconscious mind represents our old experience and memories buried below our general awareness/memory level. But both aspects of minds are equally responsible to make us feel what we feel and do what we do, or become what we become. Precisely, our mind is responsible to manifest the world that we individually recognize, see and believe.

A vision is the mental image of what we want to happen to us. If we allow our mind to pick up whatever it wants, it will use old memories as the source of raw materials for vision. And sometimes, old memories are full of bad experiences. Hence therefore, any visions made of bad memories will manifest negative reality in our lives. On the other hand, if we craft a vision based on happy memories, we will create a happy vision. Vizualiation of happy vision will create a happy reality. For example- visualizing yourself being awarded wll make you happy, it will create happy reality. Visualizing yourself being failled in an exam will create an unhappy realith.

The raw materials of vision are thoughts, beliefs, and commitments, which are stored in conscious and subconscious minds. The QUALITY of vision depends upon quality (as we define) of our thoughts, imaginations and creativity. If we aim to earn $ 1000 a month, we cannot earn $ 10,000. The quality of thoughts are determined by education and basic beliefs and values of life. The children of rich people will automatically think of earning $ 10,0000 while the children of less rich will think of earning $ 1,000. if they are given isolated choice. This identifies the need to raise people's expectation, people's imagination for better life through education and exposures. There are individual vision, and shared vision. When a number of people share their individual visions, and combines them, they  turn into a bigger vision. They will  therefore a bigger reality. Combined individual visions will create social visions, many combined social visions become national vision. Then vision becomes reality.  Just like American reality is the collective realities and visions of the American people, Nepal's reality is also the collective reality of Nepali people. Unfortunately in the absence of effective leadership, Nepal has a big adverse reality, which needs to be changed. In order to do it, we need to divert our considerable energy and resources to change people's mindset through improved quantity and quality of education.

Can we change the national reality through vision? Yes we can. Contrary to our conventional belief, the reality is not absolute. Any reality remains real only so long as it is considered real by people. Change of individual realities can change collective reality of society, and the nation. National reality can be changed by national vision. So, Nepal's present reality can be immediately changed, if a visionary leader comes up with a national  vision in which s/he enrolls all the Nepalis. Unfortunately, as a country, Nepal does not have any national vision that will guide the whole nation, its leader and the people. That is why Nepalis are struggling in a dark hopelessness.

What is the effective way to achieve a vision and create new realities? Firstly, the Vision need to be deliberately crafted. If we leave the task of crafting vision to natural course of life, it will use the old painful memories and adverse experience as raw materials. Visions created  with sucn  raw materials will create same pain full reality, just like Nepal's present adverse reality meanigless agitations, terrorism and violence.

Secondly, vision must be stated positively. Negative visions do not work. Try visualizing not smoking a cigarette. In order to visualize not smoking, you have to imagine smoking first, and then imagine not doing it. Since mind does not understand the negative statement, the mind will automatically take " not smoking" as smoking. So negatively stated vision will create confusions only. Following this school of thought, the vision for "poverty alleviation" will create more poverty, as minds do not know how to visualize Alleviation, a negative word. But had we stated the same vision in positive language, such as " creating affluence" or "providing people with basic necessity" the vision would have worked already.

Thirdly, the vision should be " clear" and specific, not blurring. If we do not visualize exactly what we want in our mind, then again the task of creating reality will go to old bad memories that will create unfavorable reality for us. It is a bad vision to say- we want to be successful. We have to define it clearly. "I will be rich" is a blur vision. "I want to earn $ 50,000 within a year is a specific and clear vision. If we have blur vision, leave our mind to specify it for us, it will limit our vision to the extend our old memory allows us. Usually old memories limit our imagination.

Fourthly, a vision must be time bound. If our vision is specific but is not time bound, we may have to wait our whole life to achieve what we want.

