top of page

Search Results

541 results found with an empty search

  • Do not disturb yourself by imagining your whole life at once - Markus Aurelius

    One step at a time. If you are about to climb a mountain or walk across USA , one step at a time is good advice. It makes sense when we consider a walk. But this is a very good mindfulness advice too. Here in this article, I am going to show you how we can use this wisdom into our lives. Let's imagine you are washing the dishes. If we take this as a single task it can feel overwhelming. But unless you are doing with a dish washer, you are only going to do one dish at a time. So really what is important is the dish at your hand. One step at a time: https://unsplash.com/@lindsayhenwood How about eating ? I am sure you enjoyed a nice meal. But did you enjoy the meal or just swallow it whole. You may find it easier to practice mindfulness if you consider one bite at a time. It is not the one in your hand. Not the one on the plate, but the one in your mouth is the one which tastes. So, if we focus on the other, guess what? You won't even feel the taste. Do not disturb yourself by imagining your whole life at once Markus Aurelius When we hear the above quote by Markus Aurelius, that is all what we can think of. To not to disturb yourself by focusing on one specific task at a time not everything else. But there is more to it. Generally, when we consider life or speak of it, we imagine this as a thing between the birth and the death. The whole spectrum of toddler years childhood youth adulthood and elderly included. And we imagine this and be anxious happy or sad. And we label someone as a successful or a failure depending on this spectrum , looking at it holistically giving it a value. A book: https://unsplash.com/@longlivehaas What if life is a novel? But above wisdom tells us to look at the life in chapters, even pages, even paragraphs, if life is a novel. Then, while you are writing this paragraph called today or the task at hand, it will help us to shape it as perfect as possible without worrying the final outcome. This wisdom is not a secret. Nowadays everyone talks about it. Mini habits, tiny habits, flow etc. But there is a catch. Only mindfulness enthusiasts will look beyond what is obvious. Let's look back at our analogy of life compared to writing a novel. Obviously, chapters of this novel appear ending with different outcomes. Childhood chapter ends with a certain outcome when the college chapter begins. Single chapter ends once married. Even paragraphs make sense. Today ends with a certain outcome. You can do certain tasks one step at a time. You can even focus individual sentences and make a meaning out of it. But if you however decided to dissect further and look at the letters individually it doesn't make sense. Aggregations and combinations. Combinations: https://unsplash.com/@polarmermaid Individual letters have no meaning in your novel. Only the aggregation or the combination makes a meaning. Similarly, what you do in each second in your life doesn't make any sense. It is the combination or aggregation of these seconds create a meaning. Now the real question is do life has an inherent meaning to it or is it just an apparent illusion like a novel created by individual letters. Is life an aggregation of meaningless minute steps? How small these steps are and how can anyone make sense out of it. If these small steps are meaningless, who creates the meaning of life? Who gives the values of success and failure to each aggregation of meaningless seconds of the day? I am not sure about you, but I am perplexed by these thoughts. I can ignore and jump into the ocean of pleasures those aggregated chapters provide. That's what I do for most of the day. Yet as an evolving part of the human consciousness, I also try to push the boundary towards the unknown. If Marcus Aurelius was here, or Socrates did exist as an AI I can ask these questions and try to make another aggregation of meaning. Yet I cannot do that. So, I ask you the question. The commoners like me, does life make any sense to you? If so, how? Did you dissect these meanings into individual syllables or just believe as it is just an aggregation?

  • What is life? A wordless explanation to life.

