What is Life ?

I was watching this movie named: The Bucket List and found this piece of dialogues about Life, in the starting of the movie, very interesting. I thought of noting it down somewhere but then I thought of blogging it. So here it goes...

"It's difficult to understand the sum of a person's life.
Some people will tell you it's measured by the ones left behind.
Some believe it can be measured in faith.
Some say by love.
Other folks say life has no meaning at all.
Me?
I believe that you measure yourself... by the people who measured themselves by you."

What I am thinking now.. What is this Life about... and how this question can be simplified?

Lately I was reading about the Zen way to simplify the Life. They gave some tricks.

First one was to clean the room or more precisely declutter the room. It gives clarity in thoughts.

Second was to create a no-distraction zone. It involves not using phones, emails, no-coworkers, nothing on walls, no IMs or facebook, no web. Only use of stuff one is suppose to do the work and nothing else. It creates a kind of focus towards work and increases concentration.

Third was to create a short-mylove-list. It gives big picture about the life. If one is confused in getting life to something truly simple, one should create a list of things he loves doing most. Then try to eliminate everything in the life which is not on that short list -  this makes room for things he love.

Fourth one was finish current or pending work, take a break from new work and divert all the new work requests to next week. This will reduce the pressure of finishing old work and later on, one can accept new work with happiness.

Fifth was not to follow any schedule - leave the day wide open! At the start of day pick a few things, focus on it and try to finish it. No need to schedule any meetings, if any meeting is required, call them and meet. This will break the monotonicity cycle of work.

Sixth was to concentrate on single task. No need to switch between multiple tasks or do things in parallel. It will create clutter and tension in mind. Instead of that focus on single task and finish things one at a time.

These steps can simplify life, make us happy but my question is what exactly this life is and what am I?
If one can understand what is the true meaning of being self then happiness, sadness, etc is mere an illusion of emotion. The steps pointed above will automatically come from inside.

Some of my thoughts and concluding inferences on "what is self" till now...

All is One:    Wrong
All is Nothing:    Wrong
Just be Yourself:    Wrong
Follow Your Heart:    Wrong
All is illusion:    Wrong
All is Love:    Wrong
Be Here Now:    Wrong
I am God:    Wrong
I am nobody:    Wrong
Bliss, Being, Consciousness:    Wrong
All is Mind:    Wrong
All is Emptiness:    Wrong
All are Enlightened:    Wrong 
Tick Tack Toe:    Wrong

Then Finally….

I Don’t Know:    RIGHT

... and my journey continues for one question: What is Life?

How to be Happy? #006

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Interesting Thought..

captured at Sankey Tank, Sadashivnagar, Bangalore.

How to be Happy? #005

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How to be Happy? #004

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How to be Happy? #003

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How to be Happy? #002

#002

How to be Happy? #001

#001

Relationships...

"Random Thoughts about Life: Drive carefully, 90% of people are accidents!"

I updated this on Facebook 2 days back,  some 7 people liked the post.

but nobody commented.. or asked.. or gave a thought.. on remaining 10%

 

Who are those 10% people?

They are the ones whom we never met...

Some of them were already there when we came...

Some of them came after us...

But nobody introduced us to them...

So who are those 10% people?

We call them our dear ones...

Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Brother, Sister, Son, Daughter, Uncle, Aunty.. the list is endless.

We never discuss our relationship with them. We never even give a thought on kind of relationship we share with them (say our mom or dad). The term relationship is simply not defined as it decreases the strength of the relation.

They are the ones whom we cannot leave, conversely, they'll never leave us no matter what we do.

They are ready to accept who we are. In fact they've accepted already who we are.

We can say anything to them, they'll never mind.

If we are wrong, they'll correct us, unintentionally or naturally.

If we are right, they'll support us.

If there is any disagreement, they'll go whatever depth possible to make everything fine.

They'll do anything to console us.

They are the one who although have an opinion but will never burden us with their thoughts.

We can ask any silly question to them, they'll never give a second thought before answering.

Actually they are the ones who have all the answers we are seeking.

They are the ones who give direction to our thoughts.

Thinking on the same side, they are the ones who actually need our help in any possible form, they expect the same from us. This entire thing is what western world simply define as relationship which is not true. Its not just a relationship we share with those people, we share a lot more than that - our thoughts, our emotions, our tears, our grief, our happiness, our joy... and the list is endless. Most importantly we share whole of ourselves with them.

