"Life is too short. We have to be aware, where we spend our consciousness. I would rather read a poem, watch a hummingbird or take a nap than listening to shit news about Trump and Politics." If you came to me as a dear old friend for advice about life, and happiness, above is one way I would put it into words. It is simple, it is applicable and it is profound if you think about it for a while. For few days and months for now, I have been feeling a calm happiness. Which wasn't there about two or three years ago. There was a time that I hoped the unhappy days would end and I would feel happy. I was waiting for some spontaneous miracle to happen and pray. Thing about miracles is they do not happen often and frequently enough, so was the case with mine. Like all the miracles were gone on vacation to far east, and my prayers for a happy day was delayed being answered month after month. Lucky for me, I never went into a phase of thought block. And I took tiny deliberate actions to spend a one hour in happiness. Following are a list of changes which happened over time. Tiny things mattered most. Happiness this Way I started to take a walk even when I did not feel like it, and noticed, the mind which did not like the thought of a walk would not remain same, during the walk . Most likely during the walk mind would start to like it, more than it imagined before. I started to read books , again, novels, math books, anything and everything interesting. I did not have targets, reading books. I would do that for pure enjoyment. To satisfy the curiosity of my mind. To enrich the blog which I have started writing. I started noticing people, who are able to interact with me, and not worry about things which are out of my reach. The sphere of our influence is constrained than we think. Although we can influence someone, far away from us by using modern methods of communication, the practical value of doing this is very low. I became more aware of the immediate influence range, and kind of accept, the things I cannot reach shall remain untouched. I quit news , almost entirely. Unless they are big enough to come to me over some other means I would leave the news alone. And I started to forgive myself for enjoying a film. A good film was a place for me to feel warm, looking at emotions of human beings, although theatrical it may look, I would keep the feelings for future reference deep within me. Last but not least, I learned there is a choice I can give to my consciousness. All these acts tend to have a nasty counterpart. When I turn on the TV, there would be news. And If I mindlessly act, it will consume a good part of the day. Instead, I would deliberately choose a boring task and enjoy doing it for a while, and when I am bored would jump to a different boring task. How boring it is to read a poem, or Moby Dick, while everyone else is watching a football match. Not at all! Both can be equally happy, if it was a deliberate choice and you are aware of the consequences, and if they align with your values. If I package this into a take home message following would be the one. "Deliberate choice of everyday tasks, by careful consideration of their outcomes, is one way someone can spend a happy hour." So, what are you going to do in next hour?

Russells paradox, and Godels incompleteness theorem. I do not wish to be a mathematician. At least after reading first chapter of the book of proof by Richerd Hammock. I came to the conclusion, by no means there is any complete mathematician ever lived on earth. So, I wouldn't. And the enlightenment came with the Russells paradox, introduced in the first chapter itself. Even in the book of mathematics, which are supposed to be provable, and "True" there are contradictions, that exist, which are inconsistent with knowledge and unprovable. I do not wish to explain, Russells paradox and Godel's incompleteness theorem in detail here. Yet I will summaries their conclusions, as it is important to understand the fundamentals of living with incompleteness. AI summary. Gödel’s incompleteness theorems  state that in any consistent mathematical system capable of basic arithmetic, there will always be true statements that cannot be proven within that system; Gödel showed this by constructing a self-referential statement that essentially says “this statement is not provable,” which, if the system is consistent, must be true but unprovable—revealing that no such system can be both complete (able to prove all truths) and consistent at the same time. Incomplete Self-referencing problem. Let's forget about mathematics and proofs for a moment. The problems arise when a system is used to reference itself. Mathematics is one such system. I cannot stop thinking about similarity of human mind with such systems. Human consciousness is essentially a similar system to mathematics, with ability to self-reference itself. It seems mathematics and fundamental philosophy are sharing this common feature of self-referencing and then fall into paradoxes. Let's compare some of the cleaver solutions mathematicians have come up with to overcome such problems of self-referencing and how these are applied to human understanding of self. Solution 1 - Using hierarchy. Introduced by Burtrand Russell by himself, the solution means, that there are only hierarchies, and we can only