Heraclitus Heraclitus was an ancient Greek philosopher from Ephesus, who lived around the late 6th century BCE. He is best known for his doctrine that change is central to the universe, encapsulated in his famous saying, "Everything flows" (Greek: πάντα ῥεῖ, panta rhei). He believed that fire was the fundamental substance of the world and that the universe is in a constant state of flux. One of his most famous metaphors is that you cannot step into the same river twice, because new waters are always flowing. Heraclitus also introduced the concept of the unity of opposites ( Duality of the nature ) , suggesting that opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world You cannot step twice into the same river, because it is not the same river, and he is not the same man. Above is a quote by Heraclitus. It seems very superficial and easy to understand. However, recently they grabbed my attention as I have seen how much they inclined with the understanding of the world. It is just a single sentence and a few words but summaries a lifetime of wisdom. Let's visit some of these hidden messages to attempt yet again to understand life. As a student of mindfulness , I could appreciate more, and you would too. Why cannot you step twice into the same river? It is obvious, river is changing moment to moment. This is not new wisdom. If you have observed a river from a bridge, as I did some time ago, you would understand this truth. River is a good example to show something which rapidly changes. Moment to moment, second to second, water under the bridge would be replaced by new water from the upstream. Hence, you will never be able to step twice into the same current twice. As you can see, not only twice, really speaking, stepping into a river is so dynamic, that each second you will be facing new water. But why did Heraclitus wanted to emphasize this fact? We already kind of know this salient feature of the river. Why did Heraclitus say the above quote when it is something obvious? I think part of the answer is that often we forget that river is an ever-changing function. Although it is obvious, although it is prominent, we forget that river is a changing function. When we cross a river, it looks the same as yesterday. The bends it has created on the banks essentially remains the same. Even the name of the river remains same over centuries. But it changes. Water of the river, continuously and rapidly, course of the river slowly, changes over time. This is evident when we take photographs of rivers over the years from google satellites. But mostly we forget this simple fact. We forget and talk about crossing the same river. We do not think it is a new river I am crossing today, than yesterday. We forget the fact that the river did change from the moment we started to cross it to the end of it. Even a fraction of a second. We forget, when we plan a bridge, make a dam or going to fish, it is not the same river. This is just a simple truth which we forget, unless we are mindful about it all the time. And fact is we are not mindful, hence Heraclitus had to emphasize this as a fact. And that is just the reason number One! He also said "We cannot step into the same river, as it is not the same man. Just like the river, man also changes, moment to moment, second to second fraction of a second to second. What he thinks changes, his memories changes. His body weight changes, number of cells changes, number of hydrocarbons in the body changes, and with inhalation of exhalation. Even the length of hair changes, but we do not notice this. It is not obvious like the river, but everything about a "man" is continuously changing. I think when Heraclitus talked about stepping into the same river twice, he wanted us to notice how we have changed just like the river. I think he wanted us to compare ourselves to the river which changes in each instance of the time. And learn it is not the man who woke up this morning who is writing this article. Even not the same man who is writing from the start of the sentence to the finish of it. If that is the truth, who the hell am I? Everything flows- Heraclitus- in mindfulness. Philosophy is a deep subject. It is not for the faint heart and the stupid mind. It is the language of the seekers . Who are a group of individuals separated by time and space, who wanted to become a hydrophobic leaf before the limitations of life start to make you drenched in water. Hence, I am sure Heraclitus did not want us to stop asking questions and to stop there. He would have wanted us to question more. What is true for a river, and what is true for a man, must be true for everything else. That is the true wisdom that this quote wants us to achieve. Imagine you see the river and apply this wisdom to your, computer, your car, your house and the stock market. You can apply this even to the language or philosophy itself. It is not the same river! it is not the same river! and more than anything this could become the mantra that we should practice our mindfulness with. Once we do that, I am sure we will gain more wisdom. We might be able to see hilarious nature of blaming someone when your car broke down. What would you expect from a car which was continuously changing like a river? It is bound to break down. The only reason for that it broken down cannot be that you didn't service it regularly. Even you are not the same. I think Heraclitus wanted to tell us everything we observe is a continuous function. Hence, I will end my article with a link to " Modeling the world with a mathematical function ".