Odd though it may sound, the fifth factor that makes vision successful is stating or visualizing the vision in present tense. Whenever something is memorized, remembered, or imagined it comes to present tense in our mind. If we remember having a wound, the past pain comes to present tense. We see dream in present tense. We mentally see going home in present tense, before we actually go home. Except in the grammar book, there is no past tense or future tense. There is only present tense. So vision stated in future tense would not materialize. It must be stated in present tense. So a vision should be positive, stated in the present tense, have time bound. If any vision lacks these factors, then it is not vision. It won't work.
The last not the least, we must have faith in vision which turns out to be faith in ourselves to achieve what we want. That is the key success.

The author can be reached at : rajeeb@smdnepal.com

SOCIAL MOVEMENT AND SOCIAL CHANGE; PARAMOUNT NEED OF THE DAY 

By Krishna Poudel 

Roots of the conflict

In last decade or so, the words like conflict management, conflict resolution, conflict transformation etc has been in vogue, in media and academia alike, and a plethora of conflict pundits have born. Since the conflicts came to the fore along with the dawn of democracy, one is compelled to wonder, and ponder, whether it is a genuine or aberrant phenomenon in democracy. Why did the conflict manifest in such violent form in the democracy where the differences in the opinion is accepted, divergent values and interests are accommodated and grievances are raised through peaceful means and addressed?  While Surfacing of plenitude of conflicts, for a society that has been long suppressed and rough rode by the oligarchy, absolutism and feudalism is unavoidable and genuine, violent manifestation of the conflicts in a democracy is definitely anomalous, if not astonishing. And in this very ground people have fingered at the ulterior motives of the protagonists of so called   ‘people’s war ’. On the other hand, Maoist rebellion is not per se is not the complete picture of the conflict; it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The major part of the iceberg is to do with the socio economic injustice and the affliction that has swamped our society for so many years in the name of religion, caste, gender, ethnicity etc- you name it.

The pathetic reality of our society

For long our society was run by the religious codes of conduct that had several pitfalls and shortcomings, some even irrational from the humanitarian perspective. Later, the kings and courtiers and their feudal allies cashed in these shortcomings in the religious provisions for retaining and exercising power. Among others, the caste system and the work differentiation was the most convenient and efficacious instrument for the autocratic rulers and the feudal lords to have the commoners penned up. Even if we assume for a while stratification of the society on some grounds may have been some sort of obligation in remote historical time, in our memorable history, it was only the vehicle of oppression, social injustice and exploitation of the lower strata people by the kings, the feudal lords and the upper strata people. To one’s surprise, this disgusting social system is still working in our society. When this author visited Ghandruk lately, a relatively developed and tourism intensive village, one old fellow from Bishowkarma community reported and showed evidence that he had been stabbed and beaten to almost death by the so called upper caste people. His single crime was that he ran a small tourism enterprise in place of serving the ‘Bistas’(the nobility). More than 3 million 'Dalits' have been suffering in this or that way from our dogmatic social system.

We are a patriarchal society like most of other societies in the world. In the more civilized and developed societies the discrimination and exploitation in the name of gender is almost gone (even if present not in the severest form as in our society) but for us it has remained as a social anathema and social disease.   Hundreds of lives are still burn alive in the name of dowry and thousands of lives are killed inside the womb for their only guilt of being a female. Their work goes unpaid/is not recognized as the work in the family, they are discriminated in the payment even when they work for others, they have to be dependent in every stage of their lives on their male counterpart (earlier on father, then on husband and at the old age on son), small babies are denied of the school and health care, and what not. The barbarism against the women goes to the extent of compelling them to take the human excrements in accusation of practicing witchcraft. The report of national human rights commission ( 2003) has accepted that injuries sustained by the  female victims of violence are often seen as the result of ‘domestic issues’ by the police and therefore they are not recorded. Add salt to the wound, the same report says there are more than hundred current legal provisions in several domestic laws, including the constitution itself, that discriminate against women. The agonies and atrocities the half sky has been going through in Nepal are myriads.