    What is life? Some days. I wish they did not exist In my Calander of past. Horrified memories which haunt Every other happy night I try to contain them in places So, they do not spill over to others Like a bleeding robot, with my weakened arms. Fk...g spectacle to the crowd This is not the first time I am attempting to answer the question. And if it wasn't for this question, I would have not written this blog. What is life? Earlier I Said it can be given In summary as A Sisyphean suffering of perpetual wheel of self . I think it is very difficult to understand. Yet I found the perfect example from the modern-day art, which clearly shows the life. And it is from non-other than Famous sculpture by Sun Youan and Pen Yu. Can't help myself. the Sculpture Can't Help Myself: 58th Venice Biennale | Aleksandr Zykov | Flickr This is a kinetic sculpture. It is better if you can see this once so I will link it here. But it is simple robotic arm, which tries to keep a red color fluid within its circle. And this fluid is needed for its functioning. That is just what's there to it. In initial few years it moved fast. And was capable of keeping its fluid within near its feet. And even had time to do some playful tricks to entertain visitors. Within its glass walls it looked energetic. As the time goes by, it's movements are not agile anymore due to wear and tear. And fluid is now barely under control. The glass walls are splashed with blood. And the machine is in desperate attempt to keep running. There is no time for tricks and entertainment as it is struggling to keep alive. I am sure anyone looking at this more than few minutes are going to feel sad. And it is inevitable we empathies about the struggle of the robot. Yet we don't understand that it is the same struggle that we are involved in so called living. Can't help myself - In life Doughnuts.: https://unsplash.com/@kobbymendez I life, we have a bucket of water inside us which travels through our circulatory system. Which we must keep clean and fresh all the time. We need to breath, we need to eat, we need to go to toilet, to keep it in balance. Drink water when it dries up. And to do all these we need energy. We need to work at the mall, in the hotel, in the farm or the company. If we don't do it, we would lose the capacity to keep the bucket of water fresh. And this is a struggle. We are so used to it that we forget that the troubles. As we even see them as opportunities! Opportunity for what? We see, the promotion in the job as an opportunity. We see vacation as an opportunity. We see paid travelling to space station as an opportunity to see the world. Yet we fail to understand the struggle that we are involved in, to keep ourselves not dying. It is due to so called living. At least we know who is to blame in the case of the art "Can't help myself". It is the artist duo who made it. But do we know who is to blame in our case? I am sure your boss, or your wife, or your parents or even president is not the creator of you. If I could meet him today, I would ask why? Why you decide to create myself and give me the power just enough to keep the same so-called life? Why created this weak body and mind which needs constant support for existence. If given the choice I would choose nonexistence rather than this. What is life? But the machine that bleeds doesn't ask such questions. It keeps on sweeping the floor like a slave. We do not have to worry as there is no consciousness which suffers inside that robotic arm. I am more empathic about every other living being though. I can only smile at their stupidity when they smile and praise the God when they eat a sugary doughnut. If they only had eyes and ears to look at themselves outside their own glass prisons, they would see it is not the taste which is the pleasure, but the hunger is the problem. And they are bleeding all over the floor every passing minute because of the struggle. So, I chose mindfulness over anything to spend my time with. To look at myself in the mirror on the wall like Lil Wayne sang about it. Mirror on the wall (woo), here we are again (yeah) Through my rise and fall (uh) You've been my only friend (yeah) You told me that they can understand the man I am So why are we here talking' to each other again? Mirror on the wall

  • Why we all are thieves? Why you will die if you do not steal.

    I claim intellectual rights to what I write. I claim to be credited for a piece of poem I created. But deep down from the bottom of my heart I know I am guilty of stealing. I'm guilty of stealing ideas, melodies, words from the previous generation. Philosophically we all are thieves and you would die if you do not steal intellect. How we learned to steal? Remember there was a time, you were mumbling? Trying to speak out a monosyllabic, or bisyllable. And after months and months of hearing your parents call you started saying those words "mama" "papa". And that is the beginning of our journey of intellectual theft. Well you can say that is not theft at all. They wanted me to know them. And they gave it for free.  Yes they gave it free in the kindergarten. Almost free for 12 years in school. Even in higher education. Knowledge is free. So we did not feel we were stealing. Now packed with all the knowledge and words accumulated over the years from all the free universe, I built upon this a hypothesis. And generate some new knowledge. And add a new word to human knowledge and what I do?  Is this true? https://unsplash.com/@jontyson I label it as my poem. My novel. My blog. My picture. My f-c-ing property. It is understood why I do this. If it didn't have a potential which is called "money" and "fame" then nobody would even care for human knowledge. Nobody would conduct an experiment. And we all will die relatively dumber than our immediate previous generation. However the game of trying to succeed each other did push us over all the imaginary boundaries.  So I do not blame the game of stealing that we play. After all that's what made us capable of creating miracles. Why we all are thieves stealing from nature. And it's been decades passed that we lost the value of abundant nature and shifted them to poems. I often do this. When I see a mesmerising sunset , I create a poem out of it. I take  a photograph for free. And I do not pay a penny to the sun or the moon. I proudly present it to my friend and expect appreciation. Like I have created the colors from my kodak camera using my eyes. I take my paintbrush and recreate it on a canvas which is out of some cut down trees. And preserve the colors, over time. An approximation of nature. I have stolen from nature, but have no shame in presenting in a grand ballroom in front of a crowd from elite society and call myself an artist in doing so. I appear to be an artist not a thief among every other thief. I am learning mathematics. Thanks to the generation of teachers who wrote them in books. Free of charge. I learn them deep enough so I can carry on learning on my own. A new realm of abstraction. And suddenly I find a solution for an unsolvable equation. And I present a paper proudly in front of other mathematicians and win the nobel prize. When their faces frown with jealousy I call myself a successful mathematician. Not a thief. Recreating the nature: https://unsplash.com/@birminghammuseumstrust I learn about life, build a circle of friends. Follow rules to start a business. With the help of thousands of enthusiastic individuals stealing time of their consciousness, which they should be using to investigate themselves. And I exploit this by paying them hourly to build something novel, a flying car or an 8G Internet. And I call myself a brilliant  successful entrepreneur not a thief. Will I get caught? But on my deathbed , I realise it's all just part of the illusion. The selfish representation of my existence can be called as all of my possessions that I stole. I am sure they will last for everyone else, but not for me. After I am dead. Finally I can agree I have been a thief all my life, confess to the devil and expect to return to my heaven. The question is should I be allowed? Is there a way to not be a thief?

