fickle philosopher

Meditation understood

2011-12-04T10:50:00.001-08:00

Meditation is a big thingy, because it cannot be seen. It is a concept and it is individualistic. So you can explain the experiences in very simple terms or cloth it in exotic. You can make a technique of your own and you can propagate it fiercely. You can set rules and you can be an authority.

All this is because, once you close your eyes, what you claim is the truth. There is no x-ray machine or a nano camera which can see the effects of meditation on people and define each technique in a pictorial or graphical form. So you can go to town on your method. Of course you can be well meaning too and the results can be genuine. You can be sleeping too, in a sitting position. Meditation can be a good excuse for lazing and can be a respectable occupation for wasting time. It can also be a noble pursuit in spread of true happiness for all.

All techniques seem to lead to same result; all roads lead to Rome as they say. All routes lead to calming of the mind. Step by step, the techniques seem to lead the practitioner to defined results, till certain stage.

First stage is simple calming of the mind. You sit and concentrate on a single point, with or without your eyes closed; slowly develop a capacity to concentrate and bring the mind to focus. You feel a certain calming effect and the restlessness of the mind reducing. You also see that the thoughts are diminishing and the tendency to be at a different place than the present place is slowly getting controlled. An explanation for this can be found in the fact that neuron activity in the mind reduces and hence a calmness.

Second stage is that slowly you control the thoughts and the mind wandering. You are able to catch the mind in its wandering and able to sit without any thoughts crossing in your mind for some time. Such times can be as low as one minute, but this is a lot. You feel graduating into a second stage where thoughtless sitting is a natural process. You also see that the time gap for meditation keeps increasing and you are able to comfortably double the time without losing patience. You start enjoying a calm mind after the session. This too is a preliminary stage.

Third stage is when you can sit still for longer periods without any need to move and your mind is blank. You are able to look inwards at your body and feel the body through the mind. Even at this stage you are really not in the present moment, you simply have manages to arrest random thoughts and control your mind.

Fourth stage is when you experience what being in the present moment really is. It happens for very little time, may be ten seconds and you distinctly feel the difference. You can clearly see this difference of being in the present which is one step ahead of sitting without any thoughts. You feel a sort of tingling sensation on your entire body, as if the body is electrified; you feel suspended in energy. This again does not last; but you get a clear indication of what the experience is, so that you can recognize it.

Fifth stage is when these moments of being in the now come naturally and stays for longer periods. It is extremely difficult to be in the present for longer. It is like a feeling of plugging into a live wire. It needs much practice to be in the now for steady and longer periods. By practice these periods become longer and longer, such that the entire meditation session can be in the now. However this is long way off.

The sense of the body merging into limitless environs and liquid form of oneness with matter may be purely an invention of the mind and nothing else. But these do happen.

Being in the present for long leads to a permanent sense of peace and joy.

What further does this lead to is not uniform. It leads to wisdom, it leads to equanimity of the mind surely. By hearsay, it leads to knowledge of impermanence at the particle level, but no one who acquired this knowledge talk about it. It leads to seeing beyond the capacity of our sense organs by merging into the whole and to get a glimpse of the pure energy. Gautama the Buddha has seen all his past lives, as per scriptures attributed to him. However this is not for the casual practitioners.

Many talk of chakras and kundalini, powers being liberated, rising and engulfing the body. Many have out of body experiences. However, many of the techniques also describe these as lower level experiences of the mind and limits one's progress. It makes sense. Such experiences can be the games of the mind and may not mean anything. It may be worthwhile pursuing peace and happiness, rather than any exotic experiences.

Finally, it appears intense meditation leads to viewing the whole universe in its true form of oneness and of realizing the particle level energy and nothingness. This is far off and far fetched; saying that we will sit around in a corner with our eyes closed and achieve what scientists achieve by relentless pursuit through experiments in reality may be little of a vodoo; unless we can catch hold of a true yogi and make him talk. However intense meditation has nothing to do with intelligence and hence the yogi will not be interested in any experiments you and me want to pursue. Self realization is about a personal experience, beyond proving anything to anyone.

Till the fifth stage it is a simple achievable result and is worth the effort; it gives tangible results and can have a neurological explanation too. Beyond fifth stage is one's own hard work and a personal experience to keep; like one's intense love life. For carrying on a good life, reaching stage five is more than enough. Curiosity is not sufficient enough cause to kindle effort beyond stage five. Experiences and travels beyond stage five has to happen inside oneself, closed to others.

Games mind played...

2011-12-04T10:10:00.001-08:00

The games mind plays are peculiar.

When I went for the meditation camp for 10 days, one condition was that no one can talk for the whole period. You cannot talk to your room mate or any other participants; you can only talk to your teacher at appointed times to clear any doubts. In the whole 10 days I talked may be three sentences to participants.

It was a zombie world alright. We all get up in the morning, avoid each other and meditate or spend time till the breakfast time at 6.30 am. We trudge silently like a living dead kind of movie to the lunch hall and eat our food in silence. We do not even smile at each other, do not thank each other; be nice yes but in silent nods and simple gestures.

Then we go to the grounds to relax, with a nice morning sun beating a nice warmth on our bodies; there is this man, who walks every step measured, in silence, purposefully in straight line, almost in slow motion, looking straight at the morning sun and with a stature like Gautama the Buddha himself. If I were to make a movie on Gautama the Buddha, he stands a chance, no he walks a chance. Suddenly you see him standing on a table in the grounds and looking at the early morning or late evening sun; with eerie intensity. He gets down and trudges his slow motion steps to divinity. I almost expected him to walk into the sun rays and disappear.

This other man stares intensely at an ant hill; he puts bridges and path ways in the different holes; he connects one hole to another, he makes a pole walk way and leaves some bits of food at the end; he then silently observes the ants' behavior. Without meaning to, he started a cooperative movement of sorts. To this little design in the ant hill, another person added a small assembly area; one more person added a big prayer hall of sorts; slowly one by one, the zombies added small details; someone added an airport, someone names it Antapolis. Soon we were staring at a township. One man looking at it intensely just put the figures of the clock and made it into a sun dial shadow clock. The picture above is the finished form of the ant city. It was fun and done by many with no word uttered between them.

When alone, you observe others right down to their slippers. You notice an old man wearing an expensive brand, then one by one you start noticing and comparing the brands of slippers. You connect the slippers to the man and his clothes; you observe the hole in the socks of the man meditating ahead of you and every day pray for his changing the socks; when your prayers are answered you feel happy. You notice a man silently meditating without any efforts for 3 to 5 hours at a stretch and feel like bothering him with your toes placed at the right spot. You follow the old teacher's each step going out and in, telling yourselves she will fall down in the next step, be ready to help her. You watch each man eat his meals and file away the preferences; you compete with one man for a particular seat without making it obvious and feel happy when you dethrone him. You take a lot of pebbles and play a game of hitting a stone at a distance; clap when you succeed. You make clapping sounds every two steps such that the man relaxing at the end of the ground respectfully moves away. You stand in the sun's reflection from the glass window, to put your own shadow on the frame in the ground; then dance and make figures like batman and Dracula; you wait for someone to see you, but on one is there to applaud. You watch the well groomed man next to you and imagine his background as if he is from a privileged family. You build his background around him such that he is a hero. Then your back cushion goes missing and he has a new back cushion; so you decry his background and curse him for taking advantage on simple matters, taking others for granted; the you see your cushion fallen below, so you introspect about yourselves.

On and on for ten days.......

Meditation Vipassana way.......

2011-12-03T08:34:00.001-08:00

Came back from a camp of Vipassana meditation for 10 days; anyone interested can visit www.dhamma.org - for people who are on the path of self awareness, realization etc, it is worth visiting and seeing what Vipassana has to offer. Whether this is needed, essential or is this the only path and so many other questions arising - are all matters of personal decision.

On the positive side -

1. These guys at Vipassana are serious about what they do. They are so dedicated and so selfless in promoting the technique and general happiness, it is amazing. Their discipline and their method; their seriousness of purpose are all truly commendable.

2. It is a technique coming down from pure teachings of Gautama Buddha - 25 centuries old, practiced and benefited by millions. There is no dogma, no religion, no ritual - it is just the bare technique, taught systematically and seriously. Their concepts of God and of spreading happiness are common for all. They do not claim to do any magic, nor anything out of the ordinary. In fact everything is about hard work of the individual and getting the results within oneself. If the technique is not convincing for any one individual, he is welcome to go in his path.

3. While verses in Pali - an ancient language of the masses in Northern India around 2500 BC - are sung by the teacher in the taped video and audio, all those verses are simple wishes for well being and peace. There is no thrusting of Buddha down one's throat.

4. The tough practice for ten days makes one comfortable by the time the course is over, to practice the technique by oneself. In fact it makes one comfortable about meditating for one hour easily.

5. Repeatedly you are told that the technique can bear fruits only by hard own and personal effort of the individual. Also repeatedly it is said, if you do not get convinced, you are welcome to quit - later though, not during the ten days. They are confident of the success as thousands of people acquired success.

6. The technique does not believe in experiences like ESP, out of body experiences etc as they say these are part of the whole experience and are some what traps; it does not believe in Charkras of the body or kundalini and stuff like that. If you get pleased with these experiences, you will not progress. Equanimity of mind towards any sensation is the key. Equanimity, sensations and realizing 'anichaya' - temporariness of things is the core.

7. The teachers, assistant teachers and the management is dedicated to such an extent of being too good to be true. Amazingly, there is no charge for the comfortable stay and coaching - their concept is to give you a glimpse of being a monk - eat what you get and meditate, do not talk; lastly at the end of the session, you can contribute what you want to - with no publicity - there is box in a corner, you just put what you want. This donation is used for the next session.

8. The communication by the teacher - presently the man is about 90 years old and so does not personally appear - they use recorded videos for each day. However the communication is clear and no question goes unanswered. Added to that there is a very experienced teacher in person, leading the coaching - this teacher has two times a day question sessions. You are allowed to talk to her. But no one else.

9. There are no Gurus, Bhagavans or Cult Head; this is discouraged. The ultimate founder himself is called a teacher and nothing else. In fact even appreciation of their effort is discouraged seriously. The Teacher in one of the taped videos puts down the Guru cults of the present day, saying there are Gurus and Bhagavans like monsoon frogs all over the place. This is very refreshing.

Other side of Vipassana -

1. It is tough if one is serious about the code of discipline. You cannot talk of 10 days, you practice some 11 to 12 hours a day and you eat 3 times frugal vegetarian meals; particularly there is a simple breakfast at 6.30 am, a meal at 11 am and fruits/ tea at 5 pm. Do not look for dinner timing, there is none. You are not allowed to contact the world and world will not be able to contact you - all mobiles and computers are to be safe kept for the 10 days by the management.

2. For normal people who want to carry on with a peaceful life, who do not have any excesses and live life happily already, you need to address whether at all this is necessary. Unless you want to realize final truth, which is a long way off and is a whole time occupation if you want it - you can keep equanimity of mind by simple technique practiced half an hour a day.

3. While there are no dogmas or rituals, slowly the chanting in Pali takes the form of initial stages of a cult following. As meaning is not fully given, we just isolate ourselves in the peaceful, really good chanting. But one may ask, why not my own scriptures, or why not Latin or Sanskrit - anyway I will not understand even that.

4. While everything is practical, there seems to be a belief in re-birth and in seeing past lives. This seems contradictory; to be fair, they say if you do not want to believe in this do not, this does not stand in the way of learning the technique.

5. Generally all meditation techniques are the same. It is about mind concentration. People follow various routes; it is more about submission to a particular technique without interference of our intelligence and learning. This Vipassana is an old technique followed by so many people over centuries, so it has credibility. It is logical and you can feel what is being said practically. However, there is no association to God or spirituality really. It is more physiology than spirituality. This technique later cannot be combined with say a prayer to your favorite God. So you need to mix this technique with your own later if you want to meditate spiritually.

On meditation itself and lighter side of meditation and lighter side of the ten day camp, will do separate posts.

Off for 10 days, Experiment in self

2011-11-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

Am off for 10 days without any contact with the outside world and observing the self for 9 hours a day.. breathing and observing the breath for 3 full days then progress to meditation.. Off to a course called Vipassana meditation.. supposed to be the pure teaching of Buddha, totally non-religious and purely knowing the self sort of thing - hoping to learn and share soon. No posts during this time, not that people are wailing about this.. just that this is another manifestation of my own ego.. my ego telling myself, the only and true reader of the posts.

Bye my ego, literally too in a way....

Serious Stuff 2: Knowledge?

2011-11-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Beware of these picture symbols - articles under this banner could be serious stuff - and

you guessed right, mostly written by others - such stuff like seeking truth, knowledge etc,

by KULAS - Q 2 - WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?

Knowledge and Understanding, as I have figured out:

Most people use these words interchangeably. They use the word understanding for knowledge and knowledge for understanding. To me, they are not the same. Understanding is interpretation of information. This interpretation depends on language, meaning of the words, the paradigm of the source of interpretation, the paradigm of the receiver, the ability of the sense organs (predominantly the intellect).

The corollary is that understanding depends not only on the meaning but also the level in which the giver and the receiver are.

Let me give you an example: A child is taught that Light travels in a straight line (Rectilinear propagation of light). This child, when goes to a higher grade, is told that Light travels in waves (Huygens wave theory of light). At a still higher level, Light is supposed to be energy packets (Photons). Now, each of this is true at a particular level depending upon the state of the student. Though all this is supposed to increase the understanding about light, light was known the moment the baby opened its eyes. Light is known when we start seeing and all the understanding about light might not increase the knowledge with respect to light.

When a child is attempting to walk, it loses balance and falls. Slowly, after repeated attempts, it discovers how to walk. Much later, when the child goes to school, s/he might be taught about center of gravity, line drawn from the center of gravity falling within the base being stable equilibrium, etc. increasing the understanding about maintaining balance. But, knowledge about walking happened much before.

So, knowledge happens when the sense organs receive an input which needs no interpretation. That is why, it becomes very difficult to express knowledge in words because, words need to be interpreted. This is also the truth behind the Zen statement: “Those who know, don’t tell and those who tell, don’t know.”

I have heard that the Vedas are one of the few scriptures in the world which talk about their own limitations: (Para Vidya and Apara vidya, as mentioned in Mundaka Upanishad, where Para Vidya (knowledge of self) cannot be reached by words). Of course, Vedas are all interpreted by so many schools of thought that there might be other interpretations too.

So, words can only help us understand. They might assist in exhausting all the interpretations. Knowledge is another ball game. Understanding is not wrong or bad; it has its limitations and interpretations are the sources of conflicts when each person might argue that his interpretation is the right one. This problem gets compounded when people claim that their interpretation is knowledge.

Knowledge happens before interpretation enters the picture or all the interpretations are exhausted.

The Vedas have Mahavakyas. These mahavakyas tell us who we really are. We are supposed to be limitless à Ananta. Getting to know this (not just understand) is supposed to be the knowledge. Everything else is information.

Of course, when we say that who we are is limitless, it depends on the definition of who we are.

Global warming views!

2011-10-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

It is a point of view...........

Global warming -
careful water is rising around the globe; many parts will be submerged; humanity in peril, WAAAHHHH!
- Mankind

Global warming -
nice, water is rising around the globe; many parts will be submerged; humanity in peril. YIPPEEEEEEEE!
- Fishkind

There is no end to the world of life; there is end to one species, which thinks it is indomitable.

fun of people interacting.....

2011-10-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

It's fun watching people interact!

It is fun to watch people being full of themselves; being full of themselves ranging from self submerging - drowning in the pond of self - to self immolation - burning in the fire of self.

You call someone and before you say hello, they start talking; they talk about what they want to talk, which is mostly themselves; you try to tell them what you called them for and before you manage first two words out of your mouth, they go on the topic you wanted to talk about; assuming what they say is the essence of basically your topic.

Normally, you know everything you and your uncle need to know - and possibly what you need not know too - about them; and they know vaguely that you work for someone making something, somewhere. I have been an expatriate for a long time and I have been asked about the welfare of nearby countries by name, assuming that is where I reside or ignorant of the geography itself; and I on my part listen to minute details of the color of the school uniform of the daughter of this 'friend'. Most times you silently wonder who the hell are they talking about when they chatter quoting the first name of someone; then the chatter itself makes it clear that this is the third son or daughter studying in USA, who loves Spanish omelet.

Interactions are absolutely successful and have happy contented ending, if the other person gets the lion's share of talk time. When you are humble and you do not talk much, you listen, whether you like it or not. This started long back and is still continuing; and they like you; keep coming back to you to talk.

Then there is this kind, a gentle speaker who does give an impression of interacting nicely and putting forward their point of view effectively; so you want to actually interact intelligently, you wait for them to finish and for you to say your stuff - their stopping never happens; you gape and you listen, the person never stops; you count the sentences - one, two three, four, it goes on. You wonder how talented they should be to say some fifteen sentences on a mundane topic like a leaking faucet.

Most people talk about themselves, especially if you not have a habit of talking about yourselves. Long back at the start of our career, we had between two friends an imaginary virtual invisible bank named "Proud Bank Unlimited'; we two friends were sharing an apartment in a community estate of a very large company. We get many friends, who come in as we had the best food around; they come in, they eat and they talk about all the great stories of their family back home and their job and boss and whatever; then they go. We have fun, dragging the topic out into the wild; into general topic, to watch it veer right back to talking about themselves. We very obediently credit their proud chatter to their account. It was our secret - an invisible method of revenge in some vague weak way.

With all the technology advancement, this aspect of human behavior does not seem to change. I suspect it is going up, thanks to all the social sites which encourage people to talk about themselves. Most people talk mundane things and about themselves; happy about themselves. This one site keeps tirelessly telling you what all people did and notified; what all you did not do and ought to do immediately. It almost makes you feel sheepish that you are so far behind and should be ashamed of yourselves. It asks you to log in and then asks you whether you should be kept logged in. There is no privacy and people seem to enjoy broadcasting about their private moments too. So long as I can talk about myself, it is great and interesting.

The ability to small talk and carry on conversation in a party is surely admirable. But then many times you are ready to jump the terrace, listening to completely inane, insane and inconsequential dialogue, especially if you are not in the habit of existing in the world of small talks; makes you feel inadequate, not knowing what to do with your hands and feet. There is this kind, who can really be humorous and enjoyable; then there is this kind who tries to retort at every turn with some forced humor.

You also come across people - unfortunately real good friends too - who insist on your watching a marriage video or a holiday album. At the end of it you either want to kick the bride or burn the holiday place; but at least now, this is gone, thanks to technology - you get forwarded an album and you have a choice to pick one out of say one thousand photos; discuss it at length, to convey that you have gone through the whole album thoroughly and then click the delete button.

There are these know all guys, who will start every sentence with a preamble 'you see' - anything under the sun and under where sun does not shine too - they have something to say conclusively as a news or an opinion or an information or at least a last word; they condescend to educate you and to make you learn new angles and insights, mostly things which you already knew or know that it is just one opinion against another. Many times they lecture on about a topic in which the silent listener might be a doctorate. There are interactions where some person from a particular service, has to keep listening to 'I will tell you what you should do' - from people who do not know what to do in front of their wives.