Why socrates said the above statement? Socrates was one of the pioneers of the philosophy. If philosophy is at some place in todays society his teachings had played a huge role. Yet it seem wisest of them all claims he knew nothing? Why did he utter this controvertial statement? What did he wanted to tell us? Let's take a thought journey to find out some possible meanings to his claim. Only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing There are several ways to understand this statement. In fact I have written some articles on the same subject. Empty dragon scroll of kung fu panda is a good example. Subjective reality and the story of five blind men is another. Here we will revist some concepts of information sphere to understand what wisdom ultimately leads to nothing and why? Knowing about the pencil. Let's start with something we already know. A pencil. The pencil I am writing is in my hand. I think I know about the pencil. It's made out of wood and a mineral core. I can google and know exactly how it is made. I know properties of the wood and mineral. I also know it's function. But do I teally know what it is? Let's be mindful about it and try to see. I can feel what it feels like when it is in my hand, when I focus on it. When I keep it on the table I do not know what it feels like. Similarly when I close my eyes I do not know it is there or not. If I close my eyes and reach for it someone can change it to a diffeerent one I would feel and think it is the same, not knowing what happened. It may be a crafted pencil from plastic, and I will be blind to this truth. It seems I can identify pencil when I compare what I feel in my hand against previous knowlege of how it feels. This previous knowledge is our information sphere that we carry all the time. If someone is to lose this information sphere they will be dementic, or be like a child. In other words, it is the "personality theory" of self. It suggests self is entirely formed by this information sphere. In this information sphere we have abstration for everything. It is just like in object oriented programming. In OOP evrything is an object with its properties and fuctions. Once you programe an object you can instanciate similar objects and use them in the program. As an example a real world pencil would be represented in OOP as an object with properties like line color, thickness and hardness. It has fuctions like making pixels colorful when the mouse is moved. This exactly represents what we do, when we look at the word "pencil". We can just communicate about it as we have our mental representaion on what it means. Language, and numbers play a huge role in making our mental world. Knowing about time. Lets look at another example. Look at a clock, one with a dial. When we look at the clock we see time, in some cases even without numbers! However, when a child look at the clock he doesn't know the time. The clock will be just a gadget with marks or numbers, and moving arms, if he is a little older child, and would be just an object with parts for a toddler. As the concept of "time" and association of this with the "Clock" is something we have learned after a struggle. These are abstract concepts very difficult to teach. Really speaking human mind's ability is remarkable in this sense. However, once learned the new version of the "Clock" we can never see what we used to see in the first place. As what we see, and associate it with is no longer in our control. We cannot magically erase the association of time with the clock and look at it in a child's Eye. We can imagine but not really. In reality, each one of us have different models of the same object. A clock seen by thousand people is not one clock but a thousand clocks. This can be explained as the subjective reality , which means there is no truth outside concious awareness. Mind the Mind, the Magician The mind seems to be the magician , behind all of these subjective realities. And abstraction is his tool of deception, which unfortunately decieves itself, into believing a reality which was made by itself in the first place. This is the likely explanation to the socrates statement, only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing. You can read more about these simple truths, in the essay by David Foster Wallace, in his famous speech " This is water ". There can be other meanings to the above statement by Socrates. Which in my openion less likely explanations. Such as, Socrates, had no definite answers, beyond subjective projections about Origins of birth , and life after death . What is self? etc. Of course we all have our believes to above questions, but non can be proven beyond reasonable doubt. Only wise people would come to realisation that there are more and more, unseen truths about the world, than what we ever know. Only and idiot would claim that they know everything, hence ignorance is a bliss . Claiming knowing nothing, seems extreme for someone wise like Socrates, yet it must be true. Maybe he just knew nothing, beyond his mind. What do you understand by Socrates?

Background Our TV broke, for a couple of days now. The main attraction of the living room, no doubt about that, is now gone. Kids who were glued to the TV all afternoons did not find anything to do at first. But the circumstances have changed and they are getting some fun doing drawings and Math! It seems these activities which do need more creativity did not gave them enough fun earlier when the More fun TV was there. Even a game of chess has become something interesting to do nwo, as the atmosphere has changed. Why did this happen? It reminded me a little story I wrote some time ago about Ronnie the Rabbit. Ronnie the Rabbit - story of a habit. Ronnie the rabbit had a little habit. He used to be glued to his phone all day. He ate with his phone. He played with his phone. When he hopped or skipped or slept, still did not part with his phone. His mom told him to quit, and his dad pressured him to stop. Yet Ronnie could not as he loved his phone day and night. One day they went to see Uncle Harry who had a burrow the next village Over the hill down the meadows off they went and Ronnie with his precious phone hopped along They came across the stream which had a narrow beam Ronnie lagged behind everyone else as he stepped the last. His phone in one hand glued to the screen, halfway down he slipped Ouch! With a thud he fell off the bridge and drenched his phone and coat, everyone joined to help him out of water. His phone did die, he did cry, but he stopped eventually when they reached Uncle Harry's home. He played with his cousins Rosy and Tom all day. And boy! He didn't miss his phone, at the end of the day! -------------end --------- Dopamine Tolerance Dopamine is a chemical assoicated with pleasure in the brain. If we arrange activities according to their ability to generate dopamine, we can create a spectrum . Activities like watching YouTube videos and scrolling through social media are at the far right side of this spectrum. These activites are created by geniouses behind the desks, who made is possible for everyone to be hooked and get addicted. Compared to this more productive activities are not that rewarding in the short term, hence do not create those dopamine surges. Hence they are in the left side of the spectrum. Our inherent nature of curiosity to gain new information is so addictive that we would start scrolling program after program, post after post, looking for something to make us laugh and even make us motivated. Activities like reading books and painting are less rewarding, and compared to this are even boring. Netfilx is better. Even when we feel drained, we still cannot turn back to those boring activites again. As we develop tolerance over time. Tolarance is seen in any addictive behaviour. I learned about tolerance when we first learned about alcohol addiction, as it was one indicator there is addiction. Which means receptors in our body start to adapt to new levels of alcohol and after some time to get the same stimulation person has to increase their consumption, even exceeding harmful levels. This is true for any other addiction. It may be watching TV, or You tube, once our brains are used to higher level of stimulation, low levels of dopamine produced by creative and productive activites no longer are rewarding, as we are at a higher baseline dopamine level, which is needed for pleasure. How can we overcome this tolerance? And revert back to baseline? Dopamine Detox. Dopamine Detox is a Cognitive Behavioural therapy model, used as a solution to dopamine tolerance. Idea is to avoid high dopamine releasing activities for a period of time until tolerance cycle is broken and the person is back to normal. Initially it will need lot of willpower and help. And it can lead to a period of "Withdrawal symptoms". Depending on the addiction, these symptoms can be severe. As an example "Alcohol withdrawal" can even lead to seizures and cause brain damage. Hence, in cases of any severe addication, anyone needs help of a professional. For minor addictions, like phone and social media, can give rise to boredom and anxiety. Which can go away with time. Natural Dopamine Detox More importantly we all have seen these forms of dopamine detox naturally, in some ways. As an example, when you take a long vacation, you may have been away from social media, long enough for you to enjoy starting a sunset without trying to capture it and post it on instagram. When your TV is broken or the connection is jammed for a period of time, you may have started to cook a meal for yourslef, and enjoyed that more than watching a movie. You may have gone for a meditation retreat, or walked on the beach , without an internet connection. Once you know that you are capable of enjoying silence that it creates, low stimulating activities once again will start to play a major role in satisfiction. However this time with long term benifits. Just like Ronnie the Rabit, who enjoyed afternoon of play, without missing his phone. In summary Activites are in a spectrum with their ability to create a dopamine surge. Addictive activities generally create larger domapine release and develop a tolerance overtime. This leads to higher level of baseline dopamine and a postive feedback leading to more addiction. To break the cycle, a detox, is used. Meanning avoiding high dopamine activities for a period of time until the baseline is reached.

