If you pause a while and see it the way I do, you’ll realize that in most cases the problem is in the way we see things. And it’s not the half-empty-or-half-full kind of thing I’m referring to. I’m talking about feeling disappointed that your pet giraffe isn’t growing any higher than two foot two, when all along he’s just been a tall yellow dog. I mean, didn’t the barking give you a clue?
Most problems are just problems of recognition.
Once you recognize that the girl you love is actually a stuck up, cold-hearted strumpet, you won’t feel so bad when she sets her Rottweiler on you for trying to give her a Valentine card and saying “Will you make frandship with me?” Once you’ve recognized there’s no such thing as an invisible manhole cover, you'll stop falling in. And you’ll lead a healthier, cleaner life.
It’s the same thing with Delhi’s famous Green Park market. I’ve often driven through it very slowly (because that’s the only way you can drive through it), heaping unspoken abuse on the traffic conditions. And then, on an otherwise unremarkable afternoon, a revelation suddenly hit me.
I realized that where Green Park market is concerned, people make two very big mistakes. The first, of course, is eating gol-gappas at Evergreen Sweets (Don’t do it. You will gain nothing at all from the experience. Evergreen Sweets recognize their strengths and have therefore included the word 'Sweets' in their name, not 'Chaat'.)
The second big mistake that people make about Green Park market is to think there’s a road going past. There isn’t. You must realize that the grey bit in front of the market is a very long and narrow parking lot. Once you wrap your head around this concept, the problem disappears. In fact, you’re filled with a sense of wonder that vehicles occasionally reach speeds as high as 15 or even 20 kmph for a few metres. And cars reversing out right in your path – well that’s only natural in a parking lot, isn’t it?
Well, that revelation has certainly transformed the world in my windscreen. I have keener vision now and deeper eyesight. I can see beyond surface appearances and recognize the truth beneath. Now when a luxury car with HR26 plates whizzes past on the wrong side displaying scant regard for life or limb, I can see at once that the poor driver is suffering from extreme indigestion and is actually displaying a lot of regard for the state of his trousers. I see, and I understand his hurry; he must reach before he, well, goes.
And so I smile a smile of compassion and give him plenty of room, and if I honk a bit it is only as encouragement, not recrimination. With Deeper Vision comes understanding, and with understanding comes tranquility.
Light, hope, peace.
Most problems are just problems of recognition.
Once you recognize that the girl you love is actually a stuck up, cold-hearted strumpet, you won’t feel so bad when she sets her Rottweiler on you for trying to give her a Valentine card and saying “Will you make frandship with me?” Once you’ve recognized there’s no such thing as an invisible manhole cover, you'll stop falling in. And you’ll lead a healthier, cleaner life.
It’s the same thing with Delhi’s famous Green Park market. I’ve often driven through it very slowly (because that’s the only way you can drive through it), heaping unspoken abuse on the traffic conditions. And then, on an otherwise unremarkable afternoon, a revelation suddenly hit me.
I realized that where Green Park market is concerned, people make two very big mistakes. The first, of course, is eating gol-gappas at Evergreen Sweets (Don’t do it. You will gain nothing at all from the experience. Evergreen Sweets recognize their strengths and have therefore included the word 'Sweets' in their name, not 'Chaat'.)
The second big mistake that people make about Green Park market is to think there’s a road going past. There isn’t. You must realize that the grey bit in front of the market is a very long and narrow parking lot. Once you wrap your head around this concept, the problem disappears. In fact, you’re filled with a sense of wonder that vehicles occasionally reach speeds as high as 15 or even 20 kmph for a few metres. And cars reversing out right in your path – well that’s only natural in a parking lot, isn’t it?
Well, that revelation has certainly transformed the world in my windscreen. I have keener vision now and deeper eyesight. I can see beyond surface appearances and recognize the truth beneath. Now when a luxury car with HR26 plates whizzes past on the wrong side displaying scant regard for life or limb, I can see at once that the poor driver is suffering from extreme indigestion and is actually displaying a lot of regard for the state of his trousers. I see, and I understand his hurry; he must reach before he, well, goes.
And so I smile a smile of compassion and give him plenty of room, and if I honk a bit it is only as encouragement, not recrimination. With Deeper Vision comes understanding, and with understanding comes tranquility.
Light, hope, peace.
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