Blessings

I used to think that the ability to be happy just by being able to eat heartily and sleep well and the presence of healthy relationships are the only two important blessings that are needed for a good life. Now, I am quite sure that there is another.

To be able to eat, sleep, pee, shit and move around by oneself without needing other's help in old age until death is certainly another blessing that is on par with the first two!

Silent intelligence

Ohhh, for an intelligence that can operate in total silence!!!

Passion

Many who know me know that this is my second most favorite characteristic in a human, after compassion!

One man named Ganesh taught me what it is in my first job. He never spoke of it but lived it. That taught me what passion was. As is the wont of all things related to the heart, passion is communicated from the heart to the heart bypassing the brain. Another man demonstrated it today and has been doing it for a long time. He used the word today and I am absolutely in awe of this man. Sachin!

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, is one of the most famous faces in India known for his outrageous talent and glorious cricketing records over the past 20 years. But, the characteristic I have always admired in him all the time is passion. His passion for the game surpasses everything. Such passion in the belly is extremely awe inspiring. I salute this great player!

How to increase altruism

How to increase altruism in toddlers

This piece of research suggests that toddlers when shown images of a pair of dolls tend to be more 'altruistic'.

Such research activities always tend to give me a sick feeling. Next there will be products in the market that will be designed to 'increase your child's altruistic behavior'! I wonder what A.S.Neill, founder of summerhill, will have to say about this.

Romance killer

Wonder if saying 'Do you want some immunity' would be a good pickup line!!! :P

Kissing was developed to spread germs

I find this kinda reporting / science quite lame. It could be true that kissing could pass on immunity as the news article claims, but concluding that this is the sole purpose of it and hence kissing was developed for this purpose is quite lame!

PS: Thx to Steve for passing on this info through google reader!

Wisdom on happiness

"To Focus on one problem at a time and solving it. To reap the best now from the given time than the future. I can see small drops form a watefall in thoughts of union."

Working with the dying

Working with the dying is like looking into one of those mystery globes that shows ones own future!

Self obsession

Came across this wonderful saying by Shantideva today in the spiritual classic 'Tibetan book of living and dying'* by Sogyal Rinpoche.

If all the harms throughout the world,
And all its fears and sufferings,
All spring from clinging to a self,
What need have I for such a demon?


* Reading this book slowly. Its wonderful but is quite a heavy read. Will post about it separately on another day.

Birth right

'Buddha nature is my birth right!' - Prof Devdas Menon

What profound words!

Stony silence

Tracing the lineage to stones
We are indeed stones
Waiting to join other stones
in a blink of an eye

Being born of stones
We retain features of stones
Like the silence of the stone
in different organs in us

The stony silence of the heart
When transferred to the mind
Allows the mind to be silent like a stone
And permits the heart to blossom like a flower

Then, only the body will join other stones
and the Buddha will remain!

Summerhill

Summerhill - another wonderful book that I read recently.

Its a fabulous book on the author, A.S.Neill's, school in Suffolk, UK. The only rules that the adults in the school make are those that concern the physical safety of the kids. All other rules are made in a democratic manner by voting. The principal has one vote and so does a 7 year old. The children go to classes if they like, learn what they like and play when they like. Any contravention of the rules is also dealt in a democratic manner.

Instinctively we might expect anarchy as there are no rules. But, the author reports, something totally counter to this intuition. Children, he reports, are remarkably sensible to others' requirements and given this freedom to be who they are, develop into the most gentle and sensible adults. Most parents impose their morals, preferences, life choices, idea of a good life etc on kids and prevent them from expressing what comes naturally to them. This leads to individuals who are disturbed in one way or the other. As I read this book, I could see how some of these forces have shaped me and how those repressions in childhood still continue to haunt me.

This is an absolute must read for anyone who plans to have a child in their house anytime in the future :).

In many ways I agree with the philosophy of giving total freedom and this resulting in producing non-neurotic humans. When kids are suppressed from expressing anything in their childhood, they have a non-natural and unhealthy obsession towards it leading to a complicated adult.

But there are a few things that I do not totally agree with. In many aspects, I feel he has made the right start but does not go the complete distance. Especially regarding the issues of neurotic people, there is a lot more to be said and done. But, he stops with providing freedom in childhood. In addition, there seems to be an excessive influence of Freud on him. Almost everything is connected to sexual repression in childhood. For e.g., if a child is interested in a pen, then it is being connected to his penis which he was thwarted from playing with as a child. This could be true in some cases, but he connects almost everything with this.

All in a all, i think he was a fabulous human to have recognized the need for freedom. I personally feel that freedom is the most important thing for any human in his/her life. He has done a fabulous experiment in this regard. I just couldnt put the book down. Read it non stop to finish!

Anatomy of peace

Anatomy of peace - read this book recently. Another gem from Arbinger Insitute. It is kind of a sequel to 'Leadership and self deception'. Delves into the subject more deeply and in a more general setting unlike the previous book. I strongly recommend it.

Pollution in China

Pollution in China - in pictures

Sad sad price of all the development we see!

When will I start taking responsibility for all the indirect violence that I cause? I mean, me throwing a coffee cup in the dustbin is not directly violent but it definitely implies adding to the pollution faced by slum dweller somewhere in India near whose residence would it be burnt! Sometimes it is next to impossible to not use that coffee cup but I find that in more than 90% of circumstances it is avoidable and sadly I tend to slip many times on that! Such reminders provide a renewed vigor to commit myself to be extremely aware of all the garbage I produce.

