Power of positive thinking I can remember reading a positive psychology book, many many years ago by Norman Vincent Pele. "The power of positive thinking". The stories in the book were amazing. Powerful message of positivity was reinforced in every page of the book. I still remember Matterhorn and Wall Pharmacy. It made a big impact on how I looked at life. To a level, that I even believed that you could get an Olympic medal if you wanted. There is a way in an alternating universe. If you ask the question why you cannot, I will say its only because you have made some wrong choices. You do not know your every talent. You have not tested all the alternative routes that you can take. That was a good explanation and a good attitude about life. You haven't doesn't mean you can't. As you have not played with all the variables. Yet when the information sphere got bigger, I started to question this positive psychology . It made me realize that it is just trying to fool yourself when there are enough negative things in the world. Alternative Negative world Imagine a butterfly. A positive psychology would teach us a butterfly is a beautiful animal. Some black and white, some yellow like 🌻 sunflowers. Some butterflies blue and pink. They harbor diversity and beauty of all the animals combined. Then I noticed this is only part of the truth. As I learnt there are some butterflies look exactly like predators with big eyes. They have the ability to mimic some poisonous animals so they themselves are saved from the birds. Every animal in the jungle seems to be eating butterflies for dinner. They are at the bottom of the food chain. The tragedy is that they do not know this. They do not know that butterflies end their lives in bellies of other animals more than often. Except the ones in butterfly garden in the zoo. Just like a poem by Robert Frost . He speaks about stopping by the woods, to see the beauty of a tree. Appreciate a moment and carry on with life. I compared this with film Madagascar. And the song " what a wonderful world " and came to know, it is not straight forward like "a butterfly is a beautiful animal". When you train your eyes and mind to see the full picture, suddenly the positivity has changed. And natural negativity bias start to destroy any hope of recovery. Just like Marty, Gloria and Brain, you will start to see the other side of the picture. And then naturally our minds tend to compare this with our own lives. And you start to notice ups and downs. You start to wonder about death, the ultimate demon which makes everything that you do positive or negative useless. Although we do not understand, it is a huge problem. Often, we tend to run away from those questions like bugs bunny. Yet in the background of the mind we know one day we will get caught. We see this when we see our superheroes when they struggle to climb a flight of stairs. Becoming a seeker or a millionaire So, some start a journey of seekers life. I have seen people who wonder into the woods isolated from people to seek the truth. They spend years and years under trees in harsh conditions to find out true meaning of life . And as you can see positive psychology is just a kid when we consider their philosophical minds. Some start to chase a dream, thinking this is the true meaning of life. We have enough millionaires and billionaires as example. Some start to chase a " state of mind " or a " peace " often by manipulating the environment. As an example, if you are on a beach for a vacation , you would be very likely at peace. Although you may think that this is something you have gained, I would say. Just wait. Just wait until next week when your work and responsibilities start to hit you tomorrow. You cannot live on a beach forever. You can if you devote yourself to be a seeker and willing to live like a Begger. Yet I feel this still is artificial, as you would change when the environment is changed. So it is not sustainable either. Mindfulness as a potential solution to negativity Then what is the solution? I see mindfulness as a potential solution as it allows us to touch into reality. The positivity is not natural as we impose ourselves with an altered reality. Negativity is just the opposite, that also a creation of our own. Mindfulness let us see the eternal argument our mind involved in between these positives and negatives. The true reality if exists is neither positive nor negative. It's just valueless. One problem of this approach to life is these leads to nihilism, and loss of hope. I see countless philosophers who just stop at this point and move into kind of depression themselves which happened to me as well. Then I realize I don't have to be. True wisdom - the solution- What if everything goes right? The best analogy for this scenario is to compare it with an adult who plays with kids. He still would build a sandcastle with his children, even laugh and have fun. But he would not cry when a big wave hits the castle and wash it away. Similarly, you can use positive psychology although you know its inherent valuelessness as it is a mental object. And even enjoy doing so. If everything is a thing, created by the mind, why not a positive thing? So, instead of worrying, you may ask. What if everything goes right? If life is just a potential It can go right? I bet it will go right 92% of the time even more. That is how positive psychology can be used in a philosophical world of negativity.

Mindfulness. Mindfulness is a difficult thing to understand because of its inherent subjective nature. More than anything I see most of the people are confused on what to expect from being mindful. More than anything mindfulness is a tool to understand the truth about self and the world. Although modern world is more focused on short term benefits of it, I can only imagine it as a tool to prepare someone for death, just like the philosophy for that matter. What is to be mindful? Here In this article, I reflect upon some thought process which happened before mindfulness kicks in. As after mindfulness, it just gives nothing. Thoughts about the past, and about the future are hindrance to mindfulness only as long as you are not aware of them. Seagulls and sand. It is a windy afternoon. The sky is full of Clouds only Apparent when you are in the beach. You look at the Sky, patchy clouds trying to hide the bluish background of the sky. And from these patches the sinking sun try to release its final bits of right above the church. You couldn't help noticing seagulls up in the sky hovering like drones. They are not in search of food. Just chilling in the breeze, just like you. But up there it is so much wind that there is no need to flap their wings. It's easier than walking, like gliders they stand still facing the wind, just occasionally to turn back and loop, to stop themselves falling asleep in the midair. Only competition for them so far is a solo kite sent by kids, but haven't reached up to them so far, hence there is no real race. Crows are just land animals from seagulls' point of view. And you are sure they do not bother even to look down. Why should they, everything is visible from there and seagulls couldn't ask for more. Down on the sand it's a different story altogether. Crows are nasty in their tactics. They have learned harsh lessons from the fishermen to survive the sand. They stand together like a pack of wild dogs, in another life, to hunt for a snack. To Sanch a lunch packet or a piece of bread from a tourist. Dry salty sand is their home, and there is no beauty in it, just a struggle for survival. They roam back and forth from huts to the sea. You walk past them and face the sea yourself. It's the same old sea , and endless waves . And mind is rushing with waves after waves and only after minutes you realize that you have been day dreaming. Just in front of the sea. It is like being at a play. "Life of pie" being played in front of you by world renowned artists. Yet you are blindfolded, and ears plugged. You do not feel the wind or the waves as you are looking at the misguided drama of your own mind. Why you ask yourself. Why there is no peace, but chaos? You see a child playing besides his mother. Digging holes in the sand with his feet. Does he think about yesterday? You answer yourself. Unlikely. Maybe he even doesn't know what yesterday is. He is not worried about the fights which he had with his siblings. And there is no relevance of that to this moment. This moment is about happiness, of digging holes in the sad, and only that. Does he worry about future. Surely not. It seems his mother's dreams are not yet painted in his mind. Maybe later, maybe in another ten years he would start to have an ambitious dream. Then only he would start worrying and being anxious about success and failure. Yet at this moment nobody is capable of stealing his minutes. Not even yesterday, not even tomorrow. Songs of the sea. You give a sigh, as your eyes drift back towards the sea. You realize why you cannot hear the song of the sea. You have been deaf by the past, bocking the sound waves reaching your eardrums. No matter how loud the sea is. And you put them down mindfully on the sand, and there it is. The eternal song of the waves at last. You realize why you cannot see the waves and bubbles dancing in front of you. You were blindfolded by tomorrow. Endless possibilities opportunities and events which are never part of the show now. There is no point watching the trailers of tomorrow's movie while you are at the cinema today. And you decide to put down the blinders on the sand and voila. The real play only begins now. With both sound and pictures. You let them calm down your thoughts and let them drift like clouds above. You let yourself be a seagull hovering above everything. Forget that you have been a crow struggling in the sand. And come back with an empty mind of a child gaining nothing. Read more on, Past Present Future

