This article is a simple argument I had in mind for sometime about capitalism. You may have a different idea or a view. Comment on these and we can have a discussion. Capitalism Imagine there is a country called x. In this country the government prints out y amount of money each year to the total pool of money and it creates an inflation. If the population remained same and there is less demand for money reducing buying power of people. Let's say this inflation rate is 4%. Let's say some investor gets a return of 10% per year from entrepreneurship. Not just one but several years in a row for 20 years. What do you think is happening? City We can start examining the opposite case. Imagine your total wealth is 100k dollars and you invest it in a firm which returns 4% each year for 20 years. At the end of this period your buying power would be exactly the same (as your return was equal to inflation). You would be neither rich nor poor. At the end of this period you would be exactly same rich. Or financially same value. But if you consider the other smart guy who got 10% return for 20 years, he has beaten the inflation with a 6% margin. At the end of twenty years his initial 100k investment have significantly increased its value. But how did that happen? Why capitalism is a pyramid scheme? If the all the capital in the country is considered one pool, and anyone who beats the inflation over time must be accumulating more wealth than others. Infact this money he has at the end, comes out of pockets of everyone who wasn't able to beat the inflation rate of the country. Sounds familier right? Capitalism sounds like a pyramid scheme. Somehow over generations, the owners of assets grows bigger in wealth while commoners tend to get more and more poor. As they are unable to buy any assets with their depreciating wealth. And in simple few paragraphs I have explained how capitalism works. But unfortunately this is the best system humans have developed over the course of our history. Sale Why capitalism is best system for growth? If we work in a society where we are not rewarded for our hard and smart work by excess return over inflation, nobody would put an effort to work hard. Create new things, create businesses ships cars and push and fund scientific experiments. Its the capitalism which combined with human greed drives the society to these unimaginable growth in every field in modern world. It works better than communism. Where we might get lazy. I'm not sure integrating both will benefit more or not. Only we can see from future China. End of capitalism. As you can see a pyramid scheme is not sustainable in long term. Soon, over a few decades or centuries the countries will run out of money for the welfare of majority. Poor will be so poor and few wealthy people will engulf everyone else. Like Amazon, Apple and Tesla nowdays compared to kings of the ancient world. When the majority of a country becomes so poor, the power will shift naturally because poor will be more in numbers and they will topple the marriage between government and the rich entrepreneurs. Ultimately with a rebel and blood bath. Ew..  Unless we are able to find out a better system to harvest human greediness and redistribute wealth before each collapse. Riot If you looked back at human history. It's inevitable. Wars, will serve this purpose in general. At this moment in time I see no solution. I just play the game like you, trying to beat the inflation, once you understand the principle you will do the same. But let's get together to make a better system than this. Surely we are more intelligent species than this. Don't you think so?

Yesterday I was at a party. By the lagoon with my friends. While we were chatting about many things from cosmos to backyard worms I was struggling to eat a Crab. To be honest I was not used to eat them. Just the appearance of it on table, like a living creature now baked made me disgusting. Nauseated. Yet there was nothing else to eat. I could either try to eat crab meat or sleep hungry 🤔. For a good half an hour I thought about it whether I should go for it. And putting behind all my prejudices I went for it. Crabs Just like Bear Grills, decided to survive in the wild by choice. I went to work with the crusher and a knife. While others were chatting about how sweet the crab meat was, I was struggling to crush the exoskeleton of the Giant crustacean which sacrificed its life for the greed of humans. I had little sympathy. It wasn't a living crab on my plate but a dead one. And the skeleton was hard. I used all the force which I could gather from the lunch and 'crack, and crack' finally I could eat. Hmmmm. There was only a tiny amount of meat inside. Most of the crab was just hard shell. It's gigantic left hand and the chest had some 2-3 grams of meat. Yet my hands were full of juice. Almost spoiled my suite and I saw someone slip their crab on to the table and beyond! It was a total mess. I am sure that is how it is everywhere. Maybe I was naive to this crab eating party. I was smiling to myself inside my own introverted head, feeling like Robinson cruso, when he met barbarians for the first time. Like I have met my own barbarian which had been living unconsciously all these years. Somehow I managed to get enough calories from a bottle of Coca-Cola, which came to rescue me from hunger. Plenty of sugar and toxins for the day! Crab Hunter Comfort of money and freedom While on my way back, I was wondering what the life is all about. Life is like trying to eat crabs! You will try to attack with all your power and might, with best education, best resources, best effort. You might wanna be rich and well to do with full of crab meat in your hungry belly at the end of the day. But before that, there will be a few decades of struggle. Some even break themselves and give up. But if you are successful you will get a tiny bit of crab meat for the each of the shell you crack. You might get your soul dirty with dead crab juices. You may look like a barbarian to not only crabs but your wealthy friends who share wine with you. Who will laugh and enjoy and welcome you to their elite club of crab eaters. But the question is what comes after? Do we want to take that path? Maybe we are not seeking the comfort of money but the freedom for it. Freedom It doesn't make sense. Getting Rich or making money doesn't make sense. Unless I can stop getting hungry. Once a barbarian is not going to make you in the club. You might wanna be a barbarian for the rest of your life. Maybe we should seek freedom from it. Freedom from the burden of money and power. So we can enjoy watching a living crab more than trying to eat one. Maybe we should spend a night in dark listening to all the night owls and crickets, who struggle to keep their hungry bellies filled with each others meat. I wish some friend from my past comes out of nowhere to teach me how to achieve that freedom. Freedom from this struggle called life. Hope it is you.

