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Getting ready for exams. Well, if you are looking for advice, for passing your exams, maybe I have a few. I have written few articles previously about pomodoro, techniques and blooms taxonomy. Here, I will give you another tip. I used to do, when I reached somewhat closer to the exam. It was my intuition from following observation. I observed that when very close to an exam, the ability of my brain to comprehend and remember improves markedly. It may be associated with all the hormones which play mayhem, near the exam. And even if I haven't studied much during the semester as I would want, these last few days mattered most. And they really helped with exam. So, I wanted to use this hidden power. So, whenever I wanted to study, I would imagine this is the day before exam. What would I do? What would I do if tomorrow is exam? What would you do if tomorrow is your exam? Would you party? with your friends? Would you spend time watching TV/ Netflix? Would you do boring self-study sessions? Would you make heaps of notes? if the exam is tomorrow? No, it will automatically occur to you what you should be doing if tomorrow is your exam. You would cram and cram. You will cram a lot. You will go through all your notes. Try to read all your study material. I think you will not waste any time. You will try to remember important stuff. Your brain will start to notice patterns which you did not see earlier, all the semester. I would Do just that! I would just do what I would do on the last day. And mind you if you do this for 30 days in a row, you would be able to sleep 24 hours the day before the exam, or go to a party, when your friends try to do, what you have done 30 days in a single day! That all about getting ready for exams, however, this article is not about them. I just wanted to show you the principle of thinking. Let's apply our little intuition about passing exams, to our lives. Shall we? Getting ready for death. What is the biggest challenge we all have to face? I say it is the challenge of death. Exams when compared is a minimal nuisance. And when are you going to face this challenge? Truly speaking, we should be happy to be alive and healthy today. When life, is associated with constant threat of the death. That is inherently bound to it and limiting it. Death defines, what we can and cannot do. Reproduction is the natures, way of cheating the death. That is good enough at a population level. But individually as a consciousness, how can you overcome death? What would you do? on the day before your death? (Can you see the similarity? It creates an urgency in our minds to correct our deeds) Would you go to your attic, to look at your dirty painting of Dorian , for a one last time before it all end? Or would you correct your path and be a good man, a happy man, a free man for a good 24 hours? Irony is this is the truth for thousands and thousands of humans who are going to die tomorrow. Some of them know, some of them do not know. It does not matter, your age, your ability, your status. For the nature, you are not special. As you are part of the nature, there is nothing wrong. Nature is not cruel, neither it is valuable. Questioning myself, a long before the exam, helps me with it. I suggest and invite you to apply the same principles to your life. Live like today is the last day on earth. Correct your actions and be mindful about the seconds. Who knows, one day the nature would test us, without even a warning.

This is the part 2 of simple truths. To understand light, it is important to know why. If you have read the previous article on simple truths, you would notice, some of these are still present in front of our eyes. Hence mindfulness is essential as we cannot see these truths directly in our vision. With our minds vision or "imagination" we can manipulate physical parameters to do a mental experiment on everyday objects and acquire wisdom it provides. I invite you for a yet another thought journey, like Einstein did, this time to the edge of the universe. Observable Universe. When we learn about astronomy, we learn that the lengths in universe are so massive, measuring by meters, or kilometers is not possible. Hence, we measure distance in light years. Light travels so fast that in a one second it will travel 299,792 kilometers. However, the universe is expanding at a rate, more than this distance for a second at the edge of the observable universe (relative to earth). The concept of the observable universe stems from the finite speed of light and the finite age of the universe. Because the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, we can only see objects whose light has had enough time to reach us since the beginning of the universe. This creates a "horizon" beyond which we cannot observe, not because there isn't more out there, but because their light hasn't had enough time to get to us. This observable limit is what defines the boundaries of what we can detect and study—hence the term "observable universe." It's a product of the interplay between time, distance, and the speed of light. Now that is good for background knowledge. How can we use these extreme ideas for our mindfulness practice or simply our wisdom? A thought experiment - Philosophy of light Imagine you found a way to teleport your friend to the edge of the universe. And he sends you a message. He lights up an infinite torch from the edge of the universe to send you a message. Let's assume this torch is powerful enough to provide light which can travel so far. If your friend is at the edge of the universe, his message would reach us in another 13.8 billion light years (because of the expansion of the universe actual distance this light has travelled would be 46.5 billion light years. There may be errors in my calculation when other factors are considered. However, as this is just a philosophical argument, this is good enough. More importantly what does this mean? Philosophy of light When the space is expanded, we see that apparent fast speed of light is not so fast anymore. It will be generations and generations till the light from your friend reaches the earth. We all would be perished by then. The light, which is instant, so fast in our scale, carries a significant delay in infinite scale. Only because we are not so fast, we do not observe this delay. What is true in cosmic scale is true in our scale. How minute it is when you see something, it has already happened! Think about what this means philosophically. When you see a buzzing bee land on a flower, it is something which already happened! What we see and identify as now, is something which happened in the past. Really speaking we can never see what is happening Now. So, what do we do when we ask someone to live mindfully or live for the moment ? When we truly cannot achieve this reality. For me living mindfully is being aware of these simple truths. Identifying flaws in our perceptions in this relatively true world. If you would like to see the same problem in a different viewpoint, I would ask you to imagine quicksilver .

