Creativity

There is a very fine line between chaos and creativity. Infact, creativity can be produced from chaos.
Ok. I've got a good idea. Our mind is like the surface of a lake, and thoughts are like stones thrown onto it. Now, when the mind is filled with thoughts, the surface is shattered and there are too many ripples coinciding with each other. Now, imagine a calm mind...a still surface. Now throw just one stone onto it... you get some beautiful ripples. This is creativity.
Now imagine a lake with many stones being thrown onto it.. too many ripples with no clear or beautiful effect. Just a big mess. This is chaos.
A thought free mind, when stimulated only to a certain degree, produces some amazing things, and we call it creativity. After some amount of stimulation, the creative capacity of the mind gets exhausted, after which it must be calmed down again. It is to be noted that a thought free mind can be produced by several methods, including drugs. However, very few of these methods are sustainable. Sustainable methods are methods that require discipline. And anyway, the concept of creativity is an inferior concept when compared to the concept of peace. In fact, creativity can be a product of peace, but it reduces the degree of peace.

Cause and Effect

I do believe that we are victims of cause and effect, and that our choices are finally illusions. Because, even if one says that one can make good choices, it is finally an effect of the different influences one has. However, this has some implications:

Firstly, it means that one should always be very humble, even when one is very succesful, because one is only a victim of cause and effect.

Secondly, it does not mean that one must stop working hard for moving towards his goals, because even though you are a factor in the operations of the rule of cause and effect, you are still a factor in many other rules. Also, please don't let this theory de-motivate you!

Thirdly, the future still remains unpredictable because if you predict the future, your predictions will be the causes of some more effects, and therefore, your prediction is bound to be inaccurate. I think this phenomenon is a recognised scientific theorem in quantum theory.

Nice Flower on my Terrace

 

Understanding Pain

Seeing the wrecks around me, I feel compelled to expound my principles for the betterment of many people!

Pain is just another side of the coin which has pleasure on one side. The equation is very simple: The total amount of pain you experience is equal to the total amount of pleasure you experience and vice versa. Indulgence in pleasure causes pain, and indulgence in pain causes pleasure. However, living in this duality really wrecks us. It is very important to move away from this cycle to peace!!

Peace is a state where one feels neither pleasure nor pain. One possesses a single pointed mind. Now, what is a single pointed mind? We all hear voices in our heads. We are always talking to ourselves. When this stops, and only a single entity exists in our head, one can be said to possess a single pointed mind. This requires enormous self and mental control, which is again basically discipline. I have written about discipline and please see my earlier posts for information about that.

However, pleasure and pain is often an ambiguous concept. Therefore, I must give you another important technique. Always be free of any attachment to anything. Attachment is the root cause of pain and pleasure. Please refrain from being attached to anything at all, including yourself. Whenever, you are uneasy or in pain, the easiest method of relieving oneself is by finding the attachment that you have to something that is causing you pain. Let go of any attachment towards your body, your spouse, your kids, your work, etc, etc, etc. Egoism is nothing but attachment to one's image. You will see how clear your thinking and way of dealing with things becomes once you let go of attachment.

Desire is nothing but craving for something in anticipation of pleasure. Once you refrain from pleasure, desire will take care of itself.

In this discourse, I must tell you about the Bhagvad Gita. It is the holy book of the Hindus. It describes very beautifully the methods of disciplined and peaceful people. Please go through it if you want a more in-depth understanding of the concepts that I have expounded.

Privacy

Take some time to be alone. Privacy frees one from others, and also from their way of thinking. It gives you physical as well as mental space, and it leads to independence of thought. Always, always, take some time to be alone. By alone, I also mean without your phone, TV, the internet, any book, your dog, etc. Alone means completely alone, where not a word needs to be said, heard, read , etc. Alone.

General Discourse on Life 2

It does make great sense to do a regular overview of what you plan to do in life, how you plan to do it, and the principles that you are always going to follow. The first two things can be done once in a month or so, depending upon the time span of your tasks, but I strongly believe that the third one should be done daily.

