Humanity

You know this is meant to be a travel blog but yet I would hope that this is also an avenue to express my personal thoughts and feelings as well.  I have been fortunate in my life to have lived in several countries around the world, to have visited many countries and to have had friends from across the world as well.  I am grateful at those experiences because it has taught me to understand and appreciate what all is out there apart from my little box in my day to day life.

I'm writing this whilst sitting on a Southwest flight heading to Austin, Texas for the first time.  I did not want to pay for WiFi so I had actually downloaded a few documentaries that I had come across on Netflix.  One was a mini-series on the lives of Confucius, Socrates and the Buddha.  In particular the Buddha documentary had a profound impact on my thinking as it echoed several of my personal sentiments to the world and people around me.

As someone whose family is from India, I was brought up Hindu, yet I went to several Christian schools in my childhood such as Lutheran and Methodist.  I have had Catholic, Mormon, Muslim, spiritual and atheist friends.  And I would hope to say that I have learned a lot from each and every one of them.  But I digress, the point of this post is not to talk about all the different religions but rather it is to talk about our ability as humans to interact with others.  The Buddha documentary did not suddenly make me what to turn to Buddhism but simply watching this made me feel like I learned something that I can use in my life and that maybe I can share it with others as well.

Every time I travel, I see all the people that I talk to, I make contact with or simply the ones that I see hurrying by.  I think to myself, what are their lives like?  What might be some of the issues they deal with.  Do they think like me? Do they have the same priorities in life?  It's amazing to think about how many people we have in this world and how a single interaction might be the only one you have with that person for the rest of your lives.  What if that person has something they can teach you? 

It seems like, humanity as a whole, has moved away from what I expected to be the outcome of globalization.  We think of it as somehow a bad phenomenon but yet I wonder why.  Globalization, to me, allows people who could never interact before to communicate thoughts and ideas in a way that was never opportune before.  Regardless if you travel, you have the mechanism to see, hear and read on someone's life half a world away.  How incredible is that?!  Even something simple as me watching a documentary hosted by BBC on the topic of The Buddha and seeing and hearing about some of the stories from his time in India.  Trying to understand why this religion came about and how it spread across the world. How did other religions form and spread across the world.  How did any concept or topic spread across when there was no internet or mainstream media or even a telegraph.

We have to appreciate and take advantage of the fact that we can learn from those who are not part of our day to day lives.  Of course learning doesn't mean you have to agree with everyone's beliefs and thoughts.  No, that's the beauty of life.  We all have different minds, different thoughts, different priorities and different experiences.  Imagine if everyone thought the same way about everything - how boring would life be?! I don't think there would be innovation of any sort, there wouldn't be new ideas forming and it would feel like a stale stagnant "going through the motions" life. 

What is important, and what I hope I do as well, is to just take a step back and try to put yourselves in someone else's mind and try to understand why they act or believe a particular way.  It can be incredibly hard.  How can I, as an Engineer who lives comfortable ever hope to understand those that make less than $1 a day.  How can I truly understand what it means to be the richest man in the world.  Why should I think that person would have any issues whatsoever - he's rich.  But the point is to try.  Understanding that you don't know everything about everyone - that you have not lived every single experience out there.  And the fact that just because someone is better off than you doesn't mean anything when it comes to respect, humility and understanding.

I don't have to talk about what we see happen in today's world.  We see fighting between races, fighting between religions, fighting between people who just have different ideas. Humanity has been built on conflict - people who are in power dictate the ideas of those around them and that's how civilizations and traditions are born. 

One of the most profound statements from this documentary was the Buddha talking about how each and every one  of us is a mechanism for change.  That change is inevitable but each of us has the power to direct that change.  Compassion, empathy and an understand of who we truly are will make us and the world a better place. 

It definitely sounds simple when I say it but those are very hard concepts to truly understand and appreciate.  It's easy to let yourself go to jealousy, hate  or greed.  I hope that any of you reading this, along with myself, will learn that in the moment of anger or envy or spite, to take a step back and think, use a little empathy and gain some knowledge of life outside our own.  Maybe then can we truly appreciate life, impact positive change and have a better grasp on our existence.

I appreciate everyone reading this and I am sure that you have something to teach me as well so please send me a message.

Photo courtesy of Odyssey Online