I was driving from my workplace to my home the other day. Alone in the car, a long-twisted road, with scenic mountain slopes. (I will upload pictures of this one day) However, after a while I wanted to listen to a song. The car audio was broken a long time ago, and I had to turn on the phone and scroll for some music. Then my mind asked the question, why? Why should I listened to a song, and I just drove mindfully, without. However, the thoughts, which gather around listening were wonderful to look at and here I try to summaries them. You can consider this as a follow up article for the " What I learnt from listening to the same song " Yes, sometimes, we crave a song. Maybe you listen to a song routinely. Specially loneliness, makes us want to do something. Sometimes we are afraid of the silence , and our own thoughts we want to suppress them and go into an imaginary world. Sometimes, we just want to bring out an old memory, or create a new one. Whatever the reason, we have power and means to do that when we want to listen to a song. Even at work, even driving the car. So, I noticed in this moment listening to a song has a great value, as I need it. I need to listen to a song to quench my 'song, thirst'. It doesn't matter how many songs I have listened to in the past. How many videos I have watched in the past. It's all useless, I have the desire now. And what Is life If I cannot listen to a song now? I have done great many things in the past just because I know, I get cravings for music. I have bought a radio, a phone, a television and a headphone. I have downloaded loads and loads of my favorite music. We used to buy all those gramophonic discs and tape recorders in the past. Even put my hands on guitar, just to see whether I can produce some music. And have I analyzed what I have done so far? Have you? One important question you should ask yourself is, what is the total value of all the songs, that you have listened at this point of time. Imagine its morning, early in the day, you don't have any cravings. You take a second to think about all the songs or times you spent listening to songs. We can say the time you put your consciousness to 'listening- songs' you have done. I bet; it is not so much value now. I am sure, the songs had their value at the time you listened to them. It's because you had the craving to listen to them at that time. Now you do not have the craving, so it's just a memory, just like other memories. So, the total value of all the songs you have listened in your life, at this moment of time is far less than what you think (almost zero for me). We can look at the same question in another point of view. Imagine, you have a craving to listen to a song now. Out of nowhere, you remembered an old song. And you wanted to listen to that song. Now, I would say, the value of that song is skyrocketed in your tiny world. Compared to the value of this song, all the songs you have listened so far do not have any value. Do you see a pattern? It is just like a pot, mentioned in previous article most valuable thing in the world . Value of music, or songs or sound is there as long as you crave it. Hence, whatever you do not crave, have no value in your world. We can generalize the intuitions we gained from this little thought experiment to understand mindful listening. Consider following and think about yourself whether they are meaningful. And Please Argue with these, question these, as once my teacher told, " He who asks is a fool for a minute but not forever " What is the total value of all the lectures, which you have forgotten, you had in the past? At this moment of time. What is the total value of all the news that you listened in year 2000? What is the total value of musical shows that you have been throughout your life, at this summer. What is the total value of all the bird songs, you have listened when you walk in nature parks? What is the total value of all the sounds if you are going to be deaf next year, till you die? And in summary, I learnt that the mind values, what it craves now. And like the pot, inherent value of a song is Nill. It is just a sound, just like my car engine. Just like my own voice, just like a bird's chirp. It's my craving gives the sound more value than it has naturally, which is zero. I hope this intuition will help you in your mindful practice to lessen inner turbulences, when distracted by sounds.

Counting stars I remember the days we used to count stars. If you would look at the history and popular fiction, I was not the only one who counted the stars. Maybe shooting stars, maybe stable ones, maybe slowly drifting satellites in the evening sky. I am sure at least once you have you looked at the sky full of stars. Of course, this is not applicable to ones who live in England or Wales all your life. How, unfair, for this amazing site you should travel far into the corners of the world. Just to see a star. Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel. I used to name the stars in Orian constellation. Not only this I knew some other stars, and planets. Evening star, and maybe Jupiter, through a telescope and the gigantic moon. I used to count satellites, to see who counts the most, with my brother, when we had nothing else to do. Once all the owls flown away to their nests, and it's too dark to see them anyway, those, shy little stars appear in cloudless skies one by one. And identifying satellites among them is a lot of difficult and lot of fun. It is like finding a red color marble in a bag of marbles. A jungle of numbers Counting, is fun. That's why I liked mathematics. However, life as it took a different course, I forgot how I used to count. I forgot it is about numbers. Every achievement is measured in numbers. How many, places you have visited. How many rooms in your house. What is the rating of the hotel Budapest that you visited. Even films, even songs, even sounds are measured in decibels and numbers. We live in a world modeled by human invented numbers, and We have forgotten it is our invention for our ease of use and now lost in a jungle of numbers. This jungle of numbers is more difficult to traverse when you are a seeker, more difficult than the concrete jungle as, it is built in your brain. Carved by our teachers and reinforced by our bosses. In this jungle of numbers occasionally we come across some numbers which teach us lessons of live. Even the meaning of life. But we just glance at them and move onto a different number in the next second. I am going to tell you such a number now. Remember this for your life. If you are a man your average life expectancy in days is 25842 If you are a women, your average life expectancy in days is 27740 Counting game of life. I used numbers from world average life expectancy in years to calculate the days - to point out counting game of life. If you are so into counting you can use exact values from your country, or even from your doctor, considering your co-morbidities. Now the important thing is counting right? How many days of this have you spent. When I look at this number I realize, "Shit, this is not infinity". It is not infinity at all. It is totally finite. It seems the game of life is lost even from the day one. As there is a wall at the end of the counting, That I am going to crash at this. As I am still a young, enthusiastic soul just like you, I am still in my acceleration phase. And I crave stupid things the life has to offer, and again remember this is just the average life expectancy. I have to tackle through all the dumb ways to die , before the natural end is reached. I have to exercise, regularly, eat healthy food, and keep my mind sane, still avoid the random rocks falling from Rockey mountains when I drive to Mexico. What about you? Have you count your days? If you are, I suggest you count it good. The game of life has already begun, by default you are one of the players. I have spent almost half of them. I am not sure what about your situation. Maybe you are at the beginning of this. Maybe you are at the end. However, my friend if you look at the numbers you would see, even the beginning is not far from the end. It doesn't matter where you are, but we are just two leaves separated by space but floating on the same current in water . I fear death. Not because I have sinned. I am not a saint. Hence, I have done my deeds. I fear because, of uncertainty it holds. And I need to know the meaning of life. I need to know, if the god exist or I exist before I am dead. That is a simple argument but holds a valuable truth. If death is inevitable for all living things. I want to know What is living. and Who is living? If there is no-one living, would there be any death?

