Happy grass. You are sitting by the lagoon. All alone, with your consciousness. The wind-blown across the lagoon makes a constant tickle on your face. The group of crows arguing with each other in nearby trees. The eagles, on the other hand are circling very high, up above everything. Below the gloomy evening sky. They travel solo. Just like you this evening. Surely, they have the majestic view. If only. If only they possess the power of your observation. Looking at the chaotic waves, which makes a constant chatter, you turn towards the bank. Notice the small grass flowers which happily sway in the wind. In full harmony with each other, they look like a group of dancers. And you notice the happiness, is just there, in the grass. Click this for the video --> Grass Happiness was there in the grass. I remember times when I was a tiny kid. I was one of the smallest in the class. We used to go to school early, and before the school officially started, we played in the ground. The one ground was occupied by many children. Often, ones in middle or higher classes, would play in the middle. I did not mind playing on the sides of the ground. There were plenty of thick grass in the periphery of the ground. Unlike in the middle, we could even roll over in it, without getting too much dirt in our school uniform. The grass was grown. For a child only few feet tall, it was like a jungle. I often imagined myself it is a jungle. We used to jump around, playing "ICE -WATER" on the slopes of the ground which were heavily greenish with grass. Tiny yellow flowers blossomed in these parts, attracting small bees and insects. These were the best times of the day. I remember going to the class once the bell rang, with full of sweat, on hot days. It made it difficult, to go through the first period with all the adrenaline rushing through the body. But I could not stop playing the next day. Sometimes when nobody was watching we would tie two bunches of grass together. And make miniature traps. We used to walk, like we haven't seen them and step into them. We would roll over, like the traps did work, imitating someone fall. I cannot remember a day, where somebody really got trapped and fell. Why would that make me happy? Was I cruel? to see someone fall. I think maybe, it brings a same sensation as someone catching a fish, if it did ever work. Grass here, Grass there, Grass everywhere. I can write a whole day on grass. I am not bosting. Not at all I am a botany student, Neither I am a Cow! But I know I have been with grass and remember the times we spent together than both of them. Like, when the grass leaves are dry, I used to delicately separate small rectangular peace of its leave and balance it in my fingertip, to make a temporary fan. Once it is glued with a drop of saliva, I could run and make it spin! What a marvelous fun. Imagine you can be happy. Just being with grass. Try it next time, when you go to the park! Grass, is here, Grass is there, Grass is everywhere. Where is happiness found? Where is happiness found? Sometimes it brings me tears, when I know, that me myself is responsible for killing the child in me. Then I think, maybe it was bound to happen. After all the grass is still there, in the ground. Children still play. How can I teach my kid, the happiness can be in Grass, McDonald's or KFC? Would they ever believe?

Getting ready for exams. Well, if you are looking for advice, for passing your exams, maybe I have a few. I have written few articles previously about pomodoro, techniques and blooms taxonomy. Here, I will give you another tip. I used to do, when I reached somewhat closer to the exam. It was my intuition from following observation. I observed that when very close to an exam, the ability of my brain to comprehend and remember improves markedly. It may be associated with all the hormones which play mayhem, near the exam. And even if I haven't studied much during the semester as I would want, these last few days mattered most. And they really helped with exam. So, I wanted to use this hidden power. So, whenever I wanted to study, I would imagine this is the day before exam. What would I do? What would I do if tomorrow is exam? What would you do if tomorrow is your exam? Would you party? with your friends? Would you spend time watching TV/ Netflix? Would you do boring self-study sessions? Would you make heaps of notes? if the exam is tomorrow? No, it will automatically occur to you what you should be doing if tomorrow is your exam. You would cram and cram. You will cram a lot. You will go through all your notes. Try to read all your study material. I think you will not waste any time. You will try to remember important stuff. Your brain will start to notice patterns which you did not see earlier, all the semester. I would Do just that! I would just do what I would do on the last day. And mind you if you do this for 30 days in a row, you would be able to sleep 24 hours the day before the exam, or go to a party, when your friends try to do, what you have done 30 days in a single day! That all about getting ready for exams, however, this article is not about them. I just wanted to show you the principle of thinking. Let's apply our little intuition about passing exams, to our lives. Shall we? Getting ready for death. What is the biggest challenge we all have to face? I say it is the challenge of death. Exams when compared is a minimal nuisance. And when are you going to face this challenge? Truly speaking, we should be happy to be alive and healthy today. When life, is associated with constant threat of the death. That is inherently bound to it and limiting it. Death defines, what we can and cannot do. Reproduction is the natures, way of cheating the death. That is good enough at a population level. But individually as a consciousness, how can you overcome death? What would you do? on the day before your death? (Can you see the similarity? It creates an urgency in our minds to correct our deeds) Would you go to your attic, to look at your dirty painting of Dorian , for a one last time before it all end? Or would you correct your path and be a good man, a happy man, a free man for a good 24 hours? Irony is this is the truth for thousands and thousands of humans who are going to die tomorrow. Some of them know, some of them do not know. It does not matter, your age, your ability, your status. For the nature, you are not special. As you are part of the nature, there is nothing wrong. Nature is not cruel, neither it is valuable. Questioning myself, a long before the exam, helps me with it. I suggest and invite you to apply the same principles to your life. Live like today is the last day on earth. Correct your actions and be mindful about the seconds. Who knows, one day the nature would test us, without even a warning.

