A NORMAL PERSON PUBLISHED BY FREE PRESS JOURNAL - E paper Mumbai Edition 7th August

A ‘NORMAL’ PERSON

Once a Zen Master assembled his disciples and narrated his dream to them. He had dreamt that on assuming the form of a butterfly he began to flutter with gay abandon and was blissfully unaware of being a human, that he was a mere butterfly. Upon waking up he found himself lying like a human once more. However, he was confronted with a piquant question as to whether he was a man who dreamt about becoming a butterfly or was he a nectar feeding insect who assumed a human form? This set the cat among the pigeons.

The disciples began burbling with a variety of theories. At one end of the spectrum was the theory that the episode was nothing more than philosophical gibberish and at the other end that it represented profound existentialism. Some minds opined that the monk had become schizophrenic while others felt that it was rocket science.  

Psychologists would view it as a dream and many dreams are indeed weird in nature. Some would view the entire process or the act through the prism of dubiousness. A young student exclaimed that the monk desired to have an out of body experience, and thus using certain psychic powers had metamorphosed himself into a butterfly.

 This act was endlessly debated in the chattering minds of the tutees. Was the Master anxious to fly as he was weighed down by his responsibilities? Had he conjured a trick and found a sanctuary of just letting go by stage managing the act in his mind?

It would be interesting to ponder as to how we would appear in the dreams of other individuals. Do we receive salutations or are we unwelcome intruders? May be the Monk was undertaking a soul searching exercise or fantasising or being just close to nature by adorning the form of a butterfly. It is also in the realm of possibility that the Monk undertook anthropomorphising by adopting the shape of a butterfly.

But this can nevertheless be a case study in schools, colleges, corporate offices, government bodies or even our homes as it would be a rewarding experience enacting such dreams to appreciate our true and febrile self.

Something which not deviant is said to be ‘normal’. Biologically speaking a person not suffering from pestilence or malformation is a normal human being and psychologically speaking a man should be of reasonable intelligence and free from mental disorders.

Several years ago, goes a story, a practitioner of meditation imagined a spider descending on him. Unfailingly the menacing creature returned day after day, enlarging in form and shape. The meditator found the sight repulsive and indeed threatening.   The student promptly reported his anxiety to the Master and decided to terminate the spider. The teacher vetoed the suggestion. Instead the Master advised the student to bring a piece of chalk to the meditation class and whenever the spider appeared, mark an "X" on its belly.
An assuaged student returned back to the meditation class. When the irritant once again surfaced he resisted the urge to attack it, and instead followed the advice of the Master. A triumphant student reported the turn of the events to the master. The teacher asked him to lift up his shirt and stare at his belly. There was the "X" mark on it.

A normal or middling student feeling petrified would have fled the meditation class, but an extraordinary individual looks for out of box solutions.

‘Normal’ individuals are manipulated and brainwashed since their childhood. Their decision making is influenced by all the stakeholders who wish a certain order to prevail in the system. These include parents, teachers, peers, relatives, administration among others. The creativity of the students is curbed by extraneous pressures and prevalent dogmas.

On several occasions it has been found that ‘normal’ individuals are unable to pursue with their passions and interests. Talent gets sacrificed at the altar of societal pressures and impressions. Several years back there was a student in Delhi who was extremely passionate about theatre and keen to pursue it as a career. He honed his skills at various workshops of the National School of Drama under the tutelage of stalwarts of the theatre world. The holy grail of the family was the Civil Services, and those occupying the higher echelons found this act to be against the norm. While the mother was supportive, the influence of the father carried the day. Consequently, the youngster was compelled to appear for the Civil Services examination.  

Thus the student could not think of any creative solution to pursue his interests and ended up following the beaten path.

 ‘Normal’ people follow certain set patterns and the prevalent herd mentality. The quintessential uniqueness of individuals is eclipsed by the shadow of traditional mores of mediocrity. One does not discover any freshness or spring in their steps and they bear a tedious template. The mind of a normal person does not stretch and is invariably ossified. Such people barely exist to survive and are perhaps not intellectually honest to themselves.

Their entire lifetime which is determined by indoctrination gets lost in the sandbox of commonplaceness where emotions like beauty, pain, joy and anguish all appear to be the same. Such individuals do not listen to their inner voice and cannot be catalysts of change or inner metamorphosis.

‘Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualise not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualising the impossible, they begin to see it as possible’, writes Cherie Cartier Scott.

Certainly not all individuals can be monks but while being ‘normal’ humans are blessed with path breaking ideas and thoughts which enable them to charter a different course in life. It is up to each of us to take the first step in that direction.