  • Jacob and ants - story

    Jacob and kids. Jacob was on the bench. Looking at the kids playing in the ground. While their anxious young mothers waited outside the circle, hoping they would come out without a scratch, which was unnecessary and excessive. Then he wondered how many of them played for the national leagues in few years to come. Hmmmm. Unlikely. It is unlikely single one of those 22 kids would end up taking football as a significant career choice. He didn't even count the ones on the bench! They wouldn't come out of their bench. Isn't it still unnecessary and excessive? Why do they even have a bench? For the poor kids to thaw their dreams until they realise they do not have a talent? He was sure their dreams were planted and watered by looking at the goat CR, the lucky bugger who could do nothing but kick a ball, and post motivational speeches on tik tok. How many dreams are going to be shattered until they figure out and settle laying bricks or counting numbers for a corporation controlled by FB. Would they ever even know that they are going to prepare for those entire years of youth learning maths just to do that? Victims of the society, the giant witch swallows every life at the end. Football: https://unsplash.com/@neonbrand Jacob and elephants. His thoughts were disturbed by the ringing of the bell of the passing bicycle. A family of five cycled across him. Father in the front three kids and their mother in the rear as always. And the three kids? Not bad. If the population needs to be kept at a constant they should at least bring out 2.1 kids during their lifetime. Then how someone brings 0.1 kid. Simply impossible. So it is likely this is the family which is the one out of ten who would be allowed to keep the extra kid. If it was in China! They could pay the government for the extra kid, or better to have a lottery to be fair. But how would they even be so sure that all of them would be living upto reproductive years and even would have kids. Maybe they would become single lonely philosophers skiing on park benches, or backpackers wasting their knee cartilage on climbing eight thousanders without making 2.1 babies. Maybe that is their ambition. Two in fourteen of these children would never make a kid in the first place. And they will only find it out when they come to testing the theory of "will I able to make a child" period. But for now, it looks like they are a "happy family". Jacob remembered the elephant family he saw a few years back. Not long ago he was teaching in a rural African village, and often he would encounter elephants. Everyone knew about the elephant family. Exactly like the one on bicycles. There were five. The calves of different ages. And the tusker was majestic. He was guiding everyone through the challenging forest with many years of his experience. There was no difference he saw in those mothers looking at their child at play. Just like the elephant mother, while the father was away at work, they kept their children safe. But do they even know that these feelings they feel, anxiety and feeling of protection doesn't come from their own free will? It is common to elephants, it's common to humans, and even an ant that started to climb his feet. Aaaaaaw.... Ants: https://unsplash.com/@entomologista Jacob and ants story Suddenly one of them bit on his left arm just below the sleeve. Where did even that ant came from he didn't even see. Does ant even know there is an intruder? It cannot. Looking at the size of the thing it's obvious it cannot possess a consciousness that big. It won't Even able to recognise "anger" from "hunger" but it happens all the time. Hence it is doing its duty for the ant colony or the collective "ant" consciousness. Which surely it would never know that's what it was doing. Jacob tried to blow away the ant but it did not move. It had no intention of saving its life so Jacob had to peel it off the skin and inevitably that would mean the death of the ant. It sacrificed its own life for what? Like a warrior in a battlefield, maybe it thought that it had a will in doing this. A little bit of pride and patriotism for the colony it represents. But one ant bite is not going to do it. To move Jacob the giant it's simply not enough and Aaaaaaw..... Another one bit, this time on the left hand. And that one looks like a real warrior with a bigger head, bigger ego and determination looks like knowing what it's doing. And the first one still sting and Jacob realised they didn't come from the sky. So he moved his feet to know the ant colony he had stepped on. Jacob didn't want the trouble. Victory was theirs, and before the death toll on the ant colony became too high he decided to step away and let them in peace. With so much respect for nature which sends a message through the sacrifice of two ants who didn't have a free will.   He moved with his own free will. Thank you for reading "Jacob and ants story" Next -> Jacobs dream .

  • What would you delete from earth? What is unnecessary?

