The world doesn't belong to anyone

Everyone think and say that they love the world.

People love the world so much that everyone want to 'control' and 'protect' the world to be in certain way that they think it's the best way, according to their particular likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, based on their particular social/cultural/religious/spiritual/political/commercial thinking, belief, values and practice.

Different groups of people representing different types of nationality/ethnicity/culture/religion/spirituality/politic/commercial are fighting and hurting one another to 'control' and 'protect' the world to be the way that each group wants it to be.

People think they love the world so much, and hence, they need to protect the world, but it's not.

People just want to possess and control the world to be theirs, to be the way that they desire it to be.

The world doesn't belong to anyone.

The world is selfless, impermanent and non-discriminative.

Nature will provide sufficient needs for all and everything existing in the world, even if it's just ceaseless momentary existence coming and going.

Unfortunately, the world is occupied by such human beings that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism, who think they love the world very much and they need to be doing something to 'protect' the world, but they are hurting the world, out of selfish desire, boundless greed and survival instinct, but they claim it's love and protection towards the world.

It's the same in the body and the mind.

The body and the mind doesn't belong to anyone, but there's an idea of 'I' claims ownership over the body and mind, and thinks that 'I' love my body and my mind, and 'I' need to do something to 'control' and 'protect' my body and my mind to be in certain way, that 'I' think and desire how it should be.

It's the same in human relationships with each other.

People think and say that they love some others and their relationships with some others, and they need to do something to 'control' and 'protect' those whom they love and their relationships, so that everyone and everything will be good the way that they think how it should be.

It's the same in a country.

The government and the politicians say that they love the citizen and their country, and they need to do something to 'control' and 'protect' the citizen and the country.

It's the same in religion and spirituality.

The religion and spirituality people say that they love their religion and spirituality, and their believers and followers, and they need to do something to 'control' and 'protect' their religion and spirituality, and their believers and followers.

It's the same in any ethnicity and culture.

It's the same in any family, group, society and community.

Human beings just keep hurting all and everything in the world, out of what they think is 'love'.

This 'love' is not about loving the object of love unconditionally and non-discriminatively as it is, but it's loving one's desire towards all and everything should be in certain way that one likes, wants and agrees with.

Don't love the world.

The world doesn't need to be loved.

Don't love anyone and anything, if we would hurt everyone and everything that we think we love very much.

Inquire towards the truth of everything, and be free.

Hugging and touching?

In this era of the so called modern and highly developed society, most people believe and observe the practice/habit/culture of 'hugging' and 'touching' as a form of showing love, acceptance and friendliness among beings, while they would feel awkward, bad and wrong, or even be offended, if some people don't have or don't observe the practice/habit/culture of hugging and touching.

Many yoga practitioners or spiritual seekers might also think and believe that 'open mind' and 'loving kindness/warmness' means people need to be affectionately hugging and touching one another physically to be showing non-discrimination, non-separateness, non-intimidation, love, acceptance and friendliness towards all beings, while the absence of such hugging and touching is being perceived as 'closed mind' and 'unloving-kindness'/'coldness' that portrays the quality of discrimination, separateness, intimidation, lovelessness, non-acceptance and unfriendliness. Many also believe that the lack of physical hugging or touching by another being is highly detrimental to physical, mental and emotional health. They expect all beings, especially yoga practitioners or spiritual seekers should be constantly and actively hugging and touching all other beings that they come in contact with, to show that they are genuine yoga practitioners or spiritual seekers who embrace loving kindness, who are open minded and compassionate beings, while they would be puzzled by the very few of the yoga practitioners who don't have or don't observe such hugging and touching habit/culture.

For yoga practitioners who truly want to open their mind, is about to be free from being conditioned by such worldly egoistic thinking, belief, values and practice, where the mind understands that 'the existence and non-existence of open mind and compassion' is nothing to do with 'the presence and absence of physical hugging and touching another being', where it's nothing bad and there's nothing wrong with the society having and observing the hugging and touching habit/culture, especially if the minds are pure and desireless, and it's also nothing bad and there's nothing wrong with those who don't have or don't observe the hugging and touching habit/culture either. Accepting all and everyone as they are, even though certain people behave in the way that goes against the thinking, belief, values and practice of the majority of the society.

Hugging and touching or not, doesn't really determine the presence and absence of the quality of 'non-discrimination', 'non-separateness', 'non-intimidation', 'love', 'acceptance' and 'friendliness', while the quality of non-discrimination, non-separateness, non-intimidation, love, acceptance and friendliness aren't necessarily have to be shown/portrayed by physical contact of hugging and touching one another.

Most people would feel rejected, unloved, left-out, depressed, lonely and meaningless upon the absence of physical/mental/emotional interaction of hugging and touching from some other beings. And hence, many people would think and believe that the solution is to be actively giving and receiving affectionate hugs and touches among beings.

It's the ignorant egoistic passionate mind that has attachment and expectation towards the appropriateness and disappropriateness in social behavior and interaction that would feel rejected, unloved, left-out, depressed, lonely, meaningless, piteous or offended upon the absence or the lack of love and affection in the form of hugging and touching from other beings.

Contemplate upon why the ancient teachings/practice of yoga emphasized on the important observation of solitude and seclusion of non-physical/mental/emotional contact and non-physical touching with any other being, where yoga practitioners and spiritual seekers were being advised to observe solitude and seclusion for a prolonged period of time, to free the mind from the worldly habitual passionate desire of craving and clinging towards physical/mental/emotional love and affection, to free the mind from ignorance and egoism, to silent/annihilate the modification of the mind.

One of the common practice/observation in the Ashrams is about none should be physically touching one another regardless of among the same or different gender, especially among the swamis, monks and nuns, and between them and the householders. But, nowadays, in many of the ashrams, even many 'modernized' swamis, monks and nuns also don't observe this practice anymore, and they mingling intimately with one another and the people who come to the ashrams, not to say many of the householders who identify themselves as 'yoga practitioners' or 'yogis'. Many 'yoga teacher training courses' also emphasize on the physical hands on adjustment, where the many graduated 'certified yoga teachers' think and believe that it's what a good and professional yoga teacher should be doing/practicing while teaching classes and while socializing/mingling with the students or the yoga community outside of the classes to develop stronger connection and relationship among one another, with the intention of sharing love.