refer to things that are at a lower level. So, the problem of self-referencing does not occur. If you compare this to the version of "God". You can say, agreeing to the fact the self is made by the God, would build a hierarchy that we do not and cannot reference to ourselves as standalone "thing" creating a paradox of existence. This is clever solution in a way. Almost like avoiding the problem, by creating a different framework. But for some obviously this doesn't come as an agreeable solution as there is little evidence to such imaginary hierarchy exists. Solution 2 - Putting restrictions. We can put a rule to our language "Self-referencing is prohibited". So, there would be never problems of self-referencing. This is comparative to the life of a person who never ask questions about their existence. They have decided it is fundamentally wrong to ask such questions. But I see danger in this, as it looks like blissful ignorance to the facts, rather than intelligent choice. One should not choose to live with ignorance, when they can chose intelligence. Acceptance Solution 3 - Acceptance. Godel has proved every system is incomplete. A rational thing to do here is accept this as an inherent error in any system. Any system we have built, and going to built is not devoid of error. By accepting this we can lower our expectation of everything will work out eventually well. It may not. There exist limits of life. There exists no solution to these limits. By accepting, we can achieve our freedom from expectations. Isn't it a smart thing to do?

The ground zero and Chernobyl The 9/11 crash site of world trade center is often referred to as ground zero after the disaster of 2001. The memorial now built over the previous world trade center remind us how much taller the skyscraper as it was only few seconds away from the reach of the ground when it collapsed. And that I think is a more formal definition for a ground zero, and which is meant by the people who named the rumble of concrete and metal mixed with human flesh and blood on the doom's day. If the basement is the ground zero of a skyscraper , what is the ground zero of a society? Manhatton Ground Zero Have you seen the film "I am legend" where Will Smith (before the slap) plays the role of a lonely survivor of an apocalyptic ending to the human society by a deadly virus? In the first chapter of the film, there is no other actor than himself and the dog. And while watching, it made me realize that is "the ground zero". A real ground zero of a collapsed society. Later I learned the abandoned city the film captured was a real city in Ukraine before the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. There are a plenty of videos, and documentaries about how the nature has slowly engulfed the city structures and wildlife flourish nowadays against all the odds and the threat to life by the deadly elephant foot of uranium core at the heart of the city. A real ground zero of a doomed society is there in front of our eyes. I consider ourselves lucky just like Robert Neville the scientist who played golf on an empty city once roamed by cars and carbon dioxide, to see our dooms day before it happened. But that is not the end of the story. As I realized there is another ground zero. What is my ground zero? What is your ground zero? It might mean different things when I say to consider your ground zero. But during the philosophical journey the Magical mindful living takes, I have come to realize there is a ground zero. Which is untouchable, unreachable, and unexplainable. Just like nothingness , with this ground zero What I can do is only accept it as it is. Mind you, although the characteristics of this ground zero is as above, it has a great unexplainable value too. It just helps me find baseline of the being when I am lost in daydreams of life. As of recent, I use this simple trick more often. Chernobyl I am sure you might have not understood anything from above paragraph. But I will try to explain in few more words. The task is difficult as this whole blog is dedicated to explaining unexplainable existence of human consciousness. Often, we can trap our existence into a second, or a thought. But taken in isolation this thought or a second has no meaning as well. Yet we derive a meaning, create values and chase dreams after dreams in our lives. And only when we are exhausted and failed, we look back and try to understand what and why it goes wrong. And that'd be natural. It happened to me as per countless others in the past. But then we realize there is something called ground zero. Death is a good example, as it separates and put a limit to life. So, several times each day when I am exhausted or happy or even elated, I take a deep breath and remind myself that there is a ground zero, with no meaning exactly at this moment, behind all the numbers I chase. And it makes me humble, separated from greed and remind me I could just chose to be a silent observer of life. I am sure if you have lived enough life beyond teenage years, you have felt ground zero. It may be a breakup, or a death, or even little bit of climate change. But have you learned the lesson? Or just carry on chasing another dream like me? Let's take a moment to remind ourselves our own ground zero. It can be a good mindfulness trick for your bag of tricks.

