When did you last visit your home? Home is where most of us love to be. Especially, a place where there is comfort, love, safety and company. Most of fortunate of us have lived in a home or already living in such a place. For some of us unfortunate, 'home' although far away brings us memories that we cherish throughout our lives. It may be a small hut, may be a big house or a mansion with a maze and a garden, It may be a mobile trailer, or a boat, everyone likes to be in home. Most of us miss our home when we are away on a trip. Even when it is a long-awaited trip to most beautiful place on the planet, we tend to get tired and look back at the watch to wait until we get to our comfort of home. Look at an igloo or a tent home in arctic Eskimo family. They have temporary homes, with a single room. Everything is done, in presence of your family. Everyone, eat sing, and sleep. Everyone expects return to their home, even if they go out for fishing, or hunting. Its a small world, a small community. But emotions, lifestyles cultures are handed over to the younger generations, although they would not stick to that, home will be in their minds as more than just a mere place of shelter. Their children will grow out of those homes, migrate to towns and will build their own homes, in modern ways. Yet, for their children, it will be the only home that they know of. I still live in my mind playing with my siblings in our old home with two rooms and kitchen. Happy memories. How about you? Not only humans, but animals also have their own homes. Imagine the Eskimo family. Their sledge dogs are a family too. They also have their own place even though out in the cold. They have each other's skin against each other to build their home outside the hut. They squeeze together, and they feel the warmth, safety and comfort, as long as they are together. You would wonder why I started taking about this story of sweet homes. I was watching a documentary the other day about different kinds of animals and came to know that there are some animals call us as their home. It is true. There are some tiny animals who live their whole life on our bodies. Not only our bodies are home to them, for some it is the only known universe to them. Take an example Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis. These are tiny 0.3mm type Mites (arthropods) which lives on our face! This same moment when you read this article there are tiny animals live on your face. Of course they are harmless, living a symbiotic life. They born, eat, lay eggs and die on our faces. Your face is their sweet home. Fortunately, they are not visible to your naked eyes, and you can forget about the fact they exist once you finish reading this. The fact they exist on us enlighten us with following factors about life. Rather Awkard. We share our earth with a lot of other species and our own kind, making our own places to call home, similarly "human body" is just an earth for thousands of species, as a safe palace to live and die, a home. If you wash your face, you will be violating animal rights. Eating and maintaining your body will benefit the small world animals who depend on us. Thank you for reading Home sweet home- Eskimos and microbes -demodex You may also like to read How are we different from a dung beetle. Nature is really beautiful or is it? Robert frost BBC reel on demodex

There was a question in my mind, since I came to live abroad several months earlier. Question aroused one day, like this. I was walking into a restaurant to buy me some dinner and there was a boy who stepped on to the door at the same time as me. We both waiting each other giving way to step in, and nobody moved. I was in no hurry, and he was letting me in as I am. Somebody has to go in, so I smiled at him and stepped in. The moment I went in this person started to curse me saying "Say f------ thank you when you were given something" And I was taken aback. My mind was saying "What? why this guy stepped in if he was in such a hurry? Just to blame me for not thanking?" "Oh, they expect a thank you in return. Isn't it bad to expect something in return?" Recently I learned the four-quadrant model of philosophy which allows one to look at all the philosophical arguments in a bird's eye view. Then it hit me, the answer to my question. It was another dimension to why, in above scenario. Four Quadrent Model of Philosophy Essentially everything about philosophy can be understood in this four-quadrant model. More importantly once we categories and understand which quadrant one philosophical point of view lands, we can see conflicts and relationship of it with other. Four quadrants are as above: Q1 : individual interior Q2 : individual exterior Q3 : collective interior Q4 : collective exterior And the contents are given, in each cell. If you would like to know more about the principle link is here. It is best understood with above example. I was looking at the problem with my previous internal collective standpoint of view. I was hurt because, in my society where there was no culture for opening doors and saying thank you, in return. And that was the norm. More also nobody would expect a thank you in return even if you are helped by them. So, I saw him as selfish and stupid to think like that in the first instance. Yet, when I look at the four-quadrant model, I can understand that, that problem would have never arise if I was used to the culture abroad. Because I was a foreigner only for few days, I had no understanding of the culture and, it was not routine for me to say thank you, there was not time for me to change my internal collective quadrant. It was a norm in this country to let others in even if you are in a hurry and you will be guaranteed that will get a 'thank you' in return. Similarly, there are philosophers who think mainly about problems in single quadrant. Their ideologies can clash with some of the others, if they are trying to solve the same problem in a different quadrant. Yet, knowing this concept will help us to understand some harmony in otherwise opposite arguments. Thank you for reading: Four quadrant model philosophy -Birdseye view - Ken Wilber's model You may also like to read: How to create best outcomes for life? How to practice mindfulness?