Let's step back. And look at what we have done so far. This blog is about mindfulness. And if you are not familiar with the vocabulary used here I suggest you start with basics like, what is mindfulness, values, metal objects and information sphere. However, even without those background knowledge, if you read slowly trying to understand the meaning following dialogue will make sense. And you will find out how to eat a mango, Mindfully. Untasty Mangoes. My daughter brought a cut up mango, given by her grandfather. She ate all of it except two pieces and she had a complaint. The remining two pieces were, little crushed and looked, untasty. That's exactly what she ment. She ment, the mango pieces on the plate were untasty. I could do nothing but smile and ask "How can you tell that those pieces are untasty?, Did you eat them?". (obviously she did not, they were there on the plate, just like other pieces which were, before they ended up in her tummy) "No, they look untasty". And everyone agreed, they are untasty. Or rather "Looked untasty". This let me wonder where the taste is. And I looked at the mind and questioned. Obviously, the unpleasent pieces looked untasty. But the obvious question is how? How can a mind ever know something is untasty? If you would agree if I give you 100 different pieces of mangoes, which looks the same, but from different mango types, you would not be able to tell which is the tastiest unless you taste them. So, it is fundamentally wrong to talk about taste without tasting something. Would you agree that since the world was invented by the great wizard every moment of human 'taste' was associated with a human toungue? (and all the mechanism behind it including conciousness) Where is mango taste? Now here is an interesting fact. Everyone talks about mango taste. Like the taste is something within the mango. But the problem is the taste is not in the mango, not at all. If you create exact chemical composition of the mango, with chemicals, the mango 'flavour' can be created in a laborotory. Imagine you put these chemicals into a piece of cake and you would feel the 'mango taste' when you eat this cake. How am I sure of it? Because we have been doing this for a long time now. We have been extracting essence of taste of different natural fruits and artificially making our food taste like it. Is it in the toungue? Compare this? Can you talk about a mango taste without talking about a tounge? Never, there has not been a mango taste since the begining of humans, without human tounge. So, the mango taste, which we thought initially in the mango, is not at all in the mango. It is a special 'mapping' in our toungue and brain, to identify a specific chemical composition. It looks like 'mango taste' is a 'stimulation' we get when whatever the substance in the mango reacts with our toungue. (you can read more about how taste is formed here) So then, is the mango taste in the tongue? Not at all. Tounge doesn't produce a mango taste unless it is stimulated by a mango chemical, or similar substance. It is just a reaction by the body to the stimulus. How to eat a mango Mindfully Now here is a thought. This mango taste, lasts only for a fraction of a second you feel it in your toungue. It is not there until it touches your mouth. It is not there once you swallow it. It is not there until the mango is in your tree. It is not there in the mango in your basket. The mango taste is not there even in the pieces on her plate. Not in the crushed ones. Not even beautiful tasty looking ones. It is just there on the toungue. And the taste we feel is just a drop of honey. But to bring this small fraction of a second, 'mango taste' we take a lot of trouble. Is it worth? Oh no I am not against the mindfulness which makes me taste the mango. Mindfulness can be used to enjoy the mango to the fullest. But that is not the true goal of mindfulness. Its just a side effect that you feel the taste better when you are mindful. But the true meaning of mindfulness is to see the errors in our conciousness. Which makes us blind from everyday truths. The 'taste of mango' you craved (or hated) was a creation of your mind. The true 'taste' of mango was there, just for a fraction of second (maybe you missed most of this), and once its gone you again started to 'think about another taste, which was created by your mind'. So next time when you crave a mango, see where the 'taste of mango comes from' and ask yourself, is this the 'true taste or the fake one'? Why should we eat mindfully? You may ask why? Why should we look at a mango, and separate it's taste from the mango? I would say because that is the truth. The mind decieves us showing a taste which is outside. But it is inside, or more precisely speaking, 'taste is you'. I know this will tickle you a little bit. But not to the level you stop everything else you are doing and start living mindfulness. But, when your life troubles are overwhelming, remember these little tickles and come back here. Read again and see weather you fully understand these little everyday wisdom mindfulness teaches us.

