This article is about perception and mindfulness. Supermoons and the Moon Illusions Have you seen a moon so big that it almost fill a half of the sky and you cannot take your eyes away from it? Then what you have observed must be a super moon. Scientifically speaking a supermoon occurs when the moon is travelling closest to earth, and it is a full moon at the same time. Out of all the 12-13 full moons per year 2or 3 can be super moons. However, there is another phenomenon which makes the full moon appear bigger. For that matter even the sun appears bigger, when it is the golden hour . When it is near the horizon. That is called moon illusion. The theory behind this observation is fascinating. One popular explanation is the relative size hypothesis. When the moon is at the horizon, it is seen against the trees and buildings far away, and our minds perceive this as the moon is bigger than when it is relatively isolated in the mid sky. If you look at the following illustration it captures essence of this idea. Which is called Ebbinghaus Illusion. Ebbinghaus Illusion- The moon on the right appear bigger although it is the same size as the left I am sure, you have tried to capture such a moon and once you take the photo, it doesn't appear so big. Infact the moon which you have caputred may even seem relatively small. And I am sure you stopped trying to capture this and just look at the moon again to experience it. But photographers who are experience do know how to make this optical illusion, and with their gigantic cameras they zoom in so the moon is visible massive against the buildings and trees far away. Another way to break the illusion is to look at it upside down. We are so much used to see the world in correct orientation that the illusion only happens when we are in our natural position. Which means standing from our legs. Yet if you turn around upside down the illusion breaks as the data on distance is valueless, in this position, as we are not used to it. And this is the main entry to the following discussion. Golden hour : https://unsplash.com/@maazphotography Upside down world. Previously I have written about upside down view of the world and how, this unique perspective makes us to percieve the world different. We are so much used to what is called normal, that a man is not a man to us if we see a picture of a man upside down. We are thinking so much to our capabilities that we are proud that we can drive and we know the roads. But, I am sure nobody has driven a car upside down. The other day when I drive I noticed that even for a fraction of a second if I tilt my head, the car will drift towards the edge of the road. Surely I can drive, but I can drive only in vertical orientation! Well, that hurts my ego a little bit. You can say a Jet Pilot can do that, and a rider on a cycle in the carnival, in the Wall of death, can do it. But it is not possible, unless you train specifically to do that. This is why driving reverse in high speed is almost impossible for most of us. It is just another perspective of the world through a mirror. I can give you loads and loads of examples of the relative nature of things that we see, but let's not exhaust ourselves. Instead, I will add to the story of colors another day. Here will I summarise the importance of our observation. The wheel of Joy: https://unsplash.com/@hannahmorgan7 Mindfulness. As you can see, the things we consider true in the world sometimes, appear different when we change our perspective. Like looking upside down to the moon, or driving a car in reverse. Even the act of closing your eyes for a period of time as illustrated by the blind person's world . However, in each case we cannot argue what we see is not real. The question is how come the moon be so big and not so big at the same time? What is correct? Which one is real and which one is the illusion? If one is taken as real, the other should be wrong. If the world with our eyes open is with colors real, then the world when your eyes close must be false. If the eyes closed world is real then eyes open world must be wrong. Only way around this problem as I can see is to consider both are relative. Both of the world upside down and correct side up and countless others in the past and each and every consciousness are just relative worlds. And the real quesion is can we ever grasp the reality through this momentary relative world?

Background: plot of crime and punishment (This is not essential to understand the crime and punishment) Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment dives into the psychological and moral descent of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished student in 19th-century St. Petersburg. Driven by a nihilistic philosophy that justifies killing for the greater good, Raskolnikov murders a greedy pawnbroker but also accidentally kills her innocent sister. Haunted by guilt and paranoia, he faces the relentless scrutiny of the perceptive investigator Porfiry Petrovich. Ultimately, driven to the brink of madness, Raskolnikov confesses to his crime. Through suffering, imprisonment, and the love of Sonya, a devout Christian woman, he embarks on a long and arduous journey towards redemption and acceptance of his punishment. The novel explores profound themes of good and evil, the psychological impact of crime, social injustice, and the enduring power of faith and human redemption. Crime: https://unsplash.com/@nampoh What is a crime, and what is punishment? Well, you can say anything you do against the law is a crime. But as you can see in any court, we have to prove a true crime is committed without doubt. And mind you lawyers of either side would argue that a true crime has never been committed, which even can be taken as true. Imagine a true faithful friend of yours, committed a crime in front of you. And you witnessed this. He is a very good friend. Except for this crime. He had saved your life countless times, and you know he regret this day he had committed this crime. And confessed will never do it again, and you have no reason not to believe. Now after years and years later, both of you are in court. And you on the witness stand swear to tell truth, nothing but truth . And the lawyer questioned you whether you have seen your friend commit this crime or not. And you choose to lie. And your friend walks free as there is no other eyewitness and no punishment given. It seems obvious that justice has not served, and you committed a crime by not saying the truth. The question is when did your crime occur? Following discussion about this crime is purely hypothetical and there is no intention to attack normal laws and moral grounds of an ethical society, yet to deepen our knowledge about the world that we live in mindfully. Crime and Punishment : https://unsplash.com/@lorencutler Roots of the crime It seems obvious a crime had occurred when you choose to lie, in front of the court. And you will definitely be prosecuted if a third person had taken photographs of you there when the crime occurred. In this case you will do a crime against the one who is disadvantaged because of your