There's nothing wrong with the worldly egoistic thinking, belief, values and practice that propagates widely about "Everyone needs love, affection, hugs and touches." But that is not yoga practice at all, as that is indeed empowering ignorance and egoism. It's not any different from keep feeding sugary drinks to the children or keep providing drugs to the people to make them feel 'happy and good' from the momentary effects of sugary drinks or drugs, and from the gratification of desires by giving people what they like and want. The yoga practice is to free the mind from ignorance and egoism, to realize selflessness/oneness/non-separateness, where there's absence of the desire of needing/craving/clinging towards physical/mental/emotional love, affection, hugs and touches from other beings. There's no need of developing stronger connection or relationship between 'I' and 'the others' in selflessness/oneness/non-separateness, as connection or relationship doesn't exist in selflessness/oneness/non-separateness. There's neither 'I' nor 'the others'. There's no 'I' existing that needs to be healed by 'spiritual healing hugs and touches'.

A truly 'healthy and compassionate' society exists along with the minds that are free from ignorance and egoism. Everyone can be kind and loving towards one another out of selfless compassion (not necessarily through physical/mental/emotional interaction), not because everyone 'needs' to give and receive love and affection to and from one another through certain action in order to make the egoistic minds feel good, happy, love and meaningful, or not to feel rejected, unloved, left-out, depressed, lonely, meaningless, piteous or offended upon the absence/lack of love and affection through certain physical/mental/emotional interaction with other beings, as the ignorant egoistic minds think and believe that it's so bad and terrible if there's absence/lack of any form of love and affection among one another.

Many passionate minds couldn't understand or agree with this teaching, and that's their freedom of thinking, understanding, action and reaction.

 

Be free.

Democracy - People's power?

Most people want and support democracy, or even fight and sacrifice their lives for democracy, where 'people' could have 'the power' to choose or elect a leader or a government to lead them.

Democracy is neither good nor bad.

If majority of the people are unselfish and wise, being free from ignorance and egoism, then probably they might elect a leader or a government that will benefit all and everyone, unselfishly, that would promote more peace and harmony in the world.

If majority of the people are selfish and under the influence of ignorance and egoism, then most probably they would elect a leader or a government that doesn't really work to benefit all and everyone, but has certain agenda that only benefits certain group of people in favorable to their own liking, that would generate more prejudice, discrimination, unrest and disharmony in the world.

The world or the society doesn't really need any leader or government. The world or the society would most probably run more smoothly without any particular leader or government that complies to certain idea or vision of a particular world or society to be in certain way. Even an unselfish and intelligent leader of the world also cannot go against the law of nature and the ignorance of the majority of human beings.

What can truly benefit the world or the society is that human beings need to free their own minds from ignorance and egoism, while allowing the world being what it is in accordance to the law of nature, and the society will be fine as it is, even if it's not perfectly the way that most human beings would desire it to be in many different ways respectively. And that's most probably unlikely to be happening. As even many highly educated, knowledgeable and intelligent human beings are also being ignorant towards their own minds are functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, and would have the great intention/aspiration/ambition/passion utilizing their education, knowledge and intelligence to create a world or a society of certain way according to their own preferences complying to their own certain thinking, belief, values and practice.

Social conversation / talking / sharing / caring?

Most people need/like/love to talk to some other people most of the time, or even talking to themselves if other people are not available. Talking is a normal thing to do, and a common way to know, learn, express and share, or to have an activity to pass time to chase away boredom and to gratify curiosity. 

 

In many cultures in the society, it's considered 'rude', or 'impolite', or 'inappropriate', or 'wrong', or 'something is wrong', if there's silence among people (especially for a prolonged period of time), or if someone doesn't interact with other people or doesn't get involved in a conversation with other people around, especially those who know one another, even if someone who can't hear or speak, or don't speak the same language, or those who are new comers/complete strangers showing up in a place with some other people around, are also being 'expected' to show at least some sort of acknowledgement through body language/facial expression/sign language/gesture to be conversing/interacting/communicating with other people.

 

People would feel offended, or disrespected, or mistreated, if they don't get any 'expected' response from those whom they want to talk to, where either people didn't give any response, or people talked about something that they aren't interested or don't like to hear, especially something that they perceive and judge as 'offensiveness' that they disagree with.

Many people aren't satisfied with some people just giving a friendly non-intimidating smile to acknowledge or greet other people, but they believe and expect that all human beings need to have certain physical/mental/emotional conversation/communication/interaction/involvement/connection with each other to build a 'healthy' and 'caring' society.

 

Someone who keeps to oneself, who has no unfriendly discrimination or intimidation towards everyone else, but doesn't interested in engaging in any kind of physical/mental/emotional contact/conversation/interaction/communication/involvement/connection with anyone, is being seen as 'wrong', 'selfish', 'unhealthy', or 'sicked', by all the others who 'expect' certain 'normal' and 'healthy' behavior/action/reaction/interaction among 'normal' and 'healthy' human beings.

Many passionate/sociable/friendly/caring people couldn't understand or respect that there are people who prefer complete quietness/solitude or some quiet/alone time and space for themselves. People would either feel 'bad' or get 'offended' when other people reject or don't accept their friendly invitation to meet up, or get together, or to chat.

People need/want to share 'what I think is who I am' and 'how I think and feel' with other people and they want other people to share with them 'what they think is who they are' and 'how they think and feel'.

 

Majority of the worldly so called 'normal', 'healthy', 'friendly' and 'caring' society is all about developing and empowering that egoistic 'self-identity' which attached and identified with certain qualities of names and forms and 'the modification of the mind of impermanent thinking, emotions and feelings' as 'this is I' and that is not 'I', even in the yoga community that is supposed to be free from all kinds of egoistic attachment and identification, to realize selflessness/namelessness/formlessness/attributelessness.

For those who know each other, mostly the conversation begins with "How are you?" and then naturally will be followed by talking about the past and the future, "What have you been doing and where did you go and what's next?"

