Shibumi & Tantra: Attaining Excellence

Shibumi is a Zen concept without direct translation in Japanese or definition in English; it is the height of personal excellence and total clarity.

Zenindo

Be it Zen or Yoga. What is the purpose?

It cannot be simply an exercise in philosophy to discuss and analyse and write more and more treatises on the subject.

What is it all about?

Basically there is one predominant trend in humans and this trend is now at its peak in the 21st century. This trend is consumerism, being distracted; create dissatisfaction which can be alleviated only by more products and activities that require constant titillation.

But human nature’s potential is bigger than this and vaster. Humans are not tapping into it. We have the possibility of enhancing and sharpening our mind & bodies to a point that we can do wonders which would be called miracles. Many of the activities that we now do with machines.

The Hatha yoga of India and Shibumi of japan are sciences that cannot be scoffed.

But all the methods that have evolved in different parts of the world have one thing in common. Distractions have to be reduced and in the end stopped. Focus and concentration have to be enhanced. The focus on pleasure and wasting energy on pleasures has to be curtailed. Certain thoughts and wishy-washy ideals have been permitted to firmly become the guiding light for humans and these are what keep the humanity trapped with little progress being made. This book studies this angle.

Of course the question does come up as to why anyone would want to do it. And this is what it is all about. Zen and Yoga both show how it can be done if one wanted to. Zen is more practical in practice. Step by step old masters have shown how one can achieve the concretisation of our energies into laser-like strength.

Nicholai’s imagination was galvanized by the concept of shibumi. No other ideal had ever touched him so. “How does one achieve this shibumi, sir?”

“One does not achieve it, one . . . discovers it. And only a few men of infinite refinement ever do that. Men like my friend Otake-san.”

“Meaning that one must learn a great deal to arrive at shibumi?” “Meaning, rather, that one must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity.” ― Trevanian, in his book ‘Shibumi’

“…a man is happiest when there is a balance between his needs and his possessions. Now the question is: how to achieve this balance. One could seek to do this by increasing his goods to the level of his appetites, but that would be stupid. It would involve doing unnatural things—bargaining, haggling, scrimping, and working. Ergo? Ergo, the wise man achieves the balance by reducing his needs to the level of his possessions. And this is best done by learning to value the free things of life: the mountains, laughter, poetry, wine offered by a friend, older and fatter women.”

― Trevanian, Shibumi

This book is dedicated to my friends who are so afraid that I may change their minds that they stay away.

Message from the author.

The idea is to bring into focus certain thought patterns that need to change that are so obviously wrong and have kept the human in its semi ape like persona. But I am not going into lengthy lectures. Shibumi is the Path to be taken to become more divinely human. If you are really thinking of making an uplifting move to become more TRUE instead of just sounding virtuous by taking some God’s name, you would need to forget the agitation in your mind and focus on what actually helps in the evolution and transformation of the human spirit that is sorely needed. The Major part of the Complex human persona is well hidden behind layers of smoke screens. For civilisation and evolution to go ahead we need to come out of the dark corners; come into the spot-light with our entire imperfect and yet great souls.

Whatever I said or say is never in derogatory insinuations. Humankind wants to see itself as a superior, developed thinking race. But it is not really yet so. I suppose it is not polite for me to say so. But then I am here to be meaningful – to shake things up a little and I will not sugar-coat my thoughts.

……

El Darlin

Occult and divinisation does not seem to match but are opposites? Please elaborate for the feeble-minded. ie: me.

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari

All knowledge that is not obvious to the five senses is considered occult.

The process of becoming Divine which means growing from the Ape towards Godhead by transforming/transmuting the human character's negative qualities like hate, jealousy, greed, arrogance, duplicity, cruelty, sadism, need to punish is divinization of humans.

El Darlin

The goal is to become Divine. What does that mean?

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari

We are on an evolutionary path. The Homo sapiens will eventually become more and more Divine if only it does not destroy itself first.

For the present moment it is more ape and violent than it needs be even with all the knowledge/wisdom from the past ages available.

We protect/shield our weaknesses with rationalisation instead of learning.

In the last 70 years the whole world exhibited a wiser and kinder face after having known WW2. So it was thought that by giving security of Food, income and freedom of expression/movement, humanity would spend its time in growing intellectually and in improving itself to greater achievements. Harmony is here.

The experiment as one can see today was an utter failure. The humans reverted back to their lethargic state; indulging in their most base desires and luxuries only made them more indolent.

There is no way of getting around the fact that the humans grow only under trials and pressure. Comfort when arrived at is not a motivating factor.

This has been seen since earliest times in Ashrams and Monasteries of every philosophical school anywhere in the world.

Our mind is naturally bent towards thinking that IF things got better it will be able to do better. It is a kind of indolent loop which never spreads its wings. Basically we procrastinate and hope.

But when it comes to "talking" we are unstoppable. We discuss topics to death as if that completes the duty that is needed of us.

This is our undoing.

Matters not if he is wrong or right…. What matters is that he is stuck with that thought & will die with it and in the meanwhile spread it around.

El Darlin

But then, who or what is the definition of Divine? What rule book is there to tell us how and why to excel?

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari: El Darlin This book is a short pointer to answer this question. If you seriously want to know how we think.

Humans can be Divinised but this question is not bothering anyone in particular. A rare individual here and there may get this into his head but otherwise most people are quite happy with their lives although there is much to grumble about. Feedback and further conversation invited:

gururdeva@yahoo.com

Make your SEEKING personal. What ails you? What is bothering you? Focus on that. Ask and look for answers under every stone & in every shadowy corner. If you believe in a better Life and a Divine Power then sincerely ask HIM to help you find answers.

Think of your questions as medicine. Ask them only when you really need to. It is best to let personal questions lead the way rather than burden ourselves with too many brilliant imponderables for information's sake or conversation’s sake.

Are we learning from the lessons that Life is imparting us? Have we learnt the basic lesson of “flowing” with the river instead of “damming” it and damn the entire ecology with it?

All problems in life come with their solutions attached – yet the problems do not get resolved because the answers are not acceptable to our limited nature morally stuffed with complexes and muddled thinking garnished by our egos. How do people listen if at all? They react to certain specific words in isolation to the rest of the context. And they always have ready quotes and stories connected with any word they choose.

Then they love making fun of you by attacking you as the bum you are; it is so satisfying.

People cannot afford to listen. That would mean serious conversation. This would mean serious involvement and commitment.

Who wants all that?

What has gone wrong in these times (written in 2022)…..?

Nobody wants to learn. Google has wrapped up the minds. Videos are streaming “entertainment” and have befuddled the thinking mind apparatus. This old system of education is getting obsolete. We will have to first accept that everybody is not inclined to be educated. I mean basically this factory type of education system itself is out of tune with the times.

The mind has been reduced to a near moronic item that is easily led and influenced. One small video on Whatsapp/Instagram can gather thousands in a few hours to be incited into protests, destruction and mayhem or whatever but rarely used to do any good.

The populace today takes the name of God but shows not even half-like maturity of the monkeys.

Technology has introduced "WASTAGE" on a huge scale. This has made us lose our connection to reality, Mother Nature and made us senselessly egoistic. Is this the way to become a better purposeful human? ….to Shibumi?

Why humans are more in pain than ever in history?

As life gets more and more complicated with gadgetry the avenues for self-satisfaction and excitement rise. There has been an exponential increase in the speed and quantity of things that we can do at any given time. All our acts and projects are invitations to Providence to play the fool with us. We are running helter-skelter at high speeds all over the globe and connected to hundreds of people that we want something from who in turn may be avoiding us; we leave all windows and doors open for the world at large to enter our personal space and waste a lot of time and energy in protecting ourselves. The poor SOUL that provides the energy simply collapses. And to top it all, the very thing that helped us sport smiles thru all the misdemeanors we commit have now been perverted to become a horror so that there is profit for some and the rest become losers. This thing is the word “LOVE”.

Humans have deluded themselves that their sexual fantasies are LOVE. ( the sick phrase: Let’s make love). The consequences are all around to see.

There are love relationships. But sex is not it. It is not what happens exclusively between two humans physically. In the last few decades it has been promoted as a transaction to sell goods and services. It has removed the humaneness from our living together as a people. Everything now is calculated in the value it brings and on the basis of "what is in it for me?

Love is a bond of commitment, of appreciation and feeling wonderful. You love a flower, a sunset, your child, your car, your existence, a stray and your coffee with the same intensity. This is something that you have all the time for everything in existence. It comes from joy and gratefulness. It moves something deep inside you that you have to spread around because there is nothing else.

But comfort and safety from the elements has made us bold. In fact too bold – so bold that we have shelved our intelligence and delegated it to the lowest drawer. We allow the world to poison our lives, we sport illnesses and allow them to fester, we wallow in loneliness and depression….most of us are crossing over to the other shores in pain on ventilators – is this the life we envisioned as the wonderful episode? Where death is the last refuge?

Heard this : Oh it does not matter. A short visit to the hospital and all will be well.

There are though consequences for life has to go on.

We are part of the Universe. Togetherness is the key tempered with solitary silences…..why is humanity so averse to seek enjoyment in itself. We humans have vast potential to joy and be joyful. It is all in the mind and how we regulate our thinking because after all the thoughts jostling in our heads have come from somewhere outside of us.

The Secret to Happiness is in austerity, honesty, awareness and focused action to one’s highest ideal. Do whatever you want to do but stop at excesses is the message. Consider the health of Mother Earth you are living on.

When we pray to gods, do things happen the way we want them to? Not really.

When we do NOT pray to these gods do good things still happen? YES.

So this god thing really may be a hoax.....what then?

Psychic Transformation. The change we pray for and wish to attain. “It is only when man awakens to the knowledge of the soul and feels a need to bring it to the front and make it the master of his life and action that a quicker conscious method of evolution intervenes and a psychic transformation becomes possible. Sri Aurobindo. PK (author): the rest is sheer a dramatic display of fake scenery to fool the crowd; but the crowd is all ready to be fooled for it makes it look better too. Leave transformation, it rarely shows any shift of gears towards change. All hogwash if you ask me.

What is my experience in following the Path to Shibumi?

I was meditating on how life has turned out.

Everything I was afraid of, everything that disturbed me, everything that I considered below me happened to be exactly the things that are now exclusively what I am battling. The message is clear – the people and the events and the everyday happenings around me are exactly teaching me what I need to learn and rise above it all. My weaknesses are being brought out into the light of exposure and I am forced to look them in the eye. The gods have corralled me well and beautifully. There is nothing lacking in my life though. I am given in great measure all that may be needed but one message is clear: Rise above your limitations…. and prove myself to be what I profess to follow.

This is what we are all here for and we all go thru the mill but rarely does anyone arrive to accept this simple fact and this is only the first step.

Who are these religious maniacs thinking they're entitled to cast judgment and penalty against anyone because they are born into a group which of course follows the only True God/Creator/Master of the Universe?

They don’t see themselves as maniacs but virtuous avatars putting this world to right - even engendering their lives to do these good deeds. All over the world the new concept that we are democratically entitled to protest and demonstrate against what we DO NOT like is spreading as now we have “rights” which have sort of legalized riots and interfaith community wars. A new polarization is seen but the question as always is will this change our basic thinking to improve our nucleus of our subconscious patterns of thoughts and habits that run us?

Support and lift the weak but DONT support their weaknesses.

We realize (we may not admit it) early that we have limitations and sadly deep down confirm that we cannot Lord over this existence. But being human our egos demand some pomp and show. Then how do we show up and off that we are superior and something to be reckoned with?

First we quite simply eliminate and stop taking in our calculations all the things that do not pose a danger to our superiority complex...like the trees, rock...don’t pay attention to them!

And then we pick on certain pre-established thoughts available to us thru parenting, schooling and religious dogmas. We choose the ones that promote our so called SELF whatever it is.

3 score and ten years pass rather quickly. Do you understand what this means? It means that you have wasted away a beautiful lifetime that was given to you as an opportunity to rise above this flustered humanity.

WE get to live with what we choose. The Cosmos does not know what you are thinking but it feels your vibes. It will match your wishes that come from deep within. Will it be creative life-giving elements or life shattering elements?

Will we ever have the courage to accept the life shattering elements in us?

BUT no one is prepared to accept or even hint towards the basic point that there is a lot of VIOLENCE and UNKINDNESS in humans per se. Leaders are only magnifying the effect and using the crowd that is easy to manipulate for their own ends by making humans quarrel against each other.

Nobody wants to focus on this aspect. I like to bring this point up in myriad ways and always I receive rationalized replies or stark abuse - that only proves my point.

Michael David

What about a mother or father who suffers and agonizes at the knowledge of things gone wrong for their kids be it health issues or poor choices in life where there is a price to be paid and they mope and agonize over these?

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari

Life itself by its very nature is an agonising process. Humans are still not evolved enough and they make errors at every step. Nothing can be until human start seeing life more LESS self-centeredly. Also there is this ignorance factor at play at the material human animalistic instinctive behaviour pattern.

Most people are not suffering. They may agonise which is a "mind" thing and at the roots "selfish" in its character. When one grows in spirit most of the agony becomes less acute. Most people run to therapists: the worst things one can do - One of the farces that humanity has played upon itself. Most of therapy training involves being aloof. Humans simply cannot be non-judgmental. It is a legal method to overwhelm those we do not like or need to control. It is actually a jail term, a way to confine you and drug you into silence.

The basic problem is the human thought that they are running their lives and master of their fate and that nothing will happen if they don’t do it. Of course effort is required at the physical level but we are bound by the universality of our place on Earth.

What humans need is to learn is to contemplate, increase their information level about the world at large, learn to withdraw and see life in the 3rd person. The aim of life should change from subjective material growth into an intuitive objective growth where the first question should be - "what is behind this world's comings and goings?"

On the question of children I have spoken often. Humans basically are not awake and conscious enough to have children and bring them up properly in a purposeful way. A good question to get started in becoming more conscious of our lives would be to ask: why this hurry to start a family, what are we living for, what is the aim of our lives considering we have only 70 or so years at best, who cares, what will be the prize at the end of it all – a tombstone!!! ...?

*It is the dark side. No one wants to act. No one wants to do. And,

No one wants to let you do.

Evading the issue. If you believe it won’t because at heart you don’t want to (wishful thinking)…. you'll work out great stupid excuses that clearly say "leave me alone.”

The same conversations are repeated. People want to be heard and keep their ears totally shut. It seems as if I am hearing tape recorders running around me - repeating the same laments. There is nothing new (The French understood when they said there is nothing new under the sun). All the “i” are dotted and the “T” crossed in the same identical manner every time mouths open. A closed loop film is running and there seems to be no way to stop it. Nobody is complying under any pressure. It is the sub conscious taking us along with the wave of life. Breaking the chain is not easy until the awakened mind stops, thinks and uses its will to change tack. Very few would have the knowhow to do differently or even the desire WE lay down standards of Superior beings like Krishna and Christ and take their names in vain as we never practice any of the examples they had set for us……or did they?

When I think of humans these two expressions come to mind: a) ”steeped in self-admiration” b) “a high opinion of himself for his unwavering piousness”. So totally in opposition to the character of Shibumi is supposed to be and idolized but never imitated in practice.

We are taught and advised that it is spiritual to forgive and forget. There is a practical problem. Too much forgiving also prepares you for more of the same as once your weaknesses are recognized people will want to take advantage of it. I would say don’t forgive but rise above it all. A little study of psychology is a great help in life. People are creatures of habit and subconscious patterns (samskars) – some coming to us thru DNA from earlier generations. They are what they are and no amount of our kindness and compassion is going to change them. The need is to look inwards. Which subconscious patterns are attracting the events to us? What kind of vibrational cage are we being made live in?

Like a samurai a supreme example of self-control, don’t carry anger or hate in your heart but if you are attacked, be swift in defending or annihilating the attacker. Accept the fact people can be vindictive. Forgiveness doesn’t stop them.

We have to take birth and live it out as the path to eternal godliness is paved thru the forge by the Cosmos and it has for purpose the purification of the human ethos. Sages are not born, they are made. The more the Cosmos considers us good material the more it wants to test the mettle by testing via troublesome situations. It is like sharpening a sword. The growth is spiritual as well. I had spoken only recently on how when you resolve to follow a path like "Not to Lie, Not to hurt back, not to act in anger" how the entire cosmos combines its forces to shatter your vows and make certain that you turn out a perfect non-wavering being. We all have two opposites working in us.

Why does it seem that humanity is suffering more now; have we evolved backwards?

For one thing we are not evolving backwards but we have endangered ourselves more and more with every generation by adding more complex social controls, increasing population and technically advanced inventions that have made us accident-prone and make us lose our composure. Humans trap themselves in some "chakravyuh" (tornado) or the other in life and then just plonk themselves down and lament fate.

Take the time 3-5ooo years ago.

Sickness came and you weathered it as best as you could. There was no trauma from the thought of death. Death could come by illness, animal attacks, raiding groups and bigger kingdoms trying to swallow up other smaller ones. Or even rotten fruit and dirty water.

It was sad scenario but there was a huge sense of acceptance.

In the 19th and 20th centuries we suddenly found answers. There was a collective acceptance of borders and sickness was not so frightful. The constitutions of most countries started giving guarantees.

HUMANS WERE LULLED into comfort and the thought of Constitutional RIGHTS took over.

Then came the master stroke. The pharma and the hospital industry got organised and changed the focus from cure to RELIEF. Products like anesthesia, pain killers, antiseptic household products gave relief and greater control over health matters. At the other end in the name of “more”, agriculture was industrialized and food made to “last” on the shelves and rather dangerously manipulated in processing for longer shelf lives. This created new and dangerous sicknesses and new unexpected painful possibilities.

Now the humans are totally trapped into it. Our minds, lulled into safety have stopped thinking. We are more worried about toilet paper, uninterrupted electricity and the latest fashion.

Illness and pain doesn't bother us because this is exactly what we wanted - relief from pain & the freedom from responsibility of having to care for ourselves. Now we can lazily afford to be stupid – basking in pleasurable activities. And funnily we accept the illnesses as normal which is really not necessary as a little awareness of what is good or bad for us is all we need to focus on. Life is a breeze and there is air conditioning/heating for the remaining issues there is of course the credit card to take care of the rest.

PAIN was the only thing that kept us awake but that was so beautifully removed when aspirin came and all the frowns evaporated. More people die in a sedated state in a hospital now so death is not really an issue either.

Look seriously and ask what has made life of the 20th century different from other times?

Shut off the electricity and take away the batteries and the humans will collapse like a flimsy house of cards.

People are now afraid of people. Trust is neither there nor needed. The trust is now in the handheld smart phone. No one ever slows down enough to think of who is control of the smart phone. We have sold our lives away. Shibumi can go and get lost.

You can talk to their phones and sometimes they may respond. You are not allowed other liberties. They have so little as it is. There is nothing to share.

Move on…..

How is it possible that a person who has lived 70 years on this earth cannot see that with all his brilliance - proven by the fact that he was successful in collecting all the goodies that humans consider wealth - has not learnt to be not brash and angry all the time?

How does it happen that he can only hear what he wants to, remember only what suits him, ignore all inputs other than what he imagined......and so forth?

The ego growing bigger every day, the mind shriveling and the heart drying out - The people too never make any effort to think and learn. Experiences come and go. They come to teach but men never learn because nothing registers in their minds. We categorise them as good and bad and life goes on - repeating itself.

Finally comes the day when they can only criticise and argue; all other faculties having been lost.

Is this growing up or growing down? This is not growth and maturing. It is becoming lesser.

Essentially this is not the way of Shibumi.

We become parasites living off Mother Earth.

We are all parasites in some ways but only in some ways. We all have also some weaknesses that others can prey on.

This is where the source of the philosophy of LOVE comes from.

The philosophy of Psychological Perfection in spiritual conventions aims at basically making the person more resistant to parasites and become less vulnerable thru becoming awake to the vibes around us. + kinder and affectionate and less of a parasite.

We have been taught that the Ego supplies us with the vital energy. It tends to be self-centered so it invites troubles. But if it is converted into a less selfish type, it becomes a good friend and takes you towards achieving self-awareness.

Not destruction of the ego but its transformation should be our aim

Why does the human character not change?

There is a very simple explanation to this phenomenon. The human identifies itself with the mind. It is a lovely world and he is quite content. Why should “man” want change?

All comments made on human nature in the last 5000 years still hold true. Take any statement coming from any one like Confucius, Buddha, Krishna or philosopher, writers or great rulers anywhere on earth. Why? ‘Cause we're not evolving.

The mind is 100% partnership with the physical mind of the five senses. Both these worlds of the mind and physical mind are a parallel universe with an interesting element called ‘imagination’. This allows the human persona to create an imagined world for itself with unlimited possibilities. This, + the world’s comforts keep the human persona bound to the universe of the mind. The lure of the physical-sexual encounter is that it shows them some of the possibilities of the spirit world. And this has kept the human race entrapped in the small comforts of married life. Add to it the lure psychotic stimulants and life becomes wonderful and this way out is so simple and easy. Mother Nature has all cards stacked in her favor. After experiencing life for the average of span of 70 years, wisdom starts dawning on the human mind but Mother nature clips the wings with death and progress stops short right there.

The spirit world with unlimited power does attract them and many are able to shift from the physical intellectual mind to the Intuitive mind which shows them the real world of many other worlds but most humans are afraid to lose whatever they have. The lure of greater things is not great enough.

As to the world of spirit, they have cleverly bypassed the issue by creating an imagined being called ‘god’ or by 1001 some other names all over the globe and they keep themselves busy by trying to keep it happy.

I wonder when this bubble will burst. It does not seem likely for a few thousand years more.

* A thought passes by in the head and it is instantly converted into words thru the mouth.

It is sad to see how older people first get old and then elderly. Most people as they grow older insist that all around them accommodate them and live for them for they have done their duty to the young when they had to. They stop growing in mind and spirit; become demanding and totally out of touch with reality as the young ones find the world to be and soon a communication gap grows between them younger people. This phenomenon is so universal and usual that very few young people feel comfortable or even want to be with older people.

The young people get a lot of lectures (mostly useless) and little listening.

Very rare are the older people who join the young and listen and are just there for the young to lean upon - open arms, open heart - accepting the younger ones without critical eyes and judgment.

Life just is.

One way or another it gets lived. 3 score and ten years pass very fast.

There are so many thoughts on the "Purpose".

What I have understood is that we are needed, if at all, to pursue every day as it comes. The day comes with many errands. Simply complete them. Preparing for the next moment is part of the moment. But people are so focussed on their long term investments that they forget the moment and miss out on both and then are miserable.

Because its coming is not in our hands and the daily comings are also not in our hands whatever we may strive for or not strive for.

If there is a lesson in all this, we shall be learning it willy-nilly.

I have also observed that thoughts do have something to do with it all. Kind, grateful and charitable thoughts seem to influence different types of "comings.” To make the most of our lives let us add a serious dose of clearly thought-out purposefulness.

This is the first occult truth: Shun crowds. ……here is another page from Trevenian’s book

Your vibes get so thoroughly mixed up and diluted to the universal karma that only the lowest common karmic vibes are active in a crowd.

All your positivity, your personal karmic shadow and destiny get eclipsed.

Funny little masters of the universe.

Having high IQ, learning, problem solving skills is all useless on this earth where 99% cannot appreciate you, DONT really NEED and will see you as an embarrassment & reject you.

The comment is connected with taking up jobs. The qualification requirements are so diploma demanding and oriented that there is a vast teaching class of people who are lying useless because of bureaucratic entanglements. Not only in teaching but other activities and personal relationships too.

Richard Lee Fulgham

Surprising remark, Pradeep. True in every respect - jobs included.

What to do when surrounded by less aware minds? Less sensitive minds? I can only say what I did. Withdraw, watch, avoid. From the tree, the bird can see. I'm old now and can say my defense worked. The many bosses -- the ten thousand yelling tongues -- were avoided, ignored. The ten thousand traps were sprung on air.