Some quotes/ definitions of love. Aristotle: Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. Mahatma Gandhi: Where there is love there is life. Robert Frost: Earth is the right place for love. I don't know where it is likely to go better. Confucius: Can there be a love which does not make demands on its object? Plato: Love is a serious mental disease. Magical Mindful Living: Love is forgiveness, relentless repetitive and pure. Merrium Webster: : strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties maternal love for a child : attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers After all these years, they are still very much in love . : affection based on admiration, benevolence , or common interests love for his old schoolmate : an assurance of affection give her my love : warm attachment , enthusiasm, or devotion love of the sea Above are some of the philosophical quotes, and definitions of love I have come across the internet. There are many more. As expected, they are very diverse in nature. As an example, when Mahatma Gandhi speaks love being the life, Plato suggests love is a Serious mental illness! Does that mean the Mahatma Gandhi and everyone else who believes love to be something celebrated and rejoiced are crazy? And that cohort even include Aristotle as he thought love to be something, a force between two souls. No wonder we are so confused with the definition of love when all of these great minds are in different boats when it comes to the definition of love. We all do have our own definitions of love, and it will vary widely depending on our background and upbringing. Plato himself had his own views about love. As I have discussed in previous article what is platonic is imaginary . If there is a kind of love which is so pure, it is only imaginary. Hence when Plato said love is a mental disease, it seems he is not talking about platonic love but, ordinary love between a man and women. Love is a bond between two things. There are some fundamental features about love apparent in several of above quotes. One such is evident in Aristotle's and Confucius's definitions of love. Love is a bond between two "things". It can be in between two animate objects, or an animate object with an inanimate object. There can never be love between two inanimate objects. Hence Love is mental in nature, inherently associated with life, and consciousness. Yet can we label it as a mental illness? Here in Magical mindful living blog, I compared love to forgiveness, repetitive and relentlessly. The reason is you are forgiven each and every time you present yourself in front of "GOD" and he is capable of doing this because of his love for you. Someone to relentlessly forgive you they must have a great deal of love for you. The religion says to forgive even your enemy. At these extremes it seems the line between love and kindness and forgiveness is blurred. I can only imagine, why it is not platonic. It is clear how Confucius's suspicion on love being a deceitful devil comes from. If love is a mental affair between a consciousness and another object, then it might be a form of greed that we are talking about. A Suttle form of greed that we do not want to label it as it is hence the name "LOVE". Then the question is proving that each and every case there is love there is greed. And proving this is difficult thing to do. But if it is true, then we can assume Plato was correct about it being a mental disease, where we all fool ourselves with, hence a disease. We can be technical and say there is no greed in places like a mother's love for children, and God's love for humans. Latter we cannot prove or disprove, but in the former, might have a hidden greed. It is true a mother would not love her children expecting anything in return. In fact, she might even sacrifice her comfort and everything physical for her children if such opportunity arises. But, why? Doing so will make her "Feel she is doing the correct thing" and it seems this is hardwired to our brains. As even in animal kingdom more often we see these kinds of sacrifices. But this "feeling good" can be the greed. That can be something a consciousness of a mother gets in return. I am not saying it is something bad, to love children. Just an argument for against nothing in return. It is more apparent when a mother would not make that sacrifice for someone else's child or would be more reluctant in doing so as there is less value or return for this act. Again, this is not to de-value or hurt anyone, just for the pure purpose of understanding truth. On the other hand, when we love inanimate objects, this is only when we have some use, or a return in general. Either physical or mental. It could be a sport, a view or even writing essays ! A good question to ask is what happens when we call "We love ourselves." Do we expect something in return? Can there be love which is selfless? A selfless love? Few months ago, I saw a news about a bus driver. As it happened on a wet rainy day, the bus was travelling downhill slippery windy narrow mountain road. Suddenly the brakes had malfunctioned. The bus had been fully packed with people and children and had kept on speeding and driver had to do something. He had shouted everyone to go back and brace for impact, and in a matter of seconds crashed the bus head on, on the side wall, onto the rocks. Everyone was saved, except the driver, he was crushed of the impact, had died on the spot. Some one can say this was extreme bravery. I even can say that is extreme kindness, and even love, of the driver, towards his fellow humans. Maybe he did not think anything in return. Maybe not a wink of greed crossed his mind. Maybe he was scared too. Someone can argue no that he thought of the Glory and wanted to come out alive a hero or just doing his job. But I would not say this. There is not enough time to think, and it's crazy to think someone seek some self-propelling, selfish greed in such a situation, even if they had an hour to contemplate about life, yet minutes or seconds. More likely it is deeply driven from depths of heart with love. And the lives he saved are even unrelated! He would only tell what really crossed his mind, if survived. Final remarks on definitions of love. As you can see, there are so many different views about love. Even totally opposing each other, and we found out that we cannot ignore them totally. Someone can argue each one is true, and when we fully engage in what they have to say, without judgement, we even would agree with them. Although not so popular, some even would believe there is nothing called love, and that is even not a thing. For some it can be a mental disease. While for others it is a driving force of life. For some it's the greed. Why this happened, and why we are having so many views. If we are talking about the same thing, shouldn't it appear same to everyone? Part of the problem is as it is a mental object , and there is inherent subjective nature for it. As every consciousness is built up of different experiences and memories. What we see is shaped by what we have learned and faced in the past or our Information sphere. And I see no difference in the subject of love. Likely most of us feel something similar, positive thing when we call "Love" yet we cannot disagree there are and will be outliers. And mind you they are not wrong at all. Its just different, and even true in their own relative world, just like your and my own relative world. And it seems I have no right to judge someone else by their own view of something entirely mental. The real problem is this can be applied to everything mental. Have you thought about it? " People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for " - Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Statue of Liberty There are two ways to create a sculpture. One is like how Michelangelo did , with a piece of white marble. He chipped out all the unnecessary parts of it to bring out the "David" into life. The other way of making a sculpture is how the "Statue of Liberty". Which I am going to focus on this article. Modeled by the similarly great French Artist, Federic Auguste Bartholdi. This monumental memorial statue in the Liberty Island NY is a symbol, a gift by people of France to the United States of America. The metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel, while 91000kg of copper was used to build the statue by Bartholdi, over few years. This is a great example of building out of a "Lump of clay" for that matter "A lump of copper". Why A Lump of clay is a potential? Have you seen kids play with a lump of clay? As a kid I loved this too. We used to walk in the field looking for best clay material to make a little sculpture on our own, as a school project, or just for our own amusement. Nowadays, we just buy some clay from the market. Kids, playing with the lump of clay, first make it into a snake. Then squash it and turn it into a teapot. After a while they make it into two lumps and build a chicken and an egg . This is a never-ending game. As lump of clay is just a potential with endless possibilities. A potential which can turn into anything you want, a dream. Isn't it something beautiful? Just like an empty canvass, or a collection of building blocks, a kilo of bronze for Fredric Bartholdi. It is a good idea to summaries the characteristics of a lump of clay at this point. Before we move into deeper subjects of philosophy of mind. Characteristics of a lump of clay. A lump of clay can be molded into anything at any time. You can divide same lump of clay and make two things at the same time. And it would appear two lumps of clay. If you want to build another you have to squash the first sculpture and sculpt again into a new object. A lump of clay harbors a potential, a dream or some imagination, when it is not a shape it is just a thing. (or a lump) I am the creator of my own reality - Philosophy of a Lump of clay. Now consider the above quote. Whoever who said the above must have seen and known, even critically thought about how a lump of clay works. And I am sure of this! Imagine your "mind" is a lump of clay. Initially it did not have any shape. It was just a " thing " floating in the universe. Then it started to shape into "Something" or "Someone". Just a potential at the beginning. First the lump was divided into two. One lump was made into the "Self" and the other lump was molded into the "World". Over time lump of "World" was molded into different things that we observe. If you see a bird, this lump is molded into a bird. Next it would destroy this image of the bird and will be molded into a tree instead. A river, a sound, a thought anything which comes to your mind, is basically a lump of clay. A mountain, a rabbit, an ambition, a dream . This part of the lump of clay is called "The observed". And it changes according to the information we receive. The other lump was also changed, over time into a "self" a "teenager", an "Adult" or an "Old man or a women". According to the age, according to the image. We can call this the "observer". And this is also a lump of clay which is crushed and shaped into a new one moment to moment. This is an important concept if you can understand. How important you would ask, and I would say it is so important that Krishnamoorthi it took all his life. And countless philosophers of the past it took years of their lives to understand this philosophy, a lump of clay just provides us free of charge. Some call it oneness. Some call it duality of the nature. Some call it subjective reality . Whatever the name given it fascinates me the remarkable insight it provides about life. If you asked me, how do you know, I would say "Well, I did not know, until I started writing this article". I just wanted to understand a lump of clay. Now I see the lump of clay I observe, or more correctly the thoughts about the lump of clay are part of myself. The part which I call the world or the universe. Part Krishnamoorthi says observed. All I am doing so called living is just molding this lump of clay and the other part, which is called the observer, manipulating them into different shapes. It makes me a humble being, a silent observer of life in mindfulness. And I see nothing more and nothing less to this. "Observer is the observed" or in other words "It is the same lump of clay" "It seems I am the creator of my own reality and myself", would be a better statement. I think you may find more details in my article, why Descartes is wrong.