A Book about gravity. I was reading a book about gravity out of curiosity. And it was heavy with assumptions, axioms, theorems and laws. I could feel the book being heavier each passing page that I attempted reading it. Maybe gravity has hidden pull on the book! So, I decided to skim and tackle the book differently by going through the index and finding what is interesting to my humanly brain. And to my surprise there were lot of things which made the book an example to illustrate the interconnectedness. Following is a list of several random topics the book of gravity connected with. List of keywords gravity interconnected. Charles Darwin. KFC Pythagoras Shakespeare Apple Computer rainbows Surrealism West Africa Indian Number system. This is just a sample. A tip of the iceberg. It is true a topic like gravity is mainly connected to physics astronomy and mechanics. Yet, above list proves that even Shakespeare and KFC is connected to gravity somehow. It made me wonder, is there anything in this world isolated? Isn't everything is connected to everything else; how much space and time separates them from each other? Given enough time and space, between things, wouldn't be the future of the universe decided by a grain of sand which happened to stumble over with some sudden wind? gravity The gravity of interconnectedness. Study of maps is a fascinating subject, that there is a separate Math developed around this. Its not just geographical, even maps are made to describe behavior of internet, weather, economics, London underground. If there is any system with complex interactions, we can represent these by maps. Similarly, we can consider the nature, a giant interconnected map. There may be a thousand steps which brings an arctic penguin connected to an Antarctic sea lion. Nevertheless, there are meaningful connections. Instead, being consisted with separate entities, universe such can be considered universally interconnected flux of matter. A gigantic soup of fluctuation, like a weather map, if we make the reel run faster a million times of normal speed, we might just see every big rock dissolve into dust and process repeat itself. Gravity of interconnectedness Interconnectedness has more gravity than gravity itself in the way we look at the world. It totally makes sense. For a fact that I am not isolated from the rest of the world. My existence is constantly reassured and constantly challenged by the environment. Not because it is particularly angry with my existence or it has an opinion on this. Only because, my erroneous thinking pattern which tries to separately identify it from this gigantic eternal flux. And the flux which happens without anyone's opinion, will determine the future of me and countless others. In the short term, this is not going to do anything. As I will still carry on like a willful selfish individual in a struggle of survival. But in the long-term, mind has opportunity to understand the absurdity of it. Isn't it liberating to know that none of the seriousness that we think exist are just makings of our own minds?

