I read a zen story which was a nice little wisdom story. Yet, the message was wrong. So, I had to rewrite it. Let's go through that and find out the meaning. Drawing a perfect Circle - Zen story. Drawing a perfect circles On sand Once upon a time there was an old man. And he was on a beach drawing a circle. With a stick he managed to draw a perfect circle. A little boy who lived by the beach saw the man. And he was amazed looking at how perfect the circle was. And he spoke. "Dear old man, How are you doing it? How are you drawing perfect circles? Can you teach me?" And the old man replied, "Well, It's just practice, I was no better than you. And I practiced and practiced and without even knowing I perfected the art of drawing a circle. You can do the same" Little boy had no reason not to believe him. And he said " Thank you, will do the same" And he started drawing with a stick. Initially it was a ragged circle, and as he practiced more it became near perfect. And one day he drew a perfect circle. And he heard, "Dear old man, how did you draw a perfect circle?" When he looked up, he saw a little boy with eger little eyes. --End of story-- Meaning 1 - Practice makes you perfect. There are a couple of meanings to the story. We can go through each to find meaning. The article I read looked at the story in a positive attitude. And said the meaning was "Practice makes you perfect". And It really made me laugh. How shallow the meaning of a zen story can be? Nah.. it is not about practice makes you perfect although this is true. It is due to the practice that the boy learned how to draw a perfect circle. Yet he got old just doing this. Which leaves the second and more deeper meaning. And I am sure you also thought about this. Meaning 2 - Getting old Drawing circles. The man got old just learning drawing circles. I am sure he did a job as well. And he mastered his occupation. If we compare the doing an occupation to the drawing circles, we can laugh at ourselves. All we do by living a life is learning to draw circles. More perfect our circle is more successful we are to the society we live in. In fact we spend 10000 hours mastering our skills of drawing circles to the perfection, and we write books about how just to learn to draw cirlces. Yet, we do not understand it is just a circle at the end of the day! A statue is a circle for a Sculpture artist A circle may be, A million hit song for a singer. (well you should hear Mike Posner singing about it) A perfect statue of David for a sculpture artist A unsolveable 3n+1 equation for a mathematician We do not realise that we give artificial values to drawing circles, in fact we knew, yet we forgot on the way. And that I think is the true meaning of the zen story. Infact, even in mindfulness practice, someone can get into the same rabbit hole of drawing circles. Which was illustrated in the previous story of the monk who did not learn to prioritise . I invite you to read, unexamined life is not worth living , as this is the more direct way of passing the same massage as above, and this time by Socrates.

What is the worth of a pound of flesh? Well, if you have done a google search today, what is the most valuable thing you can possess, and it will come as The History Supreme Yacht 4.6 billion dollars. And this is the most likely answer when we consider dollars. Or it could be a B2 bomber aircraft which could carry nuclear weapons. However, as value is subjective if we consider individual consciousness, we can say the most valuable thing differs. And I can give you examples. And for that matter I have to remind you the play by Shakespeare in the name of the merchant of the Vanice. A pound of Flesh Plot "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare is a play set in Venice and Belmont. It revolves around Antonio, a merchant, who secures a loan from the Jewish moneylender Shylock to help his friend Bassanio court Portia, a rich heiress. The loan terms are harsh: if Antonio cannot repay, Shylock may take a pound of Antonio's flesh. Bassanio wins Portia's hand by correctly choosing among three caskets, a test set by her late father. Meanwhile, Antonio's ships, which are his wealth, are reported lost at sea, making him unable to repay Shylock. The trial scene sees Shylock demanding his bond, but Portia, disguised as a lawyer, saves Antonio by arguing that Shylock can take his flesh but not spill any blood, making the bond void. Shylock is punished, though some of his wealth is redistributed. The play ends with the couples reunited, but it leaves questions about justice, mercy, and prejudice, particularly through the treatment of Shylock, whose character has been interpreted in various ways regarding anti-Semitism. Philosophy of values We can leave aside the questions about justice and mercy as it is not relevant for our discussion of value . The fact I wanted to point out is a hypothetical scenario of a worth of a pound of flesh could actually exceed more than all the wealth on earth. It doesn't appear so to us as long as it is someone else's flesh. A cow, a chicken or a dog. An African, American or a Chinees. But if it is your pound of flesh we are talking about, I am sure you can say it is priceless. Modern version of the same question was asked from Mathew Breger, by Mickey Pearson (Drug lord) in the film The Gentlemen (2019) just before he was locked in a freezer. What is the worth of his pound of flesh? If you haven't watched the movie, it is one of a kind with action packed drama crime - Like all Matthew McConaughey films! If a pound of flesh worth millions or billions to the person who poses it, undoubtedly, we are the richest people on the planet earth. Wherever you are your flesh would worth than anything else in the world. How about your life? Timing of this article could be no better as just the other day I argued money has no inherent value as it is just a social convention. And here we are arguing limitless value of human flesh. Philosophy of values really seems deep! Yacht Dreams Shattered Once I have seen a girl who came with a crushed arm from an occupational injury to the ED. A really mangled limb. In her twenties, with all life ahead of her, and I saw her dreams when shattered as the Surgeon told her that he cannot fix the arm, which should be amputated immediately to save her life from sepsis. I am sure she would have given all her wealth if anyone could save her pound of flesh. Sometimes money and wealth cannot really solve human problems. Specially disease and death, and tragedy which are not foreseen. Like a mass murder on a new year day ! With all your limbs, and good vision and smell, what can you do today to overcome such tragic happening? One way is to become anxious and panic about all the unforeseen dooms which can happen. Other way is to improve mindfulness of this moment to understand there is no such problem now! And appreciate the pound of flesh we possess and its true value, noting the question is unnecessary and excessive to your near perfect life.