Given infinite supply of papers, try writing about the kind of relationship you share with your mom. Its impossible to write it coz we never think about it. Even if we manage to pen it down, it will not be complete. Some part of ourselves is always hidden. We realize the complexity when they leave us or we leave them (for any reason) because thats where this relationship break the thread and we are left alone. We look backwards in past and realize what we lost. The loss is sometimes irreparable. We sometimes manage to find its substitute too on the other hand, but not that relationship.

Its my favorite dialog : "Our life is for others"

They are the others.

So now I stuck thinking about remaining 90% whom we (somebody) called as accidents...

Somebody commented on my post:

"Such accidents can be good too."

Accident is an apt word. They are part of majority of our lives - the 90%  - which we never realize. Those who manage to cross the 90-10 line and come closer to us, to the 10% of group, are the good accidents. We call them our friends. And thats where the goodness lies.

Sometimes in order to maintain balance or when we miss those 10%, we start searching them into remaining 90%. And thats were problem arises because the thin line always remains. Since these 90% are in the majority, we often spend most of time with them and think a lot about them. We try to align our thoughts with them so that there is no conflict. But since they often don't follow the 10% people definition, we end up with some disagreement which spoils our harmony and the so called relationship starts to suffer. But actually there was no relationship, we were trying our best to get something from 90% that belongs to 10% and 90% can never possess. Thats the real truth about Life and we being social animal starts to suffer. This behavior sometimes affects the 10% too and thats the irony of Life.

"Be smart with everyone but always be silly with your dear ones!!"

Thats what I conclude.

Abstract Form: When consciousness unites with prakriti, it is with a form

Abstract Form: When consciousness unites with prakriti, it is with a form. on Flickr.

Abstract : The Womb (photo)

The Womb !

Random Thoughts about Life

When people can’t have something… they want it even more!

Colors... (photo)

Purer colors… have in themselves, independently of the objects they serve to express, a significant action on the feelings of those who look at them.

We all die...

“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”

Ever committed a mistake...

Ever committed a mistake… or a wrong statement perhaps?

Too often we don’t realize what we have until it’s gone, too often we’re too stubborn to say: I’m sorry, I was wrong, too often it seems we hurt the ones closest to our hearts and we let the most foolish things tear us apart.

Mistakes are sometimes the best memories.

And Time is the wisest counselor of all.

Yogism (photo)

Yogism: The Art of thinking positive and straight ?

Nature (photo)

Nature: Sometimes a silent life has the divine sound!

Random Thoughts on Ego...

Ever thought of corruption inside mind?

The goodness in us hates the badness. This is not good. This is just Ego saying ‘I’ am good, why can’t that bad ugly part go away and never bother me again so that ‘I’ could be the perfect manifestation of mankind to the world ‘I’ am living in.

We sometimes think of accepting humanity and move forward with it. In that moment of accepting humanity we get peace. Being peaceful by being kind is the result. We are always chasing this good and bad part while trying to be kind. The very best of our soul always try to become very kind. But we’ll find that we aren’t much kind when we try to manifest perfect kindness and things keep getting in our way. Who so ever it is, outside or inside, they are just bothering us, the pureness inside us. In order to defeat this we go to war. (I got to know this from my own experiences.) Me and my peace and who is disrupting my peace and what am ‘I’ suppose to do to set him straight so that they will stop. And this thing escalates. This is external as well as internal.

Now if we are willing to be both human and divine, both limited and limitless, both pure and defile, both right and wrong, both ignorant and enlightened then the story has to stop. But if we decide that, ‘I’ cannot settle for both, ‘I’ should have a one above the other, because thats the way ‘I’ will know that ‘I’ have succeed. ‘I’ have won. This is ego.

Now the question is whether to accept both good and bad or try to achieve what our ego says.

PS: reading about Buddhism these days and watching some random videos.

Random Thoughts about Life

Is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s blunders?

Puddles (photo)

“Some paths have puddles. Some puddles have paths.”

Random Thoughts about Life

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you are not.”

Random Thoughts about Life

Sometimes time change people. Sometimes people change with time. But what always remains with you is you. Maybe that's the ultimate truth about life.

Colors... (photo)

Color has taken possession of me…
No longer do I have to chase after it…
I know that it has hold of me forever…
Color and I are one…
I am a painter.

