Managing Spontaneity

Spontaneity needs to be directed, managed and modulated when being expressed. It is important to be one’s own self. It is important not to wear pseudo masks. It is also important to express your real self. It is even of utmost importance to reduce one’s separateness.

But one has to modulate his spontaneity, based on the audience. Life is an art. One has to keep in mind though that it is not about being deceitful and a fraud. It is also not about being an automaton and a pseudo self. Rather it is about artistically beautifying your expression to the outer world in a form which leads to the following simultaneously –

1.    Expressing your real and authentic self

2.    Expression is done only when asked, and to the right person, who really wants it.

3.    The message is communicated effectively and un-ambiguously.

4.    Spontaneity and expression are two different things. You can be spontaneous, and not expressive. You can remain spontaneous in your inner self, and express the same inside your being, or creating some work of art, like painting, poetry, essays etc. It need not to be expressed to another person. Expressing the same to an outer self is to be done only on demand. And while expressing the same, it has to be stepped down, and modulated based on the state of the recipient.

5.    Separateness is resolved with the recipient, through supreme concern and the orientation of service to the other

6.    Affirmation of the self and the other.

7.    Proper modulation and artistic beautification is done on the expression, so that the recipient gets to understand the expression, and is enriched by the same. This is done from the mind-set of service.

8.    There are many instances when there should be no expression, viz – a circumstance when the expression is not solicited explicitly.

You cannot express Upanishads in its original form to a child. You have to codify the philosophy into an interesting drama as the Puranas, or the epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana, to pass your message to the child. Codifying is the modulation I am talking about. The most important thing to remember while modulation is keeping one’s real self intact, and having the spirit of service to the recipient.

You have to remember life is not about forcing out, or vomiting our own real self. That is not the spontaneity Erich Fromm is trying to express. There is a very thin line between pseudo act and modulation of the real self for a productive outcome. While modulating the expression, you should keep in mind not to vitiate your real self. And also there are many instances when you should hold on your expressions, and just be quiet. That does not mean you are not in spontaneous activity. You are in spontaneous activity inside your own being, working on your capacities of objectivity, love, humility , compassion, etc (Lotus of spontaneity). Spontaneous activity does not necessarily ask for you to express. Remember the story of the lama who said he had compassion for his jailor. He did not go and hug the jailor, or said to the jailor – “I love you”, to express his spontaneous real self, to reduce his separateness, although he felt the same in his inner being. He rather chose to be quiet, and silently express his one-ness with the jailor, forgiving him for his wrong doings.

It is always to be kept in mind that expression and spontaneity are two different things. Spontaneity is your inner state of being. You don’t express your inner high voltage real self as is, at any moment you wish to. People would get confused. They have their own needs, fears and personality make up, as you have your own. Men are alike, for they share the human situation and its inherent existential dichotomies; they are unique in the specific way they solve their human problems. The infinite diversity of personalities is in itself characteristic of human existence. If you express out the spontaneity in its original form, that will lead to more separateness. People will shun you, as this is against the principle of letting the other affirm themselves. You always have to keep changing your expression based on the context. Sometimes you might have to stop your expression to them, and continue to express to the self using poems, paintings and essays, as spontaneity is not always about being expressive to others. It stars from being expressive to one’s own self.

There is not division between love for one’s own people and love for strangers. The condition for existence of the former is the existence of the latter. It is not having an inner circle with whom you are real self and with others you are pseudo self. The idea is that when you interact with others – both your own and others, it should be driven by a productive orientation, based on service for the other. This enables one to enter into a spontaneous activity, which helps one to affirm one self and affirm other. This also enables the real self to develop and discover its innate strengths and potentials. Expression is creation. It has to yield a productive and beautiful outcome, in the eyes of the world.

One has to actively snap oneself out of narcissism. One has to be oriented exocentrically, to be able to be spontaneously engaged with man and nature, enabling oneself to realize himself, and the other. This is the secret of happiness, creativity and living one’s own self fully.   

Expressing oneself is the usage and expenditure of one's psychological capital. You should not keep expressing each and everything that spontaneously comes in your mind. That is crass. Rather one should live an artistic life. Expression should be beautified to really express one's own real self. Most of the times, we are rising and falling in the elevator of the 7 fold constitution, from Sthula to Atma. The real self is the full expression of the Manas, Buddhi and the Atma, through ones own reason and sensuous capacities. This needs enough homework to be done on ones own ideas and opinions. So, modulation is a very important step before the expression is out in the world.

I have tried to express this philosophy in the form of the following diagrams -
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/2012/01/philosphy-of-my-life.html
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/2012/01/modulations-of-expression.html
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/2012/01/copy-right-all-rights-reserved-samrat.html

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