A daily refresher of the mind is really useful. These include some meditation, and the remembrance and acceptance of some principles of life. In the day to day affairs of the mind, it is very easy to forget the principles that you believe in, thus leading to a misled, or worse, an uncontrolled mind. This is downright disaster. Meditation calms the mind, and also, if done properly, stops the mind from thinking for a while. This is very important! Control over the mind is what discipline is all about, and, as I have said earlier, discipline is what life is about!

One should preferably do this complete refreshment in the morning, and if possible, include a short session in the evening.

The illusion of success

If you believe that you will be at peace after you achieve something or get to some goal, you are wrong! Success brings along with it even more difficulty. To cut a long story short, life is a series of problems to be solved.

If you want to be at peace with yourself, happy and satisfied, it is now or never! If you want to know how to do this, read my post titled, "The truth about happiness."

The idea of perfect freedom

I must now explain the idea of perfect freedom... One must write as soon as one gets ideas.

The basic concept involved in perfect freedom is that you are free to do exactly what you want to do. So is everyone else. This frees you from any obligation towards anything whatsoever. But it also frees others from your expectations out of them. This really creates a beautiful atmosphere as far as inter-personal relationships are concerned!

In perfect freedom, you are free to murder someone, do drugs, drink too much, etc, etc. However, you are also free to do some amazing and bold things that you wanted to do, which you never did uptil now because you were too scared about what others would feel. Also, even though you are perfectly free to do anything, you are still perfectly bound to the consequences of your actions! Therefore, one can contemplate each and every action with an open mind, thanks to the lack of any rules, and then pursue the action that best meets the desired consequence, while avoiding undesired consequences. I hope that you find it easy to understand the beauty of such an environment!

It will be observed that in the long term, after contemplation, the actions of men will be consistent with the principles of peace, justice, humanity, etc. We will have a very nice world!!

I must stress that this idea can actually be applied to everyday life! If you have concerns about doing something illegal with this principle, remember that the consequences of most outlawed actions will prevent you from doing them anyway! Furthermore, mostly, the life lived using this idea will be a better life in every way compared to the life lived by not following this just because it does not take into account matters of the law.

General Discourse on Life 1

The most talented people among us rarely ever accomplish anything in their field of talent. Human beings thrive on challenges. Our greatest achievements have not been because we had to achieve what we did, but because we loved to take up the challenge. Think of it, who wants to be at 29000 feet with a deficiency of oxygen and a strong wind blowing in your face, at temperatures way below zero! I am speaking, of course, about the summit of Mount Everest. What made people go there was the challenge of reaching the summit in the first place.

The problem with the most talented people among us is that they rarely find anything challenging in the first place, and thus they find most things not worth achieving. They know far too well that if they do put in some effort, they will be able to do it anyway. The lucky few among this group actually find something worth striving for in their field of talent. When they do, we get legends. I would not like to name any one legend, because I honestly know very few or maybe none. I do not consider any damn person in the world a legend right now. A legend should be the most outstanding person of his field for about a hundred years before and or after his time.

Talking of great people, I have realized the way the Americans quickly jump onto any damn fool, package him well, and call him the greatest person ever in any field. Again, I would not like to name anyone, but a field that I can suggest is climbing.

That's all for today I don't feel inspired or full of great ideas.

The truth about happiness

A good climbing session almost always makes for retrospection, inspiration, and realization!
There is never a time in life to celebrate or to enjoy oneself. Never, ever. Our life, if lived well and even enjoyably, must be spent in unwavering and high discipline. Only disciplined people can truly enjoy life. Enjoyment through drink or partying is very superficial enjoyment. Real enjoyment can only be obtained by the virtue of living itself. And to enjoy the virtue of living, one needs discipline.
To make things more simple, life can only be enjoyed by living in the moment, and always doing whatever you are doing for the sake of doing it, and not for the sake of something else.
I think I must give some examples.
When washing your clothes, you must wash them with no other purpose than with the purpose of ..... Washing your clothes! You must not do it so that your clothes may be clean, or because it has to be done, or for the sake of cleanliness, or for any other reason apart from washing you clothes!
What that means is, whatever you do, do it with complete commitment and do it for the sake of doing it nicely and beautifully. It is wrong to play football very well because you enjoy doing it, while you don't maintain your garden properly because you do not like doing it.
This means, all in all, that one must get rid of the concept of past and future, and exist forever, solely in the very immediate present. Believe me, that is the only way to live a life. And it requires extreme self control to not think about the past or near future, that is why I said that one needs extreme discipline.
Let me just give you a good statement... It almost encompasses all that I want to say...
Extraordinary people do the ordinary things extraordinarily well.

