Blank Spaces

M. Abdullah Masood

BLANK SPACES

(a way to find

yourself)

MBA -2k8 Nust Business School, Pakistan

“Respect the books and they will give you the respect”. This is the sentence heard by almost every student by his parents or teachers. I don’t know whether they also mean it or not but it seems most of them don’t mean it. Those who believe this quotation should keep their pace with me and those who don’t believe it should think twice and then they have to move with me. Let’s take the example of Calligraphy. Why a calligraphy sample made by a man is different and far more attractive than a sample made by a computer? Why is it paid hundreds of thousands to a painting made by an artist and not to a painting made by a computer graphic designer? A very clear reason is that they are made by humans. An artist knows how to hold a brush while painting and with how much pressure he has to make that brush stroke to make that painting. In other words, he is giving a respect to that brush by knowing each and every characteristic of that brush. In addition, whenever he is making a painting he sits or stands in a particular posture. That means, he is giving the respect to that painting. The way he moves his brush is a particular way and in that way he is giving respect to that words. Every material, every word has a particular feeling and when they feel that they are being respected then they give you the respect. The more you respect your words the more they give you. Have you ever thought why the Sufis are so popular with their poetry or quotes? What if we say the same thing? Here is the difference of knowing what we say! These Sufis actually know the meaning of each and every word of what they say. Let’s make it more confusing and familiar. Why does it happen in exams when you write an answer of a particular question and one of your peers also write the exactly same thing in the answer but yet both of you obtain different marks? We blame teachers of biasness. Well, a study has found that it is not a matter of biasness. It happens at psychological level. The writing of one person synchronizes with the mind of reader and the same thing written by other person does not synchronize. That’s the reason behind the difference in obtained marks of exactly same wording.

Well, we were talking about the words. I don’t know whether it is important or not in our curriculum stuff but for writers it is undoubtedly very important. They must know what, exactly, each and every letter, of the words they are writing, means. Once they know it then they will be able to convey their message more efficiently and more clearly. Take a more complex example, wheat. The farmers say that when we touch the wheat stalk then we touch it in a very soft manner like we are tapping on its back. What if they touch it roughly? There is the difference in the production of the wheat crop in that way. They don’t believe other factors but strongly believe that because we are giving love to our crop that’s why the crop is giving us more production. And that is true. “Respect and you will be respected.” Let’s focus it on ourselves. We need to know the blank spaces inside us. What are blank spaces? Between two brush strokes of a painter there is a blank space. When we write two words then there is a blank space between two words. One note of music ends and other starts, there is a blank space between these notes. We speak two sentences; there is a blank space between those two sentences. Similarly, there are a lot of blank spaces in human’s life. What to do with those blank spaces? The obvious answer is to fill those blank spaces. For example, if we fill the blank space between two words then it will become complex to understand that word. And if we keep on filling those blank spaces then it will be impossible for us to understand the sentences without those blank spaces. So, we are not going to fill them. What are blank spaces in us? We know that there are 24 hours in a day or we know that there are 86,400 seconds in a day. But we don’t know about moments in that day. How many moments are there in a day? A lot, but how much? We don’t know. What if we know those moments! Are we aware of all of those moments? All of us know that we are not aware of all the moments related to our life. But, logically we should be aware of all those moments in our life. They are the moments particularly related to our life and we don’t know them. That means we are not aware of ourselves. These unknown moments are the blank spaces inside us. We know that why there is a blank space between two words. A drum beater knows that why there is a gap between two drum beats. A painter knows why

he is lifting his brush after one stroke. But we don’t know why there are unknown moments in our lives. All of the above things are blank spaces. The next thing which we need to know is how we could be aware of each and every moment of our life. The simple answer is by communicating with ourselves. Once we are able to communicate with our heart then we are able to find the vertex of our heart. You may not to believe it but it is true that once you will find that vertex then its light will guide you in your life. Those who believe on all these things are psychos like me and those who do not believe should stop reading further. There are several ways to communicated with ourselves. Some people do it by dance, others do it by Yoga and there are other ways also. Dance: you have seen the people, with light music, revolving around themselves and putting their head at one side and they keep doing for a long time but never get fatigued. They actually revolve around their heart, their heart being the centre of gravity. When they do so then a force tries to pull them to their heart that is a centripetal force, a scientific term. As a result they are concentrating on their heart. This makes them to communicate with their heart. The others do it in a rhythm with fast music. They take fast steps to keep the rhythm with the music and once they are in rhythm with music then they keep their concentration on their hearts. And get themselves there with their hearts. Yoga: people do it while sitting in meditation, putting their wrists on their knees and concentrating on their hearts. They sit their doing so for one or two hours. Candle: sit in a dark room and lit a candle and keep looking at the flame tip until you feel yourself on that flame and whatever you want to do you can do with that flame without touching it. This is perhaps the time you are in touch with your heart. Mirror: put a round mirror in front of you and see your image in that mirror. You can focus on any point of your image. You can focus on your eyes or on your forehead or your lips or nose. Whatever thing you feel is easy to bear. I think eyes are the most distracting thing so it is hard to see your eyes for a long time. Keep looking that way and after sometime of deep concentration you will find a different person in the mirror. That different person is actually your heart to whom you are going to communicate.

All these activities don’t require more than an hour or one and half hour. Once you are communicating with your heart then the light of your heart will lead you to find the each and every moment of your life. You will actually find that now you are aware of yourself. Perhaps, some people will feel that they are now complete and perfect but completion and perfection is almost impossible. You are now able to know about the blank spaces in our life. Now what will be the effect of knowing these blank spaces? Simply saying, it will increase your efficiency. Once you will be aware of these blank spaces then you will really find that there are unnecessary blank spaces in our life and eventually, being a human being, you will try to reduce those blank spaces. By doing so you will be able to increase your working time and will get more time for your works. And once you know that you have reduced them then you will really feel contented. I have talked about this with some persons but there was confusion in their minds regarding all this. So, I want to clear that confusion. This whole procedure is not a part of Shareeya. You can attribute it a way of life or whatever you want to call it but it is not a part of religion. The things don’t end here. There are always blank spaces and there is always a possibility to reduce those blank spaces. But, things may become complicated. All of us really need to know about blank spaces in our lives. There may be other ways to find them. But whatever way it is, you need to find yourself.