Leaves are fascinating creations of the nature, no doubt about that. I was able to see them close range ever since I was a child and I am so greatful to the nature for that. Sometimes from a Tree top, sometimes on the ground, sometimes running after a falling leaf from a tree, Those, dry and green leaves teach us lessions about life all the time. Among many of these lessons here is another. Hydrophobic leaves. If you walk to your backyard, you will find many types of leaves. Some are large, some small, some bushy, which can use to comb your hair. Ferns create intricate patterns, we used them to make temporary tatoos in our hands. Some wither away when touched, fearing you would damage them. Among many there are leaves which do not retain water. These are mostly plants which grow in wet lands. Even water lillies have such quality to their leaves. Imagine water lilie leaves, just like the flower, they were born deep inside the muddy water and come up to the surface. Still they do not mix with water even if you try to. I used to put some drops of water into such a big leaf and look at it float. It floats like a perl. They jump here and there like little kids, on the slippery surface, joining and breaking up again and again. Hydrophobic they call it. Later we learned when we were in advanced chemistry classes, about many such chemicals with hydrophobic properties. Maybe leaves knew some chemistry after all. Hydrophobic leaves among us. When I look at people, I can see they are just like leaves. Some are big some, small, some are fresh, some little old. Some wither away, while others are harsh. And rarely I see hydrophobic ones. I have never been a hydrophobic leaf. Whenever there is a rain, I would just get wet. And it took a long time for it to dry. As a leaf I was jelous of those who were hydrophobic. They seems very happy, never getting wet from the rain, not even a bit. They seem content with their lives. Although they live in mud, they seem not hold onto the dirt. And I tried. I tried to become a rare hydrophobic leaf. I looked everywhere. I listened to my science teachers, I read positive thnking books. I even watched youtube videos, day after day, for just an idea, a spark, a life changing portion. How to be a hydrophobic leaf - mindfulness. I heard someone to say look inside, its not outside. Hence, I found the path to becoming a hydrophobic leaf is mindfulness. To be aware, when every drop of water falls from the sky, not to get wet but to let it fall. It is difficult to wipe the leaf after each drop, as the too fast too often. Only way is to change the consistancy of the leaf all together. Every drop matters, even if its a drizzle, even if it is a monsoon storm. It matters every drop as, every rain is made up of tiny drops. If I do not be aware of a single drop, it has the ability to spoil the party in the mind, and pour out a cry, with pain, sometimes, with hatred, sometimes with sadness, sometimes with jelousy and greed even happiness. I see the mindfulness create hydrophobic qualities in the mind, to separate its pureness inside, against the natures, cruel rains of thoughts. Maybe one day I would die, a fully hydrophobic leaf, although I wasn't born as such. There lies the path to be immortal.

Mental pictures and memory castles. Have you ever heard the term, Memory Castle? It is a method used by some genius (maybe ordinary ones as well) to improve their memory. First, they create a mental castle and memories special places in the castle by repeatedly visiting the palace. Imagine you have been to the Buckingham palace. You can memorize several rooms in it and several items. Once the memory castle is built you can use the castle and its items to peg a list of items you want to remember. When you want to retrieve the information, you just have to visit the castle. I am not really a fan of this method, not that I am against it, just it looks too artificial. However, I know it gives good results to anyone who wants to invest some time in this method. What I prefer is methods involving blooms taxonomy. The focus of this article is mental pictures. If you were careful to compare and contrast you would see this is same as mental objects. However, as we all are different, we understand only the things aligned with our previous knowledge hence, whoever wo does not understand mental objects may grasp the meaning here. I want to remind the true goal of this exercise is to understand the true nature of ourselves, which is essential to get the victory of game of life. Kaleidoscopes, reflections and how to practice mindfulness. Now we can go back to our Kaleidoscope example from previous article. If you know kaleidoscopes have reflecting mirrors aligned over each other, so whatever put inside, little colorful particles, will get reflected back on its mirrors and make beautiful symmetrical patterns. Let's analyze this phenomenon. Compare this to what is happening inside our brains. Let's see what happens when you see something like a famous destination. London Bridge. When you look at the bridge, you would not understand the bridge at all without the prior knowledge. If you were not taught a bridge, if you came from a rural African country, you would see something, not the "London bridge". If you do not have any information, at your disposal in your mind, like a newborn child you would not see anything, just a picture which disappear when you close your eyes. The truth is that was not a joke. That is only what is out there. There is something which create a picture of something in our brain, and the rest of it is just the information that drags along from our information sphere. This is just like the kaleidoscope example. What is there is some 'thing' which we put inside the kaleidoscope. Everything else is the reflection of our mind, which is not the true, 'thing'. Everyone who see the London bridge will see different things as their reflections are different. And the reflections disappear after some time, more like replaced by different ones, as our kaleidoscope only can show one reflection at a time. To communicate or even understand the 'world' we need these reflections. And truly speaking, the 'world' we see is just a collection of reflections over time. This process happens so fast, we will never know it's happening until someone tell us. Characteristics of these reflections is given in my previous article. Mindfulness is a continuous process being aware with wisdom not just looking at yourself. Now, when we associate our values and attach them to mental pictures, absurd right? If you associate some imaginary value to some imaginary 'thing' we are not different from a man with delusions. As mental pictures are not themselves permanent. And again, this doesn't argue there is nothing out there. But just the fact that what we see is not what is there. What we see is a temporary reflection of a temporary status of a continuous process. Here is an interesting thought, our happiness, sadness, good and evil war and peace, all are attached with these mental objects. So, these values are the ones which create beauty and the beast in our minds. If you really want to understand the world you have to be mindful all the time and the see this process in action. And this is the true practice of mindfulness. Not just looking at a piece of cake and noticing salivation, but to understand the function of the cake and the function of seeing the cake. If we can understand the 'world' like this, we will be soon realizing the root cause of all our problems. If not, we would be just like the running fox chasing answers to our imaginary problems.