This is the part 2 of simple truths. To understand light, it is important to know why. If you have read the previous article on simple truths, you would notice, some of these are still present in front of our eyes. Hence mindfulness is essential as we cannot see these truths directly in our vision. With our minds vision or "imagination" we can manipulate physical parameters to do a mental experiment on everyday objects and acquire wisdom it provides. I invite you for a yet another thought journey, like Einstein did, this time to the edge of the universe. Observable Universe. When we learn about astronomy, we learn that the lengths in universe are so massive, measuring by meters, or kilometers is not possible. Hence, we measure distance in light years. Light travels so fast that in a one second it will travel 299,792 kilometers. However, the universe is expanding at a rate, more than this distance for a second at the edge of the observable universe (relative to earth). The concept of the observable universe stems from the finite speed of light and the finite age of the universe. Because the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, we can only see objects whose light has had enough time to reach us since the beginning of the universe. This creates a "horizon" beyond which we cannot observe, not because there isn't more out there, but because their light hasn't had enough time to get to us. This observable limit is what defines the boundaries of what we can detect and study—hence the term "observable universe." It's a product of the interplay between time, distance, and the speed of light. Now that is good for background knowledge. How can we use these extreme ideas for our mindfulness practice or simply our wisdom? A thought experiment - Philosophy of light Imagine you found a way to teleport your friend to the edge of the universe. And he sends you a message. He lights up an infinite torch from the edge of the universe to send you a message. Let's assume this torch is powerful enough to provide light which can travel so far. If your friend is at the edge of the universe, his message would reach us in another 13.8 billion light years (because of the expansion of the universe actual distance this light has travelled would be 46.5 billion light years. There may be errors in my calculation when other factors are considered. However, as this is just a philosophical argument, this is good enough. More importantly what does this mean? Philosophy of light When the space is expanded, we see that apparent fast speed of light is not so fast anymore. It will be generations and generations till the light from your friend reaches the earth. We all would be perished by then. The light, which is instant, so fast in our scale, carries a significant delay in infinite scale. Only because we are not so fast, we do not observe this delay. What is true in cosmic scale is true in our scale. How minute it is when you see something, it has already happened! Think about what this means philosophically. When you see a buzzing bee land on a flower, it is something which already happened! What we see and identify as now, is something which happened in the past. Really speaking we can never see what is happening Now. So, what do we do when we ask someone to live mindfully or live for the moment ? When we truly cannot achieve this reality. For me living mindfully is being aware of these simple truths. Identifying flaws in our perceptions in this relatively true world. If you would like to see the same problem in a different viewpoint, I would ask you to imagine quicksilver .