Routines are dangerous. But you must not fear them as a knife. As knife, although dangerous to a monkey, can be handy, when it's uses and limitations are known. Similarly, when routines are known for what good and evil they possess, they can be tools not weapons. Routines are dangerous when they are made by your boss One such sign Routines are dangerous is if they are made by someone else for you. Generally, as inevitably every non-Saint human being is possessed by their own greed, whoever make the rules make sure they align their intentions, not yours. This makes digging up a hole in the ground hoping for emeralds far better than working in a corporate job. At least in theory. In other words, if universe had plans for your prosperity, it wouldn't have place you in a corporate job. routines Routines are dangerous when you're addicted to them. Routines have tendency to be addictive. Like a morning cup of coffee. This is the most powerful thing about Routines, as time goes by there would be less motivation and effort needed to complete a task. However, this also can push oneself into a comfortable corner of the universe, sometimes without any hope of progression. Routine itself might provide some bare minimum subjective hope and satisfaction for the survival of the soul. But facts remain that unknown is more for any human being at any given time and deliberate breaks in routine and drop of randomness can be a good thing in the long term. So, we can extend our limits of life for a better overall quality. Routines suppress thinking and creativity. Some routines suppress creativity and thinking. Routines either be helpful or hinder the course of creativity. A routine which has creativity as a primary goal would be helpful in promoting just that. But all the other routines are killers of creativity. Mindless scrolling, 8-5 routines, traditions, rituals, they all suppress thinking and creativity. How can we overcome some problems of these routines? We cannot avoid routines. It's impossible and unnecessary. For a major part of anyone's day we should embrace routines. As they provide a canoe for us to raft through the day without much effort and thinking. But it is essential we play the day by different rules. We should add a drop of randomness to our routines. When we deliberately add some elements of randomness to our routines we create more opportunities for change. These might not be good changes always but rarely one or two changes that we introduce to our routines will stick for the better altering entire future course of life. As an example, when I used to study for competitive exams in college, I would deliberately mix up topics and randomly pick up one to study. Like pulling out a random card from the deck and studying it. Then I would often notice even topics I was sure that I grasped had more stuff to offer for understanding. And it would be more difficult, but enjoyable as no longer I have to memorize A to Z. Even if I forget C, I will know what E and F means by being purely random.

We were having a discussion on spiritual aspects of life in a 'WhatsApp Fun group'. And Someone wanted to know the definition of fun. There were no options other than turning to dictionaries at this point, due to the seriousness of the question, we couldn’t afford to miss anything. So, we did and following is one such taken straight from the DIC :).   What is Fun, a Dictionary definition.   Fun is the experience of enjoyment or pleasure that comes from doing something you find engaging, interesting, or satisfying. It often involves a sense of lightness, curiosity, or excitement—like when you’re laughing with friends, playing a game, exploring something new, or even getting absorbed in a challenge you like. It’s not just about entertainment; “fun” can also come from meaningful activities, creativity, or learning—anything that makes the moment feel enjoyable and rewarding.   Who is having fun? Doing what?   It made me realize that if life is a play, all we do is seeking fun. Some people seek fun going to Church on Sundays, listening to sermons, some instead choose to go to parties. Some have fun being vegans, some Eat meat. Some people make children for fun, later they hate them for fun. We avoid things which destroy our fun, and we embrace things which sustain our fun. This view of life seems primal, hedonistic. You must disagree saying that there is governing morals and ethics above this all. But, it seems, moral and ethics just justify the “Fun for everyone” instead “No fun”. Hence, the fun seems to be the driver everything that we do.   Having Fun. Is it wrong to seek fun in everything?   It doesn’t seem like it’s a wrong thing to do. Even if you go to a party and get drunk, or not go to a party and stay calm, the mind seeks some sense of pleasure. We cannot help it. It is obvious there are consequences, and choosing the former will get you a drunkard socially and financially affecting your future “FUN”. So, any wise man or women would balance their current fun against the future fun. I would seek fun, sometimes from my work, by reading a book, doing some meditation, or even a solo late afternoon walks. They are subtle. Not like having fun climaxing watching Saturday night Football. Fundamentally I see no difference. It is like a snake. Which dwells in the mind. Waiting to bite in any moment if there is any disturbance. It, is calm and sleep, like a little piglet. But the venom it possesses is still there, capable of killing a thousand mockingbirds if necessary.   Self-discovery of Hedonism. For someone, who is not aware that these covert features of mind exist in every dark room of their labyrinths in their brain, can be unforeseen and astounding. They might not know what to do with this. I suggest just to observe. Like a mindfulness beginner myself would do.  We need to consolidate our knowledge on our mind before understanding what it does throughout our lives. Oscar Wild did this to the character of Dorian in his only novel, the masterpiece of picture of Dorian Grey . Similarly, once discovered that there is a dirty picture within us, we would know so does everyone else, that fact is just majority do not know, and majority do not have guts to admit that they do, so live a life of denial. No progression can be expected from someone who is not true to themselves. As only in consciousness truth exist, it is utmost important we embrace our nature with acceptance rather than rejection. So, one day we can tear down dirty picture of ourselves forever. I am not aware such status exist. Maybe there is. Hopefully Oscar is correct on this.