Do you also have the same question with no answer? Then maybe this will provide an answer. It is not backed up by any evidence or science, but simply an observation within myself and one other that simply I had to agree upon. Maybe the answer may apply to you as well. About the problem. Ever since I can remember I was a child I was bad at, remembering people by names. Soon as I have lost touch with them, I forget their names. However, what I can remember are my feelings towards them and interactions. This was a real problem especially when they are on the other side of the equation, can remember very well I have been a friend to them. One such embarrassing moment I can remember when I attended to a wedding in a hotel. As it happened there was another wedding of one of my school colleagues happening on the same day in a nearby vicinity and I met some friends who invited me. Unfortunately, I did not remember names of most of them. It had been few years since I left the school. As I joined them on a round table, as we were chatting, one guy asked me to tell his name. I was embarrassed I could not remember. He repeatedly asked in front of all the others and saying that how close a friend I have been, but like disappointed that I cannot remember his name. Didn't let me slip away from the question. I had to declare, that I am bad at remembering names. Fast forward several years, I was listening to a nice explanation on category theory and life by Eugenia Cheng in following you tube video. And guess who had the same problem of remembering names of people! I was surprised to get a possible or the best explanation coming from a mathematician. Math was the favorite subject of mine during my school years. Too much of a coincidence. Answer. In brief category theory is a way of looking at how mathematics is working. Instead of focusing on individual elements (numbers, functions, etc.) category theory look at the relationships in abstract level. These layers of abstraction help mathematicians to understand the nature of the mathematics in a bird's eye view. Eugenia applies this into her own problem of life, and notices, instead of remembering names of her friends (compared to mathematical elements) what she can remember are the relationships and interactions. And I could not agree more to her statement. It is like a new revelation that nothing is wrong. It is just some brains are wired to see different. Obviously for some of you this may not be a good explanation why you are not remembering the name of your friend's name. But for some, this may be true. But it is awesome to think about life in terms of abstract mathematics. As math can provide explanations to life without any equation or numbers. Thank you for reading Why cannot I remember people by name? Category theory. You may also like to read: What imaginary numbers teach about life? How new inventions are made?

These are wisdom gained from tweets. @mgmindfulliving Today the theme would be "Peace." Peace Maybe its inner Maybe its family Maybe its world Maybe its universal Peace is a bliss when it stays But it liked the game of hide and seek Often hours it would go missing just to appear all of a sudden. Game of Thrones I did not like the game of chess as kings would never die. I would be a pawn or a knight and play, not be a coward and hide. Shadow Of War We have seen it again and again our world at war Why? we ask when it only brought us destruction so far! It's a Challenge to keep peace when it cease- fire wherever we are Hidden behind evil like a little weevil peace was there the SHADOW of war A Gem for Coronation Like a craftsman to cut carve and polish a poem to be published Like a surgeon to Remove the unwanted and repair what is left For better Function Like a pilot to be precise as no room for error or indecision Made a Gem of a verse about universe to be used in kings coronation A Poem From One line She heard the crows calling each other for the feast To offer one piece for each From the dead crushed beast She walked down the lane Heard a nightingale singing Fighting over a dead worm She was angry and bursting Beauty Is Not In Cover is a verse shaped FromOneLine An Alen Haiku This is an alien haiku Hg j fghjic z udu Hds dsart jlk vy dsa gcf hcxzd Hce esxtr fdw dse gjcxd Seasick Haiku (Alean haiku translated to English) Floating in Boat of life In an inevitable march of times journey I am seasick now vomiting For the one who afraid of March Of time Dylan said "most scary thing in the world is inevitable march of time till death" Mary said "Dylan is most scary thing" I would say you are scary at the time of now. If you talk and think about it. Wisdom From Someone Who is wiser If the truth is eternal, the quest for it also will be eternal. A word about Wisdom: If wisdom is a prisoner of the mind I would imagine it is cuffed by words Things I have learned from Writing One thing I have learned from writing is. Mine is so boring I like reading yours Much more interesting Fear and freedom Of the Prison I can relate your fear of freedom, Like a bird granted of it though it never leaves. Of course she was better cared for Than those roam free I hate doctors Nobody should become a doctor I would treat my own cancer Facing the death I'm not afraid I'm the bravest man on earth! A relaxed carrot in the park Carrot was tired. After a long day So he relaxed on a pillar Like all the carrots would do I wonder its still there. Going nowhere? It did. Carrot stayed until it was fed to the bugs and worms when it was rotten and stank photo by @Pat_ward How to Grow Wisdom Wisdom grows when we read other stories Not when we are writing our own To the One who lost the wisdom Tooth I do not understand. Are you in pain? Or angry with the surgeon who took out your wisdom Anyway you must be a fool by now ! Oooops only for sarcasm of it ! hope you don't get angry Chaos of mind Never ending chaos inside our minds Why do we claim it to be ours? Mirror mirror On the wall If there were no mirrors. Beauty would not be an industry Economy: A friendly Gecko. Just like our economy. Empty bellies with inflated Tails Boredom sO bOred dOing oRdinary wOrk eVen tYping fEels sO mOnotonous tHought oF uSing cAmel nOtation uNtil iM bAck tO nOrmal aGain When its time to sleep Like a cruise in a current without propellers drifted down the day Effortlessly tirelessly to live that is the way Like a babbling brook down the hill Or squeaks of a drifting car Didn't make much Noice today Dragged by the night closed heavy eyes what a wonderful day of Poetry Shipwreck The voyage begun with a good spirt Ship sailed into open ocean a brand new quest Yet battered by the winds and mother natures wrath She perished from surface and became a shipwreck Silent treatment In a relationship silent treatment is a worse kind of punishment you can inflict on the other. silence is not all good after all. Hope you would speak up today! A Pathetic Poet Yesterday, I was poetic Today I am tired septic Tomorrow will I be fantastic Or just pathetic? Thank you for reading, War Peace and Wisdom A Day Of poetry You may also like to read: Last mile home- story Nature is really beautiful, or is it? Robert frost.

You must have heard about the big bang at some Pont in your life. At least that is the name given to the popular science comedy series "Big bang Theory". According to the theory the universe started to expand from high density and pressure about 13.7 billion years before. And the time scale is so massive that we as humans only stayed on earth only for a fraction of this time. So, what was there before the big bang? According to some views nothing can arise from nothing. It seems an obvious true fact. So, before the big bang it is unlikely that there was nothing. Scientists have shown that even in a vacuum, there are fluctuation of energy which can give rise to particles. Even vacuum may have not been an example for nothingness it is something. So, if there was something what was it before the big bang? What more is there to support the idea that nothing can arise from nothing. Is light nothing? Surely not. Light although it can pass through a vacuum is a form of energy. That is why photosynthesis happens and all the life prevail on the earth. However, from Einstein equation E =mc*2 energy and mass is interchangeable. So, it is rational to believe even light is transferable to mass, as we have already shown the other way of the equation is correct. So, there is a concept that matter can actually be a form of condensed light. So far we have not come to this level of describing matter as condensed light. However, in quantum physics there is phenomena where light in certain states showing properties of particles in 'super particle state' The concept is called Bose-Einstein condensation, and which is not science fiction. So, in conclusion whatever we have seen so far on our planet seems to be interchangeable. They have their own state at time with time they tend to convert into another state, provided unlimited timescale nothing seems to be permanent. Let's look at this problem in a philosophical point of view. Let's imagine there has been some 'X' type of condition with 'Y' properties before the big bang. Obviously when science expands it is likely we would end up identifying such condition existed before the big bang. Now, still there would be our question, this time only that we ask, what was there before 'X'? As you can see, simply answer to one question, will give rise to similar problem, only with some change in the context. Do