there was a young king who was married to a maiden dear to his heart. and both of them were the favorite of the people. then the queen became pregnant, and as common among the women of the rich, the pregnancy and birthing are rather painfully difficult, the beloved queen, too, began to feel nauseated and moody. it made all the residents of the palace as well as the people of the town feel the pains of their favorite queen's pains. it changed the normal routine life of the royal house, and the king began to feel the effects of the interruptions caused by the queen's pregnancy.

feeling disturbed, one morning the king rode out of the palace and entered the woods, but lost as he was in thoughts, lost his familiar trail, and came upon a stream. there he heard some sounds and became alert. he saw a primitive woman walking to the stream. the king became curious. as he was upstream behind a big rock, she did not see him. there on a flat rock she laid down her bundle of roots and fruits, and squatted. soon he heard the first cry of a new born. the woman caught the infant in her palms, and cut the umbilical cord with the knife. then she cleaned the infant in the clear waters of the stream, tied the newborn in her scarf, swung the lively little bundle over her back, and stepping carefully, she walked away in the jungle trail. the king, who was hidden carefully had witnessed the birthing of a human baby. the king was now lost in new thoughts. it was his horse who brought him back to the palace.

though he physically reached in his private quarters, the queen saw that he was lost in deep thoughts. she enquired, and the king narrated what he saw, adding, that both the primitive woman and the queen were about the same age, and that the queen was nearing her due time of delivery. what made him wonder was the difference. there, the woman delivered the baby quite unaided, and without problem, and here was the entire palace throbbing with the pains of the queen's pregnancy!

the queen saw that the king was bewildered with the difference, and not questioning her state of being. but intelligent and understanding as she was, she did not take it ill. after the king had left her quarters, she summoned the palace gardener, and ordered him not to water the rose garden where the king took walks every day. the gardener said, that the king would punish him if he saw the roses being wilted. the queen said, that the king would punish him then, but she would punish him now for disobeying her orders. however, she said, that when the king summoned him, he would tell him that he had acted on the queen's orders.

and that's what happened. now the king went to the queen to demand an explanation for such an unkindly act from a queen known to be kindhearted.

"well", said, the queen, "the cactus blooms in the desert, without anybody nurturing it."

in the buddhist perception, the birth is not what is now considered a birth, usually happening at a hospital, aided and abated by a team of physicians and nurses, including the caesarean section for cosmetic reasons -- "bringing me out by cutting open my mommy's tummy", as explained by a student, resenting "being denied his natural right of entering the world through the birth canal."

there are other canals of birthing passing through which one is born an ecocentric and interactive being.

in the non western sense of knowing as a process has no such one particular moment of the birth of a fixed formed entity. in fact, even in the common knowledge if that were to happen, it would be called a "still birth". there is an ongoing transformation in the phenomenon of appearances caused by the coming together of the various aggregates. its first instance gives the being a form of the matter, the physical form. then the matter expresses creating sensation, the feeling; the infant form wiggles and gives out the cry of pain, giving out the rather pleasant feelings to the mother and the team of medical persons around, not just as an indicaton of the live birth, but that cry further enables the infant in breathing.

birds and brahmans are called twice born. the first birth is of matter, as egg or the physical body, and then the chick pecking from inside, breaks the shell and comes out. similarly, the human form of the being then cracks open the webs of maya, and there is the birth of an aware being. it is a gradual process of knowing further, first through the mouth and mother's tits, then her warmth, then her as distinctly different from others, including the father and siblings; playmates and playthings. then the conceptual things, beings and actions, such as the kindergarten, the teacher, the learning to acquire a nonmaterial form after many more years of force-fed instructions to identify oneself as, and acting as defined by the paper of diploma of identity.

most human beings do not progress in being born beyond this stage, and experience and express their existence only in the acquired form of identity. hence, both the question: 'who are you?' and the answer to it refers to the acquired identity. for instance, presently (in 2014) there are four persons in the u.s., who cling on to the acquired identity of president as ex-president, make a living as retired presidents, and move when touched upon, like a dead snake -- gracing the occasion as the "had been there" person. that is the essence of the hero worship. a hero is a frozen form of a being, who is still performing that wonderful feat -- stepping on the moon surface, climbing the mount everest, winning a battle, a nobel prize, getting a standing ovation performance on stage; all or any of which would feel the same in doing it in the first person by another person, except being recorded in the book of the firsts.

but whether the man called adam or ones being born now, nobody comes last in terms of being formed in the mother's womb, nor do the listening ears rejoice any less hearing the first cry of a new born. not just being born, but everything outside of the conceptual existence happens only once. what flows between the birth and death is the motions of the cosmic dance, where every step, every motion is interactive with the other beings and things around. in the material world, the middle school age girls strive to look and act older in order to have the freedom to enjoy living like characters on the screen, and dressing up like the department store models. but not much later in life they begin to shop for the other commercial products, join spas and yoga classes, and in desperation, opt for the cosmetic surgeries to look younger than their age. "a woman's age begins at 16, then she becomes 17, then 18, then 19, then 19, then 19..." obesrved george bernard shaw, for in his times, women's survival was entirely dependent upon looking good in man's eyes. so the physical beauty was all a woman could wish for. now women are not dependent upon man for the survival. now both women and men are dependent upon the employers giving them the jobs to earn a living. and though women still strive to look young and attractive in man's eyes and parade in the bathing suit to become the beauty queen, now man, too, himself in someone's employ, and not being the provider, has to appear desirable in working women's eyes. so the commerce sector has found more customers for the above the skin macho-man look aids.