 

While for those first time meeting/knowing each other, it's mostly talking about self-introduction of each other about "Who I am/who you are." or "This is me and my name/my nationality/my life/my family/my relationship/my friends/my experience/my knowledge/my interest/my ambition/my passion/my vision/my point of view/my ideas/my talent/my skill/my achievement/my non-achievement/my success/my failure/my pride/my shame/my good/my bad/my happiness/my unhappiness/my guilt and regret, and so on. This is who I am, where I come from/where I live and what I do for living and at free time, and what I think/believe/feel/like/dislike/agree with/disagree with/want/don't want, my good/bad/happy/unhappy experiences, and what I did in the past and will be doing in the future." As well as talking about "This is good/better/right/positive/excellent/happy/funny/meaningful/encouraging and that is bad/worse/wrong/negative/terrible/unhappy/sad/meaningless/discouraging." or some 'obligated social ethical manner' of pleasant words, praise and compliment. And sometimes there will be scheming, plotting, cover-up/made-up stories telling, or hypocrisy, or lies, or gossip, or mocking, or teasing, or flirting, or criticism, or condemn, or slander, or back-biting, or finger pointing, or argument, or intimidation, and etc.

Social conversation or talking is an intense physical/mental/emotional energy consuming process that keeps the mind ceaselessly stimulated and restlessly receiving/processing inputs and generating/delivering outputs, while all these ceaseless mind inputs and outputs generate further random mental/emotional imprints that doesn't allow the mind to be quiet, and unwittingly empowering egoism of worldly/spiritual attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation that feeds ignorance and egoism in oneself and others.

For those who sincerely want to meditate or practice yoga to be free from ignorance, it's all about freeing the mind from being unwittingly empowering all those names and forms, of duality, attachment, identification, past experiences, future anticipation, passionate desires, craving/aversion, judgment, comparison, expectation, restlessness, impurities, and etc, to stop feeding egoism and ignorance. And hence, the important practice of silence, renunciation, seclusion and solitude.

Without renunciation from the worldly society, one is being 'obliged' to meet up/get together/communicate/interact with many other people of family/relatives/friends circle/community and spend so much energy into social conversation/interaction/communication/activity with all the others around in order to 'build' and 'maintain' a 'healthy, caring and friendly society' that might make the mind feels 'love', 'kindness', 'acknowledgement', 'goodness', 'positiveness', 'liveliness' and 'meaningfulness'. 

 

There's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't help to free the mind from ignorance and egoism, to quiet/annihilate the restless modification of the mind. Instead, the mind might attached stronger onto the sense of 'love', 'kindness', 'acknowledgement', 'goodness', 'positiveness', 'liveliness' and 'meaningfulness' deriving from the impermanent and selfless worldly names and forms of all kinds of attachment and egoistic identity, actions and the fruit of actions.

From the perception/achievement/notion of "Life in this world is good and meaningful," give rise to the desire of "We need to preserve and protect life in this world to stay good and meaningful." And from there, it gives rise to the sense of 'dissatisfaction', 'frustration', 'hurts', 'depression', 'unhappiness', 'anger', 'disappointment', 'fear', 'worry', and etc, when things are not being the way that the mind desires it to be, when there are obstacles/difficulties/circumstances that hinder the gratification of that desire to be building/maintaining/protecting what the mind think and believe as 'Good and meaningful life in this world'. This is attachment/clinging/craving/expectation.

First, there's an idea/thought arise in the mind, then arise the attachment/clinging onto that idea/thought which gives rise to the desire to materialize that idea/thought to become action/creation, and then there's possessiveness/identification/expectation/protection towards that action/creation and the result/fruit of that action/creation. If things turn out to be the way that is not what the mind desire/expect it to be, the mind feels disturbed/dissatisfied/disappointed/hurt/sad/unhappy/depressed/frustrated/angry/aggressive/violent and so on. And ceaseless random ideas/thoughts arise to counter those 'tension' accumulating in the mind. Restless.

Those who have firm foundation in non-attachment and dispassion, or those who know thyself or selflessness, or maybe those who think and believe "I have done and achieved everything that I desire and I can die in peace at any time from now without regret," can mix into the worldly society and perform many actions to help to build a 'caring and friendly society' in the world, but without being distracted or influenced by the constant restless physical/mental/emotional interaction/activity, being undetermined by the actions and the fruit of actions, being free from disturbs, hurts, disappointment, dissatisfaction, frustration, or guilt/regret. This is non-attachment/non-clinging/non-craving/non-expectation.

One can mix with many people and constantly talk about "This is my name, my nationality, my family, my friends, my relatives, my community, my past, my present, my future, my actions and fruit of my actions, my thinking/belief/culture/point of view/feelings/emotions/experiences, or this and that is happening/has happened/will be happening here and there, and so on." as all these names and forms are what most people talk about in any conversation and where people identifying with all these names and forms as "who they think they are", but knowing clearly that all these names and forms are not "who I am" or 'I' for the minds that know thyself or selflessness.

When someone is being alone or in silence at peace being in their own 'space', people around will be concern and ask, "Are you okay? Is there something bothering you? You can talk to me. I'm here to listen."

There's nothing wrong when people feel sad, or unhappy, or depressed, or disappointed, or frustrated, or negative once in a while, and most people feel that they need to talk to someone to share their feelings and what's bothering them, to release some tension or to get some advice. People don't have to be okay, or satisfy, or happy all the time. But those who know what is going on in the mind, they know that all pleasant and unpleasant emotions and feelings are impermanent, and they do not attached or identified with any pleasant or unpleasant emotions and feelings. There is nothing to be sad, unhappy, depressed, disappointed, frustrated or negative about, that need to be talking or sharing with someone else, or to release any tension, as there's no tension built up, or to get any advice, as there's no problems.

Those who know this, they can be peaceful and happy as they are, no matter what.

Those who don't know this, they don't have to be happy all the time and they can't be happy no matter what.

 

It's okay sometimes the mind is not okay and not happy with certain things. There's nothing wrong with that. But when they think no body is being there to share their thinking/feelings/problems, to be talking to other people, or to be listening by other people, they might feel more sad, unhappy, disappointed, depressed, frustrated, or negative. And hence, people believe that "People should be available to be talking to and listening to other people all the time. Most people need to feel better through talking to other people. While those who want to listen and share about other people's feelings and emotions would feel good and meaningful when there are people want to talk to them." There's nothing wrong with that but it doesn't free the mind (of the one who talks and the one who listens) from ignorance/attachment/craving/expectation. Just like giving an unhappy and crying child the sweets and sugary drinks that the child wants every time to make the child stop being unhappy and crying if the child doesn't get the sweets and sugary drinks, doesn't really help the child at all. There's no freedom.

"It feels so good talking to you. Let's meet up regularly and talk more," and "Talking to me can make you feel better and make me feel so good and meaningful. Let's meet up and talk more often." If for some reasons that these two people are not possible to meet up and talk as expected/desired/needed, both would feel bad, sad and disappointed. There's no freedom.