you feel familiar? It is the chicken and egg problem applied to astronomy. But why? Why can't we get a definite finite answer, which can stop our hunt for information after all? Is there another way to understand these kinds of problems? Let's look at our number line. A number line of all rational numbers (Positive, negative and 0). If you can imagine this, as you can see, it goes from negative infinity to positive infinity. Now if we represent time as a number line and events as numbers, there would be events going back to negative infinity if we take 0 as 'now' time. By definition, infinity is undefined. If this comparison is true, there would be no answer to, 'What was there before the big bang?' type questions. So, there is no correct answer to chicken and egg problem either. It is hard to get our heads wrapped around this type of uncertainty as minds always look for closure. So how can we wrap around this idea, that there is an infinite past, and infinite future? So, what is really there? What is constant? Simple answer to this is there is change. "Change" itself is constant. Thank you for reading: What was there before the big bang? Infinity You may also like to read: Happiness paradox and stoicism Mocked by a rock- geological time

As considered one of the most rare and valuable type of element, Gold has a special place in lives of human beings. Gold places far more important role than you can imagine. If you are using any electronic device, such as a smart phone or a television, it is likely it contains some milligrams of gold in it. So, the next question you might naturally get is "Then there must be a lot of Gold out there" Which is far from truth. It is estimated so far, all the gold we have mined will only fill three Olympic size swimming pools. Yet it seems that there is lot of gold in the world than it is. Gold is one of the materials which is commonly reused. So, although we hear about stories of gold in every human history book, it may be the same gold which travelled through the time, recycled by us. Although the owners have changed, Gold remain the same. When I was a kid, I liked to read about the stories about those brave men who went on a gold hunt into the far west. Some succumbed to the natures forces and others came back triumph. It had made a separate culture around gold in 1850 in California that a millennia later we themed it for our movies and songs. But that gold minded in good old days and even today has a bloody story behind it. So, whatever the Gold neckless we are wearing has likely had soaked in blood at some point. Let us deviate from these sad and mad stories of gold rush. Where do they actually come from? Do they come from Stars? Yes. That is a correct answer. Gold is considered formed when stars bigger than earth gets destroyed. Hence its rarity and value. Of course, value comes with the potential use. As I mentioned before it is used in everywhere other than Jewlery as it has other properties like conductivity and reflectivity etc. But what will happen if we run out of Gold? I would like to see a world without Gold. Will there be less death and destruction? Will there be less stress and containment? Will there be no smart phones, but more friends? Will there be no way for me to convey this message? Of course, there is nothing wrong with Gold. It's not the Gold who is the enemy. It's the human mind which Greeds over it. Thank you for reading: A world without Gold You may also like to read: Mocked by a Rock, Geological Time. The angry monster, Happiness paradox

It all starts with why. What is the most important question to ask? Without further explaining: the answer is "Who am I?" Rest of this article is about explaining why that is the most important question. Before proceeding I recommend you read about "why a question is a missed opportunity to question itself" In summary here I describe a method to question the problems in your life. Without trying to solve them like we were traditionally taught. Sometimes, questioning the question is a good way to think in different view and it leads to root cause of all problems. Which is me. One thing common to all your problems in life is, they are there because of you. It is not a fact which can be taken for granted. If you want to solve all your problems in life, it is rational to solve the problem of yourself. Every problem from basic (hunger thirst etc.) to advanced (how am I going to learn a new language type questions) all started when "I" was born. These problems were not there before I was there. And I have been solving these problems ever since I can remember. But there is never a day without new problems, and same things comes back again and again. So, the approach of solving problems is not a good one. It seems wise