End of the year

It's the end of the year
And the start of a new decade

Hope for the best
Be a doer and not only a thinker
Stay calm, Forgive and Forget
Trust yourself
And try to leave your job, your class, your room, your world a little better than the way you found it
That should do it.

Cheers~

Paradigm Shift

"When a paradigm shifts, everything hits zero" - Joel Barker

While used scientifically in this phrase, it can be generalized into any arena. It's a simple statement and hence, more powerful.

A shift in paradigm is a change in attitude towards an idea, entity etc. An ability to change your view including your perception is not a trivial task. But once achieved, it's tantalizing. Truth or the aysmptotic road towards the truth however bitter is priceless.

Once a paradigm shifts, you start from scratch. A lush valley to be shaped, a lake to be transformed, a mountain to be climbed.

Some choose to transform it, shape it and climb it. Some never reach it. Some refuse to change their paradigm and stay clogged to their ears, eyes and minds. Some stray free and some after reaching the valley, the lake, the mountain, choose to let it be.

sometimes...

Sometimes...


Some days, some people make decisions.
They seem harsh. Crude. Emotion-driven.
Motivated by hatred. Anger.
The next day when it all comes down to.
It's refreshing. Wonderful.

How a day makes a difference.

It is not the length of the day.
It is the comfort in the mind.
The inevitability of the circumstance.
The immovability of the decision that prompts.

A breaking of a friendship with one.
Tragedy occurs.
A slow kindle is blazed.
Celebration begins.
They go hand in hand.

This decision is fueled by wisdom.
Much sought after but rarely realized.
Kudos to them who have such realization, such wisdom, such patience.

Discretion between such wisdom and a random action is a skill.
A wisdom in itself, requiring such qualities as well.
Kudos to them who have such discretion, such wisdom, such patience.

Common Words Unearthed

All formal definitions from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary more or less

Responsibility: liability to be called on to answer
Unearthing: The act of doing a job in a timely manner makes one responsible. The preciseness of the completed job usually matters less than the time line under which the job is completed.

Compassion: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it
Unearthing: Sympathetic consciousness of others as well as your own distress together with a desire to alleviate it, makes one truly compassionate. Distress itself is subjective on the other hand. So to be compassionate, one requires a certain level of discretion to differentiate between actual distress and perceived distress.

Conversation: oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas
Unearthing: Conversation classically is oral but with new technology (blogs, social networking sites, online newspapers, instant messaging), it can be written as well. The exchange has to be fruitful in some way otherwise it is simply an exchange rather than a conversation.

What I think sometimes...

What I think sometimes:

• This belligerant focus and insights on the fights of Apple Vs Microsoft, Apple & AT&T Vs Google, Microsoft Vs Google Vs Yahoo or, Microsoft & Yahoo Vs Google etc. by media and bloggers alike are just nothing but tabloid magazines types of articles for technology. Can we hear about something actually meaty and substantial, world?

• As dirty as politics is, why should it be dirty like this? Will the synonymity between dirty and politics ever disappear?

• Is the world economy circular? The supposed wisdom is the world economy started with Agriculture and went on to Industry to Service and that's the top of the pyramid. My proposed "fooldom" is it's circular with a never ending loop. I call it "fooldom" for the specific reason that it is not based on any facts or evidence except on my own whim unlike Evolution (please don't call it Darwinism, please don't).

• Recycle Recycle Recycle

A drop in the ocean...

A drop in the ocean might be the ultimate. Perhaps not an inevitability but something which needs to be strived. Just like a seed grows, turns into a fruit, gets ripe and falls off with the swiftest of the breeze, perhaps maturity of the complete kind will wither off and fall with the swiftest of a push.

A drop in the ocean could just be an illusion. It could be just an illusion of rationality. Something spirituals being invented to get a meaning out of this desert.

A drop in the ocean is the melting of the ocean into the drop too. A passive process at best, again an illusion at worst, especially for the concerned being.

If it is the ultimate, the middle way is the most effective. You become desireless. Your motives purify. Your intentions become white as the whitest sand. As with the ripe fruit, you mature, a process which is usually guided with your will, instinct and good intentions and actions etc. Then with realization, perhaps not even a gentle push is needed before you plunge into the ocean, the nothingness or the everythingness, the sunyata. The feeling perhaps could be confusing at best. You feel the ocean nearing you like she is the one who is moving. Terror and dryness might take over for untrained pathways in the person and slowly, transcendence takes place. Another moment and realization before you plunge into her or to you, the ocean plunges in you, taking you and swirling you around. Then peace.

An illusion brings despair and vanity back. Things to be strived for are there and also not there. For everything turns into an illusion again. Bonds, sweetness, bitterness. Like starlight which will fade after the coolness of the night becomes heavy and the starlight evaporates. The ship takes you away, far away, from the memories of the people who care if you live or die. It will bring you back or maybe it won't. Is it the same in the end? It doesn't matter in this case. And it will never.