Just like practicing yoga exercises and teaching yoga to other people would generate the momentary sense of well-being, goodness and meaningfulness, and if for some reasons one couldn't practice yoga exercises or teach yoga for a prolonged period of time, one would feel frustrated, disappointed and meaningless. There's no freedom.

Most people/minds don't like to hear this.

"Compassion is not about giving the mind what it likes and wants, or what it craves for, to be empowering the ignorance and egoism in the mind to make the ego feels better, good, satisfied or happy. Compassion is allowing the suffering unhappy disturbed mind to inquire into the truth of suffering, unhappiness and disturbs, by freeing the mind from ignorance, egoism, restlessness and impurities, to see the truth of the root cause of all suffering of disturbs/hurts/unhappiness/disappointment/dissatisfaction/fear/worry, where all kinds of suffering is deriving from one's ignorance and egoism or ceaseless egoistic mind reactions towards the gratification/non-gratification of the desire of craving and aversion. If one's desire is being gratified by getting what one likes and wants, and not getting what one doesn't like and doesn't want, then the mind reacts and feels good, satisfied and happy. And when one's desire is not being gratified, where one is not getting what one likes and wants, but is getting what one doesn't like and doesn't want, then the mind reacts and feels bad, dissatisfied and unhappy. It's nothing to do with the experiences or names and forms being 'bad', 'wrong', 'terrible', 'disturbing', or 'hurtful'."

 

Upon seeing the truth of what is going on in one's mind, this mind doesn't need anyone to be there to be listening to any 'disturbed feelings and emotions', as there's none. There's no problem that need to be shared or talked about. This is maturity. This is real independence. This is freedom. But, unfortunately not many people appreciate this independence and freedom, but only looking forward to be building mental and emotional connection and dependency among one another to feel good and meaningful.

The teachings/practice/process of freeing the mind from ignorance and egoism, it's not something pleasant or agreeable to the worldly ignorant egoistic passionate minds at all, but it can effectively free the mind from suffering deriving from ignorance and egoism.

It's everyone's freedom for what they want to practice, or not.

Be free.

Go beyond worldly social thinking and beliefs

Most minds are not interested in the teaching of yoga about going beyond worldly social thinking and beliefs. For them, "Why do people want to do that? It's strange and crazy for anyone to have such idea or practice." and "Social relationships, activities, mingling and interactions are very good and positive for improving friendship, bonding, understanding and harmony among each other in the society."

Just like many passionate minds would think and believe that "Being sociable is similar to friendliness and being non-sociable is similar to unfriendliness."

In yoga, "Being sociable and non-sociable is irrelevant to friendliness and unfriendliness. One can be friendly and kind towards all without selfish intention or discrimination of likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, good people and bad people, friends and not friends, while at the same time being non-sociable or disinterested towards social relationships, activities, mingling and interactions. On the other hand, being actively sociable doesn't mean that the mind is being friendly and kind towards all without any selfish intention or discrimination of likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, good people and bad people, or friends and not friends."

In the path of yoga to eliminate ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness from the mind, one needs to learn how to go beyond all the worldly social thinking and beliefs by renouncing social relationships, activities, mingling and interactions, as all these social relationships and activities will only empower or feed the ignorance and egoism of attachment, identification, desires of craving and aversion, judgment, expectation, restlessness and impurities, unless the mind is already being free from ignorance and egoism, then one can mix freely into the society without being influenced by the society, without being disturbed by what is happening in the world, and without being entangled in the worldly ideas, thinking, beliefs, values, practices, relationships and activities.

It's not that the social thinking and beliefs, relationships, activities, mingling and interactions are something 'bad' or 'wrong', but for the yoga enthusiasts who are sincerely seeking liberation from suffering, or more precisely, to be free from the cause of suffering - Ignorance, the minds need to go beyond all kinds of worldly ideas of social thinking, beliefs, values and practices by renouncing social relationships, activities, mingling and interactions, as all these social activities are feeding/empowering ignorance, egoism, passions and restlessness, which hinders the mind to see the truth of names and forms, to be free from ignorance and the product of ignorance - Suffering. If the mind is not free from ignorance, egoism, impurities, restlessness and suffering, the mind is not free, even after many years of practicing 'yoga' or teaching 'yoga' to others.

Some of the common social thinking and beliefs such as,

"Everyone needs to have family, relatives, friends and community, to enjoy life, to be happy and feel meaningful. It's hard, pitiful, unfortunate, lonely, joyless and meaningless to be by oneself without family, relatives, friends and community."
*In yoga, one is not determined by having or not having family, relatives, friends and community, to enjoy life, to be happy, or to feel meaningful, or not, in order to be free from ignorance and suffering, or not. The mind that is free from ignorance and egoism doesn't need to enjoy life, or to be happy, or to feel meaningful. One is peaceful as one is, when the mind is free from ignorance and egoism and its by-products of boredom, loneliness, fear, clinging, expectation, dissatisfaction, disappointment, hurts, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, animosity, pride, hostility, painful sorrow, unhappiness, emptiness, incompleteness and meaninglessness.

"One needs to be 'educated' and 'knowledgeable' to be confident to achieve success in everything, to enjoy a higher quality good life with loving and supportive family and relationships, in order to achieve happiness and meaningfulness."
*In yoga, being educated and knowledgeable doesn't guarantee that the mind is free from ignorance, egoism, impurities, restlessness, disturbs and suffering. Wisdom of being free from ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, is nothing to do with 'worldly education' and 'worldly knowledge'. Wisdom, or knowing the truth of names and forms, allows the mind to have peace, being free from disturbs and suffering, regardless of whether the mind is 'educated' and 'knowledgeable', or not; whether life is good and comfortable, or not; whether there's loving and supportive family and relationships, or not. The liberated mind doesn't need to be confident to achieve success in everything to have a higher quality good life. Neither by having or not having a higher quality good life is related to having loving and supportive family and relationships, or not. Neither by having or not having loving and supportive family and relationships is related to the attainment of the sense of happiness and meaningfulness. Neither by attaining or not attaining the sense of happiness and meaningfulness is related to whether the mind is free from ignorance and egoism, or not. The mind that is free from ignorance and egoism, doesn't need to attain the sense of happiness and meaningfulness. One is happy and peaceful as one is, being free from ignorance and egoism, being unconditioned and undetermined by the quality of names and forms.