Resilience of happiness of slum dogs This is one of the superpowers of a human brain. The resilience, to find peace and happiness admist of chaos. I consider this a heavenly trait, a gift from nature rarther than a conscious decision of an individual. After all this is one quality which gives a hope, for a human inside places like Autzwhitz or Gaza strip or even Wall Street. If we consider the income gap between any society, there is a marked variation. It is a well known fact top 0.1% of any society own so much wealth, that the ratio with the bottom 1% will have atleast 10 digits in it. But, one must ask the question, how about happiness? Is the happiness people across these income groups also proportional to the income ratio? If not so what other factors determine outcome of a happiness of an individual? Is there a way for a slum dog to be happy, even when his labour is robbed and muscles are dissolved into false hopes? A roadrunner Chasers and watchers I wouldnt say it's unlikely. Considering the case of myself I can say that it takes a man for decades to understand what factors determine the relative happiness in their own subjective world. Selflessness, education, generosity, being content, are some temporary values a person can harvest within themselves. Such an individual who is self aware can have more happiness and content than a chaser. It seem the name of the slum that you live in is of a less significance. Let it be narrow streets of Bombay, Pattaya in mainland Thailand or palm beach USA FL, there are these two groups of people. Chasers, and Watchers. Chasers chase, everything. While ambitions keep running like road runners, chasers tire themselves without ever stopping to see what happens. Majority of the chasers lern their trade by their parents or teachers or gurus in their own society. From cradle to coffin chasers do not stop. We tend to hang these gilded framed stories of chasers on the empty walls of our minds as we are not aware of alternatives to decorate our minds with. But what is the alternative? Alternatives to chasing. Watching. There are plenty of alternatives. But we have to be Watchers to know these. If you choose to stop running and just watch you would see people in the slums who are smiling. They are not rich, they are not successful, they are not intelligent. Maybe a bit of Generosity, sharing, curious creativity made them smile. Only for those who chose to watch their minds with utmost seriousness, these subtle pleasures of life would be openly accessible. Smile can be brought out with a flower, a buzzing bee, a broken shoe or an hour spent in silence without the sound of artilaries. As the endgame remains the same for everyone, including rich and poor, male and female, brave and coward, I would chose a game that I can win, inside my brain, as I am the creator of my own universe here.

I am a friend of books more than anything else. Ever since I touched the magical, fairy tales of Russian storytellers accidently as a toddler, I had the fascination to make myself be absorbed into pages of a book. The remarkable nature of a book being silent makes it resonate with my mind. Reason 1. Books are dynamic Books do not ask themselves to be read. I cannot see a moving thing inside its pages unless I turn the pages deliberately. Words remain at exact places as put Forwarded by the author. But paradoxically they are dynamic. There are moving cars, raging hurricanes, and marching armies inside those pages. Movement is everywhere. And books are dynamic. I know this in firsthand even before I start reading a passage, by the end of a chapter something is going to move and move markedly. Books are magical Why you should read a book Reason 2. Books are replicating Movement is only one sign of a living. On the other hand, there are many signs, which characterize living. And I have encountered all of them in books. There are dreams, there are emotions, there is propagation and growth. Books even have captured the consciousness of some fellow human beings of the past. Hence, I would say a book written a thousand years ago, is still a specimen of life that existed. They can propagate ideas in your mind which would change the course of future humans. Reason 3. Living is just another narrative Living is a first-person narrative. If you have watched your life day after day, you would understand there is nothing more to life. It is just a description of things which appears happening around you. Ruminations of a first-person perspective. In a sense, life is just another unwritten book, and the protagonist is you, with all your ebbs and flows. If a life is a narrative, I suggest books are replica of these lives. As they hold records of everything in approximation, just like it happens in our minds. Reason 4. Books are intelligent friends. Because of these qualities I consider, books my great companions. I do not wish to speak with a group of people who has nothing interesting to tell other than, what happened to them yesterday. How boring is to talk about 5 years of future, when there are far more interesting things hidden behind pages of a single book. I would spend afternoon with five books, on a circle table, speaking to me simultaneously about, electromagnetic waves and Fibonacci numbers or metamorphosis. What a fascinating afternoon it would be if I can find five, similar intelligent fellows to surround me in this boring existence. Yet, I do not find them unless among pages of old library books. I am not sure what to make of this. Maybe I am being thrown into chasms of loneliness, when I lose the interest on human beings. I cannot help myself. Maybe embracing books might be doom of my eternal soul. Let it be. I love the peace it creates when the mind roam across the pages of a chapter written by a solitary mind half century ago, half across the world, a friend that I do not have the privilege to meet. ReAsOn 5: BoOkS aRe MaGicAL ! Next -> What to read?