Self

Self is the highest one can achieve in this world and the highest one can give to another. I feel the search ends when one finds oneself and be with it.

What a life

Connect with words
but do not connect with hearts
Oh, what a life you live!

Understand the truth
but not live it
Oh, what a life you live!

Moving up

As the lower bird moves towards the higher bird, at each stage it is swamped by fear, self-doubt and anxiety. It starts to worry about missing the things in the level it just crossed. But, the experience so far is that it becomes progressively easier and the hope is that the trend continues.

Short stories

Sveta-ketu goes to school from Chandogya upanishad

"... by knowing the nature of one lump of clay, we can know the nature of everything made of clay, can we not? The shapes of other things, such as a pot, a toy elephant, etc., are just names, given to help us talk about them. The reality in them is just the clay, is it not?"

Questions for Anigras from Mundaka upanishad

"Then (after one realizes the supreme truth, Brahman), just as the many rivers flow into the one ocean, losing their names and forms, so the wise person, free from name and body, enters into that Divine Being, higher than the highest. My son, when you know that Brahman, you become that Brahman. You cross beyond all sorrow and evil. You become immortal."

New age Yama & Niyama

Yama & Niyama are the basic moral behavior suggested to the individual in Indian / yogic tradition. I have been thinking that a basic understanding of the functioning of the world - politics, economics and social structure, their consequences and implications should also be included in the list. Otherwise, you might be enlightened, but still be totally lost when it comes to important matters related to the human society. For e.g, here we see Paramahamasa Nithayanada, an enlightened master, uttering fairly nonsensical things that he probably does not really understand.



Nithyananda says in this video recorded in USA (reproduced verbatim)

For a new transformed world, my hope lies with youth, especially NRI (non-residential Indian) youth. If I am asked to create a world newly, (Ill create a world that has) the infrastructure, medical care, roads, bridges, dams, social freedom of the west and, the mental and physical structure of the east. Yogic hardware (body), vedic software (mind) and western infrastructure is the key to a new world order.

As I was hearing this, I just felt, Swamiji, please restrict yourself to things you know and do not venture out into things you do not really understand. Yes, there are many nice things in western infrastructure but all of these have many tonnes of hidden costs. Infrastructure like roads necessarily imply extreme consumption of gasoline leading to pollution and global warming, installation of oppressive and many times very violent regimes in many gulf countries, arbitrary wars to secure supply of gasoline etc. Yes, social freedom in the west is fabulous but the line between social freedom and social apathy is fairly thin. So, many things in western infrastructure has hidden costs. So, blindly appreciating only the positives is not smart! It misses the big picture.

This (a lack of understanding of the functioning of the world) also leads to other issues. A friend of mine was talking about how he saw huge vinyl boards with images of Nithyananda all over Vellore. This has two fold problems. One is that it is propagating a style of personality cult. Nothing to deny Nithyananda's amazing wisdom, but that does not justify a personality cult. Other is the environmental costs of huge vinyl boards is really high and is something that is best avoided. Claiming refuge in saying, my state of being or state of consciousness is at the supreme level and hence I do not have to care about silly things like 'environmental issues' is shere escapism and cannot be condoned. Of course, it is possible that the swami is simply not aware of these things. I do totally understand that it takes a bit of living in the real world as a conventional / unenlightened person to understand/experience its ways.

Hence, my view that a basic understanding of the functioning of the world should be included in the modern version of 'yama and niyama'.

Companionship

The common opinion about why people need companionship is that one cannot be alone (sometimes, it is even worse that people do not even think about it and assume by default they need a companion). People further feel that they are somehow incomplete alone and hence need a partner. By 'feel incomplete' I refer to the feeling people have about being greatly happier and contended if only they have a partner.

The not so common aspect about the relationships is the need to love someone, express affection, express concern etc. By calling this uncommon, I am not saying regular relationships do not have it. Its uncommon in the sense that its not the primary motivating force in most common relationships.

So, when people want a partner because they feel they will be complete only then, there will be a constant trying to fit the partner in a mold, such that the partner fills the incompleteness in them and its next to impossible to find a perfect fit. And this is a cause of unhappy relationships. Some relationships fit approximately, and then people are willing to just go forward with it and live with it. But, then there will still be constant drama - low level to high level.

I think the burden of incompleteness lies with the individual. I feel I should not dump my feeling of incompleteness on someone else and that I should fix myself first. I should put myself through rehab and cure myself of this perceived incompleteness. Then, when I get into a relationship, Ill be able to love the person totally without any requirement of me to get the other person to fill an emotional incompleteness in me. I feel, such a couple, where the partners are both not trying to get the other person to fill an emotional incompleteness in them are the primordial couple - Shiva and Parvathi.

A beautiful cartoon about the same topic - Missing piece meets the big O


PS: Post copied from a google chat and hence sentences might appear a bit odd :)

Rehabilitation

I finally have the words to describe what I have been doing for the past 2.5 years (though I didnt always think about it that way). The word is rehabilitation! I have been rehabilitating myself from being an automaton. The automaton was programmed to:

• Work for the success of 'partha'
• Want others to consider 'partha' kind
• Compulsively desire praise / acknowledgment from others
  
• Compulsively think
• Fear for the the future of 'partha'
• Run away from all the violence in the world
• Masquerade all of its actions so that its presence is not detected
  

I am happy I detected it and that I made some progress in releasing myself from its grip. I am happy to share this journey with you and if you are doing something similar, would love to hear it from you too!