"One needs to aspire and be inspired to be somebody endowed with certain qualities of names and forms that make oneself and others be proud of, to attain love, acceptance, respect, support and acknowledgement from oneself and others."
*In yoga, the mind that is free from ignorance and egoism doesn't need to aspire or be inspired to be 'somebody' that would make oneself and others be proud of. Neither does one need to attain love, acceptance, respect, support or acknowledgement from oneself or others.

"One needs to keep setting higher and higher expectation/goal towards oneself in order to keep pushing oneself beyond one's limitation to achieve higher success and better result."
*In yoga, the mind that is free from ignorance and egoism doesn't need to have any expectation/goal towards oneself, anyone or anything, or to push oneself beyond the physical/mental limitation that is impermanent and selfless, but still perform countless actions of what is possible in the present that would benefit oneself and others, or to keep improving, intentionlessly, while allowing the fruit of the actions to be what it is.

"One should help others so that one will receive help from others in return."
*In yoga, one helps others unconditionally regardless of whether others will be grateful and show appreciation, or will give help to oneself in return, or not.

"Be kind to others and others will be kind to you in return."
*In yoga, one be kind to others unconditionally without selfish intention/expectation to be receiving kindness or friendship in return. Be kind to all without discrimination even when others are being unkind to oneself, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

"Everyone needs continuous/on going inspirations, positive encouragements, love, supports and acknowledgements from others to be doing something good for oneself and others, or to refrain from doing something bad to oneself and others."
*In yoga, the selfless/egoless mind doesn't need any (continuous/on going) inspirations, positive encouragements, love, supports and acknowledgements from anyone to be doing something good for oneself and others, or to refrain from doing something bad or hurtful to oneself or others. It's the prideful egoistic impure idea of 'I' or the ego that needs continuous inspirations, positive encouragements, love, supports and acknowledgements from others to motivate oneself to be good and do good, or to refrain from be bad and do bad. If the egoistic minds don't get such 'motivations', they are reluctant to be good and do good, or refrain from be bad and do bad. That's not freedom at all.

"Everyone needs love and affection. Give love and affection to others, and others will have love to love themselves and love others. Giving love to others will make oneself feels good and meaningful."
*In yoga, when the mind is free from ignorance and egoism, one doesn't need to receive love and affection from anyone to feel loved, or to have love. Everyone just need to realize unconditional love in oneself, where there's no lack of love/craving for love/aversion towards loveless and there's no separateness of 'I' and 'others'. There's no 'I' am 'giving love' to 'others', or 'others' are 'receiving love' from 'I', but out of compassion, teach and allow everyone to be free from ignorance and egoism to realize unconditional love in oneself, where everyone doesn't need to receive love from others to feel loved or to have love, and everyone doesn't need to feel good and meaningful from the action of 'giving' and 'loving'.

"Everything is possible. Nothing is impossible."
*In yoga, everything is possible, including both possibility and impossibility. Possibility is possible. Impossibility is also possible. It's okay sometimes things are not possible, such like one couldn't stop the physical body from impermanent changes of aging, decaying and death/decompose, or one couldn't undo the past, and whether it's possibility or impossibility, all are impermanent.

Worldly minds, including many yoga enthusiasts, are functioning under the influence of the social thinking and beliefs perceiving everyone and everything as 'good or bad', 'right or wrong', 'positive or negative', 'normality or abnormality', 'meaningfulness or meaninglessness', 'appropriateness or inappropriateness', 'friendliness or unfriendliness' and 'nice or not nice'.

"This is a good/bad person."
"This is so positive/negative."
"This is so meaningful/meaningless."
"This is a friendly/unfriendly person."
"This is a nice/not nice person."
"Yoga teachers/practitioners need to 'be positive' and say only 'positive words' to influence/encourage others also to be positive."
And so on.

In yoga or Buddhism, it's not necessarily so. Upon knowing what is going on in the mind and seeing the truth of impermanence and selflessness in all the names and forms, naturally, one stops judging and labeling everyone and everything into 'this' and 'that', upon perceiving/experiencing all kind of different experiences, thinking, beliefs, actions, reactions and behaviors.

"You are being nice to me, but it doesn't mean that 'you are a nice person or your are not a not nice person'."
"You might not behave in a good way, but it doesn't mean that 'you are a bad person or you are not a good person'."
"You are feeling happy or unhappy in this moment, but it doesn't mean that 'you are a happy person or you are an unhappy person'."
"Yoga teachers don't need to 'be positive' or say only 'positive words', they just need to teach yoga as it is, and the teachings are neither positive nor negative, although many impure minds might not like or agree with the teachings, and perceiving and judging everything as 'positive' and 'negative' according to the worldly thinking and beliefs, while passionate minds might be disturbed by the teachings that they dislike and disagree with, that is not necessarily something that they think it should be."

The minds that are free from ignorance and egoism are not 'passionate' or 'interested' towards the attainment and accumulation of worldly objects of names and forms, the cultivation and achievement of worldly passionate desires/ambitions and the engagement in all kinds of human social relationships, activities, interactions, excitement, enjoyment and entertainment because these minds are void of the by-products of ignorance and egoism, where the minds are free from the sense of low self-esteem, low confidence, negativeness, unhappiness and meaninglessness.

These selfless/egoless minds don't need to develop or empower the sense of high self-esteem, self-worth, confidence, positiveness, happiness and meaningfulness through the attainment and accumulation of worldly objects of names and forms, or the cultivation and achievement of desires/ambitions, or the engagement in social relationships, activities, interactions, excitement, enjoyment and entertainment, in order to chase away the sense of low self-esteem, low self-worth, low confidence, negativeness, unhappiness and meaninglessness. It doesn't mean that these minds don't perform any actions to improve or be successful in whatever they venture, but all actions are free from attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation.

These quiet peaceful liberated minds might be perceived by the other majority of the society, including passionate sociable 'yoga practitioners/teachers' and health professionals as a form of 'unhealthiness', 'selfishness', 'abnormality', or even, 'insanity', as these minds don't think and behave, act and react, and are not interested towards engaging in the worldly passionate sociable family/community way of life like all the other majority in the society. They are peaceful as they are, being free from ignorance, egoism, passions, discrimination, dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, hatred, jealousy, animosity, violence, fear, boredom, loneliness, longing, hurts, meaninglessness, incompleteness and restlessness, being immerse in silence, seclusion and solitude, allowing the world and everyone to be what they are, as they are, and all are impermanent and selfless, which the worldly passionate sociable minds perceive as a form of 'unhealthiness', 'selfishness', 'abnormality' and 'insanity'.

