That Which Is , Don't Mind It !

Is Action overrated and Thought misunderstood?

2012-01-04T16:22:00.000-08:00

Act more,Think less, contemplation is pointless - A common and popular refrain. Is that a possibility at all?

Hmmm..no. Over-contemplation is a non-concept. You either think about something or you don’t. There are thoughts that you enjoy which then seem effortless and attract repeat value. However what is effortless, enjoyable and valuable to one may not to be to another (joys of the various kind that we are). The ones you don’t enjoy, can be so because they are uninteresting, not favourably conclusive, incomprehensible due to lack of prior context, or those that evoke underlying emotions of the avoidable kind. Hence they may seem not worth sticking with. Very often the over-contemplative kind are confused within the second bunch. While infact even the most complex (overcontemplated) of thought forms get absorbed and integrated when backed with sufficient interest or need. Infact in one’s own lifetime, what is ‘complex’ gets redefined several times. You could say, for the interested, there are no complex thoughts, at best a simple lingering thought about complexity. And why blame our natural conscious contemplative ability.Its not a choice afterall, nor a design flaw, and trying to reject it is also simply a contemplative act in itself, akin to the fire complaining of heat :-)

And with action as well, you either act or you don’t. There are actions which one enjoys and those which one does not. And when one mostly values the importance of action over thought, it is often against the backdrop of the fear or guilt of personal inaction or that of a desirable outcome. Action is attractive to the mind as it involves a sense of active personal doership and seems to hold a certain conclusive and purposeful value about it. But that value too is simply available to one as a thought- A favourable thought about action. There is afterall no perception of its value outside of thought, it happens and exists only as a thought in you.( and so much for action :-) )

So beyond this, the issue is not with either thought or action, you mostly can’t escape either. It boils down to how one consciously deals with them, i.e. your relationship with and reactions to them. Infact a closer look will show trying to split thought from action is a pointless exercise. The real question then is about does sorrow or happiness have to be attached with either of them ? And should they dictate the shape and feel of that inner voice in the head?

What is really enjoyed? - dark chocolate itself or the familiar pleasurable 'thought' of enjoying it ! (no here you don't have a choice about dark chocolate :-). Pleasure as a commonly chased after experience is not in the action, as much as it is in the nature of thought associated with it. So is it with sorrow, often a thought that is not very welcome. So why is action overrated, while its perception simply is incorrigibly linked with the thought about it. Surely thoughtless and unconscious action does not merit or receive any attention or interest, does it?

The idea that action is more valuable than thought – exists only but as a thought. An elevated sense of value about action over thought is but simply that, a perception of value, an idea, eventually a simple thought. Which may appear very real, dear and important, as do many other thoughts with which there is sufficient personal attachment. It mostly has very little or nothing at all to do with the action itself.

(This post now leads me to the idea for the next post, the topic of 'karma yoga' and 'karma phala', another hugely misunderstood concept in the context of action. )

The 'Dvaita' in 'Advaita'

2011-08-31T15:43:00.000-07:00

Interestingly the office party today turned into a spiritual discussion for me and my colleague. I could hear my wife’s voice in my head reminding me that it is pretty much the only thing I do these days. While I don’t entirely disagree with her, I see more people asking these questions, what do I do ? So back to the discussion, my colleague an ardent and committed devotee of Krishna wanted to have a go at comparing Advaita and Dvaita. His basic contention being Dvaita (Duality, Two) insists on the individual soul and its relationship with the Super Soul if you may call it so. Even in the highest state of devotion and resolution, the soul remains an eternal devotee of the Supersoul. In the highest state of realisation, the soul still retains its independence. Put crudely he said reality is about 6 billion souls and 1 Supersoul. And an unquestioning sense of devotion and surrender to this Supersoul is the only goal.

Now I admitted not knowing much about the Dvaita school of thought. If I were to accept the basic premise as he explained to me I had to address a few simple questions,

1. There seems to be an implicit notion that the Supersoul is surely a much larger form (formless also if you may choose so) and stature in comparison to the individual soul and fundamentally is an independent reality.

2. We did a simple exercise of neti-neti, and established that the only aspect of existence that I cannot deny, is existence itself. I can endlessly say ‘ I am not this or that’. I can negate and falsify every object including this body, thought ,as not being me. However I simply cannot negate myself. I simply cannot say ‘ I AM NOT’. That alone seems to be the irrefutable reality. Every other concept needs the support of this reality to be available . That got established.

3. The idea of Supersoul too is therefore simply dependant on the awareness of it being in place. Hence it has in reality NO independent existence. It needs the support of your awareness to come alive. If it cannot exist beyond the awareness, theoretically it cannot assume the notion of being larger than awareness. Even the largest, most sacred concept arises in this awareness.

4. If Supersoul has a dependant relation, it is subject to negation as any other concept. If not what position are you taking in the awareness of this reality. It surely cannot be from the standpoint of the soul, nor can it be from that of the Supersoul. Since both need the support of your awareness to appear in.

5. Now Advaita cannot in principle reject Dvaita or duality. I wonder if this similar to the classical debate about ‘mithya’. While popular interpretation of ‘mithya’ is that of it being illusory , non-existent and hence irrelevant , Advaita is not dismissive of it. It only says that it simply does not have an independent reality to it. ‘Mithya’ in other words is ‘dependant’ reality hence always subject to interpretation through perception and/or inference. This is a big and important distinction. This distinction simply allows for dualistic expression and by that ‘Dvaita’ is easily resolved within Advaita. I cannot spot the conflict within Advaita. I can surely see a conflict coming from a ‘Dvaitic’ standpoint, which is but natural.

6. Infact I can see the core message of surrender and devotion, hallmark of the ‘Dvaita’ practise is acknowledged within Advaita. Surrender through devotion is accepted, respected and in some discussions seen as a necessary expression. While Advaita establishes ‘awareness’ as the core essence through means of a reductive approach, it then progresses to show how ‘awareness’ is the essence of all creation and content. How then can it reject any concept including ‘Dvaita’.

This discussion left my colleague pondering and me curious to know how this debate would have been dealt with in the traditional Vedantic expositions.

Spirituality - for Pain Relief?

2011-08-31T04:51:00.000-07:00

Many of us turn to Spirituality to seek comfort from pain. This is no surprise especially with eastern schools of spirituality which are presented with labels like 'end of suffering'. I recently exchanged views with an impassioned woman who found it fruitless to pursue eastern spirituality, it never alleviated her deep felt sense of pain and depression in spite of years of spirtual practice. Her practice included tens of years of yoga,meditation, self-enquiry. She infact found better success in pursuing psychotherapy instead. This idea had spurned a few questions for me earlier too. There is a bit of psychology (western) v/s spirituality (eastern non-dual) going on in such discussions which needs to be explored further. I'd begin with the premise that there are essential differences between the western and eastern minds which need to be considered before we see spirituality or psychology in the 'one size fits all' way.

There seems to be a view about the eastern mind and its general inattention to one's individual story. It may appear superficially so with many of the eastern schools that psychological aspects of human experience are downplayed in the search of the lets say 'other worldly' reality. And that stems clearly from a broad (in my opinion,well considered) sweeping rationale which sees the psychology as external and the problem itself. Buddha's route out of suffering he saw was not to be found within the realm of suffering,as he discovered clinically, the solution could not come from within the problem. In reality he finds what everyone 'actually' desires is a permanent solution, and that it is futile to look for it in the mess of the changeful psychological mind.'You don't experience suffering, but suffer the experiencing' Nisargadatta Maharaj would say. However having found the way out, Buddha's ways and means are clearly laid out with practical application and intent.Many of which being tools to deal with the psychological aspects. Easily reflected in the monumental amount of popular study on the benefits of Vipassana and meditation in the areas of stress control and improvement of personal effectiveness.

If you would see in the Vedantic schools of wisdom, the core message of underlying one Reality is captured in probably a small subset of material (Upanishads, parts of Vedas, and interpretations and expositions from Shankara). The much larger part of the hindu influences in reality deals entirely with the psychological aspects of living life. Mahabharata and Ramayan, akin to being the DNA of Indian culture, deal explicitly with the struggles of a very personal nature ( I recommend 'Gurucharan Das's 'Difficulty of being Good' a brilliant work in this context). And they have a very deep influence on the eastern mind and conditioning even today. These traditional and mythological undercurrents seem to condition the minds to accept the personal story and function with greater ease within the larger context of its spiritual evolution.

I have very closely observed to see why the issues that rankle the western mind do not manifest in the similar way with the eastern mind. One important contributor to this, in my opinion, is the absolute underlying belief and faith in the concept of a personal destiny over which one simply does not have control(and that comes from the influences I mentioned earlier). The family/society is not seen as the perpetrator of abuse, it is part of the destiny which is uniquely personal, your 'lot' that unfolds and needs to be dealt with. To the 'individual-empowered' ego-mind this may seem subjugatory or disempowering, but not to the mind brought up in this tradition.You after-all can't suffer a problem if you don't experience it as one.

Though this has been changing with the advent of western education, which at the core seems to empower the rationale of the individual over everything else. It hasn't entirely eclipsed the core philosophy of life still in the east which encourages a personal relationship and accountability with one's own destiny and spirituality, the main reason for the popularity of the bhakti'/devotional approach which I suspect works at a psycho-spiritual level. A lot of problems that the western mind encounters for which there are well developed schools of psychotherapy, I suspect, do not apply to the eastern mind, simply because they will not catch the patterns they were researched to detect and fix.

And this brings me to the point that psychological approach needs to pre-suppose a certain kind of conditioning (western ?) to be effective, and so does prescriptive spirituality. But having said that, the end goals of psychology and spirituality are different, don't you think so? Where psychology attempts to draw a boundary, spirituality seems to open doors- 'As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being' - Carl Jung, and ' The Being' is where Ramana Maharshi aims to draw the attention to. While psychology insists on identifying one's patterns and working on them, Spiritual practice (non-dual) attempts to break identification with those patterns, infact denies their existence or at best accepts their illusory nature.And here in lies the fundamental difference to the two approaches.

Spiritual pursuit may for some begin to hold interest as a means of escaping pain, with some success, but it needs to soon occupy a different space. It needs to shift the person's attention from one of 'a sufferer, a seeker of fix' to one who burns with the desire to seek and find out the Truth behind the suffering and the sufferer. A genuine desire to seek Truth above all, then replaces the tendency to seek a band-aid solution to pain that comes and goes. Now that is an entirely different call to service is it not?

(i have reproduced some of the content here from one of my previous responses on a similar discussion)

Choicelessly Free

2011-08-05T03:34:00.000-07:00

There is choice

There is a thinker of choice
The thinker is a thought
The thought is in you

nah..let's try again

There is no choice

There is no thinker of choice

The thinker is not a thought

There is no thought

And this is true
They are both false
But the false never exists
What about the truth?

Simple Pointer

2010-07-16T03:24:00.000-07:00

Shine the light

of attention here

Spot me

under the gaze

of this awareness

and watch me

disappear

(thank you Bob for letting me use the pic)

Self'less' Portrait !!

2010-07-15T00:43:00.000-07:00

Ernst Mach's self portrait here, a very interesting one. You would notice he includes his nose and moustache too. Try closing one eye and see what he saw.

Who Am I who watches this world, in which this body too appears?

Witness

2010-03-31T00:12:00.000-07:00

5.20 AM is an inhuman hour to wake the body up,but it seems far away. As I shift around unsettled through the night, all the while aware of an early exit from home in the morning. A telco giant wants to get the most relevant brains into a room for 3 days and figure out the best way forward for its mobile apps strategy. This room happens to be a good 4 hours and 4 train changes away from the comfy cot this body is so desparately trying to enjoy and forget doing so. The hand finally lands on the alarm, a mobile phone in reality which doubles up as an alarm for most people in the circles I move around. The hand is desparate to keep the noise of the alarm to as short as possible. The wife and kids deserve to enjoy their blissful state of unawareness and deep sleep. As they say you sleep the best before you wake up. When you have effectively switched off. Far from my experience of the night as it went by. There was not a reason to have a wakeful sleep. But the mind was a little busy, the body seemed tense. The previous night's act of preparing for the early morning sojourn involved making sure which train to catch, it had to be the 6:04 train,

lest I miss the first 15 mins of catching up with new faces at the workshop. The odd job of selling your relevance before the event starts.

And the hand lands on the alarm, the body rises out of the warm sheets.Halts for what seems like eternity. The body seems distant. It belongs more to the bed than to me. And before I have noticed it, its looked around for the slippers, the bathroom door, lights switched on, while keeping up with the desparate attempt to be as nimble as a largish male body can be around a smallish house.Well the other sentient beings seemed totally undisturbed by all this, so its working. As the morning minutes tick by I seem to find this body reacting in an almost auto-pilot mode. There is hardly a trace of will. It simply does what it is supposed to do, getting in shape, readying itself up for the task ahead. Picks an orange and an apple on its way out into the cold and fresh morning. Still dark but deep and blue. And it occurs there is that new bunch of books vying for attention lying unread for a few days 'Breakfast with Socrates', Neitzsche, Tolstoy's 'where there is life there is faith', 'Dashavatar' a comic by an upcoming Indian graphic artist Karan Vir which arrived by post a day ago, 'Kaballah' by Yehuda Berg which lies half read, and finally 'May I hebb your attention pliss' by one of favourite bloggers Arnab Ray. The urgent task of punching a ticket out for the long trip interrupts. £67 for a return ticket, the familiar voice in the heard screams Expensive !!