It took some courage for the leaf. Who happened to be yellow in a green park. When Neighbours laugh with a twitch in its heart It pushed through the bush in shadows un-noticed. Being Yellow in the green Park I can still remember when I found out that I was an introvert. All my life I have felt Alean in a world full of joy and happenings. I had minimal friends, and often I would not go out on adventures. I would rather spend whole my afternoons on a tree looking at grazing cows on a barren field. And even in university when I was forced to be in a social event, I would feel awkward and had to spend hours about thinking how to avoid this. I would rather live in a world of thoughts and dreams than the reality. And I did not know why. One day someone dearest to me showed a post, about introverts. I read it, initially I started to laugh. I laughed out so laughed and after a minute of a laugh, It slowly started to turn to a cry. I cried and cried louder than I laughed. Like all those years I wanted to be found. Like I found answers to a question I have been looking for all those years wondering why? If you felt as such, I suggest you would be an introvert too. Have you ever known these bell-shaped curves of biology? Everything seems to be in a bell-shaped Normal distribution in biology. From blood pressures to color of skin to intelligence. Often so, or lesser known there are outliers. Which are not present on the even extreme edges of this normal distribution. Such outliers are called fat tailed distributions. And I felt like I was in such a fat tail, so separated from the society that I would never make it through till I graduated. Yet I did. Looking back at introverts following is a list of characteristics to look for if you are an introvert. So, it is a spectrum, and you may find one or two are describing your characteristics anyway. Later I will give some of my personal opinions of conduct. I would not say these are backed by scientific facts. Characteristics of introverts and examples. Preference for Solitude : Introverts often enjoy spending time alone and may use this time to engage in activities like reading, writing, or other hobbies that allow for deep thought and reflection. Such solitude usually charges the battery of the introvert. Preference for Silence is natural for introverts. Thoughtful and Reflective : They tend to be introspective, spending time considering their own thoughts and feelings. So, introverts are usually slow thinkers and slow learners. But often this leads to lot of interruption from other aspects of the brain leading to Creativity - Diffuse thinking skills are natural. Sensitivity to External Stimuli : Introverts may be more affected by sensory input such as noise, light, and crowds, which can be overwhelming for them. And usually in such social places they lose their energy. Often, they would be poor at keeping lot of relationships instead few of them. ( Why I can't remember names ) Deliberate Decision-Makers : They usually take their time to think through decisions and weigh all options before coming to a conclusion. Creativity and Imagination : Many introverts have a rich inner world and can be quite creative, often excelling in artistic pursuits. Often creativity is natural, and for artists being away from the society helps in creation most of the time. They are not only artists, sometimes, mathematicians, and programmers. They will be found in corners of the workplace most of the time, hiding from others. I will give you an example. When there is a group of people in the workplace or otherwise having a discussion about some nice places or vacation, I never find anything I have to contribute to the discussion. I really do not have opinion on anything from food to clothing. But, if you have read about this blog, you would find that I have really discussed about from food and beverages to travel and mindfulness . So, it never occurred to me that something should be told about in those situations, and I fail miserably to contribute to the conversation. But occasionally I talk with people individually, about the general things of life. Some, deeper understandings, even emotional level. Such discussions can sometimes I have done for hours with my friends, even strangers. So, that looks abnormal in first instance. But now I am used to it and learning how to handle the loneliness and disappointments I get on such social occasions. So, I am an introvert, what is now? Following is a list of common problems Introverts face and how to overcome them- from my personal perspective. The List of introvert problems is not exhaustive. Comment me yours and I will try to answer If I have faced such. Facing Misconceptions of Rudeness or Aloofness : As you prefer solitude, you are going to be prejudiced and identified as rude and aloof sometimes. Now this is becoming less and less as people are more aware of presence of extreme introverts. Overcoming Strategy : It is sometimes helpful to explain yourself as an introvert at some individual level. Or you can get one of your friends to express the fact on behalf of yourself. And most common strategy I have used is to not to give a xxxx. Sometimes words are not going to help, and it can worsen the situation. You have to understand yourself and if it is unavoidable trying to change anything is not going to help. So, just be proud about yourself thinking that you are unique and rare in an otherwise noisy world. Dealing With Exhaustion from Overstimulation Introverts can become easily overstimulated by external environments, especially social situations. Overcoming Strategy : Balance social interactions with alone time. Find fewer stimulating environments to recharge your energy. It is essential you take your social isolation time. Try and explain yourself to your close family that this is what you need to recharge yourself. Not only you but they are also going to suffer otherwise when you are not fully functional and exhausted. Someone truly love you would understand and listen. Overcoming Lack of Confidence : Introverts may struggle with confidence, especially in social settings. Overcoming Strategy : Challenge negative self-talk, practice mindfulness, and gradually build confidence through small interactions. I recently had a chat with one of my co-workers, who is and extremely extroverted person. And I told him because I am an introvert, I do not think anyone would miss me here. That I would disappear unnoticed. Yet, he said, "No, that is not true. Being, silent doesn't mean you are being unnoticed. We do see you from your work, that is important. Your work is being noticed by everyone. Your letters and your presence and your small essential talking is noticed" So, my advice is sometimes there are other ways you can make your presence noticed and being an introvert you know how to do that. Making Sense of Small Talk : Introverts find small talk draining and may struggle to engage in it. Overcoming Strategy : Focus on deeper conversations, ask open-ended questions, and find topics of genuine interest to make small talk more meaningful. My strategy is to use these kinds of deep conversations individually. I talk about things I am interested. Also, I have learned some tips, like other than focusing on my life, asking about their life. Everyone likes to talk about their life. Once they start telling you will find something you can contribute. If you did not, do not worry. It doesn't matter it looked like a newspaper interview, at least you have tried and charge the battery immediately. Building Relationships : Forming connections can be challenging for introverts who prefer quality over quantity. Overcoming Strategy : Texting would help. Writing down gives you time to think it over before it flows from the mouth. But try not to overdo it. Remember physical presence matters. We are good listeners and that is even a rare quality. Empathy is natural. So, few good quality relationships would be enough to live a lifetime of happiness. Working in Teams : Introverts may find teamwork draining due to constant interaction. Overcoming Strategy : I would say introverts are to the society are valuable as a captain of a ship. It is true we would never be captains of ships, but we would be good friends of the captain who comes to ask for help when he is unable to find his way. So be prepared with all your gear in your solitude. Sharpen your knowledge and write it down in your diary. Take a break and understand your role. It will help you to navigate as a team and trust me you will be noticed and you will be writing the logbook yourself about what happened during the journey, when others take time to celebrate on the deck. Thank you for reading: Being Yellow in a Green Park - introvert problems. You may also like to read: Root cause of all problems.