Thing 1 and thing 2. - The cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss Remember the Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss? I can still remember when I read Dr Seuss, through this wonderful children's story. I enjoyed it as an adult more than a child. I am not sure how he came up with "Thing 1 and thing 2". However, it fascinated me the underlying philosophy of things. Do you know why the story is not comparable to any other, children's story? I believe it is because, he started to address things, in his book at its basic form. Just as "Things" Let's look at the philosophy of "The cat in the Hat" Summary of the plot- The Cat in the Hat. In Dr. Seuss's "The Cat in the Hat," two children, Sally and her brother, are stuck inside on a rainy day with nothing to do. Their boredom is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the mischievous Cat in the Hat, who brings chaos and fun to their home. Accompanied by his playful friends, Thing 1 and Thing 2, the Cat turns the house upside down with his antics. Despite the mayhem, they manage to clean everything up just in time before their mother returns, leaving the children to ponder whether they should tell her about their wild day. How did Dr Seuss come up with Thing 1 and Thing 2? I wondered how he managed to pull up thing 1 and thing 2 into the story. It is magical when these things cannot be named. Thing 1 can be a kitten, a rabbit or anything. But when he took out the name tag, it is fundamentally a thing. A moving thing, a mischievous thing, which played havoc together with Thing 2, Which is same kind of thing 1. Did Dr Seuss suggest that it is the deed that matters not the name of the thing? I like to wonder, Dr. Seuss himself, on an armchair with his notebook at hand trying to figure out the "Thing" That the Cat in the hat going to pull out from his box. And, his mind went blank, and he could not think farther than "Thing". And smiled to himself, when he knew that is the name he should be giving to the things in the box. It's perfect. Thing 1 and Thing 2. It could be anything, and there is plenty of space for imagination of a child. Philosophy of things. When we were kids, we used to be familiar with "Things". Now we do not as the things are shadowed by information we have received. Imagine a child, who see a cat for the first time. He would see only a "Thing". He may even call it "Thing 1". But after learning his parents call this "Thing" a cat, many times, The Thing 1 will be registered in his brain as a cat. Similarly, he would label Thing 2 and Thing 3 in different names. More knowledgeable a person is, he would have more and more Things which are recognized by names. What our brain has essentially done is, developed a layer of information , on top of the fundamental "Things" in the world. I think this is a major difference between us and a child. A child's world is still filled with unknown "Things" which hides mysteries. However, in our world we have, learnt about so many things, we no longer recognize, things as things. Imagine a picture or a video of Chiribiquete Emerald is shown to you. It is a bird which lives in Amazon rainforest. If this is shown to a child who has only seen a Crow once in his entire life, it would be just a "Thing 11" which moves and chirps. However, you would recognize this as a bird, in a flash, without you even realizing it, and you would even be able to guess its weight, if asked. You would see its similarity with a hummingbird. The disadvantage is we would never be able to see the "Thing" in the bird. As our consciousness is always be shadowed by information. Mindfulness, as a tool to recognize things. Mindfulness is a tool, in my opinion the only tool which can recognize things as things. You may ask why should we understand about these fundamental things? What is the point? If you have followed my previous articles, understanding the consciousness , is a possible solution to all our problems, as root cause of all our problems is none other than ourselves. What better way to do it than, understanding "Things" in our world. In a previous article, I have discussed some of the characteristics in these " Things ". Here, in this article, I would not go into details, of these "Things" which are recognized by our mind (more precisely their reflections ). It is just to emphasize and be amazed by the wisdom of Dr. Seuss who was able to recognize this fact, and even introduce some philosophy into a children's book, written Decades ago!