 Equally sensitive and juxtaposed problem is that of ethnic communities and the oppression on their socio cultural practices, including the language, and the economic exploitation. Most of the ethnic minorities and indigenous people have felt that they are denied of their rights of being different from others with dignity. The state has tried to achieve the cohesion through compelled homogenization of the society in the name of  ‘one people, one culture, one language, Hindu state’ etc. After the restoration of democracy in 1990 these issues surfaced exuberantly, became the regular feature of the parliamentary debate and, not to forget that a significant number of people have showed their affinity to Maoists for this very cause. As ethnic sentiment is linked with the ‘existential identity’ of the people, denial of the respect for their identity, in terms of language or others, easily leads to colossal conflict situation. Probably it has been as true as it could be in our context.

Inevitability of the social Change

As authoritative allocation of the varied interests is accomplished and status quo is altered with the political apparatus, political change is sine qua non.  But without social movement and social change that will be ineffective, inadequate and meaningless. Until and unless the label of ‘upper and lower’ owing to the birth remains, the problem will be there as much as it was in the past and as much as it is now. If we don’t establish a system, both political and social, where ‘deeds’ and ‘merits’ determine the social status rather than the birth, we will remain a backward society and the latent fire of conflict will always be there. Needless to say without addressing the grievances and the pains based on gender, no development or other schemes will bear any fruit, let alone the complete transformation of the society. Equally, Intactness of the nationality through incessant cohesion among different peoples can be achieved by giving recognition and reverence to diversified identity rather than through forced homogenization. And all this calls for more than a political change, it calls for an overall social change. Exterminating the roots of the conflict without a social movement and social change is next to impossible.

Multiple obligations

 In nutshell, a vault in the social conscience is mandatory if we are to become civilized, advanced and prosperous society. But the problem lies in our highly bigoted social structure, in our blindfolded social values and belief system, as much as in the imperfect political structure. Worse though is our reluctance to change or pave the way for the change.  What is the harm if we become a ‘secular state’ rather than a ‘Hindu state’? What if we recognize many languages spoken by our fellow Nepalese? What if we give up the mindset of judging a human being through the gender? What if we make progressive steps through the affirmative action, the system of positive discrimination, for the ones who have been discriminated negatively for the ages? Not hidden from anyone that the attempts by the state in this regard have by far been meager, perfunctory and rhetorical to be precise. The constitution of kingdom of Nepal, 1990, has envisaged right to equality, cultural and educational right, right to religion and right against exploitation (articles, 11,18,19 &20 respectively). But, unless special and focused attention is paid to remove the maladies through some progressive steps using the state machinery just depicting the rights in the constitution alone won’t do any miracles. It’s high time we advance to a new height through a social change. The light has already appeared at the end of the tunnel, many social awareness campaigns are being carried out, like making the 'Dalits' as the priests, women have started becoming aware of their condition and janjatis are voicing for their rights. However, what we need is more than such few initiatives, we need a wider social revolution. Many who have the fear of loosing the ‘privilege’ acquired due to birth may not accept a social change right away. In the wider national interest, these petty interests of the ‘privileged few’ need to be subdued. The national unity and the permanent peace are achieved only when the opportunity is unlocked for every one   as rights, in reality, and the prevalent ‘discriminatory and exploitative’ social structure is annulled.  While that is possible only in the democracy, addressing the problem in its entirety takes the fulfillment of multiple obligations. Political leadership that claim to have represented people, the ones who are at the helm of the state ship, the conscious mass that can intervene in decision-making, and the social pioneers who can be the forerunners of the social change, all have obligations in this regard. Above all, it is incumbent upon the youths, who have to catch up with the swiftly moving free society of the world, to ‘set the Thames on fire’.

The author can be reached at krishna1380@hotmail.com

Headline | Opinion | Dateline | National |  5 Question  | Editorial | Letter | 2nd Impression | International | Past