Om Mani Padme Hum

- Imee Ooi

We were at the zoo yesterday… for a good part of the trip, I found myself curious as to whether zoos were an actual necessity. I wondered if it was ethical to be keeping these animals in captivity… for what seemed to be a frivolous reason - human entertainment.

But then I started thinking about why we have the need to watch the outside world so much… I found that, undoubtedly, human beings are curious. However, could it be that that curiosity might be displaced?

The word “entertain” started to show up in the English vocabulary in the late 15th century. To entertain means to "keep up, maintain, to keep (someone) in a certain frame of mind". It was used in the sense of having a guest. As in; “I have guests to entertain”.

In today’s world, we have a lot to watch… so many things need our eyeballs. Everything from TV to our phones competes aggressively for our attention. Billboards and ads are constantly buying stock for your gaze, let alone your mind. And when we find ourselves without the entertainment we’re so used to… we turn our gaze to other people - like the animals we see in the zoo. We have a neighborhood watch that doesn’t watch the neighborhood… it watches the criminals.

We are guests in our own lives… ones that need to be entertained or else they get bored, sad, and depressed. We’ve kept ourselves entertained and pacified.

But, what is the alternative? You may ask… 

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” ― Blaise Pascal

I wouldn’t be the first to suggest that it’s time we turned our curious gaze inward. The alternative to our screens would be to look at ourselves. This is different from watching your calories or watching how many footsteps you took today. If I phrase it more correctly, it’s about time we each learned how to take a long-awaited look within ourselves.

I know that this sounds somewhat selfish, to even suggest that one should spend the majority of their time gazing into what might seem to be an abyss… But any endeavour of this kind can never be frivolous, or selfish. This is the pursuit of God or the Infinite… who’s virtue lies thinly in the ability to actually see. When we dedicate the time to watching ourselves, we cultivate the ability to know ourselves more. And it is through this ability to know thyself that we are given the opportunity to better see others around us.

I imagine that with this ability, going to a zoo becomes an entirely different exercise. But, I must watch my words in this regard…

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Watchers Watching The Wrong Things