friends' deeds. And to the society which demands justice. Now imagine you decide to tell the truth. And help the system to prosecute your friend. Despite knowing that he had followed the good behavior and kept his promise of not committing another crime. Yes, you are free from a crime against the society. Yet this time you have the guilt towards your good friend. You have broken that trust and the promise to keep a secret. Surely there will be only two people happy if you lied, and many will be happy if you tell the truth. But as you can see nobody in the other side has the obligation of yours towards your friend. In fact, as you can see a court is a place where humans judge other humans. We artificially frame it as law. Basically, what you have done is become the judge yourself. Why can anyone argue that is not good. After all, the actions of your friend were irreversible. Yet he has been better since then? Nobody cried after the crime. This also leaves the question when did the true crime occur. Is it at the time you decided to lie in the court? Or is it all the years you decided to keep it a secret? If the latter is true, then what about the times you even did not think about it consciously? What about the times you were sleeping? Obviously, there is something wrong when we argue in this way. We cannot exactly pinpoint where it is. Justice : https://unsplash.com/@snappint But there is a place where we can exactly point out. And that is the time you were witnessing your friend. I'm going to tell you what happened in detail. And trust me it is interesting. First you saw your friend and you identified him as your friend. And you judged him a good friend. Then you saw his action, and against the norms of the society you judged his action as a crime. Next you weight his crime against his confession and made a decision to keep a secret. And someone can argue that is the true crime. The true crime occurred when you judged something you observed. Every time when we judge things, we value against our likings. Or the likings of the society. Yet, the observations are neutral. I can give you a simple example from the nature. Understanding punishment Imagine you see a snake, trying reach chicks in a bird nest? What will you do? If you save the Chicks, good you will do good to the birds and mind you these birds will eat plenty of butterflies in the future. And also, the poor snake will have to go hungry another day, and its unborn eggs will not get nutrients. If you do nothing great, the snake will eat the chicks alive. And I am sure it will come as a nightmare to you that you did do nothing. Of course you let yourself witness a nature's crime. And kept silent? You will be prosecuted or pardoned as the snake is your friend? Can you see the problem? Either way you are at nowhere when you consider your moral obligation. How can you get away from this problem? Now you can understand when I say this is the meaning of " Sisyphean suffering of rolling the perpetual wheel of self" Punishment occurs exact moment you value something. As the pain from negative values, and as the risk of losing from a positive value. What is real is another reflection : https://unsplash.com/@puregeorgia Mindfulness solution And to understand it, we have to be knowledgeable about our mind. True mindfulness lets us to see it different. What you observed in the snake and bird was something neutral. The problem only occurred when we judge it and give it a value according to our parameters. And it has nothing to do with saving or not saving either. The witnessing is not the true crime. True crime is not knowing what you witnessed. Not knowing what you witnessed is a just a frame, an instance of a continuous universal function of nature which has no meaning. Here I will stop the discussion and divert you to my article on guillotine of Crabs to show you how to apply this wisdom in a practical setup. Thank you taking your time to read this mind clogging crap 😀 Five sentence Summary: Crime occurs when we Judge something, witnessing is not the crime Positive values create happiness, risk of losing is the punishment Negative values create sadness which is the punishment Solution is not to judge, leave it as valueless at the level of observation Mindfulness is the key, which is another valueless observation.

The Merchant and His son Once upon a time there was a wealthy merchant. He was rich beyond imagination. But nobody knew where his wealth came from Like the Count of Monte Cristo. He lived in a mansion in a vast land which was so big, that it extended either side as eyes can see. As everyone with a life, his life approached zero . Awaiting inevitable he wanted to give his wealth to his only son. His son however was a little egoic arrogant idiot. After all he was the rich kid. Yet, the merchant did not want to make him prouder of so much wealth. Near his death, he whispered into his son's ears, on his last breath. Mansion: https://unsplash.com/@mitchel3uo "Listen to me son, listen to me carefully. I think you are worth to have all my wealth. I have hidden it in my land. Don't tell this secret to anyone. " The son was eager. And the merchant continued. "So, to get this wealth you have to go to the right-hand side entrance to the palace, with a bow and arrow. And from there you have to drop an arrow facing East. You will find my wealth where the arrow is fallen." And after revealing his secret the merchant died. With dreams of becoming a wealthy man, his son started to search for merchant's wealth. Even before his funeral! He went to the right-wing entrance of the mansion with his bow, faced east and shot an arrow. It flew past the fence and tree line into the barren land. He started to dig, with his men. They dug for days, so deep a hole that it started to fill with water. But there was no treasure. He became desperate and came back to the entrance and shot another arrow. He dug a hole and yet again found no hidden treasure. He dug his land like a mad man. Day after day month after month and within few months, he did not have money to pay for his workers. He sold pieces of land. One by one, for even cheap prize as he thought he would find the treasure one day. Yet he did not. And after some years, only thing left was his father's old mansion. He was seen often in local taverns, cursing the wise merchant for ruining his life. His secret was no secret no more, as everyone knew there was no hidden treasure. One day a wise young merchant came to town for some business. And he met the Drunkard son of the wise deceased merchant at the tavern. Knowing he is wealthy, merchant's son wanted to sell the old mansion to this new guy. After discussing the deeds, inspecting the property. Young merchant agreed and closed the deal. He well knew the old merchant, who was wise was never a liar. So, he wanted to try his luck. By that time everyone in the town knew about the story of bow and arrow. Bow and arrow: With a new bow and arrow the wise merchant went to the right wing of the mansion; he faced east and dropped his arrow. And it fell right between his feet! And that was the only place that there was no