The other kind are the ones who first contradict you with firm 'no,no'; even if they agree with you. They are so used to directing you that they tell you what to do, with a negation. Some guys also take a thing out of your hand and make it alright for you. Then smile that benevolent smile of 'without me what will you do'.

Let us say you go to visit some friend at an office; there will be this person, a common friend - he or she will come and stand near the door, facing both of you; then sigh and start off on all the things at his or her table, and issues and time lines; then sigh away to another geography.

This beauty everyone would have encountered - you get a question and start answering; you are cut short to be asked another question; again cut short to go forward with a story from the questioner. It happens often that you feel at last someone is keen on something about you and the person takes off, bashing your hope to bits.

This lovely tale of two mouths is hilarious; you watch one start a story, normally of some illness of someone close; the other mouth takes off before the first mouth stopped, talking about a parallel incident and going on in a parallel chatter. The first one stops for a second and starts off again. After a few moments, here you are listening to tales of two chats, making sense of neither. Beware of this kind, who loves to dwell on the travails of their body illness - talking about the story of different agonies.

You also get caught with the young mother or first time parents and their lovely little darling; it is very fine to be part of the joy, sometimes it is better too to take a detour.

Many times you feel that the all important kind, who has no time for you is kinder to you. In the corridor or the parking lot, this kind has to be hasty; talk to you half sentences and rush off. Just say hi, ask something and do not stay for the reply. This seems enjoyable; at least you can forget them and carry on with yourselves. One of these days when I have had enough of the other kinds, I will get so emotional with this hasty kind that I will hug and kiss this person; not let go for a long time.

Fickle Philosopher Explained.

2011-10-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Who is a fickle philosopher? What is the concept of fickle philosopher (FP)?

Firstly, what is a double headed turtle? FP is a double headed turtle.
There are two thinking minds - sometimes one mind goes about the job at hand, doing the chores of living and another mind chews the cud of the chores, trying to find meaning for all these humdrum; sometimes, these two minds take opposite views and harass the s*** out of you; many times it keeps feeding two different versions and two different opinions for you to carry discussing within yourselves; most times the two minds makes one indecisive - and hiding behind the title of a fickle philosopher, helps making a stupidity gloriously monumental.

At a mundane level, I used to make a joke of the serious problem with an example of my standing in the middle of a corridor with toilets at both ends - unable to decide which side should have the honor of my piddle. The FP can amuse himself and feel great conceptualizing this example to some higher level questions; feel great inside; ego happy and feeling superior.

Characteristically FP believes he is a great thinker; in reality actually his brain gets full when he starts thinking and the limits of his brain power limits the horizons of his philosophy; then he gets happy about the deep thoughts he is able to churn out, when these are some flash in the pan, already analyzed through history of humanity, by a whole society of real philosophers. FP also is normally not patient enough to learn and pursue learning what interests him; FP kids himself that he is a original thinker and so will not corrupt his thoughts with other material.

Lastly, FP has the ability to jump topics and harvests a huge number of unrelated thoughts, vaguely resembling well thought out concepts. FP is a fickle factory, with an array of thoughts; FF tries hard to connect unconnected stuff - and to hard questions; generally he finds simple connections.

When FP can be humorous and is able to laugh at himself, he goes through life very joyfully - or if this is a wrong term, at least interestingly. Self deprecating FP is an interesting animal surely.

Come out of your hiding places, I know you are all over the place, come you F****** P******, join me.

Serious Stuff 1 - what is seeking?

2011-10-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Beware of these picture symbols - articles under this banner could be serious stuff - and

you guessed right, mostly written by others - such stuff like seeking truth, knowledge etc,

Introducing here KULAS - a friend and a philosophical thinker in his own right, following the Eastern Philosophies, however applying it as an abstract process than a religious process.

I asked him a series of questions the first being:

What is seeking?

We have all heard of philosophers and thinkers "seeking" - what have they lost that they are "seeking" - KULAS gives his commentary on the same:

Jigyasa refers to curiosity, seeking. The Sanskrit word for a seeker is "Jigyasu". Most of us are Jigyasus. We are seeking different things. What we seek forms the fundamental pursuits of human life, also called Purusharthas.

There are four fundamental human pursuits: Artha, Kama, Dharma, and Moksha. Artha deals with seeking survival. Kama deals with seeking pleasure. Dharma seeks evolution and Moksha seeks freedom. The one who seeks freedom (moksha) is a mumukshu.

Freedom from what? The Buddhists say, freedom from attachment (Raga and Dvesha) and so freedom from mind. Others believe, freedom from the cycle of life and death. Yet others say, freedom from Ego.

I like to combine all these and say, freedom from identifications.

We identify with our feelings, emotions, beliefs, thoughts, rules, roles, and possessions. For example, we have emotions: anger, sadness, happiness, upset, etc. We say, we are angry, we are sad, we are happy, we are upset….We become that emotion and because of this identification, there is no distance between who we are and the emotion that we have, making dealing with emotion a very difficult task. If we are these emotions, there is no choice; if we have these emotions, we get a choice of having them or not having them.

We identify with beliefs. Doesn’t matter whether it has to do with religion, politics, profession, language, or whatever. We say we are Hindus, communists, lawyers, tamilians, etc. These are just some labels that we have. Similarly, we identify with our thoughts, the rules that we have (this is right, that is wrong), roles, and our possessions. It is these identifications that dictate our behavior.

Are these identifications bad or wrong? Not at all. Ego is not at all bad and one really need not crush it. It is only that identification causes a limitation. Who we are, are much bigger than all these identifications. These identifications constitute the ego and attachment. So, letting go of these identifications, albeit one by one, keeps making us freer. For those who subscribe to birth and rebirth, these attachments and identifications carry over from one birth to another. Getting freed from all the identifications completely, enables beating the cycle of life and death. Moksha therefore is about getting freedom from limitations. This is the gist (according to me) of Buddha’s recommendation to be ‘Nothing’ and the Vedic exhortation of ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ (I am everything). This is my hypothesis.

So, as you can see, we are all seekers. Whatever we seek is related to one of the human pursuits. It is not that seeker of one pursuit is superior to another; it is also not that a person seeks only one pursuit; it is more about the dominant purushartha.

Once we are seeking something, a host of ways appears; follower of each path claiming it is the best. Rather than seeking the destination, the seeking now gets transformed into seeking a path, seeking a guru, seeking a philosophy, seeking a methodology, seeking a religion, and so on. All these deal with the ‘How’. This also gives rise to comparisons, claims of superiority of one path over another, one religion over another, one philosophy over another, one guru over another.

A spotlessly clean white robe, a long flowing beard, a benign smile can easily camouflage any gibberish that is uttered. Add to this, followers who have loads of money, and you have a roaring spiritual business, all done in the name of universal good. Telling the multitude that “Do this, you will get peace, and do that, you will get happiness” will get lots and lots of following. Introduce a few cathartic exercises and people seem relaxed and peaceful. Very useful in getting the smug look of ‘ha ha I know and you do not’. And also to get new enrollments.

Of course, effective branding, positioning, and marketing play a very important part in increasing the number of followers and the number of establishments.

Beware of this picture - indicates serious stuff....

2011-10-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

Beware of these picture symbols - articles under this banner could be serious stuff - and

you guessed right, mostly written by others - such stuff like seeking truth, knowledge etc,

Am planning to rope in a few people, who can give simple insights on Truth, Knowledge, Seeking, and other stuff; mostly based on self as God head. I would surely like to make it across religion and seek out progressive minded people from every philosophy. This appears too grandiose a statement for a beginner; let us see where this journey takes us.

Little Genius

2011-10-26T14:29:00.001-07:00

Await a new platform to unsettle Windows soon....

Seems it will be called "Strip Down".

One man's ego...

2011-10-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

ONE MAN'S EGO - SIRTE IN LIBYA AFTER THE SIEGE!

Libya was God's own blessing, till the devil took it over. It has no population pressure, it has high quality people, it has oil wealth of per capita of unimaginable proportions. One man spoils the party of God.

Leadership and power are funny games; you deceive yourselves so much that you delusion borders on paranoid self worship; a life time chance to be immortal as a saint and you become immortal for being a devil.

Leadership comes in different colors - it is all inclusive - and some qualities like selfishness; self proclamation as good for all; self deceit on when to quit are all part of the package.

Imagine, he is one man like the millions; he is one man who is as entitled as the millions; for his sake, he destroys humanity - who are his own people.

Look at the disaster arising from one man's ego!

Embed when young 8 - Of relationship building - inward and outward looking

2011-10-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

While people keep working on what ever draws their attention at the particular phase in life, some people care enough to give importance to address the issue of creating a web of relationships around them. However, many times relationships develop as an off shoot of whatever we are doing in life. We do give importance to relationships; but are we addressing the issue to build it systematically, as if we are creating wealth or a bank balance?

It helps very much if few issues are addressed when young. But then challenge is - when young, how do you address relationships which grow around you organically, through the shared experiences, based on where life takes you; and recognize what will develop into enjoyable ones and what will become a liability in course of time; how does one ensure the objective that relationships important to us give us the mental joy, comfort and security?

Another obvious fact which seldom gets addressed, but can be done when young and before the relationship gets entrenched - is how and when to get out of a relationship. Getting out of a relationship is an antithesis, because relationships are bonding in nature and getting out is against basic issue of being unemotional in an issue which is basically emotional. There are no rules in emotions. It is better to recognize relationships from which we cannot get out of and make the same work; which again is easier said than done, as relationships involve more than us alone.

We are addressing here relationships which are personal or intimate or which grow beyond a bonding based on material expectations. Best relationships are built - when nothing is expected, when silence is comfortable and when you never tire out, however long you are in the company of the person or the people.

There are two overall policy guideline in relationships. Some people look outward for fulfillment; some people look inward.

First outward - most times people are busy making lives and delivering opportunity for prosperity - that they look at relationships as tools for furthering oneself; also, they tend to appreciate or they get a sense of recognition when looking for interactions outside; these relationships tend to glitter more and hence seduces one, however tend to be shallow compared to core relationships.

While looking outward, many times people take for granted relationships which are inner circle to them; ones which will not escape the circle of closeness; are bound either by love or out of pseudo love or due to wedlock or due to birth; in effect,the relationships which are inward bound, which really are the important ones.

Some look inward and build their emotional castles. They are lucky to have gotten locked into satisfactory relationships. The reason for such comfortable situation can be so easily comprehended in every situation. It will be evident that they have invested time into building their castles and are secure inside it. Surely the castle will not have foundations on pity or responsibility or guilt or economic dependence.

First foundation is mutual respect - even before love. Second factor is untiring fun and pleasure; such association culminate into genuine care and love in due time, creating a castle of security. Such relationships are not built on being slave to habit. However, such relationships have their compromises and tolerance.

It will be good for us to work on how to look inwards and how not to look outwards at the determent of inwards; avoid taking the immediate circle of relationship for granted and go after establishing friendships and credibility outside; not spend major chunk of time looking outward.

Most lucky people do look inward to their core relationship, with which they have to live and spend time - it normally is the spouse, mate, children and other closer circles; mother, father, siblings and others.

Many times when looking inwards, people tend to keep on going due to a sense of responsibility than enjoyment. It is a kind of emotional blackmail of the self; life goes on thinking these are my people, without enjoying the togetherness. There must be fun in the inner circle and to create enjoyable inner circle it needs efforts to look inward. It is a compromise, but if we do have an inner circle which is not enjoyable, it is a priority to make it enjoyable; to look inward more and more to make it work. Unless the inner circle is enjoyable there is no point in developing outer circle, as this circle is often shallow.

Physical comforts and attractive elements of fine food also enhance enjoyment of inner circle. Making a comfortable existence as a culture is worth examining, as this leads later to a comfortable inner circle. Creating such an atmosphere again when there is an inner circle is a joint effort. Praise is an element which plays a major part in creating such core relationships. Praise costs nothing; it is dependent on opinions, than on truth or on comparison.

Building an inner circle needs communication; for instance if it is getting to be boring, it should be possible to discuss it openly.

Sometimes, inner circle overlaps as an outer circle. It so happens that the most cherished relationship unfortunately lies in the outer circle and it overlaps with inner circle of another family universe. Such circle within circle makes the clear definitions of inner and outer circle blurred. Unless there is a right or there is a social sanction, such relationships cross borders and always have opposing demands; many times a necessity to choose and decide - either this or that option - on ordinary daily routines of life. This creates tension only for us and not for most others. It is better to either make such relationships inner or get out of such relationships. This is best for all concerned. When young it is better to recognize it when the outer circle interferes with the inner circle.

Breaking up is difficult till the moment is crossed. It could cause intense pain initially, but it takes about six months to become alright and get the issues into a past folder in the inbox. Sometimes biting a bullet is good for the future. Sometimes pain is enjoyable too, in a philosophical sense. Pain is nothing but another side of the same coin; however as someone said, I hate it if you stick a pin in to my fore arm.

Overall, life is good, if the concept differentiating between inner and outer circle is followed; concept of building inner circle firmly and make it enjoyable, then build an outer circle on the foundation of inner circle. Overall it is also good to get one's own inner circle quickly in life and get to working on building inner circle early in life. If one gets convinced that inner circle matters and outer circle matters less, life can be enjoyable.

Wow I am a techie.....

2011-10-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

My days are complicated now. I am busy and all the time running here and there, sitting in the same place - my mind and my fingers do the running. Presently my left hand thumb is taped to the index finger as it has started paining from the roots; my right hand index finger is taped to its neighbor - as there is an involuntary twitch of the fellow. I type with unorthodox fingers and type each word thrice.

I started life very simple. Soon as I came back from school, I would fling my bags and run out - to the background music of my mother's shouting. Till I exhausted myself, it was either just running in the play ground or playing simple games like marbles, or cricket or foot-ball or catch me if you can; winter was great with fog completely hiding who was coming or going - every day I go late back and every day I have some story to get shouted at with. I had bruises and blood galore, as if I was in constant battle with other gladiators. Then came adolescence; it was full of mind games and native body building; superman on the prowl for weak girls and saving their world. Life was uncomplicated.

One by one technology took us for a big giant wheel ride; fax - this was incredible fun, it was almost like the genie out of the bottle; I put it here and you get it there; then came the computer, came mobile phones, then internet and then wireless internet; audio and video explosion; so far so good. Then came the great WiFi phone and the Tablet. Now I have a WiFi phone, a tablet and a Laptop. I am on top of the world.

My phone rings in the other room when I am typing on my Laptop. I cannot keep the phone near me, as the signals are weak. So I run to take the phone and as is the law of nature, it stops at the same moment as I press the connect button. There is a missed call and so I call back; normally this is a sales call from a credit card company asking for balance transfer, as if they give money off free; I got into an argument once with the girl spending twenty minutes of air time from my pocket, explaining to her how pre-paid credit cards are so foolish; as if she does not know.

On the way back to my laptop, I cross my tablet, so take it to glance at it. I sit with it, in a distance exactly half way between the mobile and the laptop. I am in the middle of an e-book in the tab; so I flip through the book in the tablet; I open it, with my mind on the laptop. I read a few pages and then jump to a Nasa visual - one visual a day out of the 500 billion stars; so I will be flipping through mindlessly, for long years to come; while on it I browse through technology feeds, all gossips and nothing to do with technology. So I close it and my mind jumps to the laptop. This is when both my tab and phone ping.

So I open the tablet to see the mail - there are a lot of good forwards; each of these I open and each appear great, so I forward the same to various people of my choice; each forward deceives you into thinking you are gaining knowledge. Keep the tab back and go to my laptop; there are many mails, so I tidy the mail box; same mails again. I just cleaned my Tab and now I am cleaning my lap top.

I have to now clean my WiFi phone.. .the same mails three times; I did auto sync and could not find the one mail I want in all the three boxes; so I searched three devices for same mail. Middle of the night, my tab goes ping; I know it will be some useless mail, but I cannot ignore it. The curious cat looks up the tab and discards the useless mail. The phone rings and involuntarily after the call, I look at the inbox - same damn inbox. Now I operate three in-boxes and spend my time uselessly. Add to this, every time I open any of the the three, I get caught in some useless video in the YouTube. I see something and wonder why some 2 million people will see the video, and within no time I am caught in the bottom less pit of YouTube videos. Then an idea strikes me and I make a small video of my own. I upload it in YouTube and view it in all my three instruments; same useless stuff which got 4 views from the world of 6 billion people.

I am caught in the world wide web. I am finished.

Why India or any other developing country works...

2011-10-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

WHY INDIA WORKS - written by internationally acclaimed film personality Sekhar Kapur.

A small fading sign saying “Cellphoon repairs” barely visible through the street vendors crowding the Juhu Market in Mumbai, India.

On my way to buy a new Blackberry, my innate sense of adventure made me stop my car and investigate. A shop not more than 6 feet by 6 feet. Grimy and un-cleaned.

“Can you fix a Blackberry?”

“Of course, show me.”

“How old are you?”

“Sixteen”. Bullshit. He was no more than 10.

Not handing my precious Blackberry to a 10 year old in unwashed and torn T shirt and pajamas!

At least if I buy a new one, they would extract the data for me. Something I have been meaning to do for a year now.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Well, the roller track ball does not respond. It’s kind of stuck and I cannot operate it”

He grabs it from my hand and looks at it

“You should wash your hands. Many customers have same problem. Roller ball gets greasy and dirty, then no working”.

Look who was telling me to wash my hands. He probably has not bathed for 10 days, I leaned out to snatch my useless Blackberry back…

“You come back in one hour and I fix it”.

I am not leaving all my precious data in this unwashed kid’s hands for an hour. No way.

“Who will fix it?”

“Big brother”.

“How big is ‘big brother?’?”

“Big …. Umm ...thirty”.

Then suddenly big brother walks in. 30??? He is no more than 19.

“What problem?”

He says grabbing the phone from my greasy hand into his greasier hand. Obviously not trained in etiquette by an up market retail store manager.

“Normal Blackberry problem. I replace with original part now. You must wash your hand before you use this”.

What is this about me washing my hands suddenly?

19 year old big brother rummages through a dubious drawer full of junk and fishes out a spare roller ball packed in cheap cellophane wrapper. Original part? I doubt it. But by now I am in the lap of the real India and there is no escape as he fishes out a couple of screwdrivers and sets about opening my Blackberry.

“How long will this take?”

”Six minutes”.

This I have to see. After spending the whole morning trying to find a Blackberry service center and getting vague answers about sending the phone in for an assessment that might take a week, I settle down next to his grubby cramped work space. At least I am going to be able to watch all my stored data vanish into virtual space. People crowd around to see what’s happening. I am not breathing easy anyway. I tell myself this is an adventure and literally have to stop myself grabbing my precious Blackberry back and making a quick escape.

But in exactly six minutes this kid handed my Blackberry back. He had changed the part and cleaned and serviced the whole phone. Taken it apart, and put it together.

