There was a mountain, some 10km away when we were kids. A mountain with a lush green forest, and steep slopes covered with high grass. During dry season, due to human activities and nature, it caught fires. Whatever the reason to begin with these wildfires went on burning everything down, slowly crawling towards the mountain peak. And from so far away, even without seeing the burning mountain, we could smell the fire. Tiny pieces of burned up ash from grass, flown by the wind landed in our garden. And we knew, it was the wildfire, although not noticeable to the busy adult eye, we children had eyes which could pick up tiny flying objects more easily, hence we knew, when it was a fire. Have you seen a wildfire? Have you observed a one? Then this article is for you. Although science behind these wildfires is fascinating to learn, it is not the objective here. In par with the objective of the blog, as it claims, we try to help you observe the world in a mindful eye , by providing little intuitions into the phenomena of nature, so you can do it by yourself when you are taking your own journey, which is what you are doing currently. A long time ago, someone argued, the life is like a fire. He used the fact to illustrate how 'the soul' carries on from one life to the other. Like a fire spreading from one stick to the other. It is not the same fire, and it is not a new one as well. When we observe the mind in silence, I noticed that this is also another good way to explain current affairs of life as well. To do that I want you to imagine a wildfire. Observing wildfires. Let's do that. Let's imagine a wildfire. Due to some unknown reason, it started. Maybe nature, maybe God, maybe there is no traceable depth into it. Now the fire is spreading across the plain. It goes from one grass leaf to the other. One bush to the other. It is not the same fire, which is burning now, which began. The first fire is no longer there. But we cannot say it is not at the same time, as the fire keeps rapidly changing, we cannot pinpoint to any fire at all. We can never go back to the old fire. We cannot predict the future fire. As it depends on what comes next as food to the current fire. It may stop, it may keep going, but quite sure, it will not go beyond the earth. Let's not consider all the possibilities as unknown is always bigger. Now, let's look at the similarity with our lives to a wildfire. Observing the mind. We started, due to unknown reasons, at some point. And we developed a consciousness. In this dried-up grassland which is called the "Body". We continuously create the wildfire- or our consciousness upgrades each second passes by. Now it is fire number 23456 if we count by days, but we can count by hours seconds or milliseconds. It is not the same fire, just a second before, it is not the same fire. It is never predictable that what will happen to the fire in the future, in the next second as it will depend on what comes on its path. Which is not decided by the fire. Isn't it fascinating. That there is so much similarity of our brain function, to something so simple as a wildfire. So, where is the complexity comes from? The complexity comes from, when the wildfire starts to believe that it is not a product of nature, but with a free will . When it doesn't see that what is there to burn is what nature presents, but believes it is capable of going beyond earth. Essentially, it is like someone cursed the wildfire to have a life. What are your thoughts on wildfires? Have you seen one lately? Every fire ends in Ash

This is a story which I read from some old book. I can't exactly remember from where, but it was a long time ago. I enjoyed reading It as I can remember, and it was a wonderful story about a thief. Story goes like this, Once upon a time there was a famous teacher, old days where students lived with teachers until their education is finished, and at the end if you are very bright you might get married to the "Teachers Daughter" as the price for your brightness. (lol- Indian traditions) Like all teachers, nowadays he had nasty students in class, one in particular and all these teachers tricks to correct his course in life did not work on him. Teacher gave up at the end. One day he asked the student privately and said, "Look son, I am done tiring myself teaching you. Both of us know it is not going to help you being here. So, I am letting you go. But promise me one thing. Promise me however bad it is that you would never ever Lie to anyone." The boy was emotionally involved by the teacher's speech, and he promised himself that he would follow his last advice. As the story goes. The boy became a Thief. He was a great thief, and there was no thief like him in the kingdom. He did all the bad things in the world, yet he never lied. He didn't have to lie as he was the best thief in the country. One day the thief decided to break the treasury of the King's palace. As it happened that night the King wanted to see his countrymen and disguised himself as a commoner he went for a walk. He met the thief on his way back to the palace at night. They had a conversation as follows. King: Where are you going my friend? Thief: I am going to break into the treasury of the Palace, to grab some treasure. King was now surprised by his answer and boldness in that wanted to investigate. King: Really? Do you need help. I know some ways to escape the guards. Thief: