Rivers of tears and innocent cries Echoes in chambers even tonight Of mothers and daughters and withering lives God forgive us for our crimes. Who said we learned lessons from Auschwitz ? Who said we made corrections in our action plans? Politicians' rulers' leaders of our times Followed and Followers are guilty alike. To all daughters with love, let's make it a promise. As fathers not to fail before our demise. Auschwitz, gas chambers. I first learned about Gas chambers of Auschwitz from a book by the same name. I was a kid at the time and did not know the history of a world at war. The world war never reached our country although it was a British colonial at that time, hence, even in our history books it was not a popular subject. I can remember the gas chambers described in the book innocent lives, withered away inside of them. I learned about a crazy doctor in the name of Josef Mengele, who did experiments using humans. And today when I thought about it, I realize, what is the use digging up a grave of a cruel creation of nature. I would rather talk about bright stories who died in silence without a word. Touch me not - Mimosa Pudica I can remember when we grew up, as kids we used to see these sensitive plants by the road. It was a weed by the name of Mimosa Pudica . They held little pink flowers and thorns in their little trunks and branches. Barely grew feet above the ground and they had leaves which are sensitive to touch. And they wither away quickly in seconds and drop to the ground if touched. And If we see a plant as kids, we could not help touching them just to see them wither to the ground. I saw a couple of these "Touch me not" plants by the road just the other day and I did touch them. And it reminded me of the lives withered in gas chambers all those years ago. It made me ashamed, when I compared myself to the Cruel Mengele, did I do wrong by touching those innocent leaves? What right did I have? I hold the power, and should I have left them do their photosynthesis instead? Story about gas chamber. Still movies of men women and children being forced into concentration camps still are there on the internet. I see their stories, which were never told. They did not have a blog to write about their lives. They did not have paper. They were not allowed to speak. If touched, they could only wither away like another Mimosa Pudica. With all those memories, they were Straight away taken from their homes, into the gas chambers. After each such gassing, it was said that the bodies always were in the middle of the room. Like a pyramid. And the old feeble were at the bottom while on the top were little stronger men and women. I can only imagine these withering plants trying to hold onto the last bit of air which is escaping from the roof while the toxic gas is replacing it from the bottom. They had not choice, they had no place to run away. No voice. There were no global humanitarian organizations to speak up for them. On the other hand, as a philosopher, I question the cruelty, being addressed by counter cruelty. How come penalty for taking someone life is also penalty of life. I have argued over this " God's forgiveness " in some of articles in the blog. But like to re-emphasize that everyone deserves a second chance in life. As life is life although what form it is. If life wants to change for the better at the last minutes of life, that would be a silver line for a dark cloud and would bring hope, for the afterlife. When we understand these facts and appreciate life it would be easier to wipe of our dark history of gas chambers from even memory never to appear again on earth.