As I turned the phone on there was a horrific 2 minutes where the phone would not come on. I looked at him with such hostility that he stepped back.

“You have more than thousand phone numbers?”

“Yes”.

“Backed up?”

“No”

“Must back up. I do it for you. Never open phone before backing up”.

“You tell me that now?”

But then the phone came on and my data was still there. Everyone watching laughed and clapped. This was becoming a show. A six minute show. I asked him how much.

“500 rupees”.

He ventured uncertainly. People around watched in glee expecting a negotiation.

That’s $10 dollars as against the Rs 30,000 ($600) I was about to spend on a new Blackberry or a couple of weeks without my phone. I looked suitably shocked at his ‘high price’ but calmly paid him. Much to the disappointment of the expectant crowd

“Do you have an i-Phone? Even the new ‘4D one”?

“No, why”?

“I break the code for you and load any ‘app’ or film (movies) you want. I give you 10 film on your memory stick on this one, and change every week for small fee”.

I went home having discovered the true entrepreneurship that lies at what we call the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Some may call it piracy, which of course it is, but what can you say about two uneducated and untrained brothers aged 10 and 19 that set up a ‘hole in the wall’ shop and can fix any technology that the greatest technologists in the world can throw at them. I smiled at the future of our country. If only we could learn to harness this potential.

“Please wash your hands before use” were his last words to me. Now I am feeling seriously unclean.

God works in mysterious ways to feed the illiterate, in the streets of India . Imagine, what if these poor kids had some education....I feel nothing but great admiration for these kids, as they could easily choose demeaning jobs to survive!

Memories do not fade... my most favorite song

2011-10-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

A Hindustani song by Rafi... on memories of the past.... my all time favorite:

Nice soothing song, you need not understand, just listen.
Podcast player is below, have no idea whether it works all the time and what I should do, except pray to the Internet God to make it play, so here is the link too:

http://krish1951.podbean.com/mf/web/a5tw2j/DEM-YaadNaJaye.mp3

English Translation: (translations do not bring out the original beauty and can only be approximations)

Memories do not fade, of days past,
Of those days gone by, never to return,
but then-
Why forget them, how will my heart forget them?

If those days were birds,

I'll keep them in a cage,

Tend to them with love n care,

Feed them grains of pearls -

Keeping them close to my heart.

Memories........

Pictures of her I can keep or lose,

Anywhere can I hide, as I choose,

But the ones etched in my heart,

Will not vanish, however I fret,

Though she belongs to another.

Memories.......

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Trapped in life

2011-10-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

I have a friend; he reached his ripe young age of 60 this year. He is active and his mind is volatile. The prominent theme of this blog very much applies to him. He went through life, as life took him. He, like anyone else; did not catch life by its throat and lead it the way he wanted; not many people have the metal to do this. Most of us just travel through life and forge a particular action when it is about ten years later than it should have been done.

Action such as going for the right breaks at right time when young, looking for the appropriate mate, deciding what we want out of life or having a simple idea of what makes us happy, deciding on a city to stay and grow; belonging to a group or a profession; making good friends; getting proper wealth organized, getting cash flow independent of our time spent organized, getting enough to get through the old age nicely - and somehow reach, to a greater extent, a state of peace inside us. When we reach sixty, we make peace with it.

But then this is not the case for my friend; he reached and he feels unfulfilled; he is someone who harbors hard feelings that his life should not be what it is; he believes he has not built a career, a family, a proper home; in effect not utilizing his time as he should have. He thinks he has been - and is - a rudderless boat. This feeling feeds on itself and brooks negativity. It takes anyone towards a feeling that the whole life has been a failure.

This is a trapped life; you can look at sunshine and only think of the sting of the hot sun; you can look at a flower and only be reminded of the tender love you let go long back; you can go to a prayer hall and only listen to the roar of the silence. Many people are not happy at the way life has turned out to be- when they cannot turn it back. Many people regret something they perceive as failure or as unsatisfactory. Many people regret a lost opportunity and never leave that moment when they should have grabbed it - be it simple sale of real estate at the wrong time or an inaction for purchase of it at the right time.

This is almost like a prison sentence. Let us say you are unfortunate to be put behind bars; it can even be a wrong judgement, in which case you regret it even more. You need to be in a cell of 12 by 12 for 14 of the waking hours; and for the next say 5 years there is no wishing it away; you have a choice to go mad inside the cell, thinking repeatedly of the life that you left behind, the event that brought you here, the things you could have pursued and done, so much to life - life outside so enchanting and you are locked up. Would you do that, or focus your mind on something else?

This is exactly what is happening to my friend. He is trapped for life in an open prison of his life.

Letting go is an art; letting go is a practice; letting go is a meditation; letting go is hard, but not entirely impossible; finally letting go is not negotiable.

It could be of comfort to know success and achievement - peace and happiness - are relative; are dependent on only and only one's own mind. It is so internal and it is so simple to see it this way. Whether you work 12 hours a day in a garment factory or whether you own the factory - the mind is exactly the same. The inner turmoils are the same. You could be happy that you are settled so nicely in life with no care except achieving an easy number of so many button holes per day or you may be unhappy totally that your expansion of the capacity of the unit has fallen through; it could be other way round, he could have a mate whom he worships and you could have a loveless life - again, the feelings inside are the same.

It is very easy to visualize that all external measures of life are abstract and the bother one goes through inside one's mind - the feelings - are the same for all humans and all nationalities and all levels and all ages. It is an universal socialistic pattern laid out by nature; and it is useless. The moment this hits you, you are on the way to recovery.

Trapped in the past screws up the present; accumulated screwed up presents screws up the future.

This is a very nice story of a Tibetan master and his disciple walking in Himalayas; the main master is well known, but I do not remember the name. They pass a river with rising level of water and see a woman in distress; she waves for help, unable to cross over. The master simply goes and lifts the woman in his hands and carries her across, half swimming. He leaves her at the other side and starts walking.

The disciple cannot believe what just happened; touching a woman, carrying her all the way; he broods along and after a long walk, finally gets the courage to ask the Master; he says you should not have done it, how do you explain such conduct.

The master just says one short sentence: I left her on the other shore long back.

To be present to enjoy the present is the only way of life.

Fascinating future ahead of us

2011-10-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

I hope you are aware that you are in a period whichis truly and literally life changing; life changing in the sense ofchanging lives the way it is lived now, forever!

To start with and to shock people into listening - if you arebelow 40 - you are lucky; count your blessings and keep your health intact.Within about 20 years more, it is very possible that life will become eternal;yes, life as we live now will change forever; I mean literally forever, punintended.

Of course, becoming eternal will be progressive, but if youhave 20 more years to live, you might just about cross the winning post; forsure, you will not regret it!

Eternal Life is coming to this theatre - of your home, not nearyour home!

Let us do a little freaking out on eternal life for et-al:

Have you noticed that the process of singularity has alreadybegun? I mean singularity of man and machines, both integrating intoeach other, forming a single entity? The human body as we see it now, is anintegration of so many non-human parts already - pace maker, plastic eye lens,hip replacement, knee replacement, and many other insertions inside the body;moving forward the chips to monitor health being part of your system; the earimplant; and those primitive stuff of full artificial teeth sets - these arethe beginning; what will follow is the implants for tinnitus, forcontrolling Alzheimer, cure for strokes, gene therapy for cancer; anendless list which in itself is an oxymoron, come to think of it.

Real fun starts when nanobots (tiny microscopic machines or organisms,tailored for specific tasks), DNA refreshing and information transfer to ourbody from external sources, all three become realities. Imagine this on theextreme - why do you need the entire digestive system, if you can feed oxygendirectly to your cells, with the help of oxygen carrying nanobots? You get amajor part of your body redundant; your entire digestive system becomes antiqueand outdated suddenly.

If your aging gene is isolated, why do you age? If your DNA can berefreshed all the time, you are eternal. If genes are manipulated, anyone canbecome anyone else. You can have factory produced heroes and you canalter yourselves to suit your taste. All these are for real and hopefullysooner than you imagine.

Third direction is the information transfer route. Fun will startwhen we understand memory handling in our brain completely and develop a systemwhere our external technologies of data transfer can seamlessly interact withthe technology developed by evolution of storage in our brain.

It is of course easy for a writer to imagine what he wants and putit down in an article; but the truth is - so many scientists are workinghundreds of man years on tiny little details in every area, to make every smallstep an applicable reality. Believe me, they work real hard; with and for apassion; not for money. We all need to be grateful to them all the time. Allthat is written here is in some stage of development and will become realityslowly and step by step. Some present signs can give us hope that eternal lifemay become one application made practicable, within a shorter period than weimagine.

Eternity will come into play through two out of the three routesmentioned above – gene refreshment and information exchange. The first willensure your body is intact and the other will ensure your mind is intact.

On the information route - once you can download and uploadinformation into or of your brain - imagine what can happen!

What are you? You are in summary only two aspects -

1. The accumulated memory.

2. Continuous updating of memory through continuing experiences.

The body mind complex is in a way a mechanism to ensurerealization of both of the above; let us say this at an abstract level - or aan extract level, if you like!

Accumulated memory will soon be transferable and expandable; soyou becoming a ‘static eternal’ is a possibility within the time limit set bythis article. Continuous updating is an issue currently; but in the longer runtechnology will completely alter the way body-mind does its interactions.

Imagine this - you do not need food anymore and you can have anexperience of a great cuisine, by a direct link of messages to your brain - yougo to food saloons and not to restaurants – other pleasures are ditto. You havethe experience by a direct transfer to your cranium of what you need; imaginethis further - you can be a doctor one day and an engineer the other, by simplyreplacing your memory.

All these are not fantasies. All of the above may not happen in twentyyears, but storing the information of what you are is very possible within thistime period. At the least, you may be sitting inside a hard disk, long afteryour body is gone, cursing your great grandson that he never switches you on!Once you are in there, hopefully upgrading of versions will happen continuouslyand you may be ‘chipped’ into a virtual reality ‘body’. Chip itself will be sooutdated, with simple photons or gravitons being used for data transfer.

This is the least in the route to eternity. It could happen thatreal eternity with singularity or with continuous growth of experiences kicksin well before you kick the bucket.

On the second route of keeping your body intact - gene therapy forarresting aging is the least which can happen - growing your parts, replacingany spare part, growing your off springs to suit your menu, even growing anextra something on you are all possible sooner - may not be tomorrow, but invarious time scales. Life will alter forever, unimaginably.

Superman vision is the least and the earliest; this is reality forsure and will happen sooner than you think. Every sensory organ of yours can beenhanced to capacities that enables you to compete with Clark Kent.Understanding the aging process and isolating the aging gene can very wellhappen within a short time after your first step of eternity.

A third exciting route is the route of quantum world and particlephysics - it is a matter of time, before scientists unearth the mystery of theuniverse, the interconnection of all forces - the space-time continuum in termsof evolution, the power of the mindand its scientific expression, understanding the eleven dimensions - all theseopen unknown doors. Fruition of every one of these, as an application for thebenefit of everyday life could happen later than twenty years – but then if youare eternal, you can enjoy all these as and when these happen. What is thehurry, you have time!

What will be next after the information exchange route hasstabilized? Let us say, you are what your stored memories are - that yourexistence becomes independent of your body; leave aside the fact that body iseternal through many methods of singularity – the body itself will becomeirrelevant for your existence. You can become a virtual entity with one realbody and many virtual bodies. It is a matter of time, before virtual bodies areaccepted as true actors of real existence; that you are allowed projections ofyourselves to work as you, at different places with different people - withyour own console server - sort of central place being the focal point for you;do not imagine a console like a factory control room, such things areprimitive. Of course computers as we know will go out of the window and youwill not have such bulky heated monsters to exchange information. With yourmind integrated with the physical plane, who knows, the power of mind mightbecome the power of the future, in the longer term.

Ultimately, cracking the formula for forming of all matters withenergy waves will open huge and fascinating doors, but that will be a littlelong way to come; ensure you are eternal within the next twenty years and youare there for every further change. If you are young enough now, you have ahuge problem coming - what do you do with being eternal? How do you avoidkilling yourselves out of boredom?

At what stage in technology will you become eternal will be leftto your luck and fate; you might be just a non up-gradable memory, trappedin an eternal stagnation of old experiences, sitting in a hard disk of somesort; or you may be full blown version of a mind - body- virtual existence; you may just about cross the border, into astage in technology where you can upgrade yourselves at every path breakingchange in concept of eternity; but believe me, path breaking trend will startsoon. Hold your breath, not too long though; survive, just enough for the wave.

This is not some vague freaking out of a science fiction writer –this is a reality for you and you better wake up to this fascinating futurestaring at you; be sure to be there for the party.

Life as you see it will completely alter. The gloomwhich you see around you - of headlines of violence every day and of heartbreaking images of under nourished children – will all vanish. I am an optimist, so following scenarios maywell come true in the future:

1. Hunger - will benonexistent through two routes - one a stomach filler product and anothercomplete side lining of the digestive system.

2. Water - will beformed through realignment of quarks - initially by harvesting the atmosphereand then advancing to basic particle rearrangement - fresh water will flow fromsea through the river routes or formed at river source and made to flow rightthrough its geography, with beauty everywhere.

3. Power - will not beas primitive as it is now - either through fission, tappingof electromagnetism or through harnessing gravity - it will be cleanpower - initially it can be solar and wind, but even these are one step belowthe final solution. So the world pollution will clear out, again pun intended.

4. Poverty - will go asbasic problems are solved and space constraints are solved by foundation freestructures - providing decent living, with basic amenities for all.Inequalities will remain till some other technology comes to help out. Earthspace is no more restricted for food production or for living or even by theweather. Mobility will be inexpensive and virtual travel will ensure enoughexperience for all. Finally when gravity and space-time are understoodfully, all mobility will be free like the internet of today.

5. Violence - some mindaltering ray will ensure this is eradicated by a large sweep over many troubledareas and individuals - however a utopia this is,I believe humans somehow plod along the right way. Violenceitself could become meaningless if you have technology for growing your partsthrough genetic engineering and you can block pain.

6. Territorial fanaticism- over a period, over a long period, with inequalities reducing, there is hopefor integration due to the information and communication age to limitterritorial proprietorship; thanks to genetics and to education throughinstant information exchange, dogmas can reduce and cultured mind can become asimple instant information transfer process.

Long term future looks promising - if you ensure you escapethrough the basic time-gate to eternity. Imagine this - through genetics, allmoving millions resemble Brad Pitt and Angelina Joli, with powers challengingthe man from Krypton - and internally are Einsteins in their ownright - and add spice to such existence, you do not require your body or mind!

Now get back to your fruits and salads; you havea goal post for being healthy and a new purpose ‘to be’!!

Little dove and life

2011-10-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Today during my morning swimming session - do not to assume early morning, towards later part of early morning - any guess is fine; just as a pointer sun was very up and shining - I saw a fine dove doing a stylish fly-around in the sunny clear sky. My pool is in the terrace of a tall building. Normally I observe these little birds sitting on the parapet and looking at me accusingly. I guilt myself think that they drink water from the pool before the sun goes up on them too much for their comfort; and I am blocking them.

I watch one particular pair of doves, same pair daily, a big partner male dove and a petite girl dove; the normal drama is that the big boy will be sitting minding his own business; the girl will fly elegantly to the big boy and sit at about two feet distance. The boy will peck his way towards her; a dance with a series of movements of pecks in the air, with a swinging backside, but manly - to finally get down to peck the feather of the girl. The girl will refuse to notice, the boy will lose interest and fly away; and a moment later the girl will fly hurriedly towards his direction following him in the air. You cannot fathom where from the joy they find comes - when they do not know where they will get their food and water from, for the next need; and the comfort they have with soon to be scorching sun on top, no respite till evening - these souls have 'knowledge' factory fitted as default settings.

I saw this elegant dove today, flying well above in circles - I thought in this sun above, she was going somewhere; but no. She was simply flying - full wings stretched, gliding and sometimes lazily flapping to get momentum - just enjoying herself. She did some ten rounds, the show off. She was sun bathing.

Here I am striving to be calm and here is the bird all the time calm. These little birds teach us a lot. There is no unhappiness, there is no insecurity, there is no politics - the fellow is just happy spending the allotted time, living every second in the present. Pain is only body related real pain and no memory pain. Just live and just die.

The difference between us and them is that we have a mind and they do not; we have memories and they do not; we have the intellect and they do not. But then when I observe them lead their lives, I wonder whether it is possible that they evolved from a state of having a mind, to a state of bliss; whether we evolved into them.

I live in a hot place, which get really hot in summer and I have seen so many birds still surviving - with all the concrete jungle around. I have no idea where they go, what they do and where they get their food from. I even see wild parrot screeching away above the terrace. I have no idea how they are still left wild; how they survive in the wild.

We have a lot to learn, lot to inherit from these little fellows.

Meditation 2

2011-10-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

It isn't that simple - not as simple as the cat closing its eyes and thinking there is no world outside; maybe, the cat knows something of the consciousness playing a part in overall scheme of things; may be the cat is right, who knows. But coming to this human cat, that is me - for all the bragging I did yesterday, today was a disaster.

I was sitting around arrogant that I reached the NOW, as I said. I thought I knew the NOW. But as it happened, today nothing happened. I closed my eyes, I opened my eyes and nothing; it was not the great nothingness, it was nothing. I could not get anywhere near the NOW. Yes I did stop all thoughts, but when I entered what I think is the definition of NOW- alongside I got the clear image of the waiter of my favorite bite place - I was to visit the place just after my meditation session; so much for advancing daily in my journey. Serious, I saw him clearly in my 'vision' - no vision of angels please - and that too when I was having the sensation of my 'NOW'. That is something, ya, real meditation for you; stop thoughts in linguistic format and I get photographic images, with no descriptions. Thanks, my great buddy-mind.

I was in the NOW towards the end, except that I doubt whether I am that confident as yesterday about reaching the NOW itself. I realize I have a long way to go. I must strive.

Let me hope for a better tomorrow. After all we all live on hope!

Start of my meditation journey....

2011-10-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

I am just beginning to enter the practice of meditation, so I want to record my experiences and findings from the start. There is so much made out of this practice of meditation, simply because it is an internal exercise and cannot be showcased.

Meditation in concept can really be as simple as physiological exercising of the mind, akin to the body upkeep we do; which we fortunately are able to see physically. There is no mystery in physical exercising of one's body, because you see it all. However, there is so much made out of meditation, because you cannot see it plainly. This is one side.

Then on the other extreme, meditation can actually be training your mind to see the reality of the four dimensional world; of the nothingness; the chi of the void; connect you to the ultimate power; make you see the maya of the cosmos - the view presently being restricted by the limitation of our senses.

So meditation is a vast sea of huge depth, not fathomable by naked eye; a mystery unless there is a personal experience and test of patience - hence becomes a huge market too.

