I was looking at the phone, the other day, just like you. And there popped up an image asking the question 'What is the bone shown here' And there was a picture of an exposed shoulder of a young person. And then there was the collarbone, clearly visible through the skin. I could see hundreds of answers and here is the analysis of different answers to the question. Shrug bone. Beauty bone Collar bone Clavicle Those were some of the answers given by people of different backgrounds. First, we will see some possible reasons behind these answers and then we will try to see some more answers. I am sure, Collar bone is a general knowledge, however someone with a medical or in that case, who studies zoology or biology would know it is also named clavicle. Maybe one's who answered it clavicle, may have fractured it and doctors, explained it in those terms. Some explained it is the beauty bone, as lot of girls who like to be beautiful, try to shape themselves to make it exposed, even by means of anorexia Nervosa. Hence, I have seen Japanese girls, who put water above their exposed bone, and put some Koi fish in it to show their achievement. And I really do not know how the word Shrug bone came from. More answers to the question of which bone? Those were the main answers. But for the purpose of this article, I gave it a thought. I am sure there are more to it than those. Imagine, the question is only asked in English. How many languages are there in this world? 3000? Obviously, some of the languages do not have a name for the collar bone. But many of them would have and there is possibility that there are more than thousands of them. If you include Alean languages like Klingon, I am sure there is a word for the bone you would find there. Now, let's move on, it is considered as correct to answer such a question. But let's look back at the question and question the question for the sake of it and be a child in answering. I could see, why people answered the way they answered but the problem is I did not see a bone there. All I saw was some skin. Truely speaking no one should have seen a bone. Everyone should see skin. Yet, they saw a bone When questioned. This made me think, why did I see a collar bone, in a place where there is no part of it is visible? Where was my collar bone which I saw and why? Where is my collarbone? And answers were simple. Imagine someone showed the same photograph and asked the question, this is my shoulder, do you think I am a man or a woman? This is my shoulder, am I fair? You can think about any question. Someone might even ask, this is my shoulder, what is the color of my car? I am sure, no one would answer a question like that with above answers. Nobody would ever say collar bone. So, the answers, are just because of the question, and everyone saw a collar bone, which was not there just because of the question. Now, this is a great example to show that our thoughts are shaped by the information that is put into it. So, the collar bone everyone saw, was in their minds, and not in the picture. (Where is my collar bone -> is it in mind?) Oh, you may think that is the depth. But I would say, no my friend there is no depth to it. Let's look back at the question again. Is there a collar bone? Yes, there was and no there was not. Was there skin? Yes, there was and no there was not. After you read the article, you would agree there was skin only. But I say look beyond, question again. Do you see skin. Take out your magnifying glass and see. You will see the pixels which make an image. So, there was no skin. The skin that you saw was in your mind. And there were only pixels. But the truth is even pixels are made out of just some colors. And if you would saw that picture forgetting everything you have learnt so far you would see nothing. So, what did you see? Is it an illusion? All I can say is that it was a relative truth. In the context, it is true that there is a collarbone and not absolute. Let's ask another question. Where is the mind the collarbone was in ?

How to watch Olympic games - Wrong way Maybe you are in Paris at the time of writing of this, watching the summer Olympic games. Maybe you are watching a game, where there is a good chance that your country would win a medal. As you have already known, I write about mindfulness and philosophy . Hence, here I will do a thought experiment on a game of table tennis, from a spectator's point of view. Whenever we start a game, first thing we do is we pick a side. It is easy if there is a player from your country. Obviously, there is no choice in that. But if you have been long enough in Olympic village, as often it happens, there may be no contestant from your country in the game you are watching now. Let's imagine that the game you are going to watch is not having any players from your country. Imagine its Nepal against Senegal. But the moment you look at the match, somehow you will pick a side. Depending on some criteria. Maybe you have visited either one of the countries. Maybe you hate Asians but not Africans. Or other way around. Maybe The Nepal contestant is good looking, or the other one is poor. Somehow you will pick a side, often this happens automatically. And just like you cheer up for your country you would start favoring one, and often not you will even feel a Suttle sadness once the game is over, if your favorite player did not win. How to watch Olympic games - Riskless way Compared to this imagine riskless way of watching a game. You cannot pick a side, consciously, try to avoid picking a side. Can you imagine such a situation. That you would be equally happy either one of them wins. It is a win situation for you if you can, and often it happens you cannot. Why is that? It is like a riskless way of living, like becoming a minimalist in life. Somehow, we are unable to enjoy a game fully if we do not pick a side. This is true for almost all the games. The reward is associated with the amount of risk we are willing to take. Sounds familiar? If you are into finance, this is the same principle why stocks are giving higher returns than bonds. It is all about risk. Now think about the game of life , would you rather be risk less like a minimalist or try to be a high achiever? Where is the fun in it? Where is the happiness? Following is an article I have written a year ago in the book What is time . We will try to find out where is happiness. Step 3 - The Podium. Let's imagine a podium of three steps. Imagine any kind of sport you'd like to watch, and you have been following. Imagine it's time for presentations. National anthem of the winner is playing in the background. Everyone is presented with medals. Let's see what they are thinking. Let's look at the minds of the winners.  