This is an article about Atheism, which makes no attempt to prove or disprove either. Atheism You are sitting by the lagoon, yet again another day. Looking at the waves which reflects the bluish sky. Waves are not big, rather small hence, let you observe what is happening. Suddenly a school of fish jump to the surface of water, and make it splash. They are swimming as fast as they can and surely hunted by a larger fish. They did not find space in the vast lagoon to hide hence they broke the surface in an attempt to fly. And some did, over generations and that was how the flying fish had evolved. Yet they were hunted by the birds up above? Why is nature so cruel ? You ask yet again for the 100th time for the day. Where is justice, where is God? Sin cycle - Guillotine of crabs It reminded you of the crabs. When you were little, you liked to work in the garden with your mother. And there were plenty of little tree branches, where king fishers come and join when you unearth the weed. As freshly unearthed soil has plenty of tiny creatures for them to hunt. Worms were unfortunate. You suddenly heard a Noice, a definite thud on the tree. When you turn around you saw king fisher holding a crab. There were plenty of crabs on the nearby field and it had just hunted one. Now the easy part, yet the bird cannot swallow the crab. It has jaws and limbs which are getting in the way. And it started to vigorously hit the crab on the tree branch, many times until all its limbs were broken, and the crab was swallowable. And that was the Noice you heard, sound of the crab when it hit against the tree branch. Its limbs were broken one by one, and the king fisher swallowed the body whole. Did it even taste nice? You just watched the movie without any judgment as you did not understand the nature. Not yet. Once the king fisher flew away you went under the tree and observe countless limbs of numerous crabs. This was not the first time the king fisher ate a crab, and even the tree branch was smooth making it apparent that it was the Guillotine of hundreds of crabs. There were ants gathered around the fresh limbs of the unfortunate crab. You never liked crabs; they were aesthetically unpleasing to the eyes. They even walk from side to side. Like cockroaches , they make you a little afraid. Yet the king fisher was a glorious bird, one of the most colorful in the neighborhood. Ants were too small for you to give a value to keep in the spectrum of animals. Yet if given a choice of preference you would put them in between king fisher and the crab. And you think about this for a moment to realize maybe That is the same way the "God" was thinking when he created crabs and the king fishers in the same neighborhood. Or was it just the random chance? It is somehow unfortunate to be a crab in the situation, whoever decided that it should be. Maybe the crab had some sins, which he is paying for in this crab life. But while someone pay their sins, the king fisher is making more sins? That also seems unnatural or cruel. You wonder if that is the situation what would you do if you are a king fisher. You would rather die in hunger and end the cycle and be eternal. But how can the crab ever pay for its sins then. It will be a crab until it meets another unfortunate blue bird. It seems logical yet somethings are missing from the argument. Why create this F----ing cruel King fishers and the crabs in the first place? Who is the mad creator ? Maybe it is wrong. What is the alternative? You realize that you have been looking at the crab and the King fisher and Ants in an objective point of view. Like there is some truth out there to understand in it. However, you realize there is another way to look at it. Instead of looking outside, with a bravery of a lion, you look inside. From a point of view of a subjective reality . You see the process and observe What it is. Subjective point of view - Mindfulness You are just sitting by the lagoon. You just saw some fish coming up to the surface breaking the waves. Then that just ended. Next you were in your own imagination, linking the memories of the past. The crab and the King fisher were just your imagination. So, is the past self of you. There is no crab, no King fisher now. The world is just in front of you. Rest is just a memory, which is essential for you to understand the current. Apart from that, the interaction of the King fisher, with the crab was just some neutral thing which you observed in the past. Just like when you saw it as a kid, just an instance of time. There is no value or meaning which you can gain from this shadow of mind no matter how much argues. And maybe the God as well as Atheism also like the King fisher and the Crab. You were interrupted by a couple who walk by. And realize it is late, and things are getting darker. You head home with a little memory to talk with yourself in the future.