    Crows and the earth. It's a hot sunny afternoon. Crows have gathered around a pool in the middle of the ground. Yesterday it was raining. Entire day's effort of tropical sun couldn't evaporate it all, leaving plenty for the crows to have a bath. I was wondering what they felt. Individually they must be feeling happy and content. They do not make a big noise like when they are hungry. I am sure they all are happy with their lunch and how the day went so far.  Crows having a bath. Instead of thinking about crows, I took a moment to appreciate the water hole and the ground. It seems obvious to me the water and the ground doesn't feel anything about it. They are just there. Just like earth without any judgement. Water doesn't care who bathes in it, who drinks it or who is going to fight about it. It exists without knowing it exists. Crows on the other hand suffer from the sun. And they have enormous value for water as it is necessary for their existence.  What if there is no consciousness in the universe? Not even God himself. I can only imagine. I am not entirely sure earth would exist. Just the way it is without knowing its existence. Only I can tell if I am there to observe it is true or not. And it made me realise it doesn't matter. In this life all I have done is looking at things existence, and keeping this consciousness to observe more in every passing minute. And it doesn't make sense. Earth would not care if all the crows are not there, as earth doesn't have ability to think. Crows on the other hand do care, and that is what their constant noise suggests. What will you delete from earth? From twitter. Just the other day someone from twitter asked what would you delete if you can, from earth. What is the one thing you would not want to continue? Answers obviously were numerous. Unexpected and chaotic. And without proper reasoning. I would list out some answers that show you something common to all of them. AI Mosquitoes Democrats Sex toys Corruption  Paedophile Central banking Hate  Poverty Demons Gravity Sound  Ignorance Vegetarians Democrats (may be too much) And the list kept going on. Can you tell me one thing common to them? As you can see these are all answers to some problems. But not all of them. Deleting sounds is a solution for noise, but would create more problems on roads. Deleting poverty would be a solution but some would not like to sacrifice their comfort. Can you see? But if you have followed the above crow argument we can say that Deleting the knower, would be a good choice. Because the earth would not care even if every life perished on it. It's only our illusion of Persistence that makes us suffer in this world as we have to try hard to keep it alive. Infact few of them answered as they would delete themselves. And I couldn't help asking them why as I did not know they were referring to self harm. Self harm is not a solution. Non existence is not self harm or death. We really do not know death would solve any problems; it might make everything worse, or good. (Sausage Party) Roots: https://unsplash.com/@npi Philosophical answer. But as you can see, if the knower, and the knowing did not exist, there would be no problem. So it is utmost important we  examine the true nature of the knower as answers to all our problems are there. That is the root cause of all the problems that earth does not have! If the massive earth exists without any problem, or worry about its birth and death. Why should I? Maybe I am just nature's mistake, which is unnecessary, excessive and bizzare. Maybe all the consciousness is. Why should we even try to preserve? I do not understand, because for me, trying to turn it off seems to be a more rational solution. So with this new wisdom I have given the following two definitions to life. Definitions for life. Life: Unexpected error of nature which branched off from its nonexistent form into a self-sustaining illusionary form of selfishness which inevitably ceased to exist. Life: crows What do you think about this?

  • Banana Peels and Tea cup : Why conceptual art is art?

    Why conceptual art is considered art? Well, you may have opinions like conceptual art is not art. But trust me it sometimes conveys messages which traditional art cannot express. I was eating bananas the other day. And having tea. And why not conceptual art? Then I did the following. I kept three banana peels on the brim of the cup equidistant, like three children on a merry-go-round. And that there was a conceptual art.! And it suddenly made me realize why conceptual art is an art. Think about this. If I kept my banana peels on the teacup art until tomorrow. It will start to stink. And conceptual art will not be art but, conceptual stinking. And nobody would want to appreciate that. It is not eye catching. But for something to be an art it should persist through time. And that is a great wisdom. Painting room Starry night of Van Goh Why its valuable Value of the art is inherently, and Subtlety attached to its ability to persist through time. Imagine the scream, or the van Goh's starry night painting. Even today if someone wants to see, they can go and see the art and appreciate the beauty, only because it persisted over time. Van Goh may have seen starry night for a half an hour, and he had vision of his painting until he finished painting that. But now, even after years later, we can look at and create similar picture in our minds. The art he created persisted over time. Now imagine this. Van Goh has done his painting with a vanishing ink. It would last only a few days. In that matter paintings would not have the potential to reach many people. It can become a wonder if it is like a firework display of new year. And many people might come and visit until it last. But none of them would remember it beyond that. And this is the problem with conceptual art. Cooking as conceptual art Imagine you are doing some artwork with your cooking. A conceptual art. Until we started photographing our food, that artistic value of the food making never created any cashable asset class. Because it ends either when food is eaten or its rotten. But I'd someone takes a photo, make a video or write a blog about it, and make it preserve over time. Then it will be there like a potential energy that will become a true art, for people to value. And it might even be profitable. And that is how conceptual art came to be. In conceptual art, what is persistent is the description of the art. And it can be done even without words. Easily from a video recording nowadays. Some people do not understand why conceptual art is valued. It looks like they have less value. For those who, I like to question by asking why a diamond is valuable? Obviously, it's not for its use. Nobody can eat it. Not because it's beautiful, a flower is more beautiful. Some would say it's for its rarity. But there would be thousand more rare things than a diamond. And it is likely because it persists over time. So that we are able to recognize this and if we give it a value today, it is likely we can pass this message even through time into the future and convince another consciousness from the future to buy it. But the truth is inherently a diamond is not valuable. Just like any art. Conceptual art So, after analyzing that why conceptual art has become a part of modern art. I decided to create my own artwork into a little more persistent than just in my memory. Conceptual art. Banana peels on a teacup. Ingredients : A moderate size tea cup/ coffee Three bananas with stalks. Method . Drink your tea. And eat three bananas. When you peel banana do not separate banana peels from its stalk. Once you are fresh after drinking your tea, hang three banana peels on the edge of the teacup, equidistant from each other. Just like three kids on a merry-go-round round. And enjoy showing it to your partner or friend. It's the illusion of Persistence the most important ingredient of an art.