The kind of joy obtained by living in the present is incomparable with any other joy, and it is the true joy. Actually, it is not joy, but peace.

The misfortune of talent

This time, I think, I must comment upon the difficulties faced by people who are great.
Great people are always different, and they cannot relate very well with the general society. Their high IQ makes many amusing or interesting things downright boring for them, and the things that they find interesting cannot even be understood by most of us, because of which we consider them crazy. From the average person's point of view, every great person does appear a bit crazy! And it is very true.
The problem is, this means that these talented people feel alienated by society, and that feeling is affirmed every time somebody laughs at them for their method of doing things. This can result in loneliness, isolationism, and also deep anger for every human being in general.
There is a solution, however. Cassius, in the play Julius Caesar, when speaking of brutes, says, "Like men should keep ever with their likes." There must always be a forum for the interaction of the greats of society. These greats must be recognized at an early age, and protected then on from the effects of dealing with low IQ situations.
It is very difficult for a great to find his place in society, believe me. The only way is to let him or her live the way he wants, without irritating him. Then, maybe, one might be able to get the benefits of talent.

Intuition, the mind, and the subconscious.

One often hears people talk of the wonders of intuition. Before I begin, let me be clear.. Intuition is also called gut feeling, and it is what one refers to when one talks about all the mysterious ways of understanding, "deep within" as it is said. Now, there is a very good book on similar lines, called "Blink". But I am not going in that direction as you will see.

It is impossible to doubt the power and the accuracy of intuition, but the clear sight of the inner eye can easily be clouded by egoism. It is very difficult to explain the source of intuition, but it occurs only when the mind is calm and still. When the mind is scattered with a thousand thoughts, intuition is inhibited and often misunderstood. The practice of calming the mind, requires discipline, and therefore, so does intuition itself.

The human mind, when not scattered in activity, concentrated and single pointed, is very powerful indeed. It is all encompassing and all conquering. It is at this level that the mysterious functions of the mind, such as telepathy and telekinesis get activated and it is at this level, that intuition occurs. Intuition is nothing but an ability to use the mind in this state for doing any specific task.
It is noteworthy, that all great artists, sportsmen and scientists can use their mind at this level to perform extraordinary feats.

People who deny the power of this extraordinary ability are ignorant. Either they have never experienced this state of mind, or even upon experiencing it, their ego prevents them from accepting the truth.

The subconscious mind, also called the inner mind, is always on, at a low frequency, and it is always monitoring everything that is going on in our life. It is this part of our mind, that is utilized when one talks of the great and often psychic abilities of our mind. It is a sharp weapon, and must be used carefully. It can lead you to greatness, or it can even break you, depending upon how you treat it and use it. During times of severe indiscipline, such as the consumption of alcohol or while indulging in useless, gosippi conversations, our control over the subconscious is reduced, whereas with the use of proper methods, we can use the subconscious. When I talk of a concentrated mind, I talk of a mind which also has total control over the subconscious.

I shall give you a practical demonstration of the power of the subconscious. Make a medium term goal. Let us say that the goal is to win a singing competition. Now, whatever you do, keep chanting inside your mind, "I will be the best singer in the competition" Don't ever stop. Whenever you realize that you have stopped, start hammering the saying inside your mind again. You will observe how you automatically start putting things into place and embark on the right road towards your goal.

I would have loved to further elaborate on visualization, but I would like to do it some other time.