I was driving through the mountains, 60 kmph today on my car weighing over half a ton. Which burned fuel approx. 15km per liter rate. Yet the speed was not regular as the bends were numerous. The air was humid with 24deg warm on Celsius scale. Ambient light did not do good for vision but provided enough that I did now want to turn on the headlights. The only noise added to the surrounding was by the engine of the car yet was not beyond few decibels. Even monkeys did not move, because they are so much used to that noise. Driving through misty mountains That was just an observation from today. You may have done it before. It's just a familiar scenario. I gave it as an example to illustrate the fact that how much we are used to these scales of measures in day-to-day life. At school as children, we spent major part of our lives learning these tools of measure. And I don't think there are many people who function without at least basic understanding of these scales. Hilariously just the other day I watched an episode of SNL where great George Washington introducing measuring scales to new Americans, at the verge of revolutionary war. How he made everything opposite of the normal, while the world chose metrics, Americans use arbitrary scales. Like measuring milk in pints and distances in miles. It gives me an opportunity to look back at our measuring scales. From the great George Washingtons point of view, as there is deep philosophy in it. Tools of measure in USA When a follower asked Mr. President why he is choosing miles over Meters he did not have any answer. He just laughed it off. Equally all other bizarre scales that Dream nation uses have no basis. But the problem is not it. If you look at all the other SI units, they also have arbitrary basis. Even meters, even kilograms even seconds. I have discussed time in detail in the book what is time. But let's look at a meter here. Meters The standard international unit of length, defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. Now, do not ask me why its 1/299 792 458. Not 1/300 000 000. It is arbitrary as it can be. No matter how much you try to rationalize numbers there will always be unexplainable depth to it. Another fact to notice is it depend on the speed of light. I would rather bet on a fixed number than speed of light. You might say it's constant. But there is a chance the speed of light is not constant. If everything changed according to the same scale overnight, we have no ability to know whether a meter has changed. Together with the speed of light. Imagine everything expands in the universe to same scale. Maybe a meter is double the length as yesterday! In reality, what I can see is nothing a constant . The constants that we see are just imaginary. I would say they are platonic. Just like a perfect circle. We can mathematically and imaginatively assume there are perfect circles and squares. But when we change our scale of measures to really small and really large all the squares either become ragged lines or unmeasurably small dots. These are just concepts. Science Do not get me wrong. I'm not saying there is no use of measuring. I use them daily just like you. That is not even the point. The real message is in matters of life and consciousness and meaning, we have to look beyond science. The answers are there not where the science is used to solve our problems. Answers will be there only when we recognize why science fails when it comes to questions about life. As science always assume something to be true to measure something against what is arbitrarily fixed. Let's not get onto an argument here. But a discussion so we can improve on science where it fails. And let's call it pseudoscience 😆 of philosophy

We are late for the school 100th time in a row. This time stupid socks that take ages to put on. And the shorts that always go the wrong side front. So, after overcoming all these troubles and looking at the clock ⏰️ it's always late. But hey? Isn't that funny? Where did the time go? Time did go somewhere, right? If it did not it should be here. But it is not here now. Now is not the time that came before. Now is a new time. But where is the old time? We started searching for our time. Looking for time Where did the time go? We looked everywhere. We looked under the bed. Under pillows. In the kitchen cabinet and the fruit basket. We even checked the old toy basket where Elsa and Ana were sleeping with their broken arms. But we couldn't find time. The precious time which was no longer there we couldn't find. Where did it go? Is it in the clock? Then, all of a sudden little Lilly white realized where it went! It must be hidden in the clock! After all that is where we read the time right. We figured out we were five minutes late just by looking at the clock. Everyone was amazed by Lilly whites' wisdom. We all stared at the clock. For a full minute. The hour hand did not move at all. The minute hand made a bare minimum move. But this second hand moved a full turn, just like that a whole minute passed and it again became past. But where did it go? We couldn't see it In the clock. It's a strange feeling to look at the clock which measures time, which