to try to solve the root cause of all my problems. Which is me. I have never come across a person who have a direct answer to this. Everyone has their own theory of this. If I ask a random person, who are you? he will either tell his name. Or point out things he does, like I am an accountant, a clerk or a driver etc. However, these are all things which "He" has, or "He" does. Even if he says ok, "I" am a being with a mind and a body, I can still ask if the mind is yours who are you? Or if he says I am a mind and a body I can ask, if you are a mind and a body, you are just two things, a mind and a body, where is "You" in it (What imaginary numbers teach about life). A singular thing called you is not there by that definition. As you can see answering the question who you are is a philosophical ocean. Where we can see no land to save us with answers. But as I have explained it is utmost important, we get this problem solved. Otherwise, we would be following blind instructions of past generations into the future. If there is a true science (read about science of nature), I believe it should answer this fundamental question of observer, without merely solving problems of what is observed. After method of exhausting every way to answer this question, you may wonder whether really is there 'I' exist. Or whether it is also just an illusion of the mind. What is the most important question you have? (Here in this poem the other day, I included the most important question in one of its lines. It is really unrelated to the problem. See whether you can figure it out. When you do, see how all the other questions in the poem magically vanish) Thank you for reading: What is the most important question to ask? You may also like to read Happiness paradox Statue of David and mindfulness

It seems a wise advice. But have you ever thought about it or just took it to be true as you felt it is true in the first instant. In what depth can we Analyse that statement. If you haven't already the poem - To catch the Happiness before it hides, is a good starting point. Once you grasped the idea, let's go deeper. Why it is a good idea to think about life as a journey not a destination? It seems, when we think about life as a destination it contradicts happiness as we will never be in that position until we reach our goal. In general, we spend more time trying to reach a goal than the time we savor the triumph of victory. Imagine a person training hard to win a cycle race. If he do not enjoy training, he is going to suffer a lot before even the race begins. And it is true only one winner is going to be in victory. If everyone enjoys the training, at least they all can enjoy even before the race begin. Even if you lost, the defeat is only going to be short lived. However, there are some occasions, that we will have to think about destination as well. This applies to places where you work as a team. You can read more about this in Nash equilibrium. Now we can question the above statement in more detail. What is the difference between a journey and a destination? Or what is the true meaning of a journey? Destination is some place, or a status. Which is a fixed in time or space. But a journey is something which moves. We are really speaking about a process. The nature of a process is that it is continuous. But when we think about a journey, in reality we can never think about a continuous process. At least our minds are not capable of understanding continuous nature. (understanding time) Let's understand this before we move on. Imagine you talk about the last trip you did. You went on a hike with a couple of your best friends to a top of a mountain. Now think about this journey. How does it feel like? You will have some photographs, you will remember some special places, and some special incidents clearly in your memory. However, is it the whole journey? Even if you videoed it continuously from the beginning to the end, still it would be only 60 frames per second. Our minds are not capable of understanding a continuous process at all. So, when we say life is a journey, it is erroneous as well (as we are talking about destinations with short intervals compared to a real continuous function). As we can never know a real journey (which is continuous process). No matter how we tried, it will always come as frames, of ideas, thoughts and feelings. But it is not what is really happening. Even if you try to describe something like a ball rolling on a slope. We will fall into the same trap. (arrow paradox) So, next time when someone says, "Life is not a destination but a Journey." Just don't argue with them to show you are wise. Just smile with them and enjoy your fixed frame. You may also like to read : Dual worlds and Plato's allegory of the cave.