I can remember the first time when I had my hands on a book written by Albert Camus 'The stranger' It was a translated copy of his original work. I can still feel like what it feels like to be in the mind of the Stranger, who lost his mother. It was exactly what Albert Camus wanted us to feel. Dull Nill feeling of the absurdity of the life. After reading the book I can exactly remember I left with nothing, there was no message. Unlike happiness or sadness curiosity which are the outcomes of the other novels. However, there was nothing gained, nothing lost, by reading the novel. If it is like what you feel like about your life, I would invite you to read the rest of the article. https://unsplash.com/@joshwithers What Is absurdism? Recently I learnt the term absurdism. You know what is absurd, wildly unreasonable, illogical or inappropriate. Absurdism is slightly different because it is the term used in philosophy to describe the belief that universe is irrational and meaningless. Imagine this is true, there is no meaning to the happenings in the universe. Then when a rational man tries to find the meaning of an irrational world there will be a clash. Which gives rise to problems. Can this be the root cause of all our problems? It is a good candidate. We will look at this idea further to better understand the world. Now imagine according to the theory everything happening around you is irrational and meaningless. So, except for the process, which is happening in your mind now, everything else is irrational, this meaning, things including other living beings. This includes everyone else around you are irrational and there is no meaning to what they do. But if you look at yourself from their point of view whatever you are thinking rational and meaningful should be irrational and meaningless too. Is it true? Can we believe what you are thinking now is not logical conclusions about the universe that you made but only a fluctuation of energy in the chaotic universe? https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske Death and absurdism In his book, 'The Stranger' Camus talk about death of the Stranger's mother. Where the Stranger did not feel anything, any remorse about mother's death. And during the course of the book, he killed a man. And he was imprisoned for this reason. Did he have any guilt on this crime? I was not sure he did. Death makes our lives absurd as there is no way we could know what is there, afterlife . Life seems to be a fluctuating buoy or a wave of the sea or a random walk , in between the birth and death. How are we going to find a meaning in between when the outcome is not so sure? Albert Camus -Why absurdism feels so real? We will do some case studies to find out why Absurdism, put forward by Albert Camus feels so real. Case of Happiness. Happiness is good when it lasts, but it often disappears so soon into a memory. So, the chase for happiness is always present. Even when happiness is there I can 100% be sure that it is going to change over time. Over time it will become euthymic and then at some point even turn into sadness. So, 'Pursuit of happiness' is there but not happiness. Case of Sadness Like happiness sadness is not going to last. I just compare the sadness, and what we can see is it is also going to change and become happiness. Even if you suffer till your death, death will create happiness then. (or the thought of death) Can you see, it's just the other side of the coin happiness. It just flips around seemly in a random pattern. So, the 'Persuit of the avoiding Sadness' is there but not Sadness, not always. Similarly, if you look at the world carefully you will see there are lot of similarity. War and peace. Justice and Injustice, Faith and nihilism. We tend to argue about these choosing one over the other. Yet, it seems these are just two sides of the same coin. What it seems to be true is the coin will be flipped in an eternal timescale whether we like it or not. Whether we prefer it or not. If it is not absurd what? https://unsplash.com/@heycrisso What if understanding absurdism is the meaning of life? If this is true, there would be one thing at least which is not absurd. That is 'Understanding everything is absurd'. Ok, maybe I have confused you enough for a day. If you did not grasp the core messages now is time to re-read. And if you ask me personally whether, I believe absurdism, I say no I do not. What each and every one believe is unique, but there can be only one truth in the world. It's our responsibility, to find this out in a lifetime. That what I believe is the true meaning of life, instead of racing for the moon. Conclusion. In conclusion, Absurdism according to some philosophers is the idea that there is no meaning to anything happening around us. There are solid real-world examples to absurdism like, interchange of happiness and sadness in our lives, haphazardly. Understanding true nature of ourselves is the meaning of life.