What is rare on earth...? It seems we live in abundance more now than ever. Since new millennia, everything has reached everyone super-fast, thanks to modern economic machines. In this social and cultural revolution still, I can see some rare things on earth. Some are materialistic, like gold and emeralds. Still not found in abundance, so we cannot use it to build our plates with. But what I am more interested in are non-materialistic, rather conceptual things. Following is a full list of rare things that I find fascinating and are rare in an individual. Creativity is rare. Creativity is abundant in a child. Yet when we become adults, as the learned behavior becomes dominant, and we stick with our corporate roles, Creativity becomes a rarity. Either time constrains, or mental constraints put an end to our childhood dreams. And we do not tend to appreciate an adult for taking a creative pursuit as much as we encourage a child. Which is equivalent to a first-degree murder, if we speak in terms of a crime. The yellow flowered green grass standing tall challenging a mountain. Hypothesizing is rare. At the peak of any domain of knowledge or craft, there should be some form of hypothesis. As everything will never be discovered, hypothesizing is the only way we can deal with unknown. We can say, humans are far better than humans of the past in this enduring task of hypothesizing. It is true that we are doing more and more research than ever. Yet, I can see only a minute fraction of humans are actively involved in hypothesizing as a routine. You may hypothesize about weather, or a stock price, or iran war. And that's only as far as an ordinary man goes. Mindfulness is rare. Mindfulness is not a meditation practice, to calm yourself down when you're frantic and stressed. It is the life. Every moment we are not aware of our immediate surroundings and our internal reactions to the environment, we are just drifting in a dream. Life is what happens while we make other plans. Nobody is living unless the one who is mindful. Silence is rare. I see noise everywhere. Drums, guitars, organs, aero planes, heavy machinery rolling in each city block just bring too much noise. Even when I try to keep silent it almost always fails as the world is too much noisy. How unfortunate we have lost the pleasures of silence in search of better music. Sometimes even in rare isolation, the echo of those noisy cities ruminates in mind, the deserved peace cannot be achieved even inside a forest. It might take days of social isolation for someone to reach silence nowadays. So, silence is rare. Generosity is rare. Selfishness is abundant. Generosity is rare. I find this a fascinating quality of mind. Like a pureness inside pureness in a crystal-like nature of a white Lillie. But even within myself and others I see this rare. I have seen some and even acts of Generosity daily. But the selfless Generosity is a different level. Such that it doesn't depend on the consequence of the action. It is standalone. And it is kind of platonic. Its presence can even be deluded, but if one does not wish for a heaven, this would be the second-best place to be, if it's a place to dwell. Philanthropy is just fake when compared to generosity. There are some other candidates in the rare list. But there is no point focusing on too many at a time so. Let's just list them out. Love. Consistency. Resilience. Empathy. Selflessness.