Ken Timper

The ego, old nature is a selfish entity. If you can do something that benefits "it," then people will love you for as long as it serves them, then toss you. Think that is cynical? Live long enough and you will see. Before people holler about 'exceptions,' remember that it is the exception that proves the rule.

Michael Kaplan

I point out where they lack perspective. At work, I question the motives of each action. I often say, this is being done just for the sake of doing it - with no benefit or logic.

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari

Michael Kaplan, Humans act by habit – unconsciously without trying – it just happens thru them. No conscious awareness. Funny little masters of the universe. This is their idea of playing it safe.

John Shoji Sorensen

The smart man prepared for the assault.

The wise man rolls with the punches.

The wisest man steps out of the way.

Most men just wonder what the hell happened as they attempt to get up fem the ground.

Some men refuse to believe anything ever occurred.

Occult Understanding.

This does not come by practice but by letting the mind spread in all directions straight into the intuitive mind where you clearly see the stupidity of human kind and YOU become kinder.

Until we make our decisions based on the understanding of human nature as it is, without prejudices and pre-determined thoughts, there will not be, there cannot be any change.

All decisions now are based on a fallacy that humans are naturally kind, sincere, honest, self-sacrificing, charitable, forgiving, hard-working and striving for the common good. In actuality they are anything but. It is understandable that with this kind of premise all out laws, regulations, behavior patterns will and are in aberrance.

We are so used to supportive assistance to prop our persona from relative and friends that our entire consciousness is focused on keeping our supportive crowd happy and maintain friendly (at least seemingly) relations. Do we realize how entombing this is? This keeps us stuck, worried and full of anxiety. Shibumi is the art of leaving all this behind and rising above this need to be valued, seen, seen as worthy of attention and when not happening feel sorry for oneself. Aren’t you good for anything? I believe if you are good and better than most even in one activity you will be noticed and in demand. This is natural.

This morning started with the same old thought:

They don’t want to die but will not take care of their health issues or for that matter economic or educational matters.

How can MAN ever forget that his body is not HIM but that the body is a temporary gift by Mother Nature to help you FEEL alive and a distinct opportunity to better your prospects?

The way we treat our body and our health issues one would think that it is all totally unnecessary and that whatever it be, we shall of course be living forever - till the next attack which takes us to the hospital where our first feelings that we voice are: Doctor I don't want to die!!!!!!

Why are we afraid to die? This body that we never cared for, that gives us pain, this LIFE that gives us so many traumas that we never tried to improve upon and most of the time cannot do much about - what interest do we have in being alive.

My philosophy: Make a life program. Like in my case I had already planned that at the age of 50 I will relinquish many of the holding thoughts and relationships that trap me in this life. For instance like wanting to still run after money, popularity and love. My theory being if all these had not come by then it was not happening and either I need to change my attitude or forget it as not worth it. And if it had already come then the time for taking it easy was definitely here. By 60 a life loving detachment would be the only thing permissible and start closing the files that were still open. By 65 be ready to go; the idea was that I would be ready to drop dead without leaving any problems, questions, issues behind. Take life (if I survived that long) as an amusement and give full play to hobbies and all the things that were left unexplored.

I am glad to say that I am now at this stage.

- Let the jobs that are not paying go.

- Let the friends and family members who do not call back or come when invited slip and go to the bottom of the friend-list.

- Stop wanting to improve the world but live gratefully and take great care of the body.

- Simplify the care-taking burdens by eliminating all the gadgetry/personal effects that is not needed.

- Pay attention to live by one-self in one's own company. Pay more attention to doing things that make us feel alive. For company there are beaches, sunsets, books and music + some good wines.

- Drop all the THOUGHTS that are sourced and bound in social conventions. Social conventions are mental traps to keep a semblance of order in society. These are totally against growth of independent thinking and designed to block all meaningful spiritual growth.

We are all gurus to somebody who listens to us.

Therefore speak with great responsibility. If you can, stop for a moment to think and consider; perhaps you do not know enough to "speak" and it may be more correct to let the person work it out for himself. But do share your experience.

Difficulties on the way.

A being of equal power attaches to persons who are trying to rise in consciousness. It is there to help you in your resolve to go up the ladder of awareness, to test you and make sure that the work you wish to do is done to perfection. (This is an occult truth that cannot be shown or proven but experienced). Here is a passage from the words of The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry…. “When you feel unhappy like that, it means that you have a progress to make. You can say that we always need to progress, it is true. But at times our nature gives its consent to the needed change and then everything goes smoothly, even happily. On the contrary sometimes the part that has to progress refuses to move and clings to its old habits through inertia, ignorance, attachment or desire. Then, under the pressure of the perfecting force, the struggle starts translating itself into unhappiness or revolt or both together.

The only remedy is to keep quiet, look within oneself honestly to find out what is wrong and set to work courageously to put it right.

BUT

There is another side to this:

All your talk and philosophizing may be just a ploy. All this talking of it that is only indulged in but not backed by a growing spirit means only one thing - that you can be recognised as a person of worth and it is all vanity.

Either way growth of the spirit is the only answer.

Asking for help from other humans will only make matters worse. People are NOT good at giving objective advice. Humans usually think in terms of greatest gain to them in everything they do and always take advantage of the situation.

Rape and War.

The two most horrendous acts are the most practiced activities by human kind.

This is because it is part of the Earth’s Consciousness. Humans are like fish in its waters. The human psychology is formed with this as an active element in humans. If Lust and Grabbing will remain a strong factor in our psychology there is no way wars can be stopped. We have to first own it up. To this is added the constant titillation by 1000 and 1 one means. No act is a single one-off act. There is always a long history stretching behind it. No act can be judged by itself. The entire chain of cause and effect needs to be studied.

Some minds, educated and more aware may say that this is not how things should be but it is like asking the weed to not grow because we so kindly ask it to not grow.

Here is a passage from Sri Aurobindo:

"So long as war does not become psychologically impossible, it will remain or, if banished for a while, return."

"Only when man has developed not merely a fellow-feeling with all men, but a dominant sense of unity and commonalty, only when he is aware of them not merely as brothers,—that is a fragile bond,—but as parts of himself, only when he has learned to live not in his separate personal and communal ego-sense, but in a larger universal consciousness can the phenomenon of war, with whatever weapons, pass out of his life without the possibility of return. Meanwhile that he should struggle even by illusions towards that end, is an excellent sign; for it shows that the truth behind the illusion is pressing towards the hour when it may become manifest as reality."

Sri Aurobindo, 'War and Self-Determination'.

I realise on studying the subject more deeply that it all depends on the level that one is on the evolutionary ladder.

The Thesis is what invites the Anti-thesis.

Consider yourself lucky when Life, Fate & Destiny ignore your wishes totally and do not leave you a moment's peace and leave you very few options except that of drilling yourself out of the holes they keep on throwing you in - back to back.

If you have any intelligence, you would welcome these instances, learn your lessons and change your ways and deeper attitudes. When the course is over, you will be rewarded by freedom from this cycle of birth and rebirth from life on this tiresome planet and a sense of power while you are here. Life on earth has its own rules. Even avatars are not immune to its devastating cause and effects. But sincerity is a major player in mitigating the effects.

Not a single religion teaches peace. Study them carefully. They teach intolerance by constantly explaining how they are superior and the ONLY religion to follow.

Every other religion is explained away as pagan or as a crowd of infidels proven by the demand that you come into their fold by doing away all other beliefs.

Not a single religion has any idea of peace as an end in itself; they only lay down a set of rules to live in social harmony IF everyone followed the way as shown. I don’t think peace on earth is possible until a complete change of peaceful thoughts take over the Earth’s consciousness.

There are two kinds of lives. One that takes us within into introspection and the other outwards as is the normal with all of us.

When we are looking outwards, trying to make a place for ourselves in this establishment that we have landed into where we have virtually no say and are obliged to obey, we cannot be too choosy. We have to learn to make a place for ourselves regardless of all the incongruities we may encounter. It does not pay to look at faults as there are many and as many as you look for.

But when we go within, we have to be very critical and all shadows, dark corners have to be visited, cleared and emptied otherwise the Light would not find a place to spread and stay. And this is what ‘IT’ is all about.

You can be strong only when you cannot be bought or tempted at any price. But you need to be flexible for a change for the better at the same time.

Take a sampling of let us 1000 humans from all over and we shall see that more than 90% have a lack of determination, strength of conviction to exercise their will, the ability to say NO and stick to it; specially when their own mind is telling them to do or not do something. These people allow others, emotional needs or temptations to sway them easily.

The ability to know clearly what is acceptable and what not and then stick to our convictions is not exactly a natural god-given trait. See how easily company of family, teachers, friends can insist us to join them in their activities and we readily follow; how easily we make bad choices and imprint on ourselves; we imbibe bad habits that control us for the rest of our lives.

Becoming master of our mind is something that comes only by arduously training the mind and its control over the emotions and bodily activity. The other way happens thru a hard explosive suffering life in which the person is more a victim of circumstances.

If you are still behaving at 60 the way you did at 6, then either you are a very highly enlightened person who has completed the circle or you are a moron who never matured and you have wasted this life-time....sadly.

But I have seen this is not so simple. Destiny, fate and karma and our preparations from past lives all have a say in the formation of character. Resolute behavior, the ability to choose the best response to products and people and circumstances needs a lot of good education and experience of life that one life-time can rarely give.

This should be something to meditate upon.

On wastage: It is not wastage. It is willful damage of resources. We pride ourselves to be able to waste food, throw away perfectly fine goods and keep on buying useless products while the rest of the world looks on.

It is a matter of status; like having a Bentley with no place to really go to and no one paying attention anyway.. The illusion that we are making a mark in the world is complete and there is no-one looking and the only reaction we attract is the jealous eye.

Understand that we all have hidden, sub-current motivations. Until we understand all this, nothing will change in you or around you. For this silence and contemplation are sorely needed while this world unfortunately adopts the opposite route.

The human mind will always find logic, poetically entwined in word-play to find meaning to fit with the wishes bubbling as desires.

WE eventually reduce, cut to size, distort and bring down everything to our miniscule thinking levels.

This is a truth of the human condition. It will go away only when we become sincere to our own "concepts" which have to be beyond all concepts.

The Lord does not need homes after homes. The weight of temples, churches, cathedrals, mosques burden the earth. You wish to serve the Lord by wanting to please him by being his man on earth and showing it by building in his name and glory. It does not get more pretentious that this. It is high time that humanity recognises that this self-fooling to please the Lord does not even touch HIM with a barge pole

This entire Creation is HIS home and you are just another ant here. The insincerity of this thinking that you are doing the Lord's work is pure and simple dishonesty. At the core these are all commercial ventures. The Lord has nothing to do with it.

“I am man of god” is the most despicable sentence to my ears.

Existential checklist

Most of us are rather proud of what we are. We value our life dearly.

What is this all based on?

Of all the people we are in touch with and know and deal and interact with, how many are from acquired family by birth?......and now that you are counting, count also those that consider you family outside this circle of birth.

How many people you could visit and stay as long as you wanted because you are family and comfortable with?

How many of the thoughts, reasons for living are acquired and how many you inferred and developed on your own?

Your religion and religious practices along with social customs; how many are acquired unconsciously and how many you adopted because you are comfortable in them?

Would you follow the crowd that you call your own brethren in a revolutionary gathering that may turn violent?

Your profession and livelihood; how did it begin? How did you get into it?

When you say “I” what does it actually represent?

How many of your decisions are made and lived because they are in alignment with your natural, deep psychological tendencies (coming from somewhere deep within) and how many are those that you followed because your life just happened to roll into them?

Do you live to be comfortable in your own skin and do things, select clothes and furniture because it is what you “are” & comfortable in?

If you were dropped suddenly in the middle of Budapest or Peking would you know how to manage? Would you be able to return home and deal with all the exigencies that would confront you? (Without Google/phone or internet)

Finally the main question: Is your life a consciously thought-out venture and are you on a path that you decided without being influenced by the life that you were born in?

Have you been able to surmount the anomalies that you realized are blocking your futuristic dreams?

Speak to me about one accident in life that you got out of without the help of your birth-blood related family.

I wait for guidance from my heart and pray for some sign from the world around me to guide my steps.

We are as I see totally busy in dissecting, discussing and criticizing our lives and we are filling up books with our thoughts and cults are being born around some clever marketing of these thoughts. Most of it has to do with the lives of these gods and ceremonies that we have created and our need to appease them. We seem to know exactly what they do and want as if we are having breakfast with them daily and are privy to all their thoughts. None of this makes sense. There is no way that we can be right about their lives and what made them tick. Were you all following them with TV Cameras crew all their lives?

And come to think of it; don’t we accept them as the Creator? Then how do we at the same time wish to enclose them as some figurines in some temples and spend huge amounts of energies/resources in constructing them and then consider ourselves blessed and supremely virtuous by visiting the place and having a view of the figurines? Attention: I am not opposing prayer. What was and why was praying to the sun not enough? This is the question.

It is a false world, a creation of our minds in which we cozily exist, feel virtuous and waste away all the possibilities given to us as this "life-time.”

But my head interferes a lot. It has plans and so many reasons to follow them; it usually uses the gods to only justify its ventures. So all this advice presumably coming from the gods as written down in some books are simply our excuses as our foundation to follow our desires? Are we praying to fulfill our wishes or as excuses to cover-up for our failings?

No wonder humanity has not moved near to god one inch in the last 5000 years.

The Secret.

What thoughts are we associating with?

The digital age has made us lose whatever little focus humanity had. Now we are distracted all the time and just look closely at all the distractions....you will see they are titillating us into amoral behaviour that is energy expensive and violent….. that is personality degrading and pushing us into a consumer mindset which is keeping us wanting more & is health destroying.

Becoming a monk Renouncing to become a monk is akin to going from one household to another. Most are running from the difficult task of living with woman/children, other relatives who impose their rights. He only missed the great possibility of rising above it all. He was running away.

I have seen many monks and many adherents in Ashrams. They are simply enjoying the time of this lifetime without having to worry about a household and necessity to earn, comfortably ensconced and feeling virtuous at the same time.

Unfortunately the thinking pattern of the populace supports them.

We need to learn about life and find ways and means to improve life to live successfully in this not-so-ideal world. The main point is that humanity needs to change many of its thought patterns that are keeping it stuck in an evil world of bad intentions for short-term gains. With a little understanding of the Forces at play and a little change in our attitude we can win in this world and better our circumstances.

The temples are revered as de facto homes of our conjured up gods and visiting them is a sacred journey. A journey made easily nowadays. The illusion of having seen god is added to it.

We then return home as purified beings and get into the dirty business of living/killing with greater gusto - making this whole life a lie.

I wonder if any of the modern children of Almighty would follow him to fight the Demons in the absence of air-conditioned transport, regular meals and stores on the way for clothes and toiletries.

Temples in difficult to reach places were basically constructed to energise the human into recognizing the hardships & focus that is required to achieve a greater level of consciousness and awareness. The use of helicopters to reach a place of meditation and revival is a farce. Reaching the place is not the point. The Path is the point.

Monks were advised and made to humbly beg for food. The concept behind this is as old as philosophy has been there in India. The belief is: Trust the Maker. He will provide. Don’t think you are the doer. Beg and see what you get in humility without being insistent. You'll realise that you are no-one, nothing - just another insect in this Universe - but yes you can grow and discover your origins.

Mind training to focus, living in awareness, honing all senses and learning to live in the moment with heightened sense of where and what of all things really matters - this is what Shibumi demands. Take the opposite scenario that is prevalent in the world: Our minds carry only what they have seen and heard. From that little opinions are formed as we cannot be seen as the NON-Knowledgeable.

We forget to ask ourselves that from where we stand how much can we really see and hear - about 5- to 50 miles in all directions. The rest is hearsay. But books, TV, the computer feed us with opinions and we travel so in our expanded view we have managed to increase the 'argument' quotient of humanity instead of the wisdom quotient.

How many billions are we and all with different agendas with minds working at different levels of speeds in different levels of gears? The thought stalls my entire being in shock.

The greatness of humanity is in the fact that we let each other live...., in a funny sort of way but we love quarrels and wars because these give us an excuse to air our views.

Educate yourself. Learn to discipline yourself. Don’t be afraid to act. Maintain cordial relations with Mother Nature and Society as a whole.

To add to this mélange you need to also take into account your amour-propre and its interference which is insidious and hardly ever recognised.

Can we change it all?

You may redesign the "pourer" but what if the vessel is too full or shut?

What we need is to form the minds to think differently. Let it develop differently from day one.

Two mistakes are being made now:

The mind's cord to the universal mind, Mother Nature is cut and destroyed too early.

The mind is filled with convenient thoughts that are sustained with fear of consequences.

By the time the child is 15, the mind is already messed up and is a tool of non-thinking reactive individuals with large vanities who have learnt to argue and play the human game but NOT learn.

Trying to transfer data to these minds in any language becomes an arduous task if at all possible.

Why people donate in temples/places of worship but not in Hospitals?

Are there no donation boxes there?

YES there are but people don’t see them there.

In the temple people go to buy favour from the gods. They are not donating. Note the difference.

The trouble with living with too much history comes with having too many traditions, too many accepted norms; and with glorified "sages & saints" - too many relics. Traditions bound us down and we are afraid to take ourselves further.

We get stuck with these and live in the past. We never grow. Our base persona remains stuck with a fixed time period with thoughts and behaviours better suited to the times in which they originated.

All growth factors that were initiated then having never been achieved then or now.

The people then were in a given psychological state, conditioned by the times and for them certain guidance(s) were laid down. The tragedy is they never out grew their limitations and the traditions kept on being perpetuated with a lot of drama and charade but no change ever happened at psychic or psychological levels and of course the subconscious never got touched at all.

We don’t need expositions of higher living philosophies for now. At the stage humanity is we simply need to learn to live wisely and kindly. Let us first arrive here. We have not even been able to arrive at the level of the 10 commandments but we talk of The Kingdom of heaven and spend valuable hours and energy in writing/discussing of consciousness levels that are way beyond our immediate need for the next step.

One of the things in the human ethos is our need to remain silent about disagreements or/and bullying for the consideration that “It will displease” and invite further ill-willed reactions.

There is no such thing as irrational. The rational may not be obvious. This is what we are expected to explore using a quiet mind without getting caught in the storm.

Let things happen in their natural flow. Some things will certainly offend some. Some do it on purpose to make a point. Do we have a right to offend?…. Though if truth and exposition of fact offends then so be it. The act of offending deliberately is war mongering.

The constitution of your country may give you rights but the consequences have rights too. Let us never forget that Mother Nature doesn’t give any rights.

We are also easily swayed by gossip.

This is true; we are emotional babies and we are easily displeased, insulted, influenced and shamed. And these are attitudes that we promote religiously as indicative of our sensitive humanness. I see them as weaknesses..

The MIND is a world in itself….. Unlimited possibilities to imagine. It is a universe within the Universe…..endless & and no boundaries.

YOU dear sir, are in a mental public place. Shoulder to shoulder with a throbbing voluble crowd that is jostling you around. There is a commonness of thinking and beliefs so you are quite comfortable. You are all picking up some thoughts here and some thoughts there; exchanging them at the drop of a hat. It is a lively and an engaging scene.

But you are not one of the crowd even. You are THE Crowd with the great pride of being an individual just because you can see your shoulder separately from that of others. But at the mental level there is no intellectuality; whatever little there is gets submerged in the sea of thoughts around you.

One day you are Mr Goldegad, the next day it will be Mr Merton and some days later your mind will be Mrs Osaka and some days later it will be again Mr Merton if not Dr crook.

Who are you today?

And come to think of it you are one day patient and generous and the other day tired and irritable - now what initiated that? A bad digestion or the arrival of unwelcome news? Did the honking by the neighbor disturb you?

You have heard of SAD? You all accept that the weather has a great influence on your moods? Then why is it so difficult to accept that thought patterns from the world around you are influencing even more deeply?

So coming back to the question of “who are you?” It seems that you are basically all the people around you (and the more there are the worse it gets) that have been and are+ your ego who "simply cannot be wrong and cannot be faulted".

Why can’t we be open, frank and honest?.... take things with a pinch of salt and humorously. It would cut short the duration of misunderstandings and pave the way for real development, action and development – stronger deeper friendships.

If you allow your intuitive mind to grow and spread, you will see that although our stories are as varied as the number of people on earth, there is an extremely common thread running through it all.

We all have the same elements powering us. For a moment let me digress and compare it to cars - like whatever be the brand, shape or color and comforts added to a car the basic is an engine on 4 wheels with a gear system, brakes and steering wheel.

To elaborate further we humans have the same components as a body, a mind and set of emotions with lots of 'amour-propre'; the mind has a way of functioning which is quite similar in all of us and our actions and reactions are basically quite common. To mention a few to make my point clear: The art of listening and not paying attention, the art of looking but not seeing what is of no interest to us, the art of bluffing, the capacity to lie and forget, the capacity to create from imagination, to love intensely, to be kind and giving and forgiving and cruel at the same time, the way we suffer anxieties, fear and are affected by Nature, the way we desire and seek appreciation and approbation.......all these are the same and we all die. Yet we all believe in our exclusivity....hope keeps us alive and going. Shibumi is the art of rising above all our frailties by acknowledging them first, then honing the use of our minds, our talents, controlling our emotions and essentially become master of ourselves where every second is lived with purpose.

There are a lot of positive, learned and great healers around in this world. Digital communications has even made it easy to find them. Even if we take just 1% of the world population, that would make 70 million+ of them. Then why we do not see more people cured? Rather the world is sicklier than it has ever been.

For one thing the focus is now on relief not betterment or cures.

Secondly what happens is that when people go to healers or they randomly even read advice that hits them between their eyes/forehead as the answer, they are swayed for a moment but the moment they go back to the comfort of their pears,

they return to their milieu and the old pattern of thinking, their old fears and the comfort of their tried and known values and way of working takes over and they revert to type; losing out on the grace and gift that had come to them.

So it is best to take this into your calculations before expending your energies on futile wasteful human projects

Don’t forget that it is the soul that provides the energy and you have no right to waste it or fritter it away. Never forget the SOUL knows and can as easily withdraw.

Choose very carefully what you have to say.

Does it need to be said? Do you have an ulterior motive?

Is the recipient of the information ready to receive it – psychologically, intellectually and emotionally?

When put into words does it make sense?

I give here an example..........

“Balance

Do not make unimportant things important, nor concentrate on trifles at the expense of vital matters, or you will hamper your progress. Impulsive actions that are not in keeping with one's real duties are undesirable. ~ Sri Paramahansa Yogananda”

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari: What is unimportant? Or is there anything unimportant? What are my duties?

I find these kinds of quotes are supposed to be revealing a big truth in a nutshell but meaning nothing to the layman. The words are so general and relative that they mean nothing and can be translated and reinterpreted by everyone at a personal level to fit into their established thinking and that is like going to square 1 for all practical purposes.

Pragmatic requirements of life require adjusting to the environment around us. So of course we rarely speak out our minds and hearts.

Spiritual requirements are so totally otherwise.

It is one huge bridge to cross.

“I am not here”

I remember many years ago when I was still living alone. The hassles of dealing with insincere people who in their cleverness only double and triple the hassles in everyone’s lives had reached up to my ears…I decided one fine morning that “I am not here”. Just that. I let the phone ring, the doorbell ring, I did not come out; I was not there!

The peace of not being here is such a wonderful holiday and rejuvenating.

See how they mindlessly lunge for the phone at its calling; like Pavlov's dogs! A bell has more hold over them like the wind on chimes….and these same people go strutting about as master of their destinies and arrogantly announcing that every moment of their lives is a thought out and planned out to the last second of their lives in all that happens.

What is so compelling in the calling of the phone?

The fear that you may miss out….to show the world how busy and in demand you are?

We are just another nail in the scheme of things. “Important” only as long as we are there yet we live as if the world runs because we are here. In this case forget your grumblings and your complaints. For those who would have peace and quiet, BE the real master of their puny lives, “NOT being here” is an important, almost the only factor that is important.

We are at war when we lie and we create more wars when we tell the truth.

The question is shall we speak or remain silent?