Happiness. Imagine a happy place you have been. Maybe it is the last vacation you went. With an empty mind, you are at this marvelous tropical mountain resort with an infinite pool over the jungle edge. Overlooking beautiful valley with misty waterfalls. You are just there, woke up early morning to the sounds of birds, and ordered your breakfast. And you forgot, all the stress and pressure of being at work, and sighed knowing this is just a beginning of such two weeks. Plenty of places to see, plenty of tastes to flavor, and plenty of space and time. You do really feel the freedom, for the first time in a Year! since your last vacation. And you ask, is this happiness or what? https://unsplash.com/@adrienolichon And I totally agree, that is happiness at its best. But there is a catch. If we both agree that is happiness, relative to that, all other 50 weeks that you spent at work, should be sadness, right? Maybe not sadness, but less happiness. So, what is the alternative? Life is a journey not a destination This summarizes one such attempt at resolving problem. I have seen different versions of the same solution over the years. Some say it is getting to the 'Flow' state of mind. The fine balance between your ability and the difficulty of the task, which can make a feeling of progressive improvement. As suggested by the popular book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Often it is hard to find such flow states. And life seems to be inevitable with ups and downs. Compare this to the Journey of a boat. Imagine a range of boats. From a simple canoe to, a fishing boat, a troller boat, a luxury boat and a big, cruise ship. Imagine they all travel from Port A to port B some X miles apart. Living in a flow state is like taking the journey in a cruise ship. It is easy, not much turbulence and, there is balance in everything. However, when we consider the population, the momentum in our minds is different. None of two people are having same states of mind. Hence, just like the same wave hit differently to each boat, waves of life will hit with different forces on us. For some, whose minds are unstable like a canoe, even small waves seem to bring and exhaust them. So, achieving a flow state is difficult for some, then others, for whom it is naturally present. I consider myself, a canoe rider. Ups and downs I feel daily are marked. Often out of proportion to the experience itself. I was jealous of those who travel in cruises. Who seems to be happy with everything that they do. How can I be happy when daily troubles exhaust me? How can I enjoy a sunset, drinking a cup of coffee on the deck when I struggle to keep my canoe from falling over with each wave? Peace as a solution? Peace seems to be a promising solution. That is a stoic way of thinking. If you target peace instead of happiness, you will come across happiness ultimately. This I have explained in detail as a solution to the happiness paradox as well. As the struggle to happiness is not always giving us a pleasant experience, maybe we should not seek this. Someone can argue just like the opposite of happiness is sadness, opposite of peace is chaos. So, if you are not at peace, there must be chaos. If peace is such a state of mind where there is calm and clarity, of course, a canoe ride would be the last place on earth where you can achieve some peace. https://unsplash.com/@mroz Why peace is ultimate happiness? This is where mindfulness and wisdom come into play. When you observe your life in mindfulness, you would understand the waves are inevitable, and you would observe your journey. You will observe the violence of the sea, and the reactions of your boat. And ultimately will come to peace with life. I think this happens with a lot of men and women, when they get older. When they become wiser, they calm down, the violence of youth, calms down, and they learn to respect the nature, the sea. But the mindfulness is the faster way to achieve such peace. This peace is standalone. Because even when the sea, is calm and quiet, or violent with storms, the peace is a pact with yourself and the environment. Hence, the mind will remain peaceful even in chaos. If you would like to achieve some of this peace, I suggest you start with mindfulness today.

Train of thoughts.. Thoughts have layers. You do not believe me? They do. At least from now on they will have. Because once you learn something you cannot unlearn it until it happens naturally. Just like layers of a drawing program we can use the analogy to understand thoughts. Train of thoughts - Trans American Type Where do you think the phrase "Train of thoughts" come from? We kind of knew it from early days. Imagine the engine of a long, long trans American cargo train, is like the initial thought. And followed by this there will be a lot of follow up thoughts. And just like a train, once started to move thoughts will carry on like a train without brakes! Exactly like in the film Unstoppable! It might crash on the platform either killing half a dozen people or breaking into tears. But now we have established thoughts have layers, we can see this phenomenon carefully to improve our understanding of them. Why? Because we are naturally inclined for truth. Most of our minds are just work like that. They are in search of some truth, in a sea of lies. Summary so far. Thoughts are like a train. First thought is like an engine. Next thoughts are like carts And more the momentum engine gives longer the train of thoughts would stretch It's difficult to stop once they start to get going Deeper understandings on train of thoughts. Imagine you took a walk in the park. There is a little pond in the middle of it surrounded by green bushes. In the pond you saw some ducks. Some were black. Some were white some were small. Some were big. It was a sanctuary for the ducks. Unlike the last summer where you went with your office colleagues for duck hunting with a group of hunting dogs in high mountains. These were not afraid of humans. Yesterday you were singing the duck song with kids in the back of your car driving from the school. How does that stupid little cartoon get a million views? And you notice the bush where two ducks just went in and maybe they are mating. Is it the mating season? Now lets analyze.. the Train of thoughts Duck in the pond -real or Imaginary? Seeing some ducks in the lake was the engine. Thinking about duck hunting, duck songs and duck mating were the carts. And if you look carefully, you would appreciate the experience only belong to the so called "Now" moment in mindfulness. Rest of the things we imagine is either past or the future. More importantly our values are associated with these follow up thoughts. Just like valuable cargo is carried in carts of a train. Values can be either positive or negative even neutral. If you do not have these follow up thoughts, you would not be able to enjoy ducks. Or be sad about them even. But the engine of the train, or our observation is inherently valueless. It is the past or the future, which is not there, creates a value for the present experience. That is simple and easy to understand 😌 explanation of train of thoughts. Sea of lies. Watching over the Mountains in Mindfulness But there is more depth to this. Some do tend to understand this truth and lose all values and try to live with the experience. As they find peace there, in the present moment. Without judgement. Yet the truth is even the duck that we first saw is there due to the previous ducks that we have seen in life. If we have never seen a duck before, and came from a different planet we would not see a duck. Just something which moves and quacks. If we forget all our past, we would not even be able to walk, in the park, just waddle like a newborn duck. So, living in mindfulness in the present moment isn't possible technically as we need past to interpret the present moment. It's just logic, but still we do live in a relative true reality made by our own minds.