Poem on Covid Sun is resting, glistening in gold You take a moment to contemplate thoughts Wrath disappeared into the night sky Just like youth vanished without a goodbye In the final hours of just another day Final hour to a thousand who perished today I was walking on the beach just the other day, to notice there were dead fish along the shore. Nobody would care. Not even dogs, not even crows did want to eat the dead fish as may be because it wasn't fresh, maybe it was toxic. The fish did not have eyes, but only empty eye sockets, maybe they did die sometime back. No wonder, dogs did not want to eat. Some, reclaimed by the sea, and I could capture one. It started with fear and panic First time, I heard about covid. I did not fear, as it was from far away from China. Some Europe countries. We saw videos in You tube how people were just falling dead on roads in remote parts of China. And although they were too dramatic to believe true, we awaited our turn. And it took good nine months before it started to spread in the country. Again, it did not come to a door-to-door disaster until another few months. At last, it was our turn. It was a taboo, those days to be positive, as nobody wanted to get it. News was always about death counts. People were dying in and out of hospitals like dead fish. Maybe just like the sea, maybe nature did have enough of our stupidity. For a brief moment, people realized, the importance of life. Enemies stopped fighting as there was the bigger devil. We looked back at our textbooks to find out about the coronavirus, which we had long forgotten. Packed our fridges with frozen food. Greedily, more than the next-door Neighbour. At last, in a year and half, we were able to walk out in public free and start to hit the roads for work and vacation. Lessons learned from covid. What were the lessons learned from covid. We learned that it needs only a single virus to put humans into the history. Our dooms day might not come from the sky, but from a remote backyard, where a deadly virus hides. Luckily the death rate of covid was not very high. While globalization brought the virus, breaking all the barriers, Isolation did work. That kept the death counts on hold until the vaccinations arrived. So, maybe globalization is not without its own hazards. Remember the guy who went to live in the jungle before the covid? And he came back few months later to know the chaos which we were in. As he was not connected to the grid of information, he did not share the panic and problems we faced during that time. But I am sure he had own little problems, in his own little hut in the jungle. Proving that what matters is what you know. More importantly we learned about the zero of life. When the diseased flooded our healthcare system, we had to prioritize everything. Who needs it most? Our elders sacrificed their lives, saving ICU beds for their sons and daughters. Although our lives matter, they did matter not equally. For thousands it was their last days on earth. I used to see the covid death graphs, every day, mechanically without knowing each pixel represents thousands of people who are dead. Today there is no covid. I walk free on the beach without a mask. On the same beach where a dreadful tsunami occurred 20 years ago, killing so many people just lying dead like fish. And I looked at myself. I have aged 20 more. Years of youth are beneath me. I am reaching the zero of life day after day, just like an elderly gentleman who did not deserve an ICU bed during covid pandemic. Google tells me for 170463 people today would be their last day on earth. Although covid is not their people still die. But why nobody is panicked? Covid only killed 15000-20000 per day when it was at its peak. Covid did not affect me personally much. Except severe body aches I had nothing. Yet some of us had near death experiences or had to go through suffering of our loved ones. Even healthy ones who are far from zero. Hence, it is an opportunity to look back and ask why? I wish I could know the answers to why, looking at the dead fish, and the blue waves. Life is still a Mistry. Dead fish on the beach Did not know it was dead Washed ashore and ignored Neither the dog which walked by Nor the crows flew by Wanted to eat it Reclaimed by the sea

Passenger Lyrics. "Well, you only need the light when it's burning low Only miss the sun when it starts to snow Only know you love her when you let her go Only know you've been high when you're feeling low Only hate the road when you're missing home Only know you love her when you let her go And you let her go" Duality of nature There is a little wisdom you can gain looking at the duality of the nature. For whom this topic is not familiar I will introduce it first. Duality of nature is that there is opposite to what we observe. It may be a color, it may be a concept, it may be some arbitrary observation. Following are some examples. I have previously discussed some of these in detail, and you also will be able to understand and observe some of the dualities with respect to your life. Peace and war Ethics and Un ethics Happiness and sadness Success and failure Calmness and chaos We will yet again discuss one of these dualities to understand core principles. At this point you may ask if everything has a duality what is the opposite of the duality itself? That is a tough question until I realize that it is the spectrum. The spectrum and a continuous nature is the opposite of the duality. Next question is what is a good model to understand the world? To understand the world both are equally good, but spectrums are much more Suttle in cases duality is highlighted. Why should you understand duality, and spectrums? As I have discussed earlier nature is a continuous function. It changes from moment to moment. However, when we try to understand the nature, we cannot comprehend this. As for a continuous function there are so many answers. Infinitely many outcomes. Our mind can comprehend only instances of what we observe. Good example is a falling leaf analogy . We simply say a leaf fell from a tree. But in reality, this was a process with thousands of steps. But to understand we must fix frames in time and talk about it. Similarly, a leaf is also a continuous function. A leaf would slowly change over time. Otherwise, everything would be covered by leaves in a few years and we all will be dead. Sunken in an earth full of leaves. Yet our minds are not able to see this which is just happening in front of our eyes. We need cameras to take photos or memories to compare the instances of these processes of nouns. I have discussed this phenomenon in the discussion on language , as to conclude that there are no nouns, but everything is a verb in the observable universe. How is duality born? That there is the answer to the above question. How duality was born. It was born due to our inability to not to understand everything is continuous and a spectrum. That seems a bold claim but seems closer to the truth than duality. A thought experiment on duality of nature - Duality of mind. Imagine you are given two colors of the grey spectrum. The moment you see them our mind tend to label one color dark and the other is light. And that is true. It is relatively true. You may ask where the spectrum in it is. Where is the continuous function? There are several ways to understand the continuous function in it. Just turn off the light in your room and you will see nothing. Although it seems nothing you will see some dark shadows of the same color. It seems the "seeing" in this case is a continuous function. What was black and white a moment ago is now equally black. And if you provide the blackest black against the black, it would be less black. Or lighter. Hence black and white we see are a spectrum and a continuous function. Yet we cannot see this as we observe one instance of this function. Really speaking the black is just a function continually give same output (which is black) over time, only when we change the parameters, we see the output we observe is variable. However, the mind cannot observe it is continuous, hence it crates replica of instances- which are called memory or mental objects . Then only we can compare two colors. What we compare is not even what is outside, just two mental objects which represent some process outside. So far above is a good model which I have come across. More importantly if you keep watching mindfully day after day, you will understand the process is the same. The duality of the nature is not natural. It is created by our minds. And once we know how to compare two things, we tend to give it a value. And forget the inherent valuelessness of things. Knowing this would help someone to liberate their minds from mental suffering. Hope you would enjoy the poem

