Ever since my existance have been modeled by the universe, I wanted. It started with simple things, like wanting to be hunger free, wanting to be warm. Wanting to be felt nice wrapped in warm cloths. And it was hard to figure out wantings at first, as there were no words. Wanting existed in its pure form, just as a wanting. Desires But as a neonate becomes a toddler, wantings started to appear with names. Wanting of mother, and father. As that would create fullfilment of many other unknown wantings. Wanting to walk, not to fall. Wanting to see colorful things. Wanting to taste everything from doorbells to hair. Wanting to pee and poop and play. Evolution of wantings. Gradually wantings started to shape themselves, with labels. Cakes, sweets, mangoes, puddings and pies. Lullabies, songs, melodies music and sermons. Feathers, tickles, smooth moisturised touch. And I could separae tastes of a dozon different types of coffees, and make preferences along with it. While all these weaved tapastries covered the core wanting, it started to be difficult to figure out where everything comes from. Instead of tackling wantings at its origin, The man started to chase after every end game. Wanting to be the first in a class of 30, to excel in the university, to win a field medal in mathematics or an olympic Gold in 100m dash. Wanting to be recognised by a million people on instagram and to become a billionaire. And it did not stop there. When it is too difficult, confusing and complex, the mind started to wonder into finding out peace. Persue meanings, and paths to heaven. Even wanting the death to be pleasent rewarding experience. Chasing views of nature, doubting the experience. I am not sure this is the journey of every human being. I see some stuck in different stages. I see some struggle with tastes, they cannot stop their wantings to eat, until they become diabetics and lose it anyway. Some cannot stop building muscles, until they become covered with wrinkes anyway. Wanting peace I see some struggle with equations, wanting to crack them before the next genious does it without a struggle. Some, want to row a boat. Drive an expensive car, and dine in a five star restaurant. The same man figure out the wantings doesn't stop there, he gives up everything to charity and seek a path to peace, just to be lost in an illusionary mental status in the middle of nowhere. I see that wantings which did not stop in a luxurious bed on a five star hotel would not magically end in a forest monastery, so they start building a kitchen in the jungle, this time with haystacks. Wanting to get rid of wantings. The mind which is wanting is the problem. The problem which should disspear, when identified. Not solved. So, now I just wait looking at my wantings. Right now it wants, the raining to stop and this article to be completed. What do you want right now? Let's do some mindfulness practise on our wantings.

Problems of Life Life is an amazing phenomena. When I observe it from a chair, on a Saturday morning I see the way we used to think about life have changed over the years. Throughout my school years and even during Higher education we were taught about problem solving. As an example consider long division. A simple mathematical concept. When we learn how to do in steps, we can apply this over and over again to come at answer to specific problem of division. This is a common way of solving problems. Let the mind sink in life Our whole system of knowlege is build up on these kind of problems. However this pattern is not just specific to mathematics. Imagine you want to change break pads of your car. You look at a youtube video which gives you sequential steps of doing this, even if it is not your model of the car, given enough time and practise you will eventually will be able to change it on your own. After that you can apply this knowledge as long as necessary. Baking a Banana Cake Consider a banana cake. If you want to make a banana cake for your kids, you can download a recipe with a list of steps. If you are not an idiot atleast you will be able to bake a reasonably ok banana cake. As you can see this is how we solve most of our problems. Sometimes these are not easily solvable. Yet most of them need thousands of steps. This brings us to the philospy of Prescriptions. Consider following list. How to become a pilot, or a train operator. How to use a backhoe to dig up a bunker in your backyard. How to scare away a Greasley Bear. How to treat prostate cancer How to write an article for a news paper. How to be a rich person. How to spend all your money in one week How to draw an apple How to solve 3n+1 question How to meditate How to be mindful How to draw an apple Philosophy of prescriptions Some problems in life have no specific answers, nobody can give you sequential steps. Consider the problem of becoming rich. I can write a book about this, starting from human values ending with How to build a skyscraper. Yet when it comes to applying, individual have to figure it out themselves. As we are stuck in different times, different places in different realities. Even if you succeed and then try to give advice to another person, most likely they will not be able to do it themselves, as the world is very dynamic. Big questions Now, there are specific questions that philosophy student is interested in. In my opinion everyone should be interested in these questions as these are at heart of our existance. Questions like "who am I?" "What is my purpose in life?" "What is the meaning of life?" "What is living?" "What happens after death?" If you look at philosophical literature, there are countless people who have written and tackled these questions. And written prescriptions how they arrived at answers. Consider any religious leader, philosopher. When we read and learn their teachings we tend to think that it is true. And we agree with them even before we try their paths. But for these big questions, what we need to do is figure out ourselves. Unless we do that we would never be able to reach eternal happiness and peace. Banana cake Let's go back to our Banana cake. Let's say you want a banana cake. (Eternal peace @ heven) . You download the prescription from God and think. Ah this is true. Banana cake made from this recipe is tasty. But you never even bake a banana cake. Imagine you started making the cake. And find out you cake was too sugary for your taste. Do you blame the recipe? No because the same cake is perfect for some other person. You adjust and learn yourself and understand what is wrong with the recipe. Maybe you are better off with an apple pie. As you can see the problem is not with the prescription. It is coming to conclusions even before you start following it. This is why, if you don't know answers that becomes the correct answer for progress. Anyone who behave like they have arrived are only fooled by their own ego.