It's everyone's freedom for how they perceive, think, feel, act and react, and what they want to do with their life, body and mind.

Teach the children to accept and love themselves as they are

If we want to help to build a more peaceful and compassionate society, it's very important to have young generations that are selfless, peaceful, wise and compassionate, and hence, how the parents or caretakers and the influence of the surrounding environment for the children growing up to be adults/leaders that are endowed with awareness, self-discipline, self-control, independence, truthfulness, honesty, peace, wisdom and compassion is very crucial.

We need to teach the children how to accept and love themselves as they are, to develop awareness, independence, self-discipline and self-control, to inquire the truth of everything, to realize the truth of impermanence and selflessness, to be free from craving and aversion, to have unconditional peace and compassion, so that they don't need to depend on the qualities of names and forms that are impermanent to be who they are. They don't need to depend on receiving other people's love, kindness, acknowledgement, compliments, supports, friendships, relationships and companionship, or depending on a wishful desirable perfect world, to be who they are, to be proud, to be confident, to feel meaningful, to be happy, and to perform actions that are wholesome to themselves and others, out of free-will, out of compassion towards oneself and others, without attachment or identification towards the actions and the result of the actions to be who they are.

They know what are their ability and limitation. They are not defined by their ability and limitation to be who they are. They do their best to achieve what they want to achieve, but they have no attachment or identification towards the ability or limitation, the achievement or non-achievement. They allow other people to think, to judge, to compare, to expect, to like and dislike, to agree and disagree with towards their ability and limitation, but they are not affected or defined by other people's thinking, judgment, comparison, expectation, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements.

Being free from pride and arrogance, they know how to take consideration towards other people's advice, but without taking other people's advice blindly, and they know how to make use of the opportunity that is available to make decision and perform actions that they think are the best, without attachment or expectation towards the outcome of the decision made and the actions performed.

They can work in a group, cooperating with all levels and respecting all levels as equally important, without the sense of superiority or inferiority, knowing that the entire system requires every levels to work together for it to be functioning, but at the same time, they can work independently as well, when cooperation from others is not available.

The society will naturally have more peace and harmony by having less personal, family, relationship, social, political and religious problems if the children grow up to be adults/leaders in the society who are endowed with peace, wisdom and compassion, being free from ignorance, egoism and impurities.

Unfortunately, most people who became parents are not free from ignorance, egoism and impurities, and are being conditioned and influenced by worldly, cultural, social and religious thinking and belief to live their life and how they bring up their children. Many children grow up to be adults/leaders living in the society with some sorts of psychological issues and behavior problems, full of discrimination, pride, arrogance, dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, selfishness, aggression, violence, corruption, untruthfulness, dishonesty, offensiveness, defensiveness, animosity, depression, low self-esteem, hurts, regret, guilt, fear and worry. And then, when they try to runaway from or cover up what they think is not good or bad or negative or imperfect about themselves, that they don't like about themselves, that they don't want any others to know about it, they might create further and deeper problems for themselves and others, in their life and relationships, and in the society.

This is due to many parenting are influenced by the worldly, cultural, social and religious thinking and belief that emphasizing on empowering the ego of the children to boost their self-esteem or self-confidence or self-image by giving them praise and compliment and rewards to motivate and encourage them to be what the parents expect them to be and by giving them criticism and threat and punishment to discourage them to be what the parents don't want them to be, telling them that they need to do well and be good but also always be better and better, so that they can please other people, to attain praise and compliment, love, support, approval, agreement, acknowledgement and friendship or relationship from others to be who they are.

Whether they are aware of unaware of it, many parents bring up their children by emphasizing on the empowerment of the worldly egoistic nature with great attachment and identification towards the qualities of names and forms, to be somebody that the children and their parents and other people would be proud of. This empowerment of egoism generates separateness and discrimination, that give rise to many personal, family, relationship and social problems in one's life and in the society.

If children start early to develop correct understanding towards the thinking and behavior pattern, actions and reactions, craving and aversion, feelings and emotions, all sorts of mind activities and impurities, the ego and egoism, and train to eradicate egoistic thinking and behavior that give rise to restlessness and the impurities of dissatisfaction, disappointment, greed, anger, hatred, jealousy, corruption, untruthfulness, dishonesty, violence, animosity, offensiveness, defensiveness, hurts, regret, guilt, fear and worry, they can be kind and compassionate towards other beings, but without expecting or craving for love and kindness and appreciation from other people in return, without clinging onto other people's love and kindness and appreciation to be who they are.

Children growing up suffering from low self-esteem is because of the parents make them think and believe that they have to be in certain ways and achieve certain qualities, in order to be accepted and be loved by their parents and other people. They were told that they don't deserve love and they shouldn't love themselves if they are not good enough, that they shouldn't accept themselves as they are, as they need to be better and better, and never stop being better. There will never a point that they are good enough so that they can accept and love themselves, as they are. Because the parents are so afraid that their children will stop improving themselves if they think they are good enough. And so, the parents make sure that their children never think that they are good enough.

When these children couldn't be in certain ways or achieve certain qualities, their parents will show dissatisfaction, disappointment and aggressiveness towards them, and this make them think and believe that they are not good enough, that they don't deserve acceptance and love from their parents and other people, or even from themselves. They don't know how to love themselves and they also don't know how to accept or love other people as they are, as they will also be like their parents, that they will also have expectation towards other people to meet up with their expectation towards other people, that they have to be in certain ways and achieve certain qualities, to be good enough, but they will never be good enough, as they need to be better and better.

If the children grow up knowing how to accept and love themselves as they are, unconditionally, they will always accept and love themselves as they are, regardless they are being in the way that their parents or other people expect them to be, or not, and whether they achieve the qualities that their parents and other people expect them to achieve, or not. And they will also know how to accept and love other people as they are, without expecting other people have to be the way that they think they should be, or to achieve certain qualities that they like and agree with.