This is a discussion I had the other day with one of my twitter friends. What defines an ordinary person from extraordinary. My initial intuition was that it is none other than a 'Belief'. And following is the surprisingly satisfactory discussion we had about the subject. What defines an extraordinary person? Is it the eyes. The first answer she came up with was eyes. I could not agree more. If we consider beauty, eyes will define extraordinary from ordinary. We discussed about the eyes of a girl which appeared in my previous article on philosophy of collarbone , and mutually agreed she had extraordinary eyes. And I had no idea that she would come up with "Eyes" as an answer, as I was expecting something more philosophical in nature. It surprised me, something so simple as Eyes could be a potential answer to a philosophical question. I am sure you also would come up with an answer, and it may or may not be surprising as above. What do you think about "Eyes" as an answer? Don't you agree that it is a good candidate? Is it love? There are different kinds of love. Love of a child to his mother, a wife's love to her husband. Monkey loving its baby. The God's love to all the people on earth. The latter can be extraordinary. It's a shame if it doesn't. We can only imagine such a love. I think I have written about such Platonic love , in one of my previous articles. Hence, I would not elaborate it more here. However, it is kind of an extraordinary love which we can only imagine partially, without any flaws, without any hidden agendas and greed. You would agree only "God" can provide such true love. Is it something else? Is it bravery ? Is it kindness? Is it self-reflection? I am sure you have your own favorite answer to the above question. And I am sure you will be happy if I come up with the same answer as you. However, I was searching for the perfect answer. Hence, I did a little google search and following were other candidates. See whether your answer is written here. An extraordinary person often stands out not merely because of their talents or achievements but due to their unwavering character, resilience , and impact on others. They possess a unique blend of authenticity, compassion, and determination, consistently pursuing their goals while uplifting those around them . Their actions are driven by a purpose greater than themselves, fostering positive change and inspiring others to do the same. Extraordinary people embrace challenges , learn from setbacks , and remain humble despite their successes. Their presence leaves an indelible mark, reminding us of the power of human potential and the profound difference one individual can make in the world. Is it a belief? But more importantly I think it is the first answer that I came up with. Because even it can be such a simple answer as "Eyes". You just have to believe that you are extraordinary in some important unique character. Hence when someone says, it's the kindness, it is true. And when the other says it is hard working. That is true too. Only if they believe in it. Hence, the belief is the one defines the extraordinary from ordinary. If anyone believe that they are not extraordinary from any character, that would be true too. Why a Belief defines an extraordinary person. If you believe in God, it will make you extraordinary, and help you power to achieve, heavenly things. If you believe in hard work, it will make you an extraordinary man, to do humanly impossible tasks. If you believe in kindness, you will start to heal hearts of thousands of battered humans. If you believe in money, it might make you an extraordinary criminal, if you forget your moral grounds in achieving it. So, the question is what are you going to choose in believing?

This is an observation I have made about this life, which had changed myself. A good way to point it out is by saying it is the zero of life. However, there is more to it. If you have read my previous article on mathematic problem of 3n+1, I have explained the pattern which emerges with the problem. The graph of 3n+1 problem is one which starts with a number but ends with 3->2->1. For the purpose of this article, I want you to imagine a graph. Something similar to the above. The graph of life. The graph of life starts at 0 at time 0. You guessed it right, that is the time embryo became conscious. And since then, it is a roller costar ride. If Y axis represents value of life at each point in time, for some, the graph will reach, unimaginable heights. For some, it would plateau. As time goes by all the graphs will come back to zero. We will analyze some of these graphs to understand the zero of life. Imagine someone with a very high achievement. Imagine the president of USA, he is the unnamed leader of the world. As countries exists and survive, according to his rule. I maybe dramatizing. Just for the purpose of showing that he is a high achiever, for a period of 4 years he would reach unimaginable heights in his graph, only we can try to imagine. And then he would humbly step down, until he too succumbs to the forces of the nature. You can imagine anyone, an entrepreneur, a dictator, a monk. And you would notice high achievers start with zero, and end in zero. What about the commoners? Commoners like you and me. We start at zero, just like everyone else. We reach heights which are barely far away from the X axis, and we end at zero. In one day, we would reach our zero. Although the middle is different, we share a common fate with high achievers. What about someone with a low-quality life? Start at zero, born poor, turned criminal and end life on an electric chair. It never reached any height. And end of their life they reached zero. You might object. You might say it is not true. that we do not reach zero. We carry our deeds to the afterlife. However, as I have discussed earlier, such matters of death, and pre-birth are still without solid visible evidence. We live in a world where we cannot win even a court case with hearsay, hence, in matters of life and death, we should stick to the facts which we can see, and we can observe. Hence, I would say, death brings us back to zero is true, when we consider where we started. We started from atoms burrowed from the nature, hence when they are returned, we become zero. Mathematical formula. Another way to look at the zero, is to compare it to an equation. Which has answer zero. Even if the equation is very complex- such as in a high achiever, the answer will be zero. And even if it is simple one like in a common daily waged worker, it will produce another zero. Hence, although they look different both of equations are equal, in value. Understanding zero of life. Understanding the end values of anyone's life, makes us humble human beings. It can only provide good, and spread kindness, when we see the equal nature of a human being, in a rural part of Africa, or a similarly disadvantaged person in a modern developed world. They all will spend a fulfilled or not so fulfilled life according to the quality of thoughts they will get during their day. However, the life will essentially provide them with a zero. So, this helps me with my greed with need of reaching unimaginable heights. And helping others to reach their potential. As we all are played by the nature. Let's bow: Zero Zero, a seemingly simple digit, holds profound significance across various fields. In mathematics, it serves as the cornerstone for the modern number system, representing the concept of 'nothing' while enabling complex calculations and equations. Philosophically, zero can symbolize the void, the origin, or the infinite potential of starting points. In digital technology, it's a fundamental building block, paired with one, creating the binary code that powers our digital world. Beyond its mathematical utility, zero carries cultural and spiritual meanings in different societies, often representing balance and the cyclical nature of existence. From ancient civilizations to cutting-edge technology, zero's journey is as intriguing as it is essential.