In witnessing all this, another thought which springs up,'presence of mind' what does that really mean? Is mind ever absent? Is it when your body, mind and your spirit are dealing with the moment in singularity. The most important symptom of it being a sense of surety around it. Well that thought too passes away. All of those thoughts pass in the constant presence of this witness.When the attention is brought on the witness, there is nothing to report. In the act of marinating in your ' I am'ness, there is a joy of pure being. And as the attention sticks more naturally with this awareness, the notion of 'I am' itself appears notional. Is 'I am' a thought too? And I happen to notice the body has turned itself in the direction of the announcement in the train, 'the next station is Stratford'.

Time to get back into the skin, the act,world here I come.

The Key to the Real

2010-03-26T01:46:00.000-07:00

Advaita holds the key.

Use it wisely.

'Who am I' is the question, stick with it

tenaciously.

watch it peel away, the illusion

watch it reveal

that which is not false

the noise of identification

drops

the edifice of the known

crumbles

the simplicity of being

shines

come to that place

which you had never left

Unborn into emptiness

2010-03-23T02:24:00.000-07:00

the labour of search

is loneliness

what you identified with

is meaningless

in this emptiness

who am I

the deepest fear

does not hang

the most joyous memory

is an orphan

questions hurt

answers do not satisfy

into this rabbit hole

dark and bottomless

the experience passes

it does not feel

it does not fight

the end of experience

as I know

the screen of my play

translucent

the passing of the story

meaningless

meaning less

search for it

is the illusion

that too plays out

on the screen

the dearest of calls

is now dead

the screen burns down

the one who sees it

was never born

Where are you?

2010-02-15T02:18:00.000-08:00

' when was the last time you did something the first time?' I did one this saturday. A good friend took me to watch a game between Chelsea and Cardiff City at the Chelsea grounds. It surely was the first of its kind for me. To watch a 40,000 crowd up in war, passionate and animated in a way that defied logic. A new experience in itself.

But it only feels so in relation to something? A knowledge of not having experienced this before. Any experience is in effect the registering of a changed state in yourself. A wave does not exist by itself. It exists relative to the ocean. We similarly experience life through events,ideas,emotions,memories,but against the backdrop of what?

In the theory of relative motion, we know speed is always measured relative to another object assumed to be either motionless or moving at a speed different from the object being observed. This is the same with absolutely every waking moment of your experiencing life. You will only register that which is relatively different. But relative to what?

Do you see clearly you are engaged all the time with the waves, in counting them,enjoying them, suffering them. In this experiencing do you see you have to be more than them to register their experience. If you can register the complexity of this creation,you must be doing so against this backdrop of the unchanging,the unknowable,the unexperiencable. Even the greatest idea or emotion still arises in this everpresent awareness.

where are you in this awareness?

Parkour Now !

2009-11-30T07:59:00.000-08:00

Can you imagine 'power of now' , 'consciousness' and 'parkour' in the same breath.

Free..your creativity..its free afterall !

The Untold Stories !

2009-11-27T02:31:00.000-08:00

William Dalrymple is one of my favourite authors and as a rule I collect hardbacks from him. 'Nine Lives' that I am reading currently is quite a departure from his earlier works. In that he is telling us the story of India today , through the lives of nine people. Real people , real stories. The common thread tying them all is that of spirituality.

Part of what makes this book interesting for me is that it reports stories of India which simply do not receive any social and media attention. We have one earth, but a billion or more worlds. Each of us carries a version of the world in our heads that is utterly unique but also attempts to find a common ground with the stories others carry around. And modern media plays out such a monumental role in shaping this this illusory reality at an individual and collective level for us. For an average english educated Indian bloke like me, whose attention most possibly feeds of english media coverage in India, the realities of a significant majority of country men escape existence. One of the stories is in the book is that of woman called Rani Bai who is a devdasi. Having grown up in the northern karnataka, one would find it hard not to come across this practise of 'dedicating' young girls to the goddess Yellamma. The attached social licence for prostitution which goes with the girls is the other huge reality. Every year 13 to 15 thousand girls are dedicated and enter into this reality of life. Belgaum and adjoining areas , mid sized towns alone house a quarter of a million devadasis. Rani Bai takes us through her life and through it gives us a taste of how the world looks to her and many of her kiln.

While the stark harshness of this strikes you at the first layer, as you read more and meet the other people, I can't but help sit back and observe. To stop attaching judgement of depravation, superstitions or any such easy labels. But to simply sit back and acknowledge, that is who we are as well. Hari Das a dalit is a 'Theyyam' dancer in Kannur. He works in a jail, digs wells, and for 3 months in a year becomes a 'Theyyam dancer' . One whom Gods possess and he is worshipped by everyone including the upper caste brahmins for those 3 months. I do not see the sadness in this. I see our story. When I drop the need to judge it, I start meeting with our story in all openess. I begin to see what we are first before allowing my western learnt sensibilities of judging their context.

It is attractive to label this book conveniently as one coming from a westerner who is blinded by the spiritual side of India. But if I drop this convenient judgement, silence the cynic in me , I begin to see things for what they are , in my own country. I want to travel and meet life this way too.

Non Entity

2009-11-27T02:20:00.000-08:00

A quick jot down in response to shekhar's recent note - how do you define an event?

event, i don't recognise.
non-event I do.
And neither matter.
they are in me
but they are not me

for it be an event
i need to be an entity
but entity,
I do not recognize
non-entity, I do
they are in me
but they are not me

Empty Reflections !

2009-10-30T03:55:00.000-07:00

(Pic: Shot while driving around beautiful Britanny)

a mirror covered in dust

and I get busy cleaning it

the more I clean

the more exciting it gets

-and it reveals..

the more dust falls away

-and it shows

the more it shines

-anticipation rises

and finally when

it is dusted off

and is ready to show

there is no one

the dust of illusion

cleared off

and in the stillness

of this clarity

I see, I was the mirror

I was the dust

I am that whose reflection

needs the dust

and the mirror

I am them and

before them too.

What is safe for You ?

2009-10-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

The fear of the jump ? or

The fear of it going wrong ?

(pic: I took at Britanny Perros Guirec, click to enlarge)

Reduced to Infinity !

2009-10-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

-Where do you want to go today?
-Nowhere ( Now Here)

-what is at the end of it?
-Nothing (No Thing)

-do you know for sure ?
-who is to know?

Can the seer, be seen !

2009-10-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

the picture changes
I remain
the story is re-written
I am not
can I the seer
be seen?

God does not want to be known !!

2009-10-22T00:45:00.001-07:00

The CERN LHC experiment is so jinxed up, top scientific institutions are joining forces behind the fatalistic view LHC attracts. Creating the God particle is akin to reversing time.A movement back into time being an imminent outcome as they see it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/biology_evolution/article6879293.ece

I am amused with this thought. God simply does not want to be known it appears. He or She rather enjoys the obscurity and is simply ensuring he stays out of limelight . Allowing the creation to remain consumed in itself.

Another armchair moviemaker idea- why not combine this with the 2012 end of the world view. What if it is actually CERN and God particle that actually brings the world as we know to an end. Many scientists at CERN actually think it maybe a few years (a couple) before they actually create the particle. If one were to join all the dots..2012, God Particle, end of creation. hmm..

Will the 'Real' please Stand Up !

2009-10-14T02:03:00.000-07:00

you who watches
you, to whom seeing
seems to unfold
you
can you please stand up
introduce yourSelf
you, without whom
seeing never was
and with whom every moment
conspires it's birth,

only you matter
who are you?

(pic from http://www.crystalinks.com/reality.html)

Chup - Zeb and Haniya

2009-10-02T05:36:00.000-07:00

Zeb and Haniya..these girls rock...they after Amit Trivedi (Dev D) are the next great discovery of this season.!..great innocence in their approach..two pashtun girls who bring out a completely refreshing mix of influences..blues..folk..hindustani..I finally can't put a finger on it except being sure I am enjoying their work..

http://www.zebandhaniya.com/

Display of Consciousness

2009-10-01T00:10:00.000-07:00

We -
Are not the controllers of consciousness
but are its display !

(pic: that I took off the coast of Brittany)

Bruce Lee and Advaita

2009-09-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

and Bruce Lee saw it too.

'I' do not exist !

Daddy - How do I lie ?

2009-09-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

This idea intrigued me - how can we teach our kids to lie to their benefit?

"9.Question: What does it mean if a kid is a skillful liar?

Answer: It depends on the child’s age. Between 3 and 4, almost all kids begin experimenting with some lying. So, at a very young age, the ability to lie actually signals cognitive advancement because lying requires kids to know one reality while trying to convince someone of something else entirely. They have to keep those two competing ideas going on in their heads at the same time. The important thing is how we respond to those initial lies—making sure that kids understand we value honesty. That it makes grown-ups happy to hear the truth, even if the truth means admitting some wrongdoing.
For kids older than 7, lying—skillful or otherwise—is more of a concern. At that point, kids can start to believe that lying is the best way to handle uncomfortable social situations. Once that strategy is in place, lying becomes much more difficult to stop." (source: http://om.ly/lsuy)

Lying I always thought is an indicator of social maturity and eventually a reflection of how relaxed one is with accepting their roles in the world. I have used lying as a growing up tactic a lot of times to dodge fear of things going wrong. Increasingly the need to lie has dissapeared along with an acceptance of the uneasiness associated with being in situations which would have required me to lie in the past. There is obviously different kinds of lies if you may say so. A lie said to entertain, is it a lie all? Would you consider holding off information or masking it a lie, especially if you have guaged the outcome of doing so with the other person or child? Which lies are you comfortable with as you grow up? What lies in other people are you comfortable accepting without need of judgement? How do you teach your child to learn about their fears through their lies? Can you see clearly the fears behind the need to lie?

Can we introduce honesty not as a matter of principle but a natural movement towards accepting one's own personal story. And offcourse can we stop attending to the story sometimes, the biggest lie of them all ?

Green Revolutionary !

2009-09-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

Norman Borlaug, passed away 2 days ago. Known as the father of Green revolution his discoveries are behind the high level of food produce we enjoy today.When the wheat yield doubled in the late sixties and early seventies, Punjab became the agricultural gem and green revolution became a reality, this man was quietly dirtying his hands behind scenes. As a Nobel laureate (for peace ) he has impacted lives across Asia, Africa, mexico and is known to have saved 1Billion lives in his lifetime alone. As would be the case with any movement and change, his views and practices attracted its share of criticism within many circles. I wonder how our media does not find it interesting to report people such as him. Are we not interested in learning about people like him? Is it because our meal for the day is fixed anyways?

Inglorious Kaminey

2009-09-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

Two of my favourtie movie makers are back with a bang, both are on the screen at the same time and both want to inspire the rowdy in me. Quentin Tarantino is so back in form. The lazy self indulgent, long drawn chewy scenes with evil celebratory over the top characters (who is Christoph Waltz and where was he up unti now?) squirmy violence, beautiful women , wild, ballsy, and his ability to laugh at his own cliche. That man is twisted...I loved the movie.

Kaminey, will have to wait a few days longer. Hopefully a sweet wait..it feels right already !

The Grand Indian Temple

2009-09-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

India's next grand temple - 100,000 sft costing Rs42Cr ($420 Million) with the statue of the diety towering at 18ft.
Love it ? do you !..devotion and will of the people.
There is small difference though which most people working on this project don't seem to find any issue with. The diety is Mayawati , the temple her house she will live in and the budget, well people's tax money..and oh the diety gets to design her temple too. That did not satisy the diety and her devotees, she granted their wish to build another 40,000sft quadrangle installed with another statue of hers..and also demolish all adjoining construction to make way for the grand vision..
Hmm..and who said women in India are not worshipped ;-) !..
It also struck me..funny enough money and power do not actually differentiate. They are great equalizers in their own right. It does not matter if its a man or a woman, lower or upper caste, literate or not, they seem to inspire all with the same traits of egocentricity and spirit of self-service ;-) what say you !

(pics and news source: www.outlookindia.com)

Sun sea rocks pictures and insignificance !

2009-08-31T04:17:00.000-07:00

Just back from a long break off the coast of Britanny, France. Watched the sun rise and set many times over. The northern coast where the rocks are pink, waters blue gentle enough to sculpt the rocks while the sun paints the sky in the most spectacular ways. The southern coast where cote de sauvage shows the tyranny of lethal waters on the rocks, torn and ravaged for centuries.visited many other beautiful places.watched the kids be themselves. walked a lot. After long felt inspired to take some pictures and loved being dwarfed into insignificance at the hands of nature's bounty.
The above picture was at Perros Guirrec, northern Britanny a walk from the campsite where we spent a week.