Humble beginings of Money I am going to write a little story about money. As I have mentioned earlier, finance is the main driving force of modern world, for anything massive. Maybe it is the war, maybe it is the religion, maybe it is skyscrapers or environmental protection mega projects, even the trajectory of our space race is even determined by the modern finance. And fundamental to the process is money? I know you are interested in Crypto, yet we can assume this also has the properties of a printed, traditional bank note. Let's go back to the humble beginnings of money. Fish Market. A bucket for a fish - exchange of goods Well, we do not have to time travel. You just have to watch a film on Netflix, on medieval times. Maybe one episode of Robbin Hood series, where there is a market. And in these markets, the exchange of goods was the norm. You exchange whatever your excess production, with someone else. You give your fish in exchange for a bucket. And fish and bucket, both served the purpose of money. As you can understand there were no, rules. So people needed standardization. It makes no sense, when you can exchange fish with a bucket and you can exchange same bucket with two fish with the next vendor. There is no specific "Value" for a fish. Which is the fundamental problem solved by "money". Story of Tobacco and inflation In some colonies of ancient USA, people solved the problem, by using Tobacco leaves as money. So instead exchanging your fish for a bucket. You can standardize your price of a fish with two tobacco leaves, and price of a bucket as three tobacco leaves. Then from any vendor, will have the same price, and you are guaranteed not to be scammed. However, there were more problems to come. As some landowners, started to grow some Poor-quality tobacco in large quantities, and this leads to the "Inflation". As you would need ten tobacco leaves to buy a fish now. The problem was sloved by authorities. They banned growing large quantities of tobacco. And gave license. Inflation Gecko What is money? Storekeepers would store your pile of tobacco and give you a note. Where the amount of your tobacco and the quality is printed. You can now walk to the market and buy some fish in exchange for this note. And these became form of "Bank notes" or money. Later tobacco was replaced by gold, and the security notes, became printed money. I am sure, there is more to the story. By the way I am not a historian. I just wanted to understand money, just for philosophical reasons. Let's look at the money to understand its value. As an introduction we can assume, money has value as long as it has the ability to buy something. Let's take a different angle to understand money. What is worth? Apples or dollars? If you give a 100 dollar note to a toddler and an apple. What would he choose? Let's assume you present this to a freshly captured tribal man from the heart of Amazon jungle. I am sure this hungry toddler, or the tribal man would choose the apple. Not the dollar bill. As he doesn't know that the dollar bill, can be used to buy dozens of apples. For someone who doesn't have some knowledge, and social agreement that we have on money, or the trust, money has no value. Infact, even you would choose an apple over a dollar bill if you were stranded in a middle of a desert for days in thirst and hunger. Money has no inherent value. You simply cannot eat a dollar bill. Inflation in modern world. The natural way of this happening is the inflation. If there is less production of items, and abundance of money, either way this artificial value of money will start to decrease, and we would need a half a barrel of notes to buy a half a loaf of bread. This almost happened to us in massive scale when there was covid, as all the production lines were stopped, people had less value for money and prices suddenly sky rocketed. Fortunately, it stopped before people start to kill each other for a bag of rice. And exactly what happened in the island nation of Haiti, after it was hit by a hurricane Mathew in 2016. With already plummeted economy, I saw group of people gather to grab a bag of rice with a club in the other hand to kill each other if wanted. Apple on a dollar Where do our values come from? Now to the most interesting part of our argument. I have showed you money is just a number in your bank, or more precisely in your memory. It is just a social convention, which can be broken in extreme situations. We can apply this knowledge to anything. Value of a diamond is a social rule. Value of a Ship is a social convention -> as it can be converted to dollars in your bank. Value of a Swiss watch for that matter any branded or non branded item is a social convention. What I want you to do is to apply this principle even to other things you value. An experience, a relationship, a family.Point out exactly to where is the value? I have previsouly done a case study of a Pot , and a Shmidth Tunnel. If you are finding it hard to imagine I suggest you imagine an extreme situation. Imagine you are on a ship in a boat, which is sinking, like a titanic, with all the family members of your extended family. And there is one who will come out alive. And you are given the task to choose by God, and you are included in the cohort. Who would you choose to live? It is natural you would choose, the most "Valuable person" from the lot. Maybe it is your parents, or you, or your children. And see the value of others "disappear". And your friend would choose otherwise. And make an eternal argument with you as, nobody knows true value as it is just relative.