This is a discussion I had the other day with one of my twitter friends. What defines an ordinary person from extraordinary. My initial intuition was that it is none other than a 'Belief'. And following is the surprisingly satisfactory discussion we had about the subject. What defines an extraordinary person? Is it the eyes. The first answer she came up with was eyes. I could not agree more. If we consider beauty, eyes will define extraordinary from ordinary. We discussed about the eyes of a girl which appeared in my previous article on philosophy of collarbone , and mutually agreed she had extraordinary eyes. And I had no idea that she would come up with "Eyes" as an answer, as I was expecting something more philosophical in nature. It surprised me, something so simple as Eyes could be a potential answer to a philosophical question. I am sure you also would come up with an answer, and it may or may not be surprising as above. What do you think about "Eyes" as an answer? Don't you agree that it is a good candidate? Is it love? There are different kinds of love. Love of a child to his mother, a wife's love to her husband. Monkey loving its baby. The God's love to all the people on earth. The latter can be extraordinary. It's a shame if it doesn't. We can only imagine such a love. I think I have written about such Platonic love , in one of my previous articles. Hence, I would not elaborate it more here. However, it is kind of an extraordinary love which we can only imagine partially, without any flaws, without any hidden agendas and greed. You would agree only "God" can provide such true love. Is it something else? Is it bravery ? Is it kindness? Is it self-reflection? I am sure you have your own favorite answer to the above question. And I am sure you will be happy if I come up with the same answer as you. However, I was searching for the perfect answer. Hence, I did a little google search and following were other candidates. See whether your answer is written here. An extraordinary person often stands out not merely because of their talents or achievements but due to their unwavering character, resilience , and impact on others. They possess a unique blend of authenticity, compassion, and determination, consistently pursuing their goals while uplifting those around them . Their actions are driven by a purpose greater than themselves, fostering positive change and inspiring others to do the same. Extraordinary people embrace challenges , learn from setbacks , and remain humble despite their successes. Their presence leaves an indelible mark, reminding us of the power of human potential and the profound difference one individual can make in the world. Is it a belief? But more importantly I think it is the first answer that I came up with. Because even it can be such a simple answer as "Eyes". You just have to believe that you are extraordinary in some important unique character. Hence when someone says, it's the kindness, it is true. And when the other says it is hard working. That is true too. Only if they believe in it. Hence, the belief is the one defines the extraordinary from ordinary. If anyone believe that they are not extraordinary from any character, that would be true too. Why a Belief defines an extraordinary person. If you believe in God, it will make you extraordinary, and help you power to achieve, heavenly things. If you believe in hard work, it will make you an extraordinary man, to do humanly impossible tasks. If you believe in kindness, you will start to heal hearts of thousands of battered humans. If you believe in money, it might make you an extraordinary criminal, if you forget your moral grounds in achieving it. So, the question is what are you going to choose in believing?

This is an observation I have made about this life, which had changed myself. A good way to point it out is by saying it is the zero of life. However, there is more to it. If you have read my previous article on mathematic problem of 3n+1, I have explained the pattern which emerges with the problem. The graph of 3n+1 problem is one which starts with a number but ends with 3->2->1. For the purpose of this article, I want you to imagine a graph. Something similar to the above. The graph of life. The graph of life starts at 0 at time 0. You guessed it right, that is the time embryo became conscious. And since then, it is a roller costar ride. If Y axis represents value of life at each point in time, for some, the graph will reach, unimaginable heights. For some, it would plateau. As time goes by all the graphs will come back to zero. We will analyze some of these graphs to understand the zero of life. Imagine someone with a very high achievement. Imagine the president of USA, he is the unnamed leader of the world. As countries exists and survive, according to his rule. I maybe dramatizing. Just for the purpose of showing that he is a high achiever, for a period of 4 years he would reach unimaginable heights in his graph, only we can try to imagine. And then he would humbly step down, until he too succumbs to the forces of the nature. You can imagine anyone, an entrepreneur, a dictator, a monk. And you would notice high achievers start with zero, and end in zero. What about the commoners? Commoners like you and me. We start at zero, just like everyone else. We reach heights which are barely far away from the X axis, and we end at zero. In one day, we would reach our zero. Although the middle is different, we share a common fate with high achievers. What about someone with a low-quality life? Start at zero, born poor, turned criminal and end life on an electric chair. It never reached any height. And end of their life they reached zero. You might object. You might say it is not true. that we do not reach zero. We carry our deeds to the afterlife. However, as I have discussed earlier, such matters of death, and pre-birth are still without solid visible evidence. We live in a world where we cannot win even a court case with hearsay, hence, in matters of life and death, we should stick to the facts which we can see, and we can observe. Hence, I would say, death brings us back to zero is true, when we consider where we started. We started from atoms burrowed from the nature, hence when they are returned, we become zero. Mathematical formula. Another way to look at the zero, is to compare it to an equation. Which has answer zero. Even if the equation is very complex- such as in a high achiever, the answer will be zero. And even if it is simple one like in a common daily waged worker, it will produce another zero. Hence, although they look different both of equations are equal, in value. Understanding zero of life. Understanding the end values of anyone's life, makes us humble human beings. It can only provide good, and spread kindness, when we see the equal nature of a human being, in a rural part of Africa, or a similarly disadvantaged person in a modern developed world. They all will spend a fulfilled or not so fulfilled life according to the quality of thoughts they will get during their day. However, the life will essentially provide them with a zero. So, this helps me with my greed with need of reaching unimaginable heights. And helping others to reach their potential. As we all are played by the nature. Let's bow: Zero Zero, a seemingly simple digit, holds profound significance across various fields. In mathematics, it serves as the cornerstone for the modern number system, representing the concept of 'nothing' while enabling complex calculations and equations. Philosophically, zero can symbolize the void, the origin, or the infinite potential of starting points. In digital technology, it's a fundamental building block, paired with one, creating the binary code that powers our digital world. Beyond its mathematical utility, zero carries cultural and spiritual meanings in different societies, often representing balance and the cyclical nature of existence. From ancient civilizations to cutting-edge technology, zero's journey is as intriguing as it is essential.