The dream land of creativity. I am sure of it; the American dream did not start with creativity. Maybe it started with some enthusiastic British and French men, who were in search of richness and escape from poverty. Maybe some fled away from their troubles and wives and children in search of Gold. However, after centuries those reasons do not matter now. As America is considered as the greatest place for dreamers. As my blog is also read by many Dreamers, American or not, I dedicate this chapter on creativity and dreams. Creativity is a great power. Creativity is a great power, that humans possess than any animal species. That is what took our generations out of thick jungles ages ago. Creativity matters to thrive as a society and as an individual. I can write more on its benefits; however, you would know. Why creativity is so powerful? How does it shape our future. Creativity comes in many shapes and forms. When we identify creativity in art, most often, it may also be found in engineering, mathematics, or even in cycling . Creativity adds some value to otherwise boring lives of routine. I see creativity in the top tier of the bloom's taxonomy. As creativity leads to new innovations . From this aspect America is the greatest, as it encourages the collaboration of most renowned minds together to form thousands of patents a year. You can be creative. Imagine you are a brick layer. Can you not be creative? I urge you to be creative at your work and out of your work. Otherwise, you would be wasting your years and years of time laying brick after brick learning nothing. Be damn creative so that you are the best brick layer in the whole world. How would you be creative? It comes naturally when you make it a habit listening to your mind. Often our minds are clouded by routine boring thoughts. However, throughout the day I notice there comes times that the mind is sharp. Just like a surgical scalpel. If you are mindful, a creative idea would linger in your head, and just like other thoughts it will go away. Unless you make notice of it and make it a little dream. An American dream or an Australian dream. It doesn't matter. This idea initially would not show any shape. Just like a mound of clay. While you are at work you have to play with it. Make some shape out of it. Get your hands dirty. And you would make a pot at the end of the day. It may not be the best pot in the world, neither the most valuable pot . However, it would still be good enough to give you experience to make another. I know you have complaints at this point. Your mind would say, I do not have best tools. I have only a mound of clay. What can you do if you have only a mound of clay? Remember the quote "It is not the one who has the best ingredients cooks the most delicious cake?". I remind myself this whenever my stupid mind brings up the stupid excuses to not to be creative. You are what you see , and you are what you do. So, the moment you start pounding that mound of clay with a stick you are a creator. I can remember someone close to me years ago. He had a nice smile and a big heart. A young man with enormous power. Hardworking man. Once he was working in our backyard digging a deep drain, to drain the monsoon water that flow across our land. I remember when he was tired, he would sit on a piece of wood and make a small ball of clay from the soil he just unearthed. And he started tapping it with a piece of flat wood. First, he would make it a flat disk, then with his fist in the middle he would tap more and more until it is shaped into a nice little pot. And he did not complaint that he did not have best equipment. I still can remember he gifted it to me with a big smile on his face. I did learn and I made my own little pots. It really does not have to be big, and enormous like dreams of Elon musk . As the values are measured our minds, tiny things matter. Hence, little bit creativity will add more to smiles which are very hard to come by. If you cannot do it for yourself, do it for others, as that is the Dennis Detroit way of happiness. Do not be afraid of the rules. This is a dangerous thing to say. However, as I consider myself a philosopher I can say it. Be aware of the rules and navigate them if wanted. Do, not go into jail. There are some people who make us follow want to follow the rules blindly. However, remember trajectory of the human history was changed by the people who were not afraid of challenging the rules. Rules are the killers of creativity. That's why I do like dreams instead. As in dreams anything and everything is possible. More importantly, rules are made by our ancestors who made them follow their observations of the universe in their eyes. You have your own consciousness to judge your world. Hence you may find a better set of rules which describe your own world better than your ancestors. This is Anton Chigurh Philosophy when he said, "If the rules you followed brought you to your death, what is the use of the rule?" If you do not know when and how to break the rules, be friends with a good lawyer. They will definitely guide you, as they are not afraid of the rules. If you are a lawyer, you already know what I am saying here as one of the jobs of the lawyer is to navigate the rules without breaking them. There were lot of them who wanted to destroy creativity , after been halfway through the expected life, now I realize. I shouldn't have listened to them. I shouldn't have delayed writing the first poem. I shouldn't have delayed creating a blog. As being creative is the silver lining of my day. As I remind myself when I know it is going to spark some consciousness to be an extraordinary person in the future. What is your "American" Dream?