Random Thoughts about Life

We always wish we could have changed our past…
Without realizing that the past has already changed us…

Questions? (photo)

Sometimes questions are more important than answers…

Hope... (photo)

Hope: The dream of the waking man…

Random thoughts about Life

Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself the revelation.

Random thoughts about Life

Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature… on Flickr.

Random thoughts about Life

Be like the flower, turn your faces to the sun. (~Kahlil Gibran)

Conversations about Life...

VH: "My weaknesses... I wish I could come up with something. I'd probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they're the same thing." (~Al Pacino)

NB: I remember your words once u told.. I think during cutting tea in front of your campus... "either u can spend your life working on your weakness or live with your strengths" .. those were the golden words ! :)

VH: I mean dig an ocean one inch deep or dig a well which will yield water - choice is yours, life is yours :)

NB: I think if we know what are our weaknesses (rather than not knowing) we can still trade around... same case with strengths.

VH: It's a matter of priorities in life. IF one identifies what 'naturally' comes to him/her, life can be a smooth sail. The whole crux is in identification of what you can glide through and appreciation of the fact the things which are greek and latin to you.

NB: likes it

VH: check out this quote by Einstein: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." stumbled upon it today and deja vu:-)

NB: I am seeing something in it but not able to comprehend. Great Quote !!

VH: Per me, it's the same thought - work on your strengths..

NB: But some fishes can jump out of water too ! At least some extent of weakness they've managed to conquer.

VH: If they land on land- they are dead . And they can never fly anyway.

NB: I remember one of your fav quote: "Kuch na hoga to Tajurba hoga" (you'll gain experience even if nothing happens.)

VH: Awesome memory :-) That's the conclusion - u experiment , and if you don't get what you 'desire' you get experience at least.

(conversations on Facebook)

It rained…

It rained…

The tree…
is a silent song…
that is heard by all and none…
reaching out from the ground…
and into the heavens, arms outstretched…
it hears the stories of the wind…
and hears the stories of the rain…
an hears the stories of a million footsteps…
we shall wither but new leaves shall grow…
and the treesong will echo in the empty realms of thought…

Random Thoughts about Life

Random Thoughts about Life: If we can crop the circle of life we can indeed make Life Squared!

Random Thoughts about Life

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day. 

Random Thoughts about Life

In the end, it’s not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away.

Random Thoughts about Life

Floats ! on Flickr.
Life is a tide; float on it.

Random Thoughts about Life

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art. (~Emerson)

Random Thoughts about Life

Fire is the most tolerable third party. (~Henry David Thoreau)

Shot taken from Nikon D5100, my new cam.

Random Thoughts about Life

There is no delight in owning anything unshared. (~Seneca)

Photo Courtesy : Chandoo

Random Thoughts about Life

There is no better time than right now to be happy!

Photo Courtesy : Chandoo

To succeed in life...

To succeed in life, you need three things:  a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone.

Random thoughts about Life

Life is a Lock, You are the Key. Knowing this is not a secret but the fact that moving the key in right direction can open this lock. 

Writing is thinking on paper? (photo)

Writing is thinking on paper?

“Hope and Roots : The driving force of Life ?”

 

“Hope and Roots : The driving force of Life ?”
(Conversations about a short film: 5 Rupee)
VH: Hope more than anything

NB:… and expect more than nothing :)

VH: expectations reduce the joy ! so Zilch expectations and ‘enjoy the ride’ :)

NB: in this video the boy starts with hope to buy baloon. then he expects support frm his mother. maybe what we think from heart is hope and as it moves up to mind and we start making sense out of it it becomes an expectation.

AM: I guess the idea of hope is somehow only relevant in scarcity and some how the driving force is thus scarcity :) (ref: wealth of the nations :D)… u hope for wht u don’t have …


VH: The boy in the video can be interpreted as man in pursuit of ‘maya’ . He wants to desperately get it and then the balloon bursts in a few moment but the lure of ‘maya’ is so strong that he again wants to ‘get’ it . possesiing is an ‘illusion’

NB: tatha-agata, tatha-gata (thus come, thus gone) the buddhism teaching is being demonstrated. One who has come will definitely go and one who has gone will come back (in some form) that the vicious circle of life. And yeah I believe *maya* and *moh* are the driving forces that are responsible for all hopes, desires and expectations.
Maya you’ve already explained. Moh can be seen in form of desire boy has to get the green balloon and secondly the love of his mother that she actually gives 5 Rs twice. Maybe they can be visualized as III law of newton : Action-Reaction or Yin & Yang. Balancing it makes the life easy in some sense.