Hmm.. I could use some help. King: What would you give me if I helped you escape? Thief: I will give you half of what I steal King: Done! Deal, we will do it. And that night king helped the thief to break into his own treasury and steal. The Thief came back with two big Diamonds. And gave one to the King. And king asked, Is that all? Thief: Yes, this is all I could steal without getting caught. Afterall this will be enough stealing for a Year! King: Wasn't there anything else you could grab? Thief: Listen my friend, you can trust me on this, there were three diamonds. I only took two because If I steal the third, I would not be able to divide the third diamond tonight. I can't give you exactly half. And meeting you again is too risky. King was very satisfied with the truth telling Thief. And he felt that this Thief is someone he can trust although he is a Thief. Following morning King summoned the head of the treasury and said, "Minister of Treasury, I had a dream last night that there is someone harming me. I am feared that already something has happened. I want you to audit the treasury and give me a report." The minister was a cunning man, and like all the ministers from that era until today have done, he ceased the opportunity when he found that two of the diamonds were stolen. He reported to the king that "Three most valuable diamonds are missing from Treasury." King smiled to himself. And that was the end of the Minister of Treasury! And King found out whereabouts of the Thief and made him his New Minister. And the Thief lead a noble life since then. How did you enjoy the story? I can summarize all the morals given by the story, but it will spoil the fun. So, I will leave as it is. Let's be truthful Thieves at least. Thank you for reading: That one good thing about the Thief- story you may also like to read: Story of a gentle Giant - A tree . Seize the day Carpe Diem

Imagine you woke up one day with the power of creation. You woke up one day with power of creation which is powerful enough to change the destiny. Ah! if you can't let's do it together. Why not my friend, we have the ability to imagine, which is next to the power of creation. Look at the monkeys and Deers, they still struggle on the trees and savannahs, while we left the jungle a long time ago. Living in AC rooms or heaters, looking at those sceneries we left a long time ago, on a comfortable luxurious bed made of fur, on 3D television, we are just living a life at the edge of the creators Realm. So, why not imagine this? You wake up tomorrow, with the responsibility and ability of the creator. What would you create? Following as an example. The power of creation I feel an enormous sense of urge to be creative. To create a world. To create a tree, and to create some birds and a melody for them to sing. To create a frog, to climb the tree, and some ants to feed its hungry belly. You cannot, so I painted it in my mind. If you have the power of creation, let's look at it rationally what will you do? Will you create such things as trees and birds and frogs and ants? You would not? Why should you, you have the ability to create it perfectly, without cruelty. You would make all the animals eat plants, there would be no killing. Then what? Animals populate and eat all the plants, as their growth is unchecked, now you have to create unlimited fast growing plants to keep up with the growth of animal population, I bet, it would be difficult. So, you make animals who do not depend on food, let them depend on sunlight, and you create a sun which does not end up burning. An immortal sun for the immortal animals . These animals are so perfect, that they do not feel hunger, they are constantly happy only, and they do not die. And you get bored, after some time looking at your perfect garden, and think, well, atleast there should be some cruelty to make it a little bit interesting. So, you think of adding some jelousy, greed , some sense of value into the minds of these poor animals who are at your mercy. It is my f----ing imagination. I am the creator. You have no say in what I do ! Oh, that is only my imagination. You may do better. I am sure of it. You may create a world to satisfy your urges perfectly. But As you have the power of creation, as you can built an immortal person, that seems stupid to think about constant stimulation is the way to go. It proves the fact that we are able to enjoy because we know that it will end one day. This made me think of following facts If I have the power of creation, creating perfect immortal things seems absurd idea, in long term. Creating not perfect cruel, or dying things, is cruel anyway. As I have the power of creating the former. What is the solution, If I have the power of creation, I would decide, I would not create anything anyway. Creating anything, perfect or not, is absurd. If it is true? How come we came to live by? I do not want to believe that someone created us with such imperfections, as I would not do that, if I were, given the powers even in this human form. So, I like to believe, it is evolution, no matter how unlikely the monkeys dancing on the roof of my house are going to be our neighbours one day. Maybe there are forces which we do not understand. However, I realise it does not matter, as it all is just my imagination. And what you read is your imagination not mine. Thank you for reading the power of creation.