In previous article I described about dual world solution to prevent myself demotivating to peruse targets of the world. I also mentioned there are separate rules of the nature which governs each of these worlds. Here I would like to describe some more details of these dual worlds. First for who are unfamiliar to philosophy I will briefly describe Plato's allegory of the Cave. Imagine a cave where there are several prisoners, they were prisoned in this underground world ever since they were born. Only things they would see are the walls in front of them. There is a fire which is unseen to them, and guards of this prison cast shadows on the prison walls, using some silhouettes of common things otherwise on the planet. They cast shadows of birds, trees, sun and moon, animals on the walls from time to time. Only things the prisoners know are these shadows and they have their own names to these shadows. They have their own theories how they work and about meaning of these things. Now imagine one day one prisoner escaped to the outside world. With surprise, he comes to understand nothing he seen in the prison are real. Instead, there are just shadows of the reality. Now he sees, hear and feel things differently. He thinks of going back to the cave and as an obligation try to explain the prisoners that those real things, they have seen are not real at all. What will be the response of the prisoners, if they have no ability to escape the prison? Now let's look at Plato's dual worlds Plato's dual worlds. It is obvious Plato tries to describe how difficult it is to explain ordinary people what he believed to be true. The prisoner escaped like a Seeker , Plato himself. He believed that there are "Forms" or ideas which are perfect by nature. Although we see copy of these platonic ideas, what we observe are not real. What we observe are just imperfect reflections of platonic forms. He believed by thinking about these forms and not getting too much involved in ordinary things he could achieve some form of immortality. (You can read about platonic forms here ) Imagine that these platonic forms are also not real. When the philosophy evolved more and more intellectuals questioned the pure nature of these forms and some even did not believe that they are the building blocks of the world. What if everything is just imagination. Although we all can think about a perfect circle, that doesn't prove there are perfect circles. And it doesn't prove there are circles. What if we all are in some kind of a dream? What is a good candidate for this second kind of the world? If there is such a world what the rules of such a world are? Rules of dual worlds. Rules of illusionary world are difficult. These are the rules we are taught by our teachers, our parents and our society. These are the rules which we read about and learn about and graduate about. These are the rules scientists do experiments about. Causes and their effects. We have to learn these rules to live and survive a world. Mathematics, chemistry geography, languages. Rules of Form on the other hand are easy. Everything seems to be ever changing. And change is the only constant thing which is persistent in the real world. There is no place to stop. So far this is the best explanation I have come across. What about you? Have you come across better rules of Form? Thank you for reading: Rules of Dual Worlds and Allegory of the Cave. You may also like to read: Deterministic world and free will.

I await my vacation tomorrow to fly far away from the foreign land. I wonder why I fly? wonder why in my sleep tonight. Is it because, The seats are booked paid upfront, already as I desire to fly to visit my home, family and friends? The plane has a pilot and a crew to take care of me on flight, to make me home, safely through the clouds and turbulences? The owners bought the company a new machine to add their fleet, to raise more capital, to spend on luxuries? Or the engineers attended in endeavoring task of perfect assembly of it, for the salary, they are paid by the hour by their employers. Why do I fly? Why do I fly? Is it because, It is faster than a ship, and I am not old enough yet to travel on a cruise until the retirement? Or else is it the wind which lift the metal up against all odds, which makes me fly tomorrow in the skies? Do I owe Wright brothers, or the people who died trying to build a marvelous machine of our times? Or the greed of the man, who wants everything to be conquered and controlled before he perishes? Why do I fly? Do I fly? Is it because, There is still plenty of oil to burn in the sky and the hole in Ozon is not big enough for the governments to make it banned? There are no missile launches scheduled tomorrow used in ballistic kind of wars? Or there are no storms, smooth running engines, well maintained craft and ground by crews? I fell asleep without no answers as too many variables were there for me to count. Thank you for reading: Why do I fly tomorrow? You may also like to read: Cockroach Ethics. Nature is beautiful- Robert frost