(conversations on facebook.)

What is God? (conversations on facebook)

NB: Visited ISKCON temple today... for the first time I did the Krishna enchanting. feeling quite contented after that ! and I bought a box of incense sticks.. this makes 10th flavor in line.. !
... but again I ask the same question to myself. God is a thought or belief or perception of happiness?

RP: A thought to keep us confident when we r trying to achieve something,
A belief to blame when we don't reach our goals...
A perception of happiness is only in progress.

VH: God is faith.

MD: God is what you want 'god' to be- faith, belief, a goodwill thought, an appreciation of humanity or rigid rituals, barricaded thoughts, superstitious lines...

SR: Some questions r worth keeping for entire life. so preserve it safely. There's saying in our ancient scriptures; the one who knows it (GOD) tells it not and the one who tells it knows it not. Moral is, don't listen to speculators :) :) :) AMEN.....

PS: When u believe in something ... u tend to think about it during times when u need it's assistance .. and if the process brings forth an unhindered happiness thru the act of remembrance.. u feel the realm of happiness :)

(conversations on facebook)

What are you? (facebook conversations)

"You are not You;

You are more than You.
Then what are You?
Everything"

VH: It's called ' shoonya' : Nothing and yet everything.
NB: I believe their exists one more shoonya (nothing) after infinity (everything) to complete the circle of life.
VH: I think infinity is reference to 'shoonya' - It all emerges from this and ends here. This is like an illusion of running in a big circle and believing that you are running infinitely. Thus infinity converges to shoonya. And feeling of one-ness is 'bliss'. Joy and sorrow is 'mithya' much like any other emotion.
 

(conversations on facebook.)

April showers bring May flowers (poem)

Earlier when it rains I used to remember you,Now when I miss you it rains.

Of Both human and non-human,
Nature is unpredictable.

They say,April showers bring May flowers.

And I say,May flowers come from April showers.


(Last post for the month of May)

Random thoughts about Life

The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you can’t learn anything from being perfect. 

(Adam Osborne)

I ponder... (poem)

When I got you I realized the fear of losing you;When I lost you I realized the joy of getting you.

Everytime in my dreams when I meet you;
They are the only moments left where I can be with you.

I’v got the wisdom I’ve got the essence;
Everywhere I can feel the glory of your presence.

Now that my sun is gone my moon is gone;
I realize the gravity of life and how it moves on.


(dedicated to a friend who is no more)

Random thoughts about Life

Effort matters a lot but its the direction that defines it.

“Tath-agata Tatha-gata” (painting)

“Tath-agata Tatha-gata”
(Thus come, Thus gone)

I started working with oils on mother’s day - 8th may. Mom used to do oils so I thought of giving her a homage by doing something with oils.

I am using oils for the first time and I had no idea how to use them. I browsed lots of videos and referred to dummies book and finally thought of working on something simple. I started with buddha.. jus like that!! And I called her at night with some doubts (complicated at least for me): “I have turpentine, I have linseed and I have tube colors. How shall I start painting? Am I suppose to use oil with colors just like we use water with water colors?” We had pretty interesting discussion. And I started with background shade with blue.

Initial Buddha in painting appeared more like “Avatar”. It was all blue. Next layer I managed to fix the skin shade. Added yellow halo at back. I used more oil with color so it took 4 days to dry up completely. Third layer I added some highlighting shades of white. Day before yesterday I came to know that on Tuesday its Buddha Poornima and we have a holiday. So I thought of finishing it by tonight. Its actually morning now, 4:35 AM. The paint is still wet and will take some more days to dry up.

Check out the attached pic !

This is somewhat depicting buddha + poornima (full moon) .. I realized when I completed :D

Got next canvas of double size .. lets see what comes up next … I dunno what but it will be something different am sure :D

And yes I wont be continuing with oils for long I am catching headache with smell of turpentine and linseed :(


Happy Buddha Poornima (17th May ‘11)

Random thoughts about Life

Does the thought you are now thinking take you where you want to go?

If not, what thought would? 

Lolita (painting)

“Lolita”

Abstracts (painting)

Abstracts

Random Thoughts about Life

Zindagi ek khayal hai?
Yaan khayal ki talaash hai?

Life is a thought?
Or a search for a thought?