Empathy, Education, and Environment: Factors Influencing Decision-Making || Acharya Prashant (2024)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 18.05.2024, VBC, Greater Noida  Context: Ethical Awakening: The Catalysts and Barriers to Change From Awareness to Action: Understanding Ethical Decision-Making The Paradox of Knowing: Exploring the Psychology of Ethical Inaction Beyond Knowledge: Unraveling the Mystery of Behavioral Change The Complexity of Conviction: Why Some Act Ethically While Others Remain Indifferent The Moral Dilemma: Bridging the Gap Between Awareness and Action  ~ What is the biggest barrier in the direction  of change? ~ What is psychology the ethical inaction? ~ How far can the change brought about by morality go? ~ What is the relation between awareness and action? ~ How will real change come?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~ #acharyaprashant

Transcript

00:00I've been listening to you since 2020, and for the past four months, I joined the session.

00:15And thank you so much for the Rohit for doing his due diligence that make sure that we are

00:20consistent with the attendance.

00:25And I've been reflecting on a point that you made about that we share since we keep

00:31a capacity and the ability to make moral decisions.

00:35It has led to me that wonder why it's for some individuals, a single incident can catalyze

00:41a profound shift where their ethical action, sorry, I'm really nervous.

00:47Whereas for other even presented with the overwhelming evidence for mass production

00:52of animal consumption, or destroying our planet, they remain entrenched in their current

00:58behavior.

00:59For an example, for me, a single incident was made me decision that I have to go vegan.

01:07And I need to do as much as I can to my capabilities to protect the environment and spread their

01:14awareness.

01:15So for some people, there is some data outside, and they watch all these documentaries, still,

01:23they say, I'm in the process.

01:24But in this process, they continue to continue to like, moving toward destruction.

01:33So I just wanted to know that, in what factor in your view contribute to this kind of disparities

01:39that they know that they're causing all the problems and suffering, but they still continue

01:45to do that.

01:46So I just can't comprehend sometimes, because even if my within my family, that no matter

01:53how much I tried to convince them, they don't want to listen.

01:59The most they will say that maybe you have studied so much.

02:02That's why they are the most popular yet.

02:07See, the reason is just diversity in Prakriti.

02:16There is physical conditioning, and there is social conditioning.

02:23There is no other reason.

02:30You can raise an animal, take an example, you can raise an animal on a diet that's not

02:39stapled to it.

02:43And the animal for the sake of its survival might adjust to this kind of non-staple diet.

02:54But even then, years later, if one day for the first time the animal gets a chance to

03:05return to what it's biologically made for, it will immediately take the opportunity.

03:17And then you will say, see, some people learn with such little instruction.

03:29They are so eager and prompt to take the cue.

03:35It's coming a bit from their body.

03:39And similarly, it can come from all the mental stuff that we absorb over the years.

03:48Different people have gone through different experiences, and that changes their receptivity

04:01towards improvement.

04:06So these two things are there, but what overrides both the physical and the social conditioning

04:16is your capacity, your desire to really change, be free, be liberated.

04:27If that is there, then it does not matter how strong your bonds of conditioning are.

04:38And that again is something you cannot always dictate.

04:44That desire to be uplifted is a matter of love.

04:48And it cannot be dictated, commanded, cultivated, organized.

05:00If it happens, it happens.

05:02It's a matter of the person's choice.

05:05So these two plus one factors are there.

05:10How you are from the body, how you have been receiving your experiences since birth.

05:22And the third point is somewhat of a mystery.

05:27Is there love in your heart?

05:30Do you want to make difficult choices?

05:34These three things are there.

05:38What to do then if people do not listen?

05:41What to do if they are very strongly physically and socially conditioned and are showing very

05:47little evidence of any spark of love?

05:53The answer is a bit similar to the one that I gave to our previous participant.

06:02Please defocus.

06:05So aim is to save the animals, not just to improve your family.

06:18Your love is directed towards animal welfare, not family welfare.

06:25And animals are being consumed by seven billion people on this planet, more than that.

06:37Why target only four or five of your family members?

06:43Why not work in a more general way?

06:48Maybe there are people right at the edge, just waiting to be converted.

06:58Low-hanging fruits, as we call them.

07:02Why not pick them first?

07:07As they say, what's the point flogging a dead horse?

07:11There are people who might not listen to you their entire life, even if you break your

07:15head against them.

07:20And a fraction of that energy, if invested on the right candidate, would have yielded

07:24far better results.

07:27We want to save animals.

07:31We don't want to just save a few of our family members from wrongdoing.

07:44So that's the way to go and remember in the three points that we said, a fellow can be

07:52blamed only for the third one.

07:55Only the third one is a choice and it's a very sovereign choice.

08:03For point one and two, that person cannot even be blamed.

08:07Who has control over his physical composition?

08:13You cannot turn a lion vegetarian.

08:16I'm not saying you cannot turn a human being vegetarian, but just to make a point.

08:26So it's a very strong thing, physical conditioning.

08:30People are made differently.

08:31Diversity is Prakriti.