Why does one exist? That's not my problem. One does exist. The thing to do is to take no notice but go at it on the run and to keep on going right on until you die. -Simone de Beauvoir Existential Nihilism This is an interesting quote which I hear from time to time from different people. Because I like to often ask the question what the meaning of life. They answer in different forms. And above answer does not come from idiots. I would say that is the attitude of vast majority of atheists and many more. What does it mean? Nihilism is that you do believe nothing has any meaning. Like it is a deterministic world. If everything is determined there is nothing, we can do about anything as there is no free will. Even if you think anything that would be pre-determined. Existential nihilism does mean that existence has no meaning. This does mean that telos of life is just an imagination which happened in the minds of humans due to the laws of nature. When I read above quote my initial thought was. Well, that is dumb. That is dumbest quote I have ever read. There has to be a meaning in life. If we believe that it does not, we would be achieving nothing. There would not be a heaven or hell to salvage or punish us in our afterlives. When i question someone what is the meaning of life? What are you going to achieve at the end of the day. You would answer its nothing. Then I would ask then why live? Why eat. If you achieve nothing by the time you die, it doesn't matter living till that right? It is the absurdism at its core. Alabre Camus was a believer in absurdism . I do not want to believe such a statement in blind faith. I am sure these people did realize these ideas only after thourouly investigating current opposite arguments. They surely did give a good fight in their minds with ideas before they did see the dragon scroll is empty. After all, that it's a relative truth when they talk about there is no meaning in life. What if the real meaning of life is to seek that truth yourself? What is the real meaning of life is to take yet another absurd journey towards nothingness or valuelessness of life? Now think about the following quote from Aldous Huxley. “ Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. ” In summary, I see there are two kinds of people who answer the meaning of life, is nothing. One group of people are simply ignorent ones, who do not want to think about life. They are guided by their constant thirst to achieve their goals and cravings, and blinded to the absurdism of what they do. Other group of people is are seekers/ philosophers who believe in existential Nihilism, at the end of their journey, seeking truth everywhere and found nothing. They found nothing existing outside their conciousness , and they have seen the dragron scroll themselves. They have tasted the emptiness, and walk free of the cravings and attachments. And there is a big gap, between these two groups. Majority, unfortunately are the former, and they blindly believe the latter. A good anology to understand this is by looking at the Allegory of the cave.

Background. There are two people arguing about the existence of God. One believes the God is in every one of us. And it seems, true if God is all mighty and powerful, like I have argued in the chapter on Apple juice and existence of God . The other person is a believer in God, but not inside of us, but in outside. Now, to prove the point, he took a stone and hit a bystander who happened to walk by. He friend asked why did you do that? Well, cannot I? You are the one who said, I am the God, and so does everyone else. So, does it matter, one God is doing a thing to another God. If you are telling me I am wrong, that there is no justice in that, both cannot be true at the same time. Either there is justice, which is decided by the God. Or there is no justice, when God lives in every one of us. Agnostics Theist and Atheist When you look at above argument some interesting facts arises. You may ask, well this is an argument about God, between two variations of theist. But, when we look at the question more carefully, from the Atheist point of view, we can see, believing God, is in every one of us is just as saying we are no different from each other, and no different from 'God'. So, everyone is equal. And if everyone is equal, then 'God' is just another name for human. So, truly speaking there is no definite barrier between, who believes that the God is living inside of us and an Atheist. Neither there is Agnostics. Agnostics neither believes and or denies existence of God. And if they were asked the same ethical question about justice of Good or bad, they will also have answers which align with an Atheist. Deep dive into Justice? So, does there exist something like justice, in its platonic form ? If you would ask me, I would say, justice is another human made concept. All I can see are interwoven chaos of nature fluctuating to the disturbances of each other. Just like ripples of the sea . However, it is nice to think about things of God's realm, while we can. Following is a chapter on Justice in the book of what is time , which I think will reinforce the above Idea that the Justice is human made. War crime and peace. Fact that at war, crime is considered as less criminal Let's imagine a criminal, let's imagine a criminal who has done a lot of crimes, serious crimes from theft to killing innocent men and women. Now imagine one day the criminal wakes up and realizes that he wants to become a good person. Despite all the crimes he has done his inner self awakens and decides that he is to end the criminal life forever. And he does go to the god’s court and asks for forgiveness. What do you think God should do? Should god punish him by sending him to a prison? Or should the god punish him inflicting the same pain as he has put others through? If the god is pure and kind, I would suggest otherwise. I would suggest the god will understand his good intentions and grant him permission to grant him to be good. Do not you agree, after all it is god. God is unlimited kindness, how can he be having evil thoughts like sending a man to the underworld? And the next question is somewhat difficult. Now imagine the same man, after God's punishment, he falls into the evils again and does another crime. This time he is facing the same God in the same court of justice and asked for forgiveness. What should God do this time? Should God punish the man? Or should God think this man has broken his words against the court, this time he should be punished more? I would suggest otherwise, if God is pure and kind, he will forgive the poor man, and further he will forgive each and every time he appears in the court. Until one day he will really keep his promise and never appear in court, he will be treated with kindness.  