Book Summary : The Power of Now

An excellent summary of the book : The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle by Andy is here:

https://www.clues.life/book-reviews/the-power-of-now

Andy's site https://clues.life/ is a great resource as well

On Cherishing Life

 Entrepreneur and creative director Andrew Anabi on how to cherish life:

"When life changes, you will probably miss the way it was. You may miss those long morning drives or walks to the office, or those hectic family gatherings. You may miss them because those moments are finite — you will only travel those streets and see those people a certain amount of times.

Every time you do something that is one less time you do it. One day you will do something the final time and you will rarely know when that day comes.

For all you know, today might be the last time you walk in a particular neighborhood. Or it might be the last time you smile at a particular someone. To think otherwise, would be foolish. Nothing is guaranteed, except this moment. Your only real choice is to cherish every exchange like it is your last — because it very well might be.

Therefore, the best way to cherish life is to remind yourself of life's impermanence. It is to remember that every time you see someone that is one less time you see them. It is to remember that every time you go somewhere that is one less time you visit. By doing this, you naturally slow down. Almost like a reflex, you start to truly live."

I am a mere Instrument

 I am just an Instrument...

An Instrument of my conditioning...

An Instrument of the times...

An Instrument of my surroundings...

An Instrument of my thoughts...

And yet...

I have some Volition

And yet...

I am Responsible

Perception

Are you seeing what you want to see or what it actually is?

Purpose of Life : Yet Another Thought

The significance and purpose of our life can be different at different planes/spheres. I have started to believe that at the higher plane of universe (i.e at the cosmic level), an individual's life is purpose-less and hence does not impact anything irrespective of the outcome of his/her life. We are like just any other insect/animal/creature from the higher point of view.

When coming down a lower plane i.e from the point of view of the earth the purpose of an individual's life is only to sustain life on it (i.e. planet). As humans we are part of the big ecology and the complex food chain that exists on earth. All that matters is that we consume some of the creatures and some other creatures consume us. Fortunately or Unfortunately due to our scientific advances we have been able to protect ourselves from being prey to other creatures. But we are still not entirely protected because of the various viral, bacterial and other diseases (like cancer) which consume us.

When we come to an even lower plane i.e the plane of our society, the one which is entirely artificial created by the humans themselves, an individual's life becomes significant depending on the role that he/she plays in the society. At this level there is some purpose to his/her life. According to the norms of the society the individual gets rewarded according to the significance of his role. But the 'significance' is entirely subjective to the rules of each society. In capitalistic societies the significance is only attached to monetary importance. The market decides which has higher significance. For that reason, a teacher who although adds a higher value (by a humane/social yardstick) gets rewarded comparatively less than a software engineer who adds little value (in terms of the same yardstick).

So if you are thinking of a role which will help you in fulfilling your spiritual desires, do not go by the significance attached to the roles by the society. But the question is, whether there really is something called 'Spirituality' because at all higher planes it does not matter what we do in our daily lives, it does not matter what profession we are in, it does not matter how we achieve our physical/emotional needs. There is no morality, there are no values of 'REAL' significance. It is the individual who tends to attach significance to his/her life, differentiating (him/her)self from other individuals. He/she wants to feel that he/she is better than the individual next to him. Is it the insecurity or the ego that drives this feeling.

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

Saw the amazing movie 'Shawshank Redemption' today in the theater in San Mateo. The lines

Get busy Living or Get busy Dying

 are from this movie. The movie is all about Hope and the protagonist Andy Dreyfus is the quintessential personification of that.

It's up-to us how we want to spend our life: Live with Hope or Wait for Death with no Hope.

Attitude vs Aptitude

Close to 10 years back, I remember reading this (or something on the same line) as part of the email signature of my friend Thiyagarajan:-
"It’s your ATTITUDE not your APTITUDE that determines your ALTITUDE"
At that point of time, I wasn't sure about how true this was, because I then thought that APTITUDE was played the primary role.
But over the years as time passed by I have realized that the maxim is true. In my career and in many personal life I have seen many people with the right ATTITUDE reaching higher than those possess the required APTITUDE but little or no ATTITUDE.
If you have the right ATTITUDE you'll find the drive and motivation to reach above your potential.

Had I realized this earlier,  I would have been a different person. But better late than never.

A beautifully written song : Jagame Maaya Bratuke Maaya

A beautifully composed/written/sung song which captures the essence of life. This is from the famous telugu movie 'Devdas'.

I had heard it many a times earlier, but it was never as effective as today. As someone said...it's always there, we only see it when we are ready.

Here are the lyrics and translation to english:-
http://www.poetfreak.com/text/57036/song-of-devdas.html

Random Thought - Futile Search

Nothing can be more futile than searching for meaning/purpose inside a system that was created by us.

All the rules, ideas and values that we live by were created by us. They don't have any real meaning from the point of the universe or the higher order.

Inequality is our creation. It is we who said a white is superior than a black, one caste is superior to the other, the ruler is superior to the ruled, an intelligent person is superior to a dumb person. It is we who said killing in a war is good but killing someone just like that is not good. We created a system that was unjust and now we fight it and say fighting for a cause is worth living for. That's the same as a war which helps create jobs.

Education is the tool to indoctrinate us. It only helps us navigate the intricate system that we created ourselves. We are born and we die just like any other being. All the things that we do from our birth to death are just to keep ourselves busy, to kill the boredom in life and to stop from killing ourselves.