we cannot see where its coming from. We cannot see where it goes to. Nobody has even ever seen this little bugger, the monster time. Yet here is the device apparently which measures time. Does it even measure time? Who can prove it measures time. We kept on looking. Naaah. It cannot be hidden in the clock. Inside out Is it outside? We looked outside in the grass. Behind the doors where we used to hide and seek. We checked the garden, and on the mango tree. We looked at the sky. Each moment we felt like the time is mocking us. It seemed going past us, but nobody could find where it went. Then again. Lily White came for the rescue. Maybe it is in our thoughts. Anyway, that is how we know it went past us right? Is it inside? We all sat on a couch and started looking at our thoughts. Somehow that felt true. Time seems to be trapped in our thoughts. Thoughts about past. Like in the thoughts of last weekend when we went to the turtle beach to meet turtles and coral fish. That wonderful Sunday morning is not here today. But we feel like it happened somehow. Its in our memory. Then again, Lilly white thought, thoughts about turtle beach are not actual thoughts which happened on the beach. These are just another set of thoughts happening now. Closely mimic those past thoughts. It seems somehow time is again invisible. Maybe we cannot find him, because he is not there. At least, we now know where it is hidden, so where to look for next time. But now, it's late. Assuming time is there, we are late for school. So we all rushed through the garden and the traffic, just before the final bell rang. Another morning gone. Mixed with the memories of the past, hidden in the attic of fairies. Just like that, in the movie "Inside out" of Riley's . Lilly White thought to herself. Lilly White Inside out Inside Out is a Pixar animated film that explores the emotions inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl named Riley. When Riley’s family moves to a new city, her emotions — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust — struggle to help her cope with the big change. Joy and Sadness accidentally get lost inside Riley’s mind, leaving the other emotions in charge. As they journey back, Riley learns that it’s okay to feel sad sometimes, and that all emotions are important in helping her grow and adapt to life’s challenges.

I have written about games of life before . Many articles. Each one describing a slightly different viewpoint about life. Here yet again, I write on Games of life. This time about game theory and its application to ethics. You may need some background on mathematics and common sense to understand the following discussion. Let's Dive in. Game theory is the part of mathematics which describe how people make decisions when their decisions affect the outcomes for themselves and others, often in social contexts like business, politics etc. Commonly described in the way of prisoner's dilemma. Game Prisoner's Dilemma. The Prisoner’s Dilemma  is a famous example in game theory that shows why two people might not cooperate, even if it's in their best interest. Two prisoners are arrested and questioned separately. If both stay silent, they get light sentences. If one betrays the other, the betrayer goes free while the other gets a heavy sentence. If both betray, they both get moderate sentences. Even though staying silent benefits both, they often betray each other out of fear — showing how self-interest can lead to worse outcomes for everyone. So, if we are looking for the best outcome for all the members in a group, co-operation of everyone is essential. But if one guy decided to betray, he may benefit while all others suffer consequences. If the dilemma exists for two players, consider when there are thousands of players, like in fashion industry. Often there would be no mercy shown by others when there is a betrayal. Best outcome scenario by co-operation is called Social Optimum. Which is unstable. However there exist the stable status which is betrayal. When you chose to betray all the time, the outcome would not depend on what the other person choses. Hence it is stable. This status is called Nash Equilibrium. But consider this prisoners dilemma game is played again and again with same opponent, and if you continue to betray, others will know it and adjust their strategy, making it worse outcome for both. Hence in such a situation where repeated play occurs best strategy is called "Tit for Tat". You start forgiving, if the other prisoner started to co-operate in the last game and do a "Tit for tat" if he betrays in previous game. Being Nice all the time or being aggressor, all the time would not make you win in such long-term games. So, what does this teaches us about ethics? Race against survival - unsplash Game theory and ethics Consider you are a CEO of a company. If you think being nice all the time with your opponents or, even co-players would make you win, that is not true. At some point one of the competitors are going to get greedy and try to swallow you. And they may succeed if you continue to play the "Nice" game. So, you may choose "Tit for Tat" instead. Of course, now you know it is the winning