I was having a discussion with my friend the other day about reading, in general. I told him that I no longer enjoy a novel, like I used to do in earlier days. I enjoy reading non fiction, as it creates more value to my life, anything from mindfulness, biology to geology, even little bit of mathematics, help me model a new world. On the other hand my dear old friend still loves reading novels. He deeply thought about what said and agreed that novels bring less value to life. But, that was irrelevent, as values are purely relative to ones own consciousness, novels make no sense only when messured in my yard of messure. So, coming to conclusion that novels are not valueble is totally not helping. We agreed to disagree on our values and that was a correct choice. Books, Why you should read them? Why you should read books? Common answers But have you ever thought about it before? Have you ever thought why you should read a book? Let's list some of the answers we can come across if we put the question in front of 1000 people sample. Why you should read books? 1. **Improves your focus and concentration** Reading trains your brain to stay with one task without distraction. 2. **Expands your knowledge** Every book teaches you something new — ideas, facts, perspectives. 3. **Builds a stronger vocabulary** You naturally learn new words and improve communication. 4. **Boosts creativity** Books spark imagination and help you think in new, original ways. 5. **Reduces stress** Reading slows your mind and gives you a mental escape. 6. **Improves emotional intelligence** Stories help you understand people, feelings, and relationships better. 7. **Strengthens memory** Following plots, characters, and concepts exercises your memory. 8. **Enhances critical thinking** Books make you analyse situations, arguments, and decisions more clearly. 9. **Helps you become a better writer** You subconsciously absorb structure, grammar, and style. 10. **Builds discipline and a growth mindset** Consistent reading develops patience, routine, and self-improvement habits. Of course this is a chatGPT generated list of 10 things. However we can say these are the common reasons why anyone would read a book. Or even read anything for that matter. Think about why you are reading this article now? You are looking for something right? Entertainment? Spark of knowledge? Some understanding about life? But here is what I think about reading.. Why you should read books expecting nothing? Take a little time to think All of the above and thousand others which you can come up are wrong reasons for reading a book. Infact the moment you are expecting something by reading a book you are not going to get it. As no any book is giving you everything you need to know. And remember this is just a metophor. You can still enjoy reading a novel. That is not the point. The point is when you have this pre-determined outcome of your reading, you are going to create a bar-for your own book, and after reading the novel either it will be more and less valueble than you initially thought and this will either create happiness or dissapointment. So if you want to avoid dissapointed reading books, do not expect anything from your reading, before you read. But, here is another thought after you read your book, it doesn't matter it is good or bad as you have already read the book. Expecting nothing from life - mindfulness lesson. Now, lets compare this with our lives. Everything we do in our lives we expect something. But, isn't it the wrong reasons? Just like reading a book expecting something, we go to the school to get good education, but not everyone gets it. We go to a new job expecting happiness and more money -> not everyone gets it. We go to the grocery shop to buy cheap stuff, not everything is cheap. If you want to stop disspointing yourself in life, there is one way to do that and you can do it today. Just now. Stop expecting your life would improve after reading this article. As, even after thousands of these articles you would still feel the same. Just to let you know this is my 531 such article. And the first one that I am quite sure I do not expect anything from it.