What we do in our courts today, are we practicing God's forgiveness and helping those who committed crimes to get out of their thoughts of harming others, or we are practicing evil against them, inflicting the same pain that they have caused others and expecting them to magically turn over to become good. How can we judge what someone does in some circumstances, as we know we are the ones who teach our children that diamonds and rubies are more valuable than common rocks. We are the ones who teach our children life is about pleasuring ourselves and taking care of ourselves, and give these measurement tools for measuring themselves. Now we blame them for becoming evil on their own? Have you ever not committed a crime, like even in mind, stolen from others, craved some richess, and wished someone evil? What if the circumstances were there for you to actually do it? Who is to be blamed? What court would you like to be in? The human court where you will be judged by fellow humans with the same human weakness, or the God’s court with kindness and love where you will be given a chance to reflect on yourself yet again.  Love is forgiveness, relentless, pure and repetitive, without any remorse. There would be less prisons, less divorces and less pain that we inflict on others if we understand the nature of love. As the paragraph suggest, justice is another spectrum. This is why animal ethics is less important than human ethics. Life of a dog drowning is less important than a human drowning, hardly anyone who will risk their lives saving one. You can read more on cockroach ethics and dictators . Thank you for reading, Agnostics Theist, Atheist and justice

This is one of the great advice Aldous Huxley has given to the humankind. It urges us to be vigilant about the facts, not ignorant. There are two Suttle different ways to look at the above quote, although not obvious at first. However, Like the quote claims facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. So, even if you ignore, or do not care, that doesn't mean there are no things to understand, no truths to revealed on above. Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored- Aldous Huxley. Arguments for, Let's look at things, which are promising in proving the above is correct. Remember today, you woke up in the morning and went to work, or school or whatever you are doing, to spend time. And one thing led to another and now you are reading. What facts have you ignored so far? I would say many, think about following facts. There was sunrise today, there were clouds when you walked out of your home. There were black cars, and white ones you passed on your way to work. There were birds singing outside your window when you had breakfast. There were cells in your body which died today, and thousands more were built Your weight fluctuated throughout the day. The population of earth rose, from thousands, while our earth aged one more day, just like you. You forgot, some memories which will never come back again into your consciousness. Well, not all of them are true for you, but you get the idea right? Facts do exist even if you are not aware of them. Infact, as you can see, the facts which exist outside your consciousness are far more than facts that you know. If you look at the arguments about time in the article understanding time , you will see that, in a simple observation that we make there is infinite amount of information, that we can never comprehend. One way to understand this is by becoming Quicksilver in your mind. So, it is this unseen world that Aldous Huxley is describing. He is letting us know about the facts that we do not think about exist. So, even the truths about life will continue to exist even if it doesn't come to your consciousness. Even if you ignored it. Even if you disliked it or liked it. Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored- Aldous Huxley. Arguments against, But there is another school of thoughts backed by science, that above is a relative truth. We can argue in your own relative world, the facts do not exist, outside your consciousness. There was sunrise today only when you were aware of it, there were clouds when you walked out of your home only existed when you looked at it. There were no black cars, but only one red one looked like your Neighbour's, and white one which nearly hit you. There were birds singing outside your window when you had your tea which made you think about nightingales. There were cells in your body which died today, and thousands more were built, these existed only when you read this article. Your weight fluctuated throughout the day only you were aware of this when you looked at your mirror. The population of earth rose, from thousands, while our earth aged one more day, just like you, - maybe it did not, but you do not know by how much. Who are you to age? Your age existed only when you think about it. You forgot, some memories which will never come back again into your consciousness, and these did never exist as they never even became thoughts. Can you see now, we can argue both ways. Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored, is a relative truth. It is true in some circumstances, and it is not in others. Really speaking this is the cat in the box argument in quantum physics. So, even if you ignored, that everything you believe is a relative truth, that fact that it is, will exist. If you would like to read more about philosophical thoughts, for your grey matter, following articles would help. How to be happy Denis Diderot way. Everyone is a moon- Mark Twain First things you have to know is yourself- Adam Smith Virginia-Woolf-and-quantum-philosophy