08:34Some people will always be outliers without any credit or offense to them.

08:44It's just a thing of normal distribution.

08:48Yeah, so my question along the line was, it was not more so for just the family member.

08:57Can you hear me?

09:00It was not just for the family member.

09:03I kind of gave up on them.

09:05They will come along when they come along.

09:07It was more for, so since I became vegan, I started the animal rights movement in New York City.

09:15So we do a lot of campaigning and Christ's Pharisee was also was showed in local theater.

09:24And I saw you too.

09:25I was so excited to see you.

09:27So after that, we conducted a little survey among the people that why people wanted to,

09:34the facts are out there, but they just completely wanted to deny it.

09:38They are afraid to see the facts.

09:40And at the same time, they're like they're in the process.

09:42So that was more towards like the overall general population that they know whatever they are doing, it's wrong.

09:50But they still wanted to continue.

09:52But for some people, it's easy to see the facts.

09:55Just for me, like I saw, so I was not vegetarian.

09:58I used to consume chicken occasionally.

10:01And when I adopted a cat, the question came to me that how can I love my cat,

10:08but at the same time, I'm consuming a chicken or a fish.

10:12So that decision, like overnight, I completely made a decision that to go vegan.

10:17But for some reason, for other people, it's not easy.

10:21Even they went to the theater, they saw the movie and they saw the history,

10:26but still it's difficult for them.

10:31When you say other people, the other people are an entire spectrum.

10:36I talked of the normal Gaussian distribution.

10:40Catch those who are relatively more ready currently.

10:49Start there.

10:50What else can be done?

10:51You see, if we reach out to so many million people, in fact, a billion,

11:04and then this conversation becomes possible.

11:12Filter after filter after filter ultimately yields a handful who are ready.

11:20And that's the nature of this process.

11:24It starts slowly and then gains disproportionate momentum, rises exponentially.

11:35The first few wins are always extraordinarily difficult.

11:44And then you do not even realize when the tide has turned your way.

11:50It happens.

11:52The point is to just keep working without letting sentiments impede your energy.

12:05You have to be very logical in this.

12:08Emotionality and logic do not go together, but compassion needs a lot of logic.

12:18When you are compassionate, then you will be brutally logical.

12:26And you will say it's about saving animals and let me see what is the best way to save

12:34them.

12:35If this fellow doesn't want to listen, I'll speak to somebody else.

12:40I look at the data, I'll analyze it and I'll figure out the segment that's going to be

12:44more receptive.

12:45I'll approach them.

12:48I'll do all my maths and I'll be very scientific in the way I need to approach them.

12:59We do that every day.

13:00We know how tough it is.

13:02I'm not trivializing your problem.

13:03I understand.

13:04But I also know how to go about it, or a little bit of it, within my limits.

13:14I mean, a 0.1% success rate, we don't mind that.

13:29Even those who fill up the form to get connected to the courses run by the foundation, even

13:40among them, the ones who really opt in, the rate is 3%, 5%, 10% if we are lucky.

13:54And we know it's going to be that way.

13:59That's the rule of the game.

14:02You could as well say, I don't want to play the game.

14:04But if you want to play the game, then you'll have to play by the rules.

14:10These are the rules.

14:15Just keep throwing the ball at the wall.

14:23It does happen that something called quantum tunneling.

14:32One particular attempt, the ball goes through.

14:38Waiting for that day.

14:41And call also rhymes well with all this.

14:44One particular attempt, the call goes through.

14:54Just keep trying.

14:55There is no other way.

14:57You cannot not try.

14:59You have to just keep trying.

15:00There is no other way.

15:03Use all your resources, all your mental acumen, all your education, all your logical ability.

15:10Assess it to the service of the right cause.

15:17We have no space for disappointment.

15:20Disappointment is an energy dissipator.

15:23And you will have massive reasons to be disappointed.

15:27It's very important to not to let that disappointment consume your energy.

15:37Stephanie, continue to try and then you are the strength behind all of us, the young generation

15:48to make a difference.

15:50And being a health care provider, I try my best to give them that you really don't need

15:56all these animal products to keep yourself healthy.

16:02But again, it's just really hard.

16:05This is the society and they've been conditioned, especially in the U.S.

16:08Like you will see a laughing cow picture on the cheese marketed or laughing pig on a fork.

16:17So it's hard.

16:18It's because they don't know where the food is coming from.

16:21So it's really hard to show the real picture.

16:23So the thing we can try to educate people that, especially the little kids, ask yourself

16:29where the food is coming from, see the reality, and then you make a difference.

16:33Then you make a decision that whether you wanted to choose the right or wrong.

16:38So this is the strategy.

16:40It will show results, but in its own way, we do not know how and in which way things

16:50will fructify.

16:52Just keep doing the right thing.

16:54Just keep doing that.

16:55If you're doing the right thing, it is impossible that the right results won't come, but they

17:00don't always come in ways we expect.

17:04So don't expect.

17:06Just do.

17:12Continue to fight.

17:13I'm glad.

Category

Transcript

Recommended