I am not sure why I am writing this. Sometimes we don't have to have a reason to do something. Just like trees grow on top of a mountain for no reason. I am sure you came through this article just by random clicking. So, I am going to show you two ways to answer the question. What is wrong with me? What is wrong with me? Approaches to the problem. There are two ways we can approach to this problem. One is personal perspective. If you think you are in control of everything in your life, what is wrong with me Question will lead you to some form of low mood. As always you have to blame yourself. Maybe you messed up your life, marriage, or friends, failing exam, work stress. However, there is another apporach to the same problem, A less obvious one. Universal approach to the question "What is wrong with me?" I came across this in a podcast of Joe Rogan and Naval Ravikant. Yes, the famous one with 12mil views. But they were not answering the above question specifically. But this is an important perspective to remember. When we ask such a question we forget, that we are creatures of the nature. It's the nature who created us. You can call it God, evolution, Souls coming out of depth of the ocean or whatever, but the point is we did not ask for this. If we did not ask for this, we did not come by our choice. We do not chose where we go. So, if we keep on asking the question what is wrong with me, fundementally we are taking responsibility to something we have not done. Inseparable from universe This is where the universal perspective comes in handy. In the universal perspective, there is no right or wrong. Infact, you can take everything as right in the universal perspective. As we are creations of the nature, one thing leading to another thing made you do that, mistake, procrastinate, or be anxious. You are not entirely to be blamed although you feel like it. Major part of it is by the universe. However, if you investigate this phenomena closely you will see that all of it is nature. Imagine the sun did not come up today, instead blown up into pieces. In this alternate universe everything you worried about would not happen, as there is no you and me. So, whatever mistake , or the worring thing for you happens as a reason, sun is still there in the sky. Can you see? It's not you to be always blamed, we can blame the sun. Final thoughts Now, I think you have doubts about my sanity. I am completely sane, and this is just a rational conclusion any mind can make. I see enourmous practical value in this universal approach to personal problems. Whenever we feel like we are missing happiness, it seems like arising because we are too much self centered. Trying to accumilate shiny new things like crabs. Yet, that is the way the universe have cheated on us, making us believe we are not part of it just because we have moving legs and eyes to see. I see no more than a tree when it comes to observing the nature. So, its better to surrender to the nature, as it seems to be the correct thing to do. Always. Trying to separate myself from the universe is like a wave trying to flow without water. For the universe you are just perfect! Nothing wrong.

TrZon Came out of the Congo Jungle in 2008, Straight from Egypt, he flew in a GulfAir boing 787 to London, in first class. He was familier with the rules of the jungle. Hence he was not suprised when the pretty stewerdress came up to him with a bottle of champaigne 5 minutes into the flight. While a thin curtain separated him from the peasents from back of the aeroplane, he wasn't bothered. He was the King of the jungle. It is true the context have changed. He no longer had to ride unsafe vines and shout out loud thumping his chest to show everyone that he is the ruler of the wild. Here, he noticed everyone plays by different rules. With little bit of adaptation he could easily rule this modern jungle as well. Boing 787 dreamliner Trzon In the first class He acted, as if he was the king. He walked with his chin high up in the air, with a little grin on his face, half shaved. More importantly he made sure that he wore the biggest sapphires from the depths of the Nile, which was given to him by the pigmies. He wasn't convinced that when they told the foreigners respect not the man but shiny things. But now he knew, as everyones eyes started to shimmer when they saw the big bloody Gem that he wore. He saw the pupils widen, and faces of females turn red like they were having an orgasm just by looking at it. Mixed with his enormous profile, there was no need to advertise who was the most important person on the flight. Even the Captain came to visit him during mid flight giving his regards, and thanking for chosing his aeroplane for the prestegious travel. Shiny things TrZon being the vigilant, silent observer, learned a lot about the modern world. Just a few hours through the flight. He ignored the noice from the back, observed. Being in the jungle all his life his eyes and ears were built to observe, not entertain. That's what made him a king. Here, in the 248 seat passenger airplane he observed what separates peasants from their Owners. He saw while the peasants were focussed on entertaining themselves scrolling through movies and music in their two feet wide seats, their Owners were busy. They were working, while drinking champaign, on their laptops. Typing, looking at charts, making things for the peasants to pay and consume. Some were resting, stretched out, gaining energy to do the same when they wake up. TrZon smiled to himself. He knew what he would do to. He would jiggle with numbers in his laptop, if that is the one which separates him into the first class. Trzon in the concrete Jungle Fast forward few hours, Tarzon was walking