Today I am going to share a story with you. It is hilarious now when I look back and think about it but nonetheless it is still a near death experience as it is. And the lessons learnt are still valid. I had to travel in an airplane few weeks back. I had a little cold for a few days prior with a mild frontal headache. I didn't mind that as I never had any problem travelling. 6-hour travel after busy day of working, on top of that I couldn't even sleep on the night before. As usual and as often happens, flight was delayed one a half hour! Well, that is for the background. Flight was smooth, nothing abnormal, I was in good spirits. However, I could not sleep still. At 40000 feet I was really fine, then the pilot announced we are about to descend. And slowly but steadily it started a down slide. Then I noticed a sharp headache on half of my forehead, which has never been there, like I was struck with a club. That's strange Sharp severe pain 9/10. My initial thoughts were maybe it is a sinusitis and blocked ear causing nerve irritation. (later happened to be what it is) Or a stroke. Latter was fearsome. A worst place to get a stroke! Am I going to die? Are these my last minutes on this life? And I panicked. I palpated my pulse and felt its slowing down. I could feel my heartbeat slow down. For 15 seconds I believed I am going to die. I told the stranger nearby that I feel ill, and I lost my consciousness. And I woke up. for 2 minutes I didn't know what happened. And a kind flight attendant helped me with some water, and I processed what happened. Pain was still there, and my heartbeat was fine. I had a Vasovagal attack! There is more to the story. But I will not drag you on that lane as I really like to keep the post short and let you scroll through the cat stories in the web. Lesson one: For 15 seconds that I believed I am going to die, I reflected my life. And I knew I have wasted it on unnecessary things. Family, money, my job, stress, work did not matter. I really did not know what is on the other side. And I regretted the way I have spent my life. Lesson two: The only one person that could help me was the one who sat next to me. That was the most important person. I will end the story here. When I reflect It may be not a true near-death experience in an airplane, yet I did believe it was. Some of you may have near death experiences. True ones. Please feel free to share your lessons in comments. For rest of you I suggest imagining. Imagine before it happens. What insights science and philosophy can provide us about Near-death experiences? You can read about it here. You may also like to read, puddles of life, rain rain go away.

You may have heard of chaos theory, may have watched the movie 'the butterfly effect' or at least heard that the 'weather is unpredictable', so much so our national weather institute cannot even predict weather for the next month, even few days ahead. And the simple explanation to the weather problem is chaos theory. In simple terms, chaos theory is ' in a complex system, small changes in initial starting state can lead to unpredictability of the system over time that it can result in large variations in outcomes.' Ok, maybe that was too harsh. We will first dissect it slowly and then when we have enough knowledge, look back at our lives to see, if there any use we can apply this knowledge in our lives. What is a complex system? Our atmosphere and weather are a complex system, we can understand why with all its clouds, winds, temperature, ice glaciers, ozone layer and global warming, it is a complex system. However, even three objects in space moving relative to each other and having gravity effects on each other is a complex system. Even three simple gravity balls in space! is by definition complex. And by establishing chaos theory, there will be marked variation in position of these gravity balls which is so unpredictable if the initial positions are changed even a small fraction. If positions of three balls are unpredictable over time 'by definition of chaos theory' now we can understand why our weather departments struggle so hard to predict the future. But hey, they do a pretty good job right? Chaos theory and fractals Forget mathematics, still our forefathers knew there will be monsoons, or four seasons of weather. If the weather is so unpredictable, why do we observe these patterns in the weather over time? Edward Lorenz who first came out with chaos theory, while he was investigating weather systems noticed over time in complex systems, there are patterns start to emerge which can come back again and again, due to some forces, hence given the name Attractors. And these patterns will lead to infinitely complexity but self-similar across all scales- which are called 'fractals' in mathematics. Now let's slow down. We stopped learning math long time ago, why do we have to revisit, 'fractals'. The truth is we do not have to. If we look at nature (which is another complex system) there are examples of these fractals. And oh boy! there are so many so that mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot had written a book about these observations in the nature. The Fractal Geometry of Nature 1982 Can chaos theory explain our life? So, how are we going to explain our lives with chaos theory? It is clear that we are living in a complex system, not only the weather, even our minds are complex enough, the outcomes can be unpredictable over time. Even a spark of a single thought you are getting by reading this chapter can lead to change in thousand lives and even the weather in 100 years to come! What can we do with this knowledge? Imagine you are around some 'Lorenz attractors'. Your life seems predictable rotating around same people, same routines (fractals?), however if you look carefully there is variation, and nothing is repeated. If you try and get out of complex patterns, of course you will be back into a chaotic life and be blown away. But after some time, you will be attracted to some other 'Lorenz factor' and there will be a flow. And that is the nature. And I suggest you have faith in chaos theory after all and the take the leap of faith, which you have been trying to take your entire life. Thank you for reading : can chaos theory and weather explain our lives. You may also like to read: What is time? a novel way to understand. Pyramids or mighty pyramids, lessons from blooms taxanomy