  • An unexamined life is not worth living

    Unexamined life not worth living Blog summary In the canvas of mind, he started drawing a life. A life full of dreams, and aspirations, expectations. It started with milk, baloons and bubblegums. Shifted to Grades, and clasroom love stories soon enough. As the seconds went by, the complicated chaos unravels. What a pity, now its gritty, that canvas looks horrific. Dreams over dreams over dreams, no space left! Maybe, just white would do, Maybe that is enough. https://unsplash.com/@kajhinkson An unexamined life is not worth living. This is one of my favourite quotes from Socrates. What why and how "an unexamined life is not worth living" are the questions we should be asking from ourselves after reading the quote. And that is exactly what I am going to do in this article. Compare this quote with the following slogan from ancient eastern philosophers. Appasuthayan puriso, baliwaddowa jirathi. Mansanithass waddanthi panna thassana waddathi. Above was an old quote, from ancient teachers of estern philosophy. It means, "the one who is not examining (life) will grow in muscle mass, just like a buffalo. But will never gain true wisdom." I can't ignore the sarcasm, put forward by eastern philosophers, comparing one who do not think about life to a Buffalo instead telling such a life is "Not worth living". I am sure Socrates did not mean to pass such sarcasam towards his fellow deciples who did not follow his advice. More importantly we should attend to why we should examine our life before we are labeled as Buffalos. Why should we examine life? Reason 1 For a fact, we are not buffaloes. We know that life starts with birth and end in death. And neither of these events are in our control. Circumstances of our birth is a million dollar question which is still unanswered, and nobody knows what happens after death. On top of that in between these random events we are taught to belive we have a free will. If a banana is rotten on either sides, why do you expect the middle is delicious? Does it not smell fishy? For me it does. Reason 2 Even if the either side is rotten, if the banna is lengthy enough we can assume there is good bit in the middle. If the life is lengthy enough, mabe 500 years atleast, I can put aside the task of examining life until I reach 250 years. Average life expectancy of human on earth linger around 72 years world wide. So at this scale I assume atleast 36 would be a good place to gain some wisdom as you have enough experience about the world at this point. More importantly, when the diseases, and the old age start to hit you, you would not be a strong buffalo even if you are superman . Reason 3. For a rational person above two reasons should be enough. There is no reason 3. However, inherent randomnoess of life would be a good candidate. Mind seems to be like a flag in the wind . It moves, whenever there is a wind. When there is rain, mind thinks about rain, when there is trouble mind thinks about trouble. When there is happiness, it starts to smile and dream. Nothing seems to be completely under control of the "Self". Hence mind is just a ball bounce between duality of the nature, in the wind provided by extremely interconnected chaos of reasons. Which can suddenly end, in a dumb way. That concludes my reasons for supporting that unexamined life is not worth living. https://unsplash.com/@denisi_z How are we going to examine life? Mindfulness is the way. Mindfulness is the tool we use to examine our life. Imagine a scientist is doing an experiment . He would initially make a hypothesis from avialable evidence (after a litereture review) and then conduct an experiment on the hypothesis. He would collect data from control and the experiment cohorts and prove or disprove the hypothesis. He may have to repeat the experiment. However, in matters with mind or self, we cannot use this objective apporach. As we own are the subjects of the experiment. Hence we have to use a different method. Mindfulness is the only way. Mindfulness is basically being aware of our awareness, and objective of this experiment is to understand truth of life . I have empasized on this objective in a previous article, as to why mindfulness is not about "living a healthy life" or "making optimal experience". As above reason 1 and reason 2 will cancel out any value in other objectives, and put them in the dust bin. I am sure atleast some of us are fully aware of the seriousness of the issues associated with life. If you are not, I suggest you to visit an elderly home, or a cancer hospital in your spare time, as real meaning is hidden if you are not living in a femine prone third world country. With this objective in mind, with a little bit of wisdom provided by numerous teachers of the past and present, you can take a "journey" to understand the " journey ". You will take wrong paths, and when we do we should not hesitate to turn back and start again from the beginning or as I call it repeat the experiment. Countless times. And I am sure you will come to a destination one day. And do not be surprised if you find this destination is an empty one. As it is the same Socrates who uttered " Only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing ".

  • How to do First principle thinking? Is it an illusion of Elon Musk?