In the article about mini-Essays I wrote about "Lateral thinking" as a method of making an idea into a solid shaped artifact. I did not mention how and why this could be done. Obviously there is more to tell about this so called "Thinking Outside the Box". Although not specifically mentioned in many of the articles in this blog, the tools of lateral thinking were used. It is time to think outside the box about "Thinking outside the box". Story of the Diamond and the Minister who thinks outside the box. Once upon a time there lived a mighty King. And he had a wise set of ministers. One day the king's guards noticed some glistnening thing in the pond, in the Palace's garden. They immediately informed the king. And king, came to see and there it was, something glistening in the pond, some said it was just the Sun, some said it was a valuable gem. And the king asked the swimmers to dive in the water and bring whatever that is. The divers went in and came back empty handed. Once they were out of the water the glistening was still there. Then the king summoned the ministers and asked them what this could be. They had different openinons and discussed with themselves and asked the king to empty the pond. So the king's guards emptied the pond. It took them half a day. Obviously neither eletricity nor water pumps were built during those old ages. Again, they found nothing. They even washed the mud that was in the bottom of the pond. But next day once the pond was filled again, there the glistening thing appeared again. The king this time little bit irritated summoned his wisest of the Ministers who happened to be on a Vacation! (Maybe he was just chilling in a nearby costal town) He came and walked around the pond and with a smile spoke to the king. "My dear King! protector of our kingdom, with great plesure I can assure you what is glistening in the pond is infact a diamond. A valuable one indeed." And the Everyone including the king were keen and happy hearing this. And he continued. "The diamond is not in the pond. It is in the crow's nest on that tall tree. All you have to do is get a man to climb the tree and get it." And the king praised the wise minister for his remarkable ability of "Lateral thinking". What is lateral thinking? - Definition. Lateral thinking or thinking outside the box is, a creative approach to solving problems. Above is a classic example of thinking outside the box. As some questions are better answered with a novel apporach than traditional systematic approaches. Gordians Knot example from Greek legend is another similar example. Here a knot tied in oxcart was considered unsolvable and When challanged to untie it Alexander the Great in Gordiam in Phrygia, simply cut it with his sword. The term "Lateral thinking" however was used by the Maltease Psyhologist Edward de Bono, giving "nine dot puzzle" and "Judgement of solaman" as examples to lateral thinking. However, some consider this as a pseudo scientific concept. So, as to why, which I will discuss at the end of the article. How to do lateral thinking? with Examples Here, I will give you some tools of lateral thinking with examples appropriately. Further I will point out to some sources of articles which helps to improve creativity in this blog itself. As philosophy is a language of the mind, there is enough examples I can give. Using randomness to generate ideas. Randomness is very common. It is a fundamental aspect of human life, as I have argued in the random walk for life . Imagine you are watching Youtube. And they give you random ideas. If you are mindful about what you are watching, you will see while watching these random ideas you just develop thoughts about them as well. You just have to select out these ideas to solve your problems. Look at this post which I wrote some time ago, about Upside down world. I connected the concept provided by a random youtube song to generate a method to look at the world in a creative way, which is Upside Down! and it seem artists have been using this for ages, by trying to draw an image upside down. You can choose a random word from the dictionary, a random quote, or a random concept from your textbook to start some creative learning and do some lateral thinking. Movement techniques. This is basically thinking about alternatives. As many as possible. It can be something like a brainstorming session. Positives, negatives and all the stupid things can be written on the board. Related to the problem, not related to the problem it doesn't matter. Once you have done that you will start to look for any connections. Do some more thinking about each of the alternatives. Often I do this when I write some article. I think about all the alternatives until everything is exhausted. Then, most of the time the obvious solutions will be apperent, Even if it does not, it can lift the understanding a little more higher. Where is my collarbone is a good example. When someone asked a question what is the bone shown in the photo, after pointing to a shoulder of a person, I thought about all the possible answers someone can give. Maybe not everything but I covered most of it. And at the end of it I think it came up to a nice little article with some mindfulness wisdom in it. Provocation Idea generation. This means, either thinking about impossible, bizzar or even imaginary answers. Later this can be used to identify possible solutions to the problem. Provocative statement is something which generally considered false or wrong. In the article Why I cannot see an elephant in a pen? I just asked the question can I see an elephant in a pen? What if I can? Is there a way there is an elephant in a pen? Then I argued that even a pen can harbour some atoms which have come from an elephant. Maybe the pen is engraved with some tiny elephant pattern and I can see an elephant. Isn't it bizzar, impossible and challange the so colled "Truth" that we all agree about a pen? Challange. Challange is to ask the question "why" in a non threatining way. Until you get to the bottom of the problem or the root cause. Here in this article I have written about Why we should start with why. Even if you do not follow any of the above or other methods, if you start to ask the question why often and even stupidly, I would say you are just a lateral thinker. Do you know who else does this as often? Toddlers! they ask endless why's throughout the day until as adults we even find oursleves searching google for answers. In the above article I give example of questioning why the sky is blue? Fractionating. As the name suggests, it is trying to break down the problem into its several root problems. Ishikawa diagram or fishbone chart is also a way of doing the same, in bottleneck problems . Often used in co-operate setup to identify multiple causes so as to why there is a bottleneck in the production line. Here, in this technique causes of the problem are analysed going backward and branching out as necessary, like a fish bone. Sometimes a large problem can be broken into smaller problems to solve each separtely. Concept formation Opposte to the fractionating is looking at the "big Picture". The technique is concept formation. Looking at everything at once to identify principles and concepts. Good example is Higher order thinking in Blooms taxonomy of learning. Or even for that matter pattern recognition. Where everything is considered to make mind map, to see not only the connections of ideas but to grade their relative importance. This allows greater understanding of the subject and there interconnectedness . As you can see this blog is one such giant map. Connecting everything from mindfulness to even Quicksilver or John wick . Disproving. Technically speaking disproving is to talk about the opposite of the solution and trying to disprove it. And in the process you might find that this even become impossible. In the article 3n+1 , I have discussed how mathamaticians use disproving technique as an alternative to proving some solution to the problem. And both can lead to possible answers to the solution. And as for the problems of solving philosophy, I have even explored the third option of questioning the question as another method of finding solutions to problems. Which is inherently not an option for mathematicians as they are bounded by the rules of true and false. Theories about Lateral thinking. The best explanation to lateral thinking I found was by Barbara Okleys principle of diffuse mode of thinking. There in this concept she suggests some problems are inherently need some creative inputs to be successfully solved. And this creative ability is provided by not focussed concentration but diffuse mode of thinking. Where the ideas tend to work in the subconsciouss mind when you are relaxed, and patterns which comes from other domains of a persons knowledge get together to give an answer almost in a Eureka moment. (As it occured to Archimides -the Greek mathematician did run without his cloths shouting Eureka, once the brilliant idea came in his mind which ultimately lead to innovation of concept of specific gravity. Apperently he was having a Bath when this idea came to his mind once he saw the displacement of water out of the pool. ) So, lateral thinking does even happen when we are not even thinking about it. As you can see above list of methods of lateral thinking is not exhaustive by itself. And I can clearly see some of them overlap with each other without clear boundries. Even writing a mini essay as I suggested previously can lead to some lateral thinking and may use all of the above processes in a single problem. So, where does the mindfulness fit in the equation? I think being mindful help to observe the natural enviornment and these in turn can make the lateral thinking more easier when it matters. Hence, I suggest you to practice it daily and I have tonns of matter on how to. Lateral thinking on Lateral thinking. I can leave it there. As the conclusion of the article. However, the article would not be complete if I do not do a little lateral thinking about lateral thinking itself.😀 Hence, this is some philosophical inputs and mindfulness. As I see all of the above about the lateral thinking is true as long as we stick to the fact that we do have the power of thinking. Power of our own thought and will, as philosophers put it a Free will. However, some mindfulness observations do not allow this to be a definite truth. As an example, when I say a Pink Elephant , your thoughts would be aligned with a Pink elephant. It seems what we see and hear strongly influences what we think. Hence, the thoughts are not the product, but someone can argue it is the outcome of what is happening "inside The box". And even we are unable to do even a basic programming to these processes. This is more evident when we see some of us are more creative in some aspects of life than the other, and we do not have a choice over this. Some are inherently good at math while suck at music and art, vice Versa. Hence, lateral thinking may not be a real truth but a relative one. And if that is the case, to improve the thoughts or do a proper lateral thinking only way is to be mindful about the facts. And Hope this will come as a good idea from the other side. And above techniques are such good information that you should be mindful about.