From what I understand when we disturb the hive, the bees are bound to get angry.

So what do we do?

Call it by whatever name like Bluffing, Lying or Cheating the fact remains that our foundation is shaky and we speak without intent and rarely worry about the consequences. The philosophers call it INSINCERITY but it is more than that. We are deliberately seeding discord, quite possibly with some mischief in mind. This cannot be good.

Humans make statements, Commitments based on the mood of the moment. They mean it for the moment. At the time spoken the intent would have been serious and sincere as an emotional wave but will it still be so after a few hours or days? Tomorrow is another day. This is the psychological truth of our nature and general character but we do not accept it as we project ourselves and are literally convinced by our ego as being sincere, honest and indulgent people and very committed & mean every word we utter; something that we are deep-down not and considering the life we are forced to live on this planet, it cannot be otherwise. So how do we match the requirement of honesty that SHIBUMI demands?

I would say never take liars with any importance because they are living without a purpose - if hiding from themselves can be considered a purpose. They are rather proud of their ability to “get-away-with-it” at least for that moment. To think they might transform into something honest is folly; a rusted piece of iron cannot be transmuted back to iron – leave alone gold. Avoid them totally and tell them squarely that the door to your house is closed to them.

Crystal Lynne Duperry : Sometimes hard when it is family.

PK: I have realised that the family given to us represents the universe in microcosm that we are required to deal with in this lifetime. All the possibilities that we need to confront in us is given to us on a silver platter thru family.

It is the humans who complicate matters out of selfishness by creating clear demarcations of "family, friends and strangers". I don’t understand why bloodlines are so "OURS" and others not.

In my experience all the pain I have received is from family but all these pains were spiritually enhancing. I had to rise above my notions and do what had to be done to rise above the situations and move on with my personal agenda. Love and comfort, assistance and support came from non-family - all over the globe. But by taking family as they came to me I learnt to use their faults and weaknesses against them.

There are psychological tricks that easily neutralize them but to manipulate the manipulators requires some doing, self-discipline, self-control and greater understanding of the factors at play. You have to learn to cut them off, brush them off and turn them off.

If we are not careful we may also end up surrounding ourselves with cheats of other hues. The company we keep matters.

Most of us are rather proud of our great abilities and style in which we live our lives. We see ourselves as models to emulate; especially considering the harsh cards life and providence has dealt us. We survive our troubles rather well and are generally in good moods because we consider ourselves as infinitely better and able than all those around us whose company we have to bear. This certainly keeps us in a vainglorious laudable happy frame of mind. We even boast a lot. And this is bad as it attracts negative destructive vibes.

In my short life one thing stands out. I meet many people who have distinctly a special journey of self-awareness planned for them by destiny… 100 & one things point to it.

Every single one of them have one thing in common: they have family responsibilities and they are too kind and allow others to take advantage of them. Which, in our study of shibumi would be construed as weak moral fiber. In all these cases I have seen that taking care of parents is involved as an essential part of the story.

They are trapped in their own kindness + I think behind it all there is also this thought of being in a state of great virtue. I have seen that these parents seem to live long enough to make life into a complicated game of chess for the beleaguered person to solve and by the time these people are free to catch their own train it is rather too late.

There are also cases where kind parents support their weak back-boned children. All in all we are not helping in growing out of our frailties.

The average human cannot be faulted to see no incongruities in this behavior as he sees with one eye on ‘good’ and the other on bad; a divide already clearly established to follow blindly and they do quite happily. In shibumi we learn to see the whole in one sweep of the eye. The good is in everything that helps in strengthening character eventually. The opposite is not our way.

This is a spiritual double talk of destiny. The way is shown but then huge blocks put psychologically. Courage is needed to climb over these blocks and the basic comforts of life keep them psychically drugged. The moralistic jingoism people live by has a great hold on human minds. This chain needs to be broken but few really want to.

They explain away their situation gladly by some logic like "that it is destiny, that it God's will, that duty demands" etc

Kathy Glover

But doesn’t it seem like the right thing to do, to take care of our elders and not shuffle them off to an impersonal care center or leave them alone to die in suffering and loneliness?

PK replies: Kathy Glover, Is this the only solution?

Problematic situation and episodes are given to us to surmount/solve; not run away from. Keeping the parents or not keeping them is not the point. Take it that life has given you this opportunity of a problem to “manage” as a lesson to learn.

For instance I kept my mother but would not give any traction to her need to manage the household or want it always her way. Silently, without opening my mouth, I would just signal her to be silent and go about my way. But I let her run the kitchen because she wanted the food to be just so!. It suited me and if she was not happy with what we were cooking she was welcome to do it herself. It freed us and kept her out of our hair.

American thinking is very cut & dry. They avoid adjustments and go for yes-no answers. Life is not that simple. Most of the life's scenarios in our lives are the result of some pattern within us. So the final solutions are in self-understanding and removing the offending glitches from our system that runs on habits.

The solution is in living together, keep an eye on the elders but maintain your independence too. Elders are not incapable but tired but don’t make them feel useless. The elders should also aim for this. Try to associate your life with these words: Awareness, precise, honest, true, courageous, learning, solving issues by more learning and growth of consciousness. Put your SOUL first and its needs. The Soul knows what needs to be done and will organize your life for the better. Just be quiet and pay attention to it. One thing can be advocated in simple terms: do not let or promote the selfishness of others. Don’t get enveloped in their scheming.

(I wonder when they will realise that in life our duty is only to our destiny - but living kindly is also part of it. These others for who they are suppressing their own growth have their own destinies and that they are blocking the others from realising their destinies)

The entrapment is such that all the people in the brew are being stopped from pursuing their Destinies by each other mostly by supporting each other’s errors, faults and weaknesses.

In my eyes it is sad. Because once the time has gone the moment will go into oblivion and a good life will be lost to ideas of goodness that humans harbor. There really being no good or bad and our responsibility is only to our own spiritual advancement - our Soul’s progress. Funnily this is what brings success in material affairs but humans have not caught on.

We like it or not but we all immediately or shortly classify everybody in our minds into neat slots; I assume based on our preferences, our exposure to the world at large and our theoretical knowledge of life.

We are so used to this that in our applications for passports and such there is always these questions about our profession, marital status, income-tax payee or not etc. By this information we are “placed” and put in a slot. I am either a carpenter, accountant or a bum. The lady is either an executive or a housewife. Done!

This is what I hope I can safely call the pub level of mind. No real need and cannot see further anyway.

It is not important and means nothing to me how anyone words messages but I do wonder why people say "I don’t know but....". Are they supposed to be omniscient? as all-knowing.....then what does it really mean? Why do it? The annoying thing is that they start with something like 'I don’t know about this...' then start giving possible explanations/hypothesis on the subject that match and fit into the limits of their ignorance.

To me literally it looks like the subconscious showing off. And in my book it does not have a good place because it shows an immature mind.

I remember the word plebian connected with it. Once the people are placed in their proper categories the ones who do not fall into any category are or used to be called eccentrics but they were given their due as being of some special importance. Today these erratic breed is called by different names as promoted by Marx. I don’t agree but that is another matter. Eventually these eccentrics became the dangerous ones and were designated as founders of disturbing the peace. Today when you don’t go along with the crowd you are easily picked up by the police as a possible terrorist – frightening the establishment with horrible new thoughts.

It is also a fact that this majority on non-thinkers and their lassitude has given rise to the few powerful families that control the entire economy of the world and the lives of the plebian horde. They are being called 1% but nobody is prepared to call a spade a spade that the 99% is instrumental in helping them to maintain their control by being enslaved to the few comforts they provide.

Come to think of it, if the world is still running smoothly it is because these comfortably placed minds do not interfere in the working of this planet; and they are in the majority. The BIG Issue that is swept under the carpet is that they are also permitting the minority to get away with murder.

What can we do? Nothing much except go about cock-a-doodling and be thrown shoes at!

But yes if this annoys anyone then I would put this question to you – what are you doing about it? A little grumbling in the pub won’t do anything.

Real power is in being out of this crowd; mastery of our selves seen thru control and awareness of our managing agents which are our reactionary emotions like greed, selfishness, anger, jealousy, and need for appreciation.

Why is it that only a gun to one's head makes this humanity move?

My answer: Because we refuse to be kind and unforgiving in our thinking. We are quite assinine you know. The human being is characterized by laziness and cleverness which easily degenerates into cunning and cussedness. We would like the status quo to continue in everything to suit us and hope that life will revolve around us and for us. We sort of invite others to be violent with us. On the other hand experience of life that has been imbibed since ages is that threats will get us what we require faster and when we have the baton of authority, might as well use it. Humans usually prove themselves to be recalcitrant and bluffers. We learn to assume that all must be so. Anyway why wait to find out. If we have to serve ourselves just bulldoze this resistant humanity – where is the time, patience to parley.

And the truth is humans will tell lies, obfuscate, talk and argue but rarely make a move if they can help it. Then our focus is also to blame. Most of us are busy in accumulating purchasable wealth and use all the short-cut methods available to us like robbery, misappropriation, cheating, temptations etc.

It is indeed a very confused state. In the state of Shibumi we have to drop all these behind. Stay and live above it all. We need to have our feet solidly planked to the ground and also be in flight as if nothing of all this matters. We have to also let the Universe go on its way.

. . . . . . . . .

Sakini: You not failure.

Capt Fisby: I’ll tell you something Sakini. You know I used to worry a lot about not being a big success. I think I felt a lot like you people (Okinawans) felt, always being conquered. Well ya know, now I’m not sure who’s the conquered and who’s the conqueror. I’ve learned in Topiki the wisdom of gracious acceptance. I don’t wanna be a world leader. I’ve made peace with myself somewhere between my ambitions and my limitations.

— ‘Tea House of the August Moon’ (1956)

. . . . . . . . .

Is your mind yours?

Do you feel attracted to cheesy news about neighbors and relatives?

Do you get upset that you have to live with old products while the adverts on TV are talking of new developments that are so fantastic?

Are you affected with gory news items of accidents, fires, floods and crashes?

If all that is sensational still grabs your mind and disturbs you, then your mind is not yours. Your persona itself is not yours. Then who are you and what are you doing here? Make this question your life’s focus and start pondering on what is what.

Violent spectator sports…are we human or demons?

What pleasure can there be to see people fighting and beating up each other as sport?

But it is big business and a huge time-pass because humans do love them.

What pride can there be in being the person in the ring for money or two day's glory in beating the hell out of somebody? How can a kind compassionate person ever enjoy this? Associating with these activities debases our consciousness. Stay away.

To become “YOU” you’ll have to go beyond the need to be “ME”. This quote spells it out very well: “Selfies, they call 'em, and that makes sense 'cause even though they're sending these pictures to others, it still smells like selfish to me. Is that why they call it an "I phone"? 'Cause it's all about me – me - me. Like talking to hear yourself talk.”

― David Duchovny

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari yes - the seeking of the selfish to reassure that they are somebody and others think so too.

But I must say there is a lot of sharing too - this gadgetry makes it easy and helps avoid the effort later on to meet so that it allows us to keep a loving distance.

Humans resist change as an un-thought-out reaction. It puts their comfort zone into disequilibrium.

You can shower them with all the philosophy you want.......they are not going to like it because most of us are not living under the control of "INTELLIGENCE".

Wisdom rarely touches the mass of humans.

The basic nature of humans should be studied. It loves to copulate, fight, destroy and waste. Mother Nature put it there primarily for its own ends. Notice how floods help agriculture, how wars help cultural integration and rape helps in sending the genetic seeds far and wide.

Treating other humans as Gods.

Yes. If we look at it from a very “Mentalised” angle, it is really a very primitive thing very prevalent in the less mentally advanced tribes still worshiping totems and menhirs; from there they moved on to temples and now to sages, ascetics and “Shamans, occultists and self-styled gurus who can answer their questions and even remove/solve their problems and tackle their irritating issues in their favor (by magic). Humans rush to Soothe-Sayers because they are too lazy, too uneducated and simply in this moment of time incapable and not even trying. By being members of some religious groups and visiting so-called holy places they show off their image of being virtuous and “grander than thou” in their community. They unload all their aspirations, fears on the person or/and deity they worship. All they give is “obeisance” in principle and expect in return that all their wishes are fulfilled and problems solved and ills cured.

I picked up this pic from Facebook. If this is the awareness level of our people…. wow!

Do we really utilize our senses? Are we aware? Do we really not see or do we refuse to see, understand or “Question” anything around us… can anything constructive be achieved? 60 years old or 6, the mental acuity level is the same. Following the crowd will only make you one of the crowd. To become “super” you have to become aware of your frailties, your prejudices and look inwards before you can go directing the world’s affairs. Otherwise you remain like a parrot that has much to say but understands not what it is saying but ready to die for its right to say it and would even dare you to contradict.

The need to make the world conform to our own way of thinking is so high, that humans normally see the final image of what should be - already in their mind’s eye fully clearly, hear only what they want to and remember totally made-up memories more in tune with their way of visualizing and wanting it to be.

The world and details in it are prejudicially firmly in place and already established in their thinking. In this respect most humans can be called individualistic; living in a very small, very particular bubble and peculiar world to them. Under these circumstances, can we ever learn to live together in harmony when each one of us sees a different picture and is busy painting another totally different canvas? The word “individual” as understood generally… means something totally opposite and different in the world of occult philosophy, yoga and shibumi. In the shibumi state it is more of premeditation, contemplation, planning tempered with kindness without an eye on the reward behind all executive activity. A person in this state is never swayed by universal forces, general consensus and the prompts of the subconscious.

It is a sad fact that instead of learning to encompass the whole world into our consciousness by enlarging ourselves we create clear demarcations by walling ourselves in to make us feel comfortable with existence + proud of our ability to explain it all away.

I give here a dialogue that I had on FB.

XXX: People have the right to say whatever they want

We have the right to respond or not.

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari’s response:

Yes. The consequences have rights too.

Xxx

Consequences are not a human activity but rather a result of taken actions.

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari

...a continuation. Cannot be separated.

YYY to Pradeep Pk Maheshwari… Oh, not true, not true. There are several statistical multivariate techniques to partition various spectral attributes. Depending upon the criteria one chooses in their demarcation criteria.

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari

wow. That really went over my head and of course killed the conversation.

Humans carry in their subconscious many memories and conditioned reflexes which they identify as their persona. Most of us do not even have an idea what all is stuffed there. These are the building blocks of their persona. They identify themselves closely with these thoughts, words and inculcated philosophies. Along with these, sides by side are the main triggers and these are their wishes & desires. Most are clever enough to be able to use these thoughts and trigger words in their society to find perfectly good explanations to carry out their desires. Conversely they also understand under normal conditions what is not done. There is enough primal intelligence to help them connect the two and some cunning, well-educated ones are masters of this trade. They are good at playing with words and know beautifully how to use reverse psychology to make others do their bidding.

Most humans are naïve. They will believe a lot of nonsense if it is couched well in an interesting and plausible sounding logic – not knowing any better due to their lack of education their minds are always open to suggestions because their reasoning and objectivity has not matured and at the same time is rather rigid and prefer trusting established authorities and whatever is legally demanded of them. They are fodder for the clever ones. (To give an idea how this works here is a story that actually happened: When a new dam was being built some people saw it as a threat to their “control” over the populace and started spreading the rumour …. That water passing through the dam will be lifeless as all the “life” would be sucked out of it to make electricity and the crops would not grow – and people were convinced.) There is already a seed of revenge in their natural, primitive god-given characters that comes with birth. And when they are hurt or they feel they have been cheated, this seed sprouts and bears immediate fruit. Then only one thing remains to be done – hurt back the other guy in whichever way possible( of course as defense), maximally by words or bodily. This is the beginning of scenes that we call human drama and see in life as riots, war and such.

There are spirits in the Universe who take advantage of these uncultured open-like-sieves minds to create dramatic events working through the minds of receptive humans which they then enjoy and vibrationally feed on. It is sad to see these people because they allow themselves to be trapped in a limited world in which there is no entry for others/strangers. Humans don’t realize this aspect and will not accept it as possible. But the fact remains that humans mostly become conduits of certain Beings/Forces and are being used {let me give you an example: some people get into the habits of throwing tantrums and use violence to get what they want. In childhood where the parents do not know how to handle the child the child becomes successful in getting what he wants by making a nuisance of himself; this weakness becomes a tunnel/passage for some regular forces/beings. Eventually they take over the persona as their tool. This becomes his regular method in everything because he has become a receptacle for the energy in question. As he nears adulthood he becomes a vessel for these vibes and it forms a part of his persona. For every small thing where he does not get his way, he will respond with a violent show of displeasure, one day this will bring calamity upon him or he will be routinely shunned; in short he will be used by beings who are established in his psyche for their pleasure while the human pays for it} – unless they start learning from their experience and start using their will and wisdom to think with kindness and reflect before acting as solid individuals.

This is the core of real individualisation.

They have no need to improve on anything in the world and least of all themselves. It is a lovely comfortable life in which they are content, happy at rearranging furniture instead of worrying about interior design or even dreaming of the next castle they will own and growth into the future that will soon be upon them.

I have met many of these kinds – even have had to live with them. The first thing I noticed was their ability to ignore all inputs from the world at large. They would simply ignore; this tendency also affecting how they deal with their health. They refuse to listen to all warnings and hints by Mother Nature. They are proud and basking in their pride ads to how well they are managing in spite of the bad cards they have been dealt.

I find it amusing to see these people thinking that suffering is a virtue and that they truly expect to be seen as virtuous stoics. Wouldn’t the intelligent thing to do be to be of service in this world by maintaining good health?

Mothers can be very possessive, fathers very domineering and bosses dictatorial. Humans find it very difficult to let go. The misery that entails is rarely understood by those perpetrating it. The very psyche of the child is pummelled into a blob of jelly. The indigestible truth is that the influences of these parents goes on and on into many coming generations as their children perpetuate the same tendencies. Shibumi demands that we break this linear progression trying to survive thru us.

Question:

Considering history and events that mankind chooses to write/record as history, humans are a warring species, a cruel species, capable of any atrocity. Yet we have all learnt by experience that in relationships a little appreciation goes a long long way. People who erroneously believe they can bludgeon or humiliate a partner into some form of submission are far out of sync with reality . . . yet it is common; why is that?

Response:

It is the feel of indestructibility and power at work. Humans have a cruel streak. They rarely put in the effort to train their mind to be strong and powered by their ‘will”. The elements of vanity and arrogance make them vulnerable. Whenever and wherever they get a chance to exercise their power over others, they do - often with sadistic tendencies; from Dictators downwards to the clerk, from the patriarch to the cook, from Director in a school to the bully… just about everyone.

I remember something like The Mother of Pondicherry saying that one should act first and think later. In strict opposition the world’s advice to think and reflect before leaping etc. So here was a contradiction in terms. Why are people spending so much time in planning then? Later it became clear to me. In plans and projects on the worldly plane planning is necessary for correct and speedy implementation. The decision taking part is where this reflection comes in; if we reflect too much, then we may never do it by over-thinking the pros and cons. The same applies in personal lives. If we think, plan and debate too long we may end up not doing anything at all; the “Perhaps” part keeping us in limbo. We are sure to waver and doubt with contradictory information confusing our thoughts and depriving us of the ability to come to a decision. When attempting something new, it is best to begin and correct the errors on the way.

If left to the people, they would ask for a freer and unstrained atmosphere to do as they please and when they wish to. People today have this notion of rights which Mother Nature does not have and never gave. Additionally the highest pleasure humans at the “masses” level know is this activity of coupling. Mother Nature energizes the hormones and once the pleasure of sex as an activity opens up in the consciousness it can be very addictive. The lure is so strong that it can overpower the human mind.

For the average Joe to restrain himself and find more subtle pleasures is not possible because this activity is easily replicated; other pleasures require a refining of taste, education and some training which is an acquired talent - for example: Music and painting. Why bother to get into so much nonsense? Even sitting down to read can be tiresome for most.

As to the argument that “My body-my decision”…Look at it this way: Can the possessive term be labeled onto anything on this earth? The body belongs to Mother Earth and back to earth is where it will go. You can play with it as long as you are alive but Mother Earth's rules apply.

When a woman gives her body to play by a man, the consequences are not her decision. She gave her rights away at this point. Other and newer forces came into play at the moment when the man left his semen in her. From thereon only Mother Nature has control.

Moral questions can be considered only when the act is not willingly undertaken but that is another story and we have already covered this subject by showing that humans can be very hurtful & violent. Can this be stopped? I don’t think so. The human mind at the present state of things is there to serve itself and not the interests of others.

The only choice we have is to understand how to protect ourselves and defend ourselves. It also a huge enigma as to where and what happens that an accident chooses to happen to us. From the occult point of view the possibilities are so many that discussing would require another book. But in short the theory of karma can be considered, subconscious thought patterns sending out some invitations may be involved, or even a devilish little being would have seen an opportunity and for his amusement did it.

There is an occult spiritual question attached to this subject: what forces are unleashed? Is it right to play with the Universal forces? Can due to the availability of medical procedures, unrestrained sex can it be a good thing? Are we messing up our vibes and of all those around us? Some possibilities of a mess-up I point out here:

Women openly inviting: Many women are in seriously bad situations in life. They are ready to be taken away from a life of torment (as they think) and may be very true.

All sexual encounters end up being a millstone around the neck. These arouse certain ogres around us that occultly then want for more and won’t leave the individuals in peace.

So all I can say is choose wisely. For both men and women it is not a good idea to play with the “SEX” forces. This is not a game. The VIBE that is behind all problems is the simple mental conviction that humans have picked up that they have rights. So be it. They want pleasure. OK. Nothing comes free. They will learn their lesson. It is true that women can easily be preyed upon and they need to be extra careful. They have been designed to respond. A few kind words and attention is enough.

It is best to be sure and certain before you decide to combine forces with another. But once agreed upon, stick to each other for whatever comes because life thru your partner will teach you a lot and emancipation spiritually becomes a reality. Honesty and sincerity are great safe-guards.

Kathlyn Glover wrote:

When you say, and I quote, “ I had spoken only recently on how when you resolve to follow a path like "Not to Lie, Not to hurt back" how the entire cosmos combines its forces to shatter your vows.”

I also believe and know that the universe also combines its forces to support your vows - is this an example of the opposites at work that you mention and what determines which side wins out?

Pradeep Maheshwari: It depends on what you are trying to achieve. If the goal is to rise into a greater consciousness then the Cosmos tests you and as you rise, the tests only get harder till you break the glass ceiling.

But if you are just looking to achieve a positive attitude in the existing earth consciousness level by reducing the play of the demeaning forces, the present forces already active in the Cosmos come into play automatically. The end is not always certain.

But the play is limited.

…….

My word to you is: Do not cherish suffering and suffering will leave you altogether. Suffering is far from being indispensable to progress. The greatest progress is made through a steady and cheerful equanimity.

10 May 1932-THE MOTHER ( Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry)

We "DESERVE" nothing.

I believe that life should be lived in wellness. Humans being what they are have only been doing the very opposite by making Life dangerous and hazardous. Whatever little thing be taken that we have introduced in the last 150 years has helped definitely in improving the quality of life by human standards but an element of heightened danger has also been introduced. Life is now more accident-prone than contentment prone. The human body is under great stress and the human mind is boggled and it will be some time that both will learn to live with all these new elements now active that were not there or even thought of 200 years ago,

The danger is not so much in the elements as it is in the misuse and over use. Death is imminent and an ever present possibility. We cannot overlook such things as destiny and fate. The motto of "SAVING LIVES" that is now waved as the foundation of our philosophy is in error.

Modern medicine in the western style of "thinking" aims at relief from pain and distress. This is very fine and it is a great boon. But again I mention that misuse and overuse is the problem.

Hopefully humans will learn Self-control and stop excessive over-doings. Hopefully they will learn to live in a way that enhances their contentment rather than running after pleasures that last only as long as the stimuli is present. And this is where the unending cycle of chasing the stimuli starts and this is the principle reason behind what ails us.