It is a hard-working day for you. Woken early morning, as you had your promises to keep, did not go as it was planned, like it always does. So, feeling weary and dizzy you head up to the beach. Just a regular beach. No fancy beachfront hotels. No tourists. Just regular people. As you park your car, a little boy comes running in a fancy dress and his eyes are delighted looking at your car. Another customer, as there are only few bicycles on the parking area, and yours is the only car he had seen for the evening. And he gives you a ticket with a smile on his face. What a good start to end the day on the beach. Just a regular beach You walk towards the ocean. Just a regular ocean, nothing fascinating about it. Cannot swim as it is not too shallow, doesn't produce beautiful crashing waves as it is not too deep. Just a regular beach. And you walk past all the fishermen, who hide under the shade of a big tree. Spending the valuable rest they have earned after coming home early in the morning following a night of fishing. Their workday is about to start while yours, just finished. Just a narrow window, between you and them. The crows who had followed them, look for some snacks in the sand, tries to grab the ice-cream from a little girl who just entered. Being treated rough all their lives, by the fishermen, these crows have adapted to the lifestyle, not at all they were feared by the girl or her elder sister, and continuously tries to distract and make them drop something on the sand. You sit down on a timber which happened to be an odd addition to the beach, which is otherwise empty except for a few boats. Just like you in your regular working shoes and dress, an odd addition to the locals. You turn your back on the elderly gentlemen definitely who is retired and who had worked in a regular 8-5 job. seated on the beach, on sand and enjoying himself in thought which are powered by the sea wind. He surely is something, a different consciousness from you. A different perspective, a new world. You make a mental note and forget about him, as you just want to feel the regular wind and some regular ships which embrace the horizon at the edge of the sea. After a while, after a regular amount of time, you walk toward a recreational area built for tourists and with some cement benches. And you walk pass the new church built at the edge of the sea. A regular church. But you were interrupted by the huge concrete remains of the old fallen church. And how did it happen? Even ten elephants would need to hoist such a big, a thousand Tonn concrete structure. But there it is! tipped like a building block tipped by a child. By whom? And it takes your memory back to the boxing day of 2004. The sea which has been a regular sea, and the beach, which was a regular beach, was not a regular beach on that day. And you look back to see the old gentlemen who was looking at the sea with an empty face. He is not there anymore. And you wonder what his story is as you walk towards your car. Maybe he is waiting for his daughter and wife, who are not with him anymore due to the regular sea. Thank you for reading Just a regular beach. Following is a paragraph from the book, what is time ? Boxing day tsunami - on massive waves and natural disasters. In 2004 boxing day i woke up early morning and came to know there had been a major flood in coastal regions of our country. Later that day we saw videos from coastal cities, innocent people washed away by massive waves back and forth until they were washed back to the sea. We had never seen those stories  for ages, except there was one story from the ancient times when the queen of an ancient king sacrificed herself and was sent to the sea to stop floods , and somehow it stopped after the sacrifice and she landed safely at another coast. Now we know the true nature of tsunami. Now it's been almost two decades, still people are living by the coast, with memories of missing loved ones washed away by the sea. Sea is not rough, like it's December 24 th of that year. Yet waves crash, and they retreat, over and over again. Occasionally a big wave reaches more than others and wash away some more into the land, and retract back to the sea. Even the tsunami retreated back to the sea. I suggest you be the visitor of your own beach of mind, until you notice the endless process of thoughts crashing on the beach. To retract back. Occasionally big waves. And massive tsunamis will happen one day. And when it does, it is time to exercise your practice. It is the best prediction about the future we can make. And like some wise man once said ‘ The best thing I have learned about my life is not to trust each and every thought ‘.