It's not easy to guide children. Parents or caretakers who devote their time, effort, patience, love and acceptance towards the children unconditionally, is a great yoga practice. They don't need to be regularly doing some forms of yoga exercise, or breathing exercise, or chanting and prayer, or ritual, or to call themselves yoga practitioners or yogis, but by nurturing young children to grow up becoming responsible, peaceful and compassionate members of the family and the society, without egoism of attachment, identification and expectation, just do their best, and let go of the outcome, allowing the children to learn and evolve as they are, and love them as they are, unconditionally, is a great yoga practice and great contribution to humanity.

Be free.

The connection between low self-esteem and parenting

There's a huge connection between low self-esteem and the way of the parents bring up their children.

Low self-esteem is a form of mental illness. And there are quite many of the world population are suffering from some forms of mental illness, especially low self-esteem.

The main element that contributes to low self-esteem is the family brought up of how the parents bring up their children, where people are being influenced by the trends of the society on how they bring up their children, where the society emphasize on appearance, performance and achievements to be the important values of self-development individually and as part of a society.

People feel that they need to look and behave and carry themselves in certain ways so that they will be accepted and respected by the family and the society. Their perception towards themselves of what they think is who they are and their life existence is very much being defined by their appearance, performance and achievements that is determined by the expectation, opinion, commentary, judgment and criticism from themselves and other people towards them.

Proudness is the shadow that follows low self-esteem. If low self-esteem is absent, proudness doesn't exist.

Those who suffer from low self-esteem need to feel proud of oneself. This is mainly the responsibility of how their parents brought them up. The parents have expectation towards their children and whether they are aware or unaware, whether intentionally or unintentionally, they are influencing the thinking and belief of their children to become the person that they want them to be and the way that they like it to be, and the way that they think is good for their children. They try to motivate their children to be they way that they like them to be by giving them praise and compliment, and they try to demotivate their children to be the way that they don't like it to be by giving them criticism and punishment. There's always assessment and judgment coming from the parents towards their children for how they look and behave, how they perform physically and mentally, and what they achieve or can't achieve. They will be happy and be nice to their children when their children fulfill their expectation, that they behave and achieve something the way that they like it to be. They won't be happy or be nice to their children when their children didn't fulfill their expectation, that they didn't behave or achieve something the way that they like it to be.

The parents hope that their children are 'good' enough and be competent to be able to compete with other people in the society to excel among the others and to be able to fit in into the higher or better class of the society. They want their children to be successful to be respected by the society and live life meaningfully, according to their thinking and belief about what is success and live life meaningfully.

Many parents will say this to their children, whether they are aware or unaware of the consequences of their action and speech, and whether they really mean what they say, or not. But the children will take it seriously, even if the parents didn't really mean what they say.

"You need to have some sorts of expectation towards yourself to improve and be better. Set up your goal and expectation and strive to achieve your goal and expectation. Then you are considered successful and well-deserved lots of love and happiness and respect from everyone."

 "Good boy/girl! Well done! You make us so proud, mummy and daddy love you so much. Keep it up and be better and better."

"You are so bad and terrible. Can't make anyone proud of you. You don't deserve love from anyone. Mummy and daddy don't want you anymore. We are so disappointed in you."

"If you are like this, mummy and daddy don't want to love you. Look at your sister/brother/friend, they are so much better than you."

"If you achieve this result, we will give you this and bring you there. If you don't, we won't give you this or bring you there. Let you stay at home by yourself. We only bring your brother and sister."

"Say please and thank you, or else, I won't give you what you want."

"Come on, you can do better than this, and you will make everyone proud of you."

"Are you a good boy/girl, or not? This is not good enough, you can be better than this. If you are very good, then people will love you. If you are not good, then no one will love you."

This is how the parents nurture their children to grow up becoming people who suffer from all sorts of mental illness.

 

The parents never teach the children, "We love you unconditionally, as you are. Just do your best in whatever you want to do. It's good if you succeed. It's okay if you don't succeed. Do not let success and failure to determine you. You don't need cheers, motivation, encouragement, appreciation or acknowledgment from anyone to do your best in what you want to achieve. Do not let other people's agreeable or disagreeable reactions and their judgment of praise and criticism to determine you. It's needless to have pride and arrogance to be who you are, even if you are very good and successful. Accept and love yourself and everyone else unconditionally."

They always feel bad and dissatisfied with themselves towards the ability, performance and achievements of their physical body and their mind. They always feel that they need to compare and compete with other people, including their siblings, their spouse, their friends, their classmates, their colleagues, their neighbours, and anybody. There is an instinct to constantly judge their and other people's appearance, ability, performances and achievements to compare and compete with one another. They were being told by their parents to think and believe that they are always not good enough and will never be good enough, that they always have to be better than what they are now. They want to be loved by their parents and everyone, but they think they must first be good enough, and they always afraid of being not good enough for their parents and other people, even though they know they are good enough for themselves. They always longing for praise and compliment, liking, support, agreement and acknowledgement from other people, especially the parents, siblings, friends and spouse. Or else, they will feel very dissatisfied, disappointed and depressed about themselves and their life.

It's so tiring to try to fulfill the expectation from their parents and the society and themselves, to be good enough that they can be proud of themselves in order to love themselves, and to please everyone expecting people will like and love and be nice to them, for their whole life, in the family, in love relationship, in friendships, in the school, in the workplace, or in the community. They are defined and determined by their actions and the result of their actions, and other people's reaction and treatment towards them to be who they are, to be happy and feel meaningful, or not.

These children grow up without knowing how to accept and love themselves and everyone else as they are, because their parents don't accept and love them as they are, and never teach the children to accept and love themselves and everyone else as they are. There's always some form of expectation to determine the presence and degree of acceptance and love.

Those who are free from low self-esteem don't need to feel proud of anything. They don't feel bad or dissatisfied about themselves for being what they are, as they are. They know what they can achieve and what is their limitation. But they are not defined or determined by their achievement or limitation to be who they are. They don't need praise and compliment, liking, support, agreement and acknowledgement from anyone. They are not affected or disturbed or determined by other people's expectation, opinion, commentary, judgment or criticism towards them. They are not determined or affected by their actions and the result of their actions. They don't need to be good enough the way that how the world think and believe as good enough in order to love themselves. They love themselves as they are, and they love everyone as they are.

This is the essence of yoga.

There are yoga practitioners including some yoga teachers are not free from the suffering of some forms of mental illness, and it's okay. There's nothing to be ashamed about if the mind is not free. Everyone takes their own time to practice and realize the truth and be free.