hole, as far as he could see were mines! He started to dig the entrance and soon found a secret door to underground tunnel, where the old merchant's wealth was hidden. And this wise man, wasn't greedy at all. He gave what the arrogant son deserved and helped him to be better of himself. Mindfulness wisdom from the Story of the Merchant For someone story of the merchant can be about being wise. You can ask a kid to be wise like the new merchant and be clever. You can ask a kid to not to become like a grumpy son of the old merchant. Yet there is more deeper meaning to the story. I think this second meaning have practical value to the mindfulness. Remind what the old man said. He said, "When you are at the correct place drop the arrow. And find your fortune." Drop the Arrow to find the Gold: https://unsplash.com/@sharonmccutcheon In mindfulness practice we tend to carry information that we gather from master's and teachers, dig ourselves holes everywhere in our gardens. If we compare the information sphere to the arrow, to know the truth, to gain wisdom we have to drop everything we have learnt. Drop the past, drop the future, and investigate the so called now. The one who looks outside dreams one who looks inside awakens , yet again. You might have read previous articles in this blog, maybe this is your first. If I tell you that, everything in this blog is not going to give you wisdom, and in a way is a web of lies, that wouldn't be a lie either (this doesn't mean it is not helpful in anyway). As always you have to drop and look at yourself. And for the one who drops everything, there is a prize. And true prize of nothingness will be there.

Most important asset a man has is his set of problems. Passenger on Duality of nature Well, you only need the light when it's burning low Only miss the Sun when it starts to snow Only know you love her when you let her go Only know you've been high when you're feeling low Only hate the road when you're missing home Only know you love her when you let her go Only miss the Sun when it starts to snow Hunting a meaning in life. Have you ever thought what is the most important thing in your life? You may have, and if you haven't you can just do that now. Write down five or ten or one, most important thing in your life? And I would say that is the biggest problem in your life. And the answers are variable. For a mother it can be her kid. For a singer it can be his biggest hit. For a astronomer it can be a memory of earth seen from space station, or his space suit. For a student it can be the final year grade. Mental or physical, it is a thing . And what is common to all these things? When we look at this with mindfulness we can understand, this is the most important problem in our lives. First we need to gain this most important thing. Once we gain we need to maintain this. Sometimes gain is hard, sometimes maintain is hard. Yet we do not even feel this is a problem as we are so much attached to this one thing and even thinking about it gives us pleasure. So if someone asked what is the most important thing in your life, and you have an answer I want you to know that is your biggest problem. Negative or positive Frame doesn't matter You may ask me why? Why we should frame this thing with negativity? Why we cannot frame this with positivity. Yes we can, and there is no harm doing it. Problems are positive things. Even sadness and horror is a genere on its own. We enjoy (but call it empathy) watching california fires . And horrible floods watching people being washed away. We do watch brutal crimes being commited. Why? Are we insane? No, we need to identify things, we need information, we crave new experience, and problems provide us opportunity. Identifying things itself is a plesure on its own. Perspective of life A world without problems is boring i.e. most important thing in life is your problems Case of a Prisoner Imagine a prisoner . That is someone with no problems. Literally, he is given food. A place to live. Nothing to do. And for someone who is constantly used to stimulation of problems, it is going to hurt so much. He is going to suffer only because he is loving his problems in outside world. Someone can say it is freedom that he is lacking. But imagine for some reason you put a monk, or a yogi in prison? Is he going to suffer? I don't think so. He is used to live without problems, so a prison is not going to hurt this man. There is nothing to explore. No information. Just bare self. Can you imagine what will happen if you are given immortality ? I bet being in a prison would be better. Case of a film Imagine you start to watch a film. Action animation drama. Any genera for that matter. If you look at this from a back I can say every film starts with characters, and in the begining they start to face a problem. A ****g big problem that you and me might never face in our lives. And they struggle with this problem for 125 minutes and finally they either win or lose. And guess what the film ends there. There is no enthusiasm for anyone to continue another half an hour of their normal lives. It is the problem made the film watchable. Imagine someone make a movie about normal two hours of your life. Do you think it is going to make box office? It would if you cracked 3n+1 during that hour. But I bet you would not 😁 Case of a mother. Lets say you are a newly married or a parent. And you expect a baby. You wish to make this kid help him herself to become successful beyond imagination. Lets say you want him to be an actor. And there would be lots of difficulties and milestones. You have to cry and laugh the entire 20-25 year journey. And you may or may not be successful. Lets assume you did. You did make your son the most attractive successful person you wish him to become.  Now lets go back to the day your son was born. And a fairy appeared in front of you and grant you a wish. You can either go through all the trouble of 20 years of painful endurance of life's hardships or she can just give you end product now! She can drop you from that moment directly to the place where you are successful at the end.  If you are an athlete you can imagine you are given a chance to have the medal on the podium, but you wouldn't have the memory of how you ended up there. Will that make you happy?  I think maybe a little but as you can see, it reduces the value. Although we think that the plesure is in the goal, really speaking plesure is in the hardships, or in your problems. This again is evidence most important things you have currently in your asset basket is your problems. Not the money or the Mortgage. flood Fundementals of problems. I am not going detals of how the fundamentals of problems are created. That is why the blog. This whole effort of my past year is to let you understand fundementals of your problems. But, if I put it in a one scentence it would be following.  Begining of any problem is identification of its variables. Mindfulness is the investigation of self for us to understand how it really happens in real time. Some fundamentals of this process is duality of nature , objects of mind , and values .