There was a saying in the social media " A man will get his first bouquet of flowers when he is dead ". It made me think that bouquet of flowers had been a symbol around the world for years. I am sure you have seen as such. It represents beauty. Ironically it also symbolizes death. Why? History of flower arrangements. -Wiki History of flower arrangements goes back to the era of Ancient Egypt 2500 BCE. Egyptians used to cut flowers and put them in vases. Just like we do today. However, it has been there from China to Italy to Renaissance period. During which it is used to even hide the odors otherwise be there. Flowers with their scent and the colors of distraction can hide anything bad, isn't it? Buddhists have used flowers to symbolize life and death, just like a flower wither away once plucked from a tree, life withers away with time. Even if you did not so far, receive any bouquet of flowers I am sure you will receive loads, when you are withered away. Beauty of a flower beauty of mind. You can read my article on beauty of a flower, to identify similarities of a flower and to your mind. However, beauty of a flower is not limited to the color and its aroma. It is also having a soft consistency when touched, a drop of honey to give taste and will make soft sound when blown in the wind. Just like a living being. flowers do wither away from all these aspects and become just dry after some time. Often sooner than we think. This I think has a symbolic value and our ancestors saw. Hence, they visit the graveyard to meet the withered away people and remember them with a bouquet of flowers. If you visit the Cemetry today, you will see such withered bouquets. Often not, it will teach a lesson for us all. Shoe flowers and a drop of honey. I like flowers just like you. I used to toss them in air, with a twist just to see they fall down on earth. I even smelled occasional flower just to feel their sweet aroma. And recently when someone showed up a shoe flower on the twitter, i remembered how I used to drink a drop of honey inside it. It was a secret just me and ants knew. Deep inside the shoe flower there is a drop of honey and I used to pluck them and suck on this. It was just a drop. A meal for an ant, and it would never fill my stomach. But that drop was enough to stimulate me, to get the trouble of picking up flowers and putting them in my mouth. How far we go to reach our targets, for a drop of honey? Have you thought about this? Along the way I have seen my mind provided me with a drop of honey and bigger troubles than picking up a flower. I have worked hard in school just to get a good job. I have worked hard in my job to get a promotion. I have travelled long distances to create great shadows of natural waterfalls in my brain. I have subscribed to various channels to see good movie. Not limited to these. You would say that is life. What else you would do? Life is getting new experiences. I would not disagree. And also, I think the peace of mind that this mind deserves would not come from the chase of a drop of honey, that the world provides. Ultimately the flowers will wither away. And My search for a new flower once I tasted its drop of honey did never go away. Instead, I would go on picking all the flowers I could reach. And today I say to my mind. Enough my friend. Let's take a rest. I will teach you to end your craving for a flower forever.

This is the second article on Game of life. I would like to look at games of shadows we play. Shadows are interesting. I am sure you felt something when I say shadows. Some dark hidden feeling, corners of your house, edges of windows and haunting ghosts. I was not a fan of shadows, but these are such stories about the silhouette of life in front of our eyes. The poem itself harbor the meaning of life. Life is a silhouette. An impossible dream , when you think about the illusion of time . But, to understand better we need to take the walk again slowly in the memory lane. Previously I wrote about lanterns, and games we played with lanterns . One such was to display shadows on a wall. I could make a dog, a dancer and a drummer on the wall just using my fingers. We will analyze the shadow making in detail to understand the illusion it creates. Light source-> had gesture -> shadow on the wall. Games of shadows Now let's analyze a shadow. As long as there is light, and my had to block the light there will be a shadow on the wall. As the shadow is formed when rest of the wall is illuminated with light. As long as there is the lantern, eliminating light, and my hand is blocking part of it, there will be a dancer on the wall. If I blocked all the light, or for some reason the lantern blown with the wind, the shadow will disappear. If I removed the hand again shadow will disappear. And if there was not a wall the shadow would not form. So, the shadow is not a real thing. right? Shadow is just an illusion on the wall. A 'thing' which is dependent on the light source and the hand. A shadow is neither light source, nor the hand but 'something' which appears when both of these reasons aligned themselves. (Those are not the only reasons for the shadow to be formed, if you read the article reasons beyond reasons . But for now, we can limit ourselves for the clarity of thought) Conclusions from the game of shadows So, the conclusions are the light source, and the hand and wall are the reasons for the shadow. We assume shadow is just an illusion, created on the wall, as that is not touchable, and also dependent on the reasons. Shadow will be there as long as these reasons are there. Moment, they disappear the shadow will disappear. So, they are inseparable. Games of life Now, let's look at the shadow again. This time let's look how we see the shadow on the wall. Let's look at a fraction of a second in time to understand the Optics and reflections. There is contrasting colors on the wall, created by above reasons, which creates the shadow. This light reflected by the Lense in our eye, creates a reflection on the posterior wall in our eyeball. With some chemical mechanisms the electrical signals generated travel to the brain and understand this as a 'shadow' with previous information we gained by past learning. 