The tragedy of modern medicine is that it may give temporary relief and thru surgery correct many problems but it also makes the human irresponsible. So finally he leads himself towards self-destruction thru his excesses.

The concept of shibumi goes against this grain. In shibumi the state of awareness is at its pinnacle and the body taken care of with meticulous attention. Sickness may never be an issue in this condition.

It is sad to see how cleverly and naturally we lay blame on just about everything and everyone we can but never look at ourselves and our frailties - our lack of thinking for ourselves, our lack of WILL, our lack of sense of balance to co-exist; we live for our vanity and our flag is our pride in our destructive power and our greed to acquire more while we inch towards inevitable death.

The problem is always the human. The question is how to make him wiser, conscious & aware!

I am noticing a subtle, very insidious current flowing thru the American influencers.

What should be ‘normal’ when we think of people as HUMANITY is being delicately nudged into a corner and being shown as exceptional. The ordinary that should come to humans automatically is now touted as extraordinary. And what does this prove? That… humans are basically selfish brutes, inhuman and being this is the normal?

Stories with these endings are now being touted as something unusual and surprising…..which, if we are humans should come naturally to us.

…..the lady went out of her way to help us with the packages.

….and they thanked me for having the patience to help her.

…..the young man that the old lady needed help and changed the wheel for her.

…..the very kind person gave up his seat in the underground/metro.

It is a deliberate and calculated subversion of the mass subconscious thru the multi-media available to influencers today. They fill the moronic heads with new concepts and create new needs that they then jump in to fill up with new products and services.

Carl Schultz

True, the line drawn out in the sand on what should be the basics of being human seem to be becoming lower in the moral scam … the direction headed towards selfishness, but even when looking at family values... what should be and not be eclectic red from within family relationships has also deteriorated, as a society this direction should feel alarming with all players involved as one looks at this progression, is it a product of the various stresses incurred just to live in today’s times? Is it an accumulation of things within cultural changes as the world begins to incorporate itself together as a more integrated “single unit” society? Where will it lead us?

Pradeep PK: It is a deliberate and calculated subversion of the mass subconscious thru the multi-media available to influencers today. The fill the moronic heads with new concepts and create new needs that they then jump in to fill up with new products and services.

For instance see how Amazon has grown? Note: I am not saying anything against it but actually appreciating the way Amazon understood human psychology. And see how we are opening all our doors and windows to Google! This concept of Alexia is mind-blowing and thru it they have captured us lock-stock-and-barrel. See how medicine has isolated us from all other thoughts and healing available all over the world.....so much so that they have started throwing mandates and imprisoning us but we are all very happy and thanking our stars instead of worrying where our own integrity, reason and persona is going.

It looks like humanity’s thinking whatever little superficial of it is in action has been beautifully being used by the corps for ending up in control of the masses.

For the time being this is the reality.

Until humanity rises above its ‘moron’ level of non-thinking ‘lead-happily-by-the-nose’ behavior things will not change.

Certainly the obvious to some now will eventually become visible to all but it is not happening for some time yet.

Our job is to make our observations known. We cannot allow ourselves to be snowed down. + It is a matter of our own integrity to maintain our level of consciousness.

Co-exist peacefully is just another meaningless word. Humans never intended to and never showed any disposition in action and activities. Everything we humans do is to expand the area of our influence.

Some examples:

Gossip: All love us as we bring spicy news about others. The more we are loved the more active we become and increase the number of “friends” to remain in demand.

Name dropping is another usual activity. See how grandly we announce on FB that we are now in the airport at some exotic place.

Flaunting our riches; a friend of mine went to USA from India in the 60s. A rare thing and a most prized event. He came with some of the goodies that were reserved for the well-heeled. Some weeks later he tells me: I bought this great Omega watch – nobody has noticed it!!!

I would think that it would be evident that when we are asking for appreciation or/and admiration from people who are technically “Less-haves” we are the silly ones. A person who has no idea of the qualities of an omega watch, from far would only see just another watch. This is the reason why the price of thing and the size of a thing becomes so important and today this service of deliberately making expensive things desirable is being rendered by advertising campaigns. Both must be obvious and for a small while they get you the attention you seek and envy which you shouldn’t. The superciliousness and annoyance these generate should also be considered.

It is then that I realized how useless this pursuit of appreciation is.

One of the biggest activity in this domain is of changing and converting others to our way of thinking in the name of salvation of their souls. Total BS this business of saving humanity…it is just so much water under the bridge...flowing, flowing...leaving everything ever the same.

Want to achieve and arrive at happiness? Create something with love and kindness. It can be a moment and it can be a thing. The greatest creative moment is when you are doing something totally new to you and it brings joy to others even if it is only for a fleeting moment. What is asked of you is that you go beyond yourself, trying to work out a wish. Extend the borders you are living in.

Don’t let life stagnate.

What we call LIFE is a collection of ‘moments’. What we call memories are some of these moments stringed together. The worse are the memories of those moments filled with expectations, deeds done, rewards missed and opportunities missed because our principles.

Later in life we realize that there are no principles and no rewards will ever be forthcomings from moments that have flown. The worse are the moments that were considered as moments of great glory in which we were appreciated and feted.

Have we moved with the times and are we fully participating in the ‘Present Moment?’

Can we be like the lark that sings every morning and lives only for the day that is coming?

It is a sad world for people who never moved and expected that some moments will carry them on forward; when too late they realize the bus they thought would take them further is not even there. Blown away with the wind.

The sadness of the decorated veteran is the worst. He was made to kill and suffer in all ways possible and was taught to treat it all as ‘GLORY’ but soon forgotten and his skills were of no use to life in general.

I wonder what goes on in the minds of parents, medicine-men, teachers and even savage louts when their time of action is passed when they realize no one is thinking of them anymore.

Let us focus on changing ourselves to be receptacles of higher vibes so that God can reach down and live on earth thru us and thru others touched by us... as an effortless automatic occurrence.

There is nothing in philosophy or spiritual experience that shows that there is a give and take business going on as we look to life on the material plane.

Humans calculate with their DESIRES at one end and their over-priced efforts at the other end of the balance. The DESERVE aspect is more in their selfish minds than in reality. All actions are tinged with the element of profit to self in some way or other. Generosity and altruistic behavior is a rarity.

Very few people realise that a lot of things are waiting to come to them but they are the ones creating walls and partitions thru selfish barriers, moves and motives.

Technically the whole COSMOS is already ours. But we prefer to live in our tiny wells yet wishing for the rest. Nothing can be done for these people.

Tell me how many would pay heed to Almighty if he came incognito amongst us?

You can see by the they handle even minor activities that they have NO CLUE to using INTELLIGENCE by applying some creative manipulating thru applied psychology.

Our dishonesty is such that we turn every good thing into a disaster.

For a simple example let me talk about how the safety seat-belt has served us. We don’t like wearing it and the traffic policemen is bribed when stopped. The seat belt/air bag only makes us more over confident and people are now driving faster and more rashly.

No one, not even God can help us.

It has not helped at all. We are having more accidents.

And this is the same mentality in solving international relations too and marriage issues - everywhere.

Sagacity is not yet in the atmosphere and we have to let the mass thinking flow because finally only that can pervade. Ordinarily I would say that shibumi is more of an intellectual concept and will remain for some time to come yet.

Humanity thinks in terms of instant solutions....people need to simply obey!.

It starts with the parents - don’t touch... Don’t do...or get slapped and punished and growled at.

Later in school all you get is being beaten with a cane or hurt with rulers.

A little older and you are confronted by policemen.

Everybody is punishing but no one is explaining anything or giving directions and helping.

We are being brought up to hate every moment of our lives and that is all we learn really.

Not awakened to other modes of being, we do it when our turn comes – almost unconsciously.

The “material/matter” alone has become important; totally denying the Spirit (just see life as being pursued in USA). The life of a commercial world where nothing exists outside of the ‘profit’ angle. It is a mental formation that is giving itself the perfect excuse and reason to develop everything within its sensibilities limited by the five senses of sight, touch, hearing, speech and smelling…. Resulting in a philosophy of instant gratification, excitement and pleasant shocks as fast and as often as possible.

We no longer see people and other living creatures as Spirits with a body. We expressly ignore the “life” in flowers, butterflies and trees – so to say. All are there as only as far as our material senses can profit by.

This is why our solutions are so hopeless. Materialistic thinking has a way of solving every issue thru the limits of the five senses. Anything is annoying you? Just kill it, change it or reshape it to your needs. It does not and cannot think of the consequences – it does not want to and expressly forbids all others to wherever and whenever it can with great force usually. For instance treating cancer; they refuse to see to it as deformation in the biological world and instead of focusing on re-establishing balance they see only the visible degeneration of the flesh & germs attacking the body and try to destroy the germs or cutting out the rotten flesh - totally forgetting that more germs will grow. Their cure is a chimera and this is basically a money making methodology; they even use laws to enforce it. Vaccination is another anomaly.

When we dislike the thinking and activities of certain individuals we “kill” them although in the same breadth speaking of freedom of action and speech but this is all a show of virtue with no intent. Thankfully the source of life is untouched and flows on.

The “material/physical” eye is subjective. And its view goes only as far as it can clearly see. The VISUAL limit is our reality. The feelings have been locked up as immaterial. Kindness and compassion goes against basic principles and therefore any show of it is construed as weakness of the method in implementing the perfect solutions that they have come out with.

This Universe is like a huge river flowing forcefully, carrying everything along in its wake. We are but drops in it. We can only go along with it and if by chance we grapple with a rock we might end up quite isolated on the banks somewhere still doing the work of the river by flooding the plains and helping the world to grow. We may pride ourselves as the DOER but that is an error. We are always till the end part of the torrent. There is no end or beginning. There is a drop but also not really there. Without the huge torrent to absorb it, it has no life of its own. It will soon evaporate into another dimension.

Generally speaking......The more we make the world mechanically more comfortable for these earthlings the worse their habits and conducts become. The governing humans are as careless/lax in their responsibilities as are the ones enjoying the tools provided to them.

It is sad when one has to pay for the mistakes of others.

Shibumi shows us this anomaly in existence and helps us stand outside the immediate active circle and watch. Entering the fray only when we decide it is fair to do so.

In the East this was understood and people respected it naturally. Tribal cultures in the west were into it but they were annihilated by the power of the gun that solves all issues for them. All the animals and vegetable life were and still are given due importance and connected to their Gods and rituals. But unfortunately they have thus stopped seeing the changes and work required on the material plane and all that needs to be done there. They let everything rot till the torrent comes to wash it all away.

We need to develop both the sides in our beings. Both objective and subjective and yet thinking of us as part of the universal flow; nothing more and nothing less either.

People like to deny others. It is part of their persona to feel better and prove to themselves that they are worthy of note. It is the ultimate trap.

Why? Why this need at all?

IN my worthless opinion, as far as experience has taught me, we are all suckers and sucked. Sometimes we give and sometimes we are cheated. Sometimes we cheat and often many things happen without our realising it. It is too big a game to get rattled about. All we can do is to become conscious that this is also one of the possibilities of life. But we can learn to swim in this sea – a little silence in the form of contemplation and allowing the mind to go further than its thoughts is required and slowly when you flow into the intuitive mind you see the bigger picture and then you know and act with discrimination. But again your heart must be honest, never selfish and greedy or vengeful.

Why are we not communicating better and more effectively?

As I understand 99% of the people are not mentally ready. We are so used to hide behind the smoke screen of words that our entire projection of our persona is fake. Everyone is in the same state and we end up misunderstanding all the time.

Each one of us, we have very tiny little lives indeed, like a star in the starry sky with other millions of stars. To ourselves we are the center of existence as others are too to themselves. It is an illusion and they are perfectly fine where they are as they are. They are easily rattled when things do not move as they had imagined and calculated. Wisdom is the antidote.

Language is a barrier; both that of the listener and the one trying to talk to them. But it is also true to my understanding that people would improve their language only if they wanted to be understood correctly and precisely which as I see they really couldn’t care about.

Educational backgrounds matter greatly as also do focus and purpose.

On a personal level I feel people in the final analysis are rarely able to relate. Shibumi means that we take all this into consideration, prepare for it and sharpen our intellect and executive methods to be precise and perfect.

It is doable but we have to desire it above all else.

Why success in this material existence is keeping us away from spiritual emancipation and the joy of shibumi.

Opportunities will come in huge tempting packages. But all this does to an individual is tie one down to a chair and slavery to an organization (it may be self-made) that would then envelop the individual like an octopus. What do I get?....I would be in the hot seat running around people and wasting my time in developing business that would leave me fatigued and emotionally burnt out - high and dry - but yes with all the social show-pieces that announce success and only hiding my slavery indentured work-life.

Then what should be done? If this is what wanted and this what you get. There is nothing to be done. If you want something else then all you need to do is go after it.

What shall I do? He asks me.

My answer: From what you have told me you understand all the pros and cons of the situation. The answer is also clear to you. All you need to do is have the courage to get going.

I can tell you what is keeping you back. You have created a life for yourself, a home, a reputation and a position where you are comfortable or at least that you know and understand well so there is no strain or stress. To leave all this behind needs courage. But as humans are wont to do you are thinking of leaving it all and start anew and this will not help because without change in the elements that you will be taking with you, you will arrive at a similar solution.

What you need is a change of tack; a change in your responses to stimuli from the world around you. Mostly people suffer from their habits. That is where the change is needed.

Think – which responses of yours are the one that add to your stress, problems? Have a good fresh look at yourself.

Engaging with people endlessly.

Let them talk. Engage at the most minimum level required to exist with them. Don’t try to correct them or clear their notions by giving them logic and knowledgeable information so that they can correct their view of the world - they will never change their thinking patterns. There is no point in engaging with their EGOs.

They keep on repeating their things like stuck playing-records. I watch from the perimeter. My advice and command to myself: "Don’t engage"

Get out of there if you can.

The Way is too contrary.

There is a cry for health but the real healer is perplexed. Does he treat the symptoms or the person? It is an impossible question.

Today’s lifestyle and living has made us open all our windows and doors and no restrictions are imposed on the comings and goings. We are constantly and continuously allowing “God-knows-what” to hover over and around us.

Let me point out some possibilities:

We are at home but our defenses are breached by the TV and smart phone. Insidiously they are affecting our thinking and feelings and influencing us.

We leave home and the crowd’s vibe envelops us. What thoughts and feelings are in momentum? We don’t know. Individual interactions are worse. Whose strong vibes or demands, jealousy, secret agendas are in the air? We have no idea.

We eat. Is the food truly what your body needs? You don’t know and couldn't much care. Where did you pick your food habits from? Who cooked the food and imbibed it with what thoughts and vibes. We don’t even know what ingredients have gone into it. We have no idea where the ingredients came from.

Yet we live in the arrogance that we know and are in control of our existence. We couldn’t be more wrong. Your integrity simply does not exist.

When the element that is making you sick is so uncertain, how can you be treated? What normally happens is that when the illness becomes visible and obvious a serious attempt is made to remove the obviously offending part. It is pure eye wash.

"Advice: LIVE IN THE MOMENT"

Come on let us think of something else. This advice although may be a deep spiritual secret but alone and in isolation in one sentence does not make much sense to the general populace. The average person is made of memories in the form of his past (including education and conditioning), present and his future thoughts; all together determine his actions day to day. This message leaves him with nothing to bank upon.

Living in the moment. Where else can you be?

My problem is that nobody is paying even remotely any attention to this important thought that becomes meaningful unfortunately after we have crossed the need to understand it. The general populace is way too far from understanding this factor.

It is a funny truth of occult life that we get what we are looking for when we no longer need it.

Loading people up with advice is useless.

It is like a saying in our culture "Playing the flute to the buffalo"

In English there is "throwing pearls to sows"

Enjoying Real Freedom.

I live with the wonderful feeling that I am so utterly free now. I can drop dead and nobody would care and it would not matter to the world at all. It is the perfect state. No paperwork to worry and no property or estate to leave to quarreling litigants; no locks and keys or mysteries to sort out. My going will free-up a lot of space on earth.

The great feeling that I won’t be missed (....and please don’t try to be nice and tell me otherwise)...my going would actually free others to pursue their own happiness! Did I really spend my life fretting about this life which gave me nothing but anxiety and a lot of heart-ache with some very short glimpses of joy?

What a lovely feeling it is to know that I don’t miss them and they don’t miss me.

We are so conditioned to think that some people will love us just because that is the natural thing to happen or because they said so and that there are responsibilities and we have to pay back.... and all similar notions that mess up our lives, give us traumas and hold us back from achieving our purpose….The feeling of unconcerned calm that comes over us when we think that all this is now behind us.

We are deeply traditionalists; playing it safe and maintaining our image of VIRTUOUS integrity.

But in general, we are weighed down by the primary thought of “what will THEY think” and at the administrative level the attitude is "don’t take the initiative and get into trouble”.

It is also a fact that humans are corruptible because everything becomes acceptable for some temptation fulfilled in payment.

Do it all in secret. Don’t rock the boat.

When we start our journey, we do so with a designated path which is designed to lead you to a designated point. It is a start. Eventually you learn about the territory only when you leave the path and just walk off into the blue letting your heart take you wherever it is so inclined.

That is when you start opening up to the infinite. This is when you move off from the limits of the physical mind into the territory of the Intuitive.

The mind is such a limiting instrument. Finding faults/errors with authors is just another show of petty thinking like in an argument when you start attacking the person instead of the subject.

When we do not react or act to people or things like narcissists, cheats and sellers of dubious products we maim them by not giving them any territory to expand; thereby weakening them and nullifying their power to be. Essentially it means that we need to exercise self-control first before we can control anything outside of ourselves.

Do you understand how you can mesmerize yourself into emotional states? Think of the word melodrama, hypochondriac, hypnotism.... all these words must have some basis to be coined at all.

Of course I don’t understand what you go through. What personal demons that you think are demons for you is a matter of very personal issue. These cannot be considered as part of the universal phenomenon just as the general conditions cannot always be particular to you.

If you look at life only from the personal angle, you will end up being miserable all lost in yourself. All that the medicine world can do for you is to put you to sleep.

The universal answer to this state is that you drop these memories and build up new ones. The new ones automatically erasing the old ones or they should.

I have to ignore your very personal responses solely because they are too personal and focus on issues, as you say, I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT.

But I do know about the universal and I talk ONLY at that level.

All I know that we have all been given this existence with certain qualities and placed in a situation and we are required to live it thru as best as we can.

We all think that we are exclusive, have seen more of life than others, we understand everything and that this life is ours and we are in control. Even after millions of years we have still not come out of this delusion. Our self-centeredness is so acute and so intense that we can only think of ever becoming the king of the anthill. Strife is what we sow and strife and miserable existence is what we get.

Our attitude should be to collect as many different experiences, challenges, upheavals, changes we can in this short life. That is where the fun is. That is how we grow into our full potential of eventual communion with the Godhead.

But everyone without exception fights against it. They have burdened themselves early with mighty cares. Now locked up in their virtuous self-acclaimed selves, afraid to rock the boat, they wait for life to roll as comfortably as possible under the circumstances.

But we pray for change and then get upset when it comes.

This is how we start advocating against our own interests. Overthinking and over rationalisation is our problem. And hope a little ritualistic praying in a temple will induce The Lord to make our situation better.

The Universe is taking care of us in its own garbled way. We are a component in a huge play where everything is where it should be yet it is given to us to raise our ante and improve our status by changing the parameters that are activating us When we eliminate noise and vehemence from our behavior patterns, life starts moving in a new direction and the mind opens up to new possibilities.

If done in the right mood and sincerely the Universe always takes you to the answer and provides. I seem to always be taken to the right page, the right question and the right product etc. Sometimes it will also leave certain products at your doorstep.

Do we get wiser with age?

We do get older in body. We experience life and the constant changes it seems to go thru. When the mind has not seen much trouble and has a strong agile body supporting it there is a feeling of invincibility.

It is the un-ending nature of troubles and constant changes in the layout of the world’s working that keeps us on our toes and keeps us wondering and thinking.

What we call wisdom is nothing but the human’s acceptance that there is more to life than mere satisfaction of wishes. Everyone has wishes and everyone is clashing with all others. Gradually the body also stops supporting us. There is a slowing down, loss of interest in the same pleasures and some fear too of consequences that are beyond our control. It does give an impression of becoming wiser.

The scriptures have great value. It is the act of using them to advance your persona that is the problem. People do not use the advice, information to improve themselves but to improve others and whittle away their time in useless lecturing and arguments which amounts to clever play with words and seems grand.

These people are empty of real worth, just loudspeakers repeating loudly some intellectual banalities and passing from one end of life to another without realising what a beautiful opportunity they had to come nearer to Godhead.

Why take the scriptures so seriously? What IS “your” experience of life?

All the written word found on the planet earth is written by somebody, a human of great intellectual achievement. Who is taking us on the right path to right understanding?

The only way to know is by becoming one with the universe.

Until then it is simply "some say this and some say that".....totally a waste of time.

Are you going to live this present life and make something of it or argue till kingdom come on what happened some did and said thousands of years ago?

Let the tongues rest and look where your persona needs effort and perfecting.

Come and live in this century.

Tell me what you have learnt from your life now. Let us talk of reality.

The capacity to affectionately adjust to people & circumstances is in all of us but we simply don’t want to.

When alone we want company; when in company we want desperately to be alone again. We love certain people because our souls speak with each other. But they are never alone.

To be with them often means to be in a social circle that is kept together by a mesh of lies and this is even less tolerable.

And the field is so vast and the words so many that we can discuss to obfuscate argue and go to war in an unending cycle.

To really get going and move forward we'll need to drop all the old cloaks and think from the point of where we are now.

Whatever an individual's mind accepts is reality for it. Words and concepts abound. So?

I don’t see the need or point to discuss the reality as perceived and conceived in the mind of another.

Your house is yours and mine is mine. You won’t reorganize your house to suit me and neither would I do it for you.

Visits are welcome though.

Poverty in life is due to poverty in character. When we invest our efforts in having children what do you expect? Children may happen on their own but they don’t get fed on their own.

Karine Garnotel

And how do we know if we're wrong of right when we make a choice for our children? Even if they "look" happy and if they're not with no sign? Parent’s job is a hard one, all our life. I suppose theirs would be too 🤨

Pradeep Pk Maheshwari

Karine Garnotel, My rule of bringing up was simple: "My child decides"

I simply let my life's agenda drop. Nothing mattered anymore. I allowed my child to guide.

After all she has come with a fate, destiny and character already preordained. So if my object is to let her flourish in 100% her own way, I have to be just the chauffeur - because for now she does not know how to drive.

We have bonded well. I grow with her. I don’t impose or insist but by example I keep in tune. She follows me and I follow her. And I regale her honestly with my stories with my weaknesses and strengths all on public show. No pretense. Nothing to hide or glamorize.

We have bonded like close friends who verily depend on each other. Not one tantrum. No demands. Constantly adjusting to each other.

No problems and we meet life with open minds because we know that we are LISTENING to each other genuinely and appreciate/accept each other greatly with great joy.

What parents must not do:

Never use the technique to howl at the child to hide and mask your errors, weaknesses and ignorance.

Never stop the child from taking the initiative and showing courage to attempt new things. That is the process of learning which instills confidence. If you see safety issues make sure that the child has due protection like the Life Guard gives on the beach. He is there, keeping an eye from a distance but never interfering.

Never let your fear show. Keep a smiling calm even if you are sacred. Just make sure the safety pin is on in the child’s life. When and if necessary divert the child’s efforts but don’t go berserk.

Sometimes with all the care and love, the child will still do something unforgivable. At this juncture don’t let your pride in society to try and hide the mistake. The child must know what is not acceptable.

Don’t keep harping to the child that how not keeping the parents happy is bad. The children are learning from you and your friends and family.

Don’t break promises however insignificant they may be in the adult world of deceit.

I wonder how much the parents are aware that the child is “Good or bad” because they are literally making him so.