on the streets of London. He was looking at tall towers either side of the Thames River, and 🤔 thinking, who would build such magnificent structures? Who owns them anyway? Even though twice the size of an average man, it would take thousand years for him to build a column of one of the tall towers. But he knew, what he could do with a thousand Gorillas who share same intention and strength. Given the tools he would do that in a couple of years. He just needed to make a group of Gorillas and feed them with a dream. He stepped into one of the buildings to see the internal structure. There were peasants lined up to get services, and some peasants providing services behind glass windows separating them. He saw the money being exchanged. He was sure someone watching all this process from upstairs. He could feel the presence of the owners, but he could see them nowhere. They must be travelling on first class to a remote island while these half brain dead peasants were working for them. He could see the eyes of the owners put up in every corner of the building, secretly turning 360 degrees, observing every move, and thickness of everyone's pocket. Accumulating data to plot the next big plan to empty them in thousands. In London By the time he came out he knew what to do. There is no hurry. There is no secret. He could either become an owner or be owned in this jungle. Someone's loss is the otherone's gain. Its a concrete jungle but rules haven't changed. He would be a hunter, not be hunted in broad day. He would hide his tracks, to confuse everyone who tries to revenge. He would make a pack of Gorillas to guard him when he venture during the day. He knew he was the king, so without fear he climbed to the top of the London Bridge to catch the last few rays of the dissapearing sun. And shouted, like he used to do in the jungle, making everyone shake in fear within a half a mile range.

Albert Einstein once famously told that compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world. When someone such genius tells something we should listen and ask the question why? According to records he completed it saying " He who understands it, earns it, and he who doesn't pays it." As compunding interest works in both ways, someone will pay while the others gain. Often leading to a poverty cycle if let it happen long enough. This is what I have described in the previous article on capitalism and pyramid scheme. Now, let's learn more about compounding. Compounded stones Compounding, the eighth wonder of the world Compounding interest is an exponential function. If we go back to our graphing calculator, and type similar exponential function, to 1×1.1^20 you will see it has a J shaped curve. Given enough value to the exponential, the function will start to grow rapidly, as there will be interest for interest. Exponential in this case is time. Which is why the time is the most crucial factor for an investor. But as you can see, real world compounding has some issues. Although it's claimed to be eighth wonder of the world, let's see why it is not the eighth wonder of the world. Why compounding is not the eighth wonder? Imagine you start compounding your work. You start writing one minute today. Two minutes tomorrow. (100% return) four minutes day after tomorrow. On day ten you will be working for 17 hours approx. And day 11, you will run out of hours per day to work! Similarly when compounding works, the major problem is running out of resources. This is what happens with capitalism. Once there are billions in someone's pocket, he will run out of options where he can get a decent return. We don't have to look at complex problems to understand the nature of compounding. Imagine what would happen bees started to grow exponentially. They would completely swarm the earth in a few months and there will be no flowers for them to dine. If a tree start to grow exponentially over the years it will become massive and will collapse under its own pressure when it reaches the moon. This is exactly what happens to planets which are so big, ultimately becoming black holes. Now, you wonder what will happen to human growth right? As we have accumilated in numbers, exponentially over the years eventually, humans either destroy themselves by fighting for limited resources, or starve in peace, halting the growth either way. Population In principle compounding creates complex systems. And once a system is complex enough and large enough, the same forces which help them compound will no longer stay true, and it is bound to collapse at some point. A systems engineer might argue with this as safety checks are also advancing over iterations of new versions. However, there is only one crack needed to break the illusion of compounding. As you can see, compounding is, and is not the eighth wonder of the world, at the same time. I wonder Einstein saw these problems when he claimed its the ultimate eighth. But atleast one other person did, and its non other than Buddha, the ancient philosopher of India. Last words of Buddha In his last words to his deciples he said the following. "Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All compunded things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation." Buddha statue The compounding, in this context is not the compounding that Einstein quoted. But inclusive of that too. As compounding here has broader meaning of, "something created from combining other things". As some point in time those components separate, there would be no necessity to collect anything, as the outcome is inevitable of any compunding. So what is your experience in compunding? I am curious to know. 😁