The bronze medalist is happy, he has done his personal best performance finishing the race in dazzling time. He is the best in his country, now he has won a medal on the world podium. He is happiest in his career, and this will be the pinnacle of his life. Why wouldn't be he happy? The silver medalist is happy, he is on the podium, he couldn’t do his personal best. However he has got the next best, he is smiling yet there is a tug in his voice. He knows he could do better, maybe next time, maybe next year, maybe next race. He cannot fully appreciate his win as thoughts keep coming back. It should have been his anthem that is playing. Maybe he still has a point to prove to the reporters who are following him. But this time he settles for the silver. The gold medalist, he is happy. This is the best he could imagine, second time he has won the gold, he was just a millisecond away from the world record. Once again, he has proven he is the best in the world. He could have been happier if he could get the perfect start today. It wasn't the best start, rest was smooth. He could have proven that he is the best ever lived if it wasn't for the bad start. Yet he is happy. Happiness is at 99.99 level except for the millisecond that he missed; it could have been 100. It's not the participation, it's not the fight we are giving, it's the value which we give to these events by ourselves, determining winners and losers, triumph and failure. Who gives values to these events. If you look carefully, nobody gives value to these events. You only can give value to events in your own imagination. Whenever we measure, whenever we monitor, whenever we value, there will be a pursuit, there will be a race and there will be winners or losers. And we will lose the happiness war. To win the war against happiness, let’s lose the values we have given to our battles. Can we do that? Never forget it's the war, not the battle which needs winning. Who taught us to give values to these events? Our parents, our teachers, our books or science? Is it our religious leaders? Politicians or friends? Can we unlearn what we have learned and become a child again? I saw a child once playing a game. He was small, weak and significantly insignificant. The game was to collect candy on a mat. Candy was held up by a rope in a bag and released on command onto the mat. Kids ran to the mat in a rush. It was a mess, and parents encouraged their child. Everyone jumped into the middle of the mat where there was a lot of candy. And started collecting. Insignificant could not push them. I saw him go circles and circles around the majority to collect insignificant candy slipped under their feet to the outer circle. And when it is time for the winner, guess who won, against all the odds. And he lost the battle but won the war. Is happiness relative? I saw a post on current Olympic championship, where China who won the silver medal were in tears, while the bronze medal team were rejoicing their victory. Obviously, something is wrong, and you know what. It is relative. The amount of happiness we feel is relative to our initial target. This is the risk we are taking. How are you going to avoid such a simple mistake, is by understanding this happens, at the time it happens. Otherwise, there will be always a loss, and happiness will always not there even in a podium in Olympic games. Ironically the happiest person in the world is, not an Olympic medalist, but a monk! who owns nothing to his name. And we know why, because his level of expectation is so low, that even able to breath is a happiness. If you would like to learn more about happiness following articles would help How to be the happiest person on earth. Happiness paradox To catch the happiness before it hides (poem) Will anyone survive a world without happiness

Creator of a creator. I am a creator myself. On numerous occasions I have created many things. I have created a statue carved on a soap. I have created paintings; I have created a cup of coffee a soap bubble and a blog. So, no one can argue I am not a creator. How do I create them I really do not know, as there is no option when there is a craving to create. Specially pieces of poem, throughout my twitter page are created when I am deeply sad or extremely happy. It happens automatically most of the time, when the dam which keeps the emotions in check fails due to heavy rains and even a small hole become bigger over time leading to structural collapse creating a tsunami which lasts hours into the day. Hence, I do not know how I am the creator, Yet I am. Now I wonder what the process was when the creator made the world. And like my brother recently suggested, there are questions like, why and what if not. Human Perspective Obviously, I am not the God. Because I do not feel like one, And I have not noticed God lives inside me, like I argued before . Hence, I would like to try and answer those questions in human wisdom. After all, we do not come to the world with the views of God, not until we go to the church, and listen to the stories of the priests. Hence, I would like to answer the question without prejudice. Like a kid. Realms of the creator - creation of the world? Why creation of the world? As we discussed earlier in Robert frost , the world is not a perfect place, with all its vulnerability to cruelty. Mostly visible in front of our eyes, some we have to imagine. Few questions that we should ask ourselves is, why? Why create a world with imperfections? Why all the animals were made to eat plants, instead of milk and flesh? Why grass is tasty only for cows? Obviously, it is easy to replicate the taste buds of cows in lions and hyenas, when the patent is owned by the God himself. And I could not put a blind eye to these, by listening to a human made answer. God, I believe is rational, obviously human mind is not able to understand the complexity. So, if that is true, there is a reason, a buffalo is killed by a lion and our Neighbour succumb to death by crushed by his own lorry. ( dumb ways to die ) But what about the lion. He becomes a killer and is that a good enough reason to be born as a cow next life. A cruel cycle of killing, and pain. So, it seems that God, is either not all mighty to create a world without cruelty or, there is some evil in the creator himself. More likely story of the creator is a creation of some of our ancestors in the attic of a supermarket, Like in the Sausage party of life . What if not? Let's look at this another angle. Imagine you started to build a world. You have a choice, to do or not to do. And if you built this world, you are certain, that there will be a cruelty, and destruction, physical and mental suffering. And if you do not, nothing would happen. There is no Adam, or Eve to eat the apple, and apple will be there forever uneaten. No chaos, no need to track their action, no need to send anyone to the depths of the hell for any crime as there are no souls. Did not the creator need some leisure time for himself instead of tracking the actions of all the packages he sent to the world? If I was the creator, with this level of human intuition, I would not make Chaos . I would just say "Ah, fuck it. I would not make it." Or is it a mistake? Or God himself have no free wil l, that he did not have a choice. Honestly, it is more likely a spontaneous evolution of nature. I am not arguing, God does not exist . I believe God, exist as a memory, in everyone's consciousness , who believes, as a knowledge, as a fact, as a belief, so does a tree.