hurricanemilton2024  "Mr. Milton woke up one morning feeling dizzy from hangover. He could not walk hence started spinning. Until he reached super speed and crashed into the kitchen. Oh! pots and pans they flew from the wind that blew. Neighbours saw him in morning bulleting news." Story of butterflies. I was travelling 100km/hr. in the car the other day, through the vast planes of eastern province. Only occasional heard of cows to slow down the traffic, otherwise the easy flat driving. Butterflies, they did not slow down the traffic. They were too small to see, until they were very close, and an impact is unavoidable. They were crossing the road in hundreds, not thousands. So, I may have been guilty in injuring a dozen of them. What is my verdict? It brought me back to, my childhood, when we used to play in a nearby playground, in the month January, we used to see butterflies. Hundreds of yellow butterflies flew across the playground. They travel solo, not in groups, hence I am sure adults have not seen them. We children had eyes to spot these small flying objects easily, as they would fascinate us. We ran after butterflies, as their path of flying was not straight it was difficult. And they were too fast to catch. Very rarely they would land on grass and once or twice I have caught them. How much gently I would do it, but they would get injured, and some of them, I am not sure that they have ever flown afterwards. I just needed to see them closer, that's all. If you would like to listen more on butterflies, I suggest you can listen to Sir David Attenborough's narrative on Metamorphosis of butterflies. How they transform themselves from an ugly caterpillar, into a beautiful butterfly, like in a fairy tale. However, this article is about chaos theory, hence let's remind this to ourselves. Chaos theory or butterfly effect. Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics that explores how small changes in initial conditions can lead to vastly different outcomes in complex systems. This concept is famously illustrated by the butterfly effect, which suggests that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world could eventually cause a tornado in another. The term was popularized by meteorologist Edward Lorenz in the 1960s when he discovered that tiny variations in his weather models led to significantly different results. Essentially, chaos theory reveals the inherent unpredictability in systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, challenging the notion that we can always predict future events with precision. Previously, I tried to compare what is happening in life, as explained to chaos theory . I compared that the order we see in our lives are just like, some apparent patterns visible, and explained in chaos theory (Lorenz factors). Butterfly effect and Hurricane Milton What a great time to write about butterfly Effect. Mr. Milton has just swept through the Florida. And it had played havoc like a drunken man in the kitchen. he has no right to be there like he did. And the lives of people have changed for months following. According to chaos theory, maybe I am responsible, by changing the trajectory of the butterflies who flew across the road last month. Maybe they have changed the pattern of some molecules in atmosphere and ultimately created Mr. Milton. What is my verdict Now? Nobody would punish me. As when we travel through time, what we essentially do is change some of the conditions of the state of this complex system of universe. And nobody can point out the exact cause of the origin of the Mr. Milton. As, they are so much interconnected. This is the argument I have expressed in the article reasons beyond reasons . However, the fact remains, although not directly, small action small change can trigger an avalanche of changes over time. Or Snowball effect. It is true for hurricanes, and it is true for wars. It is true for global peace as well. This is why your mindful deed matters. Your one step, outside that door matters. Your simple kind actions matter. Nobody knows how long we have been this sparkle of energy, which is called consciousness. Maybe we have been travelling, so long and our consciousness is now big enough, ripe enough to understand even the universe, and even the consciousness itself. let us be kind to ourselves and look back at our lives for a small change today. Let us take one deep breath with mindfulness.

Background . I was talking with one of my relatives the other day. And He was in his latter part of life, in retirement. Having saved some money, living a comfortable life, now he is keen on travel. He wanted to visit America, for the second time. To see everything that he had not seen. And we were comparing two perspectives to life. As for myself, being middle aged, I am more focused on not travel, but in saving, as well as understanding what is going in our lives and the purpose of everything. That there was the heart of our problems. You may not understand it but I will elaborate more. As that is truly a million dollar question. Which I think nobody have ever answered with a reliable accuracy, and would change a lives of all eight billion lives of humans on earth if they know the answer. So what is the question? A million Dollar question. Compare two kids were born on the same day at same time, but two different places on earth. Obviously, they has to be two places, as if it is one place, there will be no two humans but one. One, in a well to do, the wealthiest nation on the planet, America, the nation of dreamers. The other one in an average family in India. The American inherited a fortune from his parents and had a good education, became the CEO of his family company and he is at his pinnacle of his career. The Indian, worked hard for a scholarship, Got his degree from university and started his own business, built an emperor himself. Hard work but, now he is as wealthy as the American. Obviously now they are at the same age. Now, let's discuss what are the ambitions of these two people. As we cannot look at every aspect of life, we will look at their travel ambitions. American, wants to travel all around the world. He has been to several countries on business and on vacation. But his ambition on his retirement is to travel every nook and corner of the world where he has not been, and he has a plan laid out by his personal assistant just for this purpose. Indian, wants to travel all around the world, and he is more keen to travel to America. Likewise he has been there on few occasions and he thinks that he had not seen it all. There seems to be plenty of places which he did not visit. So, that is his ambition. But the American would not even dream of spending most of his retirement in America. It is his country where he has all been. He know all the news from past few decades. Nothing is there to see. Let's stop there, to find out the million dollar question. I think I have done a fair job comparing two minds of different people from two different countries. As you can see their status are similar. But their travel ambitions are different. If we look