Have you built anything before? Or do you let everything to be done by the experts. Since the beginning when we started to walk, we were taught to build things. We started learning letters, combined them into words, sentences and essays. We built our skills, to earn a living at the end. We built a pond in the garden, a broken chair to be mend, built a career and friendships, relationships. As individuals, as society, as nations, we build everything, necessary and unnecessary. We build things, knowing they do not last long. We build reputations, hopes, and our knowledge and values. How exhausting it could be, when we do is all building. I can remember when we were small, my parents started to build a house. It took years, it was never finished. I helped them, with bricks, with concrete and building sand. Exhausted one day I asked my mom 'when do we ever finish?' I really can't remember what she said, maybe she was sad. Even now when I look back, all I can remember is it was so damn tiring to build. But now I know, it was tiring for me, because I didn't enjoy building houses, but since then I have built a lot unknowingly, like I said, it's our nature to build things. So, when we think about building, throughout all our lives we do is building, when are we ever going to start living on what we build? Or in reality what is the meaning of life when the building is stopped? Is there any meaning at all? Imagine you are building a house, do you have to have a perfect finish, till you be completely happy? Can you really live in a half-built house with complete satisfaction? or do you want all the brick walls covered with cement and tiles? Or do you want all the windows and doors, completed tip top modern fashion? The truth is it would never happen, in thousand years we cannot build a house without a single flaw, there will be always dirty walls and unhappy corners in houses we build, and sooner we learn to be satisfied and realize this fact, more we will become content and down to earth. And we will always find the happiness is when we stop building houses and start living in half build ones. After all, living in the house is more important than building the house itself. Now, let's look back at ourselves and find out about our perfect mental houses, that we started building. And try to apply what we learn from houses. Take a break. After all it's never going to be a perfect dream. Thank you for reading: On building a shed, a house, a career or anything astound ! You may also like reading: Slow is the new fast ! a mindfulness trick Near death experience in an airplane

We all have heard about habit formation loop in different stages of our lives, you may have researched it, you may have come across articles about 'effective habits of successful people'. I can remember one of our teachers said to us, that learning is a habit. If you want to learn, you better start it as a habit so we can carry on doing it easier by the day. Nowadays, there are genius habit coaches who teach us about the cue routine reward cycle of habit, also teach us about, how we can use different techniques to improve each step of habit formation to enhance our ability to stick with new ones. From atomic habits to tiny habits, we are taught how to harness the power of habit, by various methods. Although habits are powerful tools, as the psychology of habit formation is more and more researched, by individuals and by academics, it is understood that habits, also have created epidemics among us today. From epidemics of obesity, depression violence to phone addiction, may have been caused and contributed by these habits we have acquired over time. The phone addiction is one such epidemic, especially among teens and younger generation. If you board a bus in your town, you will find everyone is listening in Bluetooth devices and headphones. From morning till night our lives are controlled by screens. By definition, if you use your phone most of the time of your day and feel depressed and anxious when you do not have it, use it to get away from boredom, those may be signs that you may having a problematic usage. How did we end up in such a deep dark black hole? How did these apps and games start to control our lives, when we should have been masters of the technology? Did we know from Facebook, twitter,YouTube to this website, is going to hack your willpower by making you addicted more and more in search of content, to satisfy your inner craving, until you get Hooked? Companies use our inherent habit-forming abilities for their advantage and create habit forming products by using four step process, as summarized below. cue - eg: vibration of your phone. routine - eg: check notification - reminds you to walk 5000 steps today. reward - eg: once you walked- display a nice message congratulating your success. Invesment- eg: it saves your data for today. It saves your progress, it saves your messages, it saves the level of your game, and next time when you open the app and get a notification, there you will be hooked again to complete next task and be drowned in it some more. Think about it. What will happen if you forget your phone to work, or to your trip?. Why do we feel that there is part of us is missing when something like that happen? Because the phone is saved with valuable data of ours, in pictures, Facebook pages, twitter messages, and even we save these things in clouds and carry across devices. We are blackmailed, by these apps, and no wonder why we are so much hooked, as the basic idea of these products are to get us hooked anyway. Billions of human hours are wasted. Provided the insights, best advice so far to break the phone addiction is trying to replace it, with new creative habits of your own. Otherwise soon we will find ourselves in another epidemic of short-sighted, angry birds. The first step would be to be aware of your phone usage and that it is an addiction, rather than entertainment. Next, we can follow same principles of 'app developers' to make ourselves better habits to replace with phone addiction. Awareness is the key, knowledge is the sword, and it's a battle of your own. Thank you for reading: Phone addiction, habit formation how do we get hooked? You may also like reading: Pyramids oh mighty pyramids- lessons from blooms taxanomy Whati is mindfulness?