Real and Substantial Versus Fake and Hollow

Some things are just real while some things are simply fake and hollow. Both of these are experiences perceived to be real by the mind probably although I am not completely sure about that.
So to start it off:

1) At my number one is the real world versus the TV world.

Real world: When you can hear your neighbour quarreling with his wife over whose turn it is to do the dishes. And you get irritated so much so that you have to get a temporary restraining order against that neighbour because you feel threatened.

Virtual and TV world: When you watch a funny TV show where the main character say Raymond and his wife are arguing over whose turn it is to do the dishes. And you laugh so much that you fart, thereby irritating all the people who are in the room with you.

2) At number two is practicing the beauty of life versus just understanding the beauty of life.

Practicing philosophy: On a bus when you see a smile from the opposite sex, you smile back, turn off your mp3 player or close your book and begin a spontaneous conversation that might change your life.

Just understanding the beauty of life: On a bus, the book is read or the music is listened to with the most pleasure,which you have experienced countless times. You don't care/know what is happening around you most of the times. All you care about is knowledge, this life which you can analyze with the most precision. This regurgitated knowledge which is supposedly the backbone of society smiles back at you and you smile back. Of course, it doesn't matter that all you have done is become great at analyzing this mecca of human wisdom while there's not a shred of it that you have come close to in experience.

Prisoners and their plight

I had read somewhere that in some prisons in South East Asia and even in some prisons in Nepal, they were starting this new practice of teaching spiritual concepts to prisoners. When I read about it, I was a bit young, say 14 or so. When I thought about it at first glance, I thought it was a pointless practice. Yet when I thought about it deeper, I thought this was a great thing. I admired the people who did it.
For some reason, I was thinking about this piece, some weeks ago. Especially here, in the US, you get to hear about a lot of violence. You read about people who are prone to violence, who are born and raised to be dominating, people whose very nature have become hateful and misanthropic. And these same people are the ones who concentrate in prison cells and are in contact with each other day in and day out. Now of course, they are put in prison so that they learn that their actions have consequences.
However, if they realized that concept at a profound level, they would not be there in the first place. This system we have probably does let some people see how they are wrong. Some of the people might actually get it. But most of them, whose lives are most probably ruined any way due to the adverse record on their background will probably never really see the right way.
It's about these people I speak. Granted some prisoners might be so twisted in their thoughts, so prone to their darkest sides that many people will refuse to call them humans or having human qualities. That discussion I leave for some other day.
Now going back to my piece, if governments all over the world organized to have spiritual guidance programs in prisons, perhaps we would be better off. By spiritual guidance, I mean, teachings that any religious books encourage. Perhaps the one which is the most effective is Buddha's teaching. But it can be anything which has some moral/spiritual worth.
I feel there is such a need because after all, these prisoners when they get together, the tendency to be more violent increases simply by association. Not only that, after they get out of prisons, they will be living among us. Wouldn't the world be a safer place if they were taught some values?
Isn't that the whole point of having them in prisons?
Perhaps I am making castles in the air. Perhaps I am being too naive and naively compassionate.
Every man/woman deserves the punishment that their actions got them. I agree. But we do need to make this world safer as well and not be chained to just one point of view.
Having convicted felons in prisons is Right. I do not argue that. But if they are to be let out, there should be a spiritual/moral value we need to instill in them. It is good for the individual and society and hence humanity in general.

_______________________________________

"Controlling my feelings far too long
Forcing our darkest souls to unfold
And pushing us into self destruction
They make me, make me dream your dreams
They make me, make me scream your screams"

'Showbiz' by Muse

To the Crumbling Cliffs

It was an innocent look.
She caught it though and was intrigued.
"I feel warm and welcomed."
She must have thought.

There he was standing with authority and a handsome poise.
There she was, lanky and with a remarkable aura.
She was beautiful.
Like a gazelle.
Mia from Pulp Fiction, his mind offered.
He took the offer.

She came in, red hair shining from the sunshine.
Magnetic and with grace like a flower petal, floating in the air.
Spreading her fragrance in this dry, dull fare.
He was mesmerized.

Her heart did not let go.
She left and kept thinking about him.
How charming.
"I must go back." And she gulped down the wine.

hEr phone rang.
And she replied to the message.
With some veracity and a lot of velocity.
No ifs or buts. Only Yes and whens.
He longed for her .
With stars shining like fireflies in the dark nights of September, they met.
"What was he in for?"
Little did he know.

heR short red hair was wet.
It was pouring and she jumped in.
She said she sees the paintings and the sculpture in his eyes.
He said he sees her by his side.

She came back and inquired.
Her inquisitiveness was charming.
And disarming.
He could not take it and shook his head.
In defense of himself and his space.
Otherwise she thought and left, fluttered and disenchanted.