It is a hard-working day for you. Woken early morning, as you had your promises to keep, did not go as it was planned, like it always does. So, feeling weary and dizzy you head up to the beach. Just a regular beach. No fancy beachfront hotels. No tourists. Just regular people. As you park your car, a little boy comes running in a fancy dress and his eyes are delighted looking at your car. Another customer, as there are only few bicycles on the parking area, and yours is the only car he had seen for the evening. And he gives you a ticket with a smile on his face. What a good start to end the day on the beach. Just a regular beach You walk towards the ocean. Just a regular ocean, nothing fascinating about it. Cannot swim as it is not too shallow, doesn't produce beautiful crashing waves as it is not too deep. Just a regular beach. And you walk past all the fishermen, who hide under the shade of a big tree. Spending the valuable rest they have earned after coming home early in the morning following a night of fishing. Their workday is about to start while yours, just finished. Just a narrow window, between you and them. The crows who had followed them, look for some snacks in the sand, tries to grab the ice-cream from a little girl who just entered. Being treated rough all their lives, by the fishermen, these crows have adapted to the lifestyle, not at all they were feared by the girl or her elder sister, and continuously tries to distract and make them drop something on the sand. You sit down on a timber which happened to be an odd addition to the beach, which is otherwise empty except for a few boats. Just like you in your regular working shoes and dress, an odd addition to the locals. You turn your back on the elderly gentlemen definitely who is retired and who had worked in a regular 8-5 job. seated on the beach, on sand and enjoying himself in thought which are powered by the sea wind. He surely is something, a different consciousness from you. A different perspective, a new world. You make a mental note and forget about him, as you just want to feel the regular wind and some regular ships which embrace the horizon at the edge of the sea. After a while, after a regular amount of time, you walk toward a recreational area built for tourists and with some cement benches. And you walk pass the new church built at the edge of the sea. A regular church. But you were interrupted by the huge concrete remains of the old fallen church. And how did it happen? Even ten elephants would need to hoist such a big, a thousand Tonn concrete structure. But there it is! tipped like a building block tipped by a child. By whom? And it takes your memory back to the boxing day of 2004. The sea which has been a regular sea, and the beach, which was a regular beach, was not a regular beach on that day. And you look back to see the old gentlemen who was looking at the sea with an empty face. He is not there anymore. And you wonder what his story is as you walk towards your car. Maybe he is waiting for his daughter and wife, who are not with him anymore due to the regular sea. Thank you for reading Just a regular beach. Following is a paragraph from the book, what is time ? Boxing day tsunami - on massive waves and natural disasters. In 2004 boxing day i woke up early morning and came to know there had been a major flood in coastal regions of our country. Later that day we saw videos from coastal cities, innocent people washed away by massive waves back and forth until they were washed back to the sea. We had never seen those stories  for ages, except there was one story from the ancient times when the queen of an ancient king sacrificed herself and was sent to the sea to stop floods , and somehow it stopped after the sacrifice and she landed safely at another coast. Now we know the true nature of tsunami. Now it's been almost two decades, still people are living by the coast, with memories of missing loved ones washed away by the sea. Sea is not rough, like it's December 24 th of that year. Yet waves crash, and they retreat, over and over again. Occasionally a big wave reaches more than others and wash away some more into the land, and retract back to the sea. Even the tsunami retreated back to the sea. I suggest you be the visitor of your own beach of mind, until you notice the endless process of thoughts crashing on the beach. To retract back. Occasionally big waves. And massive tsunamis will happen one day. And when it does, it is time to exercise your practice. It is the best prediction about the future we can make. And like some wise man once said ‘ The best thing I have learned about my life is not to trust each and every thought ‘.