Game of chess. Game of chess is played by the elite intelligent, non-average human beings. I often associated a game of chess with intelligence even at an earlier stage in my life. As a confession, I never fascinated the game. Although once or twice I have played with someone or in computer until it ends. Often, I would think it is a waste of time, as possibilities are endless. What is the point, I did not want to involve my whole life in a game where, obviously no prize. Recently this idea which I had, proved to be somewhat correct when I saw that one of the greatest women players of four times women chess champion quit her game as it would not bring enough money for her to sustain a living. Hence apart from top few chess players of world ranking, others will do, a proper Job to keep food on their table. And even if I played, I would never rank top 20! what are the chances? But I might play one day, when I do have enough time to spare, to savor a game with a colleague. Obviously, that is in the future as my little daughter has started to play the game. She is still learning how each piece is moving, and soon, she might challenge me for a game. It seems inevitable I play the game of kings and queens after all, just like unavoidable Rubik's cube . Game of checkers. Obviously, I liked the checkers better. This I had played many more than chess. It would take much less time, simple rules, and end so soon. I would not strain my brain, bending with rules. Only few things to look ahead. Maybe I did not want to lose. If you would like to know how not to lose simple tactic is not to play the game. Just like I wrote a long time ago on rat races . But life seems to be a game. The game of life does not allow us to cheat by not playing. It is obviously in the rules that mandate we play. But do we know better? I can remember some time ago I wrote the following and it illustrates the fact that game of life is also, like a game of chess or game of checkers. You are allowed to choose which game you are playing. Do, you want to play with simple rules, Like a minimalist. Or you want to play and defeat a king, to conquer and emperor, like a game of chess. If you have read the previous article on what is a life well spent , I included a third option of becoming a seeker. Obviously if you choose to play either you will be a winner or more often looser. But how to be a seeker? Becoming a seeker -Chess or checkers game of life. I can give you an analogy to look beyond the game that we play. Imagine you play a game of chess. Imagine this is real life. Some play kings, some play queens, some play rooks and knights. And there are plenty of pawns, rarely promoted to knights and queens at the end of their game. Isn't it feeling like in real life. Now you can see the similarity. But what happens. What happens at the end game. Everyone goes into the same bag. After the end of every game, everyone goes to the same bag. Kings, queens' knights and pawns alike. Just like the game of life where everyone, hug the earth, and becoming elements. There is no difference. The seeker will see beyond the game of chess, and rather than losing him/herself in the game. He will try to understand the rules of the game. Seek the truth without doubt before touching any pieces. He will observe how others play the game of life, and learn by their mistakes, and know that destiny of every piece is in the bag. Hence, I would say he would try to find a path to defeat the death to be immortal by not playing the stupid game. If you would like to know the rules of the game of life, I suggest you practice mindfulness to grow your wisdom. Thank you for reading, Chess or checkers - game of life. Follow this to read about the great game of chess played by Sherlock Holems and Moriarty , just like a battle by Nakamura and Magnus Charleson.