ARC love what you posted last by Rumi:

"When you are with everyone but me,
you are with no one
When you are with no one but me
you are with everyone
instead of being so bound up with everyone,
be everyone
when you are that many, you're nothing, Empty."

Will take some time to process the pictures and present them soon.

Spot Me !

2009-08-06T09:55:00.001-07:00

if all there is left,is the observing
each moment as it presents
each thought,every emotion
observing life,living itself out
through this body,this mind
observing from this
emptiness
where nothing hides
and everything emerges
in this vastness, spot 'me'
then show me 'your' world.
where do I end and
where do you begin

Be Lost In The Call

2009-07-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

Be Lost In The Call — Poet Seers:

"Remember God so much that you are forgotten.
Let the caller and the called disappear;
be lost in the Call."

Another of my favourite Rumi(nations). I am constantly amazed at how people across time, civilizations, consistently pointed to the Truth in the same manner. Advaita points to what Rumi beautifully expressed in his poetry. Civilizations apart, centuries apart, lands apart, with no common influences, people saw the same Truth. How can one escape it?

Andy Murray

2009-06-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

I was watching Andy Murray yesterday. He's come a long way, physically bulked up and more confident. But all of that seems to suddenly fade away some times. Something about his play looks more like lucky to be there, than deserve to be there. I thought Warwrinka displayed a more calmer and mentally strong game than Andy did. Strong technique gets you so far. Beyond which your strongest weapon is not the racquet but your mind. He is more adept at losing it than keeping it from what I saw yesterday.

While Andy's slightly better tennis saw him through, it is really unlikely he will ever get the better off Fed in this lifetime. Something every Brit here is dreaming off. I infact think he will not make it through to the finals either. Hewitt and Roddick are looking in good form and frame of mind too. They have lesser pressure on them to perform as well. But I really miss Nadal this time.

MJ

2009-06-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

MJ..

The man..nothing that he did conformed to our established ideas..His music, you could not say whether soul, funk, rock, pop, fusion. His voice what was it man or woman or neither. As a dancer he allowed so much of energy to flow through him uniterrupted in the most beautifual way..did not conform to a style...his videos - were they music videos or mini movies..his adult life or was it an extended childhood..black or white..famous or infamous..rich and or poor..loved and or hated..

I think he was one person the world at large struggled to slot into accepted ways of living..he simply transcended the boundaries that exist in the mind with all that he did..when such a leviathan of a creative force is unleashed through a mortal body like his..people can't get to grips with what they get to see..he himself of all the people I thought never got to grips with how this life force enjoyed itself through him..the sheer intensity of the life force and energy that made people gravitate to him...

as a kid I would stay late into the night ready with my fingers poised nervously on the remote control of the VCR..all hooked up into the TV..hoping Prannoy Roy would have atleast a small segment covering MJ on his entertainment section of 'World this week'..those snippets that I got to record I saw a million times over..his moves I felt in my body..his music..every song lyrics of which I know in and out to this day..every scream, squeal I know so initmately..every detail of printed material on him I had to lay my hands on..at any cost..

I played 'smooth criminal' the first time for my 4 yr old last year..he was taken over yet again..by that creative force..MJ simply connected like no one else ever did..across languages and ages at a scale few people will ever manage..tell me-- how can anyone who impacts consciousness at this scale be of the same makeup as the rest..he simply can't..

His legacy will grow larger than it is now..in years to come my kids and the generations will get to read about how Big a persona he was..I revel in the fact that I enjoyed his creation during his lifetime..

..a sad fan..who will always enjoy the greatest entertainer/performer ever..

Mind the gap: Series 9 - Silence

2009-06-23T10:48:00.001-07:00

Silence.

When the thunder roars, you hear the sound. When music plays you hear the notes and rythm. When lightning strikes you see the power of fierce energy and light. But you only notice them since they appear against a background of silence. When you hear the thunder, you also notice 'what was once silence and now interrupted'. The musician knows that the notes and beats in themselves do not make the music. The great pianist Artur Schnabel says '..But the pauses between the notes , that is where the art is'. To string up the notes in a particular order showcases your knowledge of music. But melody is created when you let the silence take its rightful place between those notes. The lightning in the dark sky lights up the vast expanse of sky against which it has to appear for you to see.The silence that introduces itself in your speech, which you try sometimes to fill with the 'hmm..err'. The silence which is alive. Giving life to all else that appears against it. That silence, can you allow for it to be sensed. With no urgent need to fill form against it. Try listening to it, not with the ears. But with that intuitive sense that is so natural to you.

Silence, which at the same time seems alive and pure, can you meet with it in comfort. Do you find yourself drawn to it as much or more than all the content that appears against ?

The Dark Matter - Is it?

2009-06-15T08:54:00.000-07:00

With this post I take a risk..of losing you my reader. I am dealing with the dark side. Chances that you will want to read and ruminate about it are as high as you and me taking a trip to the moon before we die. There I said it - to die. That exactly is my topic.

What about death is it that we do not want to accept and enjoy it? Yes I mean enjoy.

In the calmer moments, when your thoughts do not dominate your experience, you get to meet yourself. The one inside your body to whom all the experience happens. Have you noticed this one does not really have any attributes that make you unique so to say. This observer of life is too simply plain vanilla flavoured (sans the vanilla too). Pretty much the stratum over which life paints a personality and story. This 'life force' if you may call it, is undeniably common to all of us. Does not matter who we are, where we come from. It is not judgemental, it simply seems to have one agenda. To live through 'a' body. It simply does not seem to be of any interest to the life force to 'belong' to a body. It does not see any need to identify and stay rooted with an owner. But something happens down the line, the bodies and their minds we inhabit start taking the life seriously. They seem to confuse the life force for 'the bundle of experiences it goes through' and chase the need to be preserve them as their own. All the emotions and memories need to be guarded against decay, afterall they belong to 'me', the body. No wonder it is at times of birth and more so passing away of someone we know, that everyone around wonders what the point of it all is. These two events bring together people and make them stare at the basic reality and for a moment atleast de-focus from the containers they work hard to build around them all their lives.

We do seem to take the birth with a lot of joy, but very few do the same with death. To the life force itself it simply appears like an ongoing symphony of notes arising and falling off through different instruments. God the conductor (if you think has anything to do with the life force), seems to take the instruments very lightly. Why don't we? Can we welcome passing away with as much joy as the birth? I am asking a question which I realise works against something in us. What do you think?

Life as I see is a visitor. Can we watch it enjoy itself while in this body or someone else's ?

ps: the trip to the moon was an obvious exaggeration which hopefully served its sinister purpose ;-)

You are Not !

2009-06-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

"There is no such thing as a person.
There are only restrictions and limitations.
The sum total of these defines the person.
The person merely appears to be,
like the space within the pot
appears to have the shape and volume.
smell of the pot."

(Nisargadatta Maharaj)

Do you see a problem ?

2009-06-04T02:20:00.000-07:00

This senior management guy who is my customer yesterday in a meeting got me going, pretty much. We were on a coffee break. He being of Indian descent was sharing his dislike for Indian way of life. English being shamelessly eulogised and regional languages loosing their importance. For eg: if you wanted to study medicine in Oriya today, it simply is not possible. The french learn all skills in their language so do the Danish or any other culture and are proud of it. Not the Indians. English as a class divide is a new dimension to the already fractured society. Human labour is exploited, pregnant women work for a living late into pregnancy. While I saw why he observed the way he did, I could not help myself going the next step. I said , 'but don't you think the Indians also have an ability to accept life for what it is'? This brought a big silence..I let the question sink in.. I could see it upset the rythm of one of his pet opinions..I did not intend to explain myself too much at that point..and I could see the others get unsettled with the abrupt deflating stillness..Is it not your way of programming or conditioning or whatever you may call it , that makes you identify a specific problem in a situation. Your view of the world suggests the pregnant woman needs to be uplifted from her situation. She for all you know only wonders how she will fix the day's meal while getting on with what life offers her. She simply does not know things can be otherwise, it does not make her necessarily unhappy about it. Isnt it your view of the world which is trying to shape a problem with her life. Why would you want to save her when she does not believe she is drowning?
This stems from a larger observation that I have made of the Indian pysche. The western fascination with perfecting the outer world has led to an exceptionally rationale driven way of life with predicatability being paramount. It makes one assume all problems lie outside you and you need a plan to fix it. The eastern sensibility geared more towards functioning within an idea of personal destiny allows for greater acceptance of life the way it unfolds. The urge to fix a problem does not arise , since you don't see a problem to begin with. What is there to be fixed? The western/english educated Indian now gives this way of living labels like 'chaltha hai attitude' and abhors it too. No wonder. Isn't the urban or english educated Indian loosing touch with his or her cultural advantage, in my opinion his biggest advantage.

Now if you wonder if all of this conversation actually happened ..well part off it did verbally.. the rest ensued through my mental chatter..:-)..do you catch yourself continuing with half left conversations ?

1 year

2009-05-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

This blog clocked its first year yesterday. I have enjoyed doing this a lot. Keeping in with how I see the world now, I have made a few changes to it, the title included. I have loved every bit of writing here. Writing in some ways is an unsparing act with yourself escpecially if it is a personal blog. I wondered what the point of a personal blog is many a times. What you write is already what you think and know of. By writing it down whom are you trying to read it out to? Is it the desire for someone else to read them and appreciate them, whether they agree or disagree? Is it just an attempt to verbalise and shape the chatter in your head? If so, who is it targetted to? Why is there an attempt to express and who is doing it?

In writing this blog I realise I have engaged more in questioning than answering. I have also witnessed moving away from questions whose answers don't seem to matter anymore. If there is a way to ' let be', this blog has served the purpose in ways more than one. The want for clarity to see what is behind this self recognising urge, has made itself known. Love it !

Rumi: We Are Three !

2009-05-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

I am part of the load
Not rightly balanced
I drop off in the grass,
like the old Cave-sleepers, to browse
wherever I fall.

For hundreds of thousands of years I have been dust-grains
floating and flying in the will of the air,
often forgetting ever being in that state,
but in sleep I migrate back. I spring loose
from the four-branched, time -and-space cross,
this waiting room.

I walk into a huge pasture
I nurse the milk of millennia

Everyone does this in different ways.
Knowing that conscious decisions
and personal memory
are much too small a place to live,
every human being streams at night
into the loving nowhere, or during the day,
in some absorbing work.

(Mathnawi, VI 216-227)

picture by the fantastic artist Lisa Dietrich(http://www.lisadietrich.com/)

Can the perceiver be perceived ?

2009-05-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

Care to join me on a small questioning trip !

! If there is no surface for it to appear on, would you see the colour red? !

For anything at all to be observed, read, written, exist or experienced there are 2 parties. A surface on which it needs to appear and a perceiver who is its witness. For sake of elaborating, you could say thoughts and feelings need a conscious mind to appear within, these words need a text editor, colour needs a canvas. However all these perceived phenomena need a perceiver for whom they materialise into an experience ,register as an event and get interpreted as per one's conditioning. Isnt it?

Now- does the perceiver exist if there is nothing to perceive? pause and think. What happens when you go into deep sleep? Apart from intermittent phenomena like dreams is there any perception at all? You do seem to know (retrospectively atleast) that every time you go into sleep, both these entities the perceiver and perceived simply cease. It is like - would the actors come up on a stage to perform if there was no one to watch them act?

Now - Does the perceiver exist prior to perceiving? pause and think. This perceiver has to exist simultaneously with all that is perceived, not before , not after. They are but inseparable is it not? The perceiver and the perception are their own inexorably conjoined purposes. This union as though wakes up every morning, spins a web of 'reality' within which the events occur, reactions register, drama unfolds, memory records only to all go back out of existence, every time you enter deep sleep. Do you see the perceiver is not separate from what is perceived?

But the question to really ask then is -
Can the perceiver be perceived ?
(arrest any attempts to answer it, let the question remain and watch) .This is not an attempt at a mind bending logic of some sort. Go with the flow, slow. Let the questions remain and watch the response to them.

What Is - Fractal Art

2009-03-31T16:10:00.001-07:00

My first attempt at animating some fractal art pieces I made a while ago !

Rumi : The Doors

2009-03-05T10:11:00.001-08:00

I have lived on the lip of insanity
Wanting to know reasons
Knocking on a door, it opens
I have been knocking from the inside!
-Rumi-

Indianess !

2009-03-04T04:32:00.001-08:00

In a rather 'high school essay' way of writing I went about putting a few thoughts in response to one of Shekhar's long posts on - what does Indianess mean ! I am reproducing the same here today. (And a quick photo montage I did with photoshop after long..results in the below pic..good fun !) .

(click pic to enlarge)

A land which is as old as ours has quite a few unmissable strong undercurrents of commonality running through these differences for ages. Across the land they bind us and loosely define the 'Indian pysche':

1. Hierarchical World: We Indians innately are a hierarchical society within which it is extremely important for an individual to be 'somebody'. The master slave relationship exists at all levels in varying degrees and flavours. 'Maid servant' is still a commonly used term with little sign of derogatory western judgment attached to it. Both the 'maid' and her employer' is absolutely comfortable with this top-down relationship. It is more vital for us to be a 'someone', a need to be attached within a social role. This pressure to be in a socially recognised slot within the hierarchy is probably equal to higher than the pressure to be seen as wealthy.

