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Sunday, September 8, 2019

Extreme positions


In every issue the problem is taking extreme positions and claim one particular position alone is correct or the best for all and the rest are either useless or inferior.
This attitude rules out listening, learning and looking into other options, leave alone accepting them.


Geopolitical priorities


In the present day geopolitics the priorities that sustain nations and satisfy the masses in the long run are three things economic development with good and affordable infrastructure on many verticals,  technology enabled ease of living and social welfare with peace, harmony and security.



Perception




Perspective



The most vital and basic requirement of proper perspective is that one must look at anything or anyone with unbiased observation than opinion and ideology oriented outlook.

We must be aware that everything has multiple dimensions of which we may not be always aware of.

Besides, every dimension may have multiple inherent dynamics as well as dynamics emanating from specific circumstances.

This again is visible or we notice only when it comes within the orbit of what we can do, what we want to do or what we are destined/forced to do.

With conscious awareness and acceptance of the above factors and along with our acquired knowledge/experience for whatever they are worth, and humility as the fine print we must develop our perspective to understand life.

Perhaps, then, serendipity will shower us with blessing to perceive better.

Our PA helps our PR, i.e. Perspective and Attitude helps in our Properly Relating with everyone or everything because our perspectives create our conceptualization reality.

One of the great modern spiritual philosopher Neale Donald Walsch says, “The definition of everything depends on how you look at it. Nothing is as it seems, and the moment you change your perspective you see that. Therefore, there is no such thing as Reality; there is only the reality you create by the way you are looking at something. You are creating your reality through the use of perspective”.   

As ‘Sailor’ Bob Adamson says, “The reflection is not in the mirror but of the mirror”.

Ultimate reality or truth is as Eric  Micha’el Leventhal says, “You are here on earth to unearth who on earth you are.” 




Actual observations based on factual positions


​Well balanced article with actual observations based on factual positions which is vital to address any issue.
                                           Politically

Meaning is injected when we emphasis substance over superficiality; performance over mere planning and projections; actions over tall talk; properly prioritizing things even if they are not politically correct [may not get brownie points in terms of vote garnering gimmicks- an obsession of next election minding politicians].

                                     Opinion peddlers /Decision makers

"Get out of your own way… stop the paralysis by analysis… decide what you want, create a simple plan, and get moving!” – Steve Maraboli

                                               Media mess

India as a country has immense variety and multitude of issues  which is a  big topic by itself and in therefore cannot be confined to fit into any particular predefined templates with limited scope. Unfortunately for too long MSM used different scopes to see and to hear different things sometimes telescope, sometimes microscope, sometimes stethoscope, sometimes a binocular, sometimes an ordinary magnifying glass, sometimes dark glasses, sometimes just a mirror etc
          
                            What is the difference in approach?

Sheer strength and magnitude of whatever performance has taken place has been because at last we have a leader who as Barbara Marciniak said, “Everything changes when you start to emit your own frequency rather than absorbing the frequencies around you, when you start imprinting your intent on the universe rather than receiving an imprint from existence.”

           Need to look beyond and besides political slug feasts

There is no need to hanker after media certificates and it is neither government’s business nor priority to waste energy, time and money on media management to brief about  obvious  facts which is something that media houses better do it themselves. Otherwise, they will be totally swept away by social media. Magnanimity and honesty require helping, appreciating or at least acknowledging many positives and progressive measures and activities that have happened in all spheres of socio-political topography be it social welfare, procedures, economic policies etc. It does not mean that everything is perfect, at least many positive programs, projects and performances happen.




ABCD of dilemma of life


ABCD of dilemma of life is as to what to Accept, Believe, Choose, Decide etc.
Culprits are comfort zones, confirmation biases, identity or ideology fixation /veneration and inevitable requirement of security of status and all these leading to fear of the unknown.
The human mind is a pendulum set in motion and swinging between the influences of pleasure on one side and pressure of the well accepted and appreciated methods etc on the other side and this swinging pendulum in constant motion along with a huge curtain of many other things together block our view of seeing anything new.
Life is an unmapped atlas which gets its maps based on our choices, beliefs, actions, reactions, thoughts, attitudes etc and it is in our hands to make each one of these continents as great and as good as possible. That’s why in every subject new and startling discoveries and newer revelations emerge every day, some reinforcing existing facts , some refuting existing facts etc and this happens in all spheres including science, archeological evidences, genetic evidences ,DNA studies etc.
We are programmed by habit and constant preconditioning to create defenses against and make fences around us towards anything new [it could be good, better, best or bad I desist from using the usual good, bad and ugly as it has more negatives] that crop up in us or around us. It is a sort of protectionism that goes to envelop in some specific identity or label and further firm up our prejudices and prevent us from experiencing the new. Gradually this identity creates such strong concrete walls that enforce us to experience life only in terms of what is approved of by and within the ambit of that identity.
Idries Shah the great Sufi writer says in Reflections
“You have not forgotten to remember;
  You have remembered to forget.
  But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.”
"Existence consists in the interplay of a plurality of elements whose true nature is indescribable and whose source is unknown. Combinations of these elements instantaneously flash into existence and instantaneously disappear, to be succeeded by new combinations of elements appearing in a strict causality." - Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre



Fear


Fear, in reality, has multiple dimensions most of which are diametrically opposite.
Its major attribute as I see it is more to do with a certain amount of hesitation and vacillation oscillating as a door not knowing which side to let us move either forward or backward.
Some years back, one fine day this made me do this PPT-
FEAR-the two way hinge



















Learning and Wisdom


                       Learning is a lifelong process.
So, as Dani Johnson says, “Never stop being teachable. If you think you know everything, you will never learn anything.”
Knowledge, Information, Thoughts and  Ideas  are ingredients, 
Understanding is making them into a tasty cooked food,
Teaching , Grasping and Interpretations are the utensils used for cooking,
 
Learning is the process of cooking a tasty, easily digestible, nutritious food.
Life is an unmapped atlas where we are not even sure whether all pieces of the jigsaw puzzles are there to create a shape.
Lot depends on proceeding on unbiased observations beyond or besides or if necessary even without existing loads of knowledge because the existing bunch of knowledge could also act as a conditioning factor if we are not alert and totally divert our understanding of anyone or anything,
Let us all try to learn  as humble, curious and unbiased observers of synergy and synthesis, either occurring as an aspect of evolution or consciously effected through a culture of compassion, that enable to understand better the inter connectivity, inter-relatedness and interdependence of life as a whole and work towards  expanding our  learning to  develop and to deliver  some of the  following facets of universal wisdom. 

                              Facets of Universal WISDOM


Universal wisdom may be like this whether sanctioned or sanctified by either social mores or religious morality.
Wisdom is the work shop where works of evolutionary trends and experiences of everyone in it emerge to express wisely the essence of everything to enlighten everyone;
wisdom which prioritizes living in the present context and along with practicing certain time tested values which have relevance in present context but with global perspective to bequeath a livable planet, a lovable society with lovely infrastructures and improved living conditions;

wisdom that evaluates everything and everyone with contextual relevance and based on the inherent attributes or merits of what or who is being evaluated without extrapolating any  presumptions, opinions, judgments, perceptions, expectations, ideologies, doctrines, identity based ideology and so on;
wisdom which is willing to make minor adjustments, small compromises, spontaneous cooperation to create compatible and conducive atmosphere with humility devoid of any egocentric pride;
wisdom with the realization and a perspective that must be aware that life is a constant process of learning of the multiple dimensions of many things and the various dynamics of those dimensions involving the constant interaction and interrelationship with everyone and everything.
wisdom that is willing to accommodate multiple methods or means of life with some overall tolerant attitude embedded on humanitarian concerns towards all human life and environmental or natural concern towards all other species.
wisdom that gets its clarity of understanding through a churning process that takes into consideration several aspects from the practical to the philosophical to the all fantasies of the mind.





Saturday, September 7, 2019

Choice, Decisions, Help and Hurdles


CHOICE and ATTITUDE

C reation
H as
O bviously many things
I n place for us to
C hoose, so choose the best and
E mancipate.

A ll
T
hings may
T
ry to
I
nvite
T he attention but it is
U
ser’s privilege to
D
ecide and
E
lect what he/she wants.



A ny
T
ype of
T
hing or
I
ndividual evolve
T
hrough
U
niversal law of
D
ecisions to select and
E
lect among a whole range of choices.

                                                    Choices and decisions -priorities
​​We complicate life too much.

Simple living  and high thinking  is a useful dictum.

We can neither deny or defy the importance of anything.

However, nothing should be over stretched be it indulgence or intelligence, desire or devotion, exercise or rest etc.

But then what is the measurement or standard? How we choose and decide what to do? How far to go about? When to do?

Well, there is neither any one size fit all universal standard nor panacea for all ills.

When we ensconce our choices and decisions between what makes us feel comfortable psychologically and physically then it works well.

Life is the sum total of many choices and decisions we make/take at every moment and the concomitant actions and reactions based on them.

But, does life or our cultures or social systems or religions or education systems offer us readymade templates to make/to take relevant or correct choices and decisions with multiple options at every moment?

Or   even if they offer and are ready, are we willing or capable of understanding and making use of those templates?

Our brains and energy I have perceived have all along and continue to make significant and unassuming contribution, often unnoticed and unappreciated by the majority of those around. For me, personally and for whatever contribution my own life may have made or may still have to make what counts most are the synergy of  enlightened views which have  their foundation only on intrinsic values of life than any other appealing emotionalism, or attractive intellectual argumentation or even the usual anodynes of materialism or mentally satisfying mumbo jumbos.