Blind men And the Elephant parable. Once upon a time there were five blind persons. They were all friends. As it happened one day an elephant came to the town. There was a circus, and everyone went to see the elephant, and talked about the majestic animal. Hearing their stories five blind men decided, we also should go and see this elephant. They were curious to know what it is. After the circus finished, they approached the elephant and started to feel it. One man touched the trunk he said "The elephant is like a snake" One man touched the leg and said "The elephant is like a big pillar, round and tall" One man felt the body and said "The elephant is like a big wall" One man touched the ear and said "The elephant is like a fan" One man touched the tail and said "You all are wrong; the elephant is like a broom" And they argued all the way home about which one is true. But never agree with the other. This story illustrates the subjective reality. The perspective of a man who is able to see can be considered as the objective reality compared to these blind men (however which is not the true meaning of objective reality). Every blind person is correct, as they were not aware of the concept of the elephant and unfortunately there is no way of explaining this to them too, as they are not able to see the big picture. Even if they touch the whole elephant that would not be the same as seeing the elephant and identifying this. What is subjective and objective reality? Above is just an allegory to the subjective and objective reality. Objective reality is that there is truth out there independently without any conscious awareness. Subjective reality is the world dependent on conscious awareness of it. Compare this to the perspective of the blind person, He does see the elephant, in his own way, which is correct to himself. However, which is not true as elephant is totally different to a person who can see it. Hence, we can compare this to the objective reality which exists outside the consciousness of the blind person. Thought experiment on subjective reality of five blind men Case 1 Imagine instead of an individual part, all the five blind men were able to touch all the parts of the elephant, and they all come up in agreement what the elephant is. And we still can see that they do not know the reality of the elephant. They are still stuck in their own imagination about the elephant. Yet, relative to them there exists an objective reality as we can see clearly still no matter how they try without eyes, they would never see the true picture of an elephant. Case 2 Now imagine every person in this world is blind, and nobody has seen an elephant ever since the beginning of everything. In this case, subjective reality suggests, the elephant is what it is, as we all feel. There is nothing like a majestic animal that ever existed, as that is not in anyone's conscious awareness. But objective reality suggests otherwise. Objective reality suggests, even though we are not aware of it, there exists an elephant with its majestic glory, independently from all the consciousness. ( facts do not cease to exist, even if you are not aware of them ) Case 3 Now let's look at five perfectly normal men. You can imagine any number. Subjective reality suggests, there is an elephant only as there is consciousness to observe this. Objective reality suggests, there is an elephant even if anyone does not see this. This has been already discussed in the quantum physics, as the cat in the box experiment. It suggests that the existence of the elephant appears, only when you start to observe this. Hence, the conclusion of the cat in the box experiment is aligning with the subjective reality. I can give some examples to illustrate the subjective nature of the reality. However, I find it difficult to find example for objective truth. Examples to illustrate the subjective reality. What happens when you dream. Does the time exist when you sleep and dream? Some would suggest it does. However, if you compare, the time you went to sleep and woke up, you only existed either side of it. Not in the middle. Hence when the consciousness is sleeping, there appears nothing exists. Everything I ever known started existing to me Only when I was born, more exactly when "I" became conscious being. Before birth, there was nothing, hence, I can say all the truths are relative to my consciousness. I know, things existed outside my consciousness, or do they? What happens If I die today? everything will cease to exist. It doesn't matter my "Soul" travels through time and be born as a different consciousness, then the things would be different truths. My parents would not be my parents anymore, my job would not be this job. Even my house would be inherited by my children, and I even would just be an intruder if I tried to revisit. Hence, whatever I am thinking is mine is just a relative subjective truth. When I say, I do not find examples for objective truth, that is also partially true. Consider "Everything is Subjective". If that is true that would be an "Objective truth" And would be the only objective truth that I would ever find. In science, we never discuss the subjective nature of our observations. Which I have discussed in previous articles. What does the reality feels like to you?

Rubber seeds. They were hard to come by, rubber seeds. When I was a small child, I really wanted to find one. They were hard to come by, as I have rarely seen a rubber tree. I knew they existed, as some of my friends in the school used to bring them. I craved for a rubber seed, and I saw them as an asset. If you do not know, rubber seeds have a very tough outer shell and it has perfect smooth surface. And this rubber seed could be used to make a DIY fan. So, for a little child for my age it was an asset to have one. Someone told me that there are rubber trees in the nearby plantation next to the school, and sometimes I wondered of sneaking up through the fence to find one. I never did, I was afraid of breaking the rules although I fantasized it, as there were dogs hungry dogs belonged to the owners. I remember when I was little older, I would walk home in a different road than the usual, hoping to find some rubber seeds. How I made DIY fan with a rubber seed. For a little child it was a big project. Not everyone could do it. It took time and patience. I needed to make three holes in the shell of the rubber seed. One was naturally there. Making a hole directly opposite to this and on the side of the seed was hardest. Often a sharp kife is used do carve a small puncture and with twisting motion to make it a few millimeter small hole. I had to be very careful not to make it shatter, by putting too much pressure. And the holes should be perfectly circular as ragged ages does make it hard for the fan to spin, will break the thread which made it spin. So, it took a good hour of work. Once holes were made next challange was to remove all the material inside. The seed inside was tough and oily. Some say that ants love to eat this and we kept them in front of ant holes hoping they would eat the core and leave the shell. However, I was inpatient most of the time to wait a day or two until to check the ant theory. So, I used a pin to break the seed through the holes and take piece by pieace out. Just like in a "Keyhole" surgery. And it took another hour, and honest work, until little hands start to hurt. But once it was done the hard work was over and rest was easy. I would use a wodden popsicle handle as a roter blade and a thin stick as a mast. A thread tied to the mast is taken out through the third hole and I could use it to make the Blades spin. Just like a Yo-Yo. That was a nice experience, a little show off. It took care of happiness for a few days atleast. So, the bottom line is, even a small rubber seed is an asset to a little mind. Value of Assets As the mind became bigger and bigger, the