Cancer in the body. You may know someone with a cancer. Already, cured or succumbed. Cancer has become such an epidemic in modern world. It seems when our life expectancy went up as a population, it may have unmasked, these with more diagnostic facilities. But it seems a daunting experience to have one. Personally, I do not have this experience however I have seen someone closer to me going through this. He was a cheerful relative of mine, in his fifties, had a cancer diagnosis. And he was cheerful throughout his treatment period, even when he knew, he has few days to live. He came into terms within himself and passed away peacefully. And I am sure, that is not the case for everyone. Cancer has brought us enough mental and physical suffering, that I could not ignore it in the space. How someone can overcome such emotional consequences of a situation like diagnosis of a cancer. Even in that case some debilitating illness. It seems we have no other option than look into the faith, religion and if we fail, psychiatrist, to keep ourselves going. Let's look at cancer to understand some facts about it. As Just as death, it creates opportunity for us to think about the meaning of life seriously before life is cancelled out. Cancer in the mind. I do not have a cancer. Am I sure? Yes, so far there are no symptoms. But as you can understand this is not an absolute truth. There are few ways I can explain the relative truth in this, macroscopically speaking, microscopically speaking and philosophically speaking. Macroscopically It is true I do not have symptoms from a cancer. But now when I think about it, I know I am not 100% sure. I have a little back pain going on for some time. How sure I am that this is not a cancer. I can only assume. If someone did a whole-body scan today, in me they might find out a focus of a cancer in this body. Fully grown, half grown, curable, incurable, at any stage. That is one way, they detect cancers, in routine checkups. Good if it is curable at that time of diagnosis. So, bottom line macroscopically, I am not sure I do not have one. Imagine someone screened you whole body and did all the tests in the book to identify cancer in your body and you came up negative. What does this mean? Microscopically What it really means, just like you do not have symptoms, you do not have any detectable cancer, and you can live happily. Does this mean you will never get a cancer? No, on one side you can still harbor a focus of cancer in your body. If you know anything about tumor biology, cancer starts as a single abnormal growing cell. And there are dozens of defense mechanisms in our body at a microscopic and molecular level to prevent such a cell developing into a cancer. And as cell replication happens so often in our body, several thousands of cancer cells are born each day. And there is a chance that one can escape and grow into a full-blown cancer at any moment. Hence you are never out of risk of a cancer as long as you possess your body. Should we get panic? That is danger there itself, life is a risk every minute. If you have read my previous article dumb ways to die, you would understand this fact, it is a miracle we are living each day. Philosophically. Now, we know how cancers develop in our body, and the fact that it is a persistent risk. Just like crossing the road. However, there is a caveat in this. If you have read the previous article about consciousness, there I have discussed about a person who had an autopsy after death and diagnosed to have a cancer postmortem. And we concluded that it did not matter to the man who was dead. And relative to his consciousness, the cancer never existed. Similarly, if you imagined a severe dementia person, who cannot even remember his name, he would not have the mental suffering of the cancer. So, the cancer does exist in two forms, in a physical form in our body and in a mental form in our mind. Like everything else, like a reflection in a mirror. And obviously we cannot, stop the suffering from the physical part of the cancer. But it is important to recognize the mental cancer, as it is our own reflection, we can really reduce the mental suffering. And if we expand any kind of suffering, I will say mental part is heavier, and more painful. Let them doctors tackle physical suffering, But I suggest we sharpen our mindfulness to tackle mental suffering when it arises. How do we do that? Curing cancer in mind Someone would suggest, let it go. Just like in article I previously wrote about in worse kind of mental pain. This is easier said than done. You can try all the advice given by psychotherapist to replace bad thoughts with happy ones. And I would say, it may or may not work. And there is another way which is to understand the true nature of our mind. To understand how we perceive the world and to understand relative nature of truths which helps us to survive in the world. It is by mindfulness and wisdom we can see, even the cancer in our minds is formed in the same process, just like other mental objects. And if cancer in mind, and the suffering in mind associated it is a mental object, the characteristics are the same. So, mindfulness is not just looking at the pain hoping it will go away, it is the correct way of letting it go by understanding it. But the problem is, we should start doing it long before, we get inevitable macroscopic cancer, so our mind is a hydrophobic leaf, when the storm arises. Mindfulness is the cure for the mental cancer, alike.

Solving 3n+1 - Collatz conjecture. If you are reading this I assume you have some experience in solving equations. How about a simple one. 3n+1. and the rules are as follows Here’s how it works: Start with any positive integer. If the number is even, divide it by 2. If the number is odd, triple it and add 1. Repeat these steps, creating a sequence of numbers. The conjecture states that no matter which positive integer you start with, this process will eventually reach the number 1. For example, if we start with 6: 6 → 3 → 10 → 5 → 16 → 8 → 4 → 2 → 1 Looks very simple right? Our mathematical geniuses of the century should be able to solve this right? However, despite its simplicity, proving this conjecture for all positive integers remains an open problem in mathematics. It has been verified for numbers up to 2.95 × 10^20, but a general proof eludes us. And in the mathematical world it considered as insane if someone openly agrees they work on proving the conjecture. And more often years of human life have been spent on the problem. So, why is it so hard to solve something looks so simply. And what does this have to do with philosophy? Approaches to the problem Let's look at the approaches to the problem by our mathematicians. One thing is clear. The conjecture is either true or false. And there is no middle ground in mathematical world. (Or is there a one?) Following are the ways used by mathematicians to approach the problem. They have input thousands and thousands of numbers, into a computer program, to see whether there is any number which doesn't come back to 1. If there is a single number, the conjecture is false. So far, they have checked massive number of numbers with massive number of digits. And computers are working on this problem day in and out. Second way is to come up with a proof that the conjecture is true, by using other true mathematical proofs. So far, both these methods have failed either prove or disprove. Greatest question to answer in philosophy, and in life Let's stop our math lesson there and turn back to philosophy of life. In a previous article I have discussed about the greatest question to ask, in life in general. And came up to conclusion, that it is asking who am I? Because that is the root cause for all our problems. Not only in mathematics, even in health, even in finance, even in philosophy. And Mindfulness is the tool of philosophy in solving equations of life, harder than 3n+1. Let's apply our new problem-solving skills in our mindfulness practice. Philosophy of solving equations of life, 3n+1 If you have practiced mindfulness long enough, Or short enough. You would understand that when we question the reality, we end up not finding anything to point as myself within the consciousness. This is what described in the blind persons world. However, this is only one approach to the problem. When we are looking at ourselves, what we are trying to do is either prove the theory of 'me' or disprove it. Just like the way a mathematician does it. However, doing both of these will create a 'me' first. But what if there is a third answer? Although the mathematicians do not have the freedom to go beyond true and false, we as everyday philosophers, of our own minds, can. What if there is just a scarecrow? And we cannot see beyond whatever the 'mind' chooses for us to, see? Is there a middle ground? Like one of my dearest friends once told me, it's an automatic living. Like a flag in the wind. A path to relative nothingness of everything. Let's be mindful today. Conclusion. Mathematics, search true or false, as answers. And ignoring the possibility of both be true at the same time, relatively, like in quantum physics. On the other hand, philosophers are liberal, instead of true or false as an absolute, we have the freedom of looking at life as a relative truth. And this is true even about a cancer.