hurricanemilton2024  "Mr. Milton woke up one morning feeling dizzy from hangover. He could not walk hence started spinning. Until he reached super speed and crashed into the kitchen. Oh! pots and pans they flew from the wind that blew. Neighbours saw him in morning bulleting news." Story of butterflies. I was travelling 100km/hr. in the car the other day, through the vast planes of eastern province. Only occasional heard of cows to slow down the traffic, otherwise the easy flat driving. Butterflies, they did not slow down the traffic. They were too small to see, until they were very close, and an impact is unavoidable. They were crossing the road in hundreds, not thousands. So, I may have been guilty in injuring a dozen of them. What is my verdict? It brought me back to, my childhood, when we used to play in a nearby playground, in the month January, we used to see butterflies. Hundreds of yellow butterflies flew across the playground. They travel solo, not in groups, hence I am sure adults have not seen them. We children had eyes to spot these small flying objects easily, as they would fascinate us. We ran after butterflies, as their path of flying was not straight it was difficult. And they were too fast to catch. Very rarely they would land on grass and once or twice I have caught them. How much gently I would do it, but they would get injured, and some of them, I am not sure that they have ever flown afterwards. I just needed to see them closer, that's all. If you would like to listen more on butterflies, I suggest you can listen to Sir David Attenborough's narrative on Metamorphosis of butterflies. How they transform themselves from an ugly caterpillar, into a beautiful butterfly, like in a fairy tale. However, this article is about chaos theory, hence let's remind this to ourselves. Chaos theory or butterfly effect. Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics that explores how small changes in initial conditions can lead to vastly different outcomes in complex systems. This concept is famously illustrated by the butterfly effect, which suggests that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world could eventually cause a tornado in another. The term was popularized by meteorologist Edward Lorenz in the 1960s when he discovered that tiny variations in his weather models led to significantly different results. Essentially, chaos theory reveals the inherent unpredictability in systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, challenging the notion that we can always predict future events with precision. Previously, I tried to compare what is happening in life, as explained to chaos theory . I compared that the order we see in our lives are just like, some apparent patterns visible, and explained in chaos theory (Lorenz factors). Butterfly effect and Hurricane Milton What a great time to write about butterfly Effect. Mr. Milton has just swept through the Florida. And it had played havoc like a drunken man in the kitchen. he has no right to be there like he did. And the lives of people have changed for months following. According to chaos theory, maybe I am responsible, by changing the trajectory of the butterflies who flew across the road last month. Maybe they have changed the pattern of some molecules in atmosphere and ultimately created Mr. Milton. What is my verdict Now? Nobody would punish me. As when we travel through time, what we essentially do is change some of the conditions of the state of this complex system of universe. And nobody can point out the exact cause of the origin of the Mr. Milton. As, they are so much interconnected. This is the argument I have expressed in the article reasons beyond reasons . However, the fact remains, although not directly, small action small change can trigger an avalanche of changes over time. Or Snowball effect. It is true for hurricanes, and it is true for wars. It is true for global peace as well. This is why your mindful deed matters. Your one step, outside that door matters. Your simple kind actions matter. Nobody knows how long we have been this sparkle of energy, which is called consciousness. Maybe we have been travelling, so long and our consciousness is now big enough, ripe enough to understand even the universe, and even the consciousness itself. let us be kind to ourselves and look back at our lives for a small change today. Let us take one deep breath with mindfulness.

Background You walk on the busy road, among many other, daily workers, who try to reach their homes as quickly as possible after a hard-working day. It is almost dark, and the streetlights are on, some are busy buying a quick dinner. Among many who run toward buses, cars and trams, you walk slowly and for a second take your eyes across the gloomy sky. And you notice the abnormally huge, full moon. Just being present in the sky. And you remember that it takes a lot of courage for an ordinary man among thousands in the city to look at the sky. Simply they do not have time! And it reminded you the story of bravery. Story of bravery - the merchant. A long long time ago, there was a wise merchant. He was travelling with a heard of hundreds of camels, trading goods from town to town. And yearly, he would take a long journey across a vast desert which takes 50 nights to cross. As it is too hot during the day, they rest in the