Best part of the meditation route is that it is a personal experience and no one will say what is the ultimate goal. They might say that having a goal itself hampers your progress. We have seen so many people smug in their face and with the pseudo smile - projecting an eternal sneer saying 'ha I know something more that you do not know'. The issue is that it is so personal an experience that each one has a right to differ and each one has a right to choose a different path; and of course a differnet guru - a guru to one being a laugh feed for another.

Another mystery to be encoded properly - often we hear meditation is a path to acquiring knowledge - however the problem is definition of knowledge itself. So much is made of it - but there are no single definition. Is knowledge self knowledge?Is it self awareness that peace within yourselves is the ultimate realization? Or is it releasing the energy within by activating the chakras? Can it be seeking the reality itself? There is no clear definition and knowledge can be within the self and defined by oneself through one's own personal experience.

So I was thinking - I will write about my experiences in seeking the path of meditation - from being a novice to where ever it takes me; as also share the experiences within; without setting a goal, find out where it takes me and record it regularly.

I welcome others to do so also - it can be enriching.

I have tried to seek a clear view on whether the goal of meditations is peace and contentment or is there a higher objective like seeing the reality - something similar to the reality of QP? I have no clear answers and I think this needs much more, much much much more search.

What is my own experience so far?

I have been through out life a person with faulty emotional intelligence - I mean easily provoked, steeped in quick responses, judgmental, unable to and unwilling to listen, easily perturbed and jumping to conclusions; agitations lasting long; disturbed mind, contorted with emotions. I also suspect I have been living with a degree of ADS from young age - attention deficiency syndrome - I am trying to settle down now to a peace within.

My objective has been to understand the mind-body structure, to control the responses, to observe my thoughts, to differentiate me from my ego; generally make friend with the NOW and try to be in the NOW. Reading is part of the exercise and Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now is a life changer in this respect. I did some reading of concepts of Bhagavat Gita as also some part of Vedanta, to get into me the concept of body-mind-me differentiation. Whether one agrees with it or not, this is a very useful concept to follow. It appeals to logic. It is approved by the intelligence too; the same intelligence we are trying to keep aside while seeking; irony or oxymoron!

Initially when I sat for meditation, I had guidance from this book 'the Tibetan book of Living and Dying". I was particularly taken in by a statement that one should try to be in the NOW for at least one minute. This made an impression.

I started with 20 minutes of meditation. First few days are oscillating days. The mind does wander; it wanders even now after so many days; if you try not to think, you doze off. What I found best is not to contest the thoughts rather just let it pass on its own. It does go away after a few sittings.

Next is this sensations in the outer body; the ear canal crying out for a soothing pacification or the hand itching away purposefully; the funny thing is if you oblige, it happens exactly at the same interval of time after you start every day; the same set of demands too; in a way it settles down to same set of demands and so addressing the same is simpler. I practiced a technique - all the parts demanding attention, I gave a thorough massage as per the individual demand just before starting off. It helped but then you get an assault later. Then I tried a simple method. Soon as a distraction in the skin starts, satisfy it; finish with it quickly and get back to meditating. This did work.

What happens after a few days is that the demands vanish, because your concentration becomes more and you can ignore the demands.

The third stage is the mind and the thoughts. Slowly the thoughts become lesser and lesser, you are able to see fewer thoughts, but you are still just oscillating. You have some dreamlike pictures around you, your inner most mind goes ahead thinking of something very vague; you have images instead of thoughts; ideas pop up. This popping of ideas happens most times, but your mind settles down slowly.

I was able to complete the twenty minutes comfortably; I must admit, I was looking forward to the ringing of the alarm. Slowly, I was able to sit even after the alarm rings. I read that sitting even after the period, integrating the feelings to your life is important. But this is for much later.

One point I learnt is that the physical body and mind has to integrate. This is important and somewhere during the process you understand this concept. The body and mind integrates slowly to become one; you are aware of the mass which is a combination of your bod and your mind; hard to explain but easy to reach to this level.

At this stage, I did not realize that I was far from being in the NOW. The first goal of the effort is to be in the NOW; this is what I started with as a goal. I then found out by inner experience that thoughtlessness is not being in the NOW. It is very difficult to understand what I mean, unless the process tells you later what is being in the NOW.

The next challenge is to increase the time upwards. During the initial sittings, observe the feelings. Distinctly feel the impatience; distinctly feel the desire to be somewhere else. Question this desire; why should I like to be in a different place that where I am now, how is that more enjoyable? Emphasize to yourselves that the present activity tops the pleasure list and so there is not reason for you to be out of it or elsewhere. This logic sinks in and the impatience reduces. This leads of course to sitting for a longer time.

The other challenge is to avert this need for taking the calls in between or to look at messages; especially if we are expecting a call or an information. It is not that this is important, it is that the mind grabs you by your collar and takes you to the phone. This habit is out of the impatience itself and also out of habit of our daily life. This needs conquest and it is possible.

Now having conquered both impatience and the length extension, next step is to observe inside us. I did two or three exercises - one is to observe the body internally starting with the toes. This is lovely and helps integrate the mind with the body; second is to focus the body out through the center of the forehead. This focus, if not anything, brings a concentration. I have no knowledge of idea of the chakras in the body, the power centers nor the rise of the kundalini; I purposely do not want to be guided by these ideas, at least not for now. Maybe later I will realize there is some substance in these and that these are the real paths.

Small details like should I keep my eyes open, should I observe my breath, should I chant something - are all individual choices; these are techniques for initial days; these help avoiding thoughts; my experience is that I traveled out of the requirements of these techniques soon enough. I reached a stage when either opening or closing the eyes does not matter; sometimes closing avoids strain to the eyes, because in the process of being in the NOW - which we believe is the NOW - the eyes get strained.

Easy is the word - no strains anywhere, the upper forehead is clear of tensions, the inside of the head has no tensions - these are to be removed and is so very possible easily; awareness is the key. I did get out of these within a short time. Of course stiffness of the joints due to unchanged sitting is something that has to be coped with; but on position of sitting, I feel any comfortable position is fine; if lotus position is comfortable do it or sit in a chair if you please. I rather found that this matters not much.

There is some fogginess which develops once you get the thoughts out of the system; you are staring at something for concentration; you see the object, but either it become foggy or it becomes three dimensional or blurred or spinning or whatever is your individual experience; you must realize this is not the right direction; this is not going deeper; this is not the NOW. You need to have a simple technique for snapping out of it. Blink once or make a click with the mouth; something which is a signal to awaken you.

Now for the NOW. As I traveled in this journey, many times I found tingling sensation, the whole body in fire kind of sensation, the body and mind sort of electrified - all these are various sensations to be enjoyed but recognized that this is not what you want.

You are in a situation by this stage, where everything around you is getting fed into your system, but it does not disturb you; if there is a loud clang of some sort, you are aware of it, but it syncs very well without disturbing you; if a cat is going around you notice it, but without any distraction. Meditating means being fully aware, but not distracted; it is not shutting off.

In this process, suddenly I got this sensation of the NOW. How does one explain it? it is some sort of a merger of the inner feelings with a thoughtless mind - integrating with the images outside - it is a feeling as if you are on pins from the seat of your body. It is very simple and nothing complicated. But when it happens you finally know this is the NOW. It is just a simple merging and it is one step ahead of the thoughtless mind.

I have reached till this point and am finding it extremely difficult to keep it on. I come into the illuminated NOW - there is an illumination of some sort - a merger - but I find it extremely - what to say - sort of bouncy to be stable in the same state. It is an effort to hold on to this state.

When first I read about being in the NOW for one minute, I was appreciating myself when I could be in a thoughtless state for twenty minutes. I felt refreshed. Now I understand exactly what they meant by 'try to be in it for one minute at a time'. Trying to be in the NOW as I understood - as I experienced - which could really be not the NOW, I could be totally off the mark - trying to hold on to that state for a whole minute appears impossible for me presently. In a period of half hour to one hour, I am in this state for about 2 minutes in total, but fragmented seconds at one time. But I get the clear idea of what it is.

This is how far I have reached. This is my path. This is not the chakra path or the path as taught by a guru.

I will go further and keep writing about the journey. Since the day I realized what is the NOW, I have been seeing that I am more aware when I am doing my normal work. There is a special beauty in everything. Trees are beautiful; I saw a dove and kept enjoying its beauty; very peculiarly the dove was not afraid of me, it just was there for me to see as long as I want. I am hooked on to the concept making friends with the NOW in everyday life; as I said in another note, it does not matter if this state is miraculous, it matters that you are very amenable to what is happening around you; in itself this is a pleasure.

I realize that this is just a start; this is like being in first standard as kid and I have some 18 more grades to go, before I get my professional attainment. I am a novice, but enjoy being a novice as of now.

Beauty and un-beauty

2011-10-14T02:15:00.000-07:00

What is this term un-beauty? Things can either be beautiful or ugly, what can be un-beauty? Un-beauty is a term used to communicate that there is nothing which is ugly in world and life. Everything is beautiful. Few things are un-beautiful.

The concept of beauty comes from our mind. We register some stuff as beautiful and some as ugly, with our training and stored experiences. For example, you can look at a flowing river of grime and muck to train yourselves to see beauty in it; anything natural is beautiful; you can experience this, if you spend time on this.

Most of the stuff written in this blog have two characteristics -

1. Very simple ordinary stuff of life, well known to all. Well, this blog is about ordinary concepts being reviewed again. The point is, ordinary issues which can easily be tackled or conquered get lost in the simplicity; these do not get practiced or addressed, because everyone thinks they know it; life just carries on thinking I know this. However, most of the concepts are so easy to practice and can be life changers, if only we spend minimum time of these regularly.

2. Very theoretical and hence is either impracticable or beyond me - fact is to be happy, to know the difference, to be not affected by being in the past and in misery, to meditate, to have self knowledge - are all simple concepts in my opinion which can easily be built into life by anyone. Simply it is not done because it is not addressed. Also all these are so practical and so useful. It just needs addressing, like brushing the teeth regularly.

Getting back to the concept of beauty - beauty is mostly in the mind; and beauty is surely in the reality of NOW. Once we practice being in the NOW, which again is so simple to obtain, we will see simply beauty everywhere.

Beauty exists, whether we notice it or not. Of late we all have an opportunity to see images of deep sea and the cosmos - so colorful and stunning; we see beauty around and in living beings which are not supposedly as evolved as us; beings which cannot supposedly comprehend beauty; cannot comprehend that these beings are part of the visual beauty which we enjoy. Why is there so much beauty where no one can notice it? Is beauty a concept of our mind and our eye? if so why it is in places where our eye and mind are not present? That is why I say, beauty exists, un-beauty does not. Beauty exists and we choose to see it or on. Un-beauty we create.

Once you come to be in the NOW, you will see beauty in everything; in crowds of people, in empty spaces, in trees, in dove and in dust; in grime and in torn clothes; this needs to be experienced and this is so simple to experience. Beauty is everywhere.

What then is un-beauty?

I feel un-beauty are all created by humans and their mind; however, un-beauty does exist in our surroundings. Un-beauty is man make. I see un-beauty is the malnourished child images; I see un-beauty when hungry children are hanging around and we eat a great variety of stuff without a pang; I see un-beauty in the oppression of women and trafficking them, forcing them into ghettos of prostitution; I see un-beauty in violence against children; their physical abuse is very more horrible, it is ugly; I see un-beauty in forcing your convictions on others and inflicting pain on others for the same; I see un-beauty in torture; I see un-beauty is abuse of power. There will be many more, but all of these created by man and his mind.

There is nothing ugly in this world, unless created by man.

Mind wise - simple understanding.

2011-10-13T02:45:00.000-07:00

Mind is a fluid body, with a built in underlying mechanism to agitate it at the slightest provokation and a constant back ground noise to provoke it....

Soon as the mind gets an input... the underlying mechanism kicks in to agitate it:

We believe it is the event which agitates the mind, whereas all the time we need to be aware it is the reaction which agitates it:

Such an agitated mind goes into overdrive; it feeds on itself; once a habit, this is just a habit and not causal:

Then it starts calming down in stages; it takes a long time to calm down.

During this time, the person is not rational. Finally settles down on its own; sometimes it leads to introspection, sometimes to self righteousness-

Blessed are the people borne with a calm mind. Mind is like a wild river; harness it and channel it; spend little time everyday - harvest huge benefits.

Harnessing the mind progressively requires simple steps:

1. Look inside yourselves every day for at least 15 minutes. Call it meditation if you want. Mind too needs exercise like the body. Breathing, meditation and observation are mind exercises.

2. Follow your own thoughts and observe the agitation. Observe when mind goes on its own. Observe that continuous thoughts is tiring.

3. Remember that mind can either become your servant or your master.

4. Also understand that mind just goes the way it is allowed to or trained.

5. Understand the entities - Mind, Body and You. You drive the mind and body; not the other way. Experience that You are always in a state of happiness; it is the mind which delivers unhappiness.

6. Understand the power of NOW.

All of the above are simple and obvious; to embed these into our lives is very simple.

Absolute Musts for life enhancement

2011-10-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

I was wondering whether there are some absolute MUSTs for carrying on with life with acceptable levels of success and contentment; enhance it from where it is now or put it on an enhancement curve.

Most issues of contented and peaceful living are obvious and it needs only structuring the same and stitching it into our lives. This again is fairly simple with awareness from within; awareness of the areas that need constant attention.

This post will tell nothing new and the simplicity of the points below are the beauty too. The purpose is to point out obvious and basic pillars, which are must for life enhancement and for peace.

The days are changing almost on a daily basis, the way we live keeps churning, thanks to the internet, information and communication era; era of quarks - it almost appears as if quarks have liberated themselves and floating around life in a frantic pace.

It is now said that there is a generation gap every three years. The change in technology and the way you live life changes drastically with newer tools available and your adaptation of these tools. The tools change so quickly that the younger you are, the more adaptable you are to change. So you change quickly and there is a perceptible difference in way of life - the younger you are the more differentiated you are; leading to a generation gap with an age gap of three years. Imagine a 23 year old is ancient for a 13 year old; a 40 year old is surely archaeology for the young.

In this changing era, what basic issues are non-negotiable for long term sustenance of reasonable success?

1. Standing alone - it is a long haul practiced effort, unless you are borne with it, to stand alone - not lean on anyone emotionally - seeking approval, recognition, wanting affection, even showing our power, over emphasis on other's security and learning - what ever; one should train oneself to be happy with oneself and not require anyone else to lean on to for living. This is a big concept, seemingly simple and warrants detailed analysis. One would do well to sit alone for fifteen minutes everyday and examine the internal of one's body and mind. Standing alone and not needing strength from another is the first step towards enhancing life.

2. Belong to a skill set - a community of experts: essential to have one specialty and to be in it long term; the mind boggling variety of professions which have come into existence; the variety of branches that have evolved from such mind boggling variety of professions which have surfaced - is truly mind boggling again. So it is necessary to be part of a skill set which is developing all the time.

3. Health - there is no escaping that health is given priority; daily maintenance, what ever your age is not negotiable anymore. Daily care is nothing but a saving bank account. Earlier, people with addictions, people with unhealthy habits still came up in life, but now it seems that most have internalized the virtues of health as a part of essentials. High levels of energy seems a prerequisite for existence; other attributes like innovation, etc are needed, but here we are talking only essentials.

4. Technology - even before coming of a career age to belong to a skill set, it is essential to be right on top and be updated on relevant social technology - social meaning communication, information and internet technologies, including the equipment / gadgets - and particularly what is new.

5. What one will be doing the next day - some people are good at clear planning for the next six months and they know exactly what they will be doing hourly for the next six days; but most people are not that lucky. The least one must do is to be clear where their time will be spent in the next 24 hours.

6. Taking care of personal wealth creation - is again a must, especially for those who are in a paid employment. Over involvement in others' business creates wealth for others; over zealous ownership in a salaried job never ultimately creates wealth for self. Pity is no one is asking for such ownership, but we get over involved, because we have nothing else to do; and we expect a round of applause too. By wealth, I do not mean being rich - it is addressing the issue of creation of wealth better than our current situation, anticipating our future needs and ensuring we have a plan for it. Money does not grow in trees.

7. Interactive skills - which is a must; being pleasant, creating relationships, making others like us - these are necessary in future much more, in a world which is more and more interactive and together.

There are hundreds other traits which can merit elaboration, but above should be the minimum requirement and a foundation. For example talking about other issues - a sense of style, needless to say including personal hygiene, surely are in; reading and gathering awareness is a sure necessity; likewise many other issues, but pillars are as above, on which you can build your castle of other issues.

God and Quantum Physics

2011-10-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

When one knows that the Great Void is full of ch'i, one realizes that there is no such thing as nothingness - Chang Tsai - taken from The Tao of Physics.

Almost entire atom is an empty space. The outer mask for an atom is just a field created by swirling electrons. As a corollary all of us are extension of the universal nothingness. Universal nothingness, held together by the power - presently identified as four forces by Physics; soon to be integrated into one by a Theory or a finding.

Is it possible, mind takes you to see the reality as explored by Physics, through meditation?

Unfortunately,

Those who know do not tell; those who tell do not know.

Imagine this -

If a small apple is made into the size of earth
- one single atom will be size of a grape.
- It is impossible to see the nucleus of the atom of the size of a grape. To see the nucleus, you need to blow up the atom to the size of a 14 story building.(Dome of Vatican St. Peter's basilica).
- In this 14 story structure, the nucleus will be the size of a gm of salt
- the electrons which revolve around the nucleus the size of dust particles.
- The cover or outer skin of the atom is just these spinning electrons, so fast that it is a field of energy, acting as a boundary. In Hydrogen for example, there are just 2 dust particles in a 7 story building.
- rest is empty space.
- imagine atom is so empty, group of atoms form molecules, which are again empty as the atoms are empty
- molecules form you and me and matter; so we are completely empty space inside us at particle level.
(thanks to Dance of the Wu-Li Masters)

The whole world is but empty space with four forces acting as a binder; nothingness is the all pervading force.

All particles are waves of energy and so are nothingness; that is - even the little space filled with particles are nothing but nothingness.

Raw single power; currently identified to the level of four forces by science.

Add to this the fact that space-time continuum is one single fabric, making past and future nothing but illusions of our mind; and force manifesting as matter with enough empty space, giving us illusion of being.

Fascinating.

Meditation seems to be showing it all - to the people who won't tell.

But it will be naive to assume that through mind you can see all, unless it is scientifically proved. After all scientists slog it out, verifying testing and proving every little detail; they need to be respected. Unless they come around through verification that consciousness is the ultimate power, you cannot jump the gun.

Only way is for you to spend next 20 years of your life and join the people who won't tell; which will again be useless to all of us, except you.

On surrender and power of NOW

2011-10-09T02:40:00.000-07:00

We keep coming across this advice to surrender and enjoy the power of NOW. The concept is if you do not resist and just surrender; if you make friends with the present moment; if you do not oppose the NOW - you travel with the flow of nature and hence will always find life to be favorable and tension free. Doors open for you.

What is the meaning of this surrender?