strategy, there is no other choice. But if your opponent is inviably far dominant, co-operation might be the best way to survive. Hoping you might be stronger one day to fight back. Another way I look at the game is comparing the default betrayer, to the evil dictator, and the nice player to the God. As, God is unconditionally forgiving, this is a good comparison. So, in such a game, it is inevitable that if the "God" started to play with the "evil" he is going to lose anyway. So, for the betterment of the majority the "God" will have to use some dirty tactics of "Evil" to win the game and remain powerful. The God will have to use some Tit for Tat strategy. If God also have to use evil, how can we ever dream about a complete ethical world where everyone is happy winning? As long as there are two individuals in same environment we would be involved in this dirty game of fighting for resources. Balls of yarn A ball of yarn This is why when once Elon musk said "If you are wishing for world peace, be aware to be amazed by all the sacrifices we have to make to reach there". It might easily mean wiping out all the consciousness which do not desire peace but selfish existence. In other words, such a peace can only be achieved without war, only if magically all 8 billion people of the world suddenly understand this logic of game theory and chose to co-operate with everyone. Including just newborn babies. It makes me little sad, that we cannot achieve the better future for our children, but makes me alerted to look at my own life to understand how I got entangled in this ball of yarn in the first place.

I went to the moon Last night, In a newly built starship When I looked back from its surface towards the sky, I saw the earth The gigantic mesmerizing blue ball in the sky, with all of its clouds All of its Green and brown and All of its blue. I couldn't take my eyes off. Yes, it moved slowly Slower than a speed of a car, slower than the speed of a mobile phone Slower than a ship, a sheep or a bullet out of an AK47 I stared at it a half an hour and That was all I saw! Earth I didn't see my house, in a tiny corner of the street, I did not see the street either. Didn't see my Garden where the tiny bees flew over yellow Dandelions I didn't see my village or my parents' house, where they lived all their lives Neither I could see the church where they went to pray each and every day. I did not see my Neighbours, or the college where I went for thirteen years. The lake was not visible where I visited last summer on vacation, not with the boats I did not see my town, surrounded by the beautiful misty mountains. I did not see Old Mcdonalds farm or his pigs' hens or cows. I could not see the boundaries of our land, where the war was going on for decades I could not see the dust from grenades when they blast or the war cemeteries Where dead bodies were buried in Perfect rows. I did not see roads, backyards, five-star hotels by the beach or the big walls separated them from fishermen's huts. I saw no discrimination. As humanity was very small, microscopic compared to Earth. I was sure they were there, the happiness sadness, wealth and poverty, and the greed of humanity which drives them all If I had a microscope of a cosmic scale I would see the news on TV, of the death of a politician, who was shot dead by a commoner. Milkyway - Cosmic scale But last night, before I woke up today morning, I did not have discrimination, as I was on the moon, in my dream. I said to myself, maybe, maybe the Earth is still a better place, to be If we look at the big picture. Maybe, no need to travel anywhere else As long as we all are able to see the big picture. Epilogue: The indiscriminate earth. It was only couple of days before I saw riots breaking out in parts of Netherlands, against immigrants, legal and illegal. It seems although how much we boast about development, we fear to share our resources with other humans living on the other side of the same rock, which is called earth. If we forget the fact that we are separated by kilometers, instead measured in light years, essentially there is no distance between you and me, when we consider the closest star in the sky. Proxima Centauri. We are living in an isolated corner of the universe. We are lucky to have company of our own and animals around us. As just beyond the sky is eternal darkness and unbreakable silence for light years. So, what are we expecting by fighting with our Neighbours, for whatever the stupid reason, little bit of mineral? Gold? space? Its illogical irrational and stupid. Yet, I do not disagree to the fact that it is unavoidable too. Because we chose to play with each other on these games of life , inevitably we have to choose a side. Often whatever which party feels closer to us. As there is not yet a threat from the sky, from the Gods or Alean's, threatening our existence, we would fight for our resources among ourselves in these arbitrary groups. But today I am lucky, to step away from the play, which ordinary man calls living, and comment as a silent observer, a philosopher inviting you to join me and enjoy the platonic existence of eternal peace in an indiscriminate earth.