A jelly pudding I possess a brain weighing a kilo of jelly inside my skull. If cut open it would flop like a pudding on a plate that my mom made for last Christmas. I walk around with my precious pudding judging everything around me. From a grain of sand to the statue of liberty. With my jelly pudding I think about the length of copper wire I can make melting all the 91000kg of copper from the statue of liberty , and how much I can earn from this If I can repeat the process year after year. I learn math to find the math which describes the profit as a function of the radius of the copper wire that I am going to make. And I search through the internet to find out the largest copper mines of the world which can just do that. Then I zoom out just to see it from the space just to see whether this is visible from 100 km above the sky. Shopping for Apples I take my jelly pudding to the shop, to go after piles and piles of packets of canned food. I access the memory catalogue in the jelly to see what taste each one have given in the past. And I select a packet of apple which has proven to be tasteful in the past. Not the most expensive one, as I am sure an extra little bit of taste it gives is not worth enough for the extra cash. And not the cheapest ones either. As I am taking the apples for my own consumption, and I would not treat myself so cheap either. Just like Goldilocks I choose which is perfectly in the middle. And tag it as a good trade, in the memory bank to repeat the process next week. With the half a dozen of apples I walk away from the store, like I have made the right choice. Like if I eat one per day that I might get enough antioxidants which will reduce the rate of mutations happening in individual cells of my stomach, to reduce the rate of cancer and helps me to keep the doctors away from my life. Until the jelly pudding gets molds on its own and no use for anyone, not even the jelly pudding itself. Walk down the Broadway I walk down the road as I do not have a car. Which I think would add to my current troubles with my job and my so loving parents. It's not going to add anything, other than searching for parking spaces and bills and tax and even the trouble of driving without knocking down anyone. The jelly pudding comes to a conclusion that it's not worth the risk and put aside the car in the back corner room which might never come again to the living room. Like that old broken 🌂 umbrella I had years ago. I walk down the road alone as I do not have a girlfriend and think, well, it's just the same as the car. A trouble from the beginning. The tax expenses and even the Noice. I might even consider a dumb dog would be a better choice. And who knows next year I might be the Romio that I wished I would become until I grew into the current version of the Manhattan man. The girlfriend also goes to the back room with the umbrella and the car. And now, now it's about the solo journey to the central park. Manhattan Man In the central Park Turning around the corner, I enter the park looking for a bench while everything seems to be taken by tourists. What are they even doing here? Don't they have enough jungles in their home land?, and wonder they are from Vietnam or China. What is wrong with their puddings? Expecting tigers in middle of NY? I notice the jelly pudding started to bubble while going deeper into the park and finally just found one, just out of luck. And started to enjoy an apple. Out of nowhere a couple of pigeons come and join cooing for their fair share for deeds they have not done on top of my head. And I accept their claim and put some pieces of apple I am eating. And with a confused look they peck the apple and refuse to consume and fly away, showing that they are from the upper class of pigeon society that do not want my offering of apples. Suddenly a girl runs past me, and I bring out the numeric scale. Not the front one, but the back one as I noticed her only after she passed me, and try to figure out where to keep her? Is it a seven? A six? Maybe a 6.5. Numeric scales I look at the sky and notice it might even rain in the afternoon and temperature has dropped at least a couple of degrees since I have left the office. I need to track the weather; it's too much ask to keep all the numbers in memory for the jelly pudding hence I browse for a weather app for my iPhone with reminders of temperature at least four times per day. As if like I am not feeling cold unless I know the temperature. And it is a good idea to update the temperature analogue scale of the jelly pudding to match the numeric scale provided by the app. I notice that the CPU usage of the jelly pudding is so high that it has started to heat up the system although its cold outside. Hence decide to return to the apartment to give it a rest and maybe keep it in the fridge overnight will make it just hard enough to carry on another day with numbers. Paragraph from the Book What is time? World of Goo. You may have played the famous game “world of goo” on your pc or on your smartphone. And as the story goes there's a race between goo balls and ‘world goo corporation’ and building a tower and finding z dimension in the 2D world. In this chaos of goo story, ultimately, they reach the far away planet to populate it with more goo. And it seems sarcastic to think that we are represented with these goo balls, which we help to navigate rivers and build towers with. And it was shown that if all the eight billion people on our planet were put together into a giant goo ball it would expand over just under one kilometer in diameter. And putting it into perspective we can keep the human goo ball in the middle of the central park in New York and it will be expanding only 100 meters beyond either side of the width of the park. Compare it to the immense size of our planet and see how insignificant we are on our own planet just in comparison of size. Next -> Where do our values come from?