    I am not sure this is considered as a thing its own. Learning by principles is not a common practice. Maybe it will be a "Thing" after this article. I have heard the above phrase in some uncommon places. Like from university lecturers. Before it became a common term after Elon Musk talked about it. As you can see, the world is looking at this guy, to cling onto every word he says because he is backed up with billions of dollars. However, I cannot agree more on this, Hence I will try to explain this with good examples. My version of this learning is called " Pattern recognition " which is more common term than Learning by Principle. Trajectories: https://unsplash.com/@ayoo_twitch What is First Principal thinking: Read the following summary of First Principle thinking and, try to understand anything makes sense. To me it does not directly. At first glance it seems just an illusionary vision. What do you think about it? First principles thinking is essentially a problem-solving approach that involves breaking down complex issues into their most basic, fundamental truths, and then rebuilding solutions from those core principles. Here's a breakdown: Breaking Down Assumptions: It involves dismantling pre-existing assumptions and conventional wisdom. Instead of relying on analogies or how things have always been done, it focuses on what is undeniably true. Identifying Fundamental Truths: The goal is to identify the "first principles" – the basic facts that cannot be further reduced. These are the foundational elements of a problem. Rebuilding from the Ground Up: Once the first principles are established, solutions are constructed by reasoning upwards from these fundamental truths. This allows for the creation of innovative and unique solutions. Key aspects: It is about, questioning "why" repeatedly, to get to the root of a problem. It promotes independent thinking. It helps to create novel solutions, instead of just incremental improvements. In essence, first principles thinking encourages you to move beyond accepted norms and create your own understanding of reality by starting with the most basic facts. First principle thinking example. Imagine you are in the ground. And you see some kids playing with a ball. I have done it before. The catching the ball game. We divide ourselves into two groups and from either side of the ground throw the ball up in the air, at the other group. And they try to catch it. And some are very good at catching while some are very good at throwing. And if you throw, it higher, the catching is more difficult when it comes down, obviously as it has higher energy and faster speeds. If you do not throw it too high, it will be much easier to catch. Obviously, there are so many things we can learn from this. We can calculate the exact speed of the ball, given the initial speed and the angle of throw, and air resistance etc. All the rocket scientists at space X started learning trajectories just like solving similar small problems. But is there anything else we can learn from this? We can observe with mindfulness. And one principle I gather from this is, "Higher the ball goes, greater speed it will come down" Let's make it more fundamental principle. Higher something goes, faster it will come down. Higher the action, larger the reaction. Now we are getting somewhere with our first principle. Now, this is good thing to keep in mind. And if you look at this simple fact, I can show you thousand things where this can be applied. Following is a few, you can name some more. Just a leaf: https://unsplash.com/@mariahhewines Using the first Principle Deeper the sea retreat, bigger the wave, the Tsunami . Ask from Japanese if you do not know this. Bigger a company is, riskier if they start to crash one day. This is why it is mandatory for any company to go into share market and become public. More people will lose their jobs, unless backed by public itself. Bigger the atomic bomb, that detonate, longer will be the peace that follow. Larger the bank you are going to Rob, will give you a longer sentence in jail. More famous you are, bigger the consequences of your unethical actions will be. Not only that, but this will also provide you insane wisdom even for everyday things. Imagine this. Bigger the car you buy, Higher will be maintenance costs. Bigger the house you buy, Higher will be numbers of empty rooms. Higher your expectations in life, more will be the suffering, when you find your zero. This is why more bankers suicide than of Beggers? But as you can see, not all of them are true. But we have a perspective to think about things. We just started with a simple thing like a falling of a ball, but argue about global peace? Someone might argue. It is just looking at the negative side of it. I would not disagree with this. Infact, bigger the car, you can be more satisfied with it, with comfort. Yet, this principle will let you understand and take a calculated risk in doing something. Bigger the action bigger the reaction - > both pros and cons will be multiplied equally. Following are More examples of first principle thinking. Drifting jellyfish -> Everything is in motion. What is time -> a falling leaf is a continuous function. Technical drawing ->You can never fully describe something. Where is my right -> Right is always relative Do you follow any first Principles? What are they? First principle of thinking

  • How to gain success without suffering - "No pain no gain" is this even true?

    I had a poster once, on my wall. With a man free climbing a rock. With sweat all over his body, watching in eyes of determination. He looked ferocious, tired yet trumpet in a way. And at the bottom it said "No pain no gain" I can remember I believed in that those days. Hard work leads us to success in life. And I wonder if any successful person would argue against this. It seemed a generally good rule to follow. I have kept on trying, even when it is painful to do so. Now having felt zeros of life now I ask myself, is it a good rule to follow? Would I do that if I go back to that time again? It's difficult to answer. Because now I believe any suffering for that matter is unnecessary. Instead I consider the following. No pain no gain: https://unsplash.com/@grwood Suffering in life is unnecessary and excessive. Pain on the other hand is unavoidable. Pain is unavoidable but suffering is avoidable. We as humans possess the weak human body. It is going to wear and tear like old grandpa's bicycle. And going to cause pain. This is unavoidable. There is no running away from this. But suffering or the mental counterpart of pain is more abundant than physical pain. However it is a very avoidable thing. The easy answer to this kind of mental suffering is "letting it go". But how is the problem? Even in the worst kind of mental pain like loss of a loved one, we will have to let it go, until we do that we might not be able to overcome the suffering and get on with life. But how can we get rid of something if we do not know how it arises in the first place? This is where mindfulness wisdom comes into play. Imagine a group of kids playing in a dollhouse. They are cooking and making an imaginary lunch. While adults joined the play, their dog crashed in and tipped everything over. All the pots and pans on the floor. And kids start to cry. They actually cry over some imaginary meal which spilled. The lunch they prepared is not so imaginary for them. But they are in early development and the margins of what is imaginary and what is real is blurry for them. Adults do not cry. They are capable of hiding their laughter looking at stupidity and empathise with a fake sadness. And divert kids attention to something else so they can console better. Lunch: https://unsplash.com/@ronisefoodie No pain no gain? Or suffering is avoidable in success? The pain that kids feel is unnecessary, excessive and avoidable. But they are not ready for the truth yet. They are not mature. Adults on the other hand are better equipped with knowledge. They can separate their thoughts from imaginary and real, like a swan separating milk from water. But the question is, is that the only level of truth? Would you not be sad over a spilled lunch?  Mindfulness lets us observe our thoughts over time. And understand that so called living is abstractions and assumptions. Truth is just a probability, and your "lunch which fell on the floor" is another probable truth. You can assume a thousand reasons for this and start blaming the guy who knocked you, but everything seems to harbour this probability of not being true, maybe your response is unnecessary and excessive, just like a kid at imaginary play. And if you just apply the same wisdom to the suffering and anger you will notice the anger and suffering you feel lasts only because you agree with its presence. The moment you realise this it is going to change and disappear and in the same place, you might even feel better. Imagine feeling good about a spilled lunch? How many people in the world can do that? How many do you think? If you want to become that self, like a hydrophobic leaf , follow us for more intuitions. No pain No gain - Listen