How can I be happy is a good question to ask, once in a while, from us. As If I ask 1000 people what is their goal, or meaning of life, they will say being happy, as an answer. So, how to be happy is the next question which should follow. Before moving on following is a quote from Denis Diderot the philosopher on happiness. “Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others.” — Denis Diderot He does not claim he is the happiest person on the planet. This is just an observation. If you truly want to become a happiest person for few seconds, follow my previous trick. But I am sure you are not trying to be happy for a few seconds. You need a lifetime of happiness, and it seems, advice from great philosophers comes handy. It doesn't matter they were not the happiest, we just need their knowledge. Bottom line is I believe above is true. That is why I write this article to explain why. Now, a little background on Denis Diderot as a curtesy. Background on Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was a French philosopher, writer, and art critic, best known as the co-founder and chief editor of the Encyclopédie, a monumental work that aimed to compile and disseminate knowledge across various fields. A prominent figure of the Enlightenment, Diderot’s contributions to the Encyclopédie were instrumental in challenging traditional authority and promoting secular thought. His works often explored themes of science, philosophy, and art, reflecting his materialist and often controversial views . Despite facing censorship and financial struggles, Diderot’s legacy endures as a key intellectual force behind the Enlightenment movement . To understand why, making others makes you happy, you need little bit of wisdom about how our mind works. As, that is not the main point in this article, I will only give a summary. If you want to read more, you will find following articles helpful. ( Shadows and reflections , consciousness , you are what you see ) In summary our world is made up of reflections of 'real' world observations. These reflections are made by our sensory organs in our consciousness. This conscious, internal world is the only one we can comprehend. Even the other people are just reflections of your own mind. How to be happy? Denis Diderot way. It is just a shared view about the world, with me and some other philosophers of the past I believe. Let's not give it a name. More importantly let's assume above is true. Now, can you see, why Denis Diderot is true? Imagine you are trying to help some other person. By doing this you are making happy reflections in your own mind. After all the people you are helping are your own reflections. No wonder Denis Diderot is right. There is no point fighting with the reflections, even if it is your enemy. Even your enemy is a reflection in your mind, and if you chose a fight over peace, I could warn you, you will destroy the happiness which is inherent to your mind. Yes, happiness is inherent to all our minds, as long as we do not disturb it, and brings clarity to our mind. Next steps. Personally, for myself, I think knowing about these simple facts about life, brings me happiness in unexpected places. And I truly believe, a person (a mind) deserves this kind of happiness. Obviously, it doesn't come from food, cloths, or luxury cars. They are just comfort to body. As humans, our minds crave higher order of peace. And mindfulness is the path for such wisdom and peace. Let's embrace magical mindful living. Thank you for reading How to be happy? Denis Diderot way.

A walk in the park You walk outside after days being inside your home, due to the bad weather. It has been raining, dampness of the earth has not yet dried up, even over the concrete pavements, smell of soil comes out squeezed along with the sprouts of fresh blossoms. It is already the spring, yet the weary sun has not been able to melt away the coldness of the winter yet. Still two low on the horizon struggling to come out, just like you this morning. Yet it is strong enough to cast a way a long shadow over the rows of houses. Young enthusiastic, crowd out of their homes, hurry up along the lane down towards the more popular park in the heart of the small town. There are plenty of people, plenty of pavemented paths, and enough recreational areas in the park. However, you chose to walk the other way, towards the south park where there are no concrete, less families, but only occasional solo runner or a dog walker is there. Even the dogs are white fang type, as it is no place for posh cute little puppies or more commonly their owners to hang around. After the less affluent row of houses, you reach middle class houses of the neighborhood with houses built few feet away from the road. Just one or two perches of affluence is visible. And you wonder how much effort owner of these houses put into those extra space and wonder whether it is worth it. As a cold breeze bring you back to the road, you notice almost at the end of the road, and cross it to enter the park, not from the main entrance but, small opening which is there for dog walkers and cyclists to enter, a less popular corner of the park, where there are tall trees and moldy smell all around. Rotten leaves of the autumn wetted by the winter still struggle to dissolve into the earth. You straight away step on a mud and realize your shoe slightly heavier and stickier. Getting thicker and thicker with each step you take with more and more sand mixed with mud. There is no escape from this, just like after the morning meal today, that your tongue struggled for half an hour to remove small bit of fiber stuck in your teeth, you try to remove the mud just by dragging your foot on the sand. After a while it starts to feel like working, and now you can properly attend to the nature and the sounds of the park. You walk deeper inside to get away from the noises of speeding cars on the main road, which is more pronounced due to the long straight stretch of the road, neighboring the park. I was in the park yesterday And saw this beauty under my feet Like everyone else I tried to capture it In a terrible terrible feeble attempt when no-one else to witness Ashamed of myself when I left, I saw she smile in silence. After the tall trees, there comes the meadows, and marsh