Let's talk about objects of mind. Let's not go into deep theorems of philosophy. Let's try to understand our objects of mind in a simple manner so we can have a good model of what is happening inside out. First to explain and identify mental objects we will do a thought experiment! Hang on it's going to be fun. As per the example, imagine you are looking at a flower. When you turn your eyes, you see a flower right? Now imagine you are a newborn baby and forget everything what you have learned so far. You are seeing the world for the first time. Now, let's look at the flower. What do you see? Do you see a flower? Do you agree there is no flower if you remove layers of knowledge? Now, do you agree yourself now, and yourself as a newborn baby both saw the same thing? But for the baby, there was no flower, maybe there were some colors. But for the baby there was only some light, which was present. (We really do not know it was even colors) It seems that the things we have learned since our birth, has influenced markedly on what we see. Essentially it has made a world around us with our own imagination added to the layer of just mere colors, sensations and sounds. I will give some characteristics of these mental objects . Mental objects are unique to each and every individual. We cannot access the world or communicate with the world without these mental objects. Our values are almost always associated with these mental objects as we are communicating with the world through them Mental objects change over time. At one point of time our mind can only access only one object I will discuss the characteristics one by one. And the importance and application of each. As a start here I will show that how mental objects are unique to each and every individual. Imagine a family of five, father, mother, son his wife and a grandson. Imagine yourself as each one of them and think about following, father will see himslef as -> me mother will see father as -> husband son will see father as -> father daughter in law will see -> father in law grandson will see -> grandfather Do you see that all of them are talking about same person? Yet for each one of them the mental object of essentially same person, is markedly different. Even you have your own imagination about this father, and I am 100% sure it is different from mine. Who is correct? I can answer this question (who is correct ?) in half a day or in a half a sentence. But I will answer it in half a sentence to keep the post shorter. Everyone is correct but only in their own relative world. More importantly Let's discuss the importance of knowing, these mental objects which are different for each one of us. A flower that is beautiful to you may not be necessarily beautiful to another. A loss that is not painful to you maybe very painful to another. Have some empathy and understand and believing what they are saying is true is the only way we can understand what they are experiencing. Do not go into arguments by observing something from just your point of view. Someone else with more background knowledge may have a better understanding and point of view. After all, only you know nobody is exactly correct as we can never know what is really out there except through our own copy of mental objects ! Thank you for reading Objects of mind - mental representation You may also like to read: I wish I could be a ghost ( poem ) A question is a missed opportunity to question itself