My Life’s Journey and what I learnt on the Way

The more we grow in our understanding of this universe and the people on this earth, the dourer we tend to become. The world is filled with creatures of all hues and most of the shades are definitely not pleasant at all. Along with hope and affection there is also selfishness and treachery – more so. Let us take the universe as it is. We have no argument on that for the simple reason that we soon realize that there is very little that we can do about it or that we really need to. If we can make the most of our own lives, we have done our bit.

Our goal should be to learn as much as we can on the way and hopefully I am doing well in applying all that I have learnt in my life and passing it on.

If we have not passed on what all we have learnt, we have not lived well at all!

Abstinence, Moderation Or Not At All.

It’s a good question whichever way you look at it. Until recently there were clear-cut choices and nobody ever doubted one’s decision.

A new breed of thinkers profess that total abstinence is not quite right and moderation should be the aim. This view seems more politically correct than pragmatic. This raises another question. Is the human animal really capable of controlling himself? Few would say yes.

Perhaps if we educated our children well right from the beginning by example and drummed it into them that it is in moderation and in the middle path in life that the way exists, they as adults would never lose control all so readily. One of our anchors to advancing on the path of release from psychological bondage is the rigidity and extremist adherence to religion’s dogmas.

We should never deny the child when he shows curiosity but not letting things go out of control either. What is not done in hiding is rarely of interest as there is no dare in it. From day one let the child feel welcome and that the home he is in is his.

Concern, Candor and Critic.

Why can’t we greet each other by saying something nice? The reality is that we do and with what panache! We praise only with a sting in the tail. In my last meeting with a sister, she remarked how well I had maintained my figure – even at my age! Why the heck did she have to add “even at my age”? This technique of using praise to critically make a point is more rampant than we would care to admit.

Now this is what I have never understood. Why do all the elders, without fail, always show their concern by noticing how weak, sickly or frail you have become! (In India and the east this is more the way – but fortunately not in the western countries so much)

This reminded me of a quote by Richard Greenberg: “There’s a vanity to candor that isn’t really worth it. Be kind.”

Be kind in your remarks unless absolutely necessary to be acerbic.

Assistance or Interference.

“I just wanted to help”…. How often have we heard this sentence in our lives? There is an old saying: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The tendency to think for others is in all of us. It is a kind of arrogance that is terribly well couched. In the guise of a “DOING GOOD” mask we tend to give full play to our vanities. In the name of being kind, nice and helpful we permit our egos full liberty to interfere in the lives of others. This often goes to the point of tyranny; especially in delicate relationships like parent to child and teacher to student or boss to employee.

Focus on yourself and your life.

Balancing Work with Life.

It is ever the same story. To live one has to work. Work means self-imposed slavery to a point. It would be unusual if you never felt like chucking it all and running for the open spaces but the bank statement at the end of the month is a rude reminder of realities.

A human person cannot work at one’s peak for too long. Breaks are needed. Some people are poetic and creative – always working on something new; the drudgery can be murderous for them. Repose is a medical must. This gives us the recovery time needed, that is if we are not living under the illusion that we are Supermen, blinded by our own thoughts of indispensability and quite often the attachment to the fat purse that we need to prove our own worth to ourselves and neighbors by acquiring sports cars, expensive gadgets and so to speak “Live it Up”.

Who are you living for?

Beethoven’s Pastoral.

Have you heard Beethoven’s Pastoral? It is piece of quiet melody with a lot of power. It takes you back to the slower times a few centuries ago when the choices were limited and so were the topics of conversation and the number of people you could talk to.

In contrast we are today inundated with the incessant noise and the continuous bandying of words. Everybody has so much to say. Everybody knows so much and understands so little; this is the crux. It is the germ which goes into making of intellectual snobs. A thought passes by in the head and it is instantly converted into words thru the mouth.

Superciliousness is in fashion.

We are so busy pouncing on words we fail to give ourselves time to go behind the meaning of the whole sentence or paragraph. The result is a lot of conversation yet little of worth being said. And whatever little is being said the earphones and the noise of this world drowns it.

I have a firm belief; things should only be said when there is a live "QUESTION" necessitating or/and demanding an answer! Choose when to and when not to with circumspection.

Bring back the caring charm.

The expression “Old-World Charm” what does it really mean? How do we picture it our minds when we have not had the opportunity to live in those times. I suppose the movies set in those periods would give some idea but would it help to know? It would most likely make us rue more the concrete jungles of our times. All we need to do is to go out shopping and we can see how badly we treat each other. Jostling and pushing and behaving even in a crowd as if nobody else was there… a gift that only we have. Our propensity to ignore what goes against our wishful-ness is astounding.

Get out of the crowd.

Our children are us.

Recently I noticed an advert on the TV showing a proud man not taking help from his children while getting off the train. The song in the background sings of the fact that the head has never been lowered and never will it be. What a sad reflection on our values. Does becoming friends with our children make us into weak dependents?

Is pride only a matter of wearing a clean designer dress and standing tall and not even accepting your son’s hand in a gesture of love, respect and regard? Isn’t the child an extension of you, your heart and soul?

What the heck are we promoting?

Let us ask ourselves quickly and sincerely if we have not allowed ourselves to be desensitized, become callous and somewhat sadistic?

If you failed in accepting your child you have failed. The child is you and also an independent being. Don’t treat him as a commodity.

Contradicting Lovingly.

Today into my late adult life, I am astonished to see how much this tendency to negate and contradict permeates life in general. Look around closely. How often do you see people agreeing and accepting each other and in comparison how often we are crossing each other out?

Will you let the other have the upper hand; will you let him win and shine even when you know you can outshine him anytime? Allow others to have a moment of glory when kindness is more prescribed than showing off.

Just look at yourself.

Depression. In Natural Medicine we are more concerned with the whole person and in old traditional medicine methodology everything is seen from the occult view of things. The body has only a supportive role to play. This said, it means that the emotional part of our persona is said to be suffering from depression when it is in a negative frame of mind, which normally happens when one’s wishes are thwarted or we fail to understand which way life is taking us. Therefore it would not be unfair to conclude that people with depression are those who let their egos and desires runway with them and when not satisfied they go into a sulk.

You are not doing any favour to anybody. Live your life without regret.

Education and Real life.

Life is getting complicated. Interactions are getting more international, fast and furious. Parents and educationists are not leading by example and this is very confusing. For every question the child has, millions of possible answers crop around him. Without personal experience to back this plethora of unexplainable and sometimes terribly contradictory scenes, the child remains in a state of utter melodramatic puzzlement. And, of course, when he asks his elders some very pointed questions, the elders who are still mentally locked up in their “Past” castles; give disjointed and embarrassed answers that only go to increase the child’s consternation.

I do remember being scolded often for misdeeds but I don’t remember of even once where I was made to understand what I had done wrong.

Be more open to both learn and teach and share.

When we are in error.

When in error few show courage to come out clean or take the blame upon them-selves. Humans being what they are would normally opt for first obfuscating the matter in such a way that in the confusion the subject gets carpeted over. If this does not work, they look for plausible excuses however far-fetched they may be and as a last resort look for a scapegoat if one is conveniently at hand.

In the heart of hearts everybody is fully aware of his/her errors and shortcomings. Owning up errors would in my opinion only make others see our greatness and our magnanimity.

We want the world to be reasonable and do things our way; therefore it will not do to be remotely seen as an error-prone person. How many of us have the courage to own up? Why do we still continue to point fingers? Are we not evolving or learning from our experiences and education? I wonder.

When did you last do something for the first time?.

So what’s new? How was your day? Are you plagued with a sense of déjà vu? All the effort gone into establishing a life seems to have resulted in a sordid boring routine. How did we end up here? The mental and emotional conditioning we receive is our enemy. Many fixated ideas become the basis of the foundation of our lives. The stance we take because of our likes and dislikes and of what we think right and proper are all millstones around our neck as well as being the milestones of our lives. What an enigma!

We subsist on hope and pray intensely but selfishly, have long discussions but rarely take the initiative. Eventually Mother-nature and Destiny play their cards and do what has to be done. There is then a lot of hurt and anguish but life at least finally moves on.

Flying High & Hurtling Low.

These are the ones we call high flyers. So misplaced is their sense of their own worth that they can rarely take any correction on route and criticism means war. They become dangerous at this point.

Put them in a team and soon they are like a steam engine under pressure and ready to explode. Any criticism quickly makes them vindictive and God only knows what they may eventually do.

You are better than this.

Futility Of It All.

Sensitive people who are used to thinking about life’s finer graces are distressed a bit by all the selfishness and crass stupidity; and the futility of it all.

Today the people have been given a power through gadgetry and the constitution. The problem is that they have no idea about their limits. This has made them shed all consideration for others and given a carte-blanche for crass behavior with total disregard to everything and everyone around them.

Everyone is busy making money and privileges are bought. Status comes with material possessions in this culture and etiquette becomes meaningless. And arrogance comes free with the package.

We can reduce our stress by cutting out all that can be cut out. Learn to ignore. Running the world is not our responsibility.

Make “being quiet” a habit.

Give Them Rope.

“Leave it to me. I am here to take care of everything. Things, anyway, will go better if you let me handle it. You just do what I ask you to.”

Even in normal day-to-day minor interactions, this propensity shows. Every sentence is preempted by ending the other’s sentence or feeding the right word; every activity immediately demands their attention and advice, if not downright intervention; full of the tendency that what they do not know is not worth knowing. They are the poorest listeners; they know the solutions even without knowing the problems; they are impossible. And if per chance you have the temerity or courage, depends on which way you look at it, to stop them or ignore them, their grand sulk is terrific drama to contend with.

If only people would hold their peace. The world would move a little slower and even uncertainly, but as time and time over it has been seen, things do work out.

The universe has a plan, you know!

I DID tell you!.

As it is, the humans are known to be bad listeners. We are so occupied at saying our piece that our ears are perennially switched off.

We have acquired some very self-defeating habits. I will take up two that I feel are the worst. One is the fact that our impatience is so acute that we do not think twice to butt in a conversation and the second is that we do so without ensuring that anyone is listening to us or not.

But more to the point is the catastrophic situations that are being created at all times and the irritants that we are adding to our lives. We can’t sit still for a moment. We just have to be up and doing something.

Communications have now become incessant and we are all expected to be at our listening posts at all times so of course the antidote is to shut off the process.

The solution? Simple; first attract the person’s attention, then, when certain, then alone speak to him/her directly with eyes meeting. And for good manner’s sake please wait your turn.

If You Don’T Mind….

The number of people who actively invite criticism, avowing that they wish to improve themselves is also quite many. But it is generally a show of openness that is totally faked. If anyone has ever the kindness to point out their fault, they normally have arguments ready to counter it and their annoyance is complete.

We even take this style in the upbringing of our children. We have a very high opinion of ourselves most of the time. It is only when disaster strikes that for a while we see our faults and reflect. But for the rest of our lives we are quite certain about our wisdom and abilities and we even prove it and justify ourselves by quoting earlier “Greats & Gurus” as if we were on par with them while we have nothing to say from our own fount of experience and learning, except perhaps a few biting words and make the world aware of our own merits in comparison to the demerits of the rest of the world!

Be Real for once.

Let’S Be Nicer.

By being nicer, it means being less subjective and of course, less dogmatic. This is rarely a trait that we are born with. There are some lucky ones already with souls on a higher level of evolution than most and they show this trait naturally but for the most of us it is a trait that we need to cultivate.

The Human Comedy is a play originating from the depths of the “Vanity” in us. A great thinker said- “The true person can be gauged from how he deals with people who are of no worldly use to him”. This sentence says all. It is very easy to be nice when our self-interest demands it. Then we are even ready to grovel and call an ass a horse. Humans pride themselves on their rational, logical thinking and generally kind behavior. I beg to disagree. Had reason and compassion been our guiding principle, we would be behaving very definitely differently.

Comfort Zone.

How many of us are really prepared to go that extra mile to achieve this so called goal, which ideally everyone is expected to be pursuing? As I see it, the goal is more in the desire form than in practice.

My personal perception is that most prefer to find a minimum sustenance program in life and stay within their comfort zones doing little to even accept the fact that it is their own shortcomings that is keeping them back. Even when life gives us a knock or two and is kind enough to show us the way and the error of our ways, we find enough logic to rationalize and let the lesson slip into the comfortable slot of unpleasant occurring.

Living with Control Freaks.

The ego is a wonderful thing. It simplifies the procedure that confirms an individual’s assessment of his self-worth in terms of being the only superlative person on this planet.

Their opinions are final, their arguments are full of holes and their attitudes is pompous; not that you could dare oppose or even try to put in a word edgewise.

They “Demand” respect as a right.

Sometimes it is not worth wasting ourselves out on these freaks as they may drain us out which will not do at all. No relationship is worth that!

Management Of Stress.

Like air and water, stress is a truth of life. There is no running away from it as long as there is breath in us. Life means effort, living with others and tolerating a lot of disturbances. It is a continuous struggle between our selfishness and those of others.

Balance is the operative word; work, rest, sleep, laughter, hobbies, friends, family and all that have to be mixed judiciously with ambition and responsibilities.

Missing the movement.

Just the other day a motorcyclist came from behind on my right, zipped in front of the car at right angles and stopped at my left to talk to another motorcyclist waiting for him there. It was a beautiful little movement, deftly executed. My heart went “bump” but my head wondered why all this real ability of perfect timing and control is being wasted on such a useless and risky maneuver.

The same style of thinking and behaving can be seen in other walks of life. In our calculations we always forget that the world is in constant forward movement. We are just too warped up in ourselves.

I find it hard to digest that anyone can be so blind and blinkered. While these grandees are busy winning pointless skirmishes the rest of the world zips past.

On a Leash.

The higher Self always advocates spiritual emancipation through sexual release and bondage at the same time. It is shibumi in practice in real life instead of running away and hiding in a cave.

We talk of brotherhood but back-biting comes very easily to us. For a fistful of dollars we are prepared to sell our soul.

If we could, we would want the rest of the world on a tight leash always happily bearing with us while we live with abandon and total unconcern for anything or anybody.

In life we always get the treatment we allow ourselves to be given.

Open Door Policy with a But.

To listen to a junior who is inexperienced, who does not have the whole picture and often has not learnt to communicate yet with clarity requires a lot of paternal benevolence dipped in managerial ability. This balancing act is not easy. Our own snobbish amour-propre, restricted time-frames, unjustified pressures from bosses and more often than not misplaced confidence in our own ability to communicate well are the deterrents.

Opt for Change.

Everyone is talking about the wrongs of this world and they have a lot to say too. But nothing in their conversation indicated or gives any hint that they were doing something about it or looking for solutions.

Of course as we lead rather mediocre and humdrum lives, we have much to complain about. Our own intention to go deep into the matter and look for a solution is never evident; rather I would say totally absent.

If at all we are looking forward into the future it is always with this hope that the world will change enough to accommodate us and all our woes will go away one fine morning. The effort is to keep ourselves busy with the inane and avoid real contemplation. We look for answers but only those that satisfy our own view or desire find favor with us.

Feel the pain around you. Don’t add to it.

The Power of Words.

You already have the power to influence others. You already have the tools. All you need to do is sharpen it. Over time and usage words have been stringed & unified together to form sentences, specific idioms, phrases resulting in mental images. Be it in the written or spoken form. Therefore the magic is somewhere in the language and how it is used to communicate.

Pay attention to the images you are sending to others thru your words.

Pride in lawlessness.

I wonder if there should not be a law to purposely make onlookers and witnesses to lift a finger or face the ire of the law as criminals promoting violence by not doing anything when help is needed by another human.

Humanity never learns. The prime thought is: “ It won’t happen to me”. At the back of the mind there is this misconception that as we are living carefully, with all the remembrances to our deity virtuously, similar untoward accidents/incidences won’t happen to us…..that we are protected by our sanctity. The truth is you are protected by your sincerity which should be truly honestly compassionate and looking for elevation for the whole of humanity for the good of the whole planet. Selfishness is a “petard” that always blows up in our face one day or another.

Why a child?.

The first thing is to have children only when one is ready for them. There can be no half measures on this score. The child is totally dependent on its parents. He has full rights also on them. He needs and he has to be given everything needed for his flowering. Our attitude as parents should be that we are solely responsible for the well-being of the child and we are here solely to help him grow into his authentic self. We are servitors; not owners of the child.

It is the parent's duty to learn as much about life as he can and then pass it on and apply it in life. Don’t bring up the child on "don’t do this and don’t do that" because you don’t understand or know. Help the child explore his self and the world and be there for him when he needs an elder friend. If you don’t have the time for your child, it would be kinder to not have any.

There is no justification to let things be as they are.

In a general way, on the spiritual level, one can say that the worst that can happen to the child are the parents.

The hurt and harm parents do is needed to be recognized - even when they are concerned and try to do the best within the scope of their understanding. The problem is that their understanding is limited and flawed and little effort is made to improve upon it. The error is unconscious but elders impose their personas, traumas into and onto the child which perpetuates from generation to generation. Ram’s way would be to stop this transmission by “knowledge” and active effort.

People have sex for fun. Nature does the rest. They know very well that children are the result of this activity but does that bother anyone? The pleasure of sex is too overpowering. I am not pointing a finger at anybody but just, in a quiet moment, reflect on the pain and traumatic future that is being paved when a child is molested, enslaved, beaten, neglected and thrown away to the wolves. The vibes permeate into the Cosmos. The devil is being given a solid foothold and foundation to build upon a nefarious existence. Where would a concept and discipline like shibumi find a place in all this?

Animals are kinder.

The children are "Gifts of god" and accordingly we expect God to rear them and provide for them too for us. These gifts we throw out into the world without care. And of course, when the weight of rearing the child becomes too much, the child has to bear the brunt of our ire which can often be horrendous in the extreme.

I ask people, - what is the difference between you raising a child and the cat and dog in the street or for that matter the lioness in the forest? The lioness may be doing a better job.

Removing or Promoting.

It is fantastic how humans can delude themselves that life is one Silk Road with happiness and wish fulfillment as its goal.

We all know about syphilis from centuries past and today AIDS. Yet how many of us are afraid to have a romp at the first occasion we get? They are not afraid of death at that moment but later they do not wish to die.

The whole world is today swayed by this philosophy where death is to be avoided or delayed at all costs. Whose idea of immortality and youth is to keep looking twenty and have “FUN”; whatever that means?

Can anything be done for these people?

All I see is people in the ruling seat becoming rich by launching schemes to help and then pocket the wealth available. The ignorant remain ignorant and poor while the rich get the praise and the money and power to continue with more of the same.

Ridicule Is A Weapon.

I came across this quote from Mark Twain:

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

The operative word here is BELITTLE and SMALL PEOPLE. Following my trend of thought, I went to the next question – why do we feel the need to belittle anyone at all? Every time they open their mouth some pearls of wisdom slip out which to me seem to be just witty sarcasm couched in the pronouncements of the-wiser-than thou.

Self as the Benchmark.

How subjective can we get? Note how we tend to take decisions and act on what is convenient and understandable to us and within our experience; this is not just a theory. Practical experience has proven it again and again.

Encouragement and courageously venturing out is not our style. We want to play safe. We pride ourselves in our traditionally stable and staid thinking and behavior.

This is a kind of reverse negative thinking; when you do all the right things for the wrong reasons.

Failures there will always be. They are part of the learning process. And hopefully they can be kept in the limits of what can be called “affordable”.

My question is can we really run away from life?

Positive thinking and curiosity go together. Curiosity is the mother of learning. Learning results in enhancement of our quality of life if we put what has been learnt into practice.

Self-Sabotage.

We manage to fail in many of our undertakings. Is it possible that we are ourselves to blame and the fault is in the self-sabotage that we may be practicing? It sounds ludicrous but we may be doing exactly that.

There are many ways in which this can happen. One is by being there always. In our own fear of things going wrong, we try to preempt all wrong-doing. This is pure and simple self-sabotage. The work will never get done. Are we learning from the lessons that Life is imparting us? Have we learnt the basic lesson of “flowing” with the river instead of “damming” it? All problems in life come with their solutions attached – yet the problems do not get resolved because the answers are not acceptable to our limited morally narrow-complex nature and muddled thinking.

Why Don’t We Ever Learn?.

The capacity of the human race to ignore everything but its own wishes is astounding. Don’t blame me for being cynical.

Today we have a problem of information overload but none of it seems to penetrate deeply enough into anyone’s consciousness to make a change.

Our misplaced optimism sees Life as only getting better, accidents happen to others and we are doing our best in the circumstances. It is our karma and destiny that is at fault and all failures can be traced to somebody or something outside our control. At the end of the day there are always excuses to fall back upon. Now just imagine if in the story of Helen of Troy they had said “oh getting Helen back is impossible. Paris is too powerful. What can I do? There other women available. Why should I court death for merely a wife when I can always have more?”

Show of Anger.

Can anger be controlled consciously by simply wanting it? Anger is a primeval and elemental reaction coming from deep within where our conscious “will” is not active.

Constructively Change comes when one is unhappy and angry about something and one does something about it.

Destructively it is vanity at play. It stems from a feeling of insult and where there is intellectual arrogance at play it stems from the feeling of superiority and insult.

It feels so good.

Show of controlled and disciplined anger is a useful tool if you don’t get carried away by it yourself.

We certainly need to reduce the irritants around us and often a little show of anger will help in demarcating borders.

Shut ‘em up proper.

Once in a position of influence every individual regales in it. Bosses browbeat their juniors, teachers ask for silence, Police order baton charges, husbands batter their wives into submission, mothers-in-laws are already famous for it and wives shut up their husbands nice and proper. Why do we first create a relationship and then go all out to break it?

Snuffing Them Out Softly.

He was always a fine reliable man with an open mind and a happy friendly disposition. Yet this disposition did not extend to his children. With them he was the absolute monarch and kept them on a tight leash.

Righteousness mixed with judgmental attitudes and the law-given rights of the parents permitting absolute control over the child blinds us to the fact that we are being unkind, just like rioters.

The keen and enquiring character of the child evaporates; adults make life so difficult for the child that the child soon learns to do everything to please the elders to survive. This conditioning is total. And the world suffers for it in the long run.

Success is a matter of attitude.

Your attitude and how people see you are more important to success than all your qualifications. What is the most important question bothering you today? The answer to which would change/help-you-reach-your-goal in life.

The first step though has to be preparation; this means education and training to become a product that has value to others.

This requires again an objectivity which individuals rarely show.

Sickness.

The body is under pressure from all the elements, habits, lifestyle problems, genetics and even medical interventions. It has a basic equilibrium which is easily destabilized and it has certain limits that are easily crossed.

It is in a continuous process of renewal as well as movement to serve and does whatever is asked of it. Some of the demands are even unreasonable. Sometimes it complains.

What the body needs is nutrients and ingredients from which it can make its own compounds and eliminate from its surrounding all the irritants that are breaking it up. See these elements as stresses and conserve all the energy you can. Speak less. Run around less. Worry less. Avoid agitations of everyday life by making Mind over Matter an important attitude.

Shibumi is intelligent and balanced living.

The Case for Taciturnity.

The stress on speech and talking is rather exaggerated considering the exchanges I see happening around me. I say that the time has come to consider this factor and stress a little on taciturnity. Let’s bring a little silence in our lives.

When we talk incessantly, don’t we become a bore? Voltaire said: “The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.” This reminds me of a poem that we had in our school and which affected me deeply. It went something like this: “I told her all, I told my all, love that told cannot be………… and then came a stranger, and took her with a sigh.” (It is a poem by William Blake)

Show some courage.

We normally take the opposite stance and try to hush up things.

We like brushing irritants under the carpet. Collectively we only need to take a strong stand and the malaise will have to go. There is an element of cowardice, inertia, carelessness and irresponsibility in everything and every aspect of our lives and we are extremely comfortable with it. Our listlessness is our ailment. If your karma is to do, don’t shirk it.

The De-Stressor Par Excellence : Music.

Music has an occult strength that has an inherent creative seed. Compositions have definite and pertinent effects on the nervous system. When the thalamus is vibrating happily, it gets the brain’s cortex dancing as well.

This has a correlating influence on our feelings and thoughts directly. The positive vibrations can stimulate healing at the basic level where the whole body metabolism defies medical knowledge of today and effectively goes into a self-healing mode. Take to singing.

