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Dear
Ali, I am impressed by your honesty. sincerity and
integrity. Let me share some of my ideas about Human Personality.
In my
opinion every child is born with a NATURAL SELF. Like plants, (a mango
plant is different than an orange}, human children also have unique
tendencies and temperaments.
As
children grow NATURAL SELF grows in two ways.
Part of
it becomes CONDITIONED SELF by the conditioning of the family, community
and culture,
while the other part becomes CREATIVE SELF, depending upon
the motivation and nurturing of the creative potential.
As
adults we try to balance CREATIVE SELF / CONDITIONED SELF.
Those
people whose CREATIVE SELF is suffocated by the CONDITIONED SELF suffer emotionally.
In my
clinic that I call CREATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY CLINIC I encourage my
patients to review their conditioning and develop their CREATIVE SELF so
that they can find a new balance and lead a healthier and peaceful life.
I am a
great admirer of Buddha and impressed by some of his teachings. I
sometimes feel uncomfortable with those mystics who want to leave
their families and communities for long periods of time to become monks.
For me such RAHBANIAT is part o avoidance and escapism. Buddhism and other
mystic traditions focus more on individual peace but do not discuss how to
resolve social and political conflicts. It is hard for two friends, lovers
and rivals, even political parties and nations, to resolve conflicts
without getting emotionally involved. I believe we can find inner peace
while still living in our communities and finding ways to serve. For me
finding personal peace and social peace are inter-connected. It is an art
to find ways to resolve personal, social and political conflicts
peacefully. I call it Green Zone Living.
Now
that I am exploring my library to find my collection on Faiz, I am pleasantly surprised to find a
long, incomplete article I wrote a few years ago in Urdu about Faiz. Maybe I will type it myself (nearly 50
pages) to get into the mood again. I want to ask you one question. I have
great regard and respect for Faiz but I
would like to explore the dark side alongside the bright side of his personality.
I know he is your grandfather. Would you be okay when I share my views
about his conflicts or explore his romantic life, the way I explored
romantic lives of Iqbal, Freud, Marx and
Mandela?. The reason I am asking this is that I do not want to offend you
in any way.
affectionately,
sohail
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