Philosophy can be learnt Even inside the bus. Imagine a philosopher and a psychologist are travelling together inside a bus. And the bus stops in a halt and among many getting on the bus there is a beautiful girl. And this girl is stunning that she shouldn't be in a bus. But now there she is. And see what happens. Everyone else in the bus. Everyone else in the bus will turn around. Girls will be jealous looking at her beauty and wished they were like that. Boys will want her number, and from time to time they will check on her. Even the bus driver will feel special to start the day and will feel good about the crowd he is carrying and looks like he is doing service to the society more than the other days. He would stop just in front of the special girl and I'm sure he will look for her even next morning. He would feel he is the nicest bus driver ever. What about the elderly? Women would remember their young age and sigh and think about the lost beauty. Men would sigh remembering their youth and think what they would do if they were young. And the atmosphere inside the bus will automatically change, and while everything else become insignificant, the corner where our imaginary girl standing would be most sought-after corner of all the eyes and minds in the bus. The psychologist. The psychologist being human will have all those feelings according to his or her gender. And then as he is trained, he will see beyond himself. He will look at the other men and women more than before and notice their reactions. He will wonder what they think just like I did above and make a mental note on this. He will understand the situation in a social context and as individual reactions. Everyday Philosophy in the bus- Philosopher's view. A philosopher would see the girl too. He will notice the girl and her image. And he will notice Suttle change in atmosphere. More importantly he will look inside himself. And try to understand why. He would see the eye which seeks the corner the girl is standing. He will deliberately look at the other corner and see within himself whether his will disappears (free will). He will notice the disturbances it had made on the surface of his mind. Like a ripple effect. He will observe he do not get a craving to see or touch the elderly women standing next to our pretty girl. And he will laugh at himself in mind to be lived so much time on earth but still mind behaves like a child who sees an ice-cream. And he will try to understand the answers to the greatest question ever to answer, who am I? In the context of inside the bus. And he would notice the reflections just like he sees himself in front of the mirror and take a moment to understand the part which belongs to him in the whole situation. Close his eyes just for a minute to savor the intuitions brought by mindfulness. Would you agree the philosophers view about everyday event in the bus is something we should all be doing? What would You do in a such a situation? I am sure you will have different memories and feelings. However, I suggest you look inside, and this article is just a reminder to be mindful every day. And following are helpful articles for you to just do it. Conciousness Values Information sphere Goal of mindfulness Thank you for reading everyday philosophy in the bus.

I am a fan of standup-comedy. Often it feels superficial, good for a laugh and to forget, Some of these jokes, really tap into the deep parts of the philosophy. If you would not agree with me, I suggest you to read the book, "The plato and platypus walk into a bar" which is written to understand philosophy through comedy. But the cornerstone for this article is a saying of a famous comedian in one of his interviews, targetted at wokes culture. It is suttle as he did not mention the name 'wokes' directly. And he said something like following "I do not agree with anyone saying my jokes are offensive. Jokes are not offensive. I agree that is someone's openion. You can have an openion the joke is offensive, and that is agreeble. How sad to live a life that you are offended each and every time your personal openions are ignored?" Philosophy of comedy So you may ask, what does this has to do with mindfulness? Anyone with a rational mind would agree what Comedian says is true. It is obvious a joke can be both, hilarious to someone and not so to the other. Someone can get angry while others laugh. Often it happens most of the jokes are like that. And we can go deeper than this to understand fundamental nature of a value of anything through a joke. Like comedian says, joke is just a bunch of words. And the value of the joke is given by the one who hears it. In our own mind we give a value to it, after we hear it, either laughing about it, or being offended. And fundamentally it is our openion. The question is, whether this is true for everything? Wokes culture and climate change. Now we have seen that a joke is just words without inherant value. We can look at the climate change. You are worried about climate change right? When people protest against fossil fuel burn, and global warming, there is tendancy to support. Even if we cannot do anything we would support their openion. Have you ever asked the question why? Why are we bother about the global warming? If we look the earth in a geological timescale, there have been times, the earth has been warm, a hot malten rock. And there has been times, the earth has been frozen for thousands of years in an ice age. And this pattern has been alternating. There had been times the sun is blocked years and years straight, because of the dusky clouds from the volcanic eruptions. These are still climate changes. Obviously nobody cared, right? Animals surely died. Nobody cried when dinosours were wiped out of the earth surface. If we look at this great extinction, I would say even climate activists would be happpy that they are wiped out from earth. Otherwise humans would never come to be. So, I can see the our protests on climate change is little clouded by our greed to stay existing. Its not only climate change, everything seems to have a value or no value depending on someone's openion. And the when the group get's bigger we cannot simply disagree and move on. Hence, there are cultural differences, regional differences to our values. However, nature seems to be valueless anyway. This is the fact which was discussed in the most valueble thing in the world. You may see, the fact is true for Jokes It is true for beauty, value of a pot and plastic. It's our mindfulness to see it, whether applies to other parts of life.