As I have understood, surrender is not to be combative and not to get agitated about things which do not agree with your thought process or opposes what you are seeking. This surrender is the first step towards surrender of intellect and enjoying the cosmic peace.

I tried this surrender and did feel it works. Little miracles did happen and life became enjoyable. But then I am not sure whether life became enjoyable because you did not have mental tensions on what might not be agreeable to you normally; that you are in a better frame of mind to put yourselves in others' shoes, see the others' point of view and be prepared to negotiate with others; that you are surely not in a mental frame of mind where constantly you feel others are out there to screw you; that you internally agree little things that inconvenience you are really little things and do not matter in the overall context; very possibly surrender becomes better for you simply because all events earlier unacceptable to you have become acceptable and so life is pleasant.

You are also pleasant to others, so they are pleasant back to you; you also gloss over little smartness by small people - like this pleasant hair stylist, smiled so agreeably at me and then silently overcharged me - either you pleasantly resist or you let go and excuse him for his smallness - so life is nice for you.

Be it that way, so what? Life does become enjoyable in the process. It is all about accommodating other inhabitants of this planet, who have equal right as you - to stay put and not surrender; so both of you become unpleasant for both your internals.

If you have interacted with Scandinavians, you will probably understand this surrender concept in the context of acceptance better. It is all negotiations and being soft with the constant conviction that others are equally entitled. This surely does not make you weak in anyway, in fact it makes you stronger. Your negotiations with life are more logical and hence more successful.

So why not surrender? Once the surrender is done, little miracles do happen. We need to get convinced that those little events are miracles. Those may not be, those may not stand to logic as miracles. But then again, who cares? I have to lead life my way and it is all personal experiences finally. If my life is peaceful by thinking these are miracles, why not think that way? What do I lose? Having said that, once you start observing, little door do open and little miracles do happen.

The great NOW, the reality - becomes your friend; which now takes us to the concept of NOW - coupled with the concept of surrender. It is nice to make friends with the NOW. There is nothing other than the NOW is a fact of life. You may choose to accept it or you may choose to ignore it; you may even choose to jeer at it - it hardly matters. It is all the NOW. All of the past is worthless - except for the realities which accompany you as stock in trade from the past - the real bank balances; the continued efforts at maintaining good health - which is again a better bank balance than you realize NOW; the immense treasure of relationships - all these are not the past but the NOW - they exist in the NOW.

Make friend with the NOW and you are happy. This is so true. You have no time for sadness from memories, you have no tension of future. However, the concept of making friends with NOW is nothing but surrender. Surrender to the NOW and see new way of life before you.

Making friends with the NOW and surrendering to events as these happen makes life peaceful. No one is advocating that you accept it and be a door mat. Accept it and act in the NOW. There is no need for direct conflict resulting in acrimony and anger; with your mind getting disturbed.

Make friends with NOW and surrender - you will see a beautiful door opening. It does not matter whether it is a new door of reality or it is a door opening inside you, simply because of your own approach to others.

Embed when young - 7 - On Religion and God

2011-08-31T01:19:00.000-07:00

It is fascinating to read little about all religious paths, if only to understand why people are in logger heads - fiercely propagating their respective faiths. Faith in itself is a fascinating human facet - faith is somewhat a controller and is an unshakable edifice inside the vault of mind ; even for a logical thinker or a scientist, faith is an absolute, unquestionable foundation of life; automatically people get convinced and support their respective faiths; automatically people think other faiths are not faiths at all. For all this 'faith' in faith - it has no scientific proof and it is just a story told again and again to us from childhood; and it is just a collective memory in one single living set of human beings. Humans being slaves of habits, faith forms habits; habits over a period becomes a culture. Faith frightens me.

When one digs deep into it, simple faith is nothing but what has been put into your mind when your mind was a blank board. Told again and again, seeing in practiced all over by people who matter to you then, faith is sort of encrypted into the mental system.

One way to look at it is, religion itself is nothing but the memories of living generation. The past will not be up again to argue that it is right; all the scriptures, however true they are, are things of past. I mean no disrespect to anyone, I am deeply religious and deeply into my own faith. But then I am prepared to transcend into other faiths, accept all the faiths as nothing but different routes; that this fierce fighting is unnecessary; that inflicting one's concepts on others is a form of cruelty.

The most fascinating reality is that - for a cursory reader who is not influenced by the deeper concepts each religion proposes- for one who just takes the basic concepts into account - one who considers all religions are for a peaceful living and a physiological, philosophical support system; the fascinating reality is all religions seem to talk of the same thing. There are minor variations in the form and implementation, but all religions acknowledge there is a single power called God and that the striving we do is to join or be with HIM - concepts differ on whether you join HIM as an individual distinct from HIM or whether join him as part of one whole; that HE is all pervading is accepted and he has no form is accepted; HE is separate from you or you are part of HIM - is just a small matter of how you want to get peace; just a minor operating detail.

Most amusing fact in these divisions in concepts which lead to so much of war and misery is - a concept which is made for the purpose of giving peace and happiness, delivers so much of misery, death and unhappiness. Symbolism in implementation takes over the purpose and divides humanity.

The moment I say that concepts are all similar, there will be protests from every religion; but then the idea of this piece is to have a practical approach to life; to use religious belief whatever it may be, to enhance life and proceed further with what ever we want to do in life. It is very good to have faith, it is very good to be part of a religion, it is very good to read scriptures, to think - reading makes you think. Practice whatever you want, just to give you internal peace and carry on with life. No one has come back after death, to confirm that my faith is right and your faith is wrong; no verification but so much of vilification.

As they say, religion delivers philosophy - in this case, if we can somehow use religious belief to deliver us to a simple philosophy of life, for us to live and love harmoniously, for us to have a tool to progress in life - the purpose of religion is achieved fully.

In summary, for a fickle philosopher - while all religions talk the same sense of living in peace, harmony and non-violence, there seems very small differences which can be summarized as below:

One power who is God and we are all either judged or join HIM.

One power who is God who is what all our core internal is.

For a youngster, it makes logical sense to adopt which ever concept that is proposed by his or her religion, accept it as truth. So long as there is God and we submit to HIM, it hardly matters which road we follow.

It makes simple practical sense to have a world view and move forward. While moving forward, it is essential to accept too that everyone is entitled to his or her own beliefs. There is no need to defend nor there is need to offend.

This is important. For personal growth, reading and contemplating is essential, as this is an exercise for the brain and for internal growth. It is also nice to accept certain aspects of our own self.

Embed when young: 6 - little method

2011-08-29T13:14:00.000-07:00

There are very few aspects of life which one cannot ignore in this internet age. Especially if you are a youngster and you need to swim in these times, you need minimum something. These are times when communication changes every one year, technology integration doubles every two years and generation changes every three years. You are old for the world in ten years from now, as the young are different from you.

So what are the simple things which one must keep up with, to be inside life:

- health is something one cannot ignore. One cannot afford not to be healthy. Gone are the times you can swim along.

- technology and understanding the use of technology; being on top of use of latest technology; by this I do not mean being on top the technology as a science, but integrating the assault of changing technology into your life with ease.

- Organizing oneself to a minimum extent at least. Least of it is to know what I will do tomorrow. Move with the day and time, knowing roughly what I will do during that time of tomorrow. If one can do better, say for 3 years, 2 years, 1 year, 1 month, 1 week and 1 day it is brilliant. What is planned need not happen, but planning and having the will power to follow the plan are necessary now for survival.

Embed when young - 5 - core of happiness

2011-08-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

What really is happiness? When are we unhappy?

To be at peace inside us all the time, is a difficult proposition. We may not be blatantly unhappy, but we remain in constant state of restlessness; the feeling that something is not right riddles us during our waking hours. When we are fiercely pursuing something and we have a huge adrenaline rush, in intermittent periods we have this feeling of restlessness, not related to unfinished jobs at hand. Many times, we are also really unhappy; unhappy with way things are; sometimes our situation is awful, it is a bad business, it is a bad boss, it is an uncomfortable life, it is long and frustrating work, it is poverty, it is loan, it is wanting something desperately, it is love, it is love failure, it is wanting a car, it is wanting to dispose off a car, it is whatever, it is a nagging feeling of wanting; wanting varying from restlessness to unhappiness to sorrow itself.

Even if we are not overtly unhappy, we seem to be swinging between joy and restlessness. Happy and unhappy keep rotating around. Many times we think we know, but most times, even if the situation is satiated, we continue our nagging restlessness.

At the core of it, we have three principles to be understood:

1. Unable to stand alone with ourselves.

2. Wanting to be somewhere else than where we are.

3. Wanting to be someone else than that what we are.

In life unless one is able to give leadership to oneself, there is a likely chance of being restless. Giving leadership alone is not a formula for getting rid of the restlessness, however, this at least shifts the responsibility to oneself, for being at peace. Giving leadership to oneself is taking responsibility and also giving long term stability to oneself.

Getting back to the three statements above,

firstly, when we are able to be peaceful with ourselves and without leaning on anyone else, we are happy. This in itself is an enormous topic, deserving a separate chapter. Just analyze this. In every aspect of our life, when we are not comfortable with ourselves, we either need leadership from someone or we need acceptance or validation from someone; if any of these at the least we need to get satisfaction from leading someone's life. The day we can stand alone inside ourselves and do not need any leanings, we will be happy. To stand alone and be comfortable in any situation, it needs strength.

The other two statements are simple enough. If we are able to content being in the place where we are, we will be at peace. When we have to move to some other place, if we are at that moment be content with the transportation or the other place, we will be at peace again. Let us say we are committed to a simple act of jogging, we can be at peace with the jogging itself, if we do not want to be at our work place to get on with the tasks of the day or munch over in our mind the events of the earlier day. If we are not in a hurry to finish our jogging and if we observe the muscles moving systematically and powerfully with every step, we are at peace, at least momentarily. This is not only the fascinating activity of being in the 'now'; it is also the exercise of being at peace with the current activity, with no hurry to shift out to the next.

Same way, we have all the time some one to compare ourselves with or at least the society at large and set a goal for any one aspect of our life at any point in time. Be unhappy about what we are presently, longing to be what we are not.

If early enough in our life, we find a way to reduce the effects of the above three aspects, we will be very much ready to move much further in personal happiness. In fact our internal and external growth will get much enhanced, if we can pursue what we want to pursue, with a peaceful starting point. We move from a contended peaceful point to another contended peaceful point in life.

Embed when young - 4 External vs internal appearances.

2011-08-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

How important it is to look handsome or beautiful? Most humans do have a fixation on fair complexion, tall, well built good figure and in case of women, being alluring too. How important are all these attributes for success in life? How would one rate external beauty vs internal beauty?

If you are borne with external beauty, it is a seemingly good advantage. To some extent it is true. An aristocrat or film star stands out with external beauty. When someone presents him or herself to an outside congregation, they do have some advantage if there is an external beauty.

However, it is important to understand a few of the issues. Many people get stuck in their external appearance, especially when he or she is endowed with abundant good looks. This is an invisible circle that traps the mind. They get kind of entrapped in their own beauty and expect the attraction to get attraction from others. They feel superior and in that feeling of being special they get trapped. If we observe this phenomena, we can see a lot of examples in people around us. They look at themselves in a special way, they look at others - to assure themselves internally that they are the center of attraction; they spend their time inside themselves, with an inability to get out of this invisible trap.

Most such people do get a feeling of being entitled and do get away to a limited extent when interacting with the outside world. This feeling of being entitled comes from this aspect of good looks too, along with various other circumstances given to us by birth.

While external beauty is a small advantage, it is really not a great advantage. It can be a great advantage for selected professions, but not in general.

It is important to internalize our looks and physical attributes quickly and move on. Whether positive or negative, it has to be filed away. If positive, it is a small advantage and can be tremendously leveraged by concentrating on internal beauty. If negative, it is again a small disadvantage that can be more than overcome by concentrating on internal beauty.

Beauty of internal beauty is that everyone starts at the same starting point - except of course being borne at various years and hence the advantage of youth or not.

Beauty of internal beauty is that you are what you think you are. All the people you see around you, who seem to have really made it big, right up till your Prime Minister or the favorite Star, all of them started from the same start line of internal beauty.

Beauty of internal beauty has to be realized much earlier in life and again strongly internalized. Power of mind again is an oft beaten issue - again and again talked about - and so we are tired of it if someone starts off again. The problem is that it is so obvious and so we do nothing; time passes on.

It will be too much of hog wash and run of the mill bleating, if I say you are what you think you are; so I thought may a scientific explanation to you are what you think you are might help.

This scientific explanation is based on recent theories of physics. We know that there is a theory called String Theory, which in simple terms (I do not know any complicated term, neither do I know physics) theorizes that there are many futures which are probable; many possibilities exist for what could be our future and there is some theory on how all these futures collapse later. This is all I can explain with my limited knowledge, but this theory is probably necessary in the realm of multi-dimensional existence of the universe.

Now imagine you sitting with many possible futures; imagine your mind is the most powerful energy connecting these futures; the particular future you wish for and imagine with all the strength of your mind is the future which is realized. The book "Secrets" is again in similar lines and since I started believing in Secrets, lots of simple things have fallen in place for me.

The issue is you need not inquire into whether all of the above are true or not; you can surely use it to enhance yourselves.

It helps your confidence if you believe in yourselves; and to believe in yourselves, you can get convinced of the fact that what you believe happens - scientifically too. For you to imagine you are a superstar and go about achieving your dream, makes you pursue that options with vigour and with passion.

However, a self analysis is vital which we will cover later.

Before I digressed, we were on the topic of internal and external beauty. Internal strength and internal beauty is a far more powerful tool than external beauty. External strength and good health are a must for any progress in these days of competitive world. However, it is essential to realize that external strength and beauty are much enhanced, if the internal beauty is at a much higher level than the external beauty.

I once had a group meeting for joint purchase of property with a developer; we were five of us and from the developer's side they were two. It was a lovely oval office on the top floor, with glass and view galore; added to this, the developer owner was a superbly suave, stylishly dressed, handsome six footer. He was a class in himself, along with another equally impressive person. Out of the five of us, the hero of this story was five feet something, with dark complexion, thin, with not much of a dress sense and old too. Other five too surely would stand out; on comparison they came closer to the handsome developer of scores 5 to 8 in a scale of 10.

The meeting started and after sometime, without anyone noticing, I was fascinated to note that the five footer was sitting relaxed with his legs crossed and all of us were actually at the end of the cushion with our hands on our knees or folded - and sitting towards this person. This is inner beauty! I can never forget that meeting.

Embed when young - 3 Courage of conviction

2011-08-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

We get nice advises all the time to follow our heart and to follow our passion; we feel life is made if one follows his or her passion. We need to discuss these - both heart and passion - separately, as if the two are not related.

First we need to discuss follow your heart.

Following your heart is not a fixed phenomena for everyone. Heart might lead you to various activities at various times. If you are like me, you will follow the heart and then later find that either you do not have the talent for it or your interest dies down soon.

To give an example, I have this intense passion for writing. However, writing is such an activity which has to come from inside you. You might notice something funny or interesting and this could work inside you - till you one day it compels you to sit and write about it; you pour out your inner feelings and bring out a short piece. Then you struggle for continuing the topic. If you want to write a book - even if you have decided on the theme, it is not that your imagination flows equally all the time. For me, when I sit and write in first few sessions, I have brought out everything that was inside me on the topic and I have nothing more to say. Your passion too has dried out and you drift. So there goes out of the window, the activity where your heart is. You cannot make it a whole time habit, it can be a leisure activity. Heart keeps jumping passions.

Coming to passion, blessed are the people who find their calling early in life. Your calling can be piano, cycling, art, whatever, you find that without doing that activity you cannot survive. You do it and do it with a vigour; do it again and again for eighteen hours a day and till not tire of it. Such people have no decision to make. They have no choice; some make it big in the process, many do not. But they have no regrets. Here again normal average people have an issue. I for instance have been seeking what my passion is and am still seeking; my life passed in the meantime. My effective young life is over but still I am searching. I have passions and not a passion. I have passing passions, which ebb and flow away from me sooner or later.

So what do you do when you cannot identify a passion? This is a fairly big question and needs careful addressing.

Embed when young - 1 Introduction

2011-08-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

There is so much you can do in youth, to chalk out a way of life you want. But you understand this only after you have spent your time and it is past that is longer than the future. When you sit and review after you have spent the time - you can see as clearly as on a sunny morning in a meadow - you see the landscape of your past so well; you contemplate and you can see the simple issues you could have tackled much earlier in life - and squeezed so much more juice out of the time spent.

When one is young one never appreciates this. When a spent man says this truth to you too, you are skeptical. You know, that it is true. You do not realize that the best use of intelligence many times is to submit; to listen and to put the intelligence ego in temporary storage. You always have an option to sneer after you have listened; instead of sneering beforehand.

The frustration of an older man is that - it is so simple, so easy to squeeze happiness out of life; and get what you define you want out of life. Your life can be so fruitful, if only you chalk out your program well in advance. Do not get me wrong when I say program. It is nothing like a diary with definitive things to do; where self discipline and will power is the essence; you will then close this by saying here we go again, if I had the discipline and the will power, why do I need lectures; it is not at all so; it is just a little contemplation. It is just spending little time to look at the navigation tools you set for yourselves and do little adjustments; little time spent tweaking of issues. It is so easy, so it is so frustrating for an older man.

The best favor you can do to yourselves is to be aware. Be aware and be clear what makes you happy, peaceful and content.

That in essence is life - following your definition of happiness, peace and contentment. It is your own tailored definition.

The first response is - have we not heard it all? what is so new about it? so many people have written so much about these issues - what are you telling me all over again? Yes unfortunately, we have all heard it all and again and again. There is nothing new. All issues and all solutions are obvious and so never gets implemented; everything is so obvious that we never do anything about it; the best part is - it is so simple to do something, without losing out on any fun

If someone comes to define it for you in simple terms, gives you a template at every stage, is it not productive to look at it and listen?

I am using this blog to make a template of issues for anyone to follow. This template is made from my own life, on a review of what I could have been, what I should have been and what I am. Make no assumption, there is no regret. Given what I did with my time and given all the loopholes, fallacies and approach to life and time, I reached where I reached. I could not have done better, considering the use of my time.

If I did have a template, would I have done better? of course I would have. But I would never have listened; I would always have thought, these issues are obvious, no one needs to tell me; I always thought I am the best. I had my ego and intellect before me all the time, guiding and blinding me.

So I am planning to write ordinary issues of life in a series; write a description, a summary of what I feel should be and if relevant a list of questions which will guide anyone through.

I am hoping this will be of help to anyone reading.

The series will run in the serial number given as a suffix to the topic header: "What I should have done when I was young" and this is '1'.

I am 60 so I am entitled to advise - well take it in a lighter spirit - after all you are the one clicking the button to read or to delete. So here goes, all the ordinary known issues of life, told again in simple form for anyone reading.

Of course you are welcome to comment or to write original article.

Embed when young 2 - of happiness!