this acquired identity then gives birth to the sense of distinction between forms among the same genre, such as all humans share similar elements that are different from other species -- the acquired form of distinction between one person and another. now this is all easily recognized in a formal mode of identity oriented actions. where it is unrecognizable otherwise, there is the uniform and even an identity tag to enable others to respond to in a like manner. and even a famously identified person knows where to reach out for a handshake in the crowd, and where one may expect a negative reaction, such as the ex-presidents bill cilinton and the junior jeorge bush or an ex secretary of state henry kissinger may be tried for the war crimes -- what they did while playing that role.

habit forms a repeated motion, usually of physical nature; and even the thoughts are mere motions of the imprints upon the brains. whatever is repeatedly imprinted upon the brains forms the habit of responding in a like manner. just as a pabble in the shoe is making walking painful, an inconvenient thought makes one think of removing that feeling with another thought. enlarged and expanded this thought with the favorable position of powerful identity then becomes a volition, and even an imposition upon others. not just hitler, but every commander in chief, every head of state or commercial concern, or even the household exercises one's designated authority upon the others who have nothing to do with the personal gain or loss of power of the authority.

evolving thus, passing through the first birth canal, and then from thence, through many gates of knowledge, from kindergarten to the post doctoral studies that take minimum of 16 years and up to 1/3 of one's living in physical form, most people are now commercially induced to live up to the their acquired identities, even in retirements. and even beyond the retirement, there are the last rights of the commerce created culture to be performed, no matter in which modern culture one lives, what religion or concept one subscribes to.

the modern science views this evolutionary process in terms of the olympian relaying of the genes of knowledge from one generation to the next. in it the genetic changes still refer to the thought out need for the survival; elongating the neck or making the honeycomb to store the nectar, or inventing a drone to fight the members of the same species who is only playing a differently scripted role. in all likelihood, any person who is engaged in improving or improvising the prevalent description of the role of the human being had been influenced by the authority figure; and consequently desirous of becoming an authority in others' esteem. alfred nobel invented dynamite, a very powerful tool, but only as a means to his socioeconomic survival. the weapon makers and users were and are still fighting wars of the socioeconomic survival as defined by the mythical father who knew the best. a cultured man is running in the gerbil wheel, so harder he runs the faster the wheel turns, but without enabling him to climb even a step higher.

"the bride marries the physical form of the groom, her mother his character, her father his qualities and all the rest, the feast", observed a sanskrit poet some two thousand years ago. it is not different now, except that, now it is the maiden and her beau set the standards of qualifications. and judging from the official divorce rate at more than 40%, and that does not include those who do not marry and part company, it may be said that, people have not been fully born, with all their sense organs and perceptive senses being alert.

take for example, a monkey in a zoo cage. observe that creature's life from day break to the dark. what is not shown to the public is the function of the zoo keepers related to the caged creatures. they are the equivalent to the teachers from the kindergarten to the graduate school. what you see is the finished form of the function of the caged creatures. the monkey has no say, much the same, as a human employee of any work place has no say. both of them just want to pass the given time at work.

henry thoreau was jailed for not paying poll tax on ground that it would be used to fight the mexican war. in prison he wrote: "the true place for a just man in a unjust society is a prison. is there not a sort of bloodshed when the conscience is wounded? any man more right than his neighbours constitutes a majority of one. i choose only to follow the state to the extent of the universal values. no farther." that is an awareness, that no other human or other forms of being need to be taught and told how to live. mohammad ali, who made his living by beating upon another persons' brains, and getting his brains numb, still knew that the vietcongs were not his opponents in the boxing ring. but his country's president senses danger even when a toddler squeezes in through the fence surrounding the white house, as the incidence recently happened causing a security alarm and media stir. the physical form of a person is not that fragile that can be hurt by a toddler at a distance. but man's identity is not made of the physical matter. so, too, the physical united states is the landmass contained within its borders. but the ideological u.s. has its boundary in distant horizons. so no matter how far away if someone does even utter a word unamerican, the ideologically formal body of the american president feels threatened. now no other creature wears the ideological image of its being. so other things and beings experience no danger when approached or touched by others. deer is a food for the tiger, and yet, deer browse, rest and mate in vicinity of tiger. the deer runs only when ran after by the tiger. wasps and butterflies land on the sweaty arms and foreheads of humans only to drink the sweat. but in the commercially contrived human perception every creature, including a stranger human person is potential harmful to be in the near vicinity.

now no human child receives the sense of fear in genes from birth. so infants and children are drawn to strangers. fear is a learnt trait, and the commerce sector thrives on pampering this fear by selling lotions and potions and guns and bombs and drones to protect one's acquired sense of non material being. this non being is called the ego, the me. enough is enough is not for it, rather, knowing so destroys the acquired identity of being, and reduces one to the plain and simple one as one is. the pope knows what a simpleton is treated like in the modern world. so he wears golden and jewel studded ornaments of symbols on him. the dalai lama loved living in the potala palace until he perceived the threat to his identity as the head of the tibetan buddhist sect, despite the fact, that the buddha himself had renounced the personal identity, including his given name.

a true individual is not a defined somebody in the society. who are you? are you a job title, or like a hermit crab, in search of wearing another robe experiencing the breaks in the stitches at the seams of the present self identity?