2. Family : For most Indians their families come first and the community,country and everything else after. As a member of the family especially a male you protect and acquire resources for 'your' family first at the cost of much else. This value is the single largest reason why we are morally fine to breed a culture of favours and bribery. Our families normally have a large authoritarian figure head and his role one of being a benefactor is also to inspire a sense of reverence from the young. Our obligatory duty towards family honour is at the cost of individual expression. No wonder arranged marriages draw gasps only from the western mind.Inspite of the westernization of urban areas, the vast majority is intrinsically functioning within this code.

2. Caste system: You have already hinted at the caste politics which while being the reason for deep divisions and oppressions. In a strange way this has strengthened the hierarchical demography. A large section of the Indian masses do not see beyond the confines of caste let alone religion.

3. The great Hindu-Muslim 'composite divide': Yes there is a unique composite sub-culture that exists between Hindus and Muslims. Both untrusting of each other, living with their pet perceptions being passed on blindly for ages. The Hindus perceiving the Muslims to be of rabid, expansionist and aggressive disposition with extreme brotherhood tendencies within themselves. While the Muslim thinking of himself as the oppressed in a country with Hindu majority who have denied a better life to the Muslims. Inspite of which they find themselves enjoying a middle ground so unique to the sub-continent.

4. Knowledge and Education: Apart from the Chinese there is hardly any other culture which places as much focus on knowledge and education as we do. We do it out of need as well as out of a deep reverence for learning and the learned. Our formal education though largely western in structure and approach is heavily Indian influenced in content and fuelled by that great cultural focus to be 'knowledgeable'. Amidst all the present day chaos and confusion we could easily miss noticing that - we are building what will probably come to be known as a great 'knowledge society'.

5.A hungry nation in great hurry: Yes Indians are in too much of a hurry, to jump the queue, to get their seat, to get their movie ticket, to get ahead. There is a common voracious appetite to be in a better state, better place.It is a hunger bordering on paranoia which fuels the humongous young and growing middle class. They are all blinded by that common aspiration and all of them meet up on the same highway every day of their life , competing with all they have to go beyond what used to be a struggle to survive a few decades ago. This great sub-continental hunger is unmatched and will fuel the ever changing shape of our psyche.

6. War, virtues and mythology: A lot of Hindus live to perpetuate a self image of a benevolence, valour and being a largely peaceful lot. Believing all war and struggle has been largely come through centuries of invasion from the Muslims and English. They seem to forget to acknowledge how the defining mythology like Ramayan and Mahabharat while extolling Vedic values are centered around the bloodiest and fiercest of wars. How they reflect the inner struggle, strife, hate and division, prejudice so commonly prevalent in the modern day Hindu as well.

Surely the list might go on including things like our unparalleled love of food ,colour, bollywood, television amongst others. But the most striking thing in my opinion is all that divides is also what binds us. There is simply no other country which manages diamteric opposites and contradiction like we do. That to me defines our 'Indianess'.

Groovy Train

2009-02-05T02:15:00.000-08:00

This man gets it !

Loud Whispers

2009-01-24T03:40:00.000-08:00

I watch in joy, in awe,
as the wave rises,
paints colours of life,
I watch the fear,
as it crashes,
washing off the colours -
Am I the one riding it ,
Am I the one watching it,
Am I the wave,
Or the ocean,
Am I both,
Am I one- ,
Or none.

Ruminatrix

2009-01-23T06:13:00.000-08:00

That which is arising in front of you
You perceive
But can you the perceiver be perceived?

Mind the gap: series 9: The Fourth Dimension

2009-01-07T06:25:00.000-08:00

Following is probably one of the most lucid write ups which explains how limited our sense of perception is, and by corollary our grasp of reality. We depend on our senses to experience all of living and life. We box ourselves into mental confines based on these constraints. The 3-Dimensional world is as much as reality as any of your dreams. I love it when Deepak says - ' Reality is up for grabs'. Take a deep breath and read on a rather longish but engaging piece of debate that begs your attention -

04.18.06New York

There is a prejudice in modern society that we need to get over. It's the prejudice in favor of things that are concrete, tangible and three-dimensional. We feel that a rock is real because it is solid and heavy and our senses can easily locate it in time and space. So what are we to make of a reality where seeing isn't believing? Snails have very slow nervous systems. It takes them several seconds to record each new visual impression. What this means is that if someone walks by very quickly and drops a penny in front of a snail, the person will be invisible and the penny will seem to appear form Nowhere. In reverse, if a snail is picked up and moved very quickly, it will believe it has teleported from one place to the other.Our senses play the same trick with reality at large. Our brains are too slow to register that every concrete object is winking in and out of existence at the quantum level thousands of times per second; therefore, we see solid objects where none in fact exist.The five senses imprison us in ways that are unconscious and invisible.

Years ago, I read accounts of congenitally blind people who were given sight overnight thanks to innovative surgery. On being exposed to light for the first time, they were often completely disoriented. They wondered why people dragged black patches around with them wherever they went (we call them shadows). If asked how big a cow was standing a hundred yards away, they'd guess three inches tall; stairs were frightening two-dimensional ladders climbing straight up the wall. Sometimes these bizarre perceptions were so disturbing that the newly sighted preferred to sit in the dark with their eyes closed.

Aren't we doing much the same by clinging to the world of the five senses?Can we reinvent ourselves in light of non-sensory reality, or are we to be prisoners of the five senses as much as our ancestors were in pre-history?Every time we repeat the words "sunrise" and "sunset" we are indulging in a sensory deception. Here's Another: Experiments have been done in which a group of subjects are put in front of a tape recorder; they are asked to write down what the voice on the tape says, and the machine is started. But the volume is so low that the voice is very difficult to decipher. Even so, every subject writes down a reasonable set of notes. The catch is that the machine was uttering nonsense–the ear and the brain cooperated to create meaning where none existed, a totally unreliable version of reality. A fact from neurology, little known to the general public, is that our brains create the five senses and therefore everything they tell us.

There is literally no light or darkness, taste, touch, or sound "out there," except what we have created "in here." Imagine two magnets approaching each other with positive poles facing. Each magnet will feel that an invisible force is pushing them apart against their wills, and if the magnets are strong enough, this repulsive force will stop them from getting any closer:It will be as solid as a cement wall. In reverse, the human body isn't solid to neutrinos, x-rays, and gamma Radiation, and since every atom inside us is more than 99.9999% empty space, the fact that your hand feels solid is anillusion as much as the wall that separates two repelling magnets. (The empty space between the nucleus of an atom and the electrons orbiting around it is far larger, relatively, than the void between the Earth and the sun.)So the basic way we need to reinvent perception is to realize that the five senses are totally illusory, the good news being that we can transcend them. In fact we do this every day. I'm not being mystical, although it's true that God has managed the feat of being invisible and worshiped at the same time. I'm thinking of something as basic as sight. We say that seeing is believing, and yet no one knows what seeing actually is. There is no light inside the visual cortex, which is responsible for sight–that area of the brain, like every other, is an oatmeal-consistency semi-solid mass that knows only perpetual darkness. There are no pictures in our brains, only a fire storm of chemical and electrical signals. How we convert photons striking the retina into visible reality is totally unknown, and since the same holds true for the other four senses, reality itself is up for grabs.Uncertainty reigns, and where there is uncertainty there's a chance for freedom.

As one famous Indian guru once told his followers, reality is like a net. If you want to escape it, find a hole and jump through.In truth, the net woven by the five senses has many holes in it. Technology jumps through them every day–photons have already been teleported from one location in the lab to another without passing through the space in between.Anti-gravity looms as a possibility, along with practical and affordable superconductivity. Virtual space, called the Zero Point Field, may contain untold energy that could be harvested cheaper and with less hazard than nuclear energy. Nano solar cells may harness solar energy with undreamed of efficiency in our lifetime. All these possibilities completely defy the five senses.Yet, I think the greatest revolution will occur when we solve the mystery of how the brain projects reality. It's hard to conceive of how a three-pound organ that is primarily water and glucose has engendered the whole world. Creatures with different brains do not inhabit the same reality (porpoises,for example, have massive auditory centers and may literally "hear" the tides, the Earth turning on its axis and the position of the stars–we can't fathom their perceptual scheme). Nor do human beings share the same brain.So-called idiot savants exist who can name a prime number to five or six digits, or the day of the week that Christmas will fall on in the year 2387, and yet are unable to dress themselves or make change. One savant learned mandarin Chinese, along with several other fiendishly difficult languages,despite having an I.Q. below 80 and in addition, was found to be holding the textbook upside down.My prediction is that we will see ourselves more and more connected to the quantum field, not physically but through the mind. This "mind field" is invisible and universal; it encompasses all living things; it weaves the fabric of nature. As our prejudice in favor of solid, concrete things fades away, certain fringe phenomena will become everyday.

Healing without touch will be legitimized, since the human body can be altered by altering the field. Telepathy and clairvoyance will seem ordinary, since time
and distance are compressed to a single point in the field; Intuition and epiphanies will be explained as subtle field interactions. The best outcome would be that wisdom will reemerge as a vital human capacity, for there is no doubt that our spiritual forebears were deeply in touch with the same invisible reality that still surrounds us. We have shut out that reality in our stubborn, rigid insistence on believing our senses, but seeing with the eyes of the soul is possible. In the end, a new humanity is also possible once we escape the prison we have sentenced ourselves to for far too long. The so-called sixth sense isn't a separate sense at all, but a new opening for human evolution with unlimited possibilities.

http://www.chopra.com/

Mind the gap : Series 8 : A think about thought

2009-01-06T08:44:00.001-08:00

David Bohm describes in his work (Thought as a system) the genesis of action. He says our actions are a result of thoughts. Nothing spectacular here is it? Well not really.

He separates 'thinking' from 'thought'. When you think about something you do not associate an action with it immediately. It is this thinking which when relegated to the memory, that it becomes a 'thought' which sows seeds of future action.In essence action is largely guided by your memory.

I am reminded of the hit Oscar winning movie 'Crash'. The movie one of my favourites, deals with how we perpetuate prejudices. An Iranian grocery store owner hires a mexican immigrant to fix his door. When the mexican turns up a bill and says his door has not been fixed yet, it needs replacing the bolts, the shopekeeper does not believe him. Instead perpetuates a previous prejudice. He tells himself this immigrant (like the others) is after easy money, is lazy and does not care. When a few vandals loot his store while he's away, he simply connects the dots and assumes the mexican immigrant to be behind this. He thinks, 'there you go he did not fix the door so he could break in and steal' after all this is what they do,the immigrants. He picks a revolver searches him out and gets into a brawl and ends up shooting the mexican's 6 yrd old daughter. As a viewer we get to see that the mexican immigrant was simply doing his job in an honest way. The door indeed needed repair beyond what he had already done. We also get to see how the Iranian was well placed in assuming the mexican as the perpetrator of the crime. It is sad and revealing in many ways. The movie is a series of events which go onto show how we perpetuate a thought and belief and our actions are guided out of it.

Bohm's message ties in with what I have discussed in the past here. We always need to question what motivates our actions. Which learnt thoughts guide them? If action is triggered by memory, can there be genuine action triggered in the moment. Is there such a thing as unguided action. Is that what a painter experiences when he lets his brush and vision take over. When the moment expresses itself , it is not from memory, it is action coming from no thought. Such an action by definition will not conform to established thoughts and ideas. In other words such an action escapes your mind's compulsive need to judge the result. Is this why the worlds most beautiful works of creativity speak to one and all in different ways? Is this what separates inspiration from aspiration?

Think about it !

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-05T14:43:00.000-08:00

It seems to be in style to write about 'Slumdog Millionaire' . For what its worth I'll do my bit of 'blog of mouth publicity'. My wife and me watched a special preview screening yesterday at BFI. While the movie itself was interesting it was especially fun since we had a Q&A session with Danny Boyle after the movie. I have forever been fascinated with how film makers think and approach their creations. My appetite for this has only grown after interacting with him today.

Coming to the movie, while I have been following all the positive hype and news this movie has been creating, I was sceptical about it for multiple reasons. I for one feared a glorified stereotypical take of a western view of India( poverty, elephants, Taj Mahal, snakes and call centres). The promotions showed in all glory the grit and grime of Mumbai slums with all its exploitative and oppressive elements, only to cement my fears further. I am yet to see any accomplished western filmaker depict an Indian story and make it relate to Indian sensibilities. 'Gandhi' the much touted movie comes to mind. While it was a brilliant movie, with excellent performances, I have always come away feeling that it was a factually and clinically correct Indian story with a western heart. Not to miss the stiff upper lip Gandhi played by Ben Kingsley.