The Illusion of Honesty.

The entire social management on this earth is based on the presumption that human beings are upright and honest beings loaded up to the gill with positive attributes. Added to this is the blinkered view that the human animal is always looking forward, progressive, dying to excel, reasonable, committed, clear in his mind, basically sincere in word and action, with rarely any hidden agenda of his own and what not.

Let’s be a little sincere for once and look into the subject honestly; we are anything but.

The Illusion Of Virtue.

Of all the tricks of illusion we get to see, this is the biggest that humanity has played on itself.

Ever notice how often everything in life is done only for your good? You would have heard this explanation from parents, elders, kin, teachers and associates at work. Never does anyone ever say that they are doing it because they want to and that there is more often than not their own gratification or profit in it. From the sound of it, we are all living very saintly lives, with no ulterior motives at all.

The Pleasure is mine.

I have finally understood the need to spoil children. Shibumi in raising a child.

This attitude needs to be nurtured. If we become too much of the teacher or the disciplinarian we risk alienating the relationship and a heavy price would have to be paid later in life if a great distance and distrust gets created between the parent and child. For my daughter my presence should mean to her that if, of course, things went too much out of hand then I would be there for her and step in as a barrier. I am and shall always be the island where the child is protected and told the secrets of life. My job is to explain the tragedies & comedies and teach her the tricks of life. The ideal is that I modulate my style with her growing. As she grows and her stances change, so should my behavior and responses. Parents who are able to do this will never have much to complain. The truth is that we stop the child from growing and try to fit them in into our tiny little world. It is has to be convenient to us. The child is not here for our convenience. Period.

The Plight of Artisans.

My experience when trying to help the less educated has been rather depressing. There is a resistance to change that creeps in even with the first sentence exchanged. When this is coupled with our tendency to take short-cuts and soft options, we push ourselves into a hole and then pine and mope. Have you ever met anyone who was open, honestly, to advice and guidance like a child would be? No. Taking instructions is so demeaning. Listening is so unnecessary. Giving respect and regard to a more knowledgeable person is humiliating. The mantra is we know and we can manage. We aren’t stupid. How to open the minds of these bums?

The Right to Remain Unborn.

Look at how we have fashioned our life. The same mother who is supposed to be a know-all about children and is allowed to give birth to babies and raise them up, needs a certificate and training to teach children when she applies for a teacher’s job.

So I come to my basic premise. Be responsible. Having a child is a big responsibility. You have to put it in your list of importance at the place of No1. If, for some reason you are not in a position to raise a child just yet, delay having one. But I know often marriages are forced and children just happen. The poor women have to bear the brunt.

The WHYs behind the whys.

He walks nonchalantly in the middle of the road, stops to chat or whatever but always dead in the middle of the road.

Since ages when we were living with many more animals and wilder spaces, we have this instinctive need to protect ourselves from predators by staying away from any tree or boulder as far as possible. Where there is no option we stay as much in the center of the open space. This is still in our make-up. We could take it as an indication of how wild are our perceptions and therefore our reactions. It is unfortunate that having children is not considered a serious affair. There is no attempt to train parents in mental discipline and use of the will to behave in constructive ways. We are just breeding and letting them loose on humanity like stray dogs.

TIRED for Nothing.

And I wonder why I am getting so tired in this surrounding.

Then I chanced to read a passage:

“Stress is physically infectious. People under stress radiate stress energy to the surroundings through their chakras and auras. Consciously or subconsciously they transfer a great bulk of stress by being nasty and rude to others”. I find this explanation perfectly explaining the fatigue I feel. The relief I get on getting out of the market is palpable; as if coming out of a sauna.

The auras of others are not the only thing active I would say. When you are used to a cleaner environment and have spent a lot of time in beautifying your space, and you wish to live a “beautiful” life, you are annoyed and it shows when you have to tolerate the mess and dirt created by others – specially in public places.

Tomorrow Never Comes.

Putting things off for later is an ostrich complex kind of behavior, which is really a sign of immaturity and cowardice stemming from our inconscience & inertia (tamas).

It also shows a total lack of dedication and commitment or over-confidence in one’s ability to manage one’s time or worse it is a show put on for the undeserving to give an aura of time unavailability due to prior engagements. This attitude career-wise is self-inflicted damage.

Just do it. Bury your listlessness and get down to doing it.

The importance of self-control.

Humans tend to blame others and never pay attention to their faults particularly in India it is deep seated disease. This shows in our attitude in just about everything. For example when we blame the traffic police for everything; the fault is squarely ours. We are the ones holding the steering wheel and it is our foot on the accelerator. The police are not there to hold and control our driving. We are basically ready to break all traffic rules and curtail our bad habit only when we see a policeman. This attitude prevails in all we do.

This would mean that every driver would need a policeman in his vehicle and this logic even as a thought is ridiculous.

Chronologically people age but at heart they are children and show all the psychological traits of kindergarten kids!

What is your mental age?

UNHAPPY? Really?!.

On a scale of 0 to 100, where would you place your Happiness quotient?

You would be one of the rare ones who would claim to 70 or more. Why is happiness so sought after and yet so few seem to find it? Or is it that yearning has become a habit that there is always something to be discontented about?

We simply have forgotten to revel in what we have. In all this state of discontent, if we look into ourselves sincerely in our quiet moments and make a list, we shall discover that we have more to be happy and pleased about than the other way round.

The unpalatable truth is that cribbing is one way of showing our superiority.

Did Thomas Becket crib when he was made Archbishop and then later murdered when he would not go along with the king’s wishes? Why not ape his example? Isn’t it funny that people see him as a saint but not follow him?

When somebody says ‘I don’t agree with this’ – to me it means just this: This person has no experience of this subject.

The person has some notions of the subjects picked up as second-hand knowledge but no deep understanding of the subject as he has not suffered any of the situations that would open his subconscious mind to the reality behind the words of the story or description that is under discussion.

Somewhere too in the person’s psyche is also getting mixed up his vanity where he had supposed himself “knowledgeable” but now a new picture is emerging which is not acceptable to his prejudiced mind. The bubble most people live in cannot be allowed to burst so the only alternative rests in finding arguments to deny and disagree.

Upgrade or perish.

Lord of the realm; the moment they feel that they have arrived, they become complacent. They see them-selves only in neon lights. They refuse to worry about such things as self-improvement and upgrades. It never occurs to them in their arrogant befuddled state that products, technology and markets change. They can only see themselves moving forward and none to beat them. It is so surprising to see this smug lot, not willing to acknowledge that a new crop of more-with the-times people are joining the world every year. Nothing could be farther than this for the attainment of the shibumi state.

The Trap of Virtue.

Who decides what is virtuous and what is sinful? How do we decide what is right and what is wrong? On what grounds do we lay the rules of behavior and government? I know I am laying myself open to debate and ridicule but I am appalled at the trap people have laid down for themselves in the name of virtue. The focus is on Appearances. The man of Power never bothers about this.

Wake up to it; now!.

We as a people pride in breaking laws. The guy who can break a law and get away with it considers himself "A Robin Hood".

We use friendship and family to further our own ends to the detriment of others. Our entire arrogant make-up is based on our connections and the strings we can pull.

The malaise has reached a point where anyone who opens his mouth in opposition gets literally bashed up.

Shibumi cannot be in this condition.

Grander Than Thou.

Today the very basis of our pride is mass-produced products. The criteria of being “Grander” than our neighbor is to own a product that is more expensive and having features that the neighbor’s product does not have. We then strut around like peacocks, totally forgetting that thousands of others have the same product and worse, can buy one anytime they want one.

There are always lesser endowed people than us and when we compare ourselves, we mostly do so with the ones who have less than us. Is this the way to betterment and growth?

Can you imagine a supercilious person sharing?

What’s bothering you?.

I wonder if anyone even gives this question a second thought. By the time we get out into the world, certain parameters are already laid out for us. Our motivations and prejudices are set and sealed. We are never going to become aware of the subconscious patterns that will rule us for the rest of our living days.

It is only in times of crisis that a wave of introspection and clarity of the long term vision swamps us; but only for a short hiatus. We let life take us where it will, erroneously proud of being the architect of our lives; we cringe and crib but we are not looking for solutions. Even the experience of being alone due to circumstances does not open our minds to the experience of “Silence” and how solutions and answers come to us when our mind quietens down a bit. Focus sir!. Determined focus!!

Where is the Inclination?.

To me it seems that the inclination to read is growing less and less in direct proportion to the amount of written word available.

Leave alone the usual daily reading like that of the newspaper which is itself done while dashing for the cup of coffee with the eyes on the clock and the feet itching to run to the car and press the accelerator; when are we sitting still and on our own? We now wait for the world to come to us when be beckon but we keep our doors closed. It requires a stupendous level of arrogance and stupidity to feel and think that way. So how do we reach our people? How do we get together. Today humanity has lost its collective power due to the self-centric focus. Life is being reduced to the lowest denominator.

The only thing common amongst us is our practice to make a show of piety by going to places of worship more like a vacation trip than real religious fervor.

Why make the child pay for it?.

In the final analysis, it is the children who pay for it. Their lives are traumatized and they are definitely scarred psychologically and often things can be worse: quite many are abused physically and violently. Why? With all the devices now available to avoid pregnancies why are we visiting our animalistic nature on helpless children? I say – have your fun and go. Why bring children into the equation at all? Leave the world in peace! This shallow living is at the center of all misery.

Every parent I know thinks of himself when bringing up the child. Never a thought is paid to the wellbeing of the growing child who needs direction and guidance but rarely gets it. What most children get is a show of intolerance, irritability, broken promises, lies and a very clear show of ignorance. What have we learnt?

With honest purpose.

How many of us are really thinking and creating anything in our lives? Leave people alone for some time, and they are lost; really lost both in spirit and purpose.

I feel that the need to excel is being slowly erased. To quote Thomas Edison-“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence and honest purpose as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing”.

The way to imbibe creativity, focus and a sense of purpose in people needs to begin early in childhood. Later to become personalities that others will look up to.

The Whole World Does Not Matter.

There is always a small period in our lives when we become “Important” in the scheme of things – when we can call ourselves “a somebody”. This is the time when we get into the self-important mode. We are in our eyes not only in control but, often, as we perceive the cause and effects around us, we are certain, even if the world may not wholly agree with us, of being the source of the happenings. In a microcosm, we are not part of the Creation, but see ourselves as part of the creator effect. This is the time when our vanities are ballooning. We are still young as far as a life-span goes. At the age of youth in the twenties, it is easy to see ourselves as giants with infinite capacities for getting things done.

Come out of your cocoon. Listen to the world around without having to comment or direct anything. Let the world run itself for a moment. There will be withdrawal symptoms but tolerate them just for a while and then you will know peace and really see! The world that did not matter until now, will suddenly start to matter!!

You Are A Product Of Nature.

A few million years have gone into the making of the present-day man and the human race as we see it today. Nature has been quietly at work to produce this efficient machine that we call the human body. Humans have never been very careful with the care of their bodies. The industrial development has only expanded the range of misuse. A little understanding and a little care are all that is required to keep it well. Do we pay any attention to it?

A woman scorned.

Women are designed to be appreciated, to be wooed; she is to be appreciated and be seen as the centre of your little universe and forget the rest as crap. A scorned woman is a dangerous thing – a being of power. When you pervert her creative energy into destructive you are doomed.

Dead or Alive.

I did the unpardonable by living by my principles and whims instead of the community’s and was rather stark in my annoyance if anyone crossed the line beyond reasonable limits. So today I have the pleasure of rarely receiving anyone from the family; even the ones who found me “super” when younger. They remember my indiscretions, my frank and outgoing speeches and think I am best kept at a distance which suits me fine (I suppose they are afraid I will contaminate the minds of their children). How cooped up is our thinking! Following disciplines like shibumi is not for the faint-hearted but the rewards are out of this world.

Fair and Square.

How easily we convince ourselves and concoct up proof to support our thoughts and thinking process to our advantage. We all know what is good and bad, correct and incorrect, right and wrong; that is by our society’s standards but yet when it is in our self-interest we look the other way without any qualm of conscience. It is not surprising that even after thousands of years of education, humanity still supports the evil in our nature and it is more in evidence than the good that we preach. What a jellyfish of a person one would be who is at this level of evolution.

Please Advise!.

One thing: Should I turn a blind eye on other's strange behavior or discuss with them openly? It looks absurd clarifying all the time! But is it right to ignore something I cannot take or tolerate because in my view it is negative and should not be allowed to spread? How should I address it? Even if I do not stop, I will be the one to be seen as the villain and anyway the same element will sprout elsewhere. Evil is like weeds. It has to be regularly and continuously weeded out but it is a tiring and unending exercise.

Can human lethargy fight this malaise?

Keep your distance.

I have had this thought floating for many years that though we want closeness, hunt for affectionate relationships and love affairs yet we do not really ever open the doors to our “selves”.

I recognize this fact because I could sense it in me. So I made it a point to study myself and others more closely. It is obvious that what we consider to be our “SELVES” is a very egocentric persona and not a very stable one at that. Every time closeness would develop in a relationship I would get a funny, not-so-comfortable apprehension that by merging myself in the relationship I would lose my entity as a person and worse – my independence. It was like an undercurrent of unexplained discomfort and I would then do something stupid that would ensure that the relationship did not cross a fine point and most often would then fade away.

Just imagine this at work in a marriage and understand today’s fascination with divorce.

Let go and let live.

It has been my contention that we should learn to let go after the age of 40 and after 60 the letting go should be total; easier said than done though. Not only let go but even withdraw from controlling interests; continuing to live fully at the personal level but ready for the transition that has to come eventually sooner or later.

Mending Relationships.

A discussion began on the art of mending relationships. The first question is why did things in the relationship come to the impasse where they needed to be mended at all; secondly I am prone to ask rather insensitively if there was a relationship at all and if you are not better off without the relationship hanging around your neck.

Humans are very imperfect and that is putting it kindly. We are a mixed up lot. At any given time so many factors are jostling for space in our considerations that if Martians were peeping at us, they would say we are awfully confused with our countless desires and inconsistent even at the best of times.

It will be called improper but it has to be said that we are opportunists.

Offended.

This quote popped out at me like a shot. And it put into beautiful words something that I was trying to understand. Everything became clear in a flash.

Edward R Morrow says: Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.

There is not only an element of purposeful insincerity but also a malevolent intent. It is bullying in the most gentlemanly manner.

Keep your ego in control and don’t fall in this trap.

The trait of accusing and keeping a front of being offended is very common. How did this trait become so dominant in our ethos, I wonder?

Unused and Unusable Advice.

All the writings and short advice columns one sees in journals of all description; it is all a lot of useless effort with the advice sounding good on the printed pages but rarely achieving anything; mainly because the theoretical aspect is related to by the readers with the stories with difficulty if at all.

How much choice do I have in life? Did I choose my parents, family, friends, schools, teachers and life’s openings/opportunities…. then what makes you think I have any choice about the boss or the team I have?

And so on and so forth.

Who is Running Our Lives?.

Something or somebody is running the lives of humans. There is definitely a destiny and things are happening. Luck and fate is playing out its program. What options are there than to be just what they are? A set of cards have been served out and we have to play with these. We can’t help it and don't understand it and do not want to understand it. Tomorrow never comes and if it does it is to see plans and desires to fruition.

Humans are hardwired to resist change and focus on their petty existence as the belly has to be fed.

When things are going well our arrogance knows no bounds but person of shibumi is beyond all that. Read these lines from the book by Trevanian:

What is your plan?

Why Rude?.

From those times of the beautiful people when good manners were deliberately studied and cultivated and the populace tried to ape them as far as they could, just to be called gentlemen, we have now reached the other end of the spectrum, where being deliberately rude seems to be “IN”.

The question is why. Are they doing it deliberately? Are they just awfully lacking in education? Are they making a statement of sorts?

Shibumi at home.

It is the same old clash of two desire entities that we encounter every day, everywhere and with everyone, each wanting its own way to the exclusion of consideration for the other. Selfishness and self-centeredness are part of the gifts endowed us by nature and it is my point of view that men and women are not really designed to live together 24x365xeternity.

Our genes and hormones have a potent force of their own.

We are on our best behavior most of the time; continuously adjusting to the pressures of people and circumstances. BUT the moment we cross the threshold of our homes, we find it difficult to make the same compromises in our marriages willingly with a singing heart. Why? A man with shibumi is an attained individual and does not sport two personalities.

Buying Peace Thru Arguments.

The technique of using arguments to bypass the main issue is an old one and understood instinctively.

Then there are the “attackers”; I wonder where they learn the technique from. It seems to me it comes naturally to them. Whatever the issue, they attack the person and not the subject. And most unfortunate people, who have not learnt better, fall for this method. They immediately commence defending themselves and fall into the attacker’s trap. To buy peace they shut up.

Can We Really Help?.

It pertains to the “help” we wish to give to our (what we consider) more unfortunate friends. But can we? Most people I realized do not have a fully functioning memory. I observed the carpenter at work, the students who are learning English from me and my maid. For instance the carpenter; Explain the job to him & Leave it to him and within half hour you can see him executing the job in a totally different fashion – most suited to his personal needs according to what he considers good and right. What happened?

No amount of coaxing or lecturing makes them see any further ahead. Cross a certain limit and their vanity rears its head. They have accepted their destiny. Change means a lot of effort and loss of time for questionable results.

If a question or doubts rears its head they don’t ask for clarification – they simply go ahead do something whatever comes to their mind then. How can we do anything with these kinds of people? Would you dare to question their knowledge of the world and understanding?

Conditioned and stamped.

Life shows us how much and how often we are wrong and even points out our faults but we prefer to put in all our efforts to mask these and continue on with a brave face. Quite often when our conscience and intelligence is telling us otherwise, we fall prey to our “conditioning” and take the easy obvious path. Quite often we are simply blocked by our ego and refuse to accept that there might be alternatives to our way of thinking or even a different way to the approach we have opted for. We become possessive of our thoughts.

Shibumi takes us out of our conditioning and conditioned existence.

Give your mind the support of data and skills in as many domains as you can. It makes the path smoother.

Explain it to me.

What I wish to know is this need of everybody to explain everything to me. All I have to do is make a statement and the listener will start analyzing my motives and reasons & let me know so. It could be that they themselves are thinking aloud but it is definitely annoying and a conversation stopper to my way of thinking.

If we contemplate we will see that the major portions of our conversations are really unnecessary. The lesser the waves, the calmer the sea.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt.

The unfortunate part of “family” is that they know us in great detail right from the day we are born. Very little is hidden from them. The worst is that although we may think of our family as our near and dear ones, they are first humans and relatives second.

Great errors of judgments can be made when we forget this simple truth. Humans tend to remember faults and forget the plus points far faster than we would imagine and most often the faults get embellished with time. The family is the world in microcosm. It would be simplistic to believe that we are a cohesive whole for each other. The opposite is more likely.

Fear of rejection.

There is additionally a positive side to fear. If we are not comfortable with things as they are, we strive to change. We make efforts to upgrade our abilities and think creatively and explore many other possibilities which we would have not done otherwise. This results in an educative process which benefits us greatly and will stand by us more than anything else in the world in times of crisis. We can plan the next move only when we maintain our calm and over-ride our anxiety. Running helter-skelter into a stampede is hardly the style of a thinking man! Don’t ever lose your cool but become quiet, contemplate and coolly plan before executing your move.

Have you made your statement?.

Pride is what we think of ourselves and vanity is what we want others to think of us.

I have always kept a close watch on my thoughts about myself and would try to fit them into either “pride” or “vanity” category. It is quite a difficult task if we are sincere about it. So on further analysis what essentially needs to be understood is the question: are we making statements or doing things that need to be done?

The yardsticks that we are judged by are small, very tiny actions and doings that give us away. When our actions become obvious statement-making ploys, we are only inviting derision and sometimes even trouble.

Is Your Commitment Total?.

We were discussing Karmic ramifications of our actions. Then I came across these few words from OSHO(RAJNEESH) of Pune. He says we suffer because we do not live whole-heartedly. All our actions tend to be incomplete and sort of hover around us waiting for their culmination. What I understood from this and concur is that we are busy doing too many things, starting and not completing and at the same time and doing all of them badly; thereby laying ourselves open to negative karmic points with pending files remaining open and following us like baying dogs.

Take your time to think it over but then once you start, complete it.

Karmic Analysis in Self-upgrading.

In a general way most understand the theory of Karma from the point of what was “DONE”. A little introspection and quiet contemplation will reveal two things: 1) that the course of our lives is based more on the things that were NOT DONE; the decisions which were not taken or which were knowingly not taken. 2) that at every moment we are given a simple choice of saying “yes” or “no” ; this determines the course of our lives.

Knowing thru Words.

The big question is how does one learn about new phenomenon thru words, or even pictures and other previously known data or facts; more to the point is the question is it at all possible?

The answer is a flat no. At best we can expect a very poor approximate. Even with very vast experiences and exposure, with very well written words to explain in detail, the feel cannot be obtained and that will never make the experience complete.

Listen and Be Damned.

Tell me how will listening help? I am here to make my life easy; not yours. If I listen, I put myself in the unedifying position of wanting to better myself and do a good job. This would in turn bring in appreciation and then everybody would be gunning for me to do more. No sir! I just wish to bide my time and would like a lot of margin to hedge my bets. I love people with poor language abilities and even poorer interpersonal behavior patterns. In this situation I am always able to find excuses and faults enough to cover my intentions of not wanting to do anything in the first place.

Be a person that people would be afraid to impose upon. Think about it.

Living without money.

Humans are humans. Nothing good can ever come out of their propensity to grab and accumulate. Nothing comes of nothing. Barter or not, nothing good will happen; of that I am certain. There is a buyer and there is a seller. How intensely the buyer wants the seller’s product will decide the exchange rate and the level of fleecing; above or below the table. So let’s be pragmatic.

The point is that we have to give to get. We may think we are enjoying things free of cost, but are we really? Cash or kind, payment is always in the pipeline. Money is an optical illusion.

Mental Interference.

Do we always receive messages by ear and eyes correctly? Once heard or seen do we then act on them impartially and precisely? My perception is that we do not. We tend to overdo the thinking part from our side and we tweak the info a little to suit and fit into our perceptions of things. In the execution it then gets terribly garbled or modified.

Why do we have to show off our intelligence in things that are not ours to worry about?

This trait is universal and in force in every small act or word in our lives. We should make a concerted attempt to reduce this factor to live happier and better lives.

The Element of Fate (Kismet).

There is dependency shown by aspiring candidates to land jobs or plan their next career move. The focus on “kismet” seems to me inordinately high. Does anyone give a thought to these points: People who are focusing on the sole question of jobs should reflect on:

Out Of The Time Frame.

There is a time and place for everything. Do we really understand this saying? We often take things to inordinately long lengths. We love to keep arguments alive. Study the chivalrous history of some clans from Scotland and Rajasthan. Honor killings are not unknown and these start feuds of their own where the eye for an eye campaign goes on and bloody on; with nobody even having any inkling about the first quarrel which often becomes history and the polished version of the story remains as a legend.

Do these events show a progressive and intelligent human mind at work?

Similarly a little study of the different religions will also show that some precepts and advice given some centuries back considering the elements at play at the time tend to continue to rule the minds of men who practice that religion.

When we carry a point too far we can only hurt ourselves; especially in anger. The ego will rarely let go. It is terribly self-destructive if allowed.

Where do you stand on this?

Promote yourself.

I have observed that there are at least five distinct levels in human interactions; be it professional or personal. All these levels have very separate styles of behavior codes, language abilities, dress codes, philosophies and attitudes.

If you have not taken this factor into consideration for your plans of your advancement or even business operation and prepared yourself for it, then you will face critical hurdles to reach your goals. To be brutally honest, you may miss out totally.

Remember what you don’t know cannot help you but it can certainly trigger all your plans to fail. Learn all the skills you can, gather all the information and knowledge you can. It is like keeping needle and thread, some medicines and such at home; you never know when you will need what in this life.

God; life is unfair.

