Care is spontaneous
Love, kindness, affection, sympathy, and qualities are how innate divinity manifests in the phenomenal world. The dualists see these acts as god’s ways to purify their souls to get united with him. The non-dualists see this as the only way because there is nothing else apart from ‘Self’ and why would anyone treat thyself otherwise? Whatever the belief system may be, one true thing is that these qualities originate as care for the object in the heart of the subject. Care to ensure physical, mental, or emotional well-being for the very moment of interaction between the two parties or even for some time extended after that.
At a gross level, if we divide our mind as spontaneous and non-spontaneous, we usually refer to the former as the heart. This is the heart that is being referred to in the previous paragraph. It’s spontaneous as there is no past data to be churned to come out with a requisite response and neither is there a forecast model to depict the future events. It sees a hungry begging person on the street and spontaneously ignites care for that person. This feeling of care then may result in subsequent actions of donating some alms, buying him some food, etc.
Care is unconditional
The spontaneous mind, i.e. heart is not acting upon conditions or checkpoints to render an output. In that sense, it can be referred to as unconditional. The heart produces an effect on a certain cause based on its true natural intelligence. In simple semiconductor terminology just like A NOT gate produces an effect of 1 to a cause of 0 because of its natural intelligence, similarly, the heart results in care to a cause of an ailing hungry person on the street. It doesn’t matter if you are a theist, atheist, or agnostic; the spontaneous mind immediately results in care. That’s a different story however when the non-spontaneous mind starts to take control, which we shall discuss in the later sections.
Upon our encounter with another being, his/her state is transmitted to us and our heart immediately feels the pain or happiness. When we see a wounded dog crying in pain, we feel the pain. When we see a child happily playing with her father, we feel happiness. The heart upon feeling the pain of another being generates care and also upon feeling the happiness generates care. Seeing the happiness of a child immediately arouses a care for that child, doesn’t it? Essentially, the spontaneous mind feels what all around us are feeling and that is its true natural intelligence.
Care is unconditional, unaffected by rules and norms, free from mental deductions, and non-imposing. Care takes into consideration the independence and freedom of the object. Care doesn’t undermine the capability of an individual to handle any situation rather it simply offers a helping hand. Care doesn’t want to take control of the situation by driving the individual in a direction of his choice rather it supports in whatever direction he/she wants to go. Care is not fixated on what outcome the individual might arrive at, it’s just a reinforcement of the present act.
The rise of concern
This magnificent phenomenon is short-lived and is replaced by another phenomenon called concern, as soon as the non-spontaneous mind takes over. Now all the past information stored in the brain is churned and whatever variables are needed to safeguard the future are taken into consideration. Post all these mental activities of the past and the future, the mind then gives a response for the present in the form of ‘concern’.
The concern isn’t as divine as care. Care is the manifestation of support towards freedom. However, the characteristic of concern is that as it grows in degree it takes away the freedom of both the subject and the object. The concern is conditional, can get imposing, governed by rules and norms, undermines the capability of an individual to handle his/her, considers that the subject is somehow superior to that of the object, and thus is entitled to dictate the direction for the individual. The more it grows, the more anxious and stressful the subject becomes.
Concern is not all evil
Concern isn’t always a monster. Going back to the example of a beggar on the street, past information of begging rackets & getting scammed, saves the individual from getting duped again. The right amount of concern helps the subject to guide the object, for he/she might not have an appropriate exposure, especially the young ones. At times, it may also be able to prevent any avoidable mishaps from occurring. For example, the right amount of concern may be able to prevent rabies in a person by insisting him/ her take a vaccine.
Call for spontaneity
In our modern world, our minds are filled with such a vast amount of information all the time that the spontaneous part of it is overwhelmingly taken over by non-spontaneity. All we see around us is concern. The mental health of the masses has been compromised due to this. Divinity is becoming rarer by the hour. This entire game of materialism and information economy is unsustainable. It’s a call of the moment to start unlearning and relearning how to live. Care has to take over concern for getting what is our birthright; freedom.
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