'Real shadow eliminate light' -> reflected by Lense-> creates a shadow in eyeball-> interpret by brain and process of thinking. If you would agree anything we see or hear, or smell or touch are creating such shadows in our brain. And, whether we like it or not that is what we are doing all our lives. Creating shadows and interpreting them. Now if we apply these characteristics of game of shadows to game of live it will provide some valuable intuitions. Conclusions from game of life. Light emitted by wall, eyes and thinking process are reasons for seeing a shadow on the wall. So, the shadow we identified, is not the real thing, it is just a reflection. Or a shadow, of a shadow. Similar to the shadow on the wall, shadow in our brain is there as long as the reasons are there. (As long as you stare at the wall you will see a shadow, as it will create a shadow in your eye and brain will recognize it) This lets me understand that the world, I live in is just a shadow, created inside the brain, or the process of thinking. As long as there are reasons, these shadows will be formed. And there is nothing more to it. Nothing less to it. Just a Giant shadow. Although I think "I am doing, things to the world" What I am really doing is adjusting the reasons, so that there would be better shadows created in the mind. Which "I like". And I see "me" or myself is just another shadow. Game of life Like when the mind gets a thought, "I need to travel". What I am essentially doing, is adjusting the parameters which will create new shadows in the brain. To do that, I would, get a leave, prepare my bag, and travel on a bus to a faraway place, and take a walk deep inside a forest. And there the reasons of the jungle, will create new shadows in my brain, which will be interpreted as 'I am inside a jungle, far away from humans, and I can feel the wind on my forehead tossing my hair, I can hear the buzzing bees' type of image. As long as I am in the jungle, these shadows will be there, and they cannot be separated from "me". The moment I leave the jungle, another set of shadows will start to form. Then I say to myself, Oh come on they are just Shadows. And, without complicating too much, I will end the article here. If you look at carefully at your life, you will see all these shadows. Your mind just created for you. Shadows, of tastes of ice-cream, shadows of films, shadows of your friends and family, even when they are in front of you will see they are just shadows. And they disappear when you close your eyes. Just try. And once you learn to see shadows. You can read article on characteristics of these shadows. On mental objects.

This is an interesting topic. Outer body experience, which is commonly associated with Near death experiences. However, it is not uncommon like Near death. As whoever have lived long enough, may have experiences in following forms I like to discuss. Although this article is personal perspective, I would summaries available evidence wherever necessary, and your personal perspective is also welcome. What is outer body Experience? Copilot answer. An out-of-body experience (OBE) is a sensation where you feel as if your consciousness has left your physical body. During an OBE, people often report: Floating outside their body: A feeling of being detached from their physical form. Altered perception: Viewing the world from a different vantage point, sometimes looking down from a height. Realness: A sense that what’s happening is very real. While the exact cause remains uncertain, some theories suggest abnormal brain functioning in areas that process multisensory signals. However, there’s no scientific evidence that consciousness can truly leave the body. If you’ve experienced an OBE, you’re not alone—around 5% of people have reported similar sensations Outer body experience in Movies and culture. It is common occurrence such 'movements of the soul are screened in movies. I remember there was a scientific fiction teledrama, I watched a long time ago, where some scientists get together to take out one person's soul out of the body, to make it work for them. Unfortunately, the person died on the table. The man was a poor person who joined the experiment, only because he was offered money. It is unethical right? However, shocked by the death, the scientist himself, participate in the experiment as he wanted the mystery solved. The tragic struck twice and that was the sad end of the drama. My personal experiments and Sleep Paralysis. Inspired by different stories I did my own experiments. I became my own Guina Pig and tried to take my own mind out of my body. Hilarious when I think about it now, I even felt I am getting successful at some point, like making some progress. Never made it through. Later I tried to read other people's minds and even tried to send a message from my head. I imagine the receiving person from the other end and, unfortunately, they never got the message. Maybe it went to the wrong address. Or maybe it is still out there being delivered. Either way, I lost the interest up until now. Similarly, I had involuntary DeJa'Vu type experiences many times. Often it would happen, when I am seeping, I would suddenly realize I am not sleeping anymore. However, I cannot move my body, totally paralyzed. Cannot scream, cannot move, only able to think. And trust me I have tried to wake up. Wiggle my toes or tried to scream. Nothing is possible. After first few such incidents, I would know, that it will go away and although I feel I am woken Up, I am not woken up. Still, it is dreaming. And the previous Panic did go away, knowing that it is not death. Have you ever faced such experiences? Or heard the stories? Nowadays, I have come to conclusion, although these outer body experiences feel real, they are not the real deal. And the copilot also summarizes that there is no such evidence to outer body experience. There is no way our soul can separate and travel like an avatar, into the space. As the mind is associated with body, the moment it leaves, the body would become lifeless. And just like a life starts in a group of cells inside a mother's womb, same life would end when the marriage between the body is broken. Which looks permanent and irreversible. A consciousness is dependent on the body, and the body is dependent on consciousness. So, the body has become the prison of the consciousness, while the greed of consciousness keeps feeding the body, to sustain life. Why can we never leave our body? One other way to look at the problem is by studying the consciousness or the world. If we follow the arguments of consciousness article, it appears what we experience as the world is the manifestations or reflections on our own mind. Hence, the body we experience, and the mind we experience are all created within this process of consciousness. Hence, it is all one continuous function rather than several different 'things' It cannot separate out from itself. That ends this short discussion on outer body experience. I think a story about a tree would do better for anyone baffled by the philosophical arguments. Story of the Gentle Giant a tree.