What is procrastination? I confess, I am a procrastinator myself. Then I learned mindfulness and knew I do not have to be. So If I would be brutally honest, and you wants the truth I would say there is nothing called procrastination. There is no thing as such when we look at the world with dr Seuss eyes, as an example what you felt yesterday about postponing your work was, procrastination number 43278 and today it is 43279 it is not even the same feeling and not a little bit of yesterdays procrastination is there today. Have you thought about this? If you really want to pull out the procrastination tree from your garden, it will be a long journey of self discovery to its roots through mindfulness, which might take years. But we do not have to do that, as I am going to tell you one important fact to beat the procastination. For this we can stick to the norms and we can assume there is a thing called procrastination and your are stuck with this. Let's start with why? How to eat a Frog? : https://unsplash.com/@pookadook How to eat our 🐸 frogs? I can remember when I read the book by Brian Tracy About eating the frogs. The concept is, if your tasks are frogs which you are procrastinating about, you should eat them. They are not going to be tasty I know. You should swallow it whole like a snake, first thing in the morning when you are at your most productive self. Just like me now. And you should not even think about it. And once you swallow your biggest toad rest would be easy. And there are hundred odd tips in the book for you to try. Patagotitan Mayorum But over the years due to chronic procrastination my toads have grown into  African Bullfrogs. Like  little bison calves, and I am sure its going to hurt if I tried to swallow them. Then I thought, why I should eat frogs. I am not a f**** lizard. Maybe I am just a herbivorous innocent deer. Did you go to a safari lately? Even herbivorous animals grow into gigantic size. There is potential to growth, even if you do not eat toads everyday. You can grow into a Patagotitan mayorum, a huge dinosaur that they discovered in 2014 just by eating grass and leaves . And that is the wisdom I gained by reading the book. Its not about eating toads, 😕 when you do not like it, but asking the question whether you are carnivorous or herbivorous. The main reason for anyone to procrastinate is that they are inherently disgusting. Like frogs. And also you are not a snake! There are so many tasks that you do not procrastinate. Atleast in your mind you know what you can eat! It doesn't matter it is grass or honey or leaves that your prefer than toads. You have to start doing that instead of trying to eat frogs. Imagine anyone doing something they do not like inherently, and they are going to suffer. If a teacher doesn't like to teach shes going to procrastinate. That doesn't mean she is not procastinating on writing a poem and reading. She wouldn't procrastinate if she was in a library! Herbivorous: https://unsplash.com/@sgreer How to defeat Procrastination mindfulness way. There was a nice post shared on this subject sometime ago. And it was about our education which ask us to climb trees when all of us are not monkeys. Some of us can fly, some of us can swim, some can run and some can just think. If we all race to mars nobody would be here to drive us to work. So if procrastination is a problem for you lately, I suggest you contemplate your life holistically. Maybe a walk on the beach and a dopamine detox would help you to just do that. Imagine the progress we can gain if we are in just optimal place which suits our character. And that will end the endless hours wasted addicted to our screens. That is the secret to defeat procrastination mindfully. Question is are you ready to eat your bullfrog? Or you want to throw that away?