What happens after a breakup? Imagine a young couple in a relationship. Which started as a fairy tale, when eyes met with eyes. Then the period of extensive joy 😊. Countless texts meetings and sharing everything from a Kit cat to compartment. And after a while when they know each other Suttle differences started to appear. They find out that they have a temper. There are differences the way they think about things. Even gets angry occasionally and arguments. Ambitions of each other gets in crossroads. And they decide to break up. Let's assume this is mutual, and they ended their relationship. This is not uncommon. I would say a very common phenomenon. Our discussion is about what happens after. Give it a thought? What happened after you broke up with someone? Introduction to saved value Or "Why I cannot move on." I will let you contemplate thoughts on above question for a while and introduce you to the saved value. In fact, if you are someone with programing experience you already know this. Saved value is a concept when the client uploads some data into a program. As an example, if you have a Facebook account or a twitter and you upload some photos, that act as a saved value. The important thing to remember is this saved value makes you come back to the program again and again in a positive feedback loop. This is called hooked method of programing I have described this in my previous article on phone addiction . More you upload videos, more levels you have reached on the video game, it will be a strong reminder for you to come back. We can Isolate this principle of saved value and apply this to life in general. Remember the Schmidt Tunnel ? Digging a useless tunnel, even when roads were built, he couldn't help himself, as he had saved so much time and effort in the first place. Now with this new wisdom we will look at the above scenario of a couple breaking up. More often we see one easily moves on while other struggles. And we can confidently say the saved value for the one who cannot move on is more in this case. I'm not suggesting the effort they put into making the other one better. True effort is a different thing, but the mental evaluation of it is another. The memories, hold mental values. Just like pictures you upload to a Facebook page. While idling your mind start to visit these mental images and re-evaluate them making it hard to delete. On the other hand, the one who even have no "Facebook page", it would be easier to move on. More applications on saved values. A relationship is not the only place where you see this kind of save value playing a significant role. Imagine you are in a job. You work your way through the hierarchy year after year, even feeling better for yourself. Suddenly, out of nowhere the top post is snatched by a newcomer. And you are devastated. You think you deserve this more than anyone. Yet you cannot quit. You cannot quit and make a fresh start. As your values are saved in the company by hours. By your creativity and effort. Imagine your family house. Maybe your parents still live there. 🤔 You saw them build the house when they were a young couple. They brought you up there, in knowledge and love you all grew. Just like a nest, it was a safehouse for everyone. Now children have moved on. To build a house on their own, if they prefer. The house got old day after day just like your parents. But they refuse to move on. They do not want to repaint the walls. They do not want to facelift the living room. They have so much time and mental effort invested in the house. It is not uncommon that old people just die in their old homes ( last mile home - short story). And imagine you or me in their place, I see no difference. I am sure you may have many examples of saved value. It may be a broken toy that you don't want to throw away. A tradition that your generations of ancestors carried out. A belief that do not let you move on even when you do know the truth. Negative effects of saved values- out of thick mud. As you can see, saved value can be disastrous when you want to move on. But importantly we can recognize it is better to have them in places where we want to stay. So how can we overcome this problem of saved value when you want to move on. If it is just a Facebook page you can just delete it. But we are talking about mental values on mental objects . You may disagree. You may say it's not all mental. I invested my own money my own time which I should have spent with family enjoying. I cannot give up now. Even when I see there is no use, I simply cannot as it's not all mental! If you are in that kind of mud. I would just agree and let you ventilate your sorrow. And just ask you to take a mindful walk. Step out into your garden and look at a 🌳 tree. What can you see? A tree? How much is its worth? Give me a number. Zero? Hundred? Or is it negative, meaning you want it cut out as it blocks the sun into your room. Now ask the Neighbour, what is the worth of the tree. Ask thousand people the value of the tree. Or even better you can watch an episode of "the price is right". A thousand people will give a thousand answers to a value of a tree. What does this teach you about its value? It's not in the tree but in your mind more precisely consciousness. Different minds produce different values on the same object. The price is never right, it's not definitely in the label given by the factory. How to readjust your saved values and move on. Look at the broken relationship now. As it is a mental object, in mindfulness. You realize the values you have given are far too much. Obviously, we can understand when we see how the world just carries on when you are stagnant. Once you realize this that the value you have given to your broken relationship is just mental, you can even start tweaking this. You can look at the fish in the bowl in front of you and just for the sake of it you can give a mental value far higher than your boyfriend or girlfriend to the fish! And you will start to get those lost smiles when you do that. So, let me suggest if it is your job, that you cannot move on from, compare this to a paper clipper and give it more value than your job. And get out of there to a happy place. If it's an old car that you cannot sell because you have so many memories with it. Just give a value to a nut in your imagination and laugh about it. I see no one can give any excuse when they gain wisdom on these facts. And it will come handy even if you are saving tons of values today. As we all know one day we all have to leave it all behind and become zeroes of life.