Candidates for "connection between everything" Have you ever thought about it? Maybe not, because it never crossed your mind. The answer is pretty simple and I am going to expose it in few sentences. But let's ask more questions just out of curiosity. What is the connection between a banana cake and your grandfather? What is the connection between a piece of plastic and a flying tortoise? What is the connection between water and a mirror? What is the connection between a rock in your garden and a next thought you are going to get? Can you see anything? Did you see any connection? I tried to be as random as possible in selecting two items. Let's look at several possibilities. Banana What is the connection between a banana cake and grandfather? Maybe your grandfather made a banana cake and ate it one day. Maybe you cannot see any connection between these two. But how about language? Banana cake and grandfather are both words made out of English alphabet. It seem a very good connection. But not complete. If you take English language and Egyptian language and ask the same question you may not see any connection. But when we think about everything as a concept made out of words we can see the interconnectedness better. But let's move on. What is the connection between languages? For that matter we can say sounds are the connection. Although words are different each language uses almost same sounds. Although used for different meanings when used in different combinations. But is it true? Is the sound the connection between everything? As it makes up languages possible and every concept is made of language? I know. You have doubts. These arguments are loosely attached. I do not try to find a sound proof argument here for what is the connection between everything. Only because this part of the article is to increase your curiosity. If sounds or vibrations are the connection between everything what is the connection between other fundemental forces like magnetism and nuclear attraction? As you can see we are at the level of four fundemental forces of nature which connect everything. The question is what connects these four forces? I think this is how far modern science can go. Beyond that it is philosophers land. Are you forgetting something? Waves You as the connection between everything It's you. Your consciousness. Your thoughts. Your observation about the nature is the one which connects even these four fundemental forces of nature. Let's think and appriciate this for a moment. You are the connection between a banana cake and Grandpa. You are the connection between a piece of plastic and a flying tortoise If anything you are also the connection between a mirror and water. A rock in the garden is just a thought which arise in your mind before you move your consciousness to the next. Infact everything in our relative world is connected by us. Like a long string of boolean numbers running on a Turing machine we fluctuate from one thought to the other throughout the day. As you can understand if we are the glue which helds everything together I think it's utmost important to learn about the properties of the glue. As there would be no thing, if there is no glue. So mindfulness or the investigation of self makes the essential fundemental component of my life. How about you? Do you think about yourself often? What have you learned lately from observing the life. I'm curious to know as, it is only by discussion we can shine ourselves more. Join me with this thought journey in Magical Mindful living

I learned recently that the world is 324trillion dollars in debt. The total wealth that it has generated is around 915trillion . It triggered me to write this article. As I can see there is a problem. A time bomb as someone would call it. Let's talk about why. The future The problem of debt. Imagine you do a startup. You find out that your business has a potential, yet you do not have capital to explore these options currently. So you borrow, as debt. If the business flourished as you expected fine. You get profit, while lenders earn their interest and capital sometime in the future, so they will lend it again. But as you can see there is a problem. The problem of what will happen if you were not able to pay back. Definitely the lenders will try and extract every penny out of your pocket. You will get bankrupt. And there would be a negative mark in front of your wealth number. But what exactly is debt? Why would anyone give you money when they know your wealth doesn't promise gurentee in return but with a risk. Borrowing from future Essentially in debt what you as a collector is trading your future. Your future expected earnings, and part of these goes to lenders as interest and installment. Depending on the guarantee you provide lenders may agree to this trading. Yet nobody would be willing to pay you more than your current total wealth, as if you go bankrupt there would be a loss for the lender. Now think about it for a moment. Let's say you own 1 mil dollars and you borrow 0.5 mil more for business. If everything goes fine that's good. Even if you go bankrupt on this new endeavour if you do not borrow more you can come out atleast 0.5mil after paying for the debt from your own pocket. But imagine you get loans from three different people to a total of 1.5 mil. And now if you go bankrupt, either all 3 or one of the lenders will not get total capital. Forget about the interest, they cannot recover their capital. This is the problem of debt. Generating wealth World as a 200 people group. Now consider the world as a group of 200 countries. They all have debts, have borrowed from each other. Governments, companies, public and private. Everyone is in debt to everyone. They use debt to pay debt. Trading their own future. As long as lenders would lend, things can go on. But consider what it means. It really means we are putting pressure on our future generations to earn more returns from the money we borrowed! Ah