Pick your poison

 Introduction

    During my usual quiet walk, a thought occur and engulfed me. And I kind of lost myself for some time in it. It was a meaningful thought. It was powerful, a shift in perspective, something I foresee will prove helpful in the future when I re-read it. So I have decided to jot it down here for my future self and share it with others as well. Let me try to explain it in as simple words as I possibly can.

    The human population just crossed the 8 billion mark. We can categorize all of us in many, many ways including religion, race, nationality, age, gender, height, weight, color, wealth, IQ, etc But these are inherently divisive. It doesn't do a good job of showing us the commonality among us. Well, from the fundamental point of view, we are all one (a mixture of five elements) but how many of us truly experience it? I am not interested in just saying it. 

    Being honest, being candid I can't ignore but notice a division the moment I open my eyes. So how can I describe our division, especially from the spiritual perspective, and not hurt anyone's sentiment? And after giving it enough thought, I will like to divide us, humans, into Cat-Sheep and Cat-Wolf.  Just two categories, intentionally. Do not jump to conclusions just yet. Before I make my point and we deep dive into these two, let me give you a bit of the context. So that we are on the same page. 

    All humans crave, directly or indirectly, joy and peace and comfort and security and ultimately the end goal of being in union with the divine forever, some call it nirvana. But the name doesn't matter. So let's call this "X". And from this point of view, we are all seeking the exact same thing. But the paths we choose to achieve this "X", are different. Quite different. A huge variety of paths exists which enhances the confusion and the illusion that we are all so different from each other. But even though there are many, many paths, we can safely group them into just two categories. One category of path let's call "Cat-Sheep" and the other one "Cat-Wolf". 

    Now humans walking on both categories of paths are injecting poisons into themselves. I want you to picture a drug addict tying his or her left arm and then putting a needle in. The drug addict injects a poison that we can see and touch. But the kind of poisons I am referring to are the ones that are not visible. Regardless, humans walking on both paths inject a variety of poisons(mostly in their mind) with the hope to achieve "X" but it doesn't sustain for long. 

    At times we are injecting these poisons intentionally, as we are trained to do so by society, the environment we live in, etc. And at times cause others to manipulate us to do so, so that they can achieve "X". Think of governments, advertisements, movies, posts on social media, blogs (including this one, for sure), etc I am hoping you got the context, if not please stop and re-read until this point becomes clear before continuing further. And once you are ready, let's jump in.

Cat-Sheep

    Humans choosing any path to achieve "X" that falls in this category are: 

• Comfortable with "following the herd"
• Satisfied with menial things.
• Do not question
• Afraid of debating
• Feared of being alone
• Following commands is comfortable.
• Hopelessly lost, are aware of it as well
• Not willing to do anything on their own
• Unaware of their ignorance
• Not willing to deep dive
• Not asking hard questions,
• Not looking for the fundamental truth,
• Not looking for deeper meaning,
• Choosing to stay numb toward the reality
• Seeking pleasure at all times
• Take short cuts and if it doesn't exist dream about one
• Outwards facing (not inward facing)
• Not intuitive or attentive
• Loses focus easily
• Get distracted easily
• Easily influenced by others
• Easy to be manipulated
• Lost in momentary pleasure and comfort
• Loves to latch on to the easiest solution offered by anyone
• Cat-wolf followers alarmed them all the time to wake up time and again.
• A great audience for Cat-wolf followers but never strive to become one themselves.

Percent Split = Heavy majority(~90%) of the population

Poisons Preferred by Cat-Sheep followers:

• Alcohol
• Drugs
• Cigarettes
• Social Media
• TV
• Media
• Movies
• Porn
• Junk Food
• Following/Fan of
• Movie Stars
• Sports
• Celebrities
• Standup Comedians
• Musicians
• Politicians
• Follows Fashion Trends
• Loves Shopping

Cat-Wolf

    Humans choosing any path to achieve "X" that falls in this category are: 

• The path of the wolf is the path of the lone wolf.
• On the hunt.
• Always watching.
• Always hungry.
• Always alert.
• Always ready to be alone and go on long tiring hunts.
• Conscious of their ignorance
• Striving to be aware
• Can't stay at shore, deep dive all the time
• Always asking hard questions,
• Always on the lookout for the truth,
• Feeling uneasy and not at home and wanting to find a deeper meaning,
• Choosing NOT to stay numb toward the reality
• Seeking a very low minimal pleasure and comfort
• Cat-Sheep followers get attracted to and listen to them with great interest.
• Inward facing most of the time

 Percent Split = Small minority(~9.99%) of the population

 Poisons Preferred by Cat-Wolf followers:

• Reading deep meaningful books
• Writing
• Listening and following a Guru
• Meditation
• Yoga
• Staying aloof
• Silence
• Solitude
• Challenging status quo
• Hates being told what to do
• Always on high alert for being manipulated
• Avoid being influenced by others
• Avoids being distracted

Notice poisons preferred by Cat-Wolf followers are less harmful than the ones preferred by Cat-Sheep sure but they are still poisons. And when I say poison I mean any device that encourages, enhances, increases or doesn't kill "attachment". An attachment of any kind is the root cause of our problems. It will block us from achieving that "X" that we all are striving for and even if we achieve it, it is only momentary, it's fleeting. Stays for a while and then disappears. And we need to start from scratch and make another attempt, find another path, pick another poison to achieve it back, and so on.

Anyways, now that we know about both Cat-Sheep and Cat-Wolf, hmm, it feels like something is still missing. And I will be lying and leaving this concept/perspective/thought incomplete if I stop here and ignore it. To explain the core of insight I will need to add one special category. You see just Cat-Sheep and Cat-wolf followers don't make up the whole of the human population. Even when we combined them we get 99.99%. So there is this one additional category, let's call it "Cat-Lion" to make it even 100%. This category of paths is followed by the rarest among us but they do exist. So let's try to understand this as well before I conclude.

Cat-Lion

    Humans choosing any path to achieve "X" that falls in this category are: 

• Free of ignorance
• Conscious even in sleep
• Not attached to anything
• Have huge following
• Thinks from first principles
• Question everything
• Understands fundamental truth
• Explains the deeper meaning of everything quite easily
• Not afraid of being alone for very long periods
• In love with Silence

Percent Split = Minority(~0.1%) of the population

Poisons Preferred by Cat-Lion followers: 

• Chooses what they want to do but not get affected by it

Conclusion

    You can be in any of the three categories at any given time. It's your choice. But just be aware of the poison you are injecting. It's extremely difficult to not pick any poison, especially in this internet age. Be conscious about these and pick them wisely. Take time, let this sink in. It's not very difficult to understand this concept but to start living by it will take effort. Attachments (also known as Maya) aren't easy to get rid of. It's sneaky and full of tricks. We need a vigilant mind. Laser focused. But this is not impossible. It's a journey. It's a process. It's a path. It's a path of consciously choosing to spend a lot of time being a Cat-Wolf follower and then eventually progress to a Cat-lion.

    Please don't stick to the exact words I have used here and get stuck. They are just pointers. Try to see the bigger picture that they are pointing to. Also, be aware that we humans can be in Cat-Sheep and then in Cat-Wolf and back to Cat-Sheep all in the same day within a short time. But largely to categorize ourselves we can think from the "majority of the time" perspective. So on any given day where do you spend the majority of your time, which poisons are you injecting yourself with, that's your category.

    I am not sure if I am the first one to think of it at all. But I am very sure I am not the last one. I know reading this over the coming years will guide me and I hope this will help you as well.

    Peace, Love, and Light to all of you.

    Thank you for reading.