Have you ever wondered why there is still philosophy prevail and even flourish in the era of science? Undoubtably science have advanced in the last few centuries beyond earlier predictions and expectations giving answers to many of our questions, yet philosophy which is just imaginators science of humans still prevail. Why? From Aristotle to Plato to Friedrich Nietzsche, from western to eastern, philosophy still flourish. What function does it fulfill which science cannot? As a great admirer of science, I would go back to the scientific method to bring about answers to this question. As the scientific method is the tool which we use to build up our knowledge about the truth of nature. In science we deal with facts. Scientific method can be summarized in following steps. You find the question or a problem. Gather current information related to the problem to develop a hypothesis. Conduct an Experiment. Observe outcomes. Analyse outcomes and develop new conclusions to accept or reject hypothesis. It seems pretty clear. But when we do this kind of analysis there is a fundamental problem. There is a built-in error on the scientific method which science cannot answer and that is the why philosophy and religions still exist. It is not a scientific "error" as we find in experiments but an unavoidable problem. If I attempt to word that problem, it will be like following. The core part of scientific method is observing the outcomes. These observations are made by humans. Science assumes that observer is fixed when we measure outcomes. But the observer is never fixed. Observer is unique to each and every one of us and even animals. There is no way we can get away from this problem as we are separate from each other. Imagine we are measuring outcome of an experiment as Height of a cohort of people. Science assumes that the measurements made by a 'meter' is correct and that represents the true height of each person. But now think about two people thinking about a 'meter'. Clearly what length is meant by a meter is different for these two individuals and there is no way we can compare these two as we would never know they are thinking about the same thing when they talk about height. We can only assume they are talking about same thing. By definition scientific method assumes this is true, hence there is the problem of scientific method. "Scientific method itself include an assumption." By convention we are agreed about these scientific norms that nobody find this a problem to have a normal conversation. But when it comes to deeper level of understanding philosophy try to answer these questions and Will flourish and even take over science at some point in the future, when science starts to turn its experiments into human nature. Thank you for reading: Role of Philosophy in the era of science - scientific method. You may also like to read: How new inventions are made a philosopher's point of view. Nature of our greed and jealousy.

Angry Monster There is a monster, who is an angry big ugly looking one. He is coming to attack you. When you try to fight back the monster gets stronger and bigger, because it is growing out of your anger. If you continue to fight this monster at some point the monster will destroy you forever. So, how are you going to defeat this? It is by doing opposite of fighting, you practice kindness, and care, treat the monster with love in heart. The monster will soften each and every kind act and will become a lovely kitten at the end. Harmless being. Good story for a child, right? But exactly this is the kind of story to explain happiness paradox. Happiness paradox Let's change the characters of the story. Let Happiness be -> the victory you get. Monster be -> the pain you feel trying to acquire the happiness in the process. Your effort to find happiness -> the effort you put in to defeat the monster. The more you try to find the happiness, bigger the monster will become, and you will feel more pain, and farther the victory will be. That is the essence of the happiness paradox. It is not an uncommon thing to lose happiness in the battle of per suiting it. And it happens too often. This can be a reason more and more people are unhappy. Imagine yourself trying to get your salary increased this year, trying hard to impress your boss, and failing at the end. Or you fail your exam after months of hard work. How can we overcome such situations in life. Overall, how can be happy and content with our own life? So how can we get over with the problem? Solution to a happy life. Not surprisingly the answer lies in our little Monster story itself. If you stop the fighting with the monster, you will get the victory at the end. Hence, less you search for it, more you will have it. As happiness looks like a byproduct of a virtuous life. Happiness is a byproduct of a virtuous life. This is a root principle of Stoicism. For Stoics, living a virtuous life filled with wisdom, courage, justice and Temperence, will lead to happiness itself. Instead trying to tackle with the monster, they try to weaken the monster. In summary what Can you do? Only thing according to the happiness paradox, we can do is not focus on happiness itself when we do something. Instead, we can focus on peace, relaxation, serving others, gratitude etc. This will lead to happiness itself at the end. I will end the article with another story, which I read in a book by Ven. Ajahn Brahm. In a war, there was a commander who had a small platoon under his command. Battled by the long marches and tiredness, they had penetrated deep inside the enemy territory. One morning, as they camped inside a forest, his spotters came up with a very bad news, that they were surrounded by a big army of the enemy of several thousand of them, heavily equipped. It meant they were doomed. Commander looked at the worried faces of all his men. They were prepared to fight, and die for their country, Yet the wise commander had other plans. He gathered all men and asked them to prepare some tea and have breakfast. And they did it in silence. And half an hour later, spotters came back again, and said that enemy just marched without spotting them. At least, they didn't die in a futile battle on that day and some of them lived to see the end of war and go home. Thank you for reading: Happiness paradox and Stoicism- Story of the Angry monster You may also like to read: How are we different from a dung beetle? How to understand platonic love.