ha! Of course we are not going to do it as we are happy doing some travelling and writing blogs. But suddenly in 100 more years our children's of children will find out they are billions of dollars in debt. Each one of them and they cannot generate that wealth. And on the other side they will find they cannot recover their lendings. This scenario is inevitable. It will take 100 or 500 years in the future. Faster if a global catastrophe struck as all the wealth generating machines called factories would stop. I wonder what humanity would do in that scenario. Let's look at the positives and possible solutions. I see no point in thinking about this as one of my problem. I am fine doing my 8-5 shift being a part of wealth generating global machine. It is running smoothly today. But I want to prepare our kids fir the future. I would print a million copies of this message and distribute free to the world while papers are still abundant. While Internet is still flourishing and smartphones are everywhere. Hoping one of those copies would survive into the future post apocalypse. Waves in front of me Message for future generation. Forgive us for borrowing from your future to quench our thirst of greed. There are not thousands but few hundreds of us still think about you. But there is hope. The values we traded as your future is not the real value. It is all a mental game where we give a number to the future. Human consciousness have survived through hardships as it is the nature of it. So you as a child of future who lended your ancestors still have capacity to give a value to your observations of life. Just like me standing in front of this lagoon watching the waves giving it a more value than my bank account. Just use the gift of nature as if there is anything valueble to humans its generated there in your own mind. But you have a better chance of understanding valuelessness of experience, as we here are blinded by numbers.

Let's discuss recipes for success. I am sure you have read atleast one biography of a successful mentor. Maybe its sports, engineering or business studies. Maybe its art. Ones who were successful, once they were successful have given a list of items to do. Stepwise process to success. Often we believe in them, and we make our own stepwise guide. Follow these cycles all our lives and hopes for the best. But after all these same struggles you have been through I now realise there is no recipe for success. And this article is to why. Recipe Literally we are like ping pong balls. We are like ping pong balls in a casino game. Have you seen how random they fall down when released from a same point. Each and every ping pong ball takes a random walk down its obstacle path to ultimately end up in some random place on the board. Yet when we look at all the balls there may be patterns we observe. Our society closely resemble the ping pong ball table. Although there are patterns individuals take apparent random journeys. Just like we cannot predict the path of individual ping pong ball we cannot predict the journey of any individual in the society. Yet we see patterns. Let's look at some patterns. Hardworking pays off Smartwork pays more Habits govern our happiness Success depend on the people we associate Random games Some people live by these so called rules, get successful materialistic or other and they write a biography, falsely thinking rules they followed brought their success. But for a rational mind it may seem otherwise. Non of the rules guarantee the success. Past performance doesn't predict future success. There is inherent luck involved in everything we do. Do not believe me? Consider birth. Everything you do in your life, the success faliure, struggle and happiness depend on the place you were born. And there is no way we can remove the influence of this factor from our life. As everything aroused after this single factor its influence is inherently there. No matter how much I followed someone's success rules, I would be adding my cocktail of personal factors into the pot. Who knows the same rules which made someone successful might even kill me in the process. And this is only one reason I cannot give you a set of success rules. Nobody can know all the factors involved in an apple falling to the ground. Yet alone which affect our thoughts. Similar observation comes from mindfulness. And it's more subjective explanation. Its the will. How much influence we have on our will determines our success ultimately. Imagine you have a complete control of your life. Then success is very easy. You just need to sit down with a mentor and schedule your day filled with quality work that mental happiness will immediately follow and after sometime material success will follow. But this is not the case. No matter how attractive our plan may seem we will find that we cannot stick to it for longer periods of time, without causing suffering. It seem useless even to try these flowcharts. But what is the reason? Nature When you are mindful you will notice how limited, negligent or even absent our control over our will and thoughts. As an example just a moment ago, a crow passed near my window, making crow noise. I am unable to pay attention to anything else. I'm unable to stop thinking about it or think anything else when it happens. Listening to the crow has made a change in my stream of thoughts that it will never take the same path if it was not there. Same will happen when you put any new observation about life. Just like an obstacle in a ping pong game. We take a different turn every moment in life. Recipe for success So if there is a recipe for success I would say it's just being aware of the every move that take in life and hopefully it will add value when you look back one day. That's just like asking to put everything you have in the pot while cooking and hope it will come out as best soup! 👌 it might work if time is right. But happiness is what you are looking for it's easy to achieve.