So did Boyle quell my fears. Largely a yes with intermittent lapses into the familiar western blind spots (Taj Mahal, call centres). But more importantly I came back with a new view on these kind of ventures. The movie itself starts with a bang. Mumbai slum is smacked right into your face with all its squalor and endless sea of humanity. Its is out there loud and noisy - but captured by probably the most passionately objective view that has ever been seen yet . You squirm at the scenes but you do not loathe it. You sit up and take notice of it, no sorry actually view it with a fresh pair of eyes. If you are an average Indian like me you could possibly sit and wonder at how de-sensitized we are to the wide cross section of life and its stark realities in India. Indian movies are largely aspirational in nature which is fine it its own right. But we could surely help with a more honest look into an objective mirror and see how we look to an outsider. Its not all pretty and but not all hopeless either. And this is where I believe Boyle's strength lies. Amidst all the dirt, sleaze, oppression and destitution successfully emerges a simple and uplifting story of love, romance and spirit of survival. This is where he scores above any other western attempt or probably recent Indian attempts at getting honest and brutal with a human story set in the dusty and starkly relatable backlanes of one of the worlds biggest slums.The story is universal, the setting Indian and it connects with you emotionally.

I absolutely loved how the relationship between Jamal and his brother Salim evolves and in many ways remains unchanged. The kids who essayed the roles as Boyle went on to describe later actually come from the slums. But were no less than any accomplished actor of this age.And what do I say about the music. Rahman has probably not had as much fun as this in years. His background score has been mixed loud and in your face most times. I would infact say it is more in your face than an average Bollywood product these days. Again the movie is set in the early nineties. I loved how he played with all the influences hip hop, R&B, western classical against an Indian theme. If there is anything new age and international about this movie , it is the music. I would open a bottle of champagne if he gets recognized at the Oscars for this score.

All in all the movie has in my opinion a few inconsistencies which like in life you tend to take in its stride since it has a strong emotional connect going for it. When I look back at what I have written here, it also seems my review takes the movie more seriously than the movie does. That is finally what makes it sweeter.

Oh yes and the new revelation of thought: This movie was the closest that a western eye could get to relating an Indian story to an Indian while connecting full on with a western audience. It felt Indian enough to satiate my sceptical side and importantly I will be more open to accepting a non-Indian perspective on Indian reality. It will be short of matching my own, but hey what the hell its a perspective after all. If it connects with me emotionally I am all game. I am a little less possessive of an idea now.

And..yeah Happy New Year, just realised this is my first post for the year !

The One

2008-12-17T00:42:00.000-08:00

I am absolutely amused at all levels . We finally have found 'The One'. (you know if you are a Matrix fan you will not question it).

This is when epic stupidity collided with fuming anger. When people say Bush can't relate to the common man, I am sorry. They don't get it. It doesn't get more basic than this. An angry man steeped with despair, wrath and ridicule meets him straight on at his level, on his grounds, at his terms. Bush touches you in a way very few politicians ever did. You identify with his gross stupidity since that is what you have grown thinking you don't ever want to be. You identify with his dumb brazeness . You've met enough class bullies through your life to pick them out of a crowd. This man doesn't get it.

And in a very strange way he is probably the one of the most positively influential men for our world. He has brought about a clarity to public life and sentiment in a way no other has done. Just being himself and taking those stupid decisions, he has forced equalisation through the polity and people. Would Obama's call for reason and order have resonated so strongly if it wasn't pitched so clearly against the starkly opposite backdrop. To arrive at a new order you need to clearly identify what you are against and then eliminate it. Bush has made it clear to Americans and the world about what will not work anymore. While he will clearly go down in history as the worst American president, he has unwittingly closed a chapter on bad behaviour, and most possibly spawned what will come to be recognized as a the new order in times to come.

..and you've got to give it to him - he has phenomenal reflexes for that age. Maan gaye !

Mind the gap: series 7: I am in you

2008-12-06T04:16:00.000-08:00

What is the one thing that has remained with you
never changed with experience
never changed with time
and you know with certainity
will remain as is

I
I just am
to whom everything else happens
to whom thoughts happen
to whom relationships happen
to whom emotions occur
for whom memory works
by whom the senses are employed

I am
don't complicate it or intellectualise it
I - is that one unrefutable sense that
most certainly exists inspite of everything
What I is not
is your likes, your parents,
your name, your country or your beliefs

I - is
to whom all those labels come about
I exists without any of these
We know 'I' more intimately then anything else.
This I
which I wake up with,sleep with,
to which all descriptions happen is by virture
characterless, stateless and formless
when its defies any description any language can offer
it simply has to be one and the same
whether in me
or in you.

Balance Brained

2008-10-31T07:48:00.001-07:00

..that is what I am supposed to be. basically na yahaan ka..naa wahaan ka !

I took this test on http://web.tickle.com/quizzes/compare/3022 . It goes onto say what your brain looks like and why you are what you are ! My brain came up as Balanced- brained , the explanation for which is below. Now you see the bit which I loved most about was the downside of having this brain type. See below.

That means you are able to draw on the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of your brain, depending upon a given situation. When you need to explain a complicated process to someone, or plan a detailed vacation, the left hemisphere of your brain, which is responsible for your ability to solve problems logically, might kick in. But if you were critiquing an art opening or coming up with an original way to file papers, the right side of your brain, which is responsible for noticing subtle details in things, might take over. While many people have clearly dominant left- or right-brained tendencies, you are able to draw on skills from both hemispheres of your brain. This rare combination makes you a very creative and flexible thinker. The down side to being balanced-brained is that you may sometimes feel paralyzed by indecision when the two hemispheres of your brain are competing to solve a problem in their own unique ways.

How apt..the next time I get hollered at for not making decisions I am pointing people to my brain. Sorry I came defective..! Love the light feeling I get with this..!

Go on ..take the test and tell me what your brain looks like!

Mind the gap: series 6: When asleep am 'I' awake?

2008-10-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Who am I ?
Am I the questioner?
or the one who observes
the birth of the question?
and when I know the answer
will I be interested in it?

And this 'I' - what happens to it when I sleep. when the world as I know, sense and perceive ceases. There is no time. There is no emotion, no continuity, no reference, no state and no memory. How can I spend 8 hrs everyday,1/3rd of my life not knowing I exist? And when I wake up they all come back - time, continuity,emotion, - the mind !

And no I am not seeking a medical explanation,not something that tells me what happens within my brain which causes my eyes to shut and which centre gets activated and deactivated etc .That can at best explain a basic reality in retrospect. It can't explain the primal connection and need to enter into that state called sleep. It can't explain why no wakeful experience can leave you coming out feeling as rested, composed , centred and happy.

Are you and me failing to recognise the obvious?

Mind the gap: Series 5 : Simple truth

2008-10-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

What you are looking for
Is already -
Where you are looking from

God's own killing fields - Indian Temples

2008-10-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

God lately seems to strike when you are doing what you are supposed to be doing - worship Him.Faith any which way you look at it kills people. I realise I am short fusing things for the convenience of a juicy debate. But hear me out.

You could be a bunch of fanatic religious zealots who plant bombs and kill people 'for' religion. Or you could horde up in large queues and get trampled to death by fellow followers 'for' religion.It does not matter, does it? I mean you could argue the former creates more distrust and fragments societies than the other. But I disagree - both of them are anchored around one central human emotion. Fear. One works to instil it the other feeds off it.

Most people I observe put themselves to this 'show' of faith (temple darshan) for 2 reasons:
1. Fear of loosing or not gaining,which could be just about anything. Self preservation.
2. Sound Logic- yes logic,you must wonder how faith and logic come together. Fear actually creates a realm of logic called faith.One which has its own world of cause and effect. I/my family has a spell of ill-luck -my show of reverance should fix it. A wish that came true the last time could be taken away if I do not pay my debt- so I worship the Lord. Every motive clearly centred around a fear with a clear logic connecting cause and effect.But when this show of faith takes what you seem to value most,lives, like you see in Indian temples,don't you beg to reconsider?

Fear drives us in droves to temples. But what actually takes our lives is a simple Indian reality.It takes a casual observation to see that most of the Temples are logistical disasters and death traps waiting to shut. Look at the operating conditions.
-Long, ill-designed one way winding paths often exposed to the elements.
-Slippery surfaces which make the Olympics skating rink look like a walk in the park.

The world richest temple does not escape this either.On my last visit this year to the famed Balaji Tirumala temple (http://www.tirumala.org/), being pushed and shoved around by a mindless crowd over slippery surfaces washed in oil,grime,coconut and rain water,holding onto dear lives,carrying my 3 and 5 yr old sons - seemed normal. I had seen atleast 4 clear moments in the 3 hour ordeal which could've lapsed into a stampede. I had to summon amongst other things a lot of physical strength, brute survival and protection instincts on my part. And I wondered if that is what the Gods desired from us.I take it that such mobbish disposition will prevail in any of the other temples across the country which attracts large crowds.The one emotion that keeps re-surfacing in all such ordeals is that of fear. And no - not the fear I talked of before, its fear for your own life and well being. You are part of a crowd soaked in the fuel of fear, which takes a little aggression(Jodhpur),agitation, rumors(land slide at Naina Devi, Himachal Pradesh),accidents, to light up. And when it erupts its takes down with it any sense of logic and lives, in numbers that far exceed any calculated terrorist outing.

We killed 350 people at the temples already this year. I switched on the TV which showed the gore in full display. Bodies of people like you and me being yanked and piled up by strangers with the least bit of reverence neither to the life that just was nor the place of worship. Faith in the public domain is a show.Which explains why just as the news of 200 dead people at Jodhpur had started sinking in, the next headline which caught my attention was one which said the temple was open the next day and taking in devotees.As much as to say this was God's act and this show (of faith) must go on.Sometimes don't you wonder if God takes our lives a little too lightly. Or do we take them too seriously.

Before I end some numbers to add a perspective
1. Tirupathi temple the richest in the world attracts 60,000 devotees everyday (only second to Rome). That is a staggering 19.2 million people every year.In my opinion it is simply as vulnerable to largescale loss of life as any of the other Indian temples.Its another ticking bomb. We lost 350 people already to temples this year-
2.Now compare this with lets say the London Underground: The tubes shuffle around 2.7Million people 'everyday'. That is a staggering 1Billion ( and entire Indian population) every year. The last time there was a panic attack (London bomb blasts), the loss of life was largely due to the blasts themselves. The crowds did not trample each other to death.

(I wrote this article wearing a hat which reads, I am troubled follower of faith, God exists outside me and needs to be worshipped. I wear this hat today since there is not other way I can broach this topic. That hat is easily removed too and stays removed most times)

Mind the Gap: Series 4: Meditation - what it is NOT !

2008-09-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

I have been reading and writing about mind and its existence as a separate unit from consciousness. There are many ways to observe and experience it. Meditation being one of them. All such techniques and methods aim to do one simple thing - silence the mind chatter. On one of his many such outings, Jiddu talks about this is in rather simple and relatable way.

"[J Krishnamurti:] Do you know anything about meditation? Student: No, Sir.
[Krishnamurti:] But the older people do not know either. They sit in a corner, close their eyes and concentrate, like school boys trying to concentrate on a book. That is not meditation. Meditation is something extraordinary, if you know how to do it. I am going to talk a little about it. First of all, sit very quietly; do not force yourself to sit quietly, but sit or lie down quietly without force of any kind. Do you understand? Then watch your thinking. Watch what you are thinking about. You find you are thinking about your shoes, your saris, what you are going to say, the bird outside to which you listen; follow such thoughts and enquire why each thought arises. Do not try to change your thinking. See why certain thoughts arise in your mind so that you begin to understand the meaning of every thought and feeling without any enforcement. And when a thought arises, do not condemn it, do not say it is right, it is wrong, it is good, it is bad. Just watch it, so that you begin to have a perception, a consciousness which is active in seeing every kind of thought, every kind of feeling. You will know every hidden secret thought, every hidden motive, every feeling, without distortion, without saying it is right, wrong, good or bad. When you look, when you go into thought very very deeply, your mind becomes extraordinarily subtle, alive. No part of the mind is asleep. The mind is completely awake. That is merely the foundation. Then your mind is very quiet. Your whole being becomes very still. Then go through that stillness, deeper, further – that whole process is meditation. Meditation is not to sit in a corner repeating a lot of words; or to think of a picture and go into some wild, ecstatic imaginings. To understand the whole process of your thinking and feeling is to be free from all thought, to be free from all feeling so that your mind, your whole being becomes very quite. And that is also part of life and with that quietness, you can look at the tree, you can look at people, you can look at the sky and the stars. That is the beauty of life."

(Picture: Thanks Nick for letting me use this picture. Nick is a brilliant illustrator and caricaturist. You can see some of his work at http://nickosullivanillustration.blogspot.com/ )

Moo-ment of truth !

2008-09-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

And she asks !why serious !

Tribal Justice !

2008-09-23T06:12:00.001-07:00

When I say India lives in 3 centuries at the same time this is what I mean:

My brother mentions an incident in Gurgaon, where an Italian company Graziano's CEO was beaten up to death by workers who lost jobs recently. In reaction to this I found this rather disturbingly funny government response :
"NEW DELHI: The Government has said that "simmering discontent among the workers" is the main reason behind the death of L K Chaudhary, the CEO of an Italy-based company Graziano, in Greater Noida This should serve as a warning for the managements. It is my appeal to the managements that the workers should be dealt with compassion," Union Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes told reporters at a press conference."