The first and Greatest victory is to conquer yourself. - Plato. No doubt about Plato is one of the greatest philosophers of his era. Followed by a long line of his disciples, philosophy is a massive tree which flourishes generations. I am here to drink a drop of wisdom which it provides, and to understand the meaning of life. Let's look at the above quote with mindfulness wisdom we have to understand it better. Why? Because we should not believe anything anyone say without thinking for ourselves , and that goes to Plato as well. I am sure you are in fear to think, So, I will help you with imagination. You cannot step into the same river twice. How to conquer something? Let's look at conquering, for that matter countries. Latest, example is provided by Putin. He would tell that is not easy to conquer countries and he learned it the hard way. My personal opinion on that matter is the war is absurdism and stupidity at its bet. But that is for the discussion on another day. As Putin is not good at conquering countries we will ask from Napolean Bonaparte. He will tell us if we need to conquer a country, or for that matter enemy, you have to know as much details as possible about them. You have to know their move, their tactics, their weaponry and their plans. Allow them to make mistakes and strike them when they are weak. Even in modern warfare, information plays a huge role. Unless it is a nuclear war . So, the bottom line is we have to know our enemy if we want to conquer them. Why should you conquer yourself? This raises two more questions for me. First one is why should we consider ourselves as enemy? Answering this will also provide us information on why Socrates wanted us to conquer ourselves. I am sure we all have some Idea on this. Our minds do not behave the way we want it to be. Sometimes, it is like dealing with a monkey. Monkey mind. It jumps when we want it to sit, and it laugh when we want it to cry. There is no limit to the stupidity it does when we closely follow up its actions throughout the day. This is why we are ended up in places where we are now. It has been like this in the past, and in the future, I see no better, unless I follow wisdom of Plato. Maybe when Plato uttered these words, he may have just realized his mind is no other than a monkey mind. If this is true for me and Socrates, I can assume this is the case with every mind, hence yours as well. Fortress How can you conquer yourself? The second question this arises is, how can I conquer myself? And there is the problem. With the wisdom of Napolean, we can understand first we have to know the enemy. In this case it is me, and for you its yourself. If we do not know who we are there is no point trying to conquer anything as we will be battling in the dark waving our swords while the monkey mind plays havoc with its night vision goggles and cut everywhere killing everyone. As we can see, to do what Plato said we first need to understand ourselves. I can refine the quote now to a better version. First and Greatest victory is to understand yourself - magical mindful living Second and next greatest victory is to conquer yourself. - Plato. Now, for countless people who have been searching for the former, they have found nothing. I cannot tell you how and why, because this experiment of finding yourself is totally subjective . But first we have to point out exactly where the monkey hides before striking. I can tell you being aware of yourself, or as we call it mindfulness is the tool which is used to understand yourself. And more and more you are searching more and more wisdom you will gain. Like the brave lion who turn back , or the one who wanted to wake up like Carl Jung suggested, you will dig deep into yourself until you find something. And if you do not find anything I would not be surprised either, as that will nullify the second victory of Plato and leave the first as the first and only victory that is there to have.