Words of wisdom are neither good nor bad

Words of wisdom are neither good nor bad. They are just what they are. They have no intention or quality to be useful or useless, to be meaningful or meaningless, or to be enlightening or disturbing.

Words of wisdom can be useful and meaningful and enlightening for those who are aware of ignorance in oneself, but they are useless and meaningless and disturbing for those who are not aware of ignorance in oneself.

All minds that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism are being conditioned or influenced by many different types of egoistic thinking and belief that are being imprinted into the mind since the birth of this life existence coming from family and cultural background, religious background, parenting, schooling, social mixing and interaction, social medias, commercial values, political influence, and all kinds of information sources, to live life, to think and feel, to act and react.

Most of the time, we don't really inquire the truth of everything that were passed down to us from generation to generation, and everything that we come in contact with, and we usually put our 'trust' onto 'reliable' or 'respectable' sources to feed or occupy our minds with many different information and ideas, until we start to doubt about something and then we would question or investigate the truth of it, to find out whether it's true, or not. But that usually won't happen until we got into trouble and suffer for the consequences of our own 'incorrect' or 'ignorant' understanding, thinking, belief, way of living, conduct and behavior.

If people don't question the truth of everything, everyone just live life, think and feel, act and react as how they were being told, or educated, or influenced by the elders, parents, caretakers, friends, society, communities, groups, associations, gangs, politicians, religious authorities, school teachers, philosophers, business people, and so on.

In Yoga and Buddhism, one has to question the truth of everything including all the teachings or scriptures of yoga and Buddhism, of what all the teachers said and taught. The real teachers won't be insulted, or disrespected, or humiliated when the students neither agree nor disagree with what the teachers taught them, but being independent and diligent to perform self-practice and self-inquiry to realize the truth of the teachings through self-effort and self-realization.

It's okay if we don't know many things. It won't do any harm if we don't know everything and we are aware of we are ignorant, or don't know the truth of something. But it would be very harmful to oneself and others, if we blind-believe in and blind-agreeing with and blindly sharing information and ideas that we don't know whether they are true, or not.

So as there are many 'yoga teachers' teach yoga to other people according to what they have learned, studied and heard from the yoga courses and yoga books that they have attended and read, just because the books/scriptures/teaching manuals and their teachers say so. Some people don't mind if the teachings are true, or not, as long as they have some ideas of yoga poses practice sequences with some technical information and interesting spiritual stories to teach in the yoga classes to satisfy the people's enthusiasm and intention of joining the yoga classes, and earn a living. And there's nothing wrong with that, and it's everyone's freedom. One is willingly to present something that one doesn't really know what does it really means, while others are willingly to follow something that they don't know where it would lead them to.

The wise never aspire or intent to make other beings to see what they see, or to know what they know. The teachings are everywhere for everyone to take it (practice and realize), or leave it.

Be free and be happy.

A little story about human's behavior...

In Malaysia, most people will take off their shoes and wash their feet before entering the house or the temple. This is to avoid dirts dirtying the house or the temples (as sacred and pure places). This is also to show respect to the people who live in the house. We are usually bare-footing inside our house. This has became an automatic behavior for most people.

But in most business centres, shops, schools or offices, we do keep the shoes on. There are many Malay's shops still keep this tradition of "No shoes in the shop". And we would and we should respect this traditional culture.

One day, I went to a photo shop in Pantai Cenang near our house to photocopy some documents.

It has been a very long time since the last time I went into this shop (more than a year ago).

I saw many pairs of shoes in front of the entrance of the photo shop and some people are inside the shop waiting to have their photos print out and to photocopy their documents.

Without any doubts I took off my shoes and stepped into the shop. Immediately my feet could feel the dirts on the floor. But I didn't bother about it. It's not surprised that there would be sand and dirts on the floor because here is a beach area. Sand would follow our feet and came into the shop.

I found a chair to sit down and wait for my turn. It was quite busy in the shop then.

Well, I could still barely remember that when the last time I was there, I didn't have to take off my shoes. Out of curiosity I started to look at the photo shop's owner's feet to see whether he had his shoes on or not. Well, he did had his shoes on.

But then I had another thought that maybe he was wearing a separate indoor shoes for working in the shop. And so, I went out and take a quick look at the door and the wall in front the shop to see whether he had a sign board stating like "Please take off your shoes" or "Please remove your shoes before entering" or "Barefoot inside" and etc...

I found no signs at all.

And so, I wore back my shoes and went in again, and sat down.

I continued to observe some more customers that came into the shop. No matter they were Chinese, or Malay, or even foreigner, they all took off their shoes automatically before entering. There were more shoes outside the door then.

This had shown that how many people would show respect to other people's culture, and also how many people are being very nice and obeying the rules in this Malaysian society. This is nothing wrong. But there's another thing here for us to reflect is, human beings are imitating creatures and easily being influenced by other people's behavior...

No body and no sign board was there to tell anyone to remove their shoes, but everyone would automatically removed their shoes just because they saw other people's shoes were outside the door. And we would think, "Okay, seems like no shoes are allowed inside, I need to remove the shoes before entering the shop then."

It all begun with the first person who took off the shoes (I guessed this person must have the habits to remove shoes before entering any buildings). And then the next person and all other people would automatically followed this same action to show respect to the culture. This is one of the patterns of the human's behavior or mind's reaction.

When it was my turn for photocopy my things, I took the chance to ask the shop owner whether it was a new rule now that shoes are not allowed in the shop? He smiled and shook his head saying that there is no need to take off the shoes to come into the shop. Because if it was a new rule, then I would apologized to him and leave my shoes outside the shop then.

Well, maybe I was the odd one there to reason should I do as all other people are doing (even though at the beginning I took off my shoes when I saw there were many shoes outside the door, to show respect to the shop owner for keeping his shop clean).

I guess, lots of people will think, "Well, since majority people are doing the same thing, then it must be something right and good for us then... And we should follow what most people are doing."

This is what happening in our society nowadays, isn't it? There are lots of violence, crimes, hatred and killings everywhere in the world now...

When one person points at a man and shouts out loud in a big crowd, "Hey! That man is a rapist and a murderer! He is evil!" Some people would start to react and spread the words from mouth to mouth, and everyone might start to believe that this man is really evil and get fired up (since everyone are also talking about it, it might be true then), and might be beating up this man to death even before reasoning about the truth...

Om shanti.