Sweet dreams Sweet dreams are made of this Who am I to disagree? I travel the world and the seven seas Everybody's looking for something I can remember the time when I saw the Quicksilver, saving the men, women and children, and even a dog, with its pizza. Have you seen the movie scene, with the above background music. If you haven't, I suggest you watch it. A quick search in YouTube with Quicksilver sweet dreams would bring it up. As it is the second most popular video after the sweet dream's original song. Ah, I just watched it now. Such a beautiful part of the movie. As you already know, a lot of mindfulness stories I have written comes from the movies. As the movies have the ability to capture some of the concepts we often do not encounter in our normal routine life. As our cameras and microphones are more advanced than our eyes and ears nowadays this is very much expected. So, what can we learn about mindfulness from Quicksilver? Following is a paragraph from the book, what is time. Check whether it makes sense. I suggest you watch the above video first to understand this. What is an event? Becoming Quicksilver. What is an event? someone might ask. It's time to find out mysteries in our events. Let's imagine you went to visit a football match between England and France, the last world cup. And when you had been there from the beginning of the match till the end. After that you would tell the story to your friend who unfortunately could not attend with you the events of the day. You would start by saying “I was there at the beginning of the match until the end of it. I saw the great free kick landing on the net. Beckhem was in his spirits today”. And your friend would agree and nod, he will share your story and make a version of it for himself. He will watch the match and get excited. But what is exactly meant by the beginning of the match. Is it when the players enter the field? Is it the national anthem? Is it the whistle of the referee? If it is the whistle, then is it the start of the whistle or end of the whistle. Imagine you have become the Quicksilver (Marvel comics ) to slow down the time or be fast enough and see what is going on at the “beginning”, you will see there are several things start to happen, the referee takes his whistle into his mouth and he takes a deep breath and blows, the first wave of air hits the whistle flaps and they start vibrating and produce a sound wave, which start to travel in wave motion through the air and hits on ears of two players of the team at the middle, each one at slightly different time. They are processing information at their own speed and start kicking the ball. And the light of this happening reaches back of your eyes, and you start processing it. Now, back to our own time and speed, what really is the beginning of the game? Is it the start of the blowing of the whistle or the end, or when it hits the ears of the players, or when they understand the whistle is blown? Is it the first kick of the ball? Is it the foot raised from the ground or point of impact of the ball, or is it the processing of all this in your mind? So, you will now have so many beginnings to the football match. And whatever you have told your friend has no meaning, or validity as an absolute, but still conveys ideas and stories. If you look at every event that is happening all around you, we will notice it is true for everything. There is a lot more going on than what we really process. We still have old windows 96 in our system, even our cameras have faster shutter speeds than our eyes. Next time when you start your story telling chit chat with your best friend notice how you are lying from the beginning of the story! You would say ‘I started walking out of the hotel room into the beach’ and notice there is no exact starting point to point out. Still, you would make a successful communication, but this time with some better wisdom. And there is nothing called a true story. As we discussed earlier, we are limited by our language and the processing speed of our machine. I have given a similar example in the story 'The cloud would save the day' about the atomic bombing. So, what are the intuitions we get from the Quicksilver for our mindful practice? Becoming Quicksilver of Quicksilver. Imagine Mr. Quicksilver married Similar Miss Quicksilver, and they brought up a child. Quicksilver Jr. Imagine what would Quicksilver Jr has to say about the world. While Mr. Quicksilver laugh at us about being fooled by events happening around us. As he could see lots of stupid things we talk about like in the above example about the football match. However Quicksilver Jr can see even his father is lying. That is not what exactly happening. And there is no depth to the level of abstraction we can go, when we slow down our time and go deeper. And ultimately, it would make no sense. If we slow down enough, we will see a still image. Would we find a still image? or nothing? I bet, there would be nothing meaningful can be found if we slow down so much. Now the question is, if that is the reality of everything, how come we are making meaningful inferences in our speed. There cannot be two truths as Mr. Quicksilver Jr, is living in the same world and same physics same laws as us. (Does this suggest our Physics and laws are wrong?) Hence, we have to agree Mr. Quicksilver Jr is closer to the truth than his father or us. I would end the article here. Leaving you to imagine what will happen if generations of Quicksilver evolved. Would they ever come to the truth or just realize stupidity of everything. And I invite you to look at everyday 'events' with this vision, so you can come closer to the truth by becoming Quicksilver