Achillis and Trojan War. The great warrior Achillis the son of Nereid Thetis and Peleus, is one of the greatest warlords of the Greek mythology. He fought fiercely in the Trojan war and slayed the opponent prince Hector outside the gates of the Troy. He himself was succumbed to the death at the end of the war, with a deadly arrow to his heel, ending the legend of Achillis. If you haven't watched the movie Troy, I suggest you have a look, where Achillis is pictured perfectly with bravery by Brad Pitt. There, in the movie Achillis reveals his reasons for fighting. He did not fight for his king He did not fight for his country He did not fight for his friends or family He did not fight for the feeling of victory He fought for a legend. why? https://unsplash.com/@frausnippe Why did Achillis choose legend as a reason for his fighting? Because he knew that, kings, would not last long, Neither boundaries, nor countries, not even family and friends, not even victory. But legend will last longer, maybe centuries, and in his case, it lasted thousand and more years! He was right! And who made is possible for Legend of Achillis last for thousand years? Not by himself of course, but by story tellers. Story tellers took the task into their hands and kept the legend alive until it was written in books. Painted on walls and sung in songs. Now we hear the Achillis and continue to watch him alive in movies. Why do we write? There lays one important reason for writing. I can give you benefits of writing, a full list. Like all other articles do. But I believe one good reason is enough for you to start writing. Look at all the thoughts you had today. They will fade away with time, completely forgotten and buried by Duenes of dust of time. Once forgotten they will dissolve and never be found again. There may be treasures that humans can thrive, unless of course. Unless of course you write them down, sing a song or paint it on a wall, nobody would ever see. Not even you will know. That I think, is the most important reason for you to write about it. Make it written in rock solid words, that vague idea, in a blog, in a journal or in a novel, crafted in perfection. Write a mini essay like I call it. Sing a song about it like Anna Kendrick did. It doesn't matter you are a cook in a forgotten busy kitchen, facing the dumpsters in the alley in a crowded city. Your perspective is unique. I've got my ticket for the long way 'round Two bottle whiskey for the way And I sure would like some sweet company And I'm leaving tomorrow. What'd you say? When I'm gone, when I'm gone You're gonna miss me when I'm gone You're gonna miss me by my hair You're gonna miss me everywhere, oh You're gonna miss me when I'm gone -Anna Kendrick Cups song Truth is you would not be missed, unless you write a song about it. People are busy, they rarely find time to concentrate on others. Unless your words are copied in thousands nobody will look at it. But it will matter to you. It will be your legend. You can come back and see how it evolved. How you battelled in your Trojan wars in the past and Won! https://unsplash.com/@shane_young Do not be a crow. Make it easy others to discover. As your mind is the most difficult place to hide something. Have you seen crows or squirrels. I have seen, when they find some tasty food, they go and hide it in some place. Often in pockets of banana leaves, and they forget. They never comeback, and it becomes rotten in a few days. What a waste! So, I suggest you learn the lesson. Forget you have been a crow or a squirrel and make it last a little longer than the few months from your funeral.

Texas Tower mass Murder I'm sure of it, the Texas tower- in university of Texas Austin is associated with many and more triumphs than tragedies. But as majority of all of us are negatively biased most of the world will recognize Texas tower as the place where a mass shooting happened. In this article I am not going to describe brutal killings of a crazy man but how life can change in a matter of few seconds at any time during any day of our lives. To understand better, I recommend you watch animation movie Documentary Tower 2016 . Image taken of the Main Building of UT, as pictured by R. Perryman at 12:53 on August 1, 1966, some 31 minutes before the end of the massacre. - image wiki public It starts with describing lives of few ordinary college students and some men and women who lived nearby. And even an ordinary day of a cop, who finally put an end to the massacre of killing 15 men and women even unborn child on August 1st, 1966. I wondered what could have happened if I walked in the garden that day. With ambitions in my head to become a future artist, trying to be graduated with colors. Trying to be a writer with Shakespear in my hand I would be walking like any other ordinary student that day. And out of nowhere I would feel some pain in my stomach and collapse to the ground like a log with blood. It could have been the end of everything which I call life for myself. Or it could have been worse that I survived with severe injuries and disabled for life. I'm glad that I wasn't there that day. It was even few decades before that incident even happen. Now when I think about it, who walked on the same premises 70 years ago as students, most of them are no longer living. Time is the greatest silent killer. And for this demon which is called time would shoot every one of us eventually one day. So, death is part of life. It can come when we are young rarely, and old, commonly yet inevitably. It's not just in autumn leaves fall. At the times of storms even green leaves does fall . Thinking about life and death Taking Off If time is the greatest killer, how can we avoid him? Where can we hide? Where can we run to? I am sure it will find us if we hide even 100 feet underground bunker. It will happen to dictators, billionaires and Beggers. Temporarily we can forget this fact and get on with life. But when I see the news on TV yet again a Jeju Air, plane crashing onto a concrete wall and turn into a fireball with 180 people in it in Korea, I have to imagine. What am I doing today to understand life. What are you doing today? To understand life? I refuse to accept any temporary solution given by the mind. Like Descartes does, I invite you to question everything. Even the question itself . Ps: As the time of this writing, I noted another mass murder has happened in New Orleans US. Timing of this article is not good I think, yet as always for mindfulness, it is the golden hour for everyone who is living. Not forgetting to pray for the ones who are diseased. The real problem is we see only part of the deaths which happens around us. Which comes to our consciousness by news. Yet if we look at the real numbers time takes out thousands of consciousness daily from a pool of billions (170463 is the exact number per day or 2 per second). It was apparent during covid . Even today. Why anyone is not worried about natural death, more than unnatural death? It makes no sense. This is not to make anyone anxious and Panic so you would even not board an airplane. It is just the opposite. To make everyone a seeker so we seek truths about life, and question until we find out it is nothing but truth. It is to invite everyone to conquer yoursel f like Socrates urged us to do some 2000 years ago. .