Although I haven't talked about models of the world separately, this is a topic I would frequently visit. Hence, I thought about writing about it in a separate article. I will give you an overview first, uses and relevance to mindfulness in sequential order. Overview of models of the world Models of the world are, our mental imagery of how the universe function. Basically your model differs from mine. A child's model differs from an adult. A man's one differs from a women. Not only that, your yesterday model of the world differs from today, as more knowlege and experience have accumilated. You may think, why learn about models of the world, if they keep changing. Before answering that question, I will show you few other models of the world. A world can be modeled as a mathematical function. A financial model of the world will depend on the debt equity currency and growth. A biological model of the world is about biosphere. Then there are philosophical models of the world, Atheism theism deterministic and free will. As you can see each model of the world is good at answering specific questions. But when we try to answer a question from a different domain, it would be impossible or fundamentally fail. This is why a holistic approach to these models of the world is necessary. A model tree A holistic model of the world But is there a holistic model of the world? Is there a model of the world which can answer any question about anything? If your so called model of the world is unable to answer these questions, I invite to look more, read more and learn more about other models of the world. Until you find a uniform model. If you cannot and when you cannot find these answers turn into yourself. And that is the mindfulness experiment. How models are created with pattern recognition Let's look at a simple example. If you look at alphabet, you will see 26 letters. When we were kids we were introduced to phonics which were associated with them. And our brains magically started to recognise patters. As an example once we learn "t r e e" is tree, we could figure out "b e e" is a bee. Over time even complex abstract concepts. So fundemental to building a model of the world is our ability to do pattern recognition. In the chaotic world. Previously I wrote why mathematics is pattern recognition. But when we look carefully, we can see every model of the world is created from this same process of pattern recognition. We have done this for ages, since civilization started to flourish, we call it knowledge. But fundermentally these are just patterns we see. Patterned carpet Mindfulness model of the world It's raining outside my window. The mountain breeze is cold. This observation I made just now may look like reality for you when i write abiut it. But the rain, window, breeze and cold are just some patterns which I observed in the past. As the current experience closely resembles the pattern in my memory I tell that it is. But it's not the same rain, same window and same breeze. Just a new cross section in an eternal universal function. I'm not sure about you, but for me understanding this gives me a profound insight. Although I struggle through my life and understand this for myself, I see countless others came to same conclusions about life after their observations. I can name a couple, just to give some validity to this article. You cannot step into the same river twice - Heraclitus All compounded things are to vanish. - last words of Lord Buddha

I consider myself a gen z even if I'm just a millennial. Yet, I had hard time adapting to crypto as I did not understand the basics of money. Few months ago I cracked the code of money and argued myself "money is just a shared belief of value, in a inherently valueless item". You can read the article here . Consider Gold , which nobody eats, yet considered valuable, not only as a conductor, but as a useless collectable item. You will find them stacked in underground's of most of modern banks. Similarly printed papers with green numbers are considered valueble by humans. So, money is just a shared delusion of millions of people. Let's look at some characteristics of currency in general. Bitcoin Fundamental characteristics of currency For something to be considered as currency, it should have following characteristics. It should be difficult to make, or harvest. [Otherwise people will start harvesting more creating an inflation - Gold is inherently difficult to find in large quantities, so are dollars but what about crypto?] Large group of people should agree on its value. And agree to use it in trade. [ So Gold is not a real currency, yet people believe its value hence can be used as currency if needed. But can be cumbersome to carry everywhere in your wallet. Again what about crypto?] Everything right about crypto As you can understand not all, but some crypto have these two characteristics. Consider bitcoin. There are only limited number of bitcoins there will ever be in circulation. As numbers are limited, when everyone needs it it increases in value over time. But most importantly there would be no inflation! No government can print out more bitcoin even if they wanted. The price of bitcoin only will depend on its demand and limited supply, which is fair. And also because of the block chain technology, everyone would know who owns how much bitcoin they own and where they move over time. I can see with this regard that bitcoin as a more people oriented, futuristic currency than gold or even dollars. I am sure any government would agree where people trade without their influence unless its a universal government. But if all the people in the world wants just that, that will be an unavoidable future. Crypto currency seems to be increasing more than ever against all odds because of these reasons. Future