2011-08-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

It is a good place to give an introduction to the fact that we take for granted all the simple concepts of life: those simple issues which we have heard over and over again. We never contemplate, as we seem to know these simple stuff. It is in this simplicity that it gets lost for ever and we spend our limited hour glass of life as it comes; suddenly we find so much of sand is in the bottom chamber. We cannot lift it up to the top ever.

This simple story impressed me in context of this issue. A beggar sits and begs all day long, sitting on top of a old trunk. He has his little dirty linen sack used as a cushion on top of this prop to enact his poverty act and keeps with his career of begging. He improvises and does well, but he has this nagging sense of wanting, of incompleteness of his life - he sees all those cars and those jazzy people and longs to be like them.

This unfortunately is the state of mind inside everyone. We have this sense of incompleteness.

One day a wise man comes along and he stops by to talk to the beggar. The wise man was known to the beggar's father; while talking to the beggar the wise man says he was asked by his father to check on the son, once in a way; the wise man was coming back after a long time and so was checking out. On that day, the beggar was particularly feeling down and out; he lamented to the wise man on how unfair life is and how he is in misery all the time, watching the world enjoy itself.

The wise man said but how or why, your father was well off and how did you land in this situation? To which the beggar said, I have no idea, my father's entire possession was this ugly trunk on which I am sitting since I started begging.

Wise man asked him have you ever seen the trunk well? to which again the lament continued on what is there to see in this obviously dirty old trunk; I am not for a life of nostalgia, it does not feed me; I need to live well. So the wise man guided the beggar to the trunk and had a close examination; inside the trunk was an old album full of rare stamps, looking old and dirty; the trunk itself had a lining of gold inside the old tin cover. The beggar was rich and was oblivious of this richness; it was so obvious - the trunk was - that he did not even examine the trunk.

Story of our life is like this; we are sitting on top of a trunk of obvious facts. To live a life of contentment, happiness and fulfillment is so easy; but we never contemplate to make it happen.

So this series will try to structure all the obvious practices need for joyous and peaceful life - all obvious little things of life; structured in a hierarchical way, as one would see an organization chart.

Let us see whether it makes sense at the end of it.

Beauty is ... God?

2011-08-15T04:13:00.000-07:00

When you see something of beauty, you always go back to how can one say there is no God, if there is so much of beauty in creation? Always anything in nature is beautiful, but then why would one create everything so beautiful if not for a purpose; by a power called God. How can nature be so well knit and so integrated to give a visual delight if not done by an artist called God?

The other side of the argument is that visual capability evolved and it evolved in such a way that we like what we see and visualize it as beauty. Simple example is the beauty of green colour and the green cover - it is just that we visualize this colour as beauty, as vitality, health and peace. It is just a feeling and is a product of evolution.

However when one sees a stunning beauty in a place where our eyes will normally not look at all, we wonder why this was created so beautiful and synchronized. Can anyone deny a creator after seeing these pictures taken from a flight window:

Learning from a mall security man

2011-08-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed a young security man of a shopping mall?

Young fellow below 30 years of age, good looking, being in a profession of security has kept himself reasonably fit, well fitted by the agency with smart uniforms, tall erect, always alert and hardly anything immediately at hand to do.

Imagine his plight - he has to keep watch on the place, but he cannot become overtly suspicious.

His job is to watch over people, but his place survives by making people fell at home and comfortable. If he assumes everyone is out to flout the rules, not only that he will have a problem with the customers - internally inside himself he will be a mental wreck; every person there carries something and hiding something; people come to carry things out and he has to be the person who checks carrying things out; but he cannot check obviously. He can be suspicious but he cannot do much for going into the bottom of things, figuratively and literally.

His job is to watch on the customers who are vital for business; he cannot be rough with the people and has to be helpful, but he has to scrutinize those people he is helping. He has to ensure order but he cannot become a disciplinarian.

He has to hold his head high and keep his self esteem in place, with a sense of purpose, lest people ask him to be their load bearers.

He is full of energy and his job is to hang around generally; he cannot spend his energy except walk a few steps and stare. He has to walk around and cannot rest at all, but if he rests nothing much will go worse. One thing he cannot afford to do is to appear sleepy; he can of course get a false eye.

Imagine the internal contradictions and turmoils he will go through if he is a thinking person. As they say, if you want to have knowledge, you need to keep your intellect in check; here is a case where if you want to have sanity, you keep your intellect in hiding.

You need to admire some of those guys, who spend their time fruitfully, busy all the time, attend to customers in a way of assisting them rather than watching them and find a way to pace up and down, giving the right signals to wrong doers.

What is the concept of fickle philosopher?

2011-08-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

Who is a fickle philosopher? What is the concept of fickle philosopher (FP)?

When FP can be humorous and is able to laugh at himself, he goes through life very joyfully - or if this is a wrong term, at least interestingly. Self deprecating FP is an interesting animal surely.

Come out of your hiding places, I know you are all over the place, come you F****** P******, join me.

I am 60 and I am entitled.........fickle philosopher is ready to go - take cover.

2011-08-14T10:28:00.001-07:00

Wow, in July I reached 60 years of age. As I like to call it, I reached the prime of my old age. On the American Independence day, I got a kick in my old spot, telling me I reached the glorious age when no one wants me.

Then this idea stuck me; I am 60, so I am expected to have gathered a basket of fine gems of wisdom; wisdom filtered through a decanter of experience; really nice it feels to imagine myself sitting beneath a mango tree, with a white beard and a serene face; that lovely condescending smile in the face - handing out advice to all and sundry.

Beauty of experience, leading to wisdom, is that you do nothing to gain it; you live through your life and call it experience when you have less of 'future' time and much more of 'past' time; secretly wishing that someone will find a practical application for time wrap theories.

Coming back to this basket of gems of wisdom - the fact is that I am 60 and hence I am entitled to throw my thoughts around. I am 60, so I am entitled to advice the young ones.

It is another matter that young ones do not need any advice; especially from old dilapidated men; even women with a past are more interesting than grey haired geeks, I mean geeks in an archaeological sense than in the sense of brilliant weirdos.

Young ones now-a-days feel people get outdated every three years and a generation is a span of 10 years. So I am now 6 generations old; that much more wise and that much more entitled.

So here goes, I have now decided to blog what all advice that comes to my mind from now on.

As I said in the introduction to this blog - this is a blog spot for fickle philosophers; anyone can join in, especially if you want to join me in bombarding this world with useless, common sense advice, which the receiver already knows; and of course, your original thought processes. Welcome, be my guest.

Take cover - fickle philosopher is ready to go. Love the world.

2009-06-11T03:53:00.000-07:00

HAVE A CHIRMOOR!

OH CALCUTTA!

Oh Calcutta - Nostalgy.

2009-06-09T05:54:00.000-07:00

Chai Kaben

Chai Kaben is a good start to a nostalgy trip to Calcutta. The way you look forward with fervor to your good old warm Calcutta, as if you are going back in time to the smell of your mother's saree, enjoy hug of an old friend, take in the fresh atta smell from fresh roti baked at the clay chula. You are never dissappointed, the way Calcutta welcomes you, with many of the favorite features still intact - alongside the huge changes that occurred.

For example, you can still have the Bhader Chai in the same inimitable blend of thick chai with sugar. Peculiar, if you recall, the chai does not affect you and the sugar does not hurt you - the taste being special, inimitable taste of the Calcutta Chai.
Call the city Kolkota if you want - I was wondering whether kolkikotha is appropriate for people like us - it is our yesteryear story we seek. It is the nostalgy we want to visit inside the city and we want to see our nostalgy intact. We enjoy our short visit to our past, resent or appreciate the changes - and go our way into our own lives; leaving behind our kolkikotha intact. It is like meeting an old school friend - one meeting, warmth, mist in eyes, recalling incidents, talking about life changes, new relationships - exhaust it and then what? Do you feel there is nothing in common? that both of us have outgrown each other? Or you feel there is everything in common and you want to go back to the friend and old days?

The fact is, Calcutta continues to be special. You long to go back and be in its bosom, feel secure and feel the warmth. Calcutta never fails in emotions. This is the place where your friends seem to wait for you for ever; and treat you as if you never went out.

This idea of visiting Calcutta popped up when examining various spots to visit for a short three days - daughter dear Neha popped this question - why don't you take us to Calcutta and show your childhood places, you have been promising for long now?

I was stunned by this request. She does not know about my peculiar deep ties to my Kali Maa of Calcutta Khalighat. I was stunned by this request, as I have been asking my Maa, just the previous week - why don't you take me to see you Maa? Believe it if you want - for me this coincidence was too much to swallow as just a coincidence. Decision was made.

I must admit, since the

idea formed, my mind became like a full blooming flower tree.

I am not continuing this lecturing method of describing Calcutta anymore. I am gonna give a visual tour below; and at the end some acknowledgements. Enjoy!

What represents Calcutta?
1. Sweets:

Wow, misti dhohi, Rosogolla, Sondesh, Panthuva, Gulobjamun, Kalajamun, logcha, nolenguder sondesh, pataligood, sonpapdi - we did justice - First day our great driver took us to a typical Bengali sweets shop and we went bersek. What lovey misti dhohi and the rest. Same night in a posh restraunt Oh Calcutta again repeat and then again every day.

2. STREET EATS:

List of eats:

Puchka (very different from pani puri or gol gappa), gugni, aloordhum, luchi dhal, dal puri, singara, hojmi, amsath, amda, longcha baigon, dhal moori, chimoor, alu gabli, chana choor gorom, Chana smashed.

HOW DO YOU DANCE ON KNOWING YOU WILL GET ALL THESE AND WILL LIVE IT UP?

We never knew we could eat this much during breakfast - luchi aloordhom, with gorom singara, interpersed with lovely fresh misti dhohi, fresh rosogollas, sondesh, longcha, kalajamoon, et all. We had good good good puchka, laced it up with chirmoor - surprisingly, the body took it, no particular repurcussions. We had jaal mori and the smashed chana choor from the white dress chanachoor garam wala - the Gandhi cap still intact.

The Street Eat vendors are the icons of Calcutta. We grew up with them. So to honor them, I have presented the pictures under icons on Calcutta.

3. ICONS OF CALCUTTA: for old Calcuttans there are typical icons etched in the minds - some of these have been captured below.

VISIT THE FOLLOWING LINK:

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/ICONSOFCALCUTTA#

Tea Kettle, Coal Chula and frying pan:

Observe the double omlette in the frying pan, sitting on the iconic coal chula - and the tea kettle - had wonderful bader chai just below the child hood home in the Triangular Park corner.

It is surprising how the Calcutta Policmen and the Chanachoor wala keep their dresses white - not the dull white, good white.

VISIT TO THE KALI MONDHIR:

FOR PHOTOS: CLICK:

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/TRIPTOKALIMONDHIR#
AUDIO FILE OF "SORVO MONGOLA MANGOLYE.." AND SOUNDS OF KALI MONDHIR - SEE BELOW AFTER VIDEOS.

VIDEO 1: NAVIGATING A LANE IN KHALIGHAT - IN AN AMBASSADOR SIZE CAR - VIEW FROM INSIDE THE CAR - DRIVER IS AN EXPERT RISK TAKEN PAR EXCELLENCE.

VISIT TO VICTORIA MEMORIAL AND HOOGLY AREA:

PHOTO GALLERY: CLICK:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/VISITTOVICTORIAMEMORIALANDHOOGLY#

VIDEO 2: HOOGLY BOAT RIDE:

VIDEO 3: HOOGLY BOAT RIDE 2

AUDIO FILES: SOUNDS FROM KALI MONDHIR. Ignore the horrible boat ride singing - just a sudden burst of emotion of Amar Prem.

OTHER PHOTO GALLERIES:

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/FLURYSPARKSTREET#

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/VISITTONATIONALHIGHSCHOOLFORBOYSHAZRAROAD#

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/CITYCOLLEGESOUTH#

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/RashBehariOldHouseAndPanditiya#

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/174FANDCYLOPHARMACYCORNER?authkey=Gv1sRgCMHNw4q1-aeKpAE#

Best part of Calcutta is that relationships are for ever; you can touch base with a friend after long years and the way he reacts makes your day. My dear friend Ramesh, on first contact reacted so well, so warm - that it made me feel wanted. He became so much part of my trip and planning. Ultimately, thanks to him, the nostalgy visit of Calcutta became thousand times sweeter. Ramesh and me go a long way, have so much to share - all in the 'buried' past and hopefully now in the future.

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/RAMESHMADETHETRIP#

Raji the living warmth sent a mail detailing what all to see and to eat - a perfect formula for a nostalgy trip. We did complete 80% of her list - a sense of achievement.

Anna the precise sent a nice list to Neha - advising what to see in Calcutta for a normal visitor - as usual crisp and clear agenda for non-nostaligia visitors - this was done again 90%.

What represents Calcutta?

As we all know, Calcutta represents warmth - affection and genuine love - so

if you want to go to Calcutta and enjoy Calcutta in its essence, what should you do?

Simply go visit

Krishnamoorthy and Pappa - before we reached, we had our minds full; we had to do so much and so we may hardly have time; we informed K & P that we will come

sometime during the day for half hour; say hello and register our attendance - Gita had showered all praise for them and recommended we simply go and stay there; well you need to go there to experience what i

s going to K & P. They are so warm and so good, one can't express the experience in words. Of course, the excellent singaras, sweets, idli, chatni sambhar all helped a litte. We spent 3 hours there and still

were not in a hurry to leave. Kudos K & P!

A friend of mine used to seriously recommend that we must do the world a favor and populate the world with our

kind (I am embarrassed to say Tambram) - I vehemently opposed this idea, but he was propagating the theory as if that is the best prescription for the ills of the world - after

visiting K & P, I have to rethink on opposition to this theory. Now we come to the daughter of theirs, Gita Pappa - she is the same mould, we talked to her over google.

My recommendation to all of you - if you go on a nostalgy trip to Calcutta, go visit K & P

PHOTO GALLERY OF PURNADAS ROAD HOME -

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/krish1951/KPINHISTORICPURNDASROADHOME#

Tale of an Auto Rickshawallah

2009-05-15T01:03:00.000-07:00

Laxman writes:

It is heartening to know that such people exist in this mad world!!

Subject: Real Heroes

Suvendu Roy of Titan Industries shares his inspirational encounter with a rickshaw driver in Mumbai

Last Sunday, my wife, kid and I had to travel to Andheri from Bandra. When I waved at a passing auto rickshaw, little did I expect that this ride would be any different. As we set off, my eyes fell on a few magazines (kept in an aircraft style pouch) behind the driver's back rest. I looked in front and there was a small TV. The driver had put on the Doordarshan channel. My wife and I looked at each other with disbelief and amusement. In front of me was a small first-aid box with cotton, dettol and some medicines. This was enough for me to realise that I was in a special vehicle.

Then I looked around again, and discovered more - there was a radio, fire extinguisher, wall clock, calendar, and pictures and symbols of all faiths - from Islam and Christianity to Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism. There were also pictures of the heroes of 26/11- Kamte, Salaskar, Karkare and Unnikrishnan. I realised that not only my vehicle, but also my driver was special.

I started chatting with him and the initial sense of ridicule and disbelief gradually diminished. I gathered that he had been driving an auto rickshaw for the past 8-9 years; he had lost his job when his employer's plastic company was shut down. He had two school-going children, and he drove from 8 in the morning till 10 at night. No break unless he was unwell. "Sahab, ghar mein baith ke TV dekh kar kya faida? Do paisa income karega toh future mein kaam aayega." (Sir, what's the use of simply sitting at home and watching TV? If I earn some income, then it will be useful in the future.)

We realised that we had come across a man who represents Mumbai - the spirit of work, the spirit of travel and the spirit of excelling in life. I asked him whether he does anything else as I figured that he did not have too much spare time. He said that he goes to an old age home for women in Andheri once a week or whenever he has some extra income, where he donates tooth brushes, toothpastes, soap, hair oil, and other items of daily use.

He pointed out to a painted message below the meter that read: "25 per cent discount on metered fare for the handicapped. Free rides for blind passengers up to Rs50". He also said that his auto was mentioned on Radio Mirchi twice by the station RJs. The Marathi press in Mumbai know about him and have written a few pieces on him and his vehicle.

My wife and I were struck with awe. The man was a HERO! A hero who deserves all our respect. I know that my son, once he grows up, will realise that we have met a genuine hero. He has put questions to me such as why should we help other people? I will try to keep this incident alive in his memory. Our journey came to an end; 45 minutes of a lesson in humility, selflessness and of a hero-worshipping Mumbai - my temporary home. We disembarked, and all I could do was to pay him a tip that would hardly cover a free ride for a blind man. I hope, one day, you too have a chance to meet Mr Sandeep Bachhe in his auto rickshaw - MH-02-Z-8508.
======================================= Best regards,

Returning Home

2009-05-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

When you live an expatriate life, whether as a citizen or a resident, in a country different from your original native country – you always have a nagging tug in your heart to get back to roots. Some win over this feeling and become in real sense the citizen of the new country. Some are compelled to stay back due to family or professional issues, but keep feeling the tug. Some take a holiday back home or take the bold step of retuning back. Some lucky people have a home in both places.

Issues arise if people have made a prosperous life for themselves in the host country and the native country is not yet that affluent. This should be the case for India, China, Philippines and other populated countries like say Nigeria. People want the same comforts of their advanced country life in the developing country of their origin, but unwilling to pay the same price as they would in their country of residence. They are often critical.

One issue comes back again and again for the ‘pendulum’ people, swinging between going ‘home’ and staying back ‘home’ – insecurity and doubts about their retuning ‘home’. The below article gives a clear picture advising people wanting to return ‘home’ to India from their country of residence; telling them some ‘home’ truths.

யாதும் ஊரே, யாவரும் கேளீர்!

Hi Friends,

Good day to all of you.

I want to share my thoughts on ‘returning to India’ topic. I am a ‘Gulfie’ having lived in Muscat and Dubai since 1987, so I am qualified to enter the discussions. I want to contribute my thoughts for both people who want to go to India for a change and who want to consider seriously going back for good. I am also qualified to write from one more angle, I own a villa in the paradise on earth – Palm Meadows.

In this topic of going to India, the Gulf Indian and the USA/Canada Indians are not in the same field. All reference to Gulf in this paper is to the Arabian Gulf. Gulf Indians have been in touch with India and have made their properties there, always wanting to return back ‘home’; they go to India once, twice or even more number of times every year. The ladies have the luxury of going back home for child birth and getting back much later when their mind asks them to. But Gulf Indians also crib a lot about everything Indian; they live in frozen state of India when they left; now a days, the cribbing is somewhat less once India starting ‘shining’ and the general image of Indians outside went on a high tide.Western Expatriates in Canada, when they went, they closed their doors to become Canadians. First generation Indians still hold on to India with a hope of returning; many first generation families split with one branch staying back and one coming back, with a pendulum approach to family life. U.S. Indians stayed back mostly because they grew into what they are in challenging situations. They make U.S. their home; their ‘thought honeymoon’ with India is mostly a sweet nostalgia, better left intact. U.S. Indians are probably more realistic and less fantasizing or fearing India. Many Canadian Indians probably did not migrate to Canada to become Canadians; they went to live in Canada with an Indian expatriate’s mind set. This is true of many Gulfie expats who migrated from Middle East. So experiences of Indians in general getting back for short time or permanently is likely to be different depending on the world they come from.