Where is my right? I took a walk with my daughters the other day. Just to get our legs, straightened. They were running all over the road. And although there was no traffic, possibility of a vehicle, was there, hence I had to teach them. Walk, on the pedestrian's side of the road. I asked them to walk on the right side of the road. Easy, and we climbed the hill. And on our way back, they were walking on the left side of the road. And when I told them the right side of the road is on the other side now, they questioned. "Why father, just before you told us the right side is this side, now you are telling otherwise?" Of course, I had to explain them the right side is 'relative' to our body. So, the road, does not have a right side, it is just a convention made by humans. Nope, I did not discuss the deep philosophy laid behind this with them. But surely, I wrote it down here. So, one day they could read and understand, if they are curious. Not only the right side of the 'road' is a convention, but right side of anything is also just a convention. Imagine a car, where is the right side of it? It depends, right? It depends on which side you are directed. Now answer this question. What is the time in your part of the world right now? So, everyone will say a different time depending on where the 'time zone' is. And we have made up these timelines so we can function, in a universal scale. But it is arbitrary, really speaking there is no time. Oh, I know you have a question. I am not lying here. I can make your time disappear without changing your time zone. Imagine you take a walk, towards north pole, staying in the same time zone, and obviously at the north pole, at the exact point, all the time zones converge into a single point. And at this point, there is not time. And this is called not time zone, as it makes no sense. Time at north Pole We can expand on this observation a little more to understand the relative nature of 'time zones'. What is the difference between north pole and the place where are you now? Imagine the earth is a giant ball. And if there are not any landmarks, there are no difference between two points on the surface, except where they are relative to each other on the surface. But in your mind, add a light source from a distance, and rotate the ball. Just like the earth moving around the sun. Now, there is a difference. There appears, day and night and time zones. Hence, time on our earth is relative thing, related to the movement of the earth around the sun and on itself. Agreed? Previously I wrote an article to illustrate the relative nature of numbers. Can you see a pattern here? A pattern that is hidden behind layer of our imagination? Right side of a car is a relative truth Time zones are a relative truth Numbers are a relative truth A watch is a relative truth Is this true for everything? Is everything a man-made relative truth? If you want to know more about these simple relative truths about life. I suggest you read the Great experiment. Thank you for taking a tour to the north pole. Summary The North Pole doesn’t have a specific time zone because all lines of longitude converge there. This means it technically exists in all time zones simultaneously. Since there are no permanent human settlements, explorers and researchers at the North Pole often choose a time zone that is convenient for their operations, such as the time zone of their home country or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) There seems, many things we observe in life, are man-made conventions. Are all of them relative? is a good philosophical question.

Have you ever spent a day without talking? Maybe you have, without knowingly. But my question is having you spent a day without talking, voluntarily? I am sure most of you have not. Not voluntarily, not with full awareness what is happening. If not, I would suggest you try and following are my observations. I have to warn you that I am a big fat introvert, one of a kind on the extreme edge of the Spectrum, but for someone far from extroverted side would not be able to attempt it. And it doesn't matter, as I have done the experiment, the conclusions still apply for you. Why have I decided to spend a day in silence? It was time of stress; I was trying to tackle a tough exam. And I could not waste time, needed some self-discipline. I noticed some of the distractions come and go and I am not even aware of its happening. Hence, I decided, maybe, if I become a silent observer, I can conserve some of my energy for demanding tasks, like doing some studying. Being an introvert, you would understand this is one of our problems. We drain energy talking to others, and my battery needed constant charging, to engage higher order activities. To climb the blooms taxonomy. It was obvious not talking would help. Rules of self-discipline- art of disappearing in broad daylight Rules of the game were simple, there were two. I knew I am not going to survive if I stayed silent completely. Obviously If I go completely mute, everyone else would notice. My teachers, my friends, and all my family members would notice. And these caring people will ask and would not stop until I unmute myself. So, I did not want that trouble. I wanted my awareness to sustain itself, like a smooth ride on a roller costar, but without shouting. Hence, I put some rules. rule 1. I would speak if someone asked me a question but will use minimal essential words. As you can understand, trying to avoid a question is difficult. I had to answer. But, as per rules I would do it with minimal words. Only the essential ones. But I would try and avoid questioning them back. rule 2. I would speak only handful of words on the day on my side. (Strictly speaking I decided I would speak only five words.) Did I survive a day without words? As you can see, I did survive a day with without words and in silence. Of course, I wouldn't function without any words. And that will not be sustainable. And I can remember, not only I did survive, but my awareness also improved, and I carried on for few months. Although not exactly at times, it helped. I would show you some scenarios to show you how it happened. If I was hungry, on a normal day, I would ask my mom, 'mom, what is there for eating? I am hungry.' But on this day, I would simply avoid any words. I would go to the kitchen and open the fridge and find something to eat. Just smile at mom and enjoy my meal. Imagine my mom notices me and asked, 'Are you hungry?' I would simply say 'yes'. And she would say, 'hmm, that plants seem to need some watering'. In my mind I would notice this is not a question directed at me, just a statement. And I would not give an opinion. I would simply observe and look at thoughts which arise. I would see myself agreeing or disagreeing to her statement in my mind. And that's it. It