Do we see everything that we can see?
Do we hear everything that is told to us?
Do we sense everything that happens with and around us?
Answer is no. We can’t, even if we try to do so. Hence we naturally take a stand. We try to search for what is in it for me. We become choosy and pick only the ones we want. This is natural.
I realized this after observing my son in his Birthday Party. It was an embarrassing but very educative observation. Whenever anybody came to the party he was focusing on the gift packet they were carrying. As soon as they were wishing him, he was trying to finish the ‘Thank you’ business as quickly as possible and attempting to snatch the gift and then go back to the games he was involved with. He was not interested in the fact that his friend has come to wish him in his birthday or just the simple fact that his friend has come to meet him. We tried to cover up this embarrassment and time to time tried to tell him but all went in vein. He tried to hear our instructions of greeting people and finish the formalities as quickly as possible only with the fear that he will not be given the gifts afterward.
This makes me believe, naturally we are more keen on searching the most interesting thing and focus on that. We look at the society with a need fulfillment mentality. We have a need which we try to fulfill by the thing we need and ignore the rest. This is not good because we are missing out many beautiful things due to our focus on one. This is not good because we may focus on the most interesting looking thing which may not be the most valuable thing. Example, in case of my son he thought gifts were more valuable than the emotions (love, wishes and presence). This is natural because it takes lots of time to understand the emotional needs as we live in a very materialistic world and we adults even don’t understand it yet.
As I mentioned this is natural. The only way to change the basic nature is by education. We have to educate ourselves to redefine our need. Here by education I mean a systematics way to train our mind. This need not happen only at school. Entire society is responsible for this.
Namaste!!!
– Stray Dog
Life as Sakti 
Sakti, how true that our focus is on material rewards rather than emotional and spiritual ones. I wonder if it’s because we spend so much of our time in a corporate world influenced by its system of financial incentives and then we go on and express our successes through materialistic symbols. Thanks for making us stop and take inventory of our how we act.