I was lately frustrated with google. When I search for something, I never got correct answers to the problem but slightly different version of it. Most of the time the top page is covered with How to do it articles with a list of ten twelve rubbish steps. The way I see it these articles are not for human read. They are manufactured for the Google to read! I think now I have some answers to the problem why? Problem: Why can't Google answer my question, instead leads to rubbish? I never even understood that there is a problem until I started my blog. The reason, for me to start this blog was I did not find answers to my questions in the google. I saw it as an opportunity. But after writing about 120 articles, now I have an idea why I did have this problem. Google is a very efficient in answering our questions right. I would say no. It may have been, but it loses its human touch lately and that is apparent in its search results. If you would not agree, try something. Try searching for something you are interested in. How many times you get some interesting article to read about. To me the experience was not good. Sometimes I did type "Where to find interesting things to read" Because Google has become so boring lately. Are you frustrated with google too? Good old days Remember good old days Google. When Google was operated by bunch of enthusiastic humans and all the articles on the internet were written by experts. What did the experts had in mind when they did write articles? Their mind was thinking about the reader. They wanted to give you the experience they exactly had. And most of the time they were successful too. But no more. Nowadays articles on google or vast majority of them are written not by experts who want to put something new on the table, but some low-quality content written by not so experts who have Google as their target reader. Yes, they only have Google in their minds when they decide to write articles, It is not about the reader anymore. The 'Reader is just a money-making machine for everyone on the other side of the curtain' And 'Google' for them is just a fool. How is Google Fooled to value rubbish articles? You may ask, does it work that way. I would answer 'Yes my friend it pretty much does'. That is why you may feel frustrated when searching google Doesn't provide you with answers. When I write my articles, I have to do 'Search Engine Optimization' each and every time. What does I have to do? I have to find bunch of keywords people type in the Google search and stuff my article with high volume keywords. And this will destroy user experience as when I write my article I must do it. Otherwise, you will never come across this article and be able to read it (The Process of ranking articles). How unfortunate? Even, this article I may have to re-edit several times to show Google, it is good enough to be read by humans. The sad truth is whatever Googles algorithm is it cannot give proper value to an article. What it does is use some parameters from the auto generated from the article and give it a number. How can we expect AI to do a man's job? How can AI decide how relevant an article is for humans, especially when they are written for the purpose of ranking high on the AI itself. We created the AI, so do you think we cannot fool this AI ourselves. (Trust me I am all in for AI) Articles ranked in Google are not natural. The number of words in article are not natural, it is to rank in google higher. So, I have to stuff some stuff even if it is not relevant to you. The flow of the article is not natural, I have to break it down to subtopics with subheadings so Google can understand what the article is about. Collection of words in the article are not natural as I have to use best possible shot to rank first on a particular query on Google to attract some visitors. So, you are just some random non-valuable users. How unfortunate these bloggers and writers have become. I think it is time to rethink what we are going to achieve if we continue this. In a way google is like a shy girl. She suspects you are wired if you do not provide a list of ten good things about yourself or atleast seven, if you want to go on a date with her. And because of these trust issues she always turn towards her ex-boyfriends who rank first with thousands of rubbish articles. And the pattern is repeated as nobody human is intervined for obvious reasons. There is too much data to handle. It is like finding nimo (film) in the great Grabage patch in the Pacific Ocean. Simply impossible. And more importantly if you were to be trusted you have to get so called "Backlinks" from these ex-boyfriends of the google. If you refuse to do that, not be friends with the gang, you will be penelised. It is like being the poor kid in the classroom. A sense of modern bullying for being innovative and fun. You will spend the rest of your life in Google Sandbox, and never come to the party. What can you do to overcome the problem? So, if you want to read some human articles written for humans, forget about it. Buy some books or go to a library, before that too is replaced by bunch of computers with google in it we still have time. And my advice is if you find some humanoid articles in google which provides a value to your life, just bookmark it. It is better to come back to it than doing a Random Google search on how to improve your life. Use it as a catalog so, you are interacting with humans than rubbish knowledge. In summary Why Can't Google answer my question? instead leads to rubbish? Writers nowadays do not have the reader in mind when they write articles. Most of them are not experts in the field or have something interesting to say, but they are just good at beating the Google algorithm to rank higher on its search results. Hence, results you see on Google are becoming less and less with human values. The problem seems to be not addressed by Google anyway. Thank you for reading: Why Can't Google answer my question? instead leads to rubbish. I would invite you for a discussion on mindfulness , consciousness and game of life in General in philosophical point of view.