daytime, and at night the stars guide them with directions. And there were these stargazers who travel in the front of the group, who showed the way. That year was one of the hottest in decades when he took the journey with his heard of camels and men. And it took 49 days for him to travel to the edge of the desert, and the animals were tired as well as all his men, and the ones who lead the group, fell asleep on the 50th day. They did not have water to last another day, and it did not matter as they were supposed to reach the town next day. However following morning unfortunately, they found out that they were reached the place where they stayed the last night. Camels they have turned around as they had no one to show the way. Exhausted of heat and dehydration, many men had no energy to carry on for another day. Not without water. And animals were dying too. The merchant took a walk with few brave men of his group and was carefully looking for any sign of water. And he noticed a small green plant on a little sand mound. He asked his men to dig a hole. With hope they started to dig, and dig, and dig and the burning sun burnt all their courage. As the hole grew deeper, they were losing hope, and they met a dead end when they encountered a big rock at the bottom of the newly dug well. They gave up and it was depressing end, and they all, thought that they were doomed and never would see their families again. But the merchant thought otherwise. He jumped into the well and lied down. Kept his head on the rock and listened. With a smile he rose up and asked his men to be brave, gather all their courage to break the stone. And one man, stepped up, although exhausted he lifted the enormous hammer and slammed few times. Once the rock was cracked a gush of water came out. With delight everyone rejoiced and were saved at the end of the day. They successfully completed their journey. Story of bravery - The lion and the rabbit Once there was a rabbit. He was a nice rabbit, innocent rabbit and a cute one. He was sleeping under a tree, one day when it was about to rain. And suddenly there was a huge Noice, and the rabbit woke up in fear, and he saw the roaring sky coming down, as if it was falling down. "Oh my God! the sky is falling down" and he started to run shouting in fear. Hearing his screams and horror, other rabbits started to run. And they all believed the innocent nice, cute rabbit who has never lied to them before. Next were the Deers, they joined the rabbits. And this was becoming a sight to see, as buffalos followed the Deers, a group of fox, squirrels, peacocks, giraffes' elephants. Everyone was screaming in horror. The lion who was resting in his den woke up. Hearing all the Noice of animals he came out and roared. He was the king of the jungle, and animals stopped running. They were all looking afraid. The lion asked, why are you running? Some said, the Sky is falling down, it's the end of the world. The lion king did not believe this. So, he asked who saw it? There was nobody, but the elephants said they heard it from the Giraffes. And they said it was peacocks. And at the end after a long line of questioning the lion found out that it was the innocent, nice, cute rabbit who started all this havoc. And the lion offered to investigate this. He walked back all the way back to the place where the rabbit was sleeping before it all started and noticed, a huge coconut fallen on to a big leaf, and at that moment a lightning struck. And the lion knew. It was just a bad combination of impact it made with the lightning made the illusion of sky falling down, to the innocent rabbit who was day dreaming. And after the lion king explained what happened all the animals calmed down and went back to their homes. End of story of bravery. If you would like to be brave like the lion, I suggest you can start asking why ?

Conquering countries. Conquering countries is easy, compared to conquering yourself. That is why it has happened over many times in our human history. It was just yesterday I watched a documentary on how Saddam Houssain, conquered Kuwait, for a brief period of time. You just need to be having a big army and a corrupted regimen; a cruel dictator can easily conquer a country. Compared to this conquering yourself is difficult. Even for the dictator himself. This is the exact message I have illustrated in the previous article, weak dictators of our history . Conquering yourself - Rene Descartes Can anyone conquer your body? Have you seen Bruce Lee, playing table tennis with two players with his Nun chuck? I read that he was short in one leg, however he could throw a punch to bring down a six-foot fighter. He had mastered conquering of the body and mind. If we try to wiggle the Nun chuck, the way he did it, we will injure ourselves. So, when Rene Descartes said, "Conquer yourself rather than the world" I could not agree more. Because I believe that this is the only thing a rational person could try to do in this chaotic world. It is not an easy task to conquer yourself. At least for me. And I believe it is harder than conquering anything. How can we do this, and why it is difficult? The problem is our monkey mind. Although we believe that we have full control of our thoughts and actions only when you start trying to conquer yourself that you would notice it is not so. During day-to-day