More than ever we are seeking freedom from artificial boundaries the wealthy people have created with the help of ruling partes. And crypto seems to be a one step forwards taken by people. It looks more like a global movement against corruption than promoting just that. But I see some loopholes. Consider crypto with unlimited supply. If someone stepped in and decided to put out more Ethurum in the future, it will reduce the value of what you already have. So, I would be very careful if I ever put my hands on a crypto with unlimited supply. So far I have written positively about crypto. But why I had hard time understanding the value of it? It had to do with the generation gap. The gen z or the crypto lovers generation were born In a digital screen era. So digital screens are something persistent in their world. But we on the other hand have seen a world without them. We have seen how fragile hardware and software can be. Systems although so robust, can be wiped out entirely just by a global energy crisis. A threat of a computer virus might shake the belief of people in crypto. But I see benefits of a global currency outweighs above risks. Global trade will be free of manipulation by rulers. Boundaries of countries which are artificially made would nolonger will mean anything. Crypto might create a platform for a universal ruler and an ethical framework for everyone to function and be treated equally. It's just a dream, a good dream, a futuristic dream. Maybe in 50 years humans will come to these consensus when they understand co-operation will move development faster than artificial boundaries they created. What do you think about future of crypto? Are you fascinated by the concept like me?

In previous article, I have written how capitalism is a pyramid scheme. The driving force of capitalism is the selfishness of individual or co-operation. Infact, the co-operation is a system where the values are generated for the sake of shareholders. If you consider Warren Buffet, his whole life is spent to increase the value of shareholders of Birkshire Hathway. He had been loyal in this respect, so was Charlie Munger.But they wouldn't care who gets poor. This form of capitalism is a pyramid scheme it is bound to collapse. As it merely widens the gap between rich and poor over time. If you want to know how, read my first article. But, to move forward and know what to do about it, take a look at following quote from "The Art of War". Co -operation "The greatest victory is that which requires no battle." Sun Tzu You may not believe this as you would always think in selfish drive which forces us to survive. But, infact you can look at modern co-operation seems to be a mini version of such collection of selfish individuals, working against other co-operations. They are in constant push against each other to become the biggest shark. However, the best outcome comes, when the co-operation not only think about itself but the wellbeing of the customer. If that part is niglected, sooner or later the society will reject such co-operations. This is why every co-operation have a "outer smiling face" when they deal with customers. They atleast try to appear, humane as possbile. But, if these so called co-operation leaders understand that, in the long term the winners are the ones who never would need a battle, they could have co-operated with the society which it serves in the first place. Consider a battle, inevitably if they fight, there would be a loss of lives and value in consumables. To both parties regardless of who wins. So, the great concquerers would rarther have no battle, so they can use the men and resources for the development instead. This is a question which have a mathematical answer as well. If you read about the "Game theory", the best outcome arise when everyone agrees to co-operate with each other, rarther than the betrayal. But, the most difficult part is to build enough trust with each other, that nobody would go against someone weaker and try to gain an advanced position over others. In the modern world, I can see this happening in practical way. As countries advance in development, more and more they realise the value of peace. Even a battle in middle of nowhere in Madagascar would affect the global economy. So, everyone is pressing them to come to a peace deal. I see this as an evolution of collective human consciousness, one step toward the purity of God. Who knows, we might convince everyone in the world one day to be more peaceful, caring and co-operative as we see that would create greater future for our individual consciousness. Infact, humans are the ultimate creatures who harvested this power of being in a "Group". It helped us to build cities and smartphones, and crypto. Unity Co-operation in future capitalism Sometimes, we just have to watch and wait. Trying to do something when it is not needed is going to cause more harm. Most importantly we need to identify that, even co-operation with enemy in simplest form is way better than a battle. So, when I say co-operation is the future of capitalism, it doesn't mean the co-operation of just few people in the society acting for selfish greed. It is meant to be everyone including the children who work in sugar cane factories in rural africa. If they do not benifit from the global economy, one day, they might declare a battle which can doom entire human consciousness. I do not think, the initiative should be a burden only should be carried by the government. Which is not sustainable by any means, unless modern co-operations understand this concept, they would fight against their own government in an eternal cold battle which will end in a revolution. So, what do you think about victory without a battle?