We are as insignificant as an ant or a microbe. There is no such thing as 'advancement of civilization' or 'the greater good'. They're all lies.

There is no such thing as 'PURPOSE OF LIFE'

Analysis of 'Fight Club'

http://voices.yahoo.com/a-psychological-analysis-chuck-palahniuks-fight-322034.html

Ennui

"For too long we have been dreaming a dream from which we are now
waking up: the dream that if we just improve the socioeconomic
situation of people, everything will be okay, people will become
happy. The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided,
the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people today
have the means to live, but no meaning to live for." - Viktor E Frankl

Another Brick in the wall

It's very easy to give up...

Extremely difficult to stand up and fight.

If you think giving up/detachment is a virtue... then you are wrong... the separation is thin. Detachment is the state in which you didn't have a yearning for it, but you give up something, to which you were attached some point of time. You gave up not because you wanted to be detached...rather you accepted the defeat and were forced to forfeit and be detached.

Dont give up... be detached !!! pun....it's a big pun

Comfortably numb

The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

- The Wall, Pink Floyd

Book Excerpt : Its not about the bike

This is an extract from the book "It's not about the bike, My journey back to life" on Lance Armstrong the seven time Tour-de-France champion:-

THE QUESTION THAT LINGERS IS, HOW MUCH WAS I A factor in my own survival, and how much was science, and how much miracle?
I don't have the answer to that question. Other people look to me for the answer, I know. But if I could answer it, we would have the cure for cancer, and what's more, we would fathom the true meaning of our existences. I can deliver motivation, inspiration, hope, courage, and counsel, but I can't answer the unknowable. Personally, I don't need to try. I'm content with simply being alive to enjoy the mystery.
Good joke:
A man is caught in a flood, and as the water rises he climbs to the roof of his house and waits to be rescued. A guy in a motorboat comes by and he says, "Hop in, I'll save you."
"No, thanks," the man on the rooftop says. "My Lord will save me."
But the floodwaters keep rising. A few minutes later, a rescue plane flies overhead and the pilot drops a line.
"No, thanks," the man on the rooftop says. "My Lord will save me." But the floodwaters rise ever higher, and finally, they overflow the roof and the man drowns.
When he gets to heaven, he confronts God.
"My Lord, whey didn't you save me?" he implores.
"You idiot," God says. "I sent you a boat, I sent you a plane".
I think in a way we are all just like the guy on the rooftop. Things take place, there is a confluence of events and circumstances, and we can't always know their purpose, or even if there is one,. But we can take responsibility for ourselves and be brave.

Jo Beet gayi so baat gayi-Harivansh Rai Bachchan

One poem from my school days which is my favorite and it still echoes in my mind. That's the beauty of it. It was written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan (father of Amitabh Bachchan) at the time of the demise of one of his dear friends. It goes like this:-

जीवन में एक सितारा था
माना वह बेहद प्यारा था
वह डूब गया तो डूब गया
अंबर के आनन को देखो
कितने इसके तारे टूटे
कितने इसके प्यारे छूटे
जो छूट गए फ़िर कहाँ मिले
पर बोलो टूटे तारों पर
कब अंबर शोक मनाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

Read the rest of it over here. (Thanks to Sandeep for writing it in Hindi)

Words of wisdom...

From one of those email forwards:-

Forget about the days
when its been cloudy, but
don't forget your hours in the sun.

Forget about mistakes
that you can't change now, but
don't forget the lessons
that you've learned.


Forget about the times
you've been defeated, but
don't forget the victories you've won.


Forget about the days
when you've been lonely, but
don't forget the friendly smiles you've seen.


Forget about the plans
that didn't seem
To work out right, but...

Don't forget to Always Have A Dream

Keep Smiling

American Beauty & Steve Jobs

The movie American Beauty ends with Lester's (protoganist) description of his life flashing before his eyes, interspersed with scenes of his family and others at the moment of the gunshot. Looking back on these events from his vantage point as narrator, Lester is only content:

"I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much; my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain, and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.

You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... You will someday."

I think it's conicidence, but just today came across this speech given by Steve Jobs. Here's an extract from it:-

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Vivekanda's paper on Hinduism

This is a link to the paper on Hinduism presented by Swami Vivekananda,
at the World parliament of Religion at Chicago, 19th September 1893.
http://www.theuniversalwisdom.org/hinduism/paper-on-hinduism-vivekananda/
Bear with the considerably large no. of typos in this version.

Here are some of the lines that I liked:-

"Lord, I do not want wealth nor children nor learning. If it be Thy
will, I shall go from birth to birth; but grant me this, that I
may love Thee without the hope of reward - love unselfishly for
love’s sake."

"Unity in variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has
recognized it. Every other religion lays down certain fixed dogmas
and tries to force society to adopt them. It places before society
only one coat which must fit Jack and John and Henry, all alike.
If it does not fit John or Henry he must go without a coat to
cover his body. The Hindus have discovered that the absolute can
only be realized, or thought of, or stated through the relative,
and the images, crosses, and crescents are simply so many symbols
- so many pegs to hang spiritual ideas on. It is not that this
help is necessary for everyone, but those that do not need it have
no right to say that it is wrong. Nor is it compulsory in
Hinduism."

Money-n-Fame

Let not fame and money hijack the purpose of life.

Desire...Quest...Consummation...Greed

Let not the progression of Desire to Quest to Consummation... reach the stage of Greed.
Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.

- "DARK SIDE OF THE MOON", Pink Floyd