Try to understand the philosophy behind shibumi.

Saying thine part.

Have you noticed how some people can speak their part only in outbursts of some kind? They would be otherwise nice, sane people going about their lives in a circular routine that they have built around themselves. Yet, under their calm exterior there is always some undercurrent of judgmental thoughts flowing quietly which, keeps them perpetually irritated about something or the other. The question is why some people speak their part only in anger; and this is not just anger, it is also laced with a heavy dose of indignation which can easily convert into assault. The situation is exacerbated by the person’s need to not only prove his point but also teach the other malefactor a lesson even if it has to be drilled into his head.

This I suppose is what they call road rage when it happens on the highway. Is this you? Shibumi is at the other end of the spectrum.

Stealing credit.

Taking undue credit and making profit by cutting corners amounts to plain cheating which is reprehensible, And this is the one flaw in character which will keep anyone back from becoming world class or world leaders. It is high time that we started showing our intelligence rather than our cunning and cleverness.

Somebody copying us is flattery all right. But are we looking for flattery? Here is another passage from the book by Trevanian:

“It's not Americans I find annoying; it's Americanism: a social disease of the postindustrial world that must inevitably infect each of the mercantile nations in turn, and is called 'American' only because your nation is the most advanced case of the malady, much as one speaks of Spanish flu, or Japanese Type-B encephalitis. It's symptoms are a loss of work ethic, a shrinking of inner resources, and a constant need for external stimulation, followed by spiritual decay and moral narcosis. You can recognize the victim by his constant efforts to get in touch with himself, to believe his spiritual feebleness is an interesting psychological warp, to construe his fleeing from responsibility as evidence that he and his life are uniquely open to new experiences. In the later stages, the sufferer is reduced to seeking that most trivial of human activities: fun.” ― Trevanian, Shibumi

Taking Notes.

Some time ago I was reading some Zen writings and one thing that was made clear is the nature of the human mind as a collector. We love to collect things, data, memories and brick-bats.

Then this morning I read this quote by Chuck Palahniuk which took my breath away as it confirmed my own reading of making the most of this life given to us: “ The best way to waste your life……is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don’t participate.”

The Club of Givers.

When we give something we are always keeping a track of every penny that is going out but when we are receiving something we feel that we have never received enough. And then we compare our giving with what is coming in and always the final total shows a negative balance because compared to what we have given we have never received our due.

Are we being true to ourselves and the universe which is organizing our lives around us? There is so much expectation from the universe but to receive we have to be in the club of givers without premeditated calculations of why & what.

The joining of the club of givers requires, spontaneity, the opposite of the tendency to hoard. Finally the belief that the Universe is there and will give what you need anyway.

The best givers are intensely alive and very involved in life. When you drop the critical, calculating and the judgmental attitude, there is an aura of compassion which builds up around you. Then you can only give.

The Value of Appreciation.

We, of course love to be appreciated; even flattery is welcome as there being some basis of truth in it somewhere. We judge and work out our own place under the sun from comments we hear about ourselves. From a very pragmatic view of life, we have to live with others and therefore what they think is important. The point of debate is how much value can we and should we give to whom and why.

The Value of training programs.

Of course training programs have their value and they do theoretically prepare people to understand what they are getting into and what is expected of them. Raw recruits do need this training. But the basic problems of all training programs is in the fact that certain character traits are already embedded and indelibly marked in most people by the time they enter life’s stream. This is why most raining programs do not take you very far. They make the person conscious of certain points alright but most are not able to incorporate these factors into their persona. At the actual moment of need, people always behave, act or/and react in a predictable manner which is their basic personality.

Turning Point.

ON BEING ASKED: Have you experienced a turning point in your life when everything changes for you? You start seeing the world with fresh eyes. It is as if a paint brushed came and repainted your life?

MY REPLY:

Well, to be honest nothing of the kind ever happened to me although I have heard it happening. For me life has come in small intense doses. My character at war with the world and the world teaching me lessons every time I fought it. Generally speaking very few learn their lessons. Their subconscious patterns operate in cyclic patterns and the same stories repeat over and over. They keep on and on with their convictions never agreeing to the fact that they could be in error. They plod on. Life plods on. The Creation plods on.

Happy inputs.

Life is no Happy Ever After deal at all. But people go through the motions of being happily married, occupied and well, totally unhappy with their lot. The soul which gives life to our existence is never happy with all this waste of emotional energy and time in keeping up appearances. Humanity in general is here to enjoy and partake of the feast Mother Nature has provided. That we are responsible for our inputs for our welfare is a thought rarely evoked.

The answer to this predicament is in developing a stable persona which is first true to itself.

Lessons in achieving shibumi– 1.

The Most Common Way People give up their Power is by Thinking that They Don’t Have Any. – Alice Walker

If there is a stone in the middle of the road, how many of you would stop to remove it? By not acting and using the power of the individual as a person you are simply foregoing it. Then you are also giving the right to others to do as they will and your own right to raise objections is cancelled.

Believe Nothing, No Matter where you read it or who said it, unless it agrees with your own reason, experience and common sense. – attributed to Buddha.

This is definitely the path of right action but it is never practiced. The confidence and panache with which people will talk of things they have no idea about is a phenomenon about humans which never ceases to astonish me.

Lessons in achieving shibumi (2).

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. – Helen Keller.

From where I stand I see nothing of adventure. It is more like a drudgery that never seems to end. What we had imagined and what life has finally come out to be! You can call it an adventure if you want to but who wants adventure?

The learning process and excitement went out of their souls long ago. Are you prepared to share their burden? If not, they are not interested in anything and definitely not any philosophy!

Expect much from yourself and little from others and you will avoid incurring resentments. – Confucius.

And thereby deprive us of all meaning to live? Confucius may have been a great and wise man and I know a major portion of humanity lives by what he says but just imagine life without complaints, without anyone to blame and without scapegoats to carry the load. Many people show sign of life because of the anger bubbling in them; it gives them something to live for. I mean where would be the spice in living so kindly? And truth be told, what about the negative attitudes of those around us, how do we ignore that? Seems something like an illusion.

And this business of expecting much from myself is really mind numbing. Am I not a grand guy already? All I ask from others is a little respect of my space which is my right and some appreciation of all I do. Do you not see any virtue in my person?

Lessons in achieving shibumi. (3).

The first human being who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization. – Sigmund Freud

I can visualize the day and situation. Here is somebody confronted by a bigger and better armed hunter and the lesser guy who has had to hone-up on his intellectual skills to survive is in a no-win situation. So he gets this brainwave and hurls an insult and must perhaps run for his life. The first intellectual salvo has been hurled and the next step in the evolution of man taken place.

What a beautiful way to put it. I must grant Freud the accolade of being a seer. But I wish he was here today and he would have seen how his observation has gone a step further.

Lessons in achieving shibumi (4).

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Once I was reading about the concept of beauty and the parameters by which one judges something as beautiful. From the entire reading I came to the conclusion that it is all a matter of habit. The conditioning a mind receives from its environment and some instinctive elements finally decide what is beautiful. This I put into practice on myself by dispassionately looking at a woman and try to analyze my mental processes to understand if I found her attractive. And I found this to be true. Only certain skin colors and certain facial & bodily curvaceous features were of interest. Which means in every locale and every race, the parameters differ.

Then we have this limitation of thinking that only the female of our own species is beautiful and attractive. The male of the species is considered dumb enough to find anything attractive that has the look of females around it. You don’t think so! You can laugh at me but then why do these car manufacturers and sports people all have dancing girls with their useless antics around their display and in the stadium?

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. - Franklin D Roosevelt.

I read recently about a young girl of 15 having committed suicide by hanging herself because she was afraid that she would fail in her exams. The results had not even been announced. I wonder what values and demands on their psyche have been imposed by their parents and people around them for certainly they are to blame. What kind of children are we bringing up that have no moral strength to stand their ground?

Lessons in achieving shibumi (5).

If you can’t ignore an insult, top it. If you can’t top it, laugh it off; and if you can’t laugh it off, it’s probably deserved. – J.Russel Lyne

I find a great beauty and truth in this saying and in my own life has it has happened more than once. I have never been able to top an insult. The exchange or attack got me seething alright and I would have loved to see the guy’s head blown off. But outside I kept my composure with some remnant of dignity.

Topping an insult is what I would dearly like to do. But I don’t know what happens to me then. I just can’t ever think up one retort at that moment.

I am going off. There is no abuse there for my opponent to latch on to for another round and I don’t wait for the prologue anyway.

Then coming back to the element of honesty in my own self, I must admit there is always some basis for the argument to have started in the first place. If I consider myself wise and adept at gauging moods then I should not have allowed myself to enter into a fray of this nature. It can only be stupidity because I let my vanity be pricked or I reacted by anger or something which opened the door for a backlash, fate adding to the occasion by giving me a worthy and most unscrupulous opponent. Silence and running away are the best solutions. Refuse to engage.

Lessons in achieving shibumi.(6).

Out of ten people who speak about you, nine would have nothing good to say. The one person, who has something good to say, will say it badly. – Pascal.

It is a sad statement about human nature that we find it agonizingly difficult to speak well of others. Praise has to be forced out of our hearts like a breathing exercise.

Lessons in achieving shibumi (7).

Dressing by women is a cross between their need to clothe themselves and their instinct to undress. – attributed to Confucius (although I doubt it).

I am a believer. Look at pictures in the media: Does that leave much room for discussion? What I glean into their deeper consciousness, I would say that they have been wired by Mother Nature to mate and populate; thereby fulfilling Mother Nature’s need for able bodied humans to keep her Creation going forward.

The converse side is the need to protect oneself from too much attention of Mother Nature herself; she being so unkind as to buffet us with cold winds and blazing heat whenever her whims take her.

To my understanding the question has been stretched rather. The females would have by now realized that with minor changes of lines they are all the same. They are really killing the goose by over exposure.

Lessons in achieving shibumi 8.

Silence is Golden.

Silence is the best environment to be in. It is the strongest and most creative place. It is only in silence that others can speak to us. The universe is waiting for the din in our heads to quieten down so that it could put in a word or two. But we forget everything and focus on our ability of speech and we never have seemed to learn to stop. A little quietening down is absolutely essential both for growing and for renewal. We need also a little balancing act with ourselves to equate and see ourselves in reflection; ourselves as our own witness comparing and analysing so that we can know where improvement is needed. The flowers and butterflies are silent but in action at the same time.

I am a practitioner of silent action. Once when I was in the neighborhood park with my child who had learnt to walk recently and she was exploring the world of the grass, flowers, swing and other exciting things, an older gentleman sitting and watching us remarked that I rarely said anything to the child but that I simply followed her around.

This is a point that could be elaborated a bit. The thing is that I was totally focused on the pleasure of discovery with my child. I normally went to the park at a time when it would not be crowded. So we could open ourselves out in comparative aloofness. But although the appreciation of the gentleman came as a pleasant surprise, this is the truth: my child and I were communicating fully although without the medium of speech.

I do not believe in over guiding, teaching or counseling; we tend to do overdo our “guidance”. Better to wait for the right moment and make a remark based on the truth of my own experience, philosophy and experience. This has more impact than continuous lecturing. One of the great impacts of shibumi in our lives is the minimalism it brings.

Lessons in achieving shibumi (9).

Accumulation Vs Passing-it-on.

- In the pursuit of learning, everyday something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, everyday something is given away. – Lao Tzu

- Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things and you will be yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the universe. – Chuang Tzu

The saying “Live happily ever after” is a joke played by humanity on itself. First there is no ever after. It is all in the now. The present now creates the future-now; and our miserable existence rebirths itself every day. So perhaps it is time to sit by the river and growing trees and re-ponder over the question and rework our priorities. Let’s ask ourselves the ultimate question “Quo Vadis?” – Wither goest thou?

The Art of Shirking

Mostly people are brought up to be up and doing; you do, you get. In this environment where everyone is up and about it requires a specific state of mind to flow against the river. I used to be one of those who would take a request personally. Later I often found all my efforts going down the drain because the other person had changed his mind or requirements, taking me and my effort for granted. It is then I decided to act on anything only when asked three times.

People will ask you a service if you are available. So the first step towards freedom is to not make your-self available.

Hidden Messages

We complicate our lives by assigning meanings to things by letting our imaginations roam and fly of the handle. How we interpret situations with angles that are not there!

For this purpose the sentence “So you mean to say……..” to start an accusation works very well. After this sentence is in the air, the respondent has no other recourse but to go on the defensive and explain his point in very “EGO calming” tones. A lot of people have perfected this as an art.

Anyway, generally speaking I have seen the turmoil and tragedies we humans create by being ambiguous; sometimes just for the cleverness of it. If we could only be clear and precise at all times. If we make it a habit which others will soon recognize, we would soon avoid so many unpleasant situations.

The Nazi Devil is alive.

Are the Souls from the Nazi period now active in the world again? (Seriously speaking our occult psychology accepts this phenomenon. It is not exactly the same combination of persona but the Active Spirit behind the persona and all the activities now unfolding, is the same one). People visit places like Auschwitz. People visit these places but miss the point. This is not a one-off incident. The earth's conscious is loaded with these vibes. It is happening every now then somewhere. Humans need to realise that they are letting it happen. If we study closely the history of USA, there is a lot of death and destruction in the Anglicized culture that came from UK and most of the inventions and customs coming out of there are fantastic but rather damaging to the strength of character of humans, offering possibilities of continued destruction with greater ease and destroying personal peace by giving tools to the malefic spirits. I believe that the Greater Evil Spirit that was active actually spread all over the world after the 2nd WW. And thru USA it continues to prevail in destroying human habitat.

Life as it comes

Take life as it comes and go out with open arms. Yet never forget that our feelings and thoughts cannot be really, wholly shared. Words are not enough or adequate and images from minds cannot be transferred. We may feel whatever we may want – friendly, altruistic, grateful, obliged and as our Soul dictates, be there for anyone who needs us. But never forget that the world may be acting out on other parameters. Life can be sad. Life can be so ungrateful.

Finally I have realised, that we are alone. Nobody cares or gives a darn that we too may need them and for the pains we take for them. Self-centeredness is a reality. We need to let people move on if they are happier that way.

Let us focus on the Path we have decided for ourselves.

The power of your ego to keep you stuck cannot be overstated. Nothing will hold you back more completely. Nothing clings to your tiny comfort zone more tightly than your comfort-junkie ego. You continue to give it power at your own great peril.

The only thing that can get power over this power is the greater power of a good sense of humor. More specifically, soulful humor. Soulful humor is the bane of the prideful ego. It puts the ego on a leash. The ego then becomes a tool for magic.

It is of the first order of importance to remember this, that the ego leashed by the soul is the single most powerful action you can take to stay ahead of the curve.

Written by Gary Z McGee

Words.

Don’t say them if you don’t mean them.

Apparently they have no strings and nothing gets registered in stone.

But words are thoughts put into sound. And sound is a powerful physical thing. It get registered in the ether. And tries to manifest itself.

So when you say them when you don’t mean them, you are creating a fluffy, unseen vague screen around you that is loaded with contradictory vibes. And it will certainly mess up your life.

You know the cause and effect thing that is operative in life. Also called Karma and all that.

"The only way to 'transcend' it is with integrity, where one's words more closely match their actions."

This knowingly hurting the people and earth is something so demoniacally human; makes me wonder about all this talk of spiritual emancipation of humanity. At the other end is the stupidity of the masses that are lapping up everything that is dished out to them withOUT "thought" or study. I suppose we get what we deserve. If we are not going to take responsibility for our lives and actions, we cannot expect any better. We may explain it away in whatever way we want but words penetrate deep into our psyche and have a deep effect of such impact that they can often direct our lives. Broken bones always mend sooner or later. But the effect of words keep on and on in changes that they bring about. Most words though we know at heart be it of praise or insult, are false and insincere at the core but we do let them influence us.

Words are the only vehicle available to convey our thoughts but it can all be a great waste - the process of penetration and registering is extremely faulty in the spoken or/and written format - the receiving end instrument ( human brain with its conscious/subconscious patterns) is designed to filter out and block.

According to Dunning-Kruger, no matter how much information is provided, the unsophisticated would 1) be incapable of recognizing the wisdom of such a plan; 2) assume they know better; and 3) have no idea of the extent of their inadequacy.

PK: I tend to think on the same lines:

See the number of Sages/philosophers and wise-men that have surrounded us since the beginning of time and yet see the state of human thinking, behavior and conditioning. My personal experience is that people not only do not permit any penetration of new thoughts into their psyche, they actually vehemently oppose it.

Anger, Avenge, Revenge

I have seen deeply into myself and anger and the urge to avenge is there. It comes over me now and then. But as my mind in its natural state lives in the domain of intelligence where it has seen that this activity only brings more pain I have learn to desist and look immediately away as fast as I can make myself to do so.

In my anger I have hurt people and I have seen how karma comes back waving its chains and floor me. Now I am more scared of the retribution and control my anger. I have also taught myself to forget. By keeping my peace I see more deeply into human nature and its convoluted ways; I have become more intuitive and can connect the chain of events that will ensue. The image of the results frighten me.

I have seen clearly that I am the perpetrator of my own violence. Somewhere it all begins in me. The others are all retaliating.

How in our ‘GOODNESS’ we only create chaos.

Take the chair as an example of our evolution. Notice how the chairs are becoming more and more comfortable, public friendly, ergonomic and supposedly “humane” because all have “rights” to comfort and dignity as being important. What has this given us? A bunch of entitled softies who have little tolerance, little resilience and are not fit for this harsh world and life because this life has its own way to make humans see the light without caring a whit for feelings, respect and such nonsense.

So what is to be done? Be kind but tough. Do not prevaricate or compromise with what you understand will do harm. Help others but do not get emotionally ensnared their destinies.

Everything coming out as new development and products from the human mind has for result a lowering of consciousness. It is a very systematic organisation catering to the need of the Senior Demon that IS technically a god in his own right and technically running the world.

Normally the moronic human when he talks or sees God he is really seeing this Demi-god of a Demon in his sparkling Light-form.

Very few humans are able to cross this barrier of perceiving to arrive at the real Divine realm.

Check history and you will see that in the name of The Spirit/God/Truth more harm and mayhem has resulted. Human mind is being trapped thru the desire center.

If you want peace, stay away from all mind-driven concepts. Have self-control and review yourself periodically and ask yourself if you are being used or are The User of products and services; an uncomfortable feeling always follows when we move against our soul's wishes. Maintain your integrity and simplicity of life and desires/thinking as near to Nature as possible.

Quotes and Questions on the way.

The mind is like a box. Soon we fill it up and call all the goodies "My Possessions". We become inordinately proud of all the valuables we have there-in; so much so that we refuse to entertain an exchange or change.

Silence and quiet - think well in silence before acting.

There is a great freshness in the impudent beauty of the intelligent and learned novice.

A good teacher is like a well. The well couldn't care who is drawing water and does not go all over the place asking people to look for its water.

Until we learn to see life with objectivity, don’t expect much. People are afraid to see the bitter side of life even though somewhere in a deep corner of their hidden self they are aware of it.

First we need to accept then alone transformation would be possible. Forcing oneself to look at life with rose-tinted glasses in the name of positivity equals to escapism.

We are still solving problems all over the world by killing the people involved.

There is always possessiveness, selfish-ends involved in all the decisions that parents take for their children.

Few adults are able to detach themselves from the ownership angle vis-a-vis their children or the use of emotional blackmail towards their own profit.

People use all kinds of stratagems to interfere in the life of others for personal profit & gain thereby creating irritations and untoward incidents and then they grouch. Often just the need to be clever or taking clever short-cuts or not following certain general rules is enough to create serious accidents and occasions for regret.

We are all growing all the time and our relationships and equations have to change and do change. That is why people come and go in our lives. Let it happen.

But who wants change? Specially when the old pattern is so profitable!

If it is taken as a spiritual experience, these self-centered people are goading us to seek balance by being an irritant and sowers of discord.

The refrain is always “listen to me”. All subterfuges are used to make others see their side of the story – like a little exaggeration or lying. And they use “screaming” as a weapon very effectively if thwarted.

We are so intent on building our castle that we forget the way and others who are there with us. We do end up building our castle and then soon realize that we have also locked ourselves in.

Life can flourish when we water it with care and compassion but observe around – we fill it more with self-indulgence, prejudice and segmentation. Our need to be seen as king or at least a royal is more important than to be accepted as a person.

We let lose our anger, disdain and biting words without restrain in serious righteousness. And then wonder why this world is such a malefic place.

The mass of humanity is still operating from the level of physical-habit-instinctive mind, sensations and needs; the emotional mind adds to the complexity of everyday needs. The mental mind is actively in cahoots with these two and does only what these two demand - supplies them with justifications & shows them the means.

Errors hurt our self-esteem and often great sadness too envelops us from the chain of events. This is the moment that for a while we stop to reflect and this reflection is the first step towards learning from within. But it takes only a few days of time to forget and rationalize it all and revert back to type. This amounts to a good lesson lost. Don’t let it happen.

We are more self-destructive than we would ever agree to. It is so stupefying how some people constantly misconstrue everything to fit into their anger mode.

What do we ever know? People who have been married for decades often never know certain deeper feelings and thoughts about their partners.

Some words or image from the Guru that is right for us always hits us when we get started on the way. Later it may plane out till the balance between your inner spirit gets ready for change with the outer being.

The idea of love and "happiness" from selfish humans is ridiculous. We serve each other's purpose. No more. No less.

It is the ability to be our own witness and to be able to see at ourselves as another that gives us power to improve and better ourselves. This gives objectivity.

The Sufi way: -All, everybody, all of them - are teachers they are all around us. Whenever a word, story, phrase "hits" you, see it as a teacher speaking to you.

Live Consciously - do every act with absolute awareness and keep an eye on your thoughts and wishes. This is all that needs to be done as an integrated way. Every second of the time.

Self-pity is a huge hole. People wallow in it because sentimentally they find support from others. So this brings us to the next step - who to associate/live with and who to avoid?

Some people are really lucky. They have limited needs, simple minds and they don’t suffer with vivid imaginations to bother them with fear and possibilities – good and bad. They always have more than they need and they are quite happy to be left alone to their devices.

Yes. I see whole lives spent in policing others. Looking for faults and getting irritated and irritating others. Just so any focus from oneself can be avoided. And then feel superior as well.

There is an imperative need to stand out; vanity insists. But it is shadowed by an imperative fear of being alienated from the crowd.

We behave like Supermen, blinded by our own thoughts of indispensability.

Everybody has so much to say; this is the crux. We are surrounded by second-hand information and wisdom and we are actively perpetuating it as our own.

Look around closely. How often do you see people agreeing and accepting each other and in comparison how often we are crossing each other out?

We subsist on hope and pray intensely but selfishly, have long discussions but rarely take the initiative.

Success brings with it the problem of too much.

The world is what it is and we need to accept it as it is although we don’t have to like it.

We can reduce our stress by cutting out all that can be cut out. Learn to ignore. Running the world is not our responsibility.

Create a small impenetrable corner where you can be yourself. Let the world go to Jericho if it wants to.

Two very self-defeating habits that I feel are the worst. One is the fact that our impatience is so acute that we do not think twice to butt in a conversation and the second is that we do so without ensuring that anyone is listening to us or not.

We are quite certain about our wisdom and abilities and we even prove it and justify ourselves by quoting earlier “Greats & Gurus”

Subconscious patterns, inculcated since the day we are born are deeply embedded in us and we have to literally fight against their hold on our everyday lives.

They “Demand” respect as a right. These grand guys see others as totally incapable nincompoops and in their anger there is an element of disgust at the incompetent lowly oafs they have to live with.

Balance is the operative word; Work, rest, sleep, laughter, hobbies, friends, family and all that have to be mixed judiciously with ambition and responsibilities.

In our calculations we always forget that the world is in constant forward movement. We are just too warped up in ourselves.

In life we always get the treatment we allow ourselves to be given.

It has always been my contention that what is basically in our subconscious mind comes to our lips.

We look for answers but only those that satisfy our own view or desire will find favor with us.