Yes. I agree. I also have complaints about google maps. I also have ended up in the middle of nowhere, on a dirty road, hitting my bumpers, searching a way out from the mess I have put myself in, trusting google maps. Google maps is improving day after day. Let's forget about the imperfections and, learn how things about how to get directions to anywhere from google maps. How to get directions? What I learned from google maps. Maps When I go somewhere I would just search google maps. Like everyone else first I type the location where I have to go. Then if I say directions it directly sends me to a page where I have to show my current location. I would either have to select my exact GPS location or chose some initial starting point. This has some implications in real life as well. Let's look at some lessons we learn from this activity. Where you start matters in life. Often in life when we want to reach some destination we overwhelmingly think about that place. But more importantly we forget where we are. As much as the destination the starting place matters. We do not identify that the route we have to take totally and mutually depend on where we are starting. And throughout the journey what is accessible for us is only the location where we are. The speed that we travel at this moment would determine the entire journey. It is important to constantly access our current location. Planning matters but not actually what you do. Maps Imagine you see a blocked road ahead. Jammed with traffic, red color. You can plan this to avoid the traffic. Maybe you might take a different road. Maybe you might plan your resting time hoping the traffic would go away in due time when you arrive there. But if you start overwhelmingly panic and think too much about it you might make entire journey about this traffic. You might even forget to enjoy your lunch! And This is exactly what happens to us while we are in office. We are so much panicked about the next task that we forget we have eaten the lunch or not. Most likely you would have swallowed it whole. But it doesn't have to be that way. If you understand the next principle of google maps, which is, Destination has no meaning while you are in the journey. Destination has no meaning while you are on the journey. Imagine your Destination is a beach front hotel. In this hotel you are planning to spend 24 hours before you departure to another place. While you are travelling, it doesn't matter that beach is filled with magnificent sunset. It doesn't matter what you get for lunch. There is no point even thinking about it. It will just make your economy class lunch less tastier while you travel. But if you just chose to be mindful and savour the apple juice you are offered, the difficult journey might even feel enjoyable. You will realise that the happiness is subjective and your mind can generate happiness on its own! And what a wonderful way to look at life that when we can understand its the same wind we feel at home, feels different on the beach. Moment Now if I stopped here, and if you looked closely, and read again, all the three factors above are not three. Infact they are indeed one. What I have learned from google maps can be summarised as, in a journey what matters is only our current location. If we can fully appriciate and be present you may have better chance of living life rarther than dreaming. Yes, with all the flaws, all the troubles, all the disappointments. Still that would be the only thing that matters. Pain, depression, happiness, heartbroken, love and greed. All are part of the same life. Inseparable from the knower, as it all points to yourself in direction. So next time when you search directions of a place let it remind you to focus on your current status of affairs instead.

This is about big questions in life. Big questions that we try not to answer. Either because we are too busy doing some mediocre things like building bridges or ruling countries. Or because we are afraid of them as there is no accessible knowledge about answers in our databases. Instead we try to build a tiniest robot to use in treating renal stones, or making the biggest ship to send bigger cargo to the moon. But the big questions remained throughout the human history, ever since we developed frontal cortex and imagination. And when a disaster strikes and the shit happens out of nowhere we tend to isolate from this temporary matrix and try to solve the questions, without any help. Often failing as there is lack of information. This blog is just a tiny effort to show you how material success is inherently linked to these big questions of life. And even stupid in front of answers. Big What are the big questions? Why am I here? Who am I? Why should I do what I am doing now? These are just a few. There are many more. Have you ever tried to list them out? If you are getting anxious just by asking these questions how can you ever hope to get answers. Be it meditation, mindfulness exercise or your 8-5 job, if you're unable to reason out why, I think it's just a waste of time. On the other hand if you're able to tell why you are begging from others instead of earning a living, you are not wasting your time on earth. The mind shines only when we ask these big questions. Consider a monk. The difference between a begger and a monk are just answers to these big questions. One is well respected even offered food and basic needs, while others are ignored. It looks beggers make no attempt at answering big questions. They do not realise they are one step away from becoming Nobel. Instead just worry about the problems the society has mounted on them. Like money and shelter. Instead just asking the big questions and attempting to understand yourself can lift you from wherever you are. I look at it like cutting gems. Gems come in different shapes and sizes. Often deep within earth. Only someone with a good eye can identify these as they are covered with mud and dirt. Even after washed they do not show the true interior. But once they are cut by a