For all of us, a positive mind set and acceptance of brutal facts will help be happy in India. India is a great place; it is a place of people with such endurance, such positive vibrancy, such festivity amongst statistically absurd chances for success and survival. I have always wondered and asked people in India - what makes them laugh and smile so much sitting where they are! You can enjoy India if you go with a sensitive mind.

Imagine this – you live in a 30 apartment building, all 30 have cars, children, friends, outing, et all of best life; you laugh and return boisterously every night at 12 o clock – and the security man has to watch all of you 12 hours a day, with not an Indian dime in his pocket, does not know when his next tea will come from, his total take home of $ 72 a month vanishing in 7 days flat; he cannot touch with his money, what you can afford to throw, he has an orbit of rice and sambhar day in and day out. Can you be sensitive to him or do you habitually sermonize on how these incompetent security people sleep in duty?

You will enjoy India if you are able to sensitive to lives. Otherwise, my advise will be, don’t go. Enjoy South of France. Remember one thing, no one is waiting with bated breath in India, they have their little lives to battle with. I am not sermonizing and am not lecturing morality or social consciousness. Vital for you to enjoy – can you love people as they are? I think the arithmetic percentage of good people to the total population will be the highest in India – absolute numbers we win hands down, except for China anyway.

Of course, myself having interacted with at least 40 nationalities, I can say, humans are humans, basic traits are the same. Am I contradicting myself? No; due to many cultural and language differences, the general comfort levels when you go to India are much higher than most countries – simple life, non aggressive helpful people, understanding English and other similar things - you can simply megre whoever you are and what ever your nationality is - one good competitor could be Japan.

It will help your psychology very much if you remember simply this fact – India is not living there to make your life comfortable. India has 1 billion people and majority is poor. India is trying hard to make lives of that majority better and is striving for the same. Every year there is improvement there. India is busy with itself, making its life better, its life tolerable; your comforts and Palm Meadows are immaterial to India. The main point is, can you make yourselves comfortable in what is India? It is a place where abject poverty interacts with Palm Meadows residents; this 'poverty' goes back to T.V. and sees serials where people laugh and eat and do things which seems out of reach eternally for them. In an aggressive country, probably Palm Meadows residents routinely will get their throats slit; on the contrary, in India maids short change them for 2 dollars. I was amazed when a Palm Meadows resident was passionately out pouring about how a patch of grass has not grown properly due to bad maintenance and the unfairness of the same - with the garderner having a towel on his head and nothing to wear on his torso.

This is also good place to address the issue of a maid cheating; firstly, I have not been exposed to blatant theft; yes they try to make little money here and there – they have to survive - you do worse if we can have a gauge of differential calibration, taking morality and money into an equalizer. Mostly maids cheat, because we have no long term commitment to their lives; because we will pay a Rs. 2000/- bill at Pizza Hut or Baskin Robins, but negotiate the salary with the maid. If I approach a maid with a mentality that I am here to make one Indian family live well, you will see a long term relationship.

None of us would have survived their lives, believe me and kept up the ethical and moral standards they have kept. The beauty of India is that moral and ethical standards are indirectly proportional to the social status. Why does a driver change jobs with no commitment? Because there is no commitment from the employer; what they pay is an immaterial small sum to the driver; his downsides of losing the job are not enormous. If he get a 40% raise with the neighbor, what is wrong in shifting? You did it in your career, didn’t you?

In India you will live happily and comfortably, if you treat all your servants and maids as you treat them in New York. We expatriate Indians want to have the cake and eat it too. We want the service and commitment levels of the advanced societies at the costs of ‘old’ India. A driver gets Rs. 6000/- - exorbitant and prohibitive? It is US$ 120 for the whole month of 12 hour duty for God’s sake!

I have a home in India and my maid has a key. Trust them; also give them long term solutions to their miserable lives, see how comfortable you are! It makes perfect business sense for you to pay the school fees for one year for your drivers’ child. Do it and see how loyal he is. Saying I am there for a short time is an excuse. You get committed to the country; the country gets committed to you. Otherwise, please you are there as an extravagant attachment, India is busy with its life. Approach your trip from this mental get up and I guarantee you a comfortable and lovely stay.

What these small people need is not even what your money will do in their unsafe lives; the reality - a generous person like you is such an enormous comfort; such a lovable safety net. Like belief in God, it is not important whether you live up to that belief or not – you are a great psychological comfort; remember this, you will enjoy India.

Someone raised the issue of safety. Safely is no issue in Bangalore or Chennai or Bombay or any other parts of India. I can personally vouch about interiors of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal, Kerala and Maharashtra. I have a belief that other places will be as safe. Individual experiences are bad luck, it could happen in NY. It is like I hear about some students in USA getting shot by a horrible monster and I cancel my trip to USA.

India plods along. However unfair it is to the poor masses there, the well to do have an organized life. They are well taken care of. Go there in the safe thinking that there are two Indias inside one – one India of you and me enjoying life and another India of maids and drivers and security men, taking good care of us; and a Police system which protects you and me well, not them please.

Interiors of India are heaven to enjoy, but with that special mental make-up; go to the streets of Ahmadabad and talk to the auto rickshawallahs; visit the temples of Tirunelveli; come back and tell me I am right! Wow, India is great man. Majority of the poor people in India are – surprisingly - taking their lives with dignity and strength. This is the training of centuries of our culture. Put the burden on God and carry on. Majority are honest.

Globalization has its own impact by disturbing their minds. There are too many things and life styles beyond their means. This is opening a new unnecessary struggle in their small lives. But you must treat them with the respect and dignity they deserve. Enjoy that little flower vendor who cannot go home even if she has a wet day and has a splitting headache – get her an aspirin and hold her hands. You want to enjoy India to the hilt? This is where a treasure lies. You will never be disappointed.

No other country (talking from a position of pride and not literally, I do not have statistics) has such majority of helpful and well intentioned people. No other country has so many numbers of people spending their lives helping others (here I am statistically correct, we are huge in anything). Depending on your budget and comfort levels you expect, choose your apartment or community. There are plenty. Are you ok with a pent house near Palm Meadows? There is Purva Fountain Square, you get a three bed apartment, with an open terrace total 2800 sq ft for Rs. 18,000/- pm. Convert again, it is US$.360/-. This is a good time - too many properties too cheap. Again safety is no issue; having said that, if you are unlucky you could get robbed in your country too.

No one is after your money; In fact, investement bankers and Stock Exchange takes much moe share of your money with no apology than the poor maids and drivers. All you need to be is to be generous to the poor people servicing you.

Now for comforts – well, internalize a few facts:-
1. India is noisy; you can do nothing about it. Get some nice ear plugs; get an apartment in the 11th floor. India is not going to change for you and me, it will remain noisy.

2. India is congested, it is horrible traffic, it is completely indisciplined, and on the street it is rule of the Tarzan.

3. India is dirty; it is horribly dirty in some places; have you seen slum dog millionaire? Erase the filmy aspects of the movie and see the slum scenes, you think it is exaggerated, please do visit Dharavi. People live like that, it is a fact. (If you are going to Bangalore, remember you will live on the streets, if you have to go to places, due to the terrible traffic chaos; you need to be in it to believe it - English language is too poor to describe it; You cannot imagine how terrible it is, unless you go there.)

4. For personal living comfort it is dusty, you can’t walk without chappal inside home too.- It is polluted like hell in some cities and places. Nothing will change in a hurry.- If you are going to Chennai – 8 out of 12 months, it is horribly sticky and impossible to enjoy living even under a fan; love for Chennai makes people like us blind to this fact.

5. It can be greatly unsophisticated; many times you have intruders and you have nosy millers. But many times you will be happily surprised about the decency and sophistication. Do not exepect universal sophistication; expect the home grown sophistication of an independant civilization. The culture and civility in langauage and interaction in interiors of India is an independant matured civilization and does not conform to your definition of style and sophistication of the U.S. (universal soceity, if you want) - recongize this essential difference.

You can do nothing about the above – like you can do nothing about street robbery when you go to Rome. Then how do I make myself comfortable? Well, when I go to London, I spend well for my comforts, my sightseeing, my visits; where I don’t mind spending is the common infrastructure, the rail and bus, which are very comfortable and far cheaper for the quality they provide. But then remember, if you want quality in a country which does not have quality common infrastructure, you are ordering quality custom made. So you need to pay like the West; in West you pay for different things and in India you pay for different things. Once you pay about half of what you spend in the west, you get almost the same quality, with which you can cocoon yourselves. Cocoon yourselves is the concept.

You need to cocoon yourselves; have a driver, if necessary have two maids, have a car at your disposal. If you are ok, then hire a chauffeur driven car every time – it is cheap; remember to use only the modern cars with air conditioning. Ambassador, niyet. Have a good accommodation, free from all ills above – not noisy, not dirty, dusty and not hot – or enough air-conditioning around.Power is a problem sometime, so have inverters. Be selfish for your comforts, but never be insensitive; remember when you order your comforts, you spend money in India and it prospers India; consider it your contribution to India and do not feel guilty for living well.

Food is the best part of India; you have food and food and food at unbelievable prices. You can go to any level you want, idli dosa camps to vegetarian authentic Italian joints – bars, wow, you can’t get enough. But what is lacking again? There is no great entertainment and places to go to daily inside the city, like what you have in each city in the West; you have to go to eating joints and bars with company, you can go to movies, some malls. Having said that, this is not entirely true too; do you have interest in traditional visiting places, culture, history, temples, and authentic ethinic food, you have enough to do. You can go within short distances to great places.

Socializing in India can occupy your whole life time. You must be having relatives and friends who opted to stay back and make a career there, when you wandered out. Have you seen them enjoy their lives? It is fascinating to watch how they permanently cocooned themselves to be comfortable. They have big enough cocoons to be butter flies and fly around. To be comfortable, follow their model.

Summarize –
a. Nothing like going to India, whether short stay or permanently.

b. Be a people person when you go. Small pleasures come from being sensitive to small people dealing with problems of existence with no tools in hand. Try this, surprise an old lady (I hate to call her a beggar) by giving her a 100 re note – see the pleasure and gratitude – see the karma credit you get by giving 100 Rs – you get 100 $ worth.

c. Pay international level to servicing lot of people, after all they need to make lives out of this.

d. Get committed long term with small people.

e. Safety is no issue at all.

f. Accept brutal facts and cocoon yourselves; organize well before you go; get your own comfort universe, insulated from the mayhem around you.

g. Enjoy the food.

h. Enjoy your social circles – you make friends easy in India.

i. Remember – India plods along alright! But finally it plods right!

j. Also tell yourselves, India is there for the Indians there, they are busy trying to survive; they need not create a world to suit me. Don’t expect the India you left behind.

k. Budget well; don’t cut your budget because it is India, but surprisingly Rupee goes much longer than what it is worth in US$.

l. Relax and enjoy.

Cheers friends. Finally, this issue of whether I will be happy in India is not an external question, it is an internal one. I have to be happy where ever I am. If I am completely happy in where I am now, why should I be asking questions about returning to India? Go to India from a happy position of being happy where you are and go to India to be happy. Happiness is in the mind. Really!

APRIL POOL

2009-05-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

14th May 2009
MANJULA RAMAKRISHNAN

writes on her experiences in learning to swim - best way to go about life is to enjoy the little pleasures it gives you; the best way to advance oneself is to have the ability to look at oneself, standing outside one's own self - laugh at oneself, but have the self esteem and self worth flying high:

APRIL POOL

It was in April that a friend (no longer sure if he can be called that, but for now we’ll let that pass!) of mine decided it would be a good idea for me to learn swimming. Being no spring chicken and only too ready to preen at myself in the mirror and say dismissingly, ``they don’t make mirrors these days like they used to 20 years back,’’ I was quick to look for evil intentions, beneath the façade of that seemingly innocent thought.

And not without reason: he had just informed me with ill-concealed pride that his exercise regime was to do 16 laps in the humongous Olympic sized pool in his building and I listened to it with the same deadpan expression I would adopt if somebody had spoken about plasma engineering, for both were not part of my small world.

Pardon me for belonging to the uninitiated and unwashed masses! How was I to know that I should have made politically correct noises and gone into paroxysms of excitement and said, ``Don’t tell me! You superman!’’ That nailed the coffin and he decided that learning to swim was in order and promptly walked the talk by buying 2 sets of floats for me to begin teaching myself.

Clutching the floats like a 1st grader clinging on to a new box of crayons I accompanied my husband to the pool in our gated community. Gingerly stepped in and wiggled my toes to test the water. I then proceeded to carefully tie the float around me and let myself sink into the cool confines of the water. And it was then that I did the mistake of looking around the pool to take a sneak peek at the other occupants. Big mistake!

There was this little Lebanese boy – not more than 10 years of age, who flung himself into the deep end of the pool and proceeded to toss and turn around with gay abandon. Alas, the little ``fish’’ when he was close enough to catch a glimpse of me, all tied up like as if I was on an adventure mission in the Arctic Ocean, looked up at his mother relaxing by the side of the pool and took off in Arabic saying, ``humkumanatatabilioben..’’ or some such. Which (going by his accompanying wicked grin) when simply translated should mean, ``What a namby pamby! Snort... did you see those floats! Unbelievable!’’

Hey, haven’t you heard about picking on somebody your size and age? What do they teach you in school these days?

Then there was this fashionably bald man, in the pool with a mission: to put everybody to shame with his strong swimming techniques. (``When he goes for the bald look, it is fashionable. When the same happens to me, Oh jeez, I am losing hair. Have the same set of rules woman.’’ This from a piqued husband).

And then there was me! Not a pretty sight with padding all over to keep me afloat and still managing to sink in and come up gasping for breath. But to my credit I still soldiered on, determined to get on with the act, only turning each sorry time to see if the life guard was still around, to save me from perils deep under! Considering that I had not moved an inch away from the shallow part of the pool, and also considering the fuss I was making sitting wet and subdued in one corner of the pool, clinging on to the sides of the pool wall, he would have gladly shed off his lethargy, marched purposefully towards me, sunk me in and ensured I stayed put right there!

I would try to float, sink, come up, try again and in the process put the IPL to shame, with my prowess to entertain the crowd. My husband of course pretended he did not know me.
So the next time you come to the pool and see a creature flaying her arms and legs valiantly, alas akin a frog struck by a bout of arthritis, don’t bother to wave to me. Don’t get me wrong, not because I am not a social animal, (that too you say? Who made you King of the Universe any way? Go away), but because if I had the guts to disengage my hand from the float I am clutching on to for dear life, I would wave to you.

Believe me I would!

MANJULA RAMAKRISHNAN

My maiden flight to the gulf

2009-05-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Ram

writes on his maiden flight to Oman way back in 1983 - a trip in nostalgy and living part of one's own history: notice the subtle changes in current times due to technology and also notice the backbone being same, nothing much changes -

Do we miss our youth or do we miss our past? or is it one and the same?

My Maiden Flight to the Gulf:

The boarding lounge at Gate - 11 in Bombay Sahar International airport was a hotchpotch of activities and chaos with restless passengers waiting impatiently for their flights to be announced and latecomers looking for vacant chairs to settle themselves. There were also unruly children screaming and running between the rows of chairs in the lounge and making rude noises at those objecting to the intrusion upon their space and womenfolk ignoring the nuisance and inconvenience caused to other passengers by their children. It was a cold winter night on 5th January 1983. There were several outward-bound flights all leaving within the next hour or two and most of them to Gulf destinations and some of them onward to Europe and the USA. There were an assortment of passengers waiting in the lounge impatiently, most of them Indians besides Arabs, Africans, a few Europeans and Americans.

The Indians are returning back to their Gulf jobs after their winter vacation, some of them having celebrated Christmas and New Year in India. The womenfolk, most of them housewives accompanying their husbands are sitting with a sour look on their faces, clearly indicating that they are doing the entire world a favour by waiting in the airport departure lounge with the lesser mortals. Good life in the Gulf states, abundance of money supply, modern gizmos to do the household chores and an overdose of watching TV and video cassettes have spoiled them to such an extend that every Indian housewife in the Gulf firmly believes that she is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. What most of these womenfolk don’t realize is that neither of this is true in 99% of the cases due to their advancing age and bulging waistlines. Their husbands, most of them on salaried employment in the Gulf countries, with their paunch protruding and straining against the seams of their safari-suits, were discussing pompously the status of ongoing contracts and projects their companies have been awarded, spraying a generous dose of saliva on their hapless listeners.

The Arabs in their long-sleeved robes are returning home to their Middle Eastern destinations after a month of holidaying in India. Most of them look sated after a spree of over indulgence in what India generously offers to tourists but prohibited in Arab countries .

The angrezi mem-saabs were busy shopping for souvenirs, paying crisp US Dollar notes for imitation jewellery, trinkets and plastic valises sold as made of genuine crocodile skin. Most of them were making a beeline to the bookshop in the lounge for the pirated edition of Vaatsayana’s Kama Sutra in English. The bookshop guy was busy selling Vaatsayana’s imitation at USD 10/- per copy, happy at the thought that his cost of the pirated edition was a mere 20/- Rupees apiece which is a little over one and a quarter Dollars on the exchange rate prevailing those days.

The bookshop was not the only outlet in the departure lounge doing brisk business. The licensee of the bar at the departure lounge, was busy collecting foreign currency notes from thirsty passengers, keeping an alert eye on the barman, making sure that he mixes English scotch with the right proportion of cheap Indian made whisky such that his thirsty customers are oblivious to the adulteration and William Grants scotch whisky is poured out from Johnny Walker Black Label bottle, to keep his profit figure soaring high. The name board of the bar proclaimed ‘Jai Santoshimaa Bar’ his mark of deference to the Goddess who is keeping his cash till ringing all through the day and night.

I toyed with the idea of savouring a whisky with ice and soda and ran my tongue over the lips in eager anticipation. It has been a long day, ever since I left Madras early in the morning, reached Bombay and I have been waiting at the airport since the evening to board my Gulf Air flight to Muscat. The urge to sip a glass of whisky while waiting for the boarding call of my flight was not easy to resist and I made a few tentative steps towards the bar. I felt in my pocket and touched the USD 20 note, the measly amount the Reserve Bank of India graciously allows Indians going abroad those days, to exchange at the airport counter, and stopped on my track. I may need this money for taxi fare at Muscat, if my friend who is supposed to meet me on arrival fails to turn up.