The Lehman Bros disaster is still fresh in mind- images of workers leaving premises in droves with all their office belongings. Loosing jobs can really be so scary. But does it justify the 'tribal justice' we seem to deliver with implicit government support. Really why do we call ourselves a tolerant nation ?

Why Taare Zameen Par is not for the Oscars ?

2008-09-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

I am damn pleased it is chosen for Oscars. Not because I think an Oscar for an Indian film is necessary. More so 'cause our film selection board committe seems to have taken to heart all the criticism that came their way when they picked 'Ekalavya' last year.

But here's why I think TZP will probably not stand a chance:
-1.Oscars are judged by an aging 'western cinema blind' panel: Though the movie's subject is universal, the characters' (especially parents') struggle resonates more with Indian mindset where excessive focus on education and utter neglect of individuality of child is accepted norm.
-2.Diluted theme: TZP was unique in theme for an Indian parent and cine-goer, but as a subject dealing with autism/dyslexia/special needs it will not break barriers with the western panel. There is a far more awareness and acceptance of this issue in the western world for sometime already.
-3. Bollywood blind spot: Bollywood may be the new flavour but it still doesn't cut the mustard with the old world western movie mindset. Excessive melodrama, over the top performances have never been recongnised as art by many in the west. TZP may not the a regular 'bollywood' product in those lines, but it still could come across as a little too melodramatic in treatment.

Oscars will never be a platform for Indian movies in the popular format as we know it. Our movies appeal to different sensibilities and pitch themselves around themes which are too rooted in culture of the land. Having said that will I be pleased if TZP scores ( even a nomination):- A mighty yes ! - and why ?
-For the larger section of people it will serve for good brand building which will only mean positive for Indian movie making.
- Aamir Khan may not need the stamp of approval himself, but a lot more film makers will be inspired to tell more relevant and interesting stories.
- I personally love this movie and Aamir's movie making sensibilities and would not mind any further recognition.

So you see - I love the film but, do not think it is going to the right jury!

Bihar Floods: Natural Equalizer

2008-09-18T07:19:00.002-07:00

A small family with a small 2 bed house in Patna,Bihar has guests from a nearby village Muraliganj. 20 of them,adults and children together. Many of them well educated with 2 adults holding illustrious Ph.D degrees and some retired gentlemen. All of them affluent and moneyed, but today have nothing to show for it.
- Half an hour is what it took. River Kosi flowing along Indo-Nepal border changed course, breached embankment and flooded inlands. Muraliganj was just one small village. 300,000 people lost their homes in under an hour.
- The only time it granted these 20 people was to collect each other intact with their lives. All else that they had persevered for, wealth, education, status, livelihood, were taken away by the waters, cold, swift and 20ft high. Their Ph.D certificates, money, jewellery, clothes, documents of social value, all gone.
- They stood on the same ground next to people whom statistics once called 'below poverty line' and guess what - they could not the trace the line anymore.

They live in this house 1 month later, the river continues to flow furiously in their village, it has changed course for ever. They live on the goodwill of this small family, with humbled egos, forced to start from a starting point that they do not recognise. And to think of it these people are the luckiest of survivors. The majority does not have a roof , food and water, after 1 month.

Nature,life and its humbling ways !
Anger and sadness, what a tragedy, what apathy !

(photo: Ranjeet Kumar, The Hindu, True account I watched on NDTV today)

Mind the gap: series 3: Conscious Mind Map

2008-09-18T07:19:00.001-07:00

Same thoughts and ideas but I choose a different format to write it up today, my good ol flowchart !I really hope there isn't another of its kind now :)

(And I recommend clicking the pic and viewing it full size.)

Where will your money come from next?

2008-09-17T02:58:00.001-07:00

It's real now. We read about the great economic depression in the 30's, the housing market collapse in the UK and Europe in the 80's, and now the world economy is into a recession. Its no longer a debate of whether it will happen. It has hit us, and if you go by the headlines of the last few weeks, hit us real hard. We are living to see a major wealth making dip, times when savings become even dearer, banks trust us lesser, investments in markets dry up, costs increases, businesses with no cash in the bank close down, people loose jobs.Which MBA graduate from a Kellog or an Insead would have ever thought Lehman Bros and chapter 11 would figure in the same sentence?

A quick jot down of thoughts and things to focus on in these times :

-How do individuals prepare for times like this?
-Economies seem to historically go through a 7 year cycle. This is a down which will surely see an up.
- How would you position yourselves in your careers to enjoy a ride up when it does happen?
- Indian economy is far more tightly coupled with the world economy that in the past and will surely experience a knock on effect. Will housing market in India crash? Money has traditionally been more expensive to borrow and will be so in future.
- Are Indian companies making money from non-domestic markets going to be worst hit (Infosys, TCS, etc) ?
- Will we begin to see a spate of mergers and acquisitions in the Indian markets as well?
- Will the Indian middle class consumer who saved for half a century and began learning to spend in the last 10 years, think again?
- Surely there will be new businesses which will be born to cater to the new dynamics of the market? What would your business idea for such a business be?

Power in Fear

2008-09-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

How do people who go onto change lives of millions, influence generations - think?

There aren't many of them in reality. Gandhi being one, Mandela being the another. I speak of them since I have been reading their auto-biographies lately. What they did in their lifetime is common knowledge through print media, movies and they are deeply entrenched into public consciousness even today. What I am also really interested in is their rather human side. Their fears, their moments of doubt, how did they think then, what did they do with their fear? I found the following excerpt from Mandela's 'Long Walk to Freedom' incredibly fascinating. He had just been transported to Robben Island prison to serve his first 5 yr rigorous sentence . He along with 3 other convicts were asked to strip off their clothes and wear them back again soaking wet.

"Two officers entered the room. The less senior of the two was a captain whose name was Gericke. From the start, we could see that he was intent on manhandling us. The captain pointed to Aaron Molete, the youngest of the four of us and a very mild and gentle person, and said, ' Why is your hair so long? It is against regulations. Your hair should have been cut. Why is it long...' and then he paused and turned to look at me , and said, ' ...like this boy's?' pointing at me. I began to speak: 'Now, look here, the length of our hair is determined by the regulations...'

Before I could finish, he shouted in disbelief: ' Never talk to me that way boy ! and began to advance. I was frightened; it is not a pleasant sensation to
know that someone is about to hit you and and you are unable to defend yourself.

When he was just a few feet from me, I said, as firmly as I could, ' If you so much as lay a hand on me, I will take you to the highest court in the land and when I finish with you, you will be as poor as a church mouse.' The moment I began speaking, he paused, and by the end of my speech he was staring at me with astonishment. I was a bit surprised myself. I had been afraid, and spoke not from courage but out of a kind of bravado. At such times, one must put up a bold front despite, what one feels inside."

The officer did not touch Mandela indeed. He was completely taken aback. In a manner so swift and effective Mandela instilled back in him a fear, not so much with the words themselves. It was improbable for a white officer to fear being tried in a white court for beating up a black man. It was fear which came from a 'righteous anger' , something that made him instantly recognise Mandela as an individual with as much rights as himself, not someone whose identity he could rob, the exact thing he was trained to do in prisons.

Mind the Gap: Series 2: How long is your list?

2008-09-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

You do measure your life don't you?In terms on quality of relationships,progress in career,progress in the children's life or the lack of it,money,material gain,ability to influence,behaviour.Some of us may not deliberate on it consciously but surely have a reflection of where we stand on these and it shows up through our daily actions and emotions.In addition to this in most there is a constant effort to keep doing better,improving on one or mix of these facets of life.Do you at any point actually strike any of those from your list because you've achieved what you thought was enough to achieve in that space? If you did,are you left with an increasingly shrinking list of things to chase and pursue in your life.If you are like me then I guess not and I am guessing I am not too alone here !

-Doesn't that leave you with questions on who made that list up for you?
-Why are you chasing them in the first place?
-Are the ones who got them into your head happy today with a much smaller list to deal with?

The inate assumption behind this list is one of happiness, not in the 'now' but in a future state of mind.There is an allure of a better state of mind,happier moment in future which comes from pursuing this list.You are made to accept that all these things when checked off in future will give you a sense of happiness.You may argue some of those are to do with basic needs like sense of security and not happiness persay. I will argue that is to do with happiness as well. You fear 'not acquiring' something or 'loosing something' in future will result in a state of 'unhappiness'. If you think a little further your unconscious assumption is not one of a momentary joy ,but of lasting happiness at the end of that list.

Doesn't that beg more thought on our part? To apply brakes, review the list. Actually go a step further and maybe envisage life without that list.

Most eastern spiritual ideologies stress on 'If there is a moment, it is but Now'. There is no future as much as there is no past.Both are stories projected onto your mental screen retold from memory and simply do not ever exist. I am not typing in the future, I type this in the now as much as you read this Now. If there is a 'real' moment, it is now, not the one that comes from past, not the one you think will come some time later, BUT Now. But that list out there does not have anything for the now. It chases a state of mind which my head tells me is in future. And most times I am not sure I made it up in the first place.

So think about it, what does your list look like? Pick an item which does not have a 'happiness in future' tag attached with it. How many do you come up with and really what would those be?

The secret to a longer life..finally

2008-09-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

1.What are the chances you would get thrown out of a queue for jumping it? Take a guess !!
- Just 10%. A silly 1 out of 10 times.

2.How much of your life do you think is spent queueing up?
- a staggering 4 Yrs.

So here's my take - if you decided to jump queues as a principle, you would earn yourself atleast , hold your breath, 3.6 years of life time to do more interesting things. Like wonder why people were rude to you those 1 out of 10 times and where the world is going to.

Now clearly somebody who did this study forgot to sample 1/5th of the world which resides in the Indian sub-continent. What say you?

http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/09/do-you-challenge-queue-jumpers-and-line.php

The Dark Knight

2008-09-01T14:49:00.001-07:00

You know you've seen something spectacular and lasting at the same time when it comes back to you, long after you've seen it. I am talking of 'The Dark Knight'. Yes it truly lives up to and goes beyond all that hype. No it hasn't been that long since I watched it, just 3 days. But I know this one will last.

Christopher Nolan: Show me the last hollywood blockbuster that did not cater to the unwritten rule, 'if its not for 10 year olds its not in'. This is a comic caper adapted with sheer brilliance and maturity in a way that hasn't been done before. The dark is as striking as the white, but its the grey shades which rule. This is no kids movie. I was warned of its length but I did not tire , I came out and said 'phew' content with awe.

Heath Ledger: You know what, he redefined 'Joker'. I am a big Jack Nicholson fan. But Heath's 'joker' is the definitive one. Put simply he burns the screen with his manic intensity, jolts you out of your senses, makes you want to be him , be evil, real evil and fear it at the sametime. What a tragedy it will be that he died after portraying what will be remembered as one of best screen performances ever.

Above all it will remain with me as a movie that revisits the idea that good and evil are but two sides of all of us. You can but only relate to something if you identify with it. You watch Heath's Joker and identify with his evil in a way that is so primal. You fear it, loathe it, but understand it ,all but so naturally. Makes you wonder how much of evil there is in you !

All my the other favourites Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaall make the bouquet complete. But it is Heath all the way !

Mind the Gap : Series 1

2008-09-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

And she asks why should you try hard to understand consciousness. If its so complex,its not
meant to be understood in the first place , is it?

Simple thoughts on the complex consciousness:

Thoughts stem from your mind. Consciousness doesn't. It is therefore complex if you try to 'understand' it from within the constructs of mind.I'd infact concur consciousness is simple. Thoughts are complex. Thoughts are tricky,slippery,constantly wavering back and forth between past and future, never in the now.To understand why consciousness can be simple, let's describe it as much as possible through the limitations of language and mind. (mine atleast )

Let's do so through some questions:-
-Who is 'I'?
It's not any of your 5 senses. If by an unfortunate accident I loose a sense lets say of hearing.'I' will be aware of a limited range of sense now, but'I' will still exist. As a whole. My body may lie in coma, an extreme form of brain malfunction, but 'I' will be aware of it and will still exist. There is an identification with something we call 'I'. But it doesn't stop there.

When you describe yourself,you can at best be described in words from memory!. IT professional, son, Indian etc all words from memory which tell you facts, ideas of which are defined and built by outside agencies, not by you. You did not describe what it meant to be an 'Indian'. Someone else did, and you accepted the idea. You then choose to use that idea to describe 'I'. With time you learnt to associate these ideas with your identity. How can a mish-mash of such identities, simply repeated from memory be 'I'. I loose my job as an IT professional, but 'I' will still remain. So clearly you can see the duality of existence.

- Where does 'mind' fit in here?
Mind is that mischief maker who spins thoughts. Asks questions like ' who is I'? Uses thoughts to keep things engaged, makes you beleive again through thought that it is all that there is. As Eckhart Tolle very nicely says this -" The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly - you usually don't use it at all. It uses you.This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken over you. You are unconsciously identified with it, so you don't even know you that you are its slave." That's how complex mind makes it all for you.