How to tune a Violin? Before coming into creativity let's observe how a violin is tuned. I have to confess, I do not play violin. Not because I like to, but because I cannot. The ability to create music is not in my bones. However, I have tried to play a violin and observed how experts do it, on and off stage. Before playing in the finest orchestra, violinist first tune their instrument. They adjust the tension in the strings by tightening the nuts. Not too tight, or not too loose, they repeatedly check the note while doing this. And until everything sounds perfect. The violin: https://unsplash.com/@xingchenyan Not too tight, not too loose. Is the mantra, that anyone who needs to be creative should focus on. Infact there are so many examples I can give you on being moderate in effort. Imagine a painter, drawing a master art. There are plenty of videos online nowadays. More than art, the process of creating an art is fascinating. And one thing to note is, the moderation in effort. Even the grip of the brush, even the brush strokes, are not tight. Not too light. Effort is optimal. Even when cycling, if you ask Tadej Pogačar how he won the Tour de France this year, he will tell it is the moderation of effort which won him the title. Not at all about the last-minute sprint. It sure does matter final few seconds, but as you can see, to get to the point to be in top at least to give it a shot, someone have to be endured hardships and preserve energy. Life is a marathon, and you do not have to win every stage. Have you seen, players in Olympic games , they inhale and exhale deeply before even step on the sprinting for a long jump. They calm themselves down. Have you seen, snipers when they shoot, they inhale and exhale and take a deep breath and calm themselves down, before they pull the trigger. I am sure these are not the only ones. There are many more examples, where we can learn from, that it is not at all about maximum effort. Not always. Tour de France Let's get back to our problems of how to be creative. Have you not found your creative spark lately? The life feels boring, and you just even do not want to do it anymore? Maybe, your effort is not optimal. If you had been trying so hard previously maybe it is time to slow down a little bit. Time to take a deep breath and contemplate your life. Time to go to beach, or on a vacation, to empty the clogged-up mind. And while there just listen to it without trying to extract meaning so hard. If you watch long enough, you will empty your cup, that there will be enough space for new creative ideas to sweep in. Maybe it is time to do what you have postponed doing so long. I am not sure what it is, but you know exactly. For me it may be going to the movies, or stopping the car by the road and walk, reading a book, or looking at the sky with a blank mind. Something which is opposite of being productive yet will be so productive when you keep mindfulness as your friend. Obviously, answers to your complex problems, can be really there in the coffee cup. Or in a dirty pile of garbage . Maybe if you are just mindful your intuition will grow, like the wisdom in a fruit salad. Wisdom in Strawberry: https://unsplash.com/@philippe_collard Your willingness to be creative will work around the clock in the background and you will strongly come back for another productive day. Even if not, you will be wiser about yourself. Really speaking nobody knows where our creative intuitions are coming from. And if you fail to find the creative spark, maybe you are looking in the wrong place. And mindfulness will let you know what to do next, trust me as a friend and just listen.

What is intuition - definition? Intuition is the ability to understand or know something immediately, without conscious reasoning or explanation. Does it really work? You may ask, and if it does how? 9/11 We all have heard about miracles happening all around the world from time to time. In fact, it is not very uncommon. In times of 9/11 attacks after the initial chaos calmed down, we started to hear the stories of some lives which were saved that day. Some, who worked in the World Trade center, did not go to work just because they felt like not going. And it saved their lives while all the others did perish. WTC: https://unsplash.com/@karmy Flight 1549 If you have watched the movie about Captain Sully and his famous landing Airbus A320 in Hudson River, I am sure you should have appreciated the intuition more than you think. He had sudden emergency of losing both of his engines of the aircraft within few seconds of a bird strike, and intuitively he has decided to land on the Hudson River in the middle of the winter. And Guess what? He has saved all the lives on board and had become a national Hero. What would have happened if he started to self-doubt and calculate all the risks and benefits of landing on the Hudson River vs desperately trying to land in a runaway? Lamborghini Imagine you are going to buy a new car. And you go to the car sale, and you buy a brand-new car, the model that you are most keen on buying. Your friend chose just the car next to you, same brand, almost same number, maybe those two cars spent their entire lives from factory to the yard beside each other. Yet, after driving same amount of distance for a one year, your friend's car starts to give trouble, and spending time and money to be in the garage more often than necessary, while yours is working in tip top condition without any trouble. If we look at the latter scenario, we know that the same intuition which brought happiness to you have brought unhappiness and trouble to your friend. Yet how can we really know why intuition works that way? Lamborghini: https://unsplash.com/@craventure How or can we ever harvest the power of such intuition for our advantage? I would say this is another billion-dollar question. Before we know how to use, we have to know how it works. Here, our little mindfulness wisdom comes into play. Previously I have written on reasons beyond reasons, in the article why we should start with why . Where I have explained some simple observations of life are really bound by countless causes which happened before them and still happening around them. Science have really explored some of immediate and obvious causes yet knowing everything is impossible. Why intuition happens? As an example, we can tell that apple fell to the ground because of the gravity, after its released from the apple tree. But Why gravity? Why apple? Why tree? Why it is an apple tree? If there was a banana tree apple would never fall. So not having a banana tree there is also a cause for an apple to fall on the ground. On the other hand, having a witness to the falling apple is also a reason. Hence, nobody can ever list out all the reasons for a simple observation we make about the outside world. Yet we can say it is countless reasons. And nobody would ever know all the reasons. And that is exactly how the intuition if happens, happens. The reasons for intuitions are never known. Someone can say it is fate, someone would say its Luck, or bad luck if it is negative intuition. But the reasons are unknown. Unknown Reasons: https://unsplash.com/@jessica_anderson Harvesting intuition? So, if the reasons of intuition are unknown, how can we ever harvest the power of it? Can we just attract it by saying a positive mantra throughout the day? Is that what is suggested by the Law of attraction? To pray for things to happen. I can stuff you with hundreds of positive quotes here, like a puffed-up toy panda. Yet, I would not do that, as I want your intuition to focus more on peace , than success in life. Infact, I think a better way is to be mindful. To be aware and understand the fluctuating nature of life. Notice the life carries on even when bad luck happens, and good luck seems to be far away. There is space for laughter and peace even when intuition works and not. And that would be a better attitude towards a meaningful life .