values of the rubber seeds came down. They were seen as unused, unnecessary things of the wild. I haven't seen a rubber seed for ages, and they do not create a value in the mind now. The assests in the new mind are bigger. They are related to an imaginary number in the mind, associated with imaginary bank. Assets are shown on the TV and newspapers became more valuable. However the concept remained the same, although I frogot to recognise this until I started to watch in mindfulness on what happens up their behind the eyes. The concept of assets is simple. Assets are mental objects , with a little price tag on it, which has the ability to create some happiness, in the mind, which by the way is another mental object. And I know exactly, you would not agree, because that is only partly true. As we all agree assets are real. A bank would not give you a loan, looking at the mental objects that you have. Or do they? Is it possible to get a loan for your mental Assets? Getting a loan for your mental assets. Let's imagine you own an apartment, inherited or bought. And Obviously the reflection of this apartment is now in your mind as an mental object with a sense of ownership . And you apply for a loan. You walk to a bank and discuss with the bank manger. He looks at your papers and create a mental object in his mind about your property and your association with this. He send some evaluators to price your property, and they create their own mental image of your property and make a price tag associated with this and write down their observations in a paper. The manager and you agree on the amount of the loan, and you hand over the documents to the bank with the agreement. Now the bank manager creates a complex mental image of the assest. He creates a mental image of your property, with the price tag of the evaluator in it, still associated with your image in ownership, bounded by the agreement, and the amount loaned to you. I know it is very complex image now, hence it is written in words in the document, so anyone can understand and create a similar mental image, if they read the agreement. And if there is descrepencey in the mental images, between the bank manager and you in the future, all can go to a court and ask the judge to interpret, who will do, after creating a mental image of your property and the agreement in his own conciousness . It is complex, and it is lengthy. However, it is essential to understand, that there is very significant role played by the consciousness and mental objects of each and everyone involved, than we appriciated earlier. All my life I was used to understand the phisical nature of things. However, mindfulness would let us understand the mental affair of it. And it makes more sense now. You can even answer why there is an agreement. The main reason Assests are writen in documents is, that we cannot show our mental object to others, unless it is expressed. And when we die, all our assets will be lost, just like other mental objects. At this point, I am not sure how these facts are going to help you. If you ask a financial advicer they would tell you how important these mental pictures of things are when you start investing (Behavioural finance). Some people would lose money in the game when their mental picture of an assest is bigger than others, and some will gain money in the same way. But the bottom line is, Even a small rubber seed can be more valuable to a mind than a diamond, as assets is a game of mind.

This is not an article to sell you some stuffed toys, but about mindfulness and philosophy. "Wake UP" Coffee house. It is early in the morning, as you just woke up and sat on your favorite cushion in the living room, your little daughter comes and asks to be a customer in her imaginary coffeehouse. She is an early bird. "Wake UP coffeehouse", that is the name she has given to the place. She has arranged those small plastic cups, and all the plastic food, and ask you to wait until she gives you the "Imaginary Menu". You order some Hot Choclate and a burger, while she is busy preparing it you wonder into the past where you were a child. Superheroes and Supervillains- The Army game. You remember the times you used to play the role of the Supervillain with your siblings. Always the supervillain, as there should be someone for your brothers to defeat, when they were the Spiderman and superman. You remember even becoming a Supervillain was not as bad as it seems. You remember the hours and hours you spent in afternoons playing the Army game, it was exiting, and always left a Wow, when you can just create Jungles and high security facilities to rob, in your imagination. When there was plenty of power and recognition, given even in this imaginary play of yours. Later, you all became adults, and notice how there are real Supervillains and Superheroes conduct in the society. And you realize, the imaginary playground was not so Imaginary after all. What is imaginative Play Imaginary play is a kind of play which is started in toddler years of a child. Around two to three. And as years goes by, they become increasingly complex. Some examples for imaginary play include above and, Imaginary playhouse, playing with a doll Acting out superheroes and Supervillains. Playing with Building blocks to make castles and vehicles Puppet shows Tea party What are the benefits of imaginative play? Obviously, I cannot emphasize, the fact that they spark the creativity of a child. And this is far advanced from an elephant calf just trying to play with its siblings. Imaginary play leads to cognitive development, social and emotional skills by letting them express their feelings and interact with other children. They also help with language development. More importantly, they will improve their creativity, so when we start to learn about mathematics, language, and more and more abstract ideas, they do not get confused. How imaginary play is projected to adult life. As you can see, imagination plays a bigger role even in adult life. If I say all what you are doing so called living, is imagining things, that would not be wrong, and I can prove it. I will give you simple example. Think about Earth. Earth does exist right? Where does this exist, right now. Just at this moment when you read this line, where does so called Earth exist? Can you see it? Can you feel the earth? You may say, I can see the part of the earth where I am in now. I can see my room or my workplace. Yet, you agree that is not the earth. You even have not seen the earth if you are not an astronaut, who went to the space. The Earth is just a concept, a mental obje ct in your imagination. And whole your life, whenever you read or write or think about earth, you just reinforced this information sphere. Isn't it amazing to know as adults, we talk about saving our planet, Global warming and debate about Destroying our earth, our home with Nukes without knowing the basic concept of Earth is just our imagination. If you look at carefully, everything we talk about is similar. You can understand more on our imagination You can slow down the time, like Quick silver You can think about collar bone philosophy You can listen to David Foster Wallaces "This is water" if you would not believe me. Why mindfulness is opposite of imaginary play. As you can see and understand, we cannot communicate, and understand the world without this abstract imagination of mathematics, language and mental objects etc. However, the problem is, we get too much involved in these imaginations, and we forget, they are abstract ideas in the first place. We tend to forget, a cancer is an abstract idea, and we cry, when we are afraid of it. And only way to overcome this problem is trying to live mindfully. So, we can understand objects of mind, when they arise in the mind, and disappear in the mind. More you know it more you will understand the monster of truth. This is the main objective of the mindfulness practice , which should be emphasized again and again. Mindfulness is not a secret to success or the recipe for a calm peaceful mind. But mindfulness is the tool to understand the child within us who likes to be happy and sad when he sees the imaginary world he built is getting destroyed. This child will play until you recognize it as an adult. Hence, mindfulness is the path to free yourself from being a child.