My friend who was trying to get a job in UK did his IELTS recently and he got to talk about mirrors. It occurred to me mirrors and reflectors had indeed created fascinating reflections with a lot of memories in me over the years. What is there to talk about mirrors other than they reflect light? Mirrors and reflectors - in the Jungle. Have you seen the experiment when they keep a mirror in the middle of the jungle? In the opposite side hidden behind a bush a secret camera, recording everything. Animals unlike in the zoo, are not exposed to reflections much not from a mirror, so when they see their own reflections lot of them have reactions, thinking that there is an animal behind the mirror. Some got scared and some got angry, some got curious and went on investigating. Hardly any animal recognized it was their own reflection that they saw. But I am sure kept it long enough, looking at it long enough they would understand that the harmlessness of the reflection. Mirrors and reflectors - kaleidoscopes. We used to make kaleidoscopes when we were kids. Finding equal sized three mirrors was the difficult part. Once found they were used to make a prism and to the bottom a transparent paper is glued. When tiny colorful pieces of any material put inside the prison, we could see the reflections it creates. Although only few things were put inside, it reflects multiple times on its own, world and create wonderful patterns. These flowery patterns are different from each other, even if it is moved around slowly. And I could remember it was almost a non-tiring game to look at these patterns. Just Like watching you Tube videos. It feels like the same game, as we are always curious to see what new pattern it will bring next, into our vision. Mirrors and reflectors - of mine and yours. Along the way over the years, I have seen many more reflectors and reflections. I have seen projectors, which are used in our lecture halls. From old ones to modern smart Projectors. I have seen television screens, and I have seen the moon through telescopes, birds' thorough binoculars and more importantly I have seen all these with my eyes. Which are reflectors themselves. I had the opportunity to sit down and learn intricate details about cornea the iris and the Lense and their curvatures. I learnt about the rods and cones and their adequate stimuli which create similar projections to a camera. I would invite you to remind your reflections, where have you been. Maybe you have been to the north Pole and the south Pole. Maybe you are an astronomer who have been to the space or the moon. Maybe you are a solider who used to use IR cameras and night vision goggles. Maybe you are a deep-sea diver, who used to film corals and flocks of fish for Nature Planet. Or maybe you are a biologist using the microscope daily to see microbes in thin agar Plates. Maybe you are just a child who loves to blow soap bubbles, and still, you would see reflections unless you are blind. Reflections of mind Let's imagine you are away from your mirrors and lenses and soap bubbles. Since the morning since you opened your eyes today you have been seeing reflections which were made by your eyes. That is one window in our prison, to the outside world. As trying to be a mindful person, I see these reflections too. Just like the monkey Infront of the mirror, I see myself being happy and being sad and being angry and scared throughout the day, from these reflections. Really when I think about this, I notice this is what I have been doing since the day I have born to the moment of writing this. And Just I laughed like at the monkeys and animals who fool themselves Infront of the mirror who cannot see reflections as reflections. Why should I fear? How do we understand the philosophy of reflections. Where was the Toad? Philosophy of reflections Like yesterday, when I was walking to the bathroom, I saw a toad. hopping towards it to get a bath himself. I got afraid and I climbed on to a chair. I know, silly right? Ethics shouldn't have aesthetic criteria. I looked at the toad from the top of my chair again, noticed the reflection inside me which helped to identify the 'Frog' And I looked everywhere inside the brain to see a real frog. I could not see the real frog, no matter how much I searched there was only the reflection. Whatever the thing which was outside which created the reflection wasn't accessible with my senses. Maybe there was a frog, and maybe there wasn't. Of course you would tell me, If I touched the frog, I would have felt it there. The problem is If I closed my eyes, I would feel something soft and I wouldn't be able to identify or separate it from the skin of a frog to skin of a human. Can we get over this problem? How can we really prove there is something there outside in the world if we only see is the reflections inside the mirror since we were born? Truth is nobody would ever be able to. Although we live in a world which is agreed upon to be true, we all are stuck in our won relative worlds. Unfortunately, nobody can go out, or come inside this world. Consciousness is just like a mirror, which reflect what is outside through our senses. And it even reflects on itself like in a Kaleidoscope. And if I tell you there is only a mirror and nothing else, I would be lying as reflections do not happen without something outside. These reflections are not the real things either, have you ever thought about this. I think this previous article about mental objects would make more sense now, as it does to me. More you would find in the story of the scarecrow.