“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.” Albert Camus What is a Greenstick? If you had been a product of nature, I am sure you know about greensticks. We used to play with sticks when we were kids. When you want a stick, you break a one from a bush. That is easy, unless it is a greenstick. When you try to break these young sticks, they do not break straight away. They just crack and bend but strongly attached to the rest with some fibers still. Often to break it completely you need to twist it and repeatedly bend. Why do greensticks do not break? If you compare a greenstick to a mature branch, you will notice that is due to its consistency. Mature sticks are stronger, but their tensile strength is less. They tend to work better with compression forces but when tension applied, they just snap. I am sure there are many more reasons, and mechanisms behind this however that is not the objective of this article. Objective of this article is to notice the difference of mature stick to a greenstick. Greensticks https://unsplash.com/@jacobbrog What else are greensticks? Just like young greensticks, young children are also greensticks. They are having bones inside them, still growing. These bones are not mature, different in consistency than adults, hence they behave like greensticks when applied forces. If a long bone of a forearm of a child is forced to bend in a fall, it might just get a so called "Greenstick fracture". And it is exactly like what happens with greensticks in nature. It just cracks on one side but bends on the other, And fractured parts not completely separated from each other. So, these fractures need minimal interventions in healing. "Blessed are the hearts that can bend (Greensticks), they shall never be broken" As you can see although Albert Camus do not talk about greensticks you can appreciate the similarity. If something is bendable it is less likely to fracture. Not only greensticks, but it is also evident when we recently experienced hurricane Milton . The bendable trees did withstand the force of nature while more rigid ones had no choice but to go down. If you would ask an engineer, he would explain how they build these skyscrapers, to withstand wind, and earthquakes, without snapping in the middle which otherwise would be a disaster if happened. "Blessed are the hearts that can bend, they shall never be broken". This is the wisdom of Albert Camus, on greensticks. Maybe he is referring to the hearts of children. But I would say otherwise, more likely he is referring to hearts "like" children. They have ability to bend, on command, to anyone. They are blessed. And shall never be broken because of inherent resistance it provides against tensile strengths of nature. Just like young bones of growing children, they might make a greenstick fracture, but would heal without a problem, with just rest and good direction. I can understand many meanings from the quote, and each is equally possible when we consider. Maybe it is empathy that he is referring to, or down to earth nature l ike a bamboo. Maybe it is nature of someone to follow in a flow . Maybe it is accepting the nature and be at peace . And for each one of us I am sure it means many things. But everything means something good not bad. Bend https://unsplash.com/@davidhofmann How can we be greensticks? There can be many ways, but one is to observe greensticks. Meaning observing the nature. Using mindfulness as a tool we can observe nature day in and day out. And try to understand our world and ourselves and realize the incredible capacity of the " Lump of clay " which we call ourselves. Then day by day I am sure we will start to feel like greensticks against forces of nature, until we become so greenstick that we would be called "Water" and start to take the shape of every cup that life has to offer. And we will blend with nature, or more correctly speaking, realize that we are the nature in the first place. I am sure Albert Camus did not mean us to get a meaning so deep from his quote, and he would feel a stranger on his own novel. Yet I think we can, and we should, think beyond words. Broken twig Old twig Old twig stood so proud With all the medals of fungi on its shoulders When it hugged the ground with rest of the twigs He was a hero among ordinary in peace at last

Story on peace in a garden. Once upon a time there was a young monk. And he lived in a monastery in a faraway land. In a remote Island. And in this monastery, there was a garden. The garden had a beautiful landscape with plenty of flora and fauna. And after some time, people noticed the garden is transforming into a picturesque form. The hedges were pruned. The paths were laid with white sand. And sometimes with pebbles in beautiful patterns. Like it has happened magically. Garden People came to see the garden from faraway places. On pilgrims and visited the monastery. Met the monk and they thought surely there is something. There is something attractive in that Monastery which pointed everyone that it is a sacred place. As nobody knew who the gardener is. People always like to see miracles. And they will start talking about it even after days. The news of the monastery spread rapidly and even reached the wise old teacher of the monk. One day the old monk came to the nearby village and wanted to visit his disciple. And hearing the stories old monk was curious to see what happened. And he went to the garden early morning and hid behind a bush. And in the time of dusk, he saw a silhouette of a monk appeared and started to clean the garden. Removing all the bad leaves, picking them by hand. Separating them according to the color and lay them in patterns. Re arranging the pebbles in foot paths, mixed up by the crowd previous day. And he worked with so much effort for two hours and he did not even notice his teacher coming up to him and holding his hand. And he turned around. "Master" he spoke. Teacher asked. "What are you doing? I knew it must be you. You have become a fine gardener!" The young monk was a little bit ashamed on the remark and the kind old monk knew this. He went to pick up a handful of dead leaves and spread them in air. And they fell all over the place. And he spoke. "Son, Peace is not always in places tidy. It's hard to be mindful in places where there is chaos. But that is exactly what we should do. That's what we practice for." End Story on peace Peace with Garbage Peace with Garbage Have you walked on your street when the garbage pick-up truck got delayed? Have you walked on a road, after a hurricane , after a rain. In autumn, when there are heaps and heaps of rotten leaves, stinking piles mixed with leftover food thrown away by the homeless? Have you had a clogged drain once in a while, a messy room after party. Have you been to a pig farm ? I am sure you have, experienced even one of these. What reaction does your mind have in these places? I am sure you tried to run away or blame someone or do something to change. And you were not happy until you were done! And that is exactly what most of us would do I would say which is the correct response. And also, I can see opportunity to observe behavior of mind in chaos in such places. Like the wise old monk suggested such places are obviously most difficult places where we cannot maintain our mindfulness. We cannot be mindful until our drains are clean, cloths are nicely arranged, and gardens are nicely swept. But obviously these beautiful places exist only relative to the clogged drains, untidy gardens and stinking cloths. It is our mind which judge the nature and give a positive or negative value to make it trouble our peace either way. And when you understand the duality of nature , you will know how to at peace even in chaos. In summary, to practice mindfulness in places it is disturbed, we need to understand it is by our own judgement that peace is disturbed in the first place.