Mr. Paul Alexander - The Man in the Iorn Lungs. Mr. Paul Alexander is considered as the Man in the Iron Lungs. He is the longest to live in so called Iron Lungs after being victim to Polio at the age of six. He passed away at the age of 78 on March 11,2024 . Considering his condition this is a remarkable achievement, and someone would call it a miracle. As Paul's life story is packed with full of suprises. Mini Monsters If you do not know about Polio. It is a virus mainly affecting children less than age of five. And one in 200 will get permanent musle paralysis. And these children generally die due to unable to breath, and other problems associated with paralysis, like increased rate of infections etc. Once respiratory muscles are paralyed only way to survive is to fit into an Iorn Lung or a mechanical ventilator. It is a global effort to eradicate polio from the world and still have not succeeded as there are still pockets of these mini monsters hanging around in some third world countries. However, we never come across these as thanks to global vaccination programs of WHO and heard immunity it provides. More than ever we should be thankful to the collective efforts of nations to tackle mini monsters, latest being the covid. Who knows what mini monsters hide in our future, I am sure we will face them with positive attitude, when we consider courage of humans just like Paul. How Iorn Lung works. I can remember when we were in primary school we went on a field trip to see a Blacksmith. His workshop was few killometers away, and for a nine year old kid this was a great experience to see things in action. He showed us a bellow, which he used to pump enough wind to his hearth. When I saw Paul's Iron lung it reminded me of a bellow. Which essentially is a rythmically moving giant piston encasing the body. We all have this kind of mechanism pre installed inside of our body, which is chest cavity. And the diaphragm which is at the bottom of this cavity acts as the piston which moves air in and out of lungs. That is exactly what Paul could not do as his diaphgram is also paralyed with all the other muscles below his neck. Hence His piston is just outside the body, as the Iron lung, compared to ours which is inside. Technically it should be called "Iorn diaphragm" than Iorn Lungs, as it does replace only function of his diaphragm not Lungs! There had been an outbreak of polio in 1950 in America and in Texas in which many children got the disease, including Paul, who almost died in the hospital. However he surivied and he was fitted to this iorn lung at the age of six, once his muslce paralysis kicked in. And his parents Nicholas Alexander, and Dorris, took him home in a Lorry, and he had been living a whole life with his Iorn lungs since then for almost all the 72 of his rest of the years, until his death. Remarkable Achievements of Mr Paul Alexander. I can only imagine such a life. Most of us would be devastated. But not Paul. Maybe he is made of different form, from me and you as he had achieved some impossible things througout his 78 year lifespan. He had graduated from W.W. Samuell Highschool being second in his class and first in the history of the school being to do so, without phisically attending to any class. With obvious reasons he had to be home schooled and memorise everything without taking notes. Bachlors degree in 1978 University Texas Austin, Juris Doctor 1984 and admitted to the bar in 1986 he had even represented clients in Courts with modified wheelchair. He even wrote a biography of himself "Three minutes for a Dog: my life in an Iorn Lung" published in 2020 after 8 years spending writing it, dictating and typing by tapping a keybord with a stick in his mouth. Even starting a Tick Tok account in 2024 January and gaining more than 300000 followers at the time of his death. If these are not remarkable achievements for a man who spend all life looking at the celing of his room, I can only compare it to a summit of K2 Death of Paul Alexander. He was admitted to the hospital in February 2024, and was tested positive for Covid 19. However at his time of death two months later he was negavite for virus. His health had deteriorated during hospital stay until inevitable happened. Final thoughts on the life of Mr Paul Alexander Personally for me Mr Alexander is a legened. Just like Achillis of Phthia, hero of the Trojan war . I am sure he had a legion of 300 loyal warriors in his personal battle of life. I have seen him talking, in documenteries in you tube and in TV. Never he talks about any negative thing about being paralysed and unable to walk or even use his hands. I have seen Sc-Fi films where a brain in a jar controlling humans and aleans, except he was just a brain in a head, with the useless body I have seen him drawing using the brush with his mouth. He was cheerful when he started talking about his life and daily routines into the camera, just like any other cheerful grandpa. Mr Paul Alexander is a brain, a genious, a remarkable human without a body. It makes me wonder about all of others who just complaint. Humans with a body but without a brain and we all can change. His story urges us to take action against all the barriers which we make in our minds. And if you would ask him I am sure he has ton of advice to give for us. There is a saying that "once, I started to worry about not having a bicycle until I saw a man without legs". I can conclude saying once "I started to worry about my life, until I saw Mr Paul Alexander and his remarkable story of Iron Lungs!" Following is a paragraph from the book What is time? I can compare battles faced by Paul to the battles of a mountenieer in an attempt at K2 Eight thousanders K2 is one of the 14 eight-thousanders, which is the second highest mountain in the world and second only to Annapurna 1  as the deadliest mountain. One in four people have died in attempts to summit this deadly pyramid in karakoram range in pakistan, which has given the nickname ‘Savage mountain’, not for the faint heart. Each year a few mountaineers attempt at the summit of this deadly beast, and risk their own lives. It is not a simple endeavor even for the experienced as they have to survive harsh conditions and deadly challenges even to have a view of the mountain as it is so far away from human reach. Summiting this mountain is considered a great honor, although even for the most successful they have only a few minutes to spend on top of the world enjoying mesmerizing views, as more time they spend enjoying their success the more they risk as climbing up is only half the journey.  Death is more common, is honored, but each climber takes a gamble against nature. Sometimes they have to give up on lifelong friends on top of the mountain freezing to death as there is no way to to help without risking their own life. An icefall, a slip of a foot, a change in weather and exhaustion can kill. Yet the hours spent in planning and challenges they face, what drives these brave men and women to conquer their fears? Are rewarded by the time that they spend on the summit. Biggest mountains are created in the mind. Next -> American dream and creativity