activities we are so much distracted to see this process, but when you sit down to relax you would see. In meditation and mindfulness Imagine you try to meditate. Sit on a one place, close your eyes and start your attention on your breath. After a while the attention starts to drift. On sounds, on little discomforts in the body or on past experiences and images. It seems keeping attention on breath is the hardest thing to do. So, who controls your mind? if you are not doing it. If your own thoughts are uncontrollable, why do we think we have a free will. I can see it makes me uneasy. The monkey mind does not allow me to rest even when that is my intention of meditation. And if I started to fight against this nature, it gets worse, and I will have to do what the monkey says. I have seen great masters of mindfulness have given us the wisdom to overcome this situation. We have to acknowledge those sensations and 'Let it go'. The acknowledging and not fighting is the key to calming down the monkey. Why Rene Descartes is wrong. Walking meditation

Diabetic Foot. I was seated for a half an hour today to write an article and, It started to hurt my legs. I felt my sciatic nerve getting compressed too much from my own weight sandwiched between my pelvic bone and the plastic chair, and I did not move until I was done. Maybe I was in the zone of 'Flow'. So, I ended up having a temporary paresthesia when I tried to walk. Initially it was tingling sensation and then it went totally numb for five minutes. And gladly I was mindful about it hence made following observations. I am sure most of you would relate this with your past similar experience. Specially if you have some 'peripheral neuropathy' like in long standing diabetic patients. This is one part of having so called 'Diabetic foot'. As this is a philosophical article we do not have to go into details of diagnoses and causes, however knowing this would help us to understand the philosophy of perception. When I tried to walk, during so called numb period of my paresthesia, I felt like I am walking on a cushion. While actually I was walking on the tiles. I knew the sensation I am getting is wrong. I should feel the tiles 'hard' not soft. However, I could not deny, nothing has changed except my perception. This provokes some deep questions about philosophy of perception. Diabetic foot and Philosophy of Perception. I will stick to the facts first and separate my judgements on what happened. facts. The temporary paralysis has caused, some change in my perception of foot nerves. However, tiles, remains the same, Foot remains grossly same. Same tile, which was 'Hard' before is now 'Soft'. If I forget my previously learned idea that 'Tiles are hard'. I can now say 'Tiles are soft'. And this is true to the whole time my legs are numb. Tiles are hard' Is a judgment made in my consciousness. Although I felt hardness is in the tiles. This is a wrong idea. As hardness is not a property of the tile. It is a property of the brain. So, if we stick to the above facts we can say. Tiles are not hard or soft. Or we can say tiles are both hard and soft. Not think about this conclusion again. Tiles are not hard or soft. Tiles are both hard and soft. Imagine you go to your friends now, in a coffeehouse, you look at the tiles on the floor and say, "These tiles are not hard, or soft". And your friends will say you are mad. What nonsense are you talking about. But I was neither drunk nor was dreaming when I observed above facts. And we have done a rational conclusion with true facts. So, what is wrong? Let's expand this into a mental experiment now. Let's imagine a person who had a peripheral neuropathy all his life. He would perceive tiles as soft objects. They are soft, when he touches and walk on them. He would touch cloths and feel the same. But, as he has vision, he would see, Tile is not bendable, while cloth is. And if you throw a tile at someone, it will harm the person, but not the cloth. But obviously he is disadvantaged against survival. Similarly, some patients with peripheral neuropathy would not feel pain, or temperature in their hands and legs. They would injure themselves, burn themselves and later get even amputated due to these injuries getting worse. As you can see 'The tile being soft is wrong, as it clearly has a disadvantage on survival.' In conclusion we can say that, saying tile is hard is wrong. Tile seems neither hard, nor soft. It's just interaction with it generates the sensation. Truely speaking "Hardness" is only associated with this interaction. Hence, if there is no interaction, no Hardness. But somehow our minds tend to forget these simple facts and attribute hardness is a persistent property. However, it is temporary, when we understand it lasts only for the duration of the interaction. You can try this yourself. Look at some simple object on your table and understand why it feels hard, when even you are not touching it? The sky. I was looking at the sky, from the same spot, two days in a row. Yesterday sky seems to be beautiful than today. There was a golden cloud far away in the horizon, while today it was only gloomy clouds. Like the sky is sad. And I noticed all of these are just assumptions made by the mind process. The sky is not inherently good or bad. Just like a tile which is not hard or soft. It's just my mind playing tricks.