It was the hour of the moon. The Moon was in the middle of the sky, dragging the tide into the lagoon. With the slowly drifting water, leaves, twigs, fish and Jelly fish floating alike. They just drifted from the deep sea to the mangroves of the lagoon. The jelly fish, think that it is swimming in the water. By itself. By the conscious flapping of its transparent fins. Jelly fish think that it is searching for the food, and travelling in the lagoon by itself. A lonely journey. But from the river bank, while seated on the foot path, you see otherwise. You see it is the moon which forces sea water into the lagoon. The Jelly fish would never move so fast if it wasn't the moon. Jelly fish did not know this, as the world and everything it lives moves in same speed due to the tide. Relative to the jelly fish it is only its concious effort which makes it moves towards food. After a while while your conciousness floats between the clouds, the wind and the waves of the lagoon. Your eye catches, this little guy who is just stuck between some sea weed. You are not quite sure, whether it is really stuck or just taking its afternoon snack. Either way you just decide to see what happens, and not to disturb. It seems so delicate, that trying to help it escape might even harm. You remember the butterflies, which you caught when you were little did never fly. So, this time you just observe. And after a while, it just escapes the jungle of see weed and start to float in the current with all the other fish, and stuff. Philosophy of interconnectedness On the way back, home you could not stop thinking about the jelly fish. You remember, that they always scared you, as you are not sure whether all of them are deadly or only some of them are. You have just observed life, just like a little God, in the Jelly fish world. As you held the power to observe and intervene other life. More so, you just understand how small the jelly fish world is. Jelly fish sees no escape, from its world. Yet you see otherwise. You even understood the mechanism the jelly fish moves. Not only that you also understand the role of the moon in its motion. Yet Jelly fish observes nothing. You feel sorry about the jelly fish. Later when sitting on the parking bench, you observe men and women, walking on the street. They are thinking they are looking for food. They are thinking their concious effort makes them move in the walkway. However you choose to be a silent observer looking at them from the space. And you see the earth is rotating. Earth is rotating so fast together with its all belongings, including everything around the walking path, buildings, dustbins water and jelly fish. You ask the question how much more is there. You remember there is no depth to the motion, as it is all relative. You remember the Solar system, is in constant motion. Even the milky way is in motion, faster than you think. And you laugh at yourself about the thought which makes you think that you are stationary. It is only relative. Just like the jelly fish. At this point, you try to figure out why. You already knew all of the above. But you never applied this knowledge to your own motion, until today. Until you observed the drifting Jelly fish. You realise, we all are just drifting jelly fish in the universe, although we think we are isolated conscious individuals, we are connected by matter and the interconnectedness. And the evidence. The evidence is just there, you are not stationary relative to the people walking by. Just that we all are in motion, synchronised with the universe. And you can do nothing to change this. ----Philosophy of the Jelly fish ends here, rest of is just some memories------ Somehow, a Jelly fish is a scary animal for me. Maybe it is just like someone being afraid of swimming because of sharks. It is likely you will be killed on the road than a jelly fish. For some parts of this fear I blame documenteries of Discovery channel, which I used to watch a lot. Part of it is coming from Sherlock Holmes. Remember the Lion's Mane? In this story the man who was attacked by the Jelly fish, in his last breath Utters the words, Lion's Mane, as the tentacles of these jelly fish looks just like it. Some time back I wrote followoing poem remembering the story. This is part of the reason I was afraid to rescue the jelly fish which was stuck, anyway I was relieved when it was able to escape itself.

William Henry Schmidt- and his tunnel. Have you ever done something which gains nothing? I am sure you have as our values keep changing when the time passes. Something, which was very valuable a decade ago is considered as valueless today. And this is what happened to William Henry Schmidt, and his tunnel. William Henry Schmidt, often referred to as "Burro" Schmidt , was a prospector who dedicated over 38 years of his life to digging a tunnel through a mountain in the Mojave Desert, California. His goal was to create a safer, more direct route to transport ore from his mining claims. Working alone and using hand tools, he painstakingly chipped away at the hard rock, eventually carving a 2,087-foot-long tunnel. Despite the completion of better routes rendering his tunnel unnecessary, Schmidt's determination and perseverance turned his labor into a legendary feat, embodying the spirit of relentless human endeavor. His tunnel remains a testament to his extraordinary resolve and is now a historical landmark. However, I am sure it was not so glamorous, as it sounds for him, who worked day after day, major part of his life digging a tunnel. And as it turned out, halfway through the tunnel building, there were a system of roads connecting Last Chance Canyon to Mojave making his tunnel futile. Except, for this man, for whom the tunnel was not futile. Most of us would give up at this point, as there is no use digging a tunnel that nobody ever is going to use. But he has kept on going. And there something interesting happens. As you can see although the value of the tunnel for everyone else declined as the road was completed, the value of the tunnel did not decline for him. He has already invested his time, and I am sure he thought that he had dreams of seeing through to the other side of the mountain. Just like someone dedicate their time to write a book, someone trying to build a rocket to send people to mars, he had a dream to see the completion of his tunnel. I am sure, he felt the engineer himself, the child within, each and every day, which made him kept going. I have dug holes in the banks at our little home. We used to make tunnels and little caves for our plastic soldiers to hide. We spend hours imagining things, playing in these tiny caves. Although they were tiny, for a mind of a child, they were not. I am sure, for William Schmidt, it was his tunnel that brought the same pleasure every day. To make it clear, why, I have drawn a diagram from the point of view of William Schmidt and rest of us. As you can see, the value of the tunnel, is variable. Both from the point of view of William Schmidt and from the point of view of the rest of us. Initially he did not have any value of it, as it was not even an idea. Once this Idea came to his mind, it created some value, so he actioned on it. And as long as he kept going, and the demand increased, the value kept going up. However, when the roads were built the value of the tunnel dropped suddenly for the rest of us, it became zero. However not for William Schmidt. It never came down to zero for him, and it kept more and more growing for him. Comparatively for rest of us the value remained zero for a long time. Until his story was well popularized, due to digital