Where is consciousness? It was a rainy day. The consciousness was wondering in a park. Looking at everything and thinking about everything which it sees and hears. First it was the Bricks. The bricks laid on the pavement made a nice tessellation. Which reminded you of the same mathematical concept you learned about 20 years back. Which you are sure that the Brick layer had never heard of. On top of that the little bit of rain drops created wet spots making it more artistic in nature. And you just felt the breeze which made the consciousness to move forward like a drifting boat on the lagoon with the fisherman. And the far away, in the lagoon, there is the fisherman. You cannot see what he is doing other than sitting in his boat like a little statue. Which is a scene you have seen numerous times. But this one is fresh, fresh as the breeze which pushed your consciousness. And you wonder what the consciousness on the boat is thinking about now? Hmmmmm.. It's just another floating consciousness Predominently thinking about fish Maybe not fish Maybe it's just water Waves Or nothing Fisherman in the boat - This is the best my not iPhone could do Next is obviously the sky. Sky which is cloudy and full of flying consciousness. They are also thinking about fish, maybe sleep, maybe about sex. Yet you are not sure which one it is and know that this has nothing to do with the two boys. Two boys are there taking photos. At the prime of the youth, they are enthusiastic in the appearance they would make on a photo. More conscious about the appearance of the cover of their consciousness. They really do not know about the little man they carry, and no wonder they are happy. You feel a little jealous, yet you sit down with all the information to contemplate a theory on consciousness. Understanding Consciousness. First when you look at what you have observed you realize, they are outside. The other consciousness is just outside. Like the trees, like the clouds, like the birds and fisherman. Next when you look at carefully you find out that they are not outside at all. It is just ripples of your own mind about a possible outside world created with layers of information from past. About the observations you have made. It is just a story of your own mind. Cream on top by your own consciousness. Finally, you realize, it's all secular. That the Observer and Observed, were born and dead at the same time, inside a single consciousness. And it had been like that, and it will be in the future. What you see is not what it is but who you are. And with this thought, you get insight that if the observer is observed, and the observed is the observer, then there cannot be a truth about either. It is just relative to each other. And you apply this truth to everything you have thinking about consciousness so far. It doesn't make sense. And maybe it doesn't make sense is the correct answer about consciousness, which is again cannot be the truth as it is something you observed. It's about to rain PS: Observer is observed is one of the conclusions about consciousness in understanding it. That everything is just a reflection of an outer world. But mindfulness doesn't let us to stay there. Previously it created two worlds, now it creates a singular world, and both seems to be true at the same time. The inevitable conclusion is that maybe mind is just a magician. It can create both a singular and a dual world. It can create a heaven and hell and give a value to collection of atoms of carbon (called diamond more popularly) which even cannot be eaten. Ha ha ha. I am really not sure how much you understand from the above. It is just an argument which occurred in my mind. And a relative truth for myself. What about you? Have you been thinking about consciousness lately? If you are curious, yes, I saw the bricklayer, yes, I saw the birds and the boys. But they are just different from yours, a relative truth for me, just like conclusions about consciousness , which makes no sense.

Once upon a time there was a wise man who lived on a mountain. He was known to be the wisest of them all and held the truth about the meaning of life. Just like the wise monk who lived on the Himalayan mountain- he knew the telos of life . And in a faraway land there lived a Sheperd, who owned a large group of camels. He made a living out of this heard of camels by selling them to people. And he was proud of his job, and was good at it, and was well to do himself. However, he knew the life is not about making a living. So, he wanted to know the truth and took the long journey across the dessert to meet the wise old man. The journey took days. And he travelled with his herd of camels, as he would not trust anyone. After days of travel, it was dark when he arrived, and did not wait until morning to meet the old man. https://unsplash.com/@_sebastien "Oh, dear wise master, I have come a long way for your advice. I have heard you holds the truth to the meaning of life. Please, be kind, share with me." The old wise master, with a gentle smile, said to him. "Son, it is so wise that you started looking for answers, I have no doubt in your intentions. So, I will give you the truth. But it is too dark. This is not the hour for it, tomorrow, when the first sun rises, you can come and meet me here. I will show it to you- the meaning of life" Story of Camels And he continued. "I want you to do one Favour for me. I see all the camels you brought here; I see you have a hundred odd camels. Can you please make them all lie down for the night, before you sleep?" The Sheperd agreed, and the wise old man, disappeared into the cave. Sheperd was tired, he prepped his Dinner, and had a good shower, before he started to make the camels lie down. Oh boy! he tried. He tried and tried to put all the camels to sleep. Camels, they are good for nothing animals, worse than donkeys. Some did sit down when he commanded. And some did not! stubborn they were. Some did lie down even before he commands. And the ones he previously put to sleep, would rise up again. The stubborn ones would sit down, without any command. Utter chaos. And the moment he thought he is there; it started all over. And he was exhausted after few hours, and then only he asked the question, "what is the meaning of this?" And he thought "What is the meaning of life?" It is just like making the camels sleep. And he rode back next day before even the wise man woke up. -story of camels- https://unsplash.com/@shotoftheday Morals of the story. Everyone should focus on the meaning of life from time to time, before getting too much involved in the problems. And ask the question, why? (otherwise, you might try to travel to mar s, while answers are obviously not there) Like the Sheperd who tried to sleep the camels, we are trying to solve our problems, from the day we were born till we die. How much trivial they are, everyone has one. It's your herd of camels. And only the wise would understand by questioning their own actions and mind, that it is not under our control. Like waves of the sea , ripples of the water , chaos in weather , life is interconnected with reasons beyond reasons . One has to look inside with mindfulness to understand this phenomenon- Carl Jung