Eventually the Muscat bound Gulf Air flight was announced, and there was the usual melee and stampede, passengers pushing and jostling, forming more than one queue each running parallel to the other and the latecomers trying to be smart pushing their way ahead of the early birds, and the absent minded passengers fumbling for their boarding cards at the entry gate, searching at all but the right place for their boarding cards and holding up the queue. Ultimately it was my chance at the gate and I quickly walked through the vestibule and entered the aircraft nodding to the condescending and lifeless plastic smile of the airhostess and looking for my window seat way down the rear portion of the aircraft. Flying tourist class in a Gulf bound flight from the sub-continent during holiday season calls for a lot of endurance and certain special skills. Passengers in the tourist section were literally packed like sardines in a can, with no elbowroom as there are 10 seats in each row – three plus three on either side and four in the middle. I regretted having opted for a window seat during check-in, as sitting in the window seat meant squeezing my way through the two passengers who have already occupied the middle and the aisle seats and any trip to the toilet became a nightmare.

The Gulf Air flight was jam-packed, also because; it was to touch every conceivable port in the Gulf – Muscat, Bahrain and Doha en route to Kuwait. Thankfully, the first stop was Muscat, but that was a good two and half hours away from Bombay. The passengers were an equal mix of Indians and Arabs but there were also sizeable number of Europeans.

The public address system in the aircraft came alive and announced the departure of the flight and the aircraft started taxiing. The cabin crew went on with the demonstration of how to buckle the seatbelts, location of emergency exits and the use of lifejacket with a bored expression on their scrawny faces and the passengers were indifferently looking away. The flying time to Muscat is approximately two hours and 40 minutes and dinner will be served in this sector they announced condescendingly, expecting the passengers to brim with gratitude at their good fortune. Suddenly, the captain’s voice crackled overriding the public address system asking the cabin crew to take up positions in preparation for takeoff and the crew disappeared buckling themselves to their jump-seats and soon we were airborne.

The no smoking and seat belts signs were switched-off and I pulled out a cigarette from my crumpled pack of Wills Filter, a popular brand of cigarette in India and lighted it. The cabin crew were busy pushing their trolley serving liquor to the passengers and I began to relax. The flight was smooth without any turbulence and I dozed-off to the soothing sway of the aircraft when a sudden melee and commotion woke me with a start. I craned my neck to see what was going on and so did several other passengers.

It was an Arab gentleman who was having a heated argument with a member of the cabin crew, a British airhostess. The Arab gentleman was already fully drunk and could hardly stand-up and converse. However, his vocal chords hadn’t failed him and he was shouting and gesticulating demanding more liquor. The British airhostess refused to serve any more liquor unless he pays for it and tried to push the liquor trolley away with a look of disgust and disapproval at his classless and disgraceful demeanour by making a pest of himself. She is also in a hurry to get back to the pantry and finish her tequila and a few satisfying puffs of Marlboro before serving dinner to the passengers, which in itself is a thankless job. She fervently wished the flight would go directly to Bahrain, where she will layover and fly direct to London the following night.! The Arab gentleman blocked the aisle refusing to let her go unless more whisky is served to him. He is in fact surprised and offended as to why she is refusing to serve him liquor instead of being impressed with his drinking antics!! He was bracing himself for a showdown with her and moved forward. Unfortunately, at the precise moment he passed out and fell into a heap in the aisle, succumbing to the overdose of whisky already inside his belly. Two male members of the cabin crew appeared on the scene, lifted him and settled him in his seat with some difficulty and soon our friend started snoring loudly more as a gesture of peace offering to the cabin crew. His British heroine, pushing her trolley, triumphantly returned to her unfinished tequila and Marlboro. Dinner was served and the empty trays were eventually cleared-off after the usual delay and fuss and the remaining leg of the flight to Muscat was uneventful. Suddenly the seatbelt signs came on and the captain announced in the P.A. system that the flight has started its descent and soon we will be landing at the Seeb International airport at Muscat. This was followed by a monotonous announcement by a member of the cabin crew, an Indian airhostess, prevailing upon the passengers to buckle their seatbelts and extinguish their cigarettes as smoking is prohibited till they enter the airport terminal. Soon, the aircraft touched the tarmac with a thud and taxied on the runway. The lady in the P.A system confirmed that we have already landed at the Seeb International airport at Muscat, took us into confidence about the outside temperature and the local time, thanked us for flying Gulf Air, hoping that we enjoyed our flight and expressed a fervent desire to be of service to us in the near future. She also cautioned the passengers with onward reservations to reconfirm their bookings at least 72 hours prior to departure. Very soon the passengers scrambled out of their seats and opened the overhead cabinets to retrieve their hand baggage stowed in there and they hastily pushed and jostled those in front of them even before the ramp was attached to the exit door. Eventually all of us disembarked and were whisked away in an airport bus to the arrival section of the terminal. The experienced old-timers ran clumsily to the immigration counter to be the first few in the queue, in order to finish the immigration and customs formalities as quickly as possible. “Thake dhiss” I looked up with a start at the Omani policeman who dumped an assortment of pills and capsules of various colours and shape in my unsuspecting hands and offered half a glass of water in a paper cup to swallow the pills. “What are these pills and how do you expect me to take them without a Doctor’s prescription?” I protested. “Kaun hain thum? Hindi?” (Who are you? Indian?), the policeman bellowed with a look of disbelief and mild enquiry on his face, used to as he is to passengers swallowing the coloured assortment of tablets, no questions asked. “Arrey baba.. goli lo.. poocho muth kyoon.” (hey chum, take those pills and don’t ask questions) a gentleman in the adjoining queue advised me cautioning me that I would get into trouble if I argue with the policeman. I resigned myself to my present lot and swallowed the assortment and the cop moved away looking for his next customer. The queue moved on and I came to the immigration counter. ”Bassborth?” the policeman behind the counter demanded and I passed on my passport, visa and immigration papers to him. He stamped my visa and my entry into the country on my passport and returned to me. ‘OK, kalaas, go away’ he dismissed me and the next man in the queue moved to the front. I collected my baggage from the carousel and went through customs without much incident and came out of the airport building. There was an assemblage of more than twenty persons waiting outside in a group with garlands and bouquets and all of them clapped in unison as soon as I came out. I was a bit embarrassed, as honestly I did not expect such a lavish reception, given my job description and salary terms were not exciting enough to merit such a gala reception. I presumed that this is the way all newcomers are received by my office. I walked tentatively towards the man who seemed to be the head of the reception committee extending my hands for a warm handshake. He ignored me and my extended hand and was peering at the exit door. A bulky gentleman in a safari suit who was right behind me in the queue was the target of their attention. He was garlanded and felicitated, and upon enquiry I learned that he is the new CEO of their company. Obviously, these are the early birds amongst his sycophants, garlanding him at the airport in order to have a starting advantage. My friend came out of the crowd took charge of my luggage and led me to his car parked nearby. He drove along the expressway to the city centre, some 30 kilometres away from the airport and started chatting animatedly. The ride from the airport to the city centre took nearly 40 minutes, as we had to negotiate about half a dozen roundabouts on the expressway. My friend reached his residential block in good time and eased the car into his parking bay. I unloaded my suitcase and airbag and we ascended the elevator and reached his apartment. I exchanged greetings with his wife, changed, and had my dinner with his family members, lighted the last of the cigarettes from my crumpled packet, had a few satisfying puffs and went to bed.

What's your calling?

2009-05-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

Recently I read this Alchemist by Coelho. I was confused if it is pure fiction or is it an advise or like this book Secrets, whether it is an universal law he is informing all of us about. Coelho books are so famous because these are deceptively simple and at the end you are left thinking - some times thinking what to think.

But then one point of the book is pursue your calling, don't settle for mediocre; keep looking for omens or interpret everything as a omen - assuming what the hero finally got is his calling or superior to what he started with. This set me thinking -

a. Why should I at all have a calling? Why can't I put the best into anything which is given to me by the Man Above?
b. Why can't I have small fires and small callings, then move on from fire to fire? Why should there be one big fire?
c. What is next once I got to fullfilling my calling? I relax and die of boredom?

fickle pick

2009-05-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Advise to a young daughter:

It is better to allow a fool to kiss you, than allow you to be fooled by a kiss.

fickle picks

2009-05-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

Tagore said of Taj Mahal:
"It is a tear drop in the cheek of time"

Just think about it for 2 seconds and realize how beautifully full this simple sentence is.

Taj Mahal is sitting there eternal in a vast spead of time - it is eternal in a canvas of essentially changing change agent.

It is a tear drop for a loved one separating by death, left there to mourn for ever. It will be there ever in the canvas of time, mourning silently the departing of the beloved, long after even both lovers have departed.

Taj is challenging time; time is cheeky and arrogant and proud - it its cheek sits the dear drop of Taj which time can do nothing about - it is eternally there, in all its beauty and glamour and eternity, challenging the cheekiness of time itself.

Human Interaction

2009-05-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

I am wondering whether sensitivity towards others and humility arise out of weakness of personality? Will Gan address this?

I have various experiences and observations in interations. Main thing is if you do not cut the conversation at the right moment and move on with your poker face, cut that smile at the right moment and get apparantly seized with your own self important thoughts - you are a loser in that particular interaction. Am I communicating? More on this after hearing comments.

EMOTION AND MIND

2009-05-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

JAYARAMAN WRITES:

“ WHEN EMOTION TAKES OVER, MIND GOES OUT OF BALANCE “.

News comes from new or short for 'north, south, east, west'?

2009-05-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Jayaraman writies:

It strikes me that NEW information when comes from many sources and get multiplied is christined as NEWS. Information which is new and freshis NEWS.

How can you eat chicken and love dog?

2009-05-07T20:40:00.001-07:00

Gan Sharma writes:

Eat chicken and love dogs?

Great question!! Easy answer - human beings are very comfortable with schizophrenia. They can blissfully live with essential conflicts all their lives even when the contradictions are very apparent. Our capacity for self-delusion is very, very, very high!!!!

For example, they will happily believe that alcohol enhances social enjoyment when it does no such thing.

How can you eat chicken and love dog?

2009-05-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

Gan Sharma writes:

Eat chicken and love dogs?

Great question!! Easy answer - human beings are very comfortable with schizophrenia. They can blissfully live with essential conflicts all their lives even when the contradictions are very apparent. Our capacity for self-delusion is very, very, very high!!!!

For example, they will happily believe that alcohol enhances social enjoyment when it does no such thing.

Original thought - and the question of choice

2009-05-06T17:11:00.001-07:00

In almost every article that I read anywhere which has to do with philosophy, metaphysics or spirituality, I find some recurrent features:

1. Lack of originality: People will spout second-hand knowledge. They will speak of monism, karma, yoga, and similar subjects, of which they (on occasion) have deep intellectual knowledge but no understanding whatsoever.

2. They will preach / pontificate. They will liberally use words like "should" or "must". There is an old adage that says that you should not seek stock-market advice from your neighbour because if he was any good, he would not be your neighbour. Similarly, people who pontificate are arrogant at the extreme, and vulgar. None of us has a knowledge of these matters. Point me to the relevant verse of the Geeta or the Quran and be done with it.

3. When I point these problems out to people, they will invariably get annoyed because I am spoiling the spirit of the whole thing, which is best described as "timepass" or entertainment. I'm not. Listening to a Rafi song is better entertainment, and that's the point I wish to make. Don't you agree?

I want to state something that I did not pick up from a Chinmayananda lecture, or from the 12th chapter of the Geeta, or a cleverly worded phrase in a self-help book. I see it plainly as day, and will willingly discuss it with anyone who wishes to examine it thoroughly, clearly, logically, and above all, ORIGINALLY. Don't quote someone!! There's more than an even chance that I'm better read, and I hope I'm not sounding arrogant. I want to discuss it with people who have no memory of anything that they have heard or read. You have to discuss it from first principles, and I assure you that it is hard to write even one sentence if you accept these ground rules.

That said, I'll write my own sentence. It is simply this: "you (and I) don't choose to do anything". I don't mean that our choice is limited: it is non-existent. That is because you have not had one original thought in your entire life. You are a product of indoctrination, and therefore you don't even have an original favourite colour or ice-cream flavour, even if you are willing to swear that you do.

This is not a matter of agreement or disagreement; it is matter of truth or falsehood. I am either right or wrong. Your agreement will not make it right, and your disagreement will not make it false; so saying "I agree", or its contrary, is equally useless. How do you go about examining the truth of my statement? What kind of mind-set is required to even examine this statement? What tools will you use? How will you frame your study of this all-important question?

The question is undeniably important. If we don't have choice, then the foundation of almost every theological precept is just bunkum. The question of responsibility is moot. Yet, I believe that the understanding, a deep understanding of the lack of choice is the greatest truth, the greatest form of self-knowledge, and the foundation upon which love, purity and truth rests. Without an understanding of choicelessness (please don't quote Krishnamurti - your own original thought, remember!!!), it is impossible to live in the present; but eternity, happiness, salvation, freedom, truth, or whatever the hell you want to call it, is forever in the now.

Who'll take a crack at examining this?

Jayaraman writes

2009-05-06T03:57:00.000-07:00

“ WHEN THE EGO DIES SOUL AWAKE’ , saying from a great man with good soul. How true it is . But how do you kill the Ego, so that it dies ?, Is it not that you need strong wisdom to kill the Ego so that your soul wakes up. This again a catch-22 situation or shall we call it as “” Dhonnaiya – neeyya’’ edhukku edhu adharam,, Has anyone quantified or graded EGO. Like nowadays acceptable Talibanism, people justify acceptable EGO, legalising their arrogance attitude and caress it in their format for climbing up the ladder of growth.Is there any instrument by which you can measure the scale of EGO, is it in Kilos or is it in feet. How is it measured. Escape saying it’s in the mind, the invisible. Another route to justify whatever you do and say it’s according to your balanced dictats of the mind. Jolly good—no one can ???? and also no need to show the method of arriving the end result, which is the mind . EGO is not like a ‘T’ shirt which you can remove and get rid of. It’s like skin and it’s part of the body, sometime bigger than the body itself. So how does anyone can kill the EGO or to keep it under the leash

sleepless rich

2009-05-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

I talked about this man driving himself crazy with two jobs, just to feed his people back home. I also talked about interchangeability of health and wealth. Coming back to this shy man with blood red eyes due to lack of sleep, which was due to continuous work, I had to make this comparison.

As I was watch this sleepless man driving himself crazy, I was coming back from my Abs eradication program - some 4 to 5 decades of flab to be worked (or is it wished?) away; - to become 6 pack abs - funny they call it 6 pack abs, in the first place the 6 packs caused it. This Abs eradication program of mine in itself is a luxury and an antonym for the sleepless man's history; so here we are in the lift - one synonym and one antonym pacing each other.

The funny contradiction is - he is running around for making money and millions are made selling advise for six pack abs; the most funny thing is that the man who is running without sleep for making money has six pack abs.

That made me think, if health is wealth, may be people like him are wealthy and do not know about it. Is it possible that he chose wealth of health when he was given an option when his software was written at birth?

what drives people?

2009-05-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

I met this man in the lift - boy I must say, shy and averting my eyes; was it because he has red shot eyes? may be worried people might think he is drunk? I smiled at him and said in general friendship 'what happenned you haven't slept for long'? He started replying in his broken English and Hindi, so asked him are you Tamil? Ama sir, he said in Tamil and then went on to talk.

He had a bundle of new newspapers to distribute (do new and news have anything to do with each other - thought news comes from north east wet and south?) - says yes haven't slept much. Why? he says he sleeps from 11.30 pm to 3.30 am on 6 days a week and then catches up with sleep on Friday afternoons. Why again? He has this newspaper distribution to do in the night and then has a day time job. How is that possible for long term, wont he die? He gives an account of his expenses and what will be left if he does one job - with this money I send home, how can they survive? They are his family, not wife and children only, his brothers and sisters and parents. He was looking very young so I do not even know whether he is married and he works like this for his own son; most likely not. They need to survive, his people back home; so he has to earn more - get the point, not to get wealthy and invest more and more like other rich and rising types - sustain and carry on; to do that, I sleep fro 3 hours a night. Imagine, even after 30 years, he will just be doing sustenance.

Agreed hard work never kills anybody, but why do people feel so responsible? what drives people to be responsible above levels of endurance? What is wrong if he does his 3.30am to 9 am job of ditributing paper and sleeps, liesures, loves - whatever normal people do? Why should be take responsibility for his family and endure this hardship, just so that they can live well?

I am not sure whether a statement excessive responsibility with commitment and excessive guilt are both counter productive to the self will be correct.

We watch such cases and we do nothing; we can do nothing. But then what can one do apart from sympathy; and be nice. If we try to go beyond that and offer some different job or help in getting another miserable slot somewhere else, we could unscramble his organized effort and stability. We can't play Gods, but we can ask God why?

What is it God? Karma? Fate? YOUR will?

Animal loving

2009-04-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 26,

Friday evening I was sitting in my car, waiting for someone. It was twilight time and I had my windows open reading a book. The car reading light was on. Suddenly I saw one little moth or hornet - in Bengali it seems it is called "shayama-poka" - evening insects; this little fellow was helpless, harmless and graceful fellow crawling slowly up on my seat belt. I did not know how to safely take the fellow out of the car, as I cannot carry the fellow inside the car to unknown territory. I put the light out in the car and waited for the fellow to fly off to the outside light. Then I put the light on, but could not see the fellow. So I wanted to push the fellow out and I voilently jerked the belt towards the open window. Happy that I saved this chap, I settled down.Just as I was starting to drive, I fould one single little wing. Always wonder why I should spot this invisible wing with no light and so huge a space. Can you imagine, a little transperant wind of a moth, about a cm in length in a dark interior of the car - and I notice it. So I have vivid sights of a limping moth with no hope. Waaahhhhhhh!

That makes me wonder, how can you eat animals and love them at the same time? Can you enjoy a chicken and love a dog? How does this mental contradiction work?

How can you eat chicken and love dog 1

2009-04-26T12:25:00.001-07:00

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Animal loving
Friday evening I was sitting in my car, waiting for someone. It was twilight time and I had my windows open reading a book. The car reading light was on. Suddenly I saw one little moth or hornet - in Bengali it seems it is called "shayama-poka" - evening insects; this little fellow was helpless, harmless and graceful fellow crawling slowly up on my seat belt. I did not know how to safely take the fellow out of the car, as I cannot carry the fellow inside the car to unknown territory. I put the light out in the car and waited for the fellow to fly off to the outside light. Then I put the light on, but could not see the fellow. So I wanted to push the fellow out and I voilently jerked the belt towards the open window. Happy that I saved this chap, I settled down.Just as I was starting to drive, I fould one single little wing. Always wonder why I should spot this invisible wing with no light and so huge a space. Can you imagine, a little transperant wind of a moth, about a cm in length in a dark interior of the car - and I notice it. So I have vivid sights of a limping moth with no hope. Waaahhhhhhh!That makes me wonder, how can you eat animals and love them at the same time? Can you enjoy a chicken and love a dog? How does this mental contradiction work?
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About Me

fricklephilosopher
My mind bothers me with half baked philosophies, questions, contradicting views and general harassment. I am sure most of you are. I am too a double headed turtle, with views countered at the same time, with no need to carry the burden of a courage of conviction to choose one view. So here we go, come and ride with me. View my complete profile