age. And he became a legend like an Achillis , while the value of his tunnel increased. Even Wikipedia says that there is some dispute over the ownership over the tunnel now. Nobody would care unless it is valuable. I am sure, it will be more popular, as even I who is living in the opposite side of the world, to this unknown tunnel is writing about it. More we write, more we talk about it more it will be valuable. If you would like to know more about the values, I suggest you read my previous article on how values are generated . As this blog is about mindfulness, I would like to point out some salient features about the graph and these mental values in general. The value of a tunnel is always relative to some consciousness , I have only separated William Schmidt to show that how it is separate from rest of us. However, I am sure, if we graph his wife's point of view, we will get a totally different graph. The value essentially becomes zero, when consciousness is lost- Death. The values are variable with time, and circumstances, but generally more people are interested, more value will be generated. If you are mindful, and you have followed articles about consciousness, and mental objects before, you may ask questions like, what is the value of the tunnel when William Schmidt was sleeping? I think these are more philosophical in nature. Mountain man of India. Compare above story to the story of Dashrath Manjhi. He is known as the "Mountain Man of India," undertook an extraordinary feat of determination and perseverance. After his wife passed away due to lack of medical care, Manjhi, a poor laborer from Bihar, spent 22 years (1960–1982) carving a 360-foot-long road through a mountain. Using only hand tools like a hammer and chisel, he reduced the distance between his village, Gelhar, and the nearest town with medical facilities from 70 kilometers to 15 kilometers. As you can imagine his digging effort never lost its value, as the need for a road through the mountain never came down. So, he still is considered as a hero. Charlie Chaplin Philosophy. I am just going to show you the comedy of life, just like Charlie Chaplin did. We would like to laugh at William Schmidt and praise Dashrath Manjhi. As one did a futile task and the other did a valuable task according to our yard of Measure. However, look at your own life, make a graph of values that you have mentally created for your objects of affection. And predict what the value would become in the future. And know where the zero of life is. Then you would find the comedy in life that you can laugh at your own self. You may be digging a tunnel, a rabbit hole, sometimes in your office, sometimes in a cooperate company, sometimes in a rural village, sometimes in a computer, like me. Hence, as essentially, we all are doing by so called living is digging a tunnel in mountain of problems our whole lives.

About Mirage. I am sure you have seen Mirage at least once, and it is likely many times. Unless you live in Alaska or Antarctica, mirage is pretty common in hot climate, due to our highway systems. We do not have to be in a desert, as the hot carpeted roads, creates mirages all the time. And as I drove, on one such road, I just saw a mirage the other day, and it made me wonder, what is the difference between mirage and water. It is a fascinating thought journey, to revisit. Mirage is considered as something false. As it deceives our eyes with water. It appears the road is flooded with water. However, there is no water. Hence, we label mirage as an illusion. We even use this to represent when we refer something unachievable, "You are chasing a mirage!" Let's look at this phenomenon carefully to understand how we fool ourselves with a simple truth. You would agree Mirage is an optical illusion, created by heated air, able to reflect the light. It is a real phenomenon which is happening in front of our eyes. I am sure the science behind it is easy enough to understand. However, the nature, did not do it, to fool us about water. It is only our own eyes, having seen water reflecting the sky for so long, that the brain fools us it is water that we see. So, the Mirage is as real as the road. How real you may ask. I would say, it is as real as water. To understand we just need to know how we see water. About water. Imagine an Oasis, not the cruise ship, but a real one with a big pond surrounded by richly grown palm trees and greenery. And if you approach this Oasis, you will see the reflection of the sky. You would see this is how exactly you would see if there was a mirror, as the surface of the water just act as a reflecting surface. However, we do not call this a false message, as we find water where we expect, there is. If we think about the logic behind the thinking behind the mirage, the water should be as false as the mirage, as both do not contain the sky. Both of them just reflect the same sky, even if we keep them side by side from a distance, we wouldn't be able to tell the difference. So, the argument that the mirage is as real as the water holds true. It seems our mind which search for water is at fault searching water in a place that there is mirage. Imagine you keep a large mirror, in a distance in the desert, and it will also reflect the sky, and appear as a mirage, or water. Still, we would not call this unreal, as we find at least something, in this case not water but a mirror. In all three case scenarios the mechanism behind the reflection was the same, however in the case of mirage we could not find the reflecting surface when we reach there. It was there, which was the hot air, although we could not see this. Hence someone needs the mind's eye and some background scientific knowledge to see what happens. No wonder our ancestors who knew nothing about reflection , were fooled by mirage. What is false in water. This is a question I have previously answered, in the article simple truths . As I pointed out water is just a name for a form, which appear and disappear for a blink of an eye. Here I would like to point out false in water relative to a mirage. As we know there is no mirror on a surface of water, yet it reflects light. So, if we go by the logic of mirage, water reflecting light should be a false phenomenon, as we do not find the mirror. At this point you should question me, saying, hold on. Why are you looking for a mirror in water, obviously you won't find any. And at this rate you will start to look for elephants in a pen. Answer to the first question is, I didn't look for a mirror in water, it's just logic lead me here. The logic which my mind used looking for water in a mirage. And secondly, I have already seen an elephant in a pen . If you would like to red that story, it is here. What is false in a Scarecrow? Philosophy of self I didn't give an explanation when I wrote the Scarecrow story . As it seems, the thought process of the wise man in the story is similar to the thought process of above. So, we can apply the mirage philosophy and explain the story. If someone looks for a man in a scarecrow, his thought process is wrong. Because he is looking for something which is not there. Just like someone looking for a mirror in the water. Similarly, if someone is looking for water in a place there is only hydrogen and oxygen molecules, he is also at fault, as there is no water. And fortunately, or unfortunately we can apply same logic to ourselves. If someone or something (our consciousness in this case) is looking for a self, where there is just an illusion of it, our minds are at fault. And that is a good philosophy of self. What have you been looking for lately? Happiness? 😉