lands. Covered with various grass, you continue to walk along the footpath towards the lake, occasionally crossed by the dandelions afloat. And you took the next turn, to the lake. You can see a viewing deck, with a fence from a little distance, and a group of ducks gathered around expecting visitors. You spend couple of minutes by the lake and once or twice a couple or a group visited while you just were a bystander, and left leaving you into the solitude you seek. And it is magical to breath the fresh air of the early spring, unspoiled yet from the dust and the smoke of the city. And you realize, it doesn't matter a walk. It doesn't matter a walk, throughout the entire park, as all you have to see is here, just at this very moment. All the happiness, all your life, all the sadness, all your life is just packed in this one second, or a fraction of a second. It doesn't matter a walk. So, you give up your entire idea of walking all around the park, and sit beneath a tree, on a bench of wood, away from the main road to contemplate your thoughts. Old twig stood so proud With all the medals of fungi on its coat When it hugged the ground with rest of the twigs He was a hero among ordinary in peace at last On the bench sitting looking at the lake over some bush, with dried up twigs, you hear two ducks, playing around unseen, not unheard. And you notice the bee buzzing at your foot trying to land on a small yellow flower. You realize, it is just like scrolling through the Facebook. The mind, which wants to sit, just a second ago, wants to stand and walk now. And the eyes want to absorb the beauty, hence you say enough. Enough my friend, this is as far as I would go. Let's stop here and observe. And for a good half an hour you let the mind be, without judgment, letting the thoughts drift like clouds . And on your way home, snap some photos, as evidence that you have been there. Summer Dandelions Being Yellow in a Green Park

Adam smith the well-known philosopher and the economist, uttered above words about almost two and half centuries ago. Which is valid for every time, even today. As modern generation is more and more distracted by the technology, it is utmost important and urgent to exhumated these hidden buried Jems back again into human circulation. In my previous article what is the most important question to ask , I have written about asking the question who you are? Hence, obviously I follow Adam Smith's vision on this quote. The complete quote is as follows and there is more for the discussion. First thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer. Adam smith What did he mean? by stepping outside yourself? Does this mean mindfulness ? Obviously as a big fan of mindfulness, (Hence the blog) I do agree mindfulness have some properties like stepping outside yourself and observing yourself. As mindfulness is defined in this blog as being aware of the awareness, it really can mean something like Adam Smith suggests. Hence, maybe he meant that too. However, I like to highlight the difference. The difference being the wisdom of the world, and its formation. The knowledge about the truths of the world, duality of the nature, values , consciousness and the process of thinking , changes the mindfulness practice completely. Imagine you want to travel in a dessert, and you have vague idea, which direction you need to go. And I am sure you will collapse and die stranded in the dessert without any resources like a mad man. Next time you travel you learn about the signs of stars and avoid travel during the day without wasting your resources you can reach the destination. No matter how much you try, without wisdom, mindfulness cannot shine. Hence, it is essential to have a basic idea how the monkey mind works, before start watching. With this knowledge in hand, we will look at the Adam smith quote again. First thing you have to know is yourself- Adam smith A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer. There are two ways one can read the second part of the quote. And one is wrong and the other is relatively correct. You may think that it means, you are looking at your actions, your speech and your thoughts like an observer in silence inside the brain. And mind you the mind is just like a magician. If you wish to see something as is, the job of the magician is to invent it if it is not there. You would even not know, and next second you will fall into this delusion, of someone is looking at something. You may also think, with prior knowledge, that this means, the world you see is just a reflection. Whatever the reality is not touchable, and comprehensible, as only we can know about this outside, is by combining our previous knowledge (which is human made) with the reflections made by our sensory organs. ( mental objects ) And Krishnamoorthi's famous quote 'the observer is observed' comes handy here. Observer and the observed are like two sides of a coin, one is there when the other is there, there exists no independent observer. Next, you may ask, if that is true, why it is relative? I would say, that is because, whatever you understood, by reading above answer, is just another reflection made by the same process. So, still it is the work of the magician. If the second is true, the observer is the observed, there cannot be separate independent truth, as the truth is again relative to the observer. Again, if you would like to read more on the topic, following article would help, on what you see. Let's deviate from the topic and give the poor mind a rest. Let's think about the pink elephant . When you walk down the road, you notice an elephant. It is a big Asian elephant brought to the suburb by the local circus. It is huge, built out of everything it has eaten since it was a calf. Now, this massive moving mound of flesh and bones, made you to stop whatever you are doing, and prompt you to investigate. You notice it's big ears, are dotted with pink color skin, so as its forehead. It keeps on moving from side to side while using its trunk to get a trunkful of leaves. The majestic animal, with attitude in the wild, is brought to become a pet, under the developed human's consciousness. You wonder, how it came to be? Is it the total effort of the mahout? is it the chains and the Ankus?