at all the reasons which shaped their travel ambitions we can point out to some. As an example, the American, one major reason is he is in America, so he wants to travel to the rest of the world. Amount of money he has saved, will decide whether he can travel in a jet, or have to take commercial airliner. And many more. Even magazines he read when he was a child, previous places he had been, advertisements, his personal assistants likes and dislikes. All these have played their part in his future travel plans. Similarly we can put forward some reasons for Indian's travel plans. But what is the common to all of these reasons. Its about their timing. All the reasons which made their current state of affairs in travel ambitions, happened after they were born! that there is the million dollar question. Their birth have determined the trajectory of their lives. Not in slight, but in great margins this had a bearing on their lives. The question now is "What are the factors which determine their birth?" Million dollar question - What factors determine circumstances of our birth? This question applies to everything. As every thought which comes to our minds are shaped by our experiences which occurred after our birth. It is important to recognize what determines our place of birth. No matter how much our modern science is advanced, we currently do not have the experimental methods to determine this. This is where philosophy and religion matters . Both of these disciplines try to answer these million dollar questions with imagination. Which is far from truth. I think this is the hardest question to answer from all the difficult philosophical questions. Even mindfulness cannot answer such questions. But, more and more we are mindful in everyday we would be more and more aware such simple unanswered questions exists even in a world where everything is automated. We have never taken a leap from nature, not for a second we are detached from it. What we think is artificial, is truly born from the natural. Hence, no matter how many stars are replaced by satellites in the night sky, a million dollar question would remain. And on the day such questions are answered humanity will reach to its true potential pinnacle. Maybe we already knew the answers but they are hidden among the lies of our own stupidity and greed.

Background You walk on the busy road, among many other, daily workers, who try to reach their homes as quickly as possible after a hard-working day. It is almost dark, and the streetlights are on, some are busy buying a quick dinner. Among many who run toward buses, cars and trams, you walk slowly and for a second take your eyes across the gloomy sky. And you notice the abnormally huge, full moon. Just being present in the sky. And you remember that it takes a lot of courage for an ordinary man among thousands in the city to look at the sky. Simply they do not have time! And it reminded you the story of bravery. Story of bravery - the merchant. A long long time ago, there was a wise merchant. He was travelling with a heard of hundreds of camels, trading goods from town to town. And yearly, he would take a long journey across a vast desert which takes 50 nights to cross. As it is too hot during the day, they rest in the daytime, and at night the stars guide them with directions. And there were these stargazers who travel in the front of the group, who showed the way. That year was one of the hottest in decades when he took the journey with his heard of camels and men. And it took 49 days for him to travel to the edge of the desert, and the animals were tired as well as all his men, and the ones who lead the group, fell asleep on the 50th day. They did not have water to last another day, and it did not matter as they were supposed to reach the town next day. However following morning unfortunately, they found out that they were reached the place where they stayed the last night. Camels they have turned around as they had no one to show the way. Exhausted of heat and dehydration, many men had no energy to carry on for another day. Not without water. And animals were dying too. The merchant took a walk with few brave men of his group and was carefully looking for any sign of water. And he noticed a small green plant on a little sand mound. He asked his men to dig a hole. With hope they started to dig, and dig, and dig and the burning sun burnt all their courage. As the hole grew deeper, they were losing hope, and they met a dead end when they encountered a big rock at the bottom of the newly dug well. They gave up and it was depressing end, and they all, thought that they were doomed and never would see their families again. But the merchant thought otherwise. He jumped into the well and lied down. Kept his head on the rock and listened. With a smile he rose up and asked his men to be brave, gather all their courage to break the stone. And one man, stepped up, although exhausted he lifted the enormous hammer and slammed few times. Once the rock was cracked a gush of water came out. With delight everyone rejoiced and were saved at the end of the day. They successfully completed their journey. Story of bravery - The lion and the rabbit Once there was a rabbit. He was a nice rabbit, innocent rabbit and a cute one. He was sleeping under a tree, one day when it was about to rain. And suddenly there was a huge Noice, and the rabbit woke up in fear, and he saw the roaring sky coming down, as if it was falling down. "Oh my God! the sky is falling down" and he started to run shouting in fear. Hearing his screams and horror, other rabbits started to run. And they all believed the innocent nice, cute rabbit who has never lied to them before. Next were the Deers, they joined the rabbits. And this was becoming a sight to see, as buffalos followed the Deers, a group of fox, squirrels, peacocks, giraffes' elephants. Everyone was screaming in horror. The lion who was resting in his den woke up. Hearing all the Noice of animals he came out and roared. He was the king of the jungle, and animals stopped running. They were all looking afraid. The lion asked, why are you running? Some said, the Sky is falling down, it's the end of the world. The lion king did not believe this. So, he asked who saw it? There was nobody, but the elephants said they heard it from the Giraffes. And they said it was peacocks. And at the end after a long line of questioning the lion found out that it was the innocent, nice, cute rabbit who started all this havoc. And the lion offered to investigate this. He walked back all the way back to the place where the rabbit was sleeping before it all started and noticed, a huge coconut fallen on to a big leaf, and at that moment a lightning struck. And the lion knew. It was just a bad combination of impact it made with the lightning made the illusion of sky falling down, to the innocent rabbit who was day dreaming. And after the lion king explained what happened all the animals calmed down and went back to their homes. End of story of bravery. If you would like to be brave like the lion, I suggest you can start asking why ?

