Acharya Prashant explains that this applies to all of us. We have a problematic power, which is the power to consider whatever is happening as normal. Whatever is going on, we have the power to normalize it. We consider what is normal to be right, and what is common to be true. He gives an example of someone commenting on a video that called for change, saying, "Accept the new normal." This is a spontaneous tendency that happens to everyone. We start to believe that whatever situation we are in is the right one. You can call this conditioning or acclimatization. The body has this power to a certain extent; for instance, when you enter a dark room, your eyes adjust. This power is necessary for the body's survival, but we have misused it for the mind. We have told the mind to accept whatever is happening as right. Consequently, no opposition or shock arises from within. When everything seems to be going right, why would there be a shock? However, what we think is going right is only imaginatively right; in reality, it is not. When imaginations collide with the facts of life, they shatter like glass. Then, suddenly, a strong shock is felt. This happens suddenly and forcefully because the small, daily shocks that we should have been receiving were not being felt. We don't feel these small shocks because we have developed mental shock absorbers. We have created a system to ensure that we don't feel the consequences of our wrong actions. The speaker mentions that the entire game is about letting things continue as they are. This misplaced mental normalcy becomes a mental disease. The current culture is built on three pillars: happiness, consumption, and motivation, which are all interconnected and act as shock absorbers against the reality of life. Life is constantly ready to teach you through the small, daily signals it gives. We should not disregard these signals. We should not be unwilling to face the healthy, daily shocks of life. If we were to experience these small shocks, we would be saved from the bigger shocks of life. But we are not ready to face them. We have a strong, false claim that we know, we are right, and everything is fine. When we are not ready to be reprimanded by our well-wishers, life kicks us. Then we feel it is an injustice. You are not a victim; you have not been paying the price for years, and life has collected the price with interest in one installment. This is not an injustice. The speaker's work is to break this system of normalization and avoidance.