We used to have an old, schoolmaster when I was in middle grades. With grey hair, extra slow speech, he seemed and acted like a wise person. I appreciated his manner more than his teachings, quietly and I remember him, maybe the reason why. Thinking Often I saw  him think. Every word came out of his mouth, went through his brain. Every action he took, looked deleberate than spontaneous. How did he achieved, that patience. I do not see this often in men or women, but only once or twice in my life I have seen such people. Atleast for him, he knew why. He said once he was a quick tempered person. He would punish any student even without letting them speak. But one day he had punished an innocent student. And it made him regret and changed the manner. I would not say that was the only reason. Maybe every man with a brain, when become older with experience would be in a such a state as him. But apparently not. As suggested by the previous quote from Bertrand Russell. Most of men would rarther die than think, and many have. What did he mean when he uttered the above quote? That we are more ignorent when it comes to our choices? What is thinking anyway? When we consider the locus of control, I find rarther difficult to explain the process of thinking. Infact I do not find evidence to point out exactly whether there is anything called delebrate thinking. Thinking seems to be rarther an uncontrollable process which happens as a reaction to the enviornment. Not completely separate from the envornment. In this framework, it is not that every man is not thinking. It looks like most of the time, these non thinking men do not have underlying factors which make them to think before they action. Maybe lack of knowledge or experience has more effect than pure dumbness of the man's mind. How can we avoid being dead without thinking? Answer is relatively simple, and it seems to be inherently attached to our awareness, or so called mindfulness. Waterfall with fresh water Last few days when I drove around the lagoon, I felt a bad smell. It had been sometime since there was a rain, and all the dirt which accumilated in the lagoon, had given rise to a foul smelling algae. There was not enough flow, for it to be washed away. Similarly, if you have seen a sream, you would notice that when the slope is steep the water is fresher, well oxygenated and even drinkable without any bad effects. This natural cleansing process is used in every water treatment plant by deliberately created water cascades. Consider your mind to a stream. If there is no flow of thought, it will just stagnate and start to stink soon enough. But when you are aware you would see, it is far from true that men do not think. Men do think! It's that they are ignorant of their thoughts most of the time, either due to egotism or untrained mind. Sometimes the lack of well written or Said information keeps them away from achieving the natural purified status of mind. So the challenge is not to start thinking about things that we do not know. But to change the enviornment so that there are enough cascades and flow of thoughts. Writing has helped me to achieve just that. One tiny idea would evolve into a branch and leaves over the course of few minutes and will be added to my knowlege. Maybe you should just do the same. Maybe men do think enough about things after all but only very few chose to record them before they die.