Evolution of religion. I saw this wonderful post on evolution of religion over time. I cannot post it as I am not sure about the origin of the post. But the message is clear, and it is as follows. First, they started to worship rocks Then they worshipped animals Next Invisible animals in the sky. Invisible people in the sky You get the hang of it right? Next comes the invisible god. Next, they worshipped messengers of these invisible gods. Messengers of Messengers of invisible Gods. Finally, self-discovery that you are all that. I could not agree more on this evolution of the religion. And I see lots and lots of our fellow humans are still stuck in the evolutionary loop. And I think the abundance of information on the simple truths about life has converting mass populations into the self-discovery more and more. Hence philosophy matters, as it challenges our ancestors believes, who made these stories gathered around fires during fearful nights. Just like in the sausage party . More importantly I would like to focus on the last bit of it. Which is self-discovery. How do anyone discover him/herself. What does it mean it is to discover self? Explaining this is just like the Allegory of the cave . Because we all are stuck in our own prisons of mind , truth what is true for me, is not true for you. And there is no way of showing what I experience to anyone. Imagine a simple truth as a taste of salt. This is salt. No doubt that you know salt. But can you explain, or let anyone know that what you feel when you, taste it? We can say it 'tastes salty'. Similarly, we cannot exactly know what other person knows when they taste the salt. Although it seems we are living in a one world, it seems it is just a relative truth. As there are in fact infinitely many different worlds out there, as long as individual consciousness is concerned. That is one way to break our common default, thinking pattern. However, I would say we still have to look beyond. We have to look beyond time . Look beyond what we see . And when we look at things in these different angles, the way we see things differs. It seems like it is true that a book read by thousand people is thousand books. The question is if that is true, was there only one book or thousands of them? The path to self-discovery. The path to self-discovery is a tedious one. It is not direct dive from here to there. Nobody can give you a set of clear instructions. As you can see, the path seen by thousand individuals is thousand paths, not a single one. But the tool which we use to the self-discovery is clear. That is mindfulness. And you will need some wisdom to accompany mindfulness to kick start. Once this is done, it should be a natural slide. So, awareness is not a choice, it is the lifestyle of the future generation. And it is a replacement for religion, for the intellectual. And definitely it is not about sitting in one place and looking at your breath chanting 'Oooom'. I would say, mindfulness is the new science. I do not want you to believe me. Hence, I invite you to read, thousands of philosophers who were there, who were able to look inside themselves and glimpse into their so-called soul. What a better place to start, than David foster Wallace and his famous speech ' this is water ' One day two young fish swam, and on the way, they met an older fish who swam the other way. The older fish said. "Good morning boys. How is the Water?" Two young fish swam a little more and one of them turn to the other and spoke. "What the hell is water" So, if you haven't seen the water, I suggest you be aware until you see this. Like Wallace himself claims, "I do not come here as the old fish to brag about water."

Have you watched the movie Megamind? As you already Know I am a fan of animation films. I used to sleep at 5 am watching movies all night, and go for lectures, when I was in university. Yes, it seems pathological, but it happened. I never thought I would write about those movies after a decade later, but here I am. Writing philosophy based on movies I have watched. This is another such episode. Background. In the movie, the super villain Megamind tries to win against the Metro-man, who is the superhero. And again, and again they fight in battles after battles, and Megamind loses every one of them until one fine day, when Megamind was able to defeat and 'Kill' the Metro-man. The movie is about what happens after that. Once the Metro-man is down, the Megamind, after playing some havoc, in his newly conquered Metro-City, gets bored, and spend time miserably. Until another villain appears. Who is eviler than him. What happens after that? Well, now he had to become a hero and start saving the Metro-city from this pure evil. And he does at the end, with some help from the Metro-man. Alright, this is not a good summary of the movie, I agree, but enough for the purpose of discussing some philosophy. Beyond Good and Evil. If you look carefully about the fact, when compared with the evilest, the evil seems to be good. So, this is commonly found phenomena although massively ignored. If you read my previous article of vegetable story, you may already know the fact that, becoming a bad vegetable in the good pile of vegetables is better than becoming a good vegetable in the stinking pile of vegetables. I have given several examples in that article, but here is another. It is common like in our country, elections are corrupted as well. As often it happens when there are only corrupted politicians are in both governing party and the opposition, we have to choose between the less corrupted one. However, compared to another affluent country, that is not a good choice, but people would not understand that. The unfortunate situation is although it is a simple fact, the pattern has repeated over many times in the history of countries, until thousands are killed of wars or famine, when only the people make their own movements for better governance. But, already too late for prevent the tragedy. Now it is time to ask What is the message? What is the Megamind philosophy? One fact is Good, and evil is not simple as two sides of a coin. Often it happens it is a spectrum, like all the other spectrums of nature. Even the time would tell that some things we thought good earlier would lead to evil later. A good example of turnover of generations from a affluence to poor. "As we passed through hard times, we build a nation which is triumph in success, our next generation is not having those hard times, and they would continue to be successful, but for our Childrens of children, life would be too easy that they will lose everything, and hard times will come back earthed again." Another fact is that when what we think 'good' is really bad, when we compared with another good thing, can we call it good? It seems relative, as always there is something better. Even good seems to be hiding some evil! These are just facts for you to think about in understanding the nature. It is obvious they cannot be argued, true in a trail. Hence, the practical value in day-to-day life is limited. That I think is the beauty of the philosophy and our consciousness, so that we can stretch our boundaries of wisdom without harming others. So, Follow the rules!