We are back again to discuss mindfulness . Today I am going to introduce you to another mindfulness trick. Yes ! you guessed it right. Its called " do nothing. " How often you have struggled to practice mindfulness. Too many instructions. Let's try a simple way. Why don't you stay wherever you are and do nothing? Except if you are driving or flying an airplane you can try this. Of course, I know you are not, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this now. Stop browsing the internet and do nothing for two minutes. Stop trying to do anything, do nothing. Don't try to move, don't try to not to move. Don't try to think, don't try to stop thoughts. Don't try to listen, don't try to block sounds. Get the idea? whatever you want to do, don't do it! be passive like a feather floating in wind. ------------------------------------------ empty -------------------------------------------- Total Total relaxation. See, mindfulness is not so difficult after all. Next time, when things become overwhelming try the do-nothing trick. Do you want to know why it works? It works because when you try to do something, the peace which is inherently present gets disturbed. You will find the more elaborative story why it works about a man who walked in a forest, in the post carpe-diem. you may also like to read science of nature (poem and story) Thank you for reading do nothing mindfulness trick

I have been wondering about this in my mind since I have started my twitter account. I like following people and what they have to say. Not only in twitter, in many other aspects of life I have seen myself as a follower, in a world everyone teaches us to lead and command. Leading and commanding takes energy. Following is easy, following leads us to a low energy status which is stable. This phenomenon is seen in everywhere, in chemistry. biology, astronomy, physics. A ball on a slope will roll down, like water flows into the sea Birds will follow each other, as we've seen on channel discovery Sun will burn itself down until one day collapse into a black hole While its hydrogen reacts with helium to give us light energy You would argue that it's not always the case. Sometimes there is backward flow. True, after all water should get to the top of the mountain for it to flow down. As an example, your room always gets messy after a while (High in entropy) which needs to be arranged with energy. Obviously, that's why leading and commanding comes with lots of energy demand, and many choose to follow instead. So, what can we learn from this? Should I command or should I follow? Which one is better? If we think carefully about each of these, we will see, they are just two states, there is no good or bad in either one of them. Just two natural processes. Problem arises if you tried to value one over the other. So, your messed up room, at the end of the day is as good as it was in the morning when your mom tidied it for you. But please, don't argue with her, just clean it and have a wonderful kind mindful day. To be the water that flows I intended to be the water and take the shape of your cup be a rain and fall from the sky and flow and follow every drop To join the sea one day Where I will rejoice and stop In the mighty sea when its my home You wouldn't find me ever Will forever be lost. Thank you for reading Leading and following the rule of nature - mindfulness. You may also like to read : Falling leaves in autumn Hailstorms in summer ( Poem and story ) What is time? novel point of view ( article )

I am going to talk about the little bit of Christmas walk I did today. No, It's not in the heart of London. No, it's not done under the glistening light decorations and Christmas trees. It was an ordinary walk. It has been a wonderful Christmas. I had 48 hours at work. And I did not know public transport was not available, on my side! And I decided to walk. Walk all the way the 8-mile home, that I routinely travel on bus, to feel what I haven't felt, on the fast-moving bus. Time was on my side, So, I did not mind. Occasionally stopping to write about a tree. A gloomy day. Typical English weather. I'm walking the 8mile back home. (Literally) In company with the mind of my own Silence and peace are my best friends. When the trees cry still on loss of them. It's the winter I have to face. They left me such a disgrace. I kept my hopes up this time. Trust is broken yet I'm fine. (The Oak told me) Maybe another spring will come. Oak is strong proud a legend on its own. We sang a song since spring, through summer into autumn A song of color green to brown Our deed is done its time to rest on the ground. (Leaves told me- don't tell him) Will climb back in next spring. The dead Fox The first thing I saw this morning, noticeable was a dead fox. on the road. Still fresh but dead as a fox. Unfortunately, I did not have courage to photograph a dead fox. Your father will come home, don't cry dear darlings. A rat or a mouse or a hare will he bring this morning. I know it's cold, and you are hungry, hold on hoping. Its Christmas, God is kind to everyone, I don't know why, I feel a little chilling, a shivering. (Mother fox told her children) Eight Miles. Eight miles I am travelling every day. How boring it could be to travel on a bus? A tree with A cancer. I saw this giant with a cancer, on its trunk, He was fine in his prime maybe Maybe it was all benign. Though the capture is dark, You will find its bark expanded, with the bulge In his tummy The final bit I took through the park. Captured the dead giant just at the exit. More like what remained of the service He has done to the society still stood Taller than me. Thank you for reading A Christmas walk- 8 mile.