  • Children of Heaven and the message of "Blowing in the wind"

    All children are heavenly. I was a child once, before I became this monstrous self. I was heavenly too. I am sure every criminal, and every judge ever lived, once cried for a drop of milk from their mother. And it is not a secret, not something to be ashamed of. But even I have hard time understanding children are heavenly before they are shaped by adults around them. Children of Heaven 2006 I just remembered I watched this documentary type drama film called children of heaven. It had been there in the back of my memory Until I reminded it again. It was about a little brother and a sister. How their poverty could not milk away their heavenly nature. It was about a pair of shoes, and the struggle of a little brother to bring back, a new pair of shoes to replace the ones he lost, which belonged to his little sister. The most iconic scene is where he tries to win the third place in a race, so he could get a pair of shoes as a price but failing as he accidentally won the race. Isn't it amazing, when their value system is not greedy as adults, but only represent their nature? I am not saying every kid would behave same. But exceptions are minority when children are concerned. It will second only to Shindler's list, if we consider the pure nature of the act of kindness. Shoes: https://unsplash.com/@grailify Children of heaven If acts of kindness are the hallmark of being heavenly, I would say there are few in the world. And when I look at them It makes me feel like a mouse. What am I even doing here? I should quit and try to become one of them. Those heavenly men and women directly descended from God. And it reminded me of Bob Dylan and his famous song Blowing in the wind. I read it as a teenager, it was just a poem. Until I heard the master himself singing the song. As he explains, he himself in an interview he doesn't know how creations come into the world. It is just magical. It is like he is a messenger to a heavenly song that generations loved to hear. How many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? How many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? How many deaths will it take 'til he knows That too many people have died. The answer, my friend, is blowing' in the wind The answer is blowing' in the wind Answers are blowing in the wind: https://unsplash.com/@saadchdhry Living a life of kindness I am sure he would not feel sad on his deathbed. As he appears a messenger of truth. Yet I know if you ask him, he will not agree. At least the words speak the truth, and that is why he has got the Nobel prize for literature in 2016. But the question is how many times that we have to listen to the song before we understand the message in it? I am sure there are plenty of men who die without seeing the sky, or hearing people cry. Until they can't help themselves. I am sure, the message is not to look at the sky and say "Wow" and donate some coins to charity. It is about looking at ourselves, to see that what life really needs to sustain itself through time. To understand that sometimes it needs only to feel the wet sand through your toes in your feet, and a little bit of sea wind. Instead to choose kindness, over greediness, generosity over cruelty and peace over happiness . And live like innocent children singing a song in the porch all afternoon, all our lives without ever becoming adults. Is it even possible? I am sure, a little song about truth or a blog post would not make the cruelty disappear, yet it will resonate in some heavenly minds.

  • Truth - why Idiots only talk about it while wise only search for it

    Truth - Definition Truth or verity is the property of being in accord with fact or reality. In everyday language, it is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs, propositions, and declarative sentences. - from Wiki Let's talk about truth - like idiots. Well- who cares for definitions. We can talk about truth while chewing a gum on a Friday afternoon watching a football match with my buddy. I think that is the best place to talk about truth. Where are you now? Don't you think it is the best time to talk about truth, now? I am not sure anyone talks about truth nowadays as the world is becoming more and more bizarre place, watching shorts of AI generated cute rabbits all the afternoon. How about the fact instead of two Genders now we have an alphabet of it? Even The God will get confused if he is to re-create the Garden of Eaden. Maybe instead of a single apple tree he could make a myriad of hybrid fruit trees, so everyone can get one according to their own taste. Oh, not at all this is an attack on genders. I just chose the fact from the tip of my truth-seeking nose to show that truth is not straight forward like Trump administration assumes. There are lot of grey areas, just when you decide to take a step further on any truth. From mathematics to geology, I have given numerous examples. But this article will look at holistically and ask the question why? rainbow: https://unsplash.com/@steve_j Truth is hidden like a coronavirus. When we were taught about viruses in Collage, we really learned about coronavirus. It was a half a page in a 3000-page book. And we did not even concentrate on it, maybe just had a glance when we turn the pages for fun. Nobody did emphasize it could Kill! not one or two people. But during pandemic, few years back, it halted even the great heavenly nations form functioning. Nobody had answers. Everyone was perplexed not knowing what to do. People did die inside their homes without any care. And truth of coronavirus was hard learned. How many truths are out there hidden in our plain sight like coronavirus. Waiting to strike? Look at the following list. And think what is common to all these names? David Bowie Whitney Houston Prince Robbin Williams Pablo Picasso Gabriel García Márquez Stephen Hawking Nelson Mandela Mohammad Ali Apart from they are very famous and influential and inspirational people. I collect the fact that they are all dead. And the list of dead famous people is endless. We even do not feel that they are dead only because we still see them alive in our smartphones. Just the other day I saw Pablo Picasso drawing a face, on a canvass, and in the afternoon, I was able to watch all the 15 rounds of the fight of the century 1971 between Muhammod Ali and Joe Frazier. Just forgetting the fact that both of these who were entertaining crowds that day are now victims of the demon of death. Ali and Fraizer Image: Wiki Common Truth -Let's search for it like wise men I can live my whole life forgetting the fact, that I would be dead. But it doesn't happen that way, as I can see while the stupid hang on some belief, wise people would search for the truth until they are sure there is no truth to be found. Where can you find a truth about life? I can list you some places, you can join me with your list. Truth can be found in a rock in your garden A drifting jelly fish Some clouds in the sky A tree King fisher In waves In a courtroom In golden globe awards in water Laptop There is no end to it. As when the mind is really shined with mindfulness, everything you see and hear will start to speak the language of truth. But you may think that is the "real truth" and some will stop searching when they find the meaning of life in a teacup. which is far from what really happens. It just awakens the mind that it guides itself to come out of eternal darkness that we are in due to lack of wisdom. So, the wise would never stop the search, simply they cannot as they know, it is not what they just found out the true truth! Always something else. PS: Wise people always find a counter argument for the truth, so they keep searching. While idiots who listen to them and satisfy with whatever they understood without thinking.

