It all starts with why. What is the most important question to ask? Without further explaining: the answer is "Who am I?" Rest of this article is about explaining why that is the most important question. Before proceeding I recommend you read about "why a question is a missed opportunity to question itself" In summary here I describe a method to question the problems in your life. Without trying to solve them like we were traditionally taught. Sometimes, questioning the question is a good way to think in different view and it leads to root cause of all problems. Which is me. One thing common to all your problems in life is, they are there because of you. It is not a fact which can be taken for granted. If you want to solve all your problems in life, it is rational to solve the problem of yourself. Every problem from basic (hunger thirst etc.) to advanced (how am I going to learn a new language type questions) all started when "I" was born. These problems were not there before I was there. And I have been solving these problems ever since I can remember. But there is never a day without new problems, and same things comes back again and again. So, the approach of solving problems is not a good one. It seems wise to try to solve the root cause of all my problems. Which is me. I have never come across a person who have a direct answer to this. Everyone has their own theory of this. If I ask a random person, who are you? he will either tell his name. Or point out things he does, like I am an accountant, a clerk or a driver etc. However, these are all things which "He" has, or "He" does. Even if he says ok, "I" am a being with a mind and a body, I can still ask if the mind is yours who are you? Or if he says I am a mind and a body I can ask, if you are a mind and a body, you are just two things, a mind and a body, where is "You" in it (What imaginary numbers teach about life). A singular thing called you is not there by that definition. As you can see answering the question who you are is a philosophical ocean. Where we can see no land to save us with answers. But as I have explained it is utmost important, we get this problem solved. Otherwise, we would be following blind instructions of past generations into the future. If there is a true science (read about science of nature), I believe it should answer this fundamental question of observer, without merely solving problems of what is observed. After method of exhausting every way to answer this question, you may wonder whether really is there 'I' exist. Or whether it is also just an illusion of the mind. What is the most important question you have? (Here in this poem the other day, I included the most important question in one of its lines. It is really unrelated to the problem. See whether you can figure it out. When you do, see how all the other questions in the poem magically vanish) Thank you for reading: What is the most important question to ask? You may also like to read Happiness paradox Statue of David and mindfulness

It seems a wise advice. But have you ever thought about it or just took it to be true as you felt it is true in the first instant. In what depth can we Analyse that statement. If you haven't already the poem - To catch the Happiness before it hides, is a good starting point. Once you grasped the idea, let's go deeper. Why it is a good idea to think about life as a journey not a destination? It seems, when we think about life as a destination it contradicts happiness as we will never be in that position until we reach our goal. In general, we spend more time trying to reach a goal than the time we savor the triumph of victory. Imagine a person training hard to win a cycle race. If he do not enjoy training, he is going to suffer a lot before even the race begins. And it is true only one winner is going to be in victory. If everyone enjoys the training, at least they all can enjoy even before the race begin. Even if you lost, the defeat is only going to be short lived. However, there are some occasions, that we will have to think about destination as well. This applies to places where you work as a team. You can read more about this in Nash equilibrium. Now we can question the above statement in more detail. What is the difference between a journey and a destination? Or what is the true meaning of a journey? Destination is some place, or a status. Which is a fixed in time or space. But a journey is something which moves. We are really speaking about a process. The nature of a process is that it is continuous. But when we think about a journey, in reality we can never think about a continuous process. At least our minds are not capable of understanding continuous nature. (understanding time) Let's understand this before we move on. Imagine you talk about the last trip you did. You went on a hike with a couple of your best friends to a top of a mountain. Now think about this journey. How does it feel like? You will have some photographs, you will remember some special places, and some special incidents clearly in your memory. However, is it the whole journey? Even if you videoed it continuously from the beginning to the end, still it would be only 60 frames per second. Our minds are not capable of understanding a continuous process at all. So, when we say life is a journey, it is erroneous as well (as we are talking about destinations with short intervals compared to a real continuous function). As we can never know a real journey (which is continuous process). No matter how we tried, it will always come as frames, of ideas, thoughts and feelings. But it is not what is really happening. Even if you try to describe something like a ball rolling on a slope. We will fall into the same trap. (arrow paradox) So, next time when someone says, "Life is not a destination but a Journey." Just don't argue with them to show you are wise. Just smile with them and enjoy your fixed frame. You may also like to read : Dual worlds and Plato's allegory of the cave.

In previous article I described about dual world solution to prevent myself demotivating to peruse targets of the world. I also mentioned there are separate rules of the nature which governs each of these worlds. Here I would like to describe some more details of these dual worlds. First for who are unfamiliar to philosophy I will briefly describe Plato's allegory of the Cave. Imagine a cave where there are several prisoners, they were prisoned in this underground world ever since they were born. Only things they would see are the walls in front of them. There is a fire which is unseen to them, and guards of this prison cast shadows on the prison walls, using some silhouettes of common things otherwise on the planet. They cast shadows of birds, trees, sun and moon, animals on the walls from time to time. Only things the prisoners know are these shadows and they have their own names to these shadows. They have their own theories how they work and about meaning of these things. Now imagine one day one prisoner escaped to the outside world. With surprise, he comes to understand nothing he seen in the prison are real. Instead, there are just shadows of the reality. Now he sees, hear and feel things differently. He thinks of going back to the cave and as an obligation try to explain the prisoners that those real things, they have seen are not real at all. What will be the response of the prisoners, if they have no ability to escape the prison? Now let's look at Plato's dual worlds Plato's dual worlds. It is obvious Plato tries to describe how difficult it is to explain ordinary people what he believed to be true. The prisoner escaped like a Seeker , Plato himself. He believed that there are "Forms" or ideas which are perfect by nature. Although we see copy of these platonic ideas, what we observe are not real. What we observe are just imperfect reflections of platonic forms. He believed by thinking about these forms and not getting too much involved in ordinary things he could achieve some form of immortality. (You can read about platonic forms here ) Imagine that these platonic forms are also not real. When the philosophy evolved more and more intellectuals questioned the pure nature of these forms and some even did not believe that they are the building blocks of the world. What if everything is just imagination. Although we all can think about a perfect circle, that doesn't prove there are perfect circles. And it doesn't prove there are circles. What if we all are in some kind of a dream? What is a good candidate for this second kind of the world? If there is such a world what the rules of such a world are? Rules of dual worlds. Rules of illusionary world are difficult. These are the rules we are taught by our teachers, our parents and our society. These are the rules which we read about and learn about and graduate about. These are the rules scientists do experiments about. Causes and their effects. We have to learn these rules to live and survive a world. Mathematics, chemistry geography, languages. Rules of Form on the other hand are easy. Everything seems to be ever changing. And change is the only constant thing which is persistent in the real world. There is no place to stop. So far this is the best explanation I have come across. What about you? Have you come across better rules of Form? Thank you for reading: Rules of Dual Worlds and Allegory of the Cave. You may also like to read: Deterministic world and free will.

I await my vacation tomorrow to fly far away from the foreign land. I wonder why I fly? wonder why in my sleep tonight. Is it because, The seats are booked paid upfront, already as I desire to fly to visit my home, family and friends? The plane has a pilot and a crew to take care of me on flight, to make me home, safely through the clouds and turbulences? The owners bought the company a new machine to add their fleet, to raise more capital, to spend on luxuries? Or the engineers attended in endeavoring task of perfect assembly of it, for the salary, they are paid by the hour by their employers. Why do I fly? Why do I