doesn't go beyond that. I would continue eating. And she may then go on asking 'Shall I make you a cup of tea?' I would think about the question, and If I wanted a cup of tea, I would say yes, with a smile. And if I needed it later, I would say ' Please mom, give me one at 10'. I wouldn't say 'Can you give me one at 10 moms?' Because that is a question. Former is just a request. The question would trigger her to talk more, like 'why do you want a tea at 10?' But for the previous request she has less chance of replying something other than 'yes, I will'. As you can see, by this way, I was not using my spared five words for the day. I would save them when something essential comes up. That I had to talk first. Like someone seems to die, If I did not speak like situation. Lol. And I survived the day! with loads and loads of energy and happiness. A day without words. How to stay silent - intuitions. Following are the observations of everyday philosophy I gathered from my days in silence. I would like you to try it on your own when opportunity arises, and life is too boring, it might spice up things inside. I noticed, when I do not question back, conversations die away. Soon enough and often without other one noticing that it did. Even if it didn't die away, I could go on answering questions with minimal words, but would be fully aware, on what comes out of my mouth, and I would have less regret as these were, essential words, and I am helping someone answering their questions. I noticed, compared to this, I have wasted my words all other times. I would see, things as they are as mind is not involved in speaking, I would see the thoughts but would not word them out. No opinions, no judgements, but I would be like the water that flows in a river, with all its bends ups and downs. I noticed, people are happy as long as their questions are answered, and you are smiling. World really do function well even if you speak or not. Just like you have disappeared. And silence will be lingering with you most of the time. And it will benefit the mindfulness as well. Of course, there would be disadvantages. There will be lot of things that you would need to do yourself, because you cannot ask other people to do the work for you. And there is less chance for a curious mind to ask questions. And sometimes I felt unfair by the people who surrounds me, who are caring. Yet, it is worth the experience. Maybe I should do it again.

What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is observing the observer. You are the witness to everything happening in your life. In your world. You are the judge of everything happening around you. You are the creator of all your problems and solutions. Mindfulness is looking back at yourself to understand what is happeining. If you would like to know more about mindfulness following articles would help. Mindfulness definition, goals, usefulness and mental objects. However it is time to put our wisdom into practise, and here I would detail about mindful walking. Mindful walking. We have done mindful walking, naturally. I have walked on the beach, walked in the park, walked in forest and even on mountain tops. But have I been mindful? Of course I have been aware of the walking, otherwise I couldn't have remember what happened. But when we learn about mindfulness, we learn that the true goal of mindfulness is to observe what happens in the mind, not in the enviornment. So, basically I have done was just watching a film. I have forgotton the observer, I cannot remember what was there inside the mind when I took such a walk, did I learn anything about my mind during such walks. No, I didn't because I did not know how to walk mindfully. But now I have a better understanding, hence here is how to do it properly. What is not mindful walking? It is important to understand what is not mindful walking. Mindful walking is not walking, to appriciate the nature. Mindful walking is not walking, to relieve your stress. Mindful walking is not walking, to get away from your problems. Mindful walking is not walking, just doing nothinng. As you would understand doing, nothing is also doing. (doer and non doer) What is mindful walking then? All of the above you would understand, is trying to do something, hence, there is craving or greed to, appriciate the nature, to relieve the stress, to get away from your problems, and to do nothing. However, mindfulness in walking is just to observe the observer. Idea of mindful walking is to be aware of what happens in mind while walking. Look for yourself, look for your thoughts. Look at images formed in your mind mirror and just observe. Until the mind understand what is happening. In mindful walking, you would appriciate the nature, and you would notice that you are appriciating. In mindful walking, you would relieve your stress, and you would notice that stress is going away. In mindful walking, you will forget your problems, and you would notice your problems are distancing. In mindful walking, you would notice sometimes you think, sometimes you feel, sometimes you hear, and you would notice when thoughts arise, and thoughts leave. More importantly, at the end of the walk you would notice, you gained nothing, and you lost nothing. It is just a walk. You would have memories of sunsets, and you would notice, that they are no longer there. And mindfulness will carry on to whatever you plan to do next. And it would not matter. So, In mindfulness walking, principle is the same as any mindfulness. Like mindful eating. Mindful listening. Let, it be. Whatever mental object comes to your mind is ok, as long as you are aware of it. It may be a sensation on your feet. It may be breath. It may be a point of focus at the end of your path. It may be a sound. And most likely it maybe a combination of all of these. The wholesomeness and momentum and wisdom will do the rest, as long as you are aware. I am newbie to mindfulness. Just like a small plant. And I see it has a natural tendency to grow. Ever since I started the blog I do my own mindfulness meditation. Obviously I have other resources to look at when I do it. And whatever which seems valuable would be written down here. Even myself can go through in a future time. How is your mindfulness walking today?