On halfway through the journey of life when I look back, I realize the life is too short. Life is too short to do anything meaningful. You would not agree with this in the first instance. Specially if you are starting early in your life. Life is about dreams and achieving them, right? But for some of you who are at the end of your life you may have realize this as a fact. Life did move fast without you even knowing it. Some of you may be happy with achievements you have made, but is that all they're for the life? What about the rat race we are running. How many of them we have lost on the way? Poem Summer Dandelions. Caught up in breeze, dandelions begin a journey in summer. Freshly found wings, first took them high into the sky. Together they flew above the bushes, and high grass. Looking for a suitable land away from home. Some, ended up on trees, some on leaves. Some landed on water and drowned indeed. Some never took off, couldn't break away from pods. Dried up by the sun, some never got succeed. Yet there were some, hugged the soil at the end. Just enough water, enough sunlight they needed. On roots they stood up, stemmed high above the ground. To rise up and against the other weed. They cherished the success and, over the perished, they didn't weep. More about rat race is found in my previous article Here " On Horse races and rat races. " Modern day city life asks us to be more and more talented and high achieving each and every day. Even when you are not thinking about co-operate sense. There are enough and more races, which we have created artificially against each other. If you are a sportsman, you want to race with others and win a medal. If you are a businessman, you want to beat the others and win the market. If you are a musician, you want to be a you tube sensation. There is no end to the race. I find this tiring and exhausting. Sitting on the bed after a night shift I am writing about it today so we can share our thoughts on this. Maybe there is a way to get out of the rat race. Life is not about success. Life is about success. My teachers told me, if you work hard in school, you would be successful in life. I believed them. But it did not end up there. Life did not get better. We excelled in life, with some of friends. Now, after years into the life having seen beyond the school, I know that is wrong. Life is not about success. Life is not about achievements. Is life about happiness? Well, it seems some truth about it. But I would not call it happiness. I would call it satisfaction. There is a difference between success and satisfaction. Someone can be very successful and not satisfied. Someone can be not successful yet very satisfied. You can read the poem " science of nature. " Satisfaction in action - becoming a minimalist. If you ask me how to win a race, I will tell try hard, invest 10000 hours of time. And then you will win the race. For specific type of race there will be success instruction manuals if you just search in Google. Lately I doubt these. If we think about simple terms of probability, It is likely that you will not win the race at all. If there are 100 participants, the chance of you failing 99%. But what are other options? One rational option is trying to satisfy with what you get, after you have race. Which is hard to do as we race to win right? Some can get more hurt in the process and there will be more jobs for the psychotherapist. Becoming a minimalist is another option. In traditional sense becoming a minimalist is reducing your luxurious dreams and cut down on consumption. Sell off your excessive baggage and travel free. More importantly here I would suggest not participating in the rat race. Can you still fulfil a satisfied life? Of course you can. Without risk of failure, you can still live a satisfied life. If you target only some food, little bit of silence and some nature, you can have it with a minimal pay job. But you cannot do that. Why? because you will be labeled as going backwards. You will be labeled as poor, and you will lose your friends and family who wants you to be successful. I would suggest, stop living for others' expectations. That is the why we are entangled in the rat race in the first place. Rat races are the invention of the society. read more on what is a life well spent . I would end the article with another small paragraph from the book, From the past to the future or what is time. Step 2 - Tour-de France. Last July was 120 years since its beginning of this race in 1903, and it has evolved over time into one of the world's most celebrated events. From a simple race of individuals, it has evolved over time into teams, nations, individuals racing against each other. Every lap, every corner, every mountain, it's all about time. From beginning to the end of each race, time is measured and live displayed on the screen to the viewers all around the world. Throughout hours of the race, even after that, commentators' comment about minutes, seconds and milliseconds of margins which has determined winners and runner ups, yellow, green and white jerseys. To gain such marginal advantages cyclists train throughout the year from special meals, exercises, clothing, relaxation to perfect execution of their team plans to push against others. A century ago, there was no technology to determine such marginal wins which are analyzed by advanced methods today using computers. Yet there were winners and prizes, praises and heartbreaks. Who determines the winning?  The winner of a race wouldn’t be there unless there is someone to come second. Similarly, the places at the end of the race, are relative to each other. If there was only one person who was riding, there would be no race at all. So, participation matters. Hence the term, “It's not about winning but taking part “, but that is not complete either. If no one races against each other, it would be only a midsummer country cycle tour, a traveling and sightseeing tour, not the world-famous Tour de France. Hence the term “It's not about winning but taking part, the essential thing about life is not conquering but fighting well.” So, why do they fight? Or why should they fight against each other? What is the essential thing about a race being a race? Key point: How to stop the rat race - becoming a minimalist. True meaning of becoming a minimalist is not participating in the rat race, which is difficult as we are social animals. Be prepared to be lonely if you choose that path. Thank you for reading: How to stop the rat race - becoming a minimalist. You may also like to read: Why can't we live in present moment.

Give them Nothing Take from them Everything. These were the words uttered by the great warrior, Leonidus who was the leader of 300 Spartans, in the film 300. It seems encouraging address for a group of soldiers who are about to go to the war. I am sure, for Spartans, for Achillis and Every other war Hero these were their vision and mission. However, I would say this is a bad slogan for Bloggers. If you consider the blogging industry as a battlefield and you are going to war as a novice soldier, "Give them nothing, and Take them Everything" is never going to work. Instead, I recommend for blogging it should be the other way around. "Give them Everything and take from them nothing." Give them Everything and Take them from Nothing. This is my philosophy of blogging. Why? you may ask. Are you not going to make a living? Are you not going to reap what you harvest? Well, that of course is in my mind otherwise I would be lying. However, I can remember I have been on the other side of the wall not more than one year ago. I used to be the Client. I used to scroll through blog after blog looking for a blog that gives you something for nothing. But, it seemed, that is not the case. Everyone wants to take everything from you. The internet is flooded with poor quality articles who are written by bots, robots or "human machines" I did not see any depth into these superficial blog posts. They just provide just information, when I seek some intellectual marvels, Google provides me rubbish articles. This I have explained in my article " Why can't google answer my question ". It seems these articles are not written to read by humans, but to impress Google! Consciousness is valued. In this blog, I write mainly about meaning of life , valuelessness of thing s, and how mindfulness is the tool which let experiment on the mind and its objects. The reason is it fascinates me, why we are doing what we are doing. I do not think our parents or teachers did think about this seriously. If there is a meaning of life, which is valuable, and we should follow this instead of scrolling through or doing an 8-5 job to make a minimum wage, I think that is a waste of time. Human consciousness is a great gift by nature, for us to understand the nature. It cannot be merely by chance that we are humans. Maybe it is, but the point is we should individually understand this, as we are all stuck in our own prisons which are called bodies. Hence, what we are essentially are floating consciousness through time. And I do not see anything which challenge our regular ancestral beliefs in the blogging community. Most of them talk about success, prosperity, wealth and happiness. But the problem is without at least a fundamental understanding of processes which happen in our brains, we are clueless where we are, in these numeric scales. What is wealth? What is happiness? What is success and what is failure? Where is happiness coming from? Is it just an imagination ? I am curious about these questions, and I do not find answers abundant on the internet. Not at the level it should be. Occasionally there is a rational thinker solo fighting to leave a message to the world. But I am not sure they are heard but silenced by ignorance and google. Just like a heavy pebble when dropped in the water, they straight go to the bottom, and dwell. But only the lighter, things float on the surface for us to see. Why I started the blog? Why you should too? This is an easy question, my reason to start the blog was to promote my book, about time . It started small, but now, it has become bigger and bigger and more than the book! And this is the 