Story of the Top "The Sweethearts". Just the other day little girls were watching the "The top and the Doll" by Hans Christian Andersen , my favorite childhood happiness destroyer. It was a cartoon, and it was about a top which was first rejected by a Doll, because he was too shabby. At the end the Doll, ended up in the drain, as the time went by, and Top became popular and ended up not being able to help the Doll's doomed fate. I think this was a changed version from the original story The Top and the Ball or "The Sweethearts". And it seems like something really happened to someone. A top spinning on the table Wisdom Level 1. Next morning, I found a top. It was a broken wheel with an axel from a toy car. Just lying on the table, and I saw the potential in it to be used as a top. And I made it spin in front of the Little one who has never seen a top before until day before and never spun one. And she was amazed. I could see her little eyes glistening in anticipation and joy when it kept on spinning for a half a minute. Moment, it stopped she tried spinning it again and again, failing. I was also in doubt she could do that, as it wasn't a real toy top, and needed a great skill to spin it for someone who has never done it. So, I taught her how to hold the axel and do it in slow motion. And after a few tries 'Voila!' She started spinning it as good as any kid of her age. And that was the wisdom level 1. She came from wisdom 0 about tops, to wisdom level 1 in just a couple of days. First with some information from a little cartoon, and next with some practical application by herself. The important fact is this is just the level 1 about tops. In fact, I am going to show you some more levels of wisdom about tops, before we generalize "Levels of wisdom" Wisdom Level 2. Let's assume my knowledge and skill about spinning a top is at level 2. I easily possess the level 1. As far as information is concerned, I know about angular momentum which keeps the top spinning, and friction and its center of gravity. I have seen the workings of a Gyroscope, and seen how traditional dancers spin a tambourine on a tip of a lengthy pole. I know a top would spin on a hard flat surface without friction longer than on a beach. As far as the skill is concerned, I can spin a book on my finger, for that matter any large even asymmetrical item which I can balance on my finger at the point of the center of its mass! (and I have spent good couple of days of my teenage years practicing this again and again to master) I am sure 99% of the population on planet earth is knowledgeable about at least Level 2 top wisdom. And nobody would go beyond that, except that 0.1%. And I am going to get a peep into the other levels of wisdom just for the sake of this article and that is where Google AI comes handy. Another top spinning on another table Wisdom Level 3. Archeology -> A top is a very old toy, invented thousands of years before the " Rubik's Cube ", and found in many archeological sites across many cultures. Sport -> International top spinners association conducts, world spinning top contests each year, and I am sure the contestants are at a different skill level in spinning a top than any one of us. Mathematics -> Angular Momentum: L = Iω , where I  is the moment of inertia tensor and ω  is the angular velocity vector. Torque: τ = dL/dt , where τ  is the torque vector. Precession: The rate of precession, Ω , can be approximated by: Ω ≈ mgd / (Iω) , where m  is the mass of the top, g  is the acceleration due to gravity, d  is the distance from the pivot point to the center of mass, and  I  and ω  are as defined above. As you can see, Levels of wisdom about a spinning top is vast. And no human is ever able to master everything. A mathematician who is able to figure out the math, would never have the skill to win the world top spinners competition. Levels of wisdom For me as I can see this is a huge problem. There is too much information , just about a simple toy as a top. Image everything you have ever learned. You just learn a minute fraction of the total human consciousness. And if you are not mindful about the fact that there is no limit to the information you seek, you can easily get lost in this stupid streak of information and get stuck. And you will end up spinning a top all your life or struggling with an equation about solving the mystery of a spinning top. But at some point, in your life you will come across articles, quotes or thoughts about life, which will enlighten you. And I will call this a super wisdom, if it happens to you keep it in mind to remind yourself from time to time. As an example, look at the quote from Carl Jung the philosopher. "Who Looks outside Dreams, who looks inside awakens" So, the only way to achieve super wisdom is to look inside and understand the process of thinking. And then only we can understand what happens, in our own world. And fortunately, or unfortunately such information is not so popular, not so abundant and not so glamorous like being successful, or prosperity. If you seek such information I suggest starting with a simple truth . The top (Story) Ironically The top ( Der Kreisel) is a short story written by Franz Kafka between 1917 and 1923, in Germany. It is a story about a philosopher trying to understand a world through a spinning top. He tries to grab a spinning top and believes that it should keep on spinning. However, it stops each and every time. Only thing I can correlate with tis is the Spinning top scene in the movie Inception as forever spinning tops are only found in Dreams !