Have you seen a magic show? Maybe you have watched the latest Talent show, where magicians play their tricks, maybe you have been to a show in real atmosphere in real smell and feel. Essentially, they illude us Infront of hundreds of others, and both of us know we are fooled. Magicians when they bring out things, disappear things and change things in front of us, they often use the trick of distraction. How do they distract us? No, it's not by making us look at the celling until he changes his hands, they do this by making us focus on the things that he wants us to focus. Then with speed complete his trick! Ta da... These days there are a lot of YouTube videos which will teach us how to do magic. Look at a few and you will be able to do your own tricks. However, I suggest before you, your mind, the greatest magician of all knew this all along. He focuses our attention while the life plays tricks on us. Magicians trick us by focusing our attention on things he wants. I will give an example how our mind tricks us and do the same. Imagine you are building a house. Whenever you talk, with someone, whenever you walk on the road, you will notice houses. Whenever you look at the news, you will hear and remember things about houses. Which were there all those years, now only you are seeing them. As it is only relevant now. Mind influences what we see. As different people want different things, looking at the same house things they notice are different. Some will see the plants, some will notice the walls, some will notice the art on the walls, some will see the kitchen, or the television. But nobody can see it all. Too much information. It has to be selective and relevant. Maybe a defense mechanism of mind for information overloading. Do you know who else use this phenomenon? Our Social media algorithms. They monitor us, using our past choices, guess what we want, and present it to us, uniquely individually adjusted material, so we are hooked. So, what is the advantage of knowing this? Think about it, our mind fools us daily, in front of our own eyes, by selectively showing us only what we want, shaped by our will. So, the truth, if it is there is always hidden from us, and we applaud to the magician. Maybe it won't help you today to build your house. But there is a big difference, between knowing you are fooled and not knowing, when we applaud to the magicians' tricks. Thank you for reading A magician's trick - focused attention as a distraction - mindfulness. You may also like to read: Train of thoughts and of silence The science of nature ( Poem)

Have you ever thought about this? Who is the greatest teacher of them all? I will give you a quick answer and elaborate more on the topic. The greatest teacher of them all is the one who teaches you how to fish for yourself, not the ones who fish for you. Greatest teacher of them all is the one who teaches you the skills of learning it for yourself, not the one who gives you the knowledge. Imagine you are a student, what is the most important skill you should have? Doing mathematics, learning science theorems, or is it history? It is how to learn it for ourselves. Imagine if you know how to self-learn, that you have mastered the skill of self-learning. It has the potential to make you not only excellent in your own studies but help you to carry you through a lifelong journey. In modern days adult learning is all about self-learning. How often we have heard dropouts from universities and colleges doing great things with their lives. The secret is they have mastered the self-learning, easy way or hard way. Nowadays when information is at our fingertips, we only need a strategy and motivation to build our path into the future. Even motivation and habits can be learned. From time to time in my blog, I have and will be giving you tips to build yourself to a self-sustainable learner. I have done it in the past, whenever someone wants me to teach something, I tend to teach them how I learned it myself in the first place. Over the years my strategies have changed, and I am still learning. Maybe you are also. It seems there is no one universal answer. Following list will get enlarged over time when I add more strategies I have used in the past. These are introductions. As I have mentioned, I assume you are a lifelong learner and do your own part of learning them by yourself. Blooms taxonomy - pyramids or mighty pyramids Collections composition and encapsulation - programming for life Pomodoro and growing trees, how to hack smartphones for studying. Focused and Diffuse modes of thinking in studying But the constant thirst for improvement have led me into places I have never thought of going. When I see why sometimes strategies do not work, after some time they lose their charm and the mind seem to be dropping back into some dips of the life. Which is natural and it is because all those equations and strategies forget we are just humans (fundamental problem in scientific method). We are not machines where we can program ourselves into be successful each and every time. This problem, until we understand we will be living in an illusion. One of my teachers told me what it really means, Metacognition. Metacognition by definition means an awareness of one's thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them. If you want to read beyond just learning and truths about your own life. Following are good place to start reading about. carpe-diem seize the day Question is a missed opportunity to question itself Thank you for reading Who is the greatest Teacher? - Self learning metacognition.