300th post that I am writing. Humans are inherently creative. And we need a place for us to express ourselves. I was a victim of the killers of creativity of the past. But the blog has provided me a space to express myself. If you are a big fat introverted person like me, I say you should start writing too. Or for that matter being creative. Even if nobody reads, it doesn't matter. As this I consider this a limited legend of myself for me to re-read. Remember the diaries of Anne Frank? If she did not write her story nobody would know. I am sure you also have a story to tell, a unique one. My Little daughters are not big enough to know, the philosophy I write. I might or not be there when they become old enough to teach them lessons of life, as I understood it. They just know that I "Write Stories", and curious to read them but they can't. One day they will. Even if they didn't, you are doing it already. I confess I am a thief. I seal your consciousness, few minutes of your time. To carve a little story. Here and there, in words. Like Michelangelo did when he made his statue of David. Not to make you disheartened or make it ugly. But to shape it a little more precious. So, if you are in doubt what you should write, I suggest you start with a mini-Essay and see where it leads. A year of mindfulness blogging - of 300 Spartans. Nope. I haven't earned a single dollar from blogging. So, if you are looking for a success story of "How to make a Ton of Money blogging", you have to look somewhere else. Even Google have not, trusted what I am saying is true, at this point in time. And I do not expect otherwise, what does an AI bot know about life? How does even Google Know what philosophy and mindfulness is? It just follows protocols. Maybe Google is just a shy girl, who does have trust issues unless someone else recommends, or do not go on a date without a thorough background Check, type of a girl. With Zero Backlinks (Which are pointers from high authority domains to the blog) I am just the new student in the class, with crazy ideas! No wonder nobody trusted me; I even tried the Russian girl Yandex! But It doesn't matter to a Warrior. 300 Spartans in My league will die tomorrow in the battle grounds against thousands of Persians. They have the spirit; they have a will to go on until the last breath of the last one stands, perish. You may ask me why? Why did the Spartans were a legend there are only 300 of them against thousands. I would say, because they were professionals. They have seen how wolves hunt in the dark valleys when they were just little boys and trained themselves on the skill. And they fought with their heart, and connected with all their brothers, to defend a one belief, that they can win. So, even if they did die, it doesn't matter. As they did not battle for coins like Persian army. I just wonder what could have been done if it were 600 Spartans? Search console Graph For anyone interested. following is my Search console graph for the last one Year of blogging. Graph 1 Graph 2

Generic Term. Chimera is a generic term which means different things to different people according to their background. However, origins of the word come from Greek Mythological creature, which has a head of a lion, body of a goat and the tail of a snake. Hence formed by different body parts of different animals. So, the word chimera has a more generic meaning which is " Something formed of different parts, generally which does not fit together ". So basically, if you fit a front of a car to a back of a motorcycle, that is a "Chimeric vehicle". It is unusual and unexpected also do not fits together at all! But naturally in biology and science, architecture and in literature we find Chimeras. Chimera in Genetics -BCR-ABL1 mutation First time I heard the word "Chimera" Was in our genetics class, where some mutations of genes are chimeric in nature. In genetics genes are specific patterns in our DNA which have the ability to create various proteins in our body. And they are inherited from our parents. While this complex genetic mechanism is happening inside the body, sometimes they break apart and get mixed up! So, instead of making a Car which it is supposed to do, they end up making "Car-cycle" . As I have explained earlier because of these abnormal proteins, formed by Chimeric Genes sometimes they even end up in disease. Such as BCR-ABL1 mutation result in chronic Myeloid Leukemia. It's a mutation between BCR gene in chromosome 22 with ABL proto-oncogene (A cancer promoting Gene). I think further explanation on the subject is not necessary in this article as we are just trying to discuss some philosophical issues with Chimera, not at all biology or genetics. Chimera in Greek mythology and Architecture- its Humble Origins. Chimera in Greek mythology is a dangerous creature with ability to breath fire. Classically it is mentioned as a female monster with a front part of a Lion, Body of a goat and a rear with a dragon. However, in drawings and art the rear is commonly drawn as a head of a snake. According to mythology the creature had roamed Caria and Lycia spreading fear and havoc until it was slayed by Bellerophon the Hero. As a creature of imagination, chimera has fascinated lot of Greek artists and depicted in various forms of art, from monuments to Vases. Infact any form of statue which is made out of different parts of animals, combined to a single creature grotesque, fantastic and imaginary in nature. is used in decorative nature in Architectural world, is considered a Chimera. Literature and Popular culture. You will find the word "Chimera" in different contexts in popular culture, ranging from X files, from beauty and the beast to Video games, Harry potter DC comics and Marval Comics. Wikipedia gives a long list of mentions to the Chimera in popular culture. As more than anyone, artists are fascinated by the term "Chimera" as it is inherently associated with imagination as we can now understand, and I am sure you will see a Chimera in the future as well. However, as a philosophy enthusiast, I like to grasp the meaning of the word chimera and apply this to the reality. Hence rest of the article discuss "Chimera" in philosophy. Which I think is a new arena to explore for anyone, without philosophical background. Why everything is chimeric? Philosophy Let's do a little thought experiment on Chimera. Imagine a chimera exists. Imagine some Archeologists digging up a graveyard actually found an animal with a lion's head body of a goat and a snake head as a tail. Now at this point, Chimera technically no longer would be a "Chimera" and we would give this animal a name (We can call it LigoNake). There are even some examples closer to the above, consider a Liger. A cross animal between a lion and a tiger. Two different species. Technically it is a chimera, however as it is existing, we call it a different name. How tiger is a Chimera Now let's look at a tiger. That is not a chimera right? But evolution suggests so. I would explain. As the evolution suggests, multicellular organisms are originated from unicellular organisms. Imagine in the ancient sea billions of years ago, a large uni-cell engulfed small unicell. And then this small, unicell started living inside the large cell, even replicate essentially nourished by the large cell. This is exactly how so called "mitochondria" has evolved inside cells of larger cells. If this is true A "Cell" of an animal is a form of Chimera. And imagine thousands of cells start to form a Tiger. Why is Tiger not considered as a chimera? If we can divide tiger into cells which are capable of living individually inside a petri-Dish on its own. And create another tiger (This is called stem cell research) A tiger should be technically a "Chimera" as real as a LigoNake! A Visit to the Slaughterhouse Let's assume you say otherwise. You say "Chimera" just mean imaginary. And it doesn't mean "Something which is made out of different unusual parts". To understand this we will go to a slaughterhouse. When I was working in university, I used to go to Slaughterhouse to pick up "Pig parts" for various practicals of students. Let's look at the pig, killed and parts separated on the table. "Pig legs, Pig skin, Pig arteries", are there on the table. Technically speaking everything which is called a pig, before it was killed are there on the table, except for its consciousness. Let's assume that this "Pig consciousness" is also there in a bucket separately. Now, everything is there. Can you point to everything on the table and call "This is the Pig"? It seems parts of the pig are not the pig. And any combination of these parts of the pig are not the pig either. But everything is there, so the "Pig" is just an imaginary name given to every part of the pig in a specific arrangement. It is a layer of abstraction to understand things better. Now here is the interesting part. If you think about these individual parts of the pig, they are also imaginary as they also can be seen as a collection of individual smaller parts. "Pig foot" can be represented as an imaginary name given to specific arrangement of different "Pig tissues". The problem is there is no depth to this and as you can see the Pig, is entirely imaginary. And there is no real Pig. Some of my previous articles discuss these in depth. Such as collections and encapsulation , spectrums of life etc. What can be applied to a pig, can be applied to you too? Are "You" imaginary? At this point you would say. Hold on a second, If the above is true everything we see is imaginary. Not only a lion, but a car is also just an imaginary name given to collection of its parts. These parts are also imaginary names given to their "parts". I could not agree more to this. And it seems everything we ever talk about is just a " Thing " with a name. And we cannot even function without our imaginary abstracts of everything. So, to speak everything we have discussed in this article are chimeric in nature, as otherwise no communication would happen. Living seems to be a dream where we associate ourselves with this chimeric world searching for a meaning ! It seems Socrates was true, when he said, " Only True wisdom is when you know that you know nothing ."