The inevitable terrific cosmic laws are that truth is not specific, life is not athanasic, scriptures are not authentic and even where authentic- they need not necessarily be taken as authority, our atavistic senses are too static, survival is too hectic, our intelligence is too scientific, thus goes the unending asyndetic rhetoric.
Life is a pendulum of beauty in relativity, oscillating between utility and futility and in this constant activity it hardly knows where is reality, and what is reality; whether it is within the points of its oscillation or somewhere away from it or beyond the reach of its emotions and perceptions; thus we function in total confusion with intervals of illusions, making in this stride complete contradictions, deft definitions, emotive expressions, intellectual and idealistic ‘isms’, petty resolutions and perilous revolutions.


So, are we to take note of a particular thing or anything or everything or nothing? The basic thing is each and everything has its own value, importance, utility, nature, beauty etc. Therefore we cannot deny or defy or denounce the importance any aspect of anything outright, nor is it possible to accept everything, protect everything or even perceive everything.
It is these reasons that force us to make a choice.

So that at least within a limited circle we can lead a life with comfort. But how are we to make a choice?
Based on what?

Whenever we make any choice, it involves our mind and conscious perception which are basically conditioned by various influences and impressions.

Ultimately every so-called choice we make is nothing but our registered response to receive one or a few among the many and various possibilities.

Every new choice is either born out of imaginary expectations or is a mere confirmation of our collective, accumulated prejudices and limited perceptions.

Every new choice is an extension of our prejudices or adscititious manifestation of our prejudices and the limitation of our perception.

Consciously or sub-consciously or unconsciously we develop an in-built filtering system. Whether we filter the filth and consume what is of worth or is it vice versa cannot be easily universally defined because it is again judged by our limited perception.


Therefore, ultimately what is right or wrong?

Of what use are the instructions of do’s and don'ts?

How to determine all these things and with what yard stick to evaluate all these rights and wrongs- scientifically, psychologically, philosophically or based on economic theories or a whole gamut of ‘isms’?

No, not any of these, because all that each category of evaluation can offer can at best be fragmentary evaluation of something as varied and as excellent as human life.

For a wholesome and handsome evaluation we need unqualified love which must be manifested with total intensity and intense totality born out of unbiased compassion for everyone and everything.


Help and Hurdles in making any CHOICE.

Let me start with a great quote by H.P. Lovecraft, in The Call of Cthulhu “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”


Then the following three quotes remind us about the vast ocean of existing literature and references available to us which can make our job easy in most domains and inject humility into our inflated egos which are always keen on claiming credit of great originality and creativity.

"All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants”- Isaac Newton

 Shakespeare once said “I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people”.

Lo and behold how are we to make a choice?

Are we to take into account multiple factors and more so, factor in all those factors, which may or may not have relevance, to what we are likely to choose?

Wouldn’t that make the act of choosing more complicated and difficult?

But we cannot consciously omit anything because what if we miss out something about which we regret later on and feel that it could have enabled us to make a better choice.

What can we ordinary mortals do to overcome this dilemma, especially when we are interested in something or someone and are keen are realizing the presence not to possess or to become possessed

Tune into correct frequency to realize the presence.


If something is always present awaiting for our choosing it or meant for us as such and then, the only thing that is required is our tuning in such a way that we are able to link with the correct frequency to realize the presence

Sometimes in etymology, the more we go back in time , it can also throw unbelievable facts as the great and most renowned linguist David Crystal writes in his wonderful book ‘Words, Words, Words’ that the words Nice, Science, Conscience and Shit have a common origin when traced to a few thousand years back.


Incidentally the word Religion itself is made of Re+ligare [latin] Re+lier [French] literally meaning re-link , i.e. linking again the ‘individual soul’ with the ‘Universal soul’ which by extension probably could mean our ability to find commonalities ,inter-relatedness and inter-connectedness among all and with conscious awareness choose to cooperate, cohabit and create more grounds of compatibility through reciprocation  in the interest of all.

William Lyon Phelps puts it, One of our secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute”. 

Or as Thomas H. Huxley says, “Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.”

So, despite all the scientific approaches while making choices, the component of mystery and many unknowns will linger around.

As 
Sascha Vongehr  mentions in ‘Science As Rationalization And Ultimate Religion

By’  “Every adaptive system has what can be called a perception apparatus and information processing structures and so forth. Science is part of the perception/thinking of social systems. All perception has its “blind spot”. Perception is ignorant of everything except for a tiny slice that it evolved to select and focus attention on. Thinking is there to interpret in a certain evolved way. Humans, being parts as well as environment of social systems, cannot grasp the perceived world of social systems, let alone map out their blind spots. Scientists are especially suspect when it comes to judging the blind spots of science.” 


However, all said and done, the growth and evolution of life through choice is led by a staircase made of the horizontal and vertical planes of fate and freewill.