It’s one of those things that you know exists and yet you cannot explain if you try to. Our world, however, depends on words completely. If you cannot put it in words, it probably does not exist. You cannot say that it is unreal but yet you cannot prove its existence.
So one of those things that I have been trying to put in words for some time is this weird phenomenon. For years and years, probably all your life, you have never heard about some thing/place/person and then it shows up or presents itself in various situations multiple times in a span of few days. The odds of this itself should be quite low and when things like this repeat itself you tend to wonder if this is part of the real world or there is something beyond your understanding.
It seems to be quite vague to be talking about such things. So let me give you an example:
Fact1: For all of my life I had not heard of this person called Fyodor Dostovesky.
Fact2: It is usually very hard to find any known classics in college library in random browsing.
Incident: The author was mentioned in my philosophy class, popped up in an article I was reading and happened to be like the first book I saw on random browsing through library just a couple of weeks later.
It felt like I was meant to know this person, hear about him, read his book at this point of my life. And I feel like it was a very important thing I read The Brothers karamazov. It altered my thinking subtly in a way that has led me to where I am.
Another example I can think of is Tendency towards complexity. It is an idea, a philosophy that things are moving towards higher level of complexity. Like the natural flow of things on Earth is to move down, in a similar fashion the tendency of things is to evolve in complexity. And as a corollary to this idea is the fact that what we call God is the ultimate complex thing. The pinnacle of complexity can be referred to as God.
Now I had never heard of this idea for all my life. Then I read about it in a book called Shantaram. Within a week of this I happened to read a Speaking Tree article on Times of India (which is again a rare thing) and found them referring to this idea. And in a short span of time I came across this idea in another unrelated place.
It is easy to believe that it was a mere coincidence. But each of these things taught me something, something very crucial. Something that I needed to know to move ahead in life. Without this learning I would probably have been stuck at a lower level of thought I feel.
So at times when I am sitting leisurely and come across something that seems a little off for a coincidence, I pay attention. I try to pay special attention because it might be the next learning to move forward in life.