A Beginner's Mind

  There are so many different techniques to meditate and I enjoy exploring them all. I am yet to be able to enjoy app-based meditations, but I love Thich Nhat Hanh's breathing techniques . These guided meditations are especially helpful after a long walk or a workout when your focus needs to be diverted from action to the present moment. India is the birthplace of meditation. The Bhagavad Gita, written over 5000 years ago, describes a simple way to meditate in the form of third eye meditation so you can connect with your true self. The spiritual giant Paramhansa Yogananda introduced meditation to the west in the early 20th century. Yogananda's Third eye and Om meditations remain among the most powerful and basic forms of meditation available today. Other spiritual leaders such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced Transcendental Meditation where you meditate by chanting a mantra, Eknath Eswaran's Passage Meditation also follows a similar concept. In passage meditation, yo

  “ Most people would rather die than think and many of them do!” BERTRAND RUSSELL After a long time, I had an amazing discussion with a close friend. It is interesting how the pandemic has shifted our attention from the trivia of on-demand entertainment and moved it to things that matter most. For me, a stimulating conversation matters most. A conversation where both parties present opposing point of views and have the courage, humility, and open-mindedness to change or at least think from others ‘point of view’. I have always believed in the power of Douglas Adams’ most powerful weapon in the Universe – a point of view gun. So many conflicts can be resolved by momentarily giving up our own POV and having a bit of empathy for the other side. A conversation that allows you to learn and grow is always the right kind of conversation. The only thing that is better than this kind of conversation is if it happens without anyone raising their voice. This was not a problem for me as ours

When you travel , travel for yourself not for others. Living the moment will never be the same as capturing it to relive it later. Do you want to relive the moment when you were taking the picture? There are no retakes in life, everything happens just once and then something else happens. This is what makes life exciting. Think about it. No one will remember your checkins , your selfies, your travel pics, your quotes, your shares, your likes and even your opinions. Not even for a week.  So who are you capturing it for? And why are you capturing it. Do you want people to see how beautiful your life is or how beautiful you are? Do you want people to acknowledge you? Do you want to feel special, loved, accepted? You already are! Have you forgotten it? Or did you miss it? Did you miss it because you were taking a picture? Think about it. Or do you just want to be remembered? Remembered by whom and remembered for what?

Adding a simple word to the famous poem "I Met a genius" by Charles Bukowski makes it ... well it makes it majestic .. read on  Charles Bukowski I Met A Genius I met a genius on the train today about 6 years old, he sat beside me and as the train  ran down along the coast we came to the ocean and then he looked at me and said, it's not pretty. it's profound it was the first time I'd  realized  that. Sometimes a simple word makes a world of difference! And changes the theme of the poem. Where once it was nihilist and lonely it's brighter and hopeful now.

I recently finished  “The Dark Forest” by Cixin Liu , second book in the “The Three-body problem” trilogy. It is one of the best hard sci-fi I have read in a long time and is very different from common plotlines. But what got me thinking was the explanation Liu gives for Fermi Paradox.  If you do not know what Fermi Paradox is, please  watch this video. I was opposed to Stephen Hawking’s view that we should never initiate “first contact “as finding intelligent life will most surely be the end of our world, but now I share his opinion. Liu's explanation below is what convinced me. To start with, these are the axioms for a cosmic civilization: Survival is the primary need of a civilization Civilization continues to grow and expand but the total matter in the universe remains constant Time at a universal scale has a different meaning. A million years are a blink of an eye for something that is existing for 13.5 billion years. So, we can never be sure how many civiliza

No matter how smart you think you are or how carefully you approach all aspects of your life, at some point, you will recognize the role of providence in the direction your life takes. It is these moments that will force you to believe in a higher power with a higher purpose and slap your confidence, your arrogance & self-belief to make you understand that you are not in complete control. There are slivers that you can influence. But not much. We are woven in an intricate interconnected interdependent web of actions & their consequences, where providence gifts few of us with powers that create those vibrations that leave the rest of us with no choice but to hold on or fall. How then should we trust our actions? How then should we summon the will to act?