How many dimensions are there? There are many dimensions. If you are into mathematics or science in general, you would know this by now. And I am sure you have seen a couple of videos to understand the fourth, fifth dimensions. Some argue time is dimension. However, I think time is just an illusion created by mind comparing two events, while actually there is none. I have discussed this phenomenon in the book What is time ? The objective of this article is to illustrate the fact that our blindness to the third dimension of in our lives and show that mindfulness is key solution to the problem. There are many dimensions, you can say it is infinite. If you have learned about matrices, we can represent two dimensions in two numbers, three dimensions by three numbers. Hence there is no end to it. In reality we consider ourselves 3D creatures. Flatlanders. Remember the flatlanders (not the band but the book)? In the book "Flatland: Romance of many dimensions" Edwin A. Abbott invites us to imagine two-dimension world. Where there are only lines and even a 3D object passing through this flat world would be seen as a line. I find this a very good exercise for the mind to compare it with imagining a 4D world. How to imagine Fourth dimension? Imagine a square in a flat land. And reduce yourself to a 2d object and look at the square. What you would see is a line. Although you glide all around the square you would not find a way to get into the square. Just like a fortress. If you are inside similarly you cannot go out without breaking it. Now come back to your 3D world and look at a 3D cube. You do not see inside of it right? And if you travel all around this, still you cannot go in, and if you are inside of it, you cannot go out without breaking its walls. The problem is you are in a 3D world. You cannot see inside of it. But imagine you live in a 4D world. Someone in 4D world can see inside of it. Just like we can play magic on flatlanders by taking out something from inside the square without breaking its walls, a 4D man can take something out from inside a cube and keep it outside without breaking its walls. It doesn't stop there. Imagine crazy things that would happen. You would not be able to hide from this 4D man, as he would see everything from inside out in this 3D world. he would see your organs grow inside and how food moves through your Gut. How a cancer develops inside your body. He would be a walking CT scanner. More importantly he could disappear from our 3D world into the fourth dimension and appear again when he wants. It seems very interesting to trying to understand the fourth dimension. However philosophically I use this analogy to what happens when you start mindfulness. This is the simple truth that David Foster Wallace invited us to think about saying " This is water " in his book. Consider the following saying. "You go to work, wearing your new cloths, in your car driving through the traffic, leaving your home, just to earn enough money to settle the debts, that you made, by purchasing all this to live a relaxed life at your home." I can't remember who the great thinker was who thought of above, but it is the truth for most of us. What is the alternative? Travelling the world without any money? The problem is if everyone decided not to work, such a system would collapse in few months or years. It seems there is no alternative. We are kind of stuck in a loop of some kind of an abnormal 2D life where we cannot get out. Just like a flatlander stuck inside a square, we cannot see a way out. And that is the problem of our 3D world. I can see some 3D landers, live their whole lives grossly unaware of these problems. But there are plenty who do. For those who wants to break the illusions of a flat land, I invite you to practice mindfulness today. So, you can peek into the 4D world which hides truth from our eyes and find peace in silence. Life as a free fall It is a big risk to take a lifetime of decisions to depend on views which are shaped by our teachings, culture and science. As nobody can answer why we were born, It is a gamble. We have only information, given to us by our own ancestors to make these decisions.There is no difference between someone who gambles at a casino, someone who takes a cigarette for the first time in their hands or someone who wakes up early to go to the job, in his office.  We all take the free jump, pushed by our will. As all those decisions were made possible and limited by the information we received. We are clueless, risking our lives in everyday decisions, as we do not understand the limits of the current understanding in science and nature. What if life is a free fall, what if there is no destination but it's only a journey? What if we all are in a train which never stops?