Nimbus, Cumulonimbus, Stratus, Clouds are everywhere in the sky. Every day, unless you live in a desert. Clouds teach us important lessons in life. I am not the weather man, but if you tell me I am a philosopher I would feel proud. I like to look at the sky, when I have nothing else to do. And today it is cloudy, no blue at all. We had a playground near our house. Often covered with fresh grass, it is a great place to be. When there is no sun, I would just lie on the grass and look at the sky, the clouds just drifting, just like the life. If you would like to know important lessons of silence, I suggest you read my previous article. But here I would like to emphasize on a historical cloud that changed the course of million lives as today. A historical day, end of an Era. It was 9th August 1945. There was a B29 plane flying over Japanese shores in stealth mode with, accompanying wing aircrafts. I would like you to meet Major Charles W. Sweeny who is the captain of the aircraft Bockscar. Yes, as you guessed it this is not an ordinary flight. The aircraft is carrying the "Fatman" the heaviest of the two atomic bombs which are responsible for end of the war, by means of instant death to over 100000 people. Which would seal the fate of many more to come. Just two days before, Hiroshima was bombed and everyone around the world shook in horror as the devastating effects of the nuclear power. Even the creators of the nuclear weapons began to doubt their sanity, as human beings. Cruel in its nature, destructive in power, atomic bombs are one of the cruelest creations of modern ethical, developed man. Hence, the second bomb, was supposed to cause more harm, as it was even bigger than the first in weight and destructive power. We will come back to the day of the bombing, the B29 came to the primary target of the atomic bomb, the city of Kokura. However, on this day, the sky of Kokura was covered with smoky clouds due previous bombing combined with poor weather. And as visual targeting was the norm those days, Captain Sweeny decided to move to the secondary target, and around 1100 hours they reached the City of Nagasaki. Now he had bigger problems. The Nagasaki also was covered with smoke and clouds that day. While waiting for the clouds to clear, they had limited time until they reach the limit of their fuel capacity to fly back to the base. Captain Sweeny had a decision to make, either drop the bomb, with radar guidance, blindly over the clouds, with bigger chance of missing target or abandon the mission. Yet, in the last minute, suddenly a death hole was opened up in the carpet of clouds showing the city underneath, and at 1102 the "Fat Man" left its safe compartment to rapidly descend towards the Mitsubishi, factories in the heart of the city. At 1600 feet above the ground the bomb detonated, and before even the B29 left the scene, 40000 lives were lost, in seconds which followed the detonation. The closest were lucky, as I am sure they did not even feel what happened when their bodies vaporized in hot nuclear blast shockwave. The death must be instantaneous in such close range. Unlucky were the ones which were wounded, and the children and animals whom to be born in the years to come. Survivors who lost their loved ones, as they were there to witness the aftermath and faced the consequences of radiation. It sure ended war; however, everyone doubted the method. Cruelty ended with cruelty. Who knows, what would have happened, if dictators stayed in power until the new millennium? right? A cloud would save the day Story. Even today the sky is cloudy, just like the day in Nagasaki, there is mist everywhere. I am glad, I am not in the era of the world war, and there is no B29 over the clouds. It made me think, what would have happened if there was no opening in the clouds that day. Would that save 20000 more lives? Could that save more lives and still ended the war. Yes, I do have enormous respect for the innocent looking clouds over my head. And the nature, is so unpredictable. A cloud did save the day in this historical story for people in Kokura, who lived their whole lives, but tragic for the Nagasakians. If you have any cloud stories I would like to know. maybe I will expand this article another day. Hiroshima Bombing Following is a paragraph from the book, what is time about the bomb "incident". I would apologize if you would not grasp the full meaning of paragraph. But it appears the arrow moves and hits the target after all. So, the time must not consist of instances. And how does our brain get around this problem? Our brain, or the mind tries to understand the world. And it creates the freeze frames in time which are again arbitrary as time has no instances. Imagine when we talk about the Hiroshima bomb incident. The picture of the gigantic mushroom cloud comes into our mind. But if time has no instances, we cannot talk about the Hiroshima bomb. It would be meaningless. There is no specific point in time which can be pointed out as the Hiroshima bomb incident. Hiroshima bomb incident, It is not the plane that flew with the bomb over Japan, It is not the release of the bomb It is not the travel of the bomb through the air It is not the impact of the bomb on ground It is not the detonation It is not the explosion It is not the nuclear blast It is not the shock wave It is not the collapse of the buildings and the clouds that followed It is a collection of every one of these events. And we know by the arrow paradox we cannot talk about an individual event which happened at an instance of time as time seems to be instance less in the first place

How I met Mr. Apple In our country there are no apple trees. So, we import them. I loved them and still I do. When I was a little boy, my father used to bring apples on special occasions. Like when on his Payday. Maybe a couple of weeks old apples, since they were harvested as apples took great difficulty coming here from the farm. They had to take a long journey on the lorry, in the voyage, through the mediterranean sea to reach us. And I didn't know all of this story. Yet, I knew only the taste of apple. The red color, and the tiny little seeds. Isn't it amazing fruit. It has more than 90% edible parts, compared to an avocado, or a mango. I would say, when the God made the Adam, and presented him with an apple how could he resist, eating it. Forbidden Fruit in Garden of Eden. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. — Genesis 2:16–17, King James Version [1] It made me wonder what Adam felt when he first took a bite from the sweet apple. God, was he unfair? He made the Adam in the first place with some delicate intricate tongue with taste buds. Not one, hundreds of them for different flavors. He made the neuronal network to identify chemicals, and teeth to get a good bite. He developed a brain and put a consciousness in there. And he created the apple. He created the apple with real balance in chemical composition to stimulate exact taste buds in a unique combination. And then He expected Mr. Adam not to eat the apple? What is the logic behind it? Should I just leave it there thinking this is God's plan and I would never understand that? Meeting Mrs. Apple Juice. Back to the question again, what Adam felt when he first took a bite from the sweet apple? I will take you a tour to how I met Mrs. Apple Juice. I first met her on a flight. That was my first flight, and I was offered like you guessed Mrs. Apple Juice on the plane. It was hard Mr. Apple to come to visit our country, so Mrs. Apple Juice did never make it there. Only because I took the journey that I ever met her. She was the Essence of Mr. Apple. As she reflected all the good things of Mr. Apple. Except for the shape and maybe the consistency, but the taste was similar. Even today I love drinking apple Juice. It