Does your nose and ears ever stop growing? My father used to tell us that nose never stops growing. That is why senior citizens have long drooping noses like a birds beak. And I noticed this was true. In fact in cartoons and even in television when someone older and wiser appears their nose seems to be grown far more than any of us. Is this true? Does your nose, and ears never stops growing? Ever growing nose of wisdom Scientific explanation, Myth about ever growing nose and ears. Before going into the discussion of myth and philosophy of pinnochio nose I would like to straighten the facts with science. No, it is not true. Noses and ears stop growing. Actually around age of 20, bones of the nose fuse and they stop growing. Even nose cartilage stops expanding. Yet as we already know we replace cells in every part of our body including cartilage and bone. Hence as a person ages, cartilage changes its consistancy and becomes little soft. So the gravity itself is enough to make the ears and noses of senior citizens droop a little. In parallal with this the cheecks and rest of the face loose its fat and thick nature making drooping ears and nose more prominent. And there is no truth in its association with wisdom or knowledge! Yet I can confirm nose has some erectile tissue in it, which helps to warm and humidify air and not for lovemaking fortunately. Pinocchio's nose. Now this is rarther interesting topic. Not only pinocchio is wooden, he had this remarkable nose, which actually grows. When he lies about anything. I wonder what happened if humans did posess some nose which had the ability to do the same. I am sure such a curse would give miles and miles long noses to some of us. I do not spare myself here. Maybe except for the thief who did not lie , and every kid before being corrupted every one of us in the current human population would have to carry a wheelbarrow to bring our noses with us. I am sure the fashion industry would find some kind of nice jwellary to wear on top of this nose, and they would develop nose gloss or nose paint to decorate it with. Instead of nail centers, there would be deplomas in vocational training facilities to promote such art. While artists find extra use from their noses, engineers would use them to messure distances. I am sure Apple.Ic would make use of these noses to mount some wireless hearing devices in tip of them, so that housewives can hear all the gossip of the entire neighbourhood while cooking in the kitchen! Election debates would be non other than each of the presidential candidate lying about the true lengths of their noses. And I am sure some would use media to generate falsified facts about how short their own noses are than the other. And still the citizens would find it difficult to determine true lengths of their own candidates, and would toss a coin at the booth before marking their ballots. Pinocchio Nose Job of a judge would be easier as he just has to ask questions. There would be no need for a lie detector, as nobody would be dare to speak nothing but truth in the court as they swear. And lawyers duty would be to messure the nose legth of the witness after each such question, forgetting their own nose lengths. On the other hand the job of a priest would be difficult, as he no longer could preach about things he do not know hence a lie. I am sure such would be hard to find even for a funeral or for that matter for a wedding. Pinocchio wisdom Sometimes it is hilarious, sometimes it is dreadful to think about such a society. But I am sure there would be more and more seekers of truth in the world, if we made the truth appear so obvious like a pinnocio nose. As in not so cursed current version of the God's creation, truth always stabilise in the bottom of the river as it is too heavy for anyone to grasp. Only the less dense grabage floats everywhere for us to see. And maybe answer to a more wiser society is in the nose after all. And that is what pinocchio wisdom means.

