"To know another human being in their essence, you don't really need to know anything about them - their past, their history, their story. We confuse knowing about with a deeper knowing that is non-conceptual. Knowing about and knowing are totally different modalities. One is concerned with form, the other with the formless. One operates through thought, the other through stillness." - Eckhart Tolle (Stillness Speaks)
In a country like Israel where many Jews (and their non-Jewish spouses) immigrate the most commonly asked first question people ask when they meet someone for the first time is "Where are you from?". What probably all of them mean by this seemingly naive question is "Where is your physical body from?"
I don't know how many of them are aware that each one of us is a soul that borrows a physical body, and actually all the souls come from (or are parts of) the same one Source.
I've noticed that most of these people start unconsciously labeling others they ask this question. The more they ask them similar questions to know about them, the less they know them in their essence as the above quote explains so succinctly.
I've also noticed that many people, not only in Israel but also probably eveywhere, are obsessed with knowing about others and things in general in order to satisfy their instinctive urge to label them unconsciously. (Some of you may think that I'm labeling them, but this is meta-labeling. ;-) )
When I told my friends and acquaintances in Jerusalem about my plan to leave the city at least for several years, I didn't tell them, except for a select few, my destination so that they might not start labeling my personal "mission" and engaging in rumors. This must have been a torture for some of them, and a few of them even told me so explicitly.
As part of the result of the first series of my awakenings I've gradually come to let go of this obsession, feeling totally fine with not knowing everything possible about everyone and everything. I've even started asking no questions when I meet someone new so that I may not start labeling him or her; I try to feel his or her presence and spiritual vibe instead.
As I continued this practice as well as daily meditation and weekly seclution in nature, during which I try not to conceptualize anything, I've come to have more moments of silence and freedom from thinking with each moment becoming longer and longer.
My present challenge is to remain calm even when surrounded by people with this obsession and bombarded with their questions to know about me and others.