Advertisement
Published: September 30th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Waterfall
this is on the way to Cochin My ten day road trip comes to an end! I’ve been travelling for ten days across South India and I love it. I feel immersed in their culture. It’s offseason now so the people don’t see a lot of travelers, thus, I’m like the center of their interest. I make about 15 friends per day, hahaha, they all just run up to me, shake my hand and try to talk. At first, it’s kind of tiring for me because that’s a lot of people but then it becomes fun because they are all so friendly.
The power to ignore is the path to inner peace I saw this quote the other day and it helped me understand the meaning of ignore. I always perceived the word ‘ignore’ as a negative connotation, but this quote really changed the way I thought about it. To be able to control what you can ignore is a really difficult task. If you can ignore what everybody ever says about you, then you can truly be ‘yourself’. But it’s almost impossible to ignore what people say and that’s when we become self-conscience. If somebody called you a watermelon because you look fat in green,
House Boat
These are the houses on boats. Allapey is famous for this tourist stuff... it was wayy too touristy for me so i skipped it you may never wear green again, even though it’s your favorite color! You’re just being affected by external factors. Other people get really heated up because they don’t like somebody else’s opinion and go as far as murder to prove a point (religion or politics). I think the best way to confront differences is by embracing it. But the truth of the matter is, some differences just can’t be embraced. Some Hindus refuse to embrace the idea of Islam where there is only one god, Allah. So I think the next best thing would be to just ignore the differences. There is no need to get all mad about somebody else’s thoughts, just ignore it. If you refuse to embrace something completely, try ignoring the differences and then you can find inner peace. If you love someone, then you should accept their flaws and if you can’t accept it, then at least ignore their flaws. Like I said, the power to ignore is hard because most relationships come to an end when one of them tries too hard to change the other person.
To have the power to ignore is different from being ignorant. To be ignorant means you
neglected to know the truth. For example, you are ignorant when you say that a Jamaican and an African are the same because of the fact that they are both black. However, if you reach for the truth to find out that the two cultures are very different, then you are not ignorant anymore but a little more enlightened. On the other hand, to ignore can mean to know the truth and not mind it. The phrase, ‘Ignorance is bliss” is interpreted differently by everybody and most people believe it to be, “It’s better NOT to know the truth” But how is that in any way ‘blissful’? I think what it means is that you should strive to know truth, no matter how horrible it is and then find the power to ignore the way it affects your feelings.
The power to ignore is the path to inner peace which is kind of like bliss. For example, when I was in Cambodia, there was this tour that would take us to museums and prisons. The tour guide warned us all of the horrific history behind these landmarks and gave us a choice of whether we wanted to hear it or
not. There was a choice to know the truth or not know at all. Some people decided not to know because they felt like the truth would alter the way they looked at humanity, become depressed and have disturbing images in their head when they sleep. They said ignorance is bliss. I wanted to know the truth and when it was revealed to me, I was in pain. I learned the truth of about the torture chambers, the murdering of babies, the sawing of heads and the raping of women… by their own people in the last 25 years. At that time, I wished I chose to be ignorant and not have known so that I wouldn’t have doubts about humanity. But honestly, the truth was the right choice. The very next day, we went to help build houses for the less fortunate Cambodians. And to my surprise, each and every one of them were smiling. The kids had nothing but they still gave me a piece of their candy to share. They were laughing about everything. For the people who chose to be ignorant about Cambodia’s awful history, they just thought the village people were happy people. For me
though, this was like a miracle to see them smiling. I learned the truth about how much pain, hate and torture they had to go through in life and yet, here they were, smiling with joy. For these people to overcome all their painful endeavors and come out smiling, it completely restored my faith in humanity again. If they can be happy, why can’t I? I chose to know the truth, regardless of the pain it caused me. Ignore the pain but not the truth. And if you try to find the truth and you can’t find it, just ignore the pursuit and let it go or else you’ll become obsessed with it.
One more point about ignoring. If you have the power to ignore, then it is almost like ‘instant forgiveness’. All of us have at least one friend who just says the most stupid and insensitive things at times. Sometimes, it’s just best to ignore his comments instead of arguing and trying to change him because in the end, it’s so hard to change others. Ignore the friend because you love him and you know he’s just a fool. Ignoring your friend is like instant forgiveness, so
On top of motorboat
I sat on top of a motorboat to meditate, never done it before so i tried it out! try it sometime instead of aggressively trying to get your point across to him.
I really wish I had the power to ignore because there is so much outside factors affecting me. I want to be able to ignore what people say about me. I mean, TRULY ignore it so that it doesn’t affect me at all. Think about how many times you wanted to do something but you were held back because you worried what other people would think. I also want to ignore some of my own thoughts that I have of other people. But try as I may, I can’t control my thoughts about others and it’s not fair to them. I can control my mouth, that’s why I don’t talk bad about others, but I want to take it to the next step where I don’t even think the bad things. Meditation definitely helps control the mind and I am going to keep doing it until I find the power to ignore. And if you disagree with me about my philosophy, just ignore this babbling fool and I know you’re doing it out of love! haha, But atleast leave me a comment so I know
you're doing alright!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 33; dbt: 0.0321s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
excdnpara
Brent Ashton
hello
Thanks for the blog. I am planning on going to India and China in two years to visit where the World Honored One had got enlightened and then plan to see the Buddhist Monasteries in China. Thanks for the great blog and remember what the Buddha had said- "All conditioned things are impermanent- When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification" Take care! With Respect, Brent