If you are planning to make a family, married, unmarried, divorced single parent, or even adopt. I have both good news and bad news. The good news is you can make a family, when you choose just to do that. That's the easy part. And the bad news I already broke to you. And this family is not going to be a happy family. Why you shouldn't try Trying to make a happy family is the worst thing you can try to do. It is like trying to walk in the meadows in a spring morning without getting feet wet. Or trying to swim in sea without getting salty eyes. Or trying to learn how to cycle without ever falling down. Such miracles do not happen in real life, and it is absolutely ok, not to make anything perfect. Let's do a mental experiment on this. I like to use an analogy with children. If you give a packet of clay to each child in kindergarten and also show them a model family of Matyroshka dolls. And asked them to replicate, I am sure they will try. Yet some will struggle to sit in a one place for half an hour. Some will make half families without heads. Some will make ugly families without arms. Some will make almost perfect families without cloths. And some will make a group of monkeys instead. Do you really think our modern education had tamed and framed the differences in our souls, into a group of synchronized military men? I am sure it's trying to do so. Yet I can see it fails miserably at the end. Fundamentally we are different. Not so happy family Not so happy family is good enough. So, my intuition is it doesn't matter how well the kid in the next door is doing with his doll family. What matters is what you're doing. And if it is OK to make not so perfect families in the kindergarten, it definitely is OK to make not so perfect families in real life, when you are an adult. You can thank me later when you understand that you're not at all responsible for every defect in your not so perfect family. If they can just drag on like a family within the framework of societal expectations that would just do. And there you will find the things which are perfect at the moment, which might even momentarily release some endorphins and smiles when you know there are some perfect things there. Who cares about the bad brick when all the others are in perfect alignment. You can laugh when you see imperfections in your brick wall, as these are welcomed in your mind. That can even be the happy starting point of a greater bond. As understanding is some emotion we seek for comfort from our relationships. Acceptance and understanding are rare and difficult when we are in separate rooms, with a boundary called our own bodies. You can touch you can hear, you can see and even smell some other person. But you can never be them and know exactly why they are not perfect according to your expectations. So, let's take a moment to list down all the imperfections in your family and accept it is still a nice one, with all its awkwardness.

I didn't read beyond the first page of the novel The Great-Gatsby by Fitzgerald, when I came across, I think most fascinating idea presented in the book. The character of Mr. Carraway describing himself. Why, he had been reserving his judgement on everyone he meets, following his father's advice. And he summarizes the advice in following form. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “Just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” Tea Because of this advice he had become a good listener, and many have come to confess to him, even before The Great Gatsby himself, as he had given them infinite hope. So, how can someone give infinite hope to another, or to himself. And that is by reserving the judgement. Which I like more meaning and power that we should explore. How, beautiful if we can have infinite hope? by following the advice given by Fitzgerald. "Reserving Judgement is a matter of infinite hope." The key to having, or giving infinite hope is by understanding, what it means to reserve judgement. It may be not so obvious to someone who has not done any mindfulness practice on their own. If you looked at your mind for a few hours a day, you would understand all that mind does is recognizing things and passing judgements on them. Putting labels good or bad. Pavements broken -> bad government. Crows flying over -> dirty animals. Flowers on the hedge -> beautiful That girl in the shed -> 7/10 The bus arrives 1 minute late -> bad. The mind, when it does it, do not try to discriminate what it sees, meaning, it doesn't matter it's an animate or inanimate thing. People, animals, houses, things, yesterday things, tomorrow things, it will put a judgment label on everything which it recognizes throughout the day. Second after second. And it is through these judgements we act normally, guiding our activities. Someone might say these judgements are essential for proper rational functioning of any mind. Yet, I can see, that passing judgement on someone or something would put a constraint on its use. As, now it has become this one thing, which is suitable for one thing only. If you label a child, a good child, you wouldn't expect bad behavior. Moment, they do a bad thing, you will relabel them as a bad child and giving no hope of ever becoming a good one. But if you reserve your judgement and consider an act by a child as an act. Then there would be infinite hope in every good or bad action. How non-judgmental Mindfulness gives you infinite hope? This also applies to anything you recognize, as good or bad in your immediate or imaginary environment. Essential component of mindfulness practice is being non-judgmental on the objects of the mind . It is not at all easy, as the process of the mind is fast, and unrecognized most of the time during a day. However, if you do not judge this process bad, you can have infinite hope that eventually mindfulness will grow. A flower would just be a flower, without good or bad. And that is the best thing we can do, in a day. Nothing more nothing less.