  • What is Momentum and Inertia - the mindfulness explanation to physical phenomenon

    Newtonian Physics. We can get back to Newtonian physics for the first part of this. But for a broder meaning of momentum and inertia we will next look at a child. A mass is motion, and has momentum. Which can be represented by the equation, momentum = mass × velocity. In simple terms higher the velocity more momentum it has. Do you know, in contact sports like rugby, the ones who are successful, should either have bigger mass or ability to gain faster speed. Having both would be a great advantage over opponents. To change the momentum you need an external force. And in this case a tackle by the opposing team. Bigger the momentum a player has, the less likely he will be stopped. And bigger the mass inertia is high. Inertia is the resistance an object has to change its motion. Rugby: https://unsplash.com/@craigboudreaux Examples of Momentum in Life. There are many simple examples. Faster a bullet will travel longer. Bigger airplanes will need a longer runway. Bigger the ship, slower the speed it travels. I can go on talking about momentum and inertia in physics. But this would be a replication of a wiki article if I do that. Which serves no purpose. I am sure you would check that page if you are aiming to solve a physics problem. But this exercise is about solving problems in life . Think about doing something. When we have already started doing something, the momentum which we gained in the beginning will help us to finish effortlessly. And you may find it hard to stop. Isn't it another kind of momentum? It seems "the flow" state explained by mihaly csikszentmihalyi is none other than this kind of momentum. There is no place to be distracted by other things as at greater speeds there is no lateral thinking. But all these are ways to explain momentum as a phenomena of nature. But there is another way to understand momentum. Which is the mindfulness way. This happened to me the other day. Heavy ship with inertia : https://unsplash.com/@thanasis_p What is momentum? Mindfulness on Momentum My daughter was running inside the house and she crashed on the couch. And she said, "Father look, I cannot stop, when I am running, why?" And I said, "ah that's because of your momentum". I could not explain further than that. I didn't even try. I am sure if I took time I could have taught about mass and velocity products. Was I lazy? I think now. Instead we can notice even without not knowing about mass, velocity and momentum itself how can someone know momentum. Why? Why can someone know momentum without even knowing the words? That is because momentum is not a thing we see in things. It is a thing we feel. This is mindfulness when applied to momentum. Someone running can feel momentum in their body as a feeling. And this feeling is more important than actual knowledge. If we are unable to detect this, I am sure every 100 meters Olympic dash would end up in players crashing on the arena against the wall. Even you would bump into every door everyday. And human race would not survive if it wasn't for the ability to recognise momentum. Labelling it only came after newton. But even monkeys know the momentum. Would you not agree? Once we have the feeling of momentum and label it as such, we can observe this in external objects. We can look at a slowly speeding jumbo jet on Heathrow runaway and say "that jet is slow to take up speed, it has more inertia than a smaller plane" I am sure you can never know the real "momentum" in it unless you become the jumbo jet. But that is what we do when we say the above. We become the jet in our own minds. And this is just a relative assumption. Have you ever thought about this? The remarkable ability of the mind to externalise things which are otherwise originated from within? So next time, when someone talks about momentum, of objects. Make it a habit to look inside and see the momentum within yourself, and recognise it is not in the car that you are trying to push. It is the feeling of resistance that you feel now, when you are pushing it. " Who looks ouside dreams , who look inside awakens" Carl Jung

We'd love to hear from you! Connect with us on social media or drop us a line at contact@magicalmindfulliving.com

Thank You for Reaching Out!

© 2021 Magical Mindful Living. All rights reserved.

bottom of page