Conquering countries. Conquering countries is easy, compared to conquering yourself. That is why it has happened over many times in our human history. It was just yesterday I watched a documentary on how Saddam Houssain, conquered Kuwait, for a brief period of time. You just need to be having a big army and a corrupted regimen; a cruel dictator can easily conquer a country. Compared to this conquering yourself is difficult. Even for the dictator himself. This is the exact message I have illustrated in the previous article, weak dictators of our history . Conquering yourself - Rene Descartes Can anyone conquer your body? Have you seen Bruce Lee, playing table tennis with two players with his Nun chuck? I read that he was short in one leg, however he could throw a punch to bring down a six-foot fighter. He had mastered conquering of the body and mind. If we try to wiggle the Nun chuck, the way he did it, we will injure ourselves. So, when Rene Descartes said, "Conquer yourself rather than the world" I could not agree more. Because I believe that this is the only thing a rational person could try to do in this chaotic world. It is not an easy task to conquer yourself. At least for me. And I believe it is harder than conquering anything. How can we do this, and why it is difficult? The problem is our monkey mind. Although we believe that we have full control of our thoughts and actions only when you start trying to conquer yourself that you would notice it is not so. During day-to-day activities we are so much distracted to see this process, but when you sit down to relax you would see. In meditation and mindfulness Imagine you try to meditate. Sit on a one place, close your eyes and start your attention on your breath. After a while the attention starts to drift. On sounds, on little discomforts in the body or on past experiences and images. It seems keeping attention on breath is the hardest thing to do. So, who controls your mind? if you are not doing it. If your own thoughts are uncontrollable, why do we think we have a free will. I can see it makes me uneasy. The monkey mind does not allow me to rest even when that is my intention of meditation. And if I started to fight against this nature, it gets worse, and I will have to do what the monkey says. I have seen great masters of mindfulness have given us the wisdom to overcome this situation. We have to acknowledge those sensations and 'Let it go'. The acknowledging and not fighting is the key to calming down the monkey. Why Rene Descartes is wrong. Walking meditation

Diabetic Foot. I was seated for a half an hour today to write an article and, It started to hurt my legs. I felt my sciatic nerve getting compressed too much from my own weight sandwiched between my pelvic bone and the plastic chair, and I did not move until I was done. Maybe I was in the zone of 'Flow'. So, I ended up having a temporary paresthesia when I tried to walk. Initially it was tingling sensation and then it went totally numb for five minutes. And gladly I was mindful about it hence made following observations. I am sure most of you would relate this with your past similar experience. Specially if you have some 'peripheral neuropathy' like in long standing diabetic patients. This is one part of having so called 'Diabetic foot'. As this is a philosophical article we do not have to go into details of diagnoses and causes, however knowing this would help us to understand the philosophy of perception. When I tried to walk, during so called numb period of my paresthesia, I felt like I am walking on a cushion. While actually I was walking on the tiles. I knew the sensation I am getting is wrong. I should feel the tiles 'hard' not soft. However, I could not deny, nothing has changed except my perception. This provokes some deep questions about philosophy of perception. Diabetic foot and Philosophy of Perception. I will stick to the facts first and separate my judgements on what happened. facts. The temporary paralysis has caused, some change in my perception of foot nerves. However, tiles, remains the same, Foot remains grossly same. Same tile, which was 'Hard' before is now 'Soft'. If I forget my previously learned idea that 'Tiles are hard'. I can now say 'Tiles are soft'. And this is true to the whole time my legs are numb. Tiles are hard' Is a judgment made in my consciousness. Although I felt hardness is in the tiles. This is a wrong idea. As hardness is not a property of the tile. It is a property of the brain. So, if we stick to the above facts we can say. Tiles are not hard or soft. Or we can say tiles are both hard and soft. Not think about this conclusion again. Tiles are not hard or soft. Tiles are both hard and soft. Imagine you go to your friends now, in a coffeehouse, you look at the tiles on the floor and say, "These tiles are not hard, or soft". And your friends will say you are mad. What nonsense are you talking about. But I was neither drunk nor was dreaming when I observed above facts. And we have done a rational conclusion with true facts. So, what is wrong? Let's expand this into a mental experiment now. Let's imagine a person who had a peripheral neuropathy all his life. He would perceive tiles as soft objects. They are soft, when he touches and walk on them. He would touch cloths and feel the same. But, as he has vision, he would see, Tile is not bendable, while cloth is. And if you throw a tile at someone, it will harm the person, but not the cloth. But obviously he is disadvantaged against survival. Similarly, some patients with peripheral neuropathy would not feel pain, or temperature in their hands and legs. They would injure themselves, burn themselves and later get even amputated due to these injuries getting worse. As you can see 'The tile being soft is wrong, as it clearly has a disadvantage on survival.' In conclusion we can say that, saying tile is hard is wrong. Tile seems neither hard, nor soft. It's just interaction with it generates the sensation. Truely speaking "Hardness" is only associated with this interaction. Hence, if there is no interaction, no Hardness. But somehow our minds tend to forget these simple facts and attribute hardness is a persistent property. However, it is temporary, when we understand it lasts only for the duration of the interaction. You can try this yourself. Look at some simple object on your table and understand why it feels hard, when even you are not touching it? The sky. I was looking at the sky, from the same spot, two days in a row. Yesterday sky seems to be beautiful than today. There was a golden cloud far away in the horizon, while today it was only gloomy clouds. Like the sky is sad. And I noticed all of these are just assumptions made by the mind process. The sky is not inherently good or bad. Just like a tile which is not hard or soft. It's just my mind playing tricks.