Is our earth our home? It sounds like a second-grade question. And it is. Because my second-grade daughter just asked me the question and expected an answer and explanation. She is waiting with her eager eyes to listen to what I have to say. Should I say the truth or lie to her? So, I said, Yes, it is our home, and in someways we cannot call it our home. I did some second-grade explanations, to explain why it is our home and why it is not. Let's look at the question with philosophy once again. What is home? According to Mariem Webster home is where one's place of residence or place of origin . But it does not give in which context. If you consider you as a member of your family, your place of living, is your home. Maybe your parents and siblings still live there. If you are a microbe- like demodex - a human face is your home. So, in what context Earth is our home and in what context it is not? When is our earth our home? When we consider ourselves human race, earth is our home . It is our origin as well as our place of residence. Even we can consider, animals and plants as a same biome, If you would know anything about biomes , it is a self-sustaining ecosystem where multiple species flourish. Yes, we like the idea of earth being our home. When Elon musk want to travel to mars, and when Neil Amstrong set foot on the moon, we felt like it is 'our' step. When there is an asteroid which comes towards earth and a massive mega scale volcanic eruption happens in Yellowstone national park, we unite ourselves as a single human race and call, earth our home. And like I do, we like to teach our children the Earth is our home, until they get older and learn themselves all the races, countries and religions, and learn themselves that the earth is not our home. When is our earth is not our home? So, I said, although we call earth our home, we are not free to travel. For political, cultural and religious reasons, and even environmental reasons. You cannot travel to, top of the mountain Shishapangma , the 14th eight thousander, you cannot, travel to Gaza strip without getting killed. You cannot travel to Europe without a security check, if you are from Africa, and you cannot travel to heart of the Africa, with your Jewlery and wallet, without getting robbed. You cannot dive deep ocean and watch a shipwreck . So, reality is much and much more limited than our imagination. It seems Earth is our home, looks like a supernatural dream. So, I had to explain that because there had been nasty people who carry knives and weapons, who smuggle aero planes, I had to undergo a security check every airport. It doesn't feel like freedom at home. And when I am out of my country, no matter how long I stay, it doesn't make me feel like home. So, it is true earth is our home, and wrong at the same time. Limits of our earth our home. Then I thought about it, maybe the earth was truly our home, back in the day, when there were Indians lived in the central America until they were invaded. They could travel anywhere and settle anywhere. No, unless we have universal ruler and Universal rules, or none at all, the earth is not our home. Still, it will be only partially true, as long as we could not overcome our physical barriers. And it really feels like we are small human beings in front of a mountain. Nanga Parbat seems to be bigger than all the atoms of humans ever lived on the planet earth. Now, I have explained the truth about earth being our home. How about another way of looking at the problem. Is earth our prison? If you read my previous article on the spider and web , it will enlighten you furthermore.

This is yet another article which attacks, delusions in our mind. Throughout the blog you may find these pieces of wisdom. Recently I found out that, some people like to live in the delusion, voluntarily, as they fear the reality or due to some other reason. Stupidity is not to understand the truths, but to ignore it is also, isn't it? You may have heard about the third person, somewhere along your line of work. This is just some philosophical explorations into the idea. We will start by examining the meaning of third person in different contexts, in brief before the discussion Third person Hallucinations. Sometimes, severe depression or psychiatric illnesses lead to third person delusions. In these the person starts to hear voices (hence auditory) and even visual hallucinations. And they are constantly being disturbed by these sensory inputs. If you have watched Professor Nash in the movie beautiful mind , it is something similar. Third person effect. In psychology, third person effect is that you feel some political or environmental effect is not going to affect you. A good example is a tsunami or a natural disaster. Imagine you are in a costal house. And you may think a tsunami will never destroy your house, but the fact is it is most likely destroyed. Your house is no stronger than other houses. If you live in a mountain, you will think a landslide will not occur in your neighborhoods. Or even politics or global warming would not affect you. This is also elicited in the following quote. "First They started, taking Jews, I did not bother, that was not my war. Then they started recruiting soldiers, I did not bother, I had no sons. And one morning they knocked on my door." Third person narrative Third person narrative is common in literature, novels. When JK Rowling wrote about Harry potter, it was by a third person. It was like a person looking at Harry walking down the Secret Chamber and she could see even Harry's thoughts, not even Harry but Ron as well. You may ask who is the first and second person? First person narrative is when writers write about it in the perspective of the main character. Writer becomes the character and starts telling the story. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a good example of this. You find all other characters from the viewpoint of Jane Eyre herself. However, the perspective can change. Even in the same novel, or the movie. In the movie Flipped, you would see the same event is played twice in two different perspectives, one from Julie Baker and other from Bryan's perspective. Second person narrative is when you become the main character. This is rare in fiction at least. But you may find this in philosophical articles and often in this blog. It came to my knowledge only today that I have written many of the thought experiments in the second person perspective. It is necessary why? If you read my previous article, prisoners of mind , you would notice when we see the world we only see it from our point of view. Really speaking no one can become a first person and look the world from another persons perspective, or drift your consciousness outside and look at the world from the third person perspective. From morning till night, everything happens to you, and you are doing everything, In the little part of the world which comes into your vision of consciousness . Everything inclusive lives and dies in this part of the world. You do not know whether amazon rain forest exists, before I produce that question here. And you can never know it does or does not, this exact second. Can you see? If I do want to talk about reality I have to talk about in second person. I have to invite you to become observer of the universe and observe, what is observed is only the observer. Hence, what you see is not what it is but who you are , as this second person does not exist without anything being observed, just like a shadow, is not a thing, and neither a tree , observed is not a thing, neither is a observer. We forget the fact sometimes there is only the second person, hence our minds are delusional, if not all the time. That's a lot, I know it is hard to digest. Hence I wrote a second person paragraph for you to read and enjoy. And ignore the insane truth about our everyday delusions of first, second and third person perspectives of the world, as these are just narratives. You are on the platform, old looking, Victorian build dusty roof rise above you. You do not dare to look up fearing that dust will fall onto your eyes and makes you blind, as generations of trains have put their mark with soot from burning coal and fumes on those roofs. Iron bars which were brough from Germany Ages ago, still hold on, like proud little dictators. You cannot lean on to the pillars, as they are no dissimilar from the roof, with dust and dirt. Yet, constant touch by moving crowd has made marks on them which cannot be found on the roof. You see the scratch marks, occasional scribblings of young boys, who wanted to send a message across time into the future. You made a little smile, remembering the boys while receiving their message, and wonder what they are doing today. Are they busy, in an office with four walls, a roof and a floor, struggling to impress their boss, at the end of the hard-working day? Your smile disappears when you realize, those free spirits may not be so free today, unless they said goodbye to the world. You realize, maybe, maybe he is just behind you, looking at you, reading his message from afterlife.

This is another episode of everyday philosophy. First, I have to talk about my driving license. Target fixation. I was good at studying, but not driving. I do not claim to be Sheldon Cooper. However, that was because I did not have enough exposure to vehicles. However, after being selected to university I thought, maybe it's time to have driving license. Hence, I applied to a local driving training program. Oh! there were so many things to write about the stupid training I had. But I will cut the crap short and come to the day of the trail. I applied for both car and motorcycle license. And obviously I did not pass the car license trail. I had a shot at motorcycle. After showing I can drive an 8, I had to drive a short distance along the main road. And I remember once I started driving, nearly missed hitting a lorry. More like I was attracted to the lorry and could not avoid a collision. Most funny fact is it wasn't a moving one, just a one stopped by the road! Somehow, that was my first and only experience in target fixation . Target fixation is a behavioral phenomenon observed in high-speed drivers that when they are fixing their focus on target, they increase the risk of hitting the target. How to Ski I have zero experience in skiing. However, I know how to! you would tell me that's not possible. But I think I know the theory! It is a piece of cake riding a four-wheel drive on a desert. If you have seen skiing it is a totally different game. Especially the ones who take wild rides in trees and rocks abandoned slopes, with collision prone courses. The miracle is not to hit anything. How do they do it? If target fixation is true, obviously none of the skiers would ever come down the mountain without a scratch. But they do. Obviously, they only look at the path ahead not the trees! So, that is the hidden truth. They do not have even a fraction of a second to look at trees and obstacles. They are so much focused on the road, makes sense right? If not skiing, mountain cyclists follow similar principles, when they ride, and fear has no place for the entire ride. Pink elephant philosophy- law of attraction- target fixation Have you ever known similar concept before? Does law of attraction feel similar to this? Law of attraction tells us to focus on positive aspects of life. And you might even get your dreams one day if you keep on attracting them. Target fixation or the pink elephant philosophy shows the opposite, showing what will happen if you focus too much on negative aspects or barriers of life. All these are about winning the game or achieving your targets. However, I think there are higher bounds to philosophy than matters of human greed. How about pulling out the greed tree forever and attract nothingness? If you are into these extreme discussions, you can start reading consciousness . While you think about it. I will mention why it is called pink elephant. It goes like this. " Do not think about the pink elephant! " If someone tell you this, moment you hear the word pink elephant you would not be able to stop thinking about it. Just like the Simon says game. It really does show we do not have control over our thought process. You can read more on this, in the article how to program ourselves , and deterministic world and free will . Let's focus on mindfulness and silence today.