He reached for her in the haze of the night.
He felt her in the clear of the dawn.
She said she is moving up and he asked her to watch for the pigs.
She said, she will and smiled the most pretty smile, they thought.
He simply brushed it off as a lie.
" I can't be fooled," he thought, perched from the top of his crumbling cliff.

Now he can't see her.
Unexpected and with full grace, she comes in one day.
He looked into her eyes and her hair.
He saw no lies this time.
The truth still amazed him.
And he felt joy like he had not felt before.
She saw a lake she had not imagined before.
And quietly, they moved on.

Heightened Reality

<3:00>I am freezing and losing my way. I don't need another map of your head.
I am freezing and losing my way. I don't need another map of........
He is dreaming now. Thoughts race in his head. Thoughts like juggernauts.
Formed and rational.
Substantial. Theories and transformations. Moments pass.
He is in conversations with some people and thoughts, feelings and ideas are flung towards each other.
With speed and intensity, wholly surprising yet with pin point precision.
It's reading it and feeling it. No sweat. Not even a drop.
No stress. None at all.
It's cent percent.
His twin got older while he stayed young.
Thoughts travelling at the speed of light. It's sensing each sensation.
Feet on the air or head on the ground?
Is this evolution or a fantasy?
Is this a sensation or just a mystical experience for madmen?
Para gliding or scuba diving?


head..............
<3:01>I am freezing and losing my way. I don't need another map of your head....
Music fades and another song starts on his Winamp.
He felt tens of minutes pass.

Problems, How Come?

So I have a very basic question but one that is vital and crucial
for the most number of jobs in the world. People spend their lifetimes dealing with these things. People write books on these. There's countless theories, laws, algorithms, languages, programming languages and tools to solve, counter, lessen, or soften their blows.
This question is: How does a problem arise?
I will be succinct and write points:

1. It was not anticipated.
2. It was anticipated but unavoidable.
3. You were just being careless.
4. You just didn't care. In this case, the "problem" might not be labelled one, at least by yourself.
5. The problem was a benefit until it became a disadvantage and turned into a problem, which turns into point number 1 again.
   

Now that the points are laid out, I will attempt to expand on them gradually in my following posts. I welcome further input.

So you want to help write the constitution of Nepal?

With all sincerity, please read it, and email them your thoughts: (If you do email, please post the message on this blog)


Here is an email forwarded by embassy of nepal



Distinguished
Community Leaders of the Nepalese community organizations/ NRN
office-bearers/ friends from media/ Nepali sisters and brothers living in
home and abroad

The Embassy is very pleased to inform you all that the Citizen Relations
Committee of the Constituent Assembly has appealed to all the Nepalese
living at home and abroad for their views/opinions on the concept and
content to be incorporated in the new constitution of Nepal.

Against this background, the Embassy takes this opportunity to request you
all to kindly help disseminate this information to the wider Nepalese
community with the aim of obtaining their views and suggestions as mentioned above.

The Embassy sincerely requests the friends from media to give due publicity
to this information in their regular broadcast and publications.

The Embassy will compile all the views and suggestions and will forward the
same to the Citizen Relations Committee of the Constituent Assembly.

Suggestions/views may kindly be sent to the Embassy's address (postal and
email) given below. If you need further information, please do not hesitate
to contact us.

Sincerely,

Embassy of Nepal

Email: info@necan.gov.np
Webpage: www.necan.gov.np

_________________________

http://www.sajha.com/sajha/html/OpenThread.cfm?forum=2&ThreadID=68119

I just work hard

So I met a hair-dresser who works at a local shop and was admiring his brand new Mercedes Convertible and the following dialogue ensued.
Me: Hey, is that your car?
Him: Yes, it is.
Me: It's a very nice car dude. How much was it?
Him: About $50K.
Me: Cool!
(I am thinking whether I should ask him the following question but could not resist it)
How did you afford it?
"Him (indifferent smile) : I just work hard."
He parks it near where I work and I see it sitting there sexily through the window.

Musings Musings

Aye,

What is the purpose of life? Or What is A purpose of life?

Or What is a purpose of life?

It's easy to get lost in the languages and the subtle capital letters.

It's easier to get lost in the higher level of abstract thoughts and ideas.

As a matter of fact, sometimes you might feel that you never even started.

Such is the complexity in its "simpleness".

Is there just one life or many lives? The idea of reincarnation

embraced by Hinduism and Buddhism collectively is interesting.

The idea of a person going to heaven or hell after one life embraced by the Christians, Muslims and the Jews as well is interesting (and straightforward) as well.

Although as I write it, I have to say, I find it much sillier than the previous belief held by Hinduism and Buddhism.

About life, I really have no idea at this point as to what it is for.

There possibly could be no purpose or there could be one, of trying to

make oneself happy/ joyful or perhaps a higher purpose of attaining nirvana or "moksh".

There's doubt and confusion everywhere in the seeming confidence of this persona.

Perhaps an elimination process might work better. More on that later.