This is successive article to the "Understanding time in a novel way" chapter in my book. If you haven't read it please follow above link, read it first and only then the following article going to make sense. First of all, I will give a short background and then explain the term time benders and next comparison made with my own previous article. Trust me I am no philosopher, I am just like you an ordinary human being, so you should be able to understand. Background As you know I have written a book about time recently (about time) and I have published one chapter introducing novel way to look at time, from the things I have learned and observed from my life. However, one of the readers pointed out to me that I should have ended up talking about time benders. So, as I did a little research on my own and following is an introduction to time benders. Time benders- French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) He describes time as having two faces. Objective time - time on faces of clocks, Calanders and timetables Subjective time- time as we experience it, live it and feel it. He argues that we feel differences in same period of objective time can be because there are differences in time to each other subjectively. (e.g.: pandemic slow down) If you read my article above, I have discussed about subjective time. But in the book, I have also discussed two ways of defining time as outward in and inward out definition. Comparison: If we look at closely at the objective time, we can see these are tools which are used to quantify the subjective time. So, we all can agree in communication, documentation, commerce and functioning. (outward in definition of time) In reality the time is only subjective. As there are each individual live in their own time zones, trying to define time inward out is not successful, rather impossible. (there is no way we can quantify our feeling - universally) Hence the definition I have given about time still holds. Time is created in mind as a side effect of comparing two events in mind, in now. You may wonder why thinking about all these. May be its just because we are curious, maybe it's because we want to know the truth about life. Let it be an answered question. If you are curious about mental objects, follow the link. Thank you for reading - time benders understanding time in a novel way.

I will trade my Success. And my Wealth To be back again on a Tree To be on a tree Listening Can you hear it? The wind... Once upon a time there was a tree, a big giant tree with an unhuggable trunk, even by ten people. The tree lived on a top of a slope few feet in height. Nobody has ever climbed that tree. It was sacred to the villagers. Yes, it was once upon a time, yes, it is a story from the past. But this is the story of the Gentle Giant I have been with for ten years of my life. The immense size of the tree, especially when you are a five- or seven-year-old is unbelievable. I cannot remember I have seen a bigger tree than that in my life, when I think back. The tree had dark leaves in its hundreds of branches, thousands and thousands of them. Wind used to play soft songs when they dance, with leaves. Especially when the wind is high and low. when I close my eyes, it still ruminates their song and their dance. Daily we go there, play there, sit there, under the shade of the gentle giant. He made tiny fruits, thousands of them. Not edible for humans but birds loved them. Hundreds of birds attracted by the seeds dwell there on their way. Occasionally we saw colorful visitors we have never seen before. In the morning we used to go there and collect feathers, different kinds of them, shed by them. It brought us smiles to find an illuminous colored one, a tressure to a child's mind. We had proud collections. There were stories the Giant tree had a cave inside of it, and in it there was a big Cobra. People have seen, it is difficult to identify truth from myth, when it is entangled. Being a child, we believed our elders, I was always careful not to step on a snake, when I go closer to the tree. The branches broke out all around the trunk few feet above the ground actually there seems to be a cavity inside. Who knows maybe the cobra is still living there protecting the giant. Once a year when it is 'Vesak' celebrations, my father and siblings we go there at night to decorate it with lanterns. Some clay lamps were lit around the tree. Cold nights, it was a ritual made by us. We stayed singing songs of devotion, until candles burn out in lanterns. Nobody asked us, to do decorate lanterns. But now when I think about it, I have nothing but gratitude for the Gentle giant. It did not move when nobody cared, it did not move when it was decorated and worshipped. A true miracle of nature. We moved from our old home to other side of the village. Bigger house, bigger problems. After few years there was a big thundering Noice came from the side of the tree and everyone from the village went to see. We followed. I saw a huge branch of the tree fallen down broken, onto the nearby rock. It was a sad sight for me. That was the only time the Giant spoke for all those years. It still brings tears to my eyes today when I write about it. That broken branch, tears part of my heart. I haven't been to see the tree for a long time, life took us away from nature. I still don't know he is still there; I wish I could hug him one more time. Thank you for reading Story of a Gentle Giant - a tree You may also like to read Are we prisoners of our minds. Christmas walk - 8 mile