I lie by your side, throughout the journey. Sleepers kept us part though made it possible to carry. Clickety clack of carts of old trains so heavy. So near but so far, it is our destiny. Although we travel side by side till infinity I have lost hope of intimacy. My love my life my eternal beauty I say a silent goodbye though I do not have anybody. Whispered a rail in the ears of the other before it was crushed by the train yet again. Walking on rails. We have old rail system in our country, Sri Lanka. One of the most beautiful in the world. It was a gift from British who ruled for 150 years. Yet it is not fair to call it a gift as I am sure many have worked in these projects for minimal wage and even died. But now today after so many decades later still it is functioning. Steam engines are replaced by diesel engines from Germany. Yet rails remain the same. I am sure although one rail lies close to the other few feet apart the never have met each other for a chat. Just like some of us. How many we have met in the past. Yet carry on with life like strangers. What about your next-door Neighbour. I am sure after a couple of words exchanged in the beginning, when you moved in, they went silent. Like the other rail, they carry on another life. Maybe until the funeral of that old couple you would not cross the path. What about the old couple next door. They seem happy together. Yet I am sure they have secrets; they have kept from each other. Maybe it's about a story that happened a long time ago when they were young. And they know each other and ❤️ each other so much that they cannot share this without hurting the other. So, they keep these secrets in hidden attics of the memory until they are dissolved in dementia. What about the young girl and the boy. Who sit opposite each other. Every day on the train. They share some glances on each other while the other one is not looking. The presence of one makes warmth in the others heart. Yet when the train comes to a halt they walk on different paths. To repeat the journey again tomorrow until they move on with life. I am sure this is not uncommon unbelievable or unnatural story about every teenage. If it wasn't for the sleepers, rails would have moved apart. And it is the same sleepers which keep them looked at a distance from each other. Whispers of a rail This is what rails whisper in silence. I used to walk on the rails when I was younger, occasionally even now. And I was surprised how they are perfectly not fit into a stride of a human. Always I had to be mindful about the next sleeper to prevent trip and a fall. What about you? How did rails change your life. I am curious to know 🤔.

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

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

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

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

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

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