I have heard different versions of above quotes over many years. "Give yourself permission to be human" or "The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness -Dostoevsky." Have I given a serious thought about this prior. I do not think so. Yet intuitively I have come to the same conclusion and would agree with the above Quote, by Ekart Tolle. In a life, no matter how much wealth, or utopian it may seem, we cannot achieve a continuous level of happiness. Such a life doesn't exist. And even absurd trying for that, as the progression in life is always with enduring of hardships, which doesn't provide continuous happy occasions at all. On the other hand, life is not hopeless. There is something we can do, in each and every happy and unhappy moment in life. And these things are called actions, not reactions. Happiness Post happiness reaction Consider, a recent happy event your life. What did you do, when this happiness occurred. Did you forget all your past, and felt like a bubbling soda can, in a TV commercial bursting out happiness. Did you call several people and posted on Facebook with a triumph and joy and elation? Now, that happy feeling is gone, how do you feel about your actions now? Do you regret doing any of these? Should you have just celebrated your happy occasion with few friends instead, with a casual smile? Have you even considered the feeling of happiness that you felt in those moments? Did you feel how it felt compared to the past, that it was not there? Did you know your happiness well enough before you broadcast it to the public? Did you consider how long will it last, till next time when you face further challenges from your ordinary life? I haven't. Compare this with what you do after you learn that you are unhappy for some reason, and I suggest you have opposite of reactions than happiness. Withdrawal, tears and loneliness may follow with self-blame. All these reactions happen even before you critically analyze the source of these happy and unhappy feelings. Gratitude and happiness I haven't investigated happiness or unhappiness in the past. I did not consider my happiness or unhappiness as an object of mind. So, whenever it was there, I do not know now. I have passed numerous exams, Yet I am not aware ever I felt happy. I have written 600 blog articles, and I have not considered what I feel after writing each one of them. How ignorant I have been. I should have been more grateful about what life have provided me with, when I am well aware of all the other subjects who are not privileged as I am in this world. If you are not going to die by tomorrow morning, I suggest you do the same. Take a moment to appreciate, all the opportunities life has provided for you to feel some happiness, calmness and sensible peace. This costs nothing more than few minutes of thought. And the unhappiness, is the friend of happiness. They go hand in hand. They contrast each other in life. When you are unhappy, that is the opportunity which brings out happiness later. Similarly, when you are happy that is the contrast with unhappiness that you have felt in the past brings out the happiness. To truly understand happiness, and embrace it means, that you are allowing unhappiness too. Because they do not travel alone. This is again not absurdity. It is wisdom according to Fitzgerald to learn to live with dilemmas like these . Unhappy Mindful Reaction to happiness and unhappiness If we looked at the Dostoevsky quote from above, we can now clearly see the source of unhappiness in someone life is not at all unhappiness. It is just our embracement and focus on happiness. If we did not expect happiness to be permanent in the first place, which is its natural trend, we would not embrace it so hard when it appears but be gentle like a guitarist. Smooth like an artist handling the paint. And calm like a monk, when happiness roams the mind. Which again is replicated when it is sadness. It is the same response, or action which you should carry out when you are either happy or sad. There is no point having two different reactions to these two states of mind as actually they are not two in reality.