White light

Today I happen to change all the yellow lights in our house to white lights. It suddenly brought back a feeling of nostalgia. I felt absolutely happy just looking at the very brightness of the light. There is something strangely beautiful about the new (old) light. Then I started thinking why such a small thing made me feel so happy. Its not about being big or small, its just that we are desperately trying to reconnect to what we experienced growing up. It was my culture.

Culture is such a big word. We have seen so many arguments happen over this very word in our houses, our communities, our countries etc. what exactly is culture. Is language our culture? whether belonging to a country or a state or a particular region is our culture? Is religion our culture? Is way of living our culture? if any of these can be defined as culture then it should be exactly the same, if any or all of the above is same. But its not. So if I have to explain this in as few words as possible, then I would say

Culture is the summation of everything that we experienced growing up. So it is actually not the language, religion or the region etc. that we belonged to, but what we have perceived from living in a particular set of conditions defines our culture.

My goals for my daughter

I have the following five goals for my daughter listed in the same order

1) Never run out of ideas in life -> Gather as many life experiences as possible, read as many books as possible, try to make sense of as many things as possible in life. This will accumulate enough data for our machine learning brain to churn more ideas

2) Physical and Psychological well-being -> Learn and actually make a habit of living healthy. It should become your very being and most importantly Learn how to get up and run when you fall. This is the most critical quality in life

3) Art of decision making -> Life will make us stand at cross-roads so many number of times. Most of the times we do not know which way to go. Even if we choose a way, later on in life we may have side effects which means that we might feel bad that we could have chosen something else, then our life could have been better etc etc. Ability to choose a path without side effects is the most important quality

4) Be independent -> Ability to stay independent in all possible ways

5) Happiness all the time -> If we are able to achieve all of the above, then the last and the highest goal is to stay happy all the time. Happiness uninterrupted.

Effortless running

If you run everyday, you get a chance to experience this, so called, effortless running. If you start running, initially it will feel good. But soon, it will start becoming painful. The more you run, the more painful it will become. It will push you to just stop running. If somehow you continue, you will feel that it is becoming extremely difficult to continue. But if still continue, by slowing down very much, by breathing hard and by whatever strategies you want to implement to continue, you will reach a state where it will start becoming easy. And slowly it will become more and more easier and at some point it will become effortless. The task which was extremely painful in the beginning will become effortless. The part which felt like it was taking all your energy, now will start giving you energy. This is called effortless running.

In life when we start anything new, initially it will make us feel happy, but soon it will become a burden or painful may be because of not able to sustain the interest, lack of energy, not able to feel the final state or for whatever reason. At some point it will become very painful and we tend to stop. But if you keep going even though it is extremely difficult, you will get to experience something amazing. What was painful in the beginning will become effortless and will start giving us energy. In order to achieve it, the key is to just keep going.

This made me think that at some time we can get to effortless living. Its the same cycle that applies. Start anything -> becoming painful -> keep going -> becoming extremely painful -> keep going -> achieve perfection -> become effortless -> experience bliss. If every aspect of life is covered through this cycle, its effortless living.

Keep going and experience effortless living

Retirement Planning

In my opinion retirement planning is about the following four things

1) A group of like minded people to grow old with
2) A hobby that will keep you busy and if possible earn money
3) A purpose that will keep you going in life
4) Money that will cover your basics

Comfort food

Today I got to taste one of the best foods. For a second it felt like there is nothing more important in this world than that. The truth of the matter is, I did not feel anything else while eating that food. I was completely absorbed by the experience.

Now think for a second. Imagine your state of mind 5 minutes before you ate that food. How much ever agitated you are, how many ever tensions you have, how many ever problems you are going through, it just doesn't matter. The moment you started eating that food, you just don't feel anything else.

Suddenly it felt like whatever your state of mind is, at any instant of time, you still have the capability to experience utmost bliss. We all have been blessed with the power to set aside everything else and just enjoy the present moment. All it takes is to be 100 percent involved in what you are actually doing.

we should all realize this god given gift and experience bliss AT WILL

Karma

The intensity of the situations which will compel us to take certain decisions is what karma is, the consequences of which we have to face.

Let me explain this. Many a times life will throw us at a crossroad where we will have multiple paths to choose from. We know exactly which is the right thing to do. But sometimes we may choose something out of necessity or greed or fear or based on whatever compulsion we have in our mind at that particular instance of time. Not that we are bad people. But may be to avoid trouble, may be due to lack of energy to support our own cause, or for whatever reason we may choose something else. That very second we are under the influence of karma. The lack of sufficient will power that will prevent us from doing the right thing will have a lasting impact in our life. Most of the times we may say to ourselves that this is the best I could do. But that is just to comfort us. we all know why we chose something. we may not realize the very second we chose, but we will have to face the consequences

If I think about it a little more, can we actually do anything without side effects, the results of which absolutely will not touch us in any way. By side effects, I mean the inkling that we will have in our mind after doing something. Is it really possible? Just like a water droplet on a lotus leaf. That means can we chose a path which will absolutely not touch us in any way at any point in the future regarding why we chose that path. If we can do something or choose a path like that, then we are beyond karma

But if whatever we do has side effects, then we have to be ready.

Sharing Experience

People are so eager to share their experiences with others like what they did and how they felt in school and their college etc. But what people forget is that they stopped having experiences. we always feel like sharing experiences when we stopped HAVING experiences. Please stop sharing and start living.

The only superpower

Everybody wants to be happy. We will be happy if we get to buy a new thing, get a new job, a promotion, get married, have children. But the happiness wont last forever. Meanwhile we will have a problem at work, have a fight with a friend, lose cool on somebody and then we will be sad. We will be constantly oscillating between happiness and sadness.

If we are sad, we will not rest there. we are constantly trying to be happy. we might go to a park, listen to music etc. so whatever we do the ultimate goal is to be happy. We may not even know, but we are constantly trying. Life feels like an effort because we are constantly trying. Its not working out. But we are not stopping there. We are still trying and trying.

Sometimes we get confused. we don't understand what we are even trying, whether it will lead to somewhere. we are confused and sad because we don't know the path. The path to being happy all the time. What if I have a superpower where I could see the path and show it to everybody in the world