- What is it that precedes this 'knowledge' of 'I'?
Most importantly, 'you' are not your mind. 'You' precede it, you are someone or something that is aware of it, so therefore can't be it. That fundamental way of being, which is present in the now, completely aware, stateless, free of memory, timeless, with no reference, very simply is, is consciousness.

Can we then experience it? Do we experience it already? Do we need to experience more of it? Is a mind-ful existence pointless then?

(questions are mine,thoughts are yours,no copyright on the answers)

From China, With Love !

2008-08-11T01:10:00.001-07:00

.. Do you want it though..

With that stellar Olympics opening, China made it. 4 billion people watched, China capitalised. Yes the chinese bettered what they were already good at. Extracting discipline out of thousands with a singular aim - to bedazzle. I also suspect to win the hearts.

They left an indelible mark on the world consciousness. You could not ignore them with their economic might until now. But you would not call her a Superpower would you? Afterall, how can she be called that, while she practices communism, scoffs at human rights, threatens decimation of Tibet. The only known superpower today doesnt do that, does she? She but only invades, kills, bullies, misbehaves but does it for democracy, for protection of human rights, in Iraq, in Afghanistan.Oh sure she's still a superpower isnt it !

The day I was a hero - and did not know it !

2008-08-07T08:59:00.001-07:00

Brussels Sud train station, August 10'th 2003,afternoon:

I am standing in a queue, with my brother, waiting to buy a ticket. Off the 8-10 people ahead us, there's an elderly gentleman, possibly in his 60's, mostly of middle eastern origin. I am in deep conversation with my brother. I however notice, the elderly man looking frustrated, his back to us, his body language flighty and unsettled, muttering about the rather longish wait. He perched his laptop case to his left while he turned right to set his walking stick. I am talking to my brother all the while. Amidst the crowd in the hall I notice in my peripheral view a rather brisk movement. I am in deep conversation.

'Thank you, thank you so much', the elderly man thanks me profusely. It then it hit me,I had a rather surreal encounter with myself...rewind a few seconds before..

The brisk movement in the crowd was a thug who had timed his approach towards the elderly man, he saw the elderly man turn to his right, and in as natural a way as possible, bent down picked up what now suddenly seemed like his laptop case, excused himself through the queue and walked past, brisk and confident out of the station. Before I knew I heard myself asking the gentleman if his laptop was gone, he looked to the left and shrieked, before I knew it my feet were sprinting away in the direction of the thug,before I realised my throat was yelling out 'hey you.'..'catch him'...'police'..my feet had taken me onto the sidewalk..the thug came in full view..100m ahead..I yelled louder than before..the crowd around did not react..my feet took me in his direction, single minded. Except 'I' wasn't doing it, 'I' wasn't thinking, my body and actions fell in line for a purpose I had not consciously chosen to chase..

The thug heard me yell..he ran faster..he sensed my increasing pace. He froze for a moment, dropped the case down and ran faster than he ever did in the last few seconds.I picked the case up, ran back to the station and handed it over to the gentleman who was no longer frustrated, but in shock.

'Thank you, thank you so much'. He was relieved.

What just happened hit me then. I was left wondering if I did that.

This incident came back to me today in full force as I picked up on a discussion on Radio 4 to. A listener asks if courage is a quality one is born with? The expert said,yes, but it in many its something that's latent. We only experience its expression when we are put to the test.Its an instinctive reaction which we cannot foresee. It just happens.

My experience with that flight of courage if I can call it that, was anything but 'mine'. It was 'surreal'. To go with the moment mattered ,it acted itself out.

Picture above: One of my my fav MC Escher surreal classics.

Righteous Anger

2008-08-05T03:24:00.000-07:00

Scene:Vote of Confidence motion at Indian Parliament:
Lallu was a star,Rahul Gandhi was earnest.But the one who tore the floor apart with what I call 'righteous anger' was Omar Abdullah. He dealt brutal blows to the head but also won hearts with his sheer passion .He made absolute sense amidst mindless cacophony.I could not but help post his speech below.

SHRI OMAR ABDULLAH (SRINAGAR): Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I think that it is a matter of great misfortune for Parties like mine. … (Interruptions) I do not know whether the Rs. 1 crore that was shown here is genuine or not. But I think that it is extremely unfortunate that if nothing else, this Rs. 1 crore is seeking to buy the silence of Parties like mine who are not being given an opportunity to speak in a correct manner in this House. … (Interruptions)
I have been a Member of this House for 10 years, and I have never disturbed this House in these 10 years. I have sat with them and I have sat on this side, and I have never disrupted a speaker and yet here they do not have the courtesy to listen to what I have to say. … (Interruptions)
I am a Muslim, and I am an Indian. I see no distinction between the two. … (Interruptions) I see no reason why I, as a Muslim, have to fear a deal between India and the United States of America (USA). … (Interruptions) This is a deal between two countries. It is a deal between, we hope, two countries that in the future will be two equals. … (Interruptions)
Sir, the enemies of Indian Muslims are not the Americans, and the enemies of the Indian Muslims are not ‘deals’ like this. The enemies of Indian Muslims are the same enemies that all the poor people of India face, namely, poverty and hunger, unemployment, lack of development and the absence of a voice. It is that we are against, namely, the effort being made to crush our voice. … (Interruptions)
I am not a Member of the UPA, and I do not aspire the Membership of the UPA. But I am extremely unhappy with the way in which my friends in the Left have taken on this self-imposed position of being the certifiers of who is secular and who is not. … (Interruptions)
Until a few years ago, I was a part of the NDA and I was a Minister with them. The same Left people considered me as a political untouchable, and they considered me an outcaste because I was a part of the NDA. Today, the same Left people are telling me that all secular Parties must unite with the BJP to bring down this Government. … (Interruptions)
I made a mistake of standing with them once. I did not resign on the question of Gujarat when my conscience told me to do so, and my conscience has still not forgiven me. I need not make the same mistake again. … (Interruptions)

आप लोग अमरनाथ की बात करते हो, आपने अमरनाथ का आरोप लगाया,…(व्यवधान) आप एक जगह दिखाइए, जहां पर किसी कश्मीरी ने यात्रा के खिलाफ बात की हो, जहां किसी कश्मीरी ने कहा हो कि हमें यात्री नहीं चाहिए, जहां यात्रियों के ऊपर हमला हुआ हो।…(व्यवधान) हमारी जमीन का मुद्दा था, हम अपनी जमीन के लिए लड़े और मरते दम तक अपनी जमीन के लिए लड़ेंगे, लेकिन हम आपकी तरह फिरकापरस्त नहीं हैं।…(व्यवधान) हम आपकी तरह कम्युनल नहीं हैं। हम मस्ज़िद नहीं गिराते और मंदिर भी नहीं गिराते। …(व्यवधान) वहां एक सौ साल से ज्यादा अमरनाथ की यात्रा चलती आ रही है और जब तक कश्मीर में मुसलमान हैं, श्रीनगर और अमरनाथ में आपकी यात्रा चलती रहेगी। …(व्यवधान)
अध्यक्ष महोदय, मैं यह बात दावे के साथ कहना चाहता हूं कि इन लोगों की तरह मेरी सियासत बदलती नहीं है, आज इस तरफ और कल उस तरफ। …(व्यवधान) हमने सेक्यूलर फोर्सेस के साथ हाथ मिलाया है और मिलाते रहेंगे। The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (J&KNC) will vote to support the Motion moved by the Prime Minister. Thank you.

We need more of his ilk.Is he India's answer to Obama?

http://www.youtube,com/watch?v=-mr2Fjw5AoA&feature=related

Low intensity,High impact

2008-07-31T04:18:00.000-07:00

Bomb blasts in Bangalore,Ahmedabad,Surat.

Like me if you are among those for whom bomb blasts are a reality only through news,specifically not having experienced personal loss,- some questions :

-Are you in fear of the danger getting closer to you,to your close ones?
-Do the news reports of devastation make your angry? with whom?
-Do you think this like the others will disappear from news,your conscious recall,and not matter much?
-On hearing the news were your first reactions are about 'who would have done it?' Was it accompanied with a voice which said,i don't think I'll ever know the truth.Are you resigned to the inability of (perception at least) of Indian security forces,police,intelligence to uncover anything useful?
-Consider the size of the country,population and current state of vigilance.Do you think you anything the government can ever do could give you a sense of being safe?
-Are you beginning to accept terrorism as a possible mainstream feature of life in India?

Daddy..A for Apple,B for Blog..I for Information

2008-07-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

......and L for Lots of it !

Moore's law says every 2 years the computing power doubles.Which is twice the amount of processing power at what is observed to be half the price.A simple explanation for why electronics and computing is getting faster,better and cheaper than probably any other facet of modern life.

Anyway that's not the point I am trying to make.Its the impact that this trend has on the amount of accessible information which interests me .Information one has access to at fingertips has exploded exponentially.The media which carry this information have multiplied in numbers,complexity,the internet,blogs,moblogs,social networking,mobile content and the list goes on.There is an obsessive industry out there which beleives I but need that content,not in the books on my shelf, not in the newspapers,but with me, close to me,on my laptop,on my phone,my watch.It will deliver,come what may.

Right information at right time - sure its importance can't be undermined.But too much of it, all the time, how do you cope with it,what do you do with that?This interesting article discusses how our reading habits are experiencing a vast change with this information overload.The average reader today is a 'skimmer' .Its a fallacy that we read less today, its how we process our information that has changed.I'll quote from the link to make this point better,

"But it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking—perhaps even a new sense of the self. “We are not only what we read,” says Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged. "

So prediction time:how 'i' overload I think will shape up and shape some important aspects of our future:

1-The largely scattered information out there will coalesce.Content will not only be delivered,but get interpreted and packaged to make decisions for you.The content will mature to the next level.You will trust it implicitly. And I am not talking of targetted marketing which google,amazon does today.Imagine your own personal portal that you carry with you all the time,just like your wallet,it could be on your laptop,your phone, anything.It will simplify information for you on an ongoing basis,make decisions for you.
2- Decision making in the traditional sense will hence change.Our children for example will not be required to learn common marketplace skills of bargaining while shopping.Decisions will be made on their behalf.The right product will have been chosen.Value for money will be interepreted and trusted.
3- Parent-child,teacher-taught,older-younger equations will experience a sea change.Information is a critical contributor to the power play and authority equations.When both sides have the same information, the balance will shift.The only remaining power instrument which will govern these equations is the difference in emotional maturity.
4- The social ranking will hence experience a knock-on effect.People with higher emotional intelligence will sit higher up the chain.People who delve in emotions,understand them,master them,play with them, will be the new age stars. Movie stars and movie makers are already an increasingly influential tribe than ever before.

What do you think?

Your 5 yr Goal - whom are you kidding?

2008-07-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

Why do I think career planning is overrated?

1.Your plans are subject to multiple variables:
Marco level variables like - economy,technology shifts etc.
Micro level variables like - personal context,health,changes which affect daily functions.You may argue,one needs to plan headroom to absorb changes and variations.Which brings me to the second point,

2.What you can't anticipate is your reaction in future. Be it when things go as planned or when they don't.Your plan is a function of regular feedback from yourself.You observe,learn,unlearn and change as a person over time,and you would simply not be able to predict if the goals you set for yourself would be fine with you in future.

Let's step back a little,why is planning given so much importance?
- It helps build an idea of secure future.One that is predictable on paper and in your imagined world.Importantly it lets you think 'you' are in control.Don't you think it is a forced assumption at some level.

Our lives for most of us can be explained in retrospect.We can trace back the course to events and you could even point at your actions behind some of them.But that in no way gives you a consistent or increasing ability to predict where you will go next.But you still will think you need a plan for it.

If you are among the fortunate you already have or will have a job which takes care of living and sustainence.But are you fortunate enough to be in a career of your choice while doing that?In reality, it is proven most of us go through the struggle of not knowing what we want to do.As we grow older cynicism sets in to deal with this.

So what do I think of all this,
- You can never be too old to admit and accept you haven't figured it out,atleast to yourself.
- You should ideally never be too tired to try something else and see if it works.
- Your life could be a series of trials and that in itself is the story.
- You can plan an action, but not its result.
- Most importantly,

You have only now,you can choose not to measure it,not stress about what it will lead to,but simply live it,fearlessly,like the child does.Years of conditioning to seek predictability would have taken away that ability.It needs some unlearning.

So the next time you are asked your 5 yr goal? What would you say :-)

two steps,no hurry

2008-06-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

two steps a time
walk to me
breathing joy,fuming anger
talk to me

playing to learn
learning to be
not knowing what passing
time is to be

Shine into me
Life aplenty
Unfettered,unflinching
talk to me

waking up to joy
nimble feet,no hurry
take two steps a time
walk to me

time is the space
'tween you and me
two steps to seal it,
come walk to me

Open Doors

2008-06-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Notes from the corporate corridor:

A common people manager refrain I never fail to notice is - 'my doors are always open.'
Invariably they would have spent a good part of the preceding conversation presenting an open,easy going demeanour.Without being suspicious or cynical during that part, I observe how hard they try to stress that they are quite relaxed with structure,hierarchy and authority.What they seem not to notice is that their choice of subject itself stresses areas about control.Clearly it is control that they are trying to explain and in trying to come across as 'liberal' they set up a context of doors,walls, the entire works.If you naturally operated in that manner,it would hardly occur as worthy of a conversation.What do you think?Its like we humans walk and do not talk about it.We however do talk about and dream about flying.