Examples of going with the flow. In Football I was watching a video of best goals by great players of 21st century ( link ). The video showed each player's most Iconic goal followed by their own assessment and commentary on actually what happened. Something I noticed was that generally everyone said that there was nothing supernatural about what they did. They did not even recognize that the goal was supernatural at the time they played it. Only after watching the replay some of them realized the value of, it. Common to everyone was, actually nobody wanted to play a brilliant goal, they just went with the flow, "Adjusted themselves to what is happening". Just like the ball was meant to be hit that way. In a plastic bag, in wind. Have you seen the empty polythene bag which dances in the wind? It was like the plastic bag got a life by itself. Just a little wind which gave it a lift and it started to behave like a ghost. Like an invisible life controlling its movements. If you haven't seen the plastic bag, you may have seen a flag in the wind . Just like I observed some time ago. Maybe you have watched a leaf floating on the water and compared with the life. Why should we go with the flow? If we look carefully going with the flow is the really a form of going against the flow. When we look at life, we always think about it in the point of view of a free will . From the early life we were taught lessons of being successful, financially spiritually and even when it comes to mindfulness and meditation and charity. We degrade and suppress the opposite, poverty, cruelty chaos and greediness. Yet this duality was created by our own minds. So, trying to change things is the normal acceptable behavior, however going with the flow is opposite way to try to change things. How to go with the flow? - by example I can give you a useless list of ten things to follow to go with the flow. However, that would not be beneficial to you. That would be just a trick list to rank in google better. So, I will give you example of going with the flow, so you can understand. The main idea is, you can only go with the flow, when you have enough wisdom with mindfulness. Case of anger. Imagine you are angry, for some reason, with some thing or someone. We all have been there. Feeling the blood boiling inside with ears starting to get fire. What is our normal response. We know anger is bad, and we try to suppress it. We want to control our anger, and just to see it is getting bigger. Just like happiness disappear when we try to reach happiness, angry monster grows when we try to control it. When the anger disappears, you may start to worry, that you got angry. What is the alternative? To understand the alternative and understand the true nature of the go with the flow. We need to be aware and acknowledge the presence of anger. That is, it. You would start to see the Anger arises, due to circumstances. Just like all the other mental objects, anger is also a mental object. Hence when the circumstances disappear, the anger will disappear. So, you can just go with the flow. If you have gained wisdom from observing countless times, what happens in your mind, you would know, if anger arise you have nothing to do. It's just a harmless mental object. And you can even play with it. And it will be replaced by happiness. When it is gone, its gone. When it is there it is there. And that is true meaning of going with the flow - just notice your drifting through time. Oh, that is easy to say. But hard to do. But it is a better framework than trying to forcibly suppress anger, for that matter any emotion. Eventually we will learn that we are not masters of the mind, but just observers. Observers, who even have ability to observe the observer and observing. When you start to go with the flow, you will eventually find out, that is rather not an option, but it is what is happening. You will notice, watching you tube videos, minute after minute is not your doing, and not inherently less valuable than writing a blog post. That is what I understand by going with the flow. What does it mean for you?

Just the other day I was talking about the negative effects of our news , the Mass media. And I said, "The important news will eventually find you, if that is really important, that you can avoid the negative crap until then." Surprisingly enough I just found that this is true. As the time of the writing above article, it was continuously pouring in this part of the country, as the Bengal Bay is having its own pre-hurricane depression, maybe a butterfly did flap its wings in the Land of creativity and Dreams. ( Chaos theory ) I took a drive outside and There was a Flood! And the news came to me just as an Experience and not from mass media. That is my first experience on a real flood, which affected me. And I drove carefully and luckily car did not stop middle of the road. But today, the water level had risen more, and the lagoon had reached the park where I used to sit and watch the jelly fish swim. Maybe after all they did want to meet me personally! And this part of the country is isolated from the rest of the country and I am stuck. Crows for a snack Like everyone else, I took opportunity to visit the "Flood". As I could see, some houses by the road were flooded too. For the people in these houses, it is a disaster. Everything is in chaos. Form their work, to their Everyday activates, and it will take some time even after the flood subsides, until they come back to normal. Whoever who has lost their loved ones, and their homes, this would be an irreversible change. But for the crows, it is time for opportunity. They were gathered by dozens on the grass fields. As the flood water created little insects to float from their hiding places. A little snack for the crows. And I can see many more, who benefit from the flood, just the other side of the equation. Like news channels, and maybe I am too as I am writing this article. That is the meaning of Rowing boats in the flood. Which is not bad at all as long as you do not fall in the water. As humans, we have remarkable ability to adapt to the situation, resilience. Which is good, as we should really learn to see the silver lining in the dark sky. I cannot see any situation we cannot make to our advantage, except maybe for the death. As death, does cancel the meaning to any life. Hence philosophy is inherently dark cloud. Philosophy is the attempt of humankind from the dark cloud of death. I do not laugh at people who row the boats, in the flood. Looking for some laughter, to save their valuables or any other reason. At least we should be thankful that we have this kind of boat, when it is our time to face the flood of diseases, and death. Rowing boats in the Flood. Bucket of water , Bucket of milk I have seen many times we did row our boats in the flood. Take an example of following famous speech of Frank Abagnale Sr. in the movie "Catch me if you can". "Once there were two mice, fell into the bucket of milk. One did give up without a fight and drowned and died. The other mice refused to give up. He did swim and swim and swim until the milk turned into butter. And he walked away from the danger. I am the second mice." When I think about the quote, a lot of questions arise. Taken in isolation it seems like a success story, of the second mice. But how long did the mice live until it was crossed the roads of the Cat? What if the mice fell into a bucket of water instead? Maybe the mice should have taken his time to think about these possibilities when it was relaxing after a meal of cheese, inside its comfort of home. Maybe if he did, the mice would have walked mindfully so that it would never fell into the bucket of water or crossed the path of the cat and live up to full potential of mice life. Then, even death could have been a happy ending, if the mice was mindful about that. Landslides, tsunamis and hurricanes . I can remember a landslide happened few years back in our district. A whole slope of few kilometers came down crashing a village hundreds of meters below. The total village was destroyed, and more than hundred people were buried under the rocks debris and mud. People from all around the other areas came to "visit" not only to help mostly to be amazed. Just like when it was on Boxing Day tsunami . And why did this happen? Why we are curious inherently about these events? I can see it is due to the negative value we give to these situations. Associated with negativity bias , sometimes they are more remembered than the positive aspects. To understand you need to learn about mental objects and how we give values to these mental objects . Remember when you walked by a stinking fish market last time? Without even knowing, you may have taken a deep breath, just you could not resist, registering the experience in the brain. Which is not in our control. But only with mindfulness we can see that this is happening. Everything in our mind has a value. Just like a flood, a stinking fish market or even a pot. But only with mindfulness we can see the valuelessness of these, and that will help us to understand the nature better. If you do not know this you would fall into someone's agenda, even your "self". And I think that is the lesson we can learn by watching rowing boats in the Flood. Rowing boats in the flood - Mill on the floss. Following is an AI generated plot summary of novel "Mill on the Floss" The Mill on the Floss is a novel by George Eliot that follows the lives of Maggie and Tom Tulliver, two siblings growing up in rural England. Maggie, the intelligent and spirited younger sister, constantly clashes with the expectations of her family and society. Tom, the dutiful and conventional older brother, struggles with his own sense of responsibility and ambition. As they grow older, Maggie falls in love with Philip Wakem, the son of their family's enemy. Their love is forbidden, and Maggie faces the consequences of her defiance. Meanwhile, Tom becomes increasingly consumed by his desire to avenge their family's misfortune and rebuild their social status. The novel culminates in a devastating flood that sweeps through the region. Maggie, driven by her love for her brother Tom, braves the treacherous waters to rescue him from their flooded family home, Dorlcote Mill. Together, they navigate the raging river in a small boat, their bond deepening amidst the chaos. However, their escape is cut short as the boat capsizes, and both Maggie and Tom are tragically drowned. Their deaths, intertwined in the relentless force of nature, symbolize the power of fate and the fragility of human life. The flood serves as a powerful metaphor for the tumultuous forces that shape individual destinies, ultimately leading to their untimely demise.