The ageing heavily bearded seer adjusted His glasses revealing the dark marks where the glasses must have rested for a long time. There was a divine tranquility about him. He spoke like one who had been with the gods, and that’s what I had come to seek….wisdom.
“Son, the common notion is that a genius is an extraordinary being, a unique creature capable of solving the most complex of problems, and come up with near weird scientific jargon…with excellence. The truth though is that we all came from the same source… Leaves of one branch, the drops of one sea, the flowers of one garden. No one is a child of a lesser god; no one is a lesser being. We all bear our own type of genius, waiting to be stirred up to rise up and accomplish the extraordinary…with excellence.”
Notice the common ending… ‘Excellence’. That’s where genius take everything they put their hands on.
I didn’t want to miss anything this wise man had to say. I reached for my recorder and held it up. “sir, do you mind” He agreed. I pressed the record button. He continued. “…one is not born a genius, one becomes a genius. Some are born with their genius active, the rest have to activate their genius. Genius is mental energy first of all, then physical, emotional and spiritual energy. It is the gift of finding patterns where others see nothing but a collection of objects” I wanted to put up my hand, the seer was making me feel like a nursery school boy confronting his teacher (I did that once and failed) “would you please elaborate on the part of finding patterns” I requested. He used an example. “Where music genius sees the patterns (arrangement) of the piano keys, able to ‘hear’ the sound of the note before they play them, a science genius sees a collection of black and white keys which make no sense to them. The science genius understands with ease how atoms are bonded (patterned) together in a given compound” I wanted to play that back, but there was no time for that. I only got enough time to glance at my recorder to be sure it was rolling….it was.
“Genius is the transcendent capacity for taking trouble” Reading my face, he offered to explain. “It is the capacity to brood over a subject that interests you until it reveals its full potentialities. To have a strong believe in yourself and the importance of your mission without which energy is dissipated in hesitation and inner conflicts”.
An affair of focused energy
The old wise seer excused himself and disappeared into an adjacent door. He came back with what appeared to me like a thick reading lens. He motioned me follow him as he opened the door leading outside. “Hold out your hand to the sun” I did. “How does it feel?” I was beginning to get confused. “Warm”. “Hold this to the sun and let the emerging ray fall on your hand” he said giving me the lens. Within a few seconds, I couldn’t bare the heat. He took it and directed the emerging ray to some old newspapers and within a few minutes…He lit a fire! “This is a convergence lens. It focuses the scattered rays from the sun to one point. The same sun rays which felt just warm turned hot and lit a fire. It is the principle of focused energy. Genius is an affair of focused energy” I was beginning to understand, I reached to my pocket and my recording device was still active. “Originality, intelligence, motivation, ability, creativity and patience focused on a specific discipline of interest can lead to a spark that lights up the genius in everyone, thrusting them into the realms of the extraordinary.
The world is waiting for the manifestation of the extraordinary – The sons of God.
“… Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them. The ‘sleeping genius’ can be awakened in three ways. First is opportunity. Bill gates, the Microsoft genius had the extraordinary opportunity of being in a computer room when the first minicomputer kit landed in 1975. He seized the opportunity, worked very hard and his efforts were rewarded. Bill Joy saw this little window too, quit his plans to pursue biology and this opportunity gave him the chance to write the supporting code for the internet! Genius can therefore be a product of the opportunities the world you grow up offers. Second is tragedy. Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it with them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth. It’s a paradox how the worst sometimes brings out the best in people. It’s like cutting an orange to squeeze out the sweet juice. Ask Joe, the business genius in your state and he will tell you the best thing that ever happened to him was when he lost his job and was forced to focus on the only love of his life…business. But the way I advocate for is one of placing a demand on self. This is deciding that what you love to do is what you MUST do with or without any external pressure and focus on that. Marshal all efforts and work hard towards excellence. Be the one to pressure yourself to meet your own set deadlines, have an inner drive to accomplish every task you start…and you will be provoking your genius to manifest”
We were walking down on his flower garden. He stopped and looked at me straight in the face… “Son, time is not in our favor, but if there is one thing you must put to memory it is this… The real people of genius were resolute workers, not idle dreamers” With that, seer gave me a firm goodbye handshake.
I wanted to be alone to replay that.