Showing confidence? If you are certain about your point and yourself, then why not show it?

What is your face saying? Are you sure that your expressions are saying the same things as your words are?

The inhumanity of man towards his own kind is nothing new of note; but visiting our devilishness on the helpless child needs a streak of barbarism beyond the animal in us.

The only way things will change is when we can inculcate into the children this philosophy of concern and care because when one becomes an adult it is already too late.

Failures there will always be. They are part of the learning process. And hopefully they can be kept in the limits of what can be called “affordable”.

Considering that we have only a limited number of years on this planet, whatever work can be avoided is a goal in itself.

It is a wise man who allows himself to flow with the plans of others wherever and whenever possible.

It is as if the human race is not a group but only unconnected singletons, living in isolated boxes with not even an invisible silk thread to bind them. Millions of people living alone together.

Humans are still in a state of deep insincerity. They are very happy with their cleverness.

Creative people are recruited because fresh talent and creativity is required to rejuvenate the organization but then once “in”, the new recruits are put under pressure to conform to the older and staid rules of thinking and behavior. Alas; this is life!

We certainly need to reduce the irritants around us and often a little show of anger will help in demarcating borders.

What is the most important question bothering you today? The answer to which would change/help-you-reach-your-goal in life.

Well I refuse to fall in line. I also follow the rule that visitors will have to shut off the phone at my place as I am not interested in seeing them doing their business while I sit there like a fool watching them; on call to them when they are free to do so!

There is an element of cowardice, inertia, carelessness and irresponsibility in everything and every aspect of our lives and we are extremely comfortable with it.

Certain pieces of music have been tried and evaluated in many cases and studies. There can be no doubt anymore. Mozart’s symphonies have been used to make cows give more milk. Schizophrenics behave better. The positive vibrations can stimulate healing at the basic level where the whole body metabolism defies medical knowledge of today and effectively goes into a self-healing mode.

Childbirth was found to happen more happily and with less fatigue to the mother with music from Schubert.

The subconscious minds forever remain at the age of four at best. Chronologically people age but at heart they are children and show all the psychological traits of kindergarten kids!

There are always lesser endowed people than us and when we compare ourselves, we mostly do so with the ones who have less than us.

Let us stop for a while, like we may be forced to do in a hospital bed when we realize that the world runs quite well in our absence.

Jobs are taken but we do not give ourselves fully to it, marriages are made but we keep most of our-self back, we register for courses but mentally are elsewhere; in short we want the world to come to us when be beckon but we keep our doors closed.

Come out of your cocoon. Listen to the world around without having to comment or direct anything. Let the world run itself for a moment. There will be withdrawal symptoms but tolerate them just for a while and then you will know peace and really see!

The wife on her side had a simple explanation: “I don’t think I nag him. He just doesn’t do what I want him to”.

I do wonder why we give so much importance to death and make it such a grim and solemn affair. Why do we reserve the eulogizing for the dead while the living ones who were dying to hear a kind word have to literally die to hear one!

You know your problem and you understand the answer.

Now you will have to use your willpower to listen to your reason.

Just imagine letting ourselves go and becoming one with the universe; will our SELF still exist? But it is a fact that when we let our selfish selves go we do feel a release and a friendlier atmosphere builds up around us.

People will not change. No point in wasting our energy on them.

The hold of the subconscious is very strong and most of the time it is quietly & surreptiously running the show. That is why we need to be careful with what children might be absorbing.

There is not only an element of purposeful insincerity but also a malevolent intent. It is bullying in the most gentlemanly manner.

“Be reasonable. Do it my way”.

Let’s never forget if the other party is grating on our nerves, then we are no angels. Have we ever tried to find out how we are grating on other people’s nerves?

Forgive and forget if you have been mildly wronged.

Show your appreciation often and learn to remain silent in as many languages you can.

We are busy doing too many things at the same

time and doing all of them badly; thereby laying

ourselves open to negative karmic points with

pending files remaining open and following us

like wolves.

Indignation is good but it is terribly self-destructive if allowed to go on and control us. Matured and self-assured people know how to shake it off and use it as a tool.

Books and lectures may open your eyes but they rarely help you change your long ingrained habits. This needs persistent hammering and you will need will power and courage to stand up to it.

Under the calm exterior there is always some undercurrent of judgmental thoughts flowing quietly which, keeps the mind perpetually irritated about something or the other.

Most of us live lives immersed in a sea of denials. We do not see because it is not convenient to see. We do not listen because it is not convenient to hear.

Intuition: All it needs is a little silencing of the spirit, quietening of the din of desires and pre-decided goals so the voice from within can be heard.

Very important to connect the nature in us with the Nature out there. Walk in the grass, sing in the rain and sleep on the sand. Mother Earth will cradle you, sing you lullabies and hug you back into whole.

The human rogue element only can be coerced and frightened but not made to understand or learn to control himself - he is too much in awe of his own strength and intellectual ability + totally controlled by his habits and subconscious patterns.

My understanding of the human psyche is that it progresses best under duress. Anything coming to it free and easy is taken for granted and soon personal effort/sense of responsibility goes out of the equation. It then becomes a weakening factor instead of a helpful and progressive one.

The character of patience will always remain a virtue.

Gratitude should be something that we are. It is unfortunate that it has to be told and induced by will into our acts.

Have courage to go and do your thing. Live life the way you want it and are convinced it should be. Only be careful not to step on too many toes and egos.

By not letting people learn the hard way, we do them a disservice. We delay the advent of their destiny. So be very careful when you are being "too" kind.

Often thoughts have to be "placed" in the "heads" of others. Their wheels turn only when jump started from an external source. (The entire science of advertising/campaigning is based on it)

The Sufi should be accorded the exalted place of a mirror. He shows not only you in the mirror but also the image of things around you and often invisible. This can be overwhelming.

The solution to a nagging past is growth. Growth of the persona. Like trees renewing themselves. Most people want the past to just disappear while their present stays as it is - without effort or change; this is childish in the extreme.

.....with heads full of words, like pearls in a bag. When will the necklace be made?

On the Q of Believer/non-believer or atheist or whatever :- It is like a discussion - will it be a boy or a girl. Totally without any sense or import but great to keep the petty minds busy.

There is a point at which we need to become defenders and caretakers of this world and remove our cloak of virtuousness.

Some succumb to their own demons that have been aroused without their knowledge - not their fault really. There is no guarantee to what you will attract and playing safe should be our aim.

I think we are better off with the smoke screens between us - I live what I profess and do not put up a pose - the result is that I am shunned and seen as of no value to their interests and they fear my candidness.

Every idiot thinks (Nay – he is absolutely certain) he is the only one who would know what needs to be done.

Never got down to making a reputation - the others did it for me.

If somebody is comfortable with his chains (mental chains/ideals and dogmas), it is best to let him be. Schools/professors/gurus are for those looking for change and instructions to unchain themselves.

Like contrasting colours, Nonsense brings out the flavour in Sense and Seriousness. It also helps in tangential thinking to show us the folly of our seriousness and self-important thinking. It helps to break the cage of our mental trappings.

The thinking is: What will you do to me? Hang me by the nearest tree? Skin me alive?

So what can you do with these people- we let them stay in the mud that they are; save ourselves.

I say what I think already so no point in phrasing the question with a "Don't you think…..''.... What if I just said NO or Yes and let the conversation die out at this point? This is called a “loaded” question and is considered bad manners in my book.

Clever people do not recognise intelligence. They are too busy appreciating themselves.

Look for the funny side with intention and this will help you destroy many of your castles that you have built in your mind.

The body ( note I specifically focus on the body) has a simple memory system that records everything. Too many activities at the same time or in speedy succession can confuse it and deregulate its memory and cause stress.

Laughing at others, specifically at their errors and physical disabilities. - It shows our vulgar and crass low middle class side.

As long as you are seeking with the ordinary human, semi animal mind that is common, you can only gather bits and pieces and attempt to analyse/sort and try to make sense out of them. The truth within you can be reached only when you have entered the intuitive mind.

Bad friends have always been and will be. It is how the world runs and how our choosing system works. We do make errors in choices in life due to many odd reasons.

If the individual does not care for his safety, why should anyone else? This big brother attitude is killing all progress and self-development. We should educate, warn and let things take their course.

Our Soul has worked hard to bring us where we are. We have to go further and all the instruments are given to us for this work,

People not only do not think for themselves, they would rather not do anything else if they can avoid it but they are very good at rationalising as it requires little effort besides wagging the tongue.

There are some over clever ones who are very appreciative of their own wit and are showing off all the time. Don’t get involved with them or try to upstage them.

In the present state humans are open to many elements that blow through them. It is virtually a public place at the cross roads. We are affected by things like weather, food, colours, personal relations & considerations and thoughts and other subtle influences.

Precarious, life may be, but are we ready for anything else? Is there anything else?

I feel life has always been fine. It is we who want to rub it the wrong way. When we are scratched, we howl in disdain & pain.

Finally, all said and done it is your call and destiny. The most natural thing to you is what you will do and the most natural thing to the other person is what he will do.

It re-enforces my own view that at the base we are a nasty & narrow-minded people. More interested in imposing ourselves than anything else. We impose some control on ourselves only when we are afraid & know that the other party can do us harm in sheer spirit of self-preservation.

To connect with other we have to make hole in our personal shield. Therefore it is essential to choose who we hole-up with, with discrimination.

If the goal of our wanting is creative and productive for the general good and in tune with Mother Earth's plans and the music of the Cosmos then it is always a joy in the end.

WE all have a personal destiny but also a common bond between everything we are with. I am born here and you are born there. It is not as random as you may think.

Focus on romantic interludes as going to a Spa or to the beach or watching a lovely sunset. Not as the goal of life. Enjoy it for the little while it lasts and then back to the serious business of life.

No rich guy ever thought to start a project to create a job. Jobs get created because the rich want to get richer.

There is much harm being done by floating around concepts of effortlessness, love for oneself and the like. This gives the self-centered people a good excuse to be their merry selves and make everyone unhappy.

If you have to talk about it, then it is not love.

I hear so much on love. The basic is that once we have achieved the state of "love" we do not feel the need to talk about it as there is no more explaining left to do.

The letting go in all sincerity has to come first so as to permit the Grace to act. When its Action is seen and embraced, the awesomeness makes one humble.

Love does not grow cold. Our desires do. Our perceptions change. Our needs change. Boredom sets in from the same ‘coming and goings’ every day.

Very difficult to know what is the right thing to do for us or the other person in a relationship that we are getting tired of. Whichever way we act, it will have deep karmic ramifications.

Sages and teachers help us often by speeding up the process but I wonder if I would be anywhere near that level so would advise myself to desist. The possibility of getting caught up in each other's negative karmic turmoil is immense

Forget this incessant talk of reaching heaven, the higher Consciousness, the Superlatives techniques to attain powerful personas. All this is great but how about focussing on the primaries first such as....

Respecting the circadian rhythm

Eating less poisonous food.

Drinking less poisonous drinks. Living in a less toxic environment

OR even simpler things such as

Cutting down on electrical light, sugar, noise and speech, activities that suck energies out of us..

And even better....

add to reading, increasing our knowledge about maintaining health instead of popping pills that are known to cause damage, promote into our daily routine things like silence, classical music, philosophical attitude to life, slowing down and avoiding quarrels.

Honestly this game that humanity plays with itself is really amazing. We refuse to play it straight and clean but talk and waste our lives in directing attention to issues that hide our insincere and corrupt efforts to seek pleasure at the cost of loss to the Creation and brotherhood. Something that is sheer escapism and all designed to “SEEM” but without any truthful striving for change.

The addiction to pleasure is a truth that we blithely ignore because for us it is being LIFE itself and thereby keeping us locked up in perpetuity

The mass of humanity finds enough joy in tasty food to sustain it thru the 3 scores and ten years of a life time. Add to these some drinks such as coke, beer or the lowliest rum and their paradise is complete with a member of the opposite sex in their arms.

Yet some people insist on talking of The kingdom of God, Heaven, The Godhead of Krishna and spout books like the Gita, Bible as waterfalls from mouths.... never meaning a thing and never having tried living it themselves - never really understanding a word.

The high levels of sickness should open our eyes to the discordance we have created and accepted as the norm.

To be genuinely kind, one has to travel from self-centeredness to gratitude. There is nothing happening in any direction until gratitude is cultivated. The rest follows in spite of everything.

Nobody has ever wanted money-possessions-property etc for their material value alone. It is not a matter of money at all. It is amour-propre/vanity.

It takes a lifetime to understand that we need not know and understand everything. If we can understand our place in this universe for this moment we have achieved the ultimate.

It is unfortunate that humankind pays attention only to another in sickness and sadness. Even mothers give out this signal. In later years people imagine/wish themselves into real sickness to get attention.

You eventually get enveloped and swallowed by what you fight. As my teachers said, therefore you should fight the Divine.

The need is to learn to enjoy without craving.

The question that first needs to be resolved is who decided what was sin, what constitutes as sin and if all this listing was not an ugly act of sin in the first place to put fear in the minds of humans and then controlling them.

Our disregard for the other's space is phenomenal and legendary. Both Physically/materially and spiritually. So is our ability to then blame others, never accept fault and try to bluster away out of the mess by taking an attacking posture.

There is a cruel streak in humans; people love ramming things down the throat of others. They are so on a high of their own state of perfection that they can afford to judge everyone with a sword in their hands which they feel God has entitled them to use to improve the world.

Considering the average education of the average guy, the average vocabulary and the average exposure to this world that each one of us enjoy, how much can there be to say?

They see only my temper, not their absurdities nor today that I couldn't care, nor for their judgments, nor for their relationship but would be happy to see them without remembering the past - but will they?

The thinking of others in our lives is feedback. Important only from that angle.

Now ask them, if they are going cut down all the trees and just stay in buildings locked in embrace with Lady Pleasure, how long shall we last?

If my pronouncements make others uncomfortable, then it is so because there is some kernel of uncomfortable truth there.

The lessons have been repeating themselves since eternity. The answers are floating around but every new birth starts the game all over again.

Close friends are not others; that is how it should be and - they become part of us - virtual extensions.

My experience is that once we find that person who complements our weaknesses, we become complacent and enjoy life instead of improving ourselves.

Then let your words speak clean and true with no shadows.

Sit down, reflect, I agree there is a lot to be done but the opposite of letting things be not done is equally true and for listening, one needs to be silent, withdraw from the outward projection (of our persona) we live in.

All my troubles/miseries in life had roots in my cleverness and insincerity. But I am a fast learner. Soon I realised that my - even little - white lies have a tendency to rebound in a terrific backlash.

So by force of necessity I became totally sincere or at least try to. Now my troubles stem from too much truthfulness and correctness & people do not take me seriously at all!

It is another matter that as you grow in consciousness and sensitivity to the Cosmos, your needs change and you change your habits too. Mostly, when you near Buddhahood, your appetite patterns change because you also learn to absorb and take in energy from the air directly. A little easy to digest food from the plant world are found to be more than enough.

You are expecting "sincerity of purpose" from this HUMAN race. My friend you will die but not see this race change in a hurry.

Unfortunately our own sense of guilt and security entraps us into a pattern.

A BIT OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY ON THE WAY. The person who we are missing because we need them is back into the elements and not missing us.

It is sobering thought.

A thought that we have tried to subvert with concepts of continued existence in heaven, with pictures of corporeal identity of separateness etc.

The person was special I admit. But along with the pain of missing them a fact needs to be accepted grasped that the reality is that no-one will miss us for our SELF but for the support we gave them.

Who really knows another? No one without exception

Let people work out their karma.

Don’t tell people to run away.

From the spiritual evolution angle this advice is good only in extreme cases.

Life creates situation to help us learn from the trauma. Difficult people teach us detachment, contemplation and resolve. What is needed is self-education and understanding of human nature and what makes us tick. It shows our vanity that we cannot do much about it. The soul will tell you when to move on. This is when you need to move without looking back.

Humans prefer entrapment because we are afraid to lose whatever little we have.

The love and focus towards animals is it a good thing?

Instead of becoming more human, generous, forgiving, less critical and filled with kindness we are moving towards "FEELING BETTER" by focussing on animal pets that do not attack our ego. It is so easy to feel superior with this attitude and this kind of parenting and show ourselves as virtuous.

Of course this enhances our vanity, reduces stress levels. The interaction with our humans is full of treachery and trauma even in the best of times.

I suppose we humans will learn to LOVE again from our cats and dogs and find harmony again. BUT then the question is will this teach us humans to be kind, giving and less treacherous and help us with our evolution into 'really' superior beings or will this idiotic charade continue?

Health Matters.

Today health has to be seen in 3 categories.

Living by healthy practices to ensure that we don’t become seriously sick.

Small incidences of indisposition will occur but these are imbalances that soon correct themselves with minimal help from homely medicines. We have grossly damaged our health by not caring even the basic rule of the Circadian Rhythm and nutrition.

Acute illnesses. When we allow the symptoms to be tolerated and suppressed by many means we are only permitting the illness to become chronic. This ‘Attitude’ has become an illness (quite well defined) by itself. There are so many magical drugs and potions available to mask the symptoms and give instant relief that it is something that was bound to happen.

NB: Most of these huge ‘relief-giving’ medications have side effects and damage inducing effects on the body that would scare even a Cobra.

Illnesses are becoming chronic and mutating into serious non-treatable forms and there seems to be great pride in having them to show how bravely the patients are sporting it. I wonder if we realize that we have played into the hands of the Hospital industry and acutely chronic illnesses are forever demanding more and more expensive hospital intervention for as long as life lasts.

What could have been easily controlled at stage 1 with a little change in life-style, attitudes and herbal medicines/homeopathy./chiropractic and other traditional treatments, is allowed to become chronic. But the health industry is doing all it can to brain-wash the people and it is working. I blame squarely the people to allow things to reach this state of affairs and to top it all - nobody agrees that it is so. Oh well!!! But to arrive at the state perfection that we are talking of in this book requires a body in good state of repair. Mostly as I see it people abuse their bodies and their existential life with total disregard. There is little or no resilience in either mind or body. There is total dependence on others for every need. I don’t see Shibumi taking roots in this milieu. I don’t think I am saying anything very stupendous. It is logical isn’t it?

Want to achieve and arrive at happiness? Create something with love and kindness. It can be a moment and it can be a thing. The greatest creative moment is when you are doing something totally new to you and it brings joy to others even if it is only for a fleeting moment. What is asked of you is that you go beyond yourself, trying to work out a wish. Extend the borders you are living in.

Can our minds get around grasping these words?

None of us are honest to our own selves. We allow unlimited number of harmful habits to make their homes in us. WE listen to our desires who want their ounce of pleasure even if it destroys us.

Even when fully cognizant of the harm we are doing we continue.

On the other hand we have the gumption to go about teaching goodness. Love, charity, truthfulness and responsible living - what not.

HOW does it never occur to anyone to start with the SELF?????

Don’t let life stagnate.

What we call LIFE is a collection of ‘moments’. What we call memories are some of these moments stringed together. The worse are the memories of those moments filled with expectations, deeds done, rewards missed and opportunities missed because of our principles.

Later in life we realize that there are no principles and no rewards will ever be forthcomings from moments that have flown. The worse are the moments that were considered as moments of great glory in which we were appreciated and feted.

Have we moved with the times and are we fully participating in the ‘Present Moment?’

Can we be like the lark that sings every morning and lives only for the day that is coming?

It is a sad world for people who never moved and expected that some moments will carry them on forward; when too late they realize the bus they thought would take them further is not even there. Gone with the wind.

The sadness of the decorated veteran is the worst. He was made to kill and suffer in all ways possible and was taught to treat it all as ‘GLORY’ but soon forgotten and his skills were of no use to life in general.

I wonder what goes on in the minds of medicine-men, teachers and even savage louts when their time of action is passed when they realize no one is thinking of them anymore?

Life on earth is not easy. The parameters at play here are loaded on the side of “INSINCERITY, appeasement, ego & vanity play, basic irresponsibility and greed.”

Being NICE always requires a little reshaping of the story in the telling because humans cannot stomach the truth specially if it is not palatable, this is not exactly lying, but it is practiced by all of us to keep the social environment a little happy.

None of us is always clinically truthful. I lie like a trooper otherwise I would not be still married. I hate it and my intestines knot over but for the sake of the child I let my principles fly out of the window.

When we are not accurate in the telling, when we are being insincere I feel I am supporting the evil world but what can I do? So to survive in this world I have been thrown into I do whatever has to be done but I stop at doing harm - here I never fib. If my lying will help keep the peace I do it but otherwise I try to be clinically honest, responsible like always meaning what I say and act responsibly.

I also try to avoid situations where lying would be needed like social gatherings

It is also to be considered that most of the time it matters little to the world what we are doing so why bother so much? We have to avoid giving this world ammunition to take us down. What they don’t know will not hurt them. There are so many considerations in the balance of our judgments.

But the moment we step into the world of self-improvement where we wish to become more Divine, Insincerity has to go. And this is the crux of my talk.

When you criticize me, you are not showing me to myself. You are showing yourself to me.

When you give me advice it is worse as you show clearly in which world you live.

When 'THEY' speak or explain old sacred texts remember always one thing, all their words will only show the level of their own realisation because no-one can speak beyond his own realisation of whatever it all is. All your study notwithstanding.

From the writings of others you can only glimpse superficially who and what they are or at least perhaps trying to say. All that will happen is that you will look within and know yourself eventually and know what is what.

But never become a tame servant follower and limit yourself to their words. That is akin to spiritual death.

Q: This concept of Shibumi and the personality that evolves thru it, are there any living examples for us to understand it more clearly? My answer: The best example of recent times that all can have a look at thru our glorious audio-visual technology now available to us is the persona exemplified by the actor Sean Connery. I have seen many films of his and have learnt greatly. He projects a debonair, relaxed yet primed, crisp and clear speech and articulation, purposeful activities without loss of energy, succinct precise in thought and action and he is always calm and on top of the situation without useless emotional dramatics. He is not to be trifled with nor is it is easy to disturb his. He listens, observes and misses not a trick. This is to be emulated.

My wife: The phone is full of spiritual memos being sent by cousins and friends.

Me: Yes. Unfortunately none of it translates into behavior though. It remains a show-off exercise in virtuousness.

Wife (for once): Yes this is true.

ISBN: 9798356060274

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Shibumi is a Zen concept without direct translation in Japanese or definition in English; it is the height of personal excellence and total clarity. PK: I'll try to put it in a few words. The qualities, the emotions, the thoughts that bring joy, growth, understanding and developments that uplift all as a whole one single movement, that bring silence, that reduce anxiety without any negative attributes like anger, jealousy, envy, greed rancour etc - this can be deemed to be the qualities of a persona into shibumi.

YOU dear sir, are in a mental public place. Shoulder to shoulder with a throbbing voluble crowd that is jostling you around. There is a commonness of thinking and beliefs so you are quite comfortable. You are all picking up some thoughts here and some thoughts there; exchanging them at the drop of a hat. It is a lively and an engaging scene.

But you are not one of the crowd even. You are THE Crowd. One day you are Mr Goldegad, the next day it will be Mr Merton and some days later your mind will be Mrs Osaka and some days later it will be again Mr Merton if not Dr crook.

Who are you today?

So coming back to the question of “who are you?” It seems that you are basically all the people around you (and the more there are the worse it gets) that have been and are+ your ego who "simply cannot be wrong and cannot be faulted".

We need to move towards becoming integrally a divine persona and look within at ourselves to check how much of the negative elements rule us and thru us the world around us.

I have come to the conclusion that we are not going to wake anyone up. They are up to their gills fascinated by their selves and all they can do. The denser life of chocolates, cars and weather-proof heated homes has trapped them in their lure.

Every known Corp is feeding off them but they are so full of their superior position in life that they will never see how their Soul is being sucked dry by the infinite demonic world.

I have never seen such a bevy of bewildered souls, frightened to show their faces in this tsunami of materialistic, almost magical gadgetry. We are constantly adding to the content of poison in our lives and soon should be choking on it.

The souls can see it. While eternity waits for our sanity to return.