Warning: This article is about mindfulness and philosophy of metaverse or VR Metaverse or VR why? Metaverse I can't forget the first time I saw this MS dude wearing a helmet of virtual reality. Call me old school yet my initial thoughts were "Well this guy is mad!" I accept that self-made billionaire MS and his greatest invention F******k had impact on everything that we do. Well, we needed that. We needed a place to share our thoughts, and sorrows and to get in touch with old school friends. Ah, for that matter such groups initiated a movement in our country to topple the government which was corrupted to the nose. Yet, virtual reality? That looked an overkill for me. That is like offering a shot of fentanyl to already puffed-up set of drug abusers about to die anyway. Yes, we are the addicted group of borderline generation, constantly craving a WhatsApp message Facebook TikTok or a tweet. Yet, we are not ready to take that fentanyl shot which is called virtual reality. I am virtually angry when these tech giants when try to rob even our life, to make it trapped in a metaverse so they can manipulate it from a program. Are you ready for this? Benefits of Metaverse Well, of course someone can argue the benefits. Someone can argue that we are using the metaverse for virtual meetings. Virtual education and virtual concerts. It can be true with regulations virtual reality might let a surgeon to do a surgery from a remote location, rather than physically being present (which is already happening). Yet I feel sad for the future generation, who will never meet new friends, or touch another human being to feel how warm it feels a hug. How much comforting to have someone to feel the tears when we suffer from our inherently weak physical form. When we fluctuate our mental health, how much comforting a real deal of a real counselor. Yet they will be first fixed to a VR machine, even before kept on the mother's breast for a sip of milk and a hug of warmth. Sad truth is they wouldn't even know why they are sad. They might even feel happy living in a virtual reality. Is it good? Warmth of a Mother : https://unsplash.com/@kellysikkema History of metaverse and virtual reality 2500 years ago It reminded me a little story which happened 2500 years ago. There was a very wealthy and wise king. And he had a son. When the son was born prophets said that he will either become a universal king or a monk. And the king wanted the former. So, he decided he would create a virtual reality for his son. He created three palaces for each of the season. For winter summer and autumn. He gave only best of best food and wine. Most comfortable cloths. And there were no old people to be seen. The prince was served by only prettiest girls in the kingdom. The prince has never seen a slum or sick. A true Goldilocks land . Yet, the king failed to keep him in the palace and he became a monk. Why? It's because, the finest palace was not fine to the prince as he had not seen a slum. Finest food was not finest for him as he had not consumed a rotten apple Prettiest girls were not pretty for him as he had not seen old and sick women. Beauty was not beautiful for him as he had not seen ugly truths of life. Virtual Food: https://unsplash.com/@foodess Philosophy of metaverse What does this little story teach us about metaverse? That metaverse is not going to be a solution for our problems. We forget that we are creations of nature. Our minds workings are inherently complex. Like the prince who did not find happiness in a finest castle, we would not be happy in a metaverse unless we look into ourselves and find out what does it means to be happy. I am sure we should focus more on ourselves individually, like the wise prince. As surely answers are not there in the mars or in a metaverse. Let's make every journey count, in mindfulness .

Maybe you are in the process of building a house . A shed or anything. And you feel tired, waiting for it to finish fully until you become happy. Maybe you are walking across America 3000 miles , and you await to see the California sea, to be happy. Maybe you are awaiting a response from your latest interview, maybe you are awaiting to Graduate to become fully happy. Maybe you are awaiting your marriage next year, or expecting a baby, to become fully happy. Riding Massive Waves How to not let go? As we all have aspirations, goals for future, often we deny ourselves our own happiness until we break up in tears of the stress and pressure of those aspirations. It happened to me countless times in the past. Until I saw one grey hair in twenties becoming hundreds of them in thirties. I have denied myself happiness. Happiness of this moment . Not only when I look at the goals of the future, but goals of the day also come into play. I deny myself happiness until I send that email, finish my days tasks. Until I write a blog post, I deny myself a cup of tea. I deny myself pleasure of feeling food in my mouth as I am overwhelmingly thinking about tomorrow. I seek a calmness in meditation yet forget to observe the wondering mind now. I seek a silence in the moment of sounds of the sea, or disturbing cry of a baby in an airplane. I forget to appreciate the secret to not to fall, is to understand the wave. Riding the Waves of life. Just the other day, I saw a surfer riding a wave. That was not a small four foot wave. It was massive. It was seven or eight stories high. Maybe even more. And compared to this massive waves the man looked tiny. He looked like an ant in a basin. What does he possess more than me to do a thing of that brave ? I am sure you have seen, such a ride. And I am sure he was afraid of death at first, when he rode small waves when he was young. Now at the prime of his surfing, he has overcome his own fear of death to ride a massive wave even someone on a ship would not approach. If you know you have ridden a bicycle, for that matter any vehicle. We grabbed the wheel with all the force, as we were afraid of crashing. And only after doing it so many times, we have learned, that art is not to grab the wheel tight, but very light, let it go otherwise, just show the direction when it needs correction. Riding waves of life - Poem WFozStories . When the going gets rough and there’s an overwhelming feeling of being bogged down in worldly stuff it helps to remember in the end, none of it matters. And the best shot way is to hang ten and be brave enough to let go and ride the wave through the feelings of a life in tatters. The art of letting go The art of letting go When we grab onto life in fear, we tend to suffer more. We get stressed more. And if we grab each and every wave of life with fear, we will never learn to ride a massive wave of life. And from time to time, they will come for everyone. It can come as a breakup of a relationship. It can come as a loss of a job, or a loss of a pound of flesh . Unless we let go of the fear of life, we would not know how to respond this kind of surprises of life. And if even letting go of little fear of life is difficult, how can I expect myself from letting go of inevitable? So, I say to myself, It is ok to get angry. It is ok to get disturbed by the Noice. It is ok to wake up to a cold day, or a little bit of rain. It is ok to spend a day with boredom It is ok to not to be creative but dumb. It is ok to do a math wrong It is ok to live in a half a build house It is ok to never be in a car or drive a broken one It is ok to have a cold It is ok to listen to a song It is ok to feel sad or bad about myself It is ok to be fat or thin It is ok to want or not want It is ok to feel sad It is ok to die, be afraid of death As long as I learn How to let go It is ok to be as you are. Letting Go of fear is letting go of everything. Letting go of fear happens, when we understand the valuelessnes s of fear.