made me wonder what Adam did feel when he took the first bite into the apple. I am sure he felt something, maybe it is 'Apple taste' but who knows. Imagine Adam, feels the mango taste like 'Apple' and apple taste like 'Mango'. Can anyone ever know? that his taste is switched? Even if you ask all the people in the world what he felt when he took the first bite into his apple, nobody would be able to answer the question. Not even Adam. Only he would know what he felt. And if you ask after a day or two From Adam what he felt yesterday, when he took the bite from the apple, he will tell he felt something like 'apple taste'. But that even is just a memory, and that's not the real 'taste'. This fact leads to an interesting conclusion. Now think about the following. God's existence and Apple Juice let's look at evidence of God's existence. If anyone claims, to know that what the other person felt, that person should be able to 'be' the exact person at the exact time. Because the sensations are temporary. Memory of a sensation is never the same as the sensation. If God knows everything, he has to be inside us every moment, living the same lives with us. Is it not great to know, that God lives in us all the time? Other side of the argument is that God, knows only some of the things. So, it means there must be some means even to cheat the God if it's true, when his attention is somewhere else. Maybe those were the thoughts of Adam, when he took the bite of the apple in the first place. Only God knows what he thought. For anyone who do not enjoy Philosophy following are fun facts about Apple. (Copilot version- do not blame me) Certainly! 🍎 Here are some fun facts about apples: Origin and Varieties: Apples belong to the rose family, just like pears and plums. The apple tree originated in Central Asia and has been cultivated for thousands of years in Asia, Europe, and North America. There are more than 8,000 varieties of apples, making them the largest variety of fruit in existence. Apple Trees: It takes 4-5 years for an apple tree to produce its first fruit. Standard-size apple trees start bearing fruit 8-10 years after planting, while dwarf trees start in 3-5 years. Apples ripen six to ten times faster at room temperature than if refrigerated. Apple Inc. Fun Facts: The name ‘Apple’ came from founder Steve Jobs’ liking for the fruit. Apple originally had three co-founders, but Ronald Wayne left the company after 12 days, missing out on shares now worth around $60 billion. The first Apple iPod had a hidden Easter Egg game called “Breakout.” Apple’s excess capital is around $150 billion, more than the U.S. Treasury. Feel free to ask if you’d like to know more! 😊

Now that is a tricky question. If you are in a hurry to go somewhere I will reveal the answer here, but if you have spared few minutes, I invite you to continue reading to why? The most valuable thing in the world is the knowledge of valuelessness. Positive Value of a Pot in Ancient China. Let's build our arguments here. Let's go into the Ancient China. Imagine you are a potter. You sit in the morning with freshly prepared clay to Mould some pots. The pots are valuable to you. Not only to you they are valuable to Chinese people. So, they come and buy some quality pots from you. Your pots are made so perfect that even they are sold to the palace. But as the potter your family is more valuable to you. So is your and their hunger, and their protection. So, if the pots are more valuable to you than your family, you would have sold your family and kept the pots. Yet you do the other way around. So is the hunger, and you spend some money to buy a house for shelter and buy some food. What is more valuable Food or clothes? Food is more valuable than cloths, right? If you ask our ancestors, they will tell. Would you rather die with cloths or live without cloths, and without hunger? Now, that is a difficult and unfair question to ask from you as you have both. Obviously if you are reading this. In real life, we would never face such extremes of choices. Do not forget that we passed the era of Auschwitz and even today such souls are not rare in different corners of the world who face such choices. Maybe it's not hunger and cloths, but hunger and medicine, hunger and education. Negative Value of a broken Pot. Going back to our little pot shop, the buyer has now value in your pot. For him his money is less valuable than the pot he is buying. That is why he agrees to the trade. Later he might think that he has paid too much for your pot, but at the exact moment he decides to buy, he has more 'value' or 'need' for the pot than the money he is paying. So, it is not the money which gives the 'value' to the pot. The value is generated by the need. If you want to know more about how the values are generated, read the following article on the topic. Either way, let's imagine the pot is gone to some house and after being used for a couple of weeks the pot is broken. The little child in the house, let it fall on the floor and it breaks into three pieces. It still has all the intricate drawings on its surface. It has the same amount of material in it. And even you could keep them together if you glued it, to make it look like a complete pot. Yet for the people in the house the pot has no value now. It is thrown out of the house as it might hurt the children, who like to run inside the home. You can call it has a negative value now. A valueless pot After some time, years and decades and centuries, even millennia go by, when everyone forgets about the broken pot. During this period of time the pot did not have any value. You could call it zero, why? Let's keep the question in mind as why it is valueless in this period of time, which will be answered later. Highest value of the Pot Archeologists while digging up ancient ruins dig up the pieces, with great care and utmost respect, they took it out in the museum and restored, pasted the three pieces together and dated it back to 2000 years to the exact location and emperor. It is the most preserved pot from that era, and with most delicate details of the flowery decorations. Most precious item in the entire pottery history. Now if we look at the value of the pot, I will say it has gone through the rooftop. If the potter lived today, he even would be amazed. Yes! exactly, can you remember, that you are the potter in our story. So, if I ask you now knowing all the story what is the value of the pot can you point out? No, you would not, as it was changing you would need more details. You would need at what time, which society and more importantly in whose mind? Now that is strange right? We can exactly trace the value of the pot to a specific mind, in specific person's thoughts but is it true for everything? That is for you to think about. As the story doesn't end there, I need to drag you to another step forward. If the values were not in the pot itself, what was the true value of the pot? What was the inherent value of the pot at any stage? It is zero, right? or no value. Did you see the valuelessness of the pot? It was only apparent when we think about the time when the pot was not recognized by any human being. From the time it was thrown away, to the time it was re discovered. It had no value as there was no thinking associated with the pot. Knowing this little truth about our values helps us to understand the world better. And It is the most valuable thing in the world. Now you can think and expand. What is the value of the wind? What is the value of a tree? What is the value of a phone? What is the value of SpaceX? What is the value of a road? What is the value of a life? What is the value of a soul? What is the value of you? If you have followed the arguments properly, now you possess the most valuable knowledge about valuelessness of the world.