Story of evolution. Last Thursday me and my friend were discussing about personnal finance. And a term which frequently came up was an opportunity Cost. It is hard to understand but evolutionary in nature. We just have to look at a slide of dirty water to understand what it means. Imagine a drop of water taken from a natural source, looked through a magnifying glass. It was two decades ago in biology class we did that experiment, and saw various unicellular creatures. Amoeba, specifically. They were just blobs of water engulfed with a membrane, with some organelles inside. It was fascinating to watch them. So how do these creatures, who are living fossils of our evolutionary tree teach us about opportunity cost? Amoeba If you stare at an amoeba for sometime you would see it gently moves. Using its own volume, and energy it pushes new limbs out into unknown envornment. Infact as the total volume inside its membrane remains the same, it has to involute some part of its body to do this. And often it is the opposite side which it wants to move. That there is our evidence of opportunity cost. Consider what it means. Amoeba wants to move forward, to find food in new territories. But it cannot move in every direction at the same time. It has to give up all other opportunities when it has taken a step to move in one direction. This happens as it is limited by its own membrane which keeps everything together. Consider this to a journey of a man or women through time. Whenever we are given a choice in life, deliberately or willingly we do this by saying no to the other options. Following are examples. Opportunity costs in life When you move forward, you say no to moving in all other directions. When you pursue a one career, you say no to all other careers out there which you could have pursue. When you chose a partner you say no to others who are potential future partners. When you turn on the TV you say no to reading a book. When you chose to go to a party instead of studying you say no to potential long term rewards. When you say yes to cigarettes and Alcohol, you say no to a healthy future. When you get angry, you say no to a peaceful mind. When you say yes to apple stock, you say no to all other 499 companies in S&p 500 and everything else in the market. Opportunities How to avoid opportunity costs? As you can see, opportunity costs are unavoidable in life. It is a part and parcel of every natural life. Every journey we have ever taken, every choice we have ever made in the past have changed your story, not by minute margins but by massive deviations. As opportunity costs are high some live regrettable lives worrying over their missed opportunities in the past. But here is a thought for you who are worrying. Opportunity costs which made you regretted in the past are unique for you. It had made you the person you are today. But the moment you stop reading this article you are going to choose something to do. I am not sure what it is. Maybe you would scroll through random articles throughout this blog. Maybe you would want to know who and what "magical mindful living" is. Maybe you wanna eat something or drink a cup of tea. But whatever you choose I can gurentee you it will have consequences which you can fail to recognise, as opportunity costs. So be wise to spend time to decide which direction you wanna go, as you will have to use limited resources called your mind and body into this, like an Amoeba does on a petri dish. Take your time to make a wise choice, and prepared to take a step back and change your direction early if things seems to be not working out. Maybe you would survive enough until you replicate yourself if you just do that, to continue the illusion of persistent life on the planet.

Little bambini had a problem. She was bright as ever smiling out of the bed in the lovely morning, but had trouble changing cloths. No matter how hard she tried she could not put her cloths on the correct side! This time the shirt and trouser both are in wrong side. So, instead of trying to correct the shirt, she wanted to fixed her head to the other side. And it seems to be having the same effect as changing her cloths. Aha! what a brilliant idea. Climbing a mountain Above is just a small example of how principle of inversion, is used in real life. But, if you looked carefully around the world there are many more. Consider the race to success, instead of trying to work hard and move to success faster, you can consider it as a game where you try to stop getting bankruptcy and broke. It doesn't matter who wins the race or who, reach a trillion dollars faster. If you are not broke by your retirement, we can consider it as a success. You know who else had little bambini wisdom? Its Warren Buffet! the investor. Yes, he had this concept of trying to invert the thinking when answers are not clear. It may be an old version of red hat black hat thinking. Let's look at some practical examples where you can incoperate this principle to your life. Imagine you want to be happy today. You do right? How to spend happy today? with principle of inversion. I wonder who keeps pondering your happiness till it dissapear? Maybe it's your bad habits. Instead of trying to be happy focuss on trying not to get sad. But now you will see a lot of potential. Maybe wasting too much time on televsion, worrying about what is going to happen tomorrow, sorrowing over people who are out of your reach, even lonelyness which dissapears when you step out of your house, keeps you away from happiness you are trying to reach. Someone might call it the stoic way of reaching happiness by inderectly focussing on kindness and silence. But you can also call it Bambini method. As you have worn a good shirt on the wrong side. A bullish ride Think about it for a moment. Today is fine. It's a little raining, and gloomy. You haven't seen a glimpse of the Autumn sun so far. Cold a day. But, is that a reason for you to be grumpy, Like an old man in Christmas Carol? Maybe you can change yourself instead. You may be able to see the good side of your old parents and nasty children. You will see silver linings of the clouds, that indirectly point to sunlight if you looked carefully at the gloomy sky. You will see squirrels collecting nuts, in the park, for the winter ahead. You will know what to do with few dollars in your bank account to make a smile on another persons face. Instead using it for your lavish expenditure. Maybe you hold the power to make your day a happy one. This is not the only way you can use the principle of inversion. That is what is wonderful about principles. You can learn it once and use it everywhere. If you want to climb a mountain, make sure and do everything to not to slip and fall. If you want to pass an exam, make sure you do not fail, due to stupid reasons. If you want to be healthy, try and wipe out all the unhealthy grabage from your life. If you want to be rich, make sure you do not lose what you have already gained. If you are playing hunger games, try to survive instead killing others.