The other person...

[PHOTO] The less I needed, the better I felt.

"The less I needed,
  The better I felt."

The circle of Life - Singular & Plural Identities

I often wonder when I see crowd of people mixing together, like Brownian motion, about their thoughts. Everybody is thinking about something. Thoughts that are not connected at all. Yet we identify them as individuals. Different individuals. I often wonder, what differentiates them? How come two sons do not show same behaviors with their parents? What makes one businessman a successful one and another completely bankrupt?  What constitutes them? What defines us? Soul, body, mind? Soul we cannot see. Our own body we cannot feel. I cannot see my own eye with my eye. Our own mind we cannot perceive. Or is it other people's opinions that we perceive as our image? So called self-image? If I say, the way we define our relation in a group or a role, becomes our identity, then we have multiple identifies! A person could be son at one time, a businessman at another and a so on. This makes me believe that grossly we have plural identities that are sort of unbalanced and biased based on particular need of the group. So our identity now becomes a role we play that is relatively important of our different associations and affiliations in any particular context. And it further reduces to choice we make for choosing a particular role - choosing a particular identity. That becomes our identity at that particular instance of time. And it changes with time.

If you've got what I wanted to convey you can read further…

Now lets concentrate on concept of Soul and Body. Thought I haven't' read the scriptures completely but still I am quoting what they say about soul and body. If you don't believe in it you can take it as an assumption. The soul is some higher dimensional quantity that can chooses to stay in any body for a definite period of time. Its probably the choice of the soul to choose when to come and when to leave because as an individual nobody wants to die! Ok, coming back to the point,  we say an individual is born when a Soul chooses to reside in a Body. Ego defines a Soul. Souls chooses a body. Body gets a form. If everything is working perfectly, without any issues, an individual, or say a child is born. A child cannot think about being a child. Together we define the identity of child. And gradually the thoughts develop and child begins to realize his own identity.

And the people that I see mixing together were those same children at one point of time… and the journey continues.

To summarize...

Ego -> Thoughts -> Choices -> People-> Plural Identity
Ego -> Soul -> Choice -> Body -> Singular Identity  


Is their any interconnection?  I am not sure. But I see a recursion or perhaps circle.

A = {Plural Identity -> People -> Choices -> Thoughts -> Ego} => (Ego -> Soul -> Choice -> Body -> Singular Identity)

       { Ego -> Soul -> Choice -> Body -> Singular Identity -> }
B = { Ego -> Soul -> Choice -> Body -> Singular Identity -> }  => { Plural Identity -> People -> Choices -> Thoughts -> Ego }
       { Ego -> Soul -> Choice -> Body -> Singular Identity -> }

{choices} -> A -> {choices} -> B -> {choices}

What is this?
BABABABABABA… ? That floats on carpet of choices!
A Circle of Life  - chosen?
 
  

Conversations: My Identity ?

 I saw a butterfly today...
 And realized how colorful those wings were...
 It was flying freely over those tiny yellow flowers...

 I wanted to fly too...
 To enjoy the beauty of nature...
 Flying with those colorful wings...
 Across those tiny yellow flowers...

 I became butterfly for a moment...
 Through my eyes realized that the world was huge...
 Saw those big yellow flowers...
 But those wings...
 Those colorful wings were not visible...
 Those colorful wings which gave me my identity...
 I couldn't see...

 Got this fact...
 Wings I possess, I cannot see...
 But others can admire...
 Which sometime becomes my identity...
 But not all can fly, I can...
 Is the reality that identifies me...

 I shouted at the nature...

 Our Identity is perception of Self ? ...
 Or what others perceive becomes our Identity ? ...

 Got this reply...

 What am I ? ...

 A river...
 Gives water...
 Gives sounds...
 Gives flow...
 Gives life...

 They perceive me as what they get from me...
 They see me as a river...

 Who am I ? ...

 I am a sea inside me...
 I have waves of thoughts...
 I have shore of imagination...
 I have depths of beliefs...
 I have shells of curiosity...
 I have calmness of love...
 I have hugeness of doubts...
 I have storms of confusion...
 I have questions inside me...
 I have answers inside me...

 This perception of self is my identity for me...

 I am a river for others...
 I am a sea inside me...




--@n

Life after Death? Eh?

Do you believe in Life after Death ?... somebody whispered into my ears...

Its a tricky question, I thought. Eh? Why? What? How? I am suppose to think beyond what is considered as end. As such I don't know if any one has a certain answer to this question. But if one is looking for certainty, there are two ways to go.

The first and most reliable way is, going the way. Go Die, then you'll know for sure what is beyond that. Second is knowing the way by believing on somebody. It can be considered as less drastic. A virtual experience of life after death. Go, join some religious group that promises eternal life! Unfortunately or fortunately, this is the promise they cannot prove. So if you have faith, then they will tell you what to believe about life after death. However you'll not get any evidence, reason or proof. Most don't care anyways as long as they are satisfied.

No one can neither empirically prove nor disprove life in any form beyond the grave. Religions that tell you otherwise are asking you to have faith in myths, legends, and wishful thinking. The true philosophy about life never requires such faith. Death is a part of life, or the end of life indeed. So its highly unlikely that you'll have anything to worry about it in the next - if there is one!

We are happier and more productive when we have family and friends to care for and who care for us and give us a context for our lives. It's always been this way, and it probably always will. You're born, you die, and in between you find yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Eat, Pray and Love - it works ! :-)








--@n

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?

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.

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.

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?

Random Thoughts about Life

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

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. 

“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 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.)