Authority doesn't sit comfortably with many in whom it is entrusted.

Can thought be original ?

2008-06-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

We are creatures of action.Actions stem from thoughts...And Thoughts,how do they come about?

It is so difficult to observe how they originate.You can however observe the genesis of action .The moment you begin to observe thought,you have killed it.So is it genuinely possible to observe its birth and movement?

Would being able to observe it give you clarity and control over its direction?'Conventional wisdom' (very debatable phrase) says your actions reflect your thoughts.And if the actions are predictable,that makes the thought behind them predictable.

Does that mean your thought arises from an established brain pattern?Making you think and act in a similar and hence predictable way everytime.Society,parents,children,friends expect you to be predictable.It defines you for them in a way and is fundamental to how we guage and value emotional maturity.It keeps you safe within confines of social acceptability.

If we are collectively on a path towards better predictability,what about us is really original?How does an original thought feel like,if there is one? If we learn to observe its origin, will we try to control it or will it control us? Or is 'control' irrelevant then?

Fractal Obsession

2008-06-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

Today's fractal - I opened my new gallery of fractal-art here
These things are simply quite addictive. If you are keen on playing with them check this out http://www.chaoscope.org/ .You can download the free software which lets you play and create your own fractal art.

Did Nadal Win ?

2008-06-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

When you are faced with an infalliable opponent,one who stands rock solid in the face an any opposition,one whom you grudgingly admire,one whom you would sweat every day of your life to battle and vanquish.....and suddenly,just like that, you do just that, vanquish him.... is that the victory you've been waiting for? Does it taste sweet?

Sunday's Roland Garros finals between two tennis greats Federer and Nadal got me thinking.Was it a well fought match? I did not think so. Why?

-Was it a well deserved victory? Not a shred of doubt on that.
-Did I root for Nadal? yes the underdog in me did!
-So did I enjoy seeing the tennis genuis in Federer falter?Interestingly -- no !!

While one side of me rooted for the human and emotional package that Nadal is,the other side did not like to see the clinically perfect 'marvel' of sorts go awry either.It felt like your best warrior left for the battlefield with only a memory of his greatness.It was the 'spirit and heart to win' which his enemy brought with him...!

Will it be Wimbledon then? Bjorn Borg thinks it will be Nadal this time at Wimbledon too.
What kind of match do I wish to see-
- Some blood and a full 5 set match,
- Federer wins, but Nadal looses with no regrets.
- Better still, Nadal wins, with Federer at his best. (its time to shake the order up this year)

What about you ?

Fractal Art

2008-06-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

-Math meets Art-
I created my first fractals.And am absolutely thrilled. Yes I created both of these abstract pieces.Click on each picture to enlarge,really recommend it.
I Feel like a kid in a candy store now.

Fractals draw on 'Chaos Theory', a very mathematical theory.I will need some serious help in getting to grips with the theory itself.Right now all I care and enjoy- is how it helps create such fabulous art.

More on fractals and attractors later.

Attractor :Lorenz 48

Stars and Actors

2008-06-02T04:47:00.000-07:00

Today's Web-Grazing pick

'Stars need not be actors. Actors play other people. Stars play themselves.'
- Jerry Pinto , writes for Oulook ,

'A star stares straight into your heart. When she smiles, she smiles for you. When he throws a punch, he aims it at the villain of your choice. This is the difference between even the great actors and the stars. You do not want to be the actor; he only opens a door into someone else's world and shows you how they live and behave and talk and think. You want to be the star; he shows you how you could be the idealised self you carry around in your head. An actor talks to your cerebellum; a star speaks to your reptilian brain.'

Can't agree more !

To catch up with the entire article.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080519&fname=JCol+Jerry+Pinto+%28F%29&sid=1

Fulp Piction

2008-05-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Pulp Fiction, a movie I absolutely did not get when I watched it the first time.And have since watched it atleast half a dozen times...

"As Brett talks, Jules takes out his gun and SHOOTS Roger three times in the chest, BLOWING him out of his chair.

Vince smiles to himself. Jules has got style.

Brett has just sh*t his pants. He's not crying or whimpering,but he's so full of fear, it's as if his body is imploding.

JULES (to Brett)

Oh, I'm sorry. Did that break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that. Please, continue. I believe you were saying something about "best intentions." Brett can't say a word. "

For me pulp fiction is all about absolutely cool characters and with the greatest lines.They take all the time in the world to roll off lines which are thoroughly chewy, sumptiously savoury,and deceivingly banal.Its been quite sometime since I watched it..can feel the growing urge to go grab the DVD...again !

Living Dead !

2008-05-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

You are memory.
Memory of experience,action,result,pain,joy,fear.You are a recorded memory.Your idea of self,is a memory.Memory of ideas which loosely describe you to yourself.If you press hard to describe ,a myriad of words whiz past you -Intelligent,dull,fair,dishonest,christian,hindu,Indian,parents,children.All scrambling to evoke a sense of identity.To 'bring back' and paint a composite idea to describe yourself.And all those fragments of identies are nothing but a memory of an idea.If you assume and accept that, then what is present? Isnt your idea of present a constant re-affirmation of that memory.

Observe it another way.Memory, has no relevance if its not replayed.It stops being counted as memory,becomes forgotten, if it can't be replayed.But isnt memory dead? 'Living memory' is an oxymoron.If it is memory,its a moment gone by,a recorded idea from past, it is dead.

And if your idea of living is replaying that memory,are you then living dead?Are you 'really' living the present?

The Ego Has Landed

2008-05-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

My sons aged 4 and 2, are at a unique stage together. Ansh who is 2 plays with all enviable spontainety one could ever come across. There is very little if any in the form of reflection on his own action.His expression of emotion and action are what I call pure. They seem to come from a state of unbriddled instinct,originate from a need to discover, and very rarely aim to satisfy.A complete absence of internal dialogue.Rushil who is 4 seems to be evolving from a similar state of being. I can pretty much see the painful origin of his sense of 'I'. One that has an internal dialogue with himself. One that seems to confuse him.One that seems to compel him to draw boundaries,push them,fight for them and cry and scream when they don't come his way. The journey of his 'ego' s has begun. It will take years of weathering against a compelling need to self-preserve.His ways,expression of emotion,action will come in for 'grown-up' scrutiny and influence over years.A collective influence which is relfective of 'grown-ups' ' perception of way of life and living it.

Being able to observe this growth and change leaves me thinking constantly. Being one of his biggest influencers, what colors do I want to paint his ever changing and growing canvas with? Or will my biggest influence be in leaving him with the ability to change those colours with ease? Or better, to be able wash all colours away in years to come, to start fresh when its time?

Mind the gap: series 4: Meditation - what it is NOT !

2008-05-25T11:41:00.001-07:00

"[J Krishnamurti:] Do you know anything about meditation?
Student: No, Sir.
Krishnamurti: But the older people do not know either. They sit in a corner, close their eyes and concentrate, like school boys trying to concentrate on a book. That is not meditation. Meditation is something extraordinary, if you know how to do it. I am going to talk a little about it. First of all, sit very quietly; do not force yourself to sit quietly, but sit or lie down quietly without force of any kind. Do you understand? Then watch your thinking. Watch what you are thinking about. You find you are thinking about your shoes, your saris, what you are going to say, the bird outside to which you listen; follow such thoughts and enquire why each thought arises. Do not try to change your thinking. See why certain thoughts arise in your mind so that you begin to understand the meaning of every thought and feeling without any enforcement. And when a thought arises, do not condemn it, do not say it is right, it is wrong, it is good, it is bad. Just watch it, so that you begin to have a perception, a consciousness which is active in seeing every kind of thought, every kind of feeling. You will know every hidden secret thought, every hidden motive, every feeling, without distortion, without saying it is right, wrong, good or bad. When you look, when you go into thought very very deeply, your mind becomes extraordinarily subtle, alive. No part of the mind is asleep. The mind is completely awake. That is merely the foundation. Then your mind is very quiet. Your whole being becomes very still. Then go through that stillness, deeper, further – that whole process is meditation. Meditation is not to sit in a corner repeating a lot of words; or to think of a picture and go into some wild, ecstatic imaginings. To understand the whole process of your thinking and feeling is to be free from all thought, to be free from all feeling so that your mind, your whole being becomes very quite. And that is also part of life and with that quietness, you can look at the tree, you can look at people, you can look at the sky and the stars. That is the beauty of life."

(Picture: Thanks Nick for letting me use this picture. Nick is a brilliant illustrator and caricaturist. You can see some of his work at http://nickosullivanillustration.blogspot.com/ )

Time Foolery ?

2008-05-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

Time is linear...is it?

We can clock an event A followed by event B on a forward moving linear time. How absolute is this time ?We differentiate past,present and future based on a linear sense of time.There is a tacit assumption here that time moves forward all the time. We witness the occurence of event B after the passing of event A. Our brains and some inner sense of time tells us these two events are separated in the realm of time.

Kolers and Grunau, two physiologists conducted some very interesting experiments in the 70's. The 'Colour phi effect' as its known is quite startling when you read it for the first time.

The classic color phi phenomenon experiment involves
- a viewer watching a screen, upon which the two colour spots are projected in succession.
- The first spot is a green dot at the top of the frame. The second one a red dot on the bottom of the frame.
- The spots are shown quickly, in rapid succession,
- When the dots are flashed at a specific rate and physical space - Magic happens -

1.The green spot appears to move from spot 1 to spot 2 and !!!
2.The first spot will begin appear moving, and will then "change color abruptly in the middle of its illusory path".

What does this mean ?
1. Viewer can see a red spot 'before' it is actually flashed ?
2. Do we have a capacity for pre-cognition ? Can we see before time?
3. Or are events actually played back by our brains with some delay?

The ramifications of this study can be many? But importantly they question your concept of linear time.Your ability to comprehend past and future ? Deja Vu anyone ? Does you brain have the capacity to see beyond your present construct of time? If so can it help you see the past? Afterall the notion of 'passing time' is relative isnt it ? From my older post 'Are we directing movies' 2 'clock' hrs spent watching a movie can seem like a 'few' minutes or a f'ew long hours' depending on how your mental clock senses passing of time.

I am absolutely loving 'The Yoga of Time Travel' by Fred Alan Wolf. He explains these above ideas beautifully. Highly recommend this book to anyone interesed in the scientifc approach to questioning linearity of time.

Consciousness - What is it made of?

2008-05-22T08:38:00.001-07:00

When we see an object, signals from our retina travel along nerves as waves of electrically charged ions. When they reach the nerve terminus, the signal jumps to the next nerve via chemical neurotransmitters. The receiving nerve decides whether or not it will fire, based on the number of firing votes it receives from its upstream nerves. In this way, electrical signals are processed in our brain before being transmitted to our body. But where, in all this movement of ions and chemicals, is consciousness? Scientists can find no region or structure in the brain that specializes in conscious thinking. Consciousness remains a mystery.

“Consciousness is what makes us 'human,' Professor McFadden says. “Language, creativity, emotions, spirituality, logical deduction, mental arithmetic, our sense of fairness, truth, ethics, are all inconceivable without consciousness.” But what’s it made of?

-And I wonder, are all those manifestations the only purpose of consciousness?
-Is it possible that our conscious mind is capable of seeing and sensing more than what can be felt and expressed by our 'limited' sensory capacity?

(Prof McFadden ,School of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Surrey in the UK, :www.unisci.com )

Amma

2008-05-21T05:14:00.000-07:00

Its my journey
All my questions
All those moments, real are they

Do I remember this moment
Does its passing mean much
Won't it fade

What escapes me
aches me..as much as
sweet pain of anticipation

If there is a finale
why have a journey
When I am to know I AM

Are we all directing movies?

2008-05-20T03:01:00.000-07:00

I love movies for various reasons. One among them being their ability to spin their independant time warp. A movie that takes you in completely makes time tick at a pace different from your mental clock. In 2 hours you would have willingly suspended your personal state of 'reality'. If the movie is really engrossing, you would infact spend a good part of those 2 hours being completely unaware of your alternative 'real' life. How are we able to see and perceive a completely different context, sense it and live it , completely or partially oblivious to our other state of being. How real is 'real' if it can be wilfully suspended and parked within mental bylanes. Is it then not possible that your 'real' idea of life is another collection of thoughts,ideas,emotions,actions and results that are being constantly projected onto your mental screen. One that you seem to believe as more 'real'. Are we all part of movies of some kind , are we then directing and playing parts in those ? or is someone/something else calling the shots?

As a connected thought, why as children ,movies took us in and engrossed us more, left stronger lasting impressions than they do as grownups. What in children makes them not differentiate alternate states of being? Why is their sense of reality termed in the adult world as fantasy? Do they have a greater capacity to let go-off their self, to accept and not question another context?Why do we seem to loose that ability as we grow up? Why does it seem like children know how to live in the now, live every feeling to the fullest and not measure its expression, to be naturally happy?