Ostrich Syndrome

More than three decades of teaching in dental schools that had students of various nationalities gives some definite surprises, mostly very pleasant ones! We have been fortunate to visit some countries and wherever I am lecturing or giving a course, somebody would come and ask with a beaming face, ‘Madam, do you remember me? I was your student.’ I derive so much happiness from seeing my students well settled in life.

Many of them would insist that we should visit their house or at least have a meal with them. Sometimes old friends happen to see flyers of my course. They would manage to get my contact from the organizers and come to meet. Occasionally we have been taken on a long drive to their home for a lovely dinner!

As in other aspects of life, here also there is the other side. People, who are usually in touch with us, when we tell that we are visiting their country, suddenly will go underground. There will be no trace of them and they can’t be contacted. This behavior I found typically associated with two countries. In one of this, many professionals project a different picture of their lifestyle, but actually they are leading a tough life, driving cabs and doing something similar. I happen to see Indian dentists serving as assistants to the local dentists. Naturally they don’t want us to see the actual situation.

In the other country, people have insatiable hunger for materialistic wealth that they are always under stress and lack inner happiness. So they don’t want to take friends home. That is perfectly alright. The problem is, they will say, ‘Now that you have come here, you should definitely visit our home too’, not once, but many times, and no action will be taken. I find this very amusing and call it the ‘Ostrich syndrome’.

Ostrich Syndrome is denying or refusing to acknowledge something that is blatantly obvious as if your head were in the sand like an ostrich. Another definition of ostrich syndrome is ‘A peculiar condition marked by the person making absolutely nonsensical statements displaying pure stupidity and lack of common sense akin to an ostrich with the head in ground’.

Meditation and surgery

An enthusiastic youth came to discuss things related to spirituality. He is interested in meeting people on spiritual path, is a voracious reader, and incorporates many lessons into life. He was attuned to Reiki at a very young age, too young an age that he did not follow up the self healing practice.

‘I do meditation, but I don’t believe that you have to sit in a specific pose and all.’

That sentence set me on thinking track. Since he is a medical student, I thought in terms of that profession. As a doctor, one does surgery. For the surgery to be successful, a lot of stringent preparations are done. The operation theatre is disinfected, the doctors spent ample time to scrub their hands and the instruments are sterilized with great care.

Imagine a war scene. As many wounded soldiers are brought in, sometimes surgery is done in compromised situations. Because the priority is different in that situation. We cannot take that as the standard.

I see a similarity here with meditation. Meditation just happens, we cannot do it. We have to create a congenial atmosphere for it to happen. Some of the earliest written records of meditation (Dhyana), come from the Hindu traditions of Vedantism around 1500 BCE. The Vedas discuss the meditative traditions of ancient India. Just like surgical textbooks give guidelines, our sages, especially Sage Patanjali has given guidelines to prepare for meditation through their experiences with the Divine.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra outlines the eight limbs of yoga, guidelines for living a meaningful and purposeful life. Dhyana or meditation is the seventh limb, where as asana or posture is the third one. Here, posture means the ability to hold the body still as a prerequisite for deep meditation. The spine is to be kept erect and the body relaxed. A sign of perfection in Asana is said to be the ability to sit still, without moving a muscle, for three hours. Many people meditate for years without achieving any notable results, simply because they have never trained their bodies to sit still. Until the body can be mastered, higher perceptions, so subtle that they blossom only in perfect quiet, can never be achieved.

If somebody is trying to do meditation at the fag end of life, he/she may not be able to keep the body in a relaxed and still posture for extended periods of time. For them, there can be exemptions (just like performing surgery in a war zone). But if one is into the spiritual path from an early age, it really pays to follow what our sages’ wisdom dictates.