professional gem cutter, they will reflect light and become a beautiful work of nature. Now consider your mind a gem. It's covered with mud and dirt of the society. Knowledge about material success clouds the beauty of the mind. Be a gem cutter, ask the big questions from time to time. So your mind gem starts to shine day by day. And then people will start to notice and stupidly think that it's wonderful. As they haven't yet discovered themselves yet. Gems In this journey of asking big questions there are few practical things we can do. First Is to create opportunity. Opportunity comes naturally when your mind is curious. Give it a chance. When you hear someone talking about life, make an effort to follow these leads. And you don't have to and shouldn't believe in these teachings. Having the ability to give up ideologies which doesn't make sense is needed, as even our own mind starts to lie when we follow blind believes. Challenge your own thoughts by asking a different question. I know it's scary. People surrounding you might say it's not necessary. It's not necessary to ask big questions to keep your sanity. But here is a thought. It is OK to go insane, asking who am I, than working all life to be dead at the end, without knowing why. Atleast you have made an attempt. Let's do a mindful exercise to cut the gem Who am I? A big question. To be honest looking at a person as a self is just a one way of looking at it. It could also be explained as a chimera, a collection of separately functioning units. It can be considered as a mind and a body. It can also be seen as a tree which evolved to walking. None of these are 100% true. So the question "who am I?" May not be the correct question to ask. If that is not a legitimate question, what is the correct question to ask. As each and every question is build upon just subjective observation. Is there even a correct question? Are we capable of asking a correct question other than observing life?

The other day we had a discussion about life. Religion, Atheism and Cults. On the round table with some educated intelligent group of people. And the believes of this group were markedly varied. Everyone had their own expectations about life. However I noticed there are two sub groups. One group believed in searching the meaning of life despite all the chaos. The other group were not interested in searching anything other than what is pleasurable. Leaving everything for the universe. So let's look at it more closely. Big picture What did you do since you work up today. I am sure you were busy with scheduled and unscheduled tasks. Which may or may not be pleasurable. But obviously some of them were to avoid pain rather than pleasure itself. Consider brushing your teeth. You do this because you know the consequences of not brushing will lead you to pain in future with dental caries. Infact in the heart of brushing the teeth there is hedonism. As we expect a better experience in future, although the act itself is not hedonistic. Let's say you are a math professor. And you are entangled in solving a millennial mathematical question. It's hard and painful process. But you are willing to endure the lengthy process of thinking this problem you will have a reward. You might get it as financial benefit or as a social recognition. The same things a natural hedonist would look for in life. As subtle it may seem everything we do from morning till we are sleep are to avoid physical and mental pain and maximise the pleasure. Infact these are not two different things. The latter is just another way of avoiding the pain of boredom. Imagine you decided to go to a party. What you expect from here is to entertain yourself with a novel experience of music food and socialising. So you follow the path of a hedonist for the night. It doesn't matter when you come back home you feel like a hollow. But consider the opposite. You decide to not to go to the party. Write a poem, meditate or even spend time with family. I see no fundemental difference in these two choices. As experience Is subjective you have chosen what is better experience for you at that time. Driven by same selfish reasons of a hedonist. But the subtle nature of the latter might even hide the selfish reasons behind your choices and make you feel like you are better at self control than a party animal. Is it true? Party Animals The big picture of life So do we have another definition for life, When we look at the big picture? Life is a constant struggle to do things to avoid the pain of not doing it. Just name anything you do. I can show you the component of pain of not doing in it. Money, relationships, medicine wine, anything and everything you search today will serve this purpose. Everything you try to avoid will serve the same purpose too. So we have fundamentally two ways to solve this problem, or attempt at solving. One is to get material success. You can do it just by following the rules of the society without chasing any meaning of life. It is like treating a disease symptomatically. Yet as the root cause is the diseased mind you will never be able to come out of medicine. Have you seen such people? A billion dollars is not enough for them. A one good vacation is not enough. Winning a one football game is not enough. A happy meal is not enough. Being able to walk is not enough. So what is the opposite? Being content with what you have? Being Content Being content is good enough as long as you understand the true reasons behind this. If it is to avoid the pain of working hard towards a goal I think it's a wrong reason as still your mind is in hedonist framework. But if you understand life and your mind chose to be content as you see no meaning after a thorough search that would be a good reason to be content. More than a choice it looks like the natural conclusion of mind when it understands life. And this is why the searching for the meaning of life matters. As coming to a conclusion and giving up too early might close the door for you to achieve peace before natural death.