Have you ever tried being a listener to all the conversations that happen inside? If not, please do. Is it possible? Oh yes, it is.

I am sure all of us have done it a thousand times. But then, when we become aware of this, it becomes so much more fun. 

Just listen to the dialogue that happens inside you. The role play within always has two people.  I would like to call them: the me and the other me. These two characters probably switch places, I don’t know. But there is always a speaker and a listener. The listener responding with a question sometimes or with a word of approval otherwise. There is always one trying to convince the other. There is always one seeking something and the other providing the knowledge. There is the  one who is narrating an incident and other who is eager to hear all about it. There is also the one who is in doubt and the other, encouraging, supporting and giving confidence to the other. 

I wasn’t aware of this, two-people-conversation or dual mode conversation, until recently. Almost a month ago, I got a chance to meet a person who is “different” from most of us. Rest of the society categorises him as a person who is not fit to live a “normal” life in this society. His ways of living did not fall in line with the rules of the society. 

I was listening to the conversation he was having with himself. He spoke and he responded. He asked questions and he answered. He narrated an incident and he acknowledged. He was reading out instructions from a piece of paper and he was correcting himself. He spoke to himself when he sat idle, and he spoke to himself when he walked. It was very funny and intriguing at the same time. 

That “different” person was naive and innocent enough to actually speak his mind. He did not mind being  heard. What people around him heard was actually what was going on in his mind. I wondered if there could be anyone more transparent than him. Scientists who are trying to make mind reading machines could use someone like him to actually test the accuracy of their  machine. 

Moreover, if he actually thinks out loud, then during times when he is quiet, is his mind idle? Wow! That is an achievement isn’t it. Have we ever had that quiet, thoughtless mind?  

This person made me aware of the dual mode of the conversation that happens within me. I just listened and I heard two people. The third party listening experience is something that can probably open up a different perspective to our day to day experiences. 

One key observation that I could make is that all the conversation that happens, all the wisdom that gets imparted and all the plans that get made within me are mostly extensions of what I soak up through my different senses during the day. 

One of the primary questions that it raised in me is, If I am not the speaker or the listener or the person experiencing the speaker and the listener, then what am I? What is the realm of my existence if it is not at any of these?  

I can’t wait for the day when the me and the other me have this conversation and one of them has an answer for this. Until then, it is my job to soak up all the experiences I can, in order for them to figure out an answer. 

Image Courtesy: Pixabay

Older posts from the Inward Journey Series:

Introduction

He Is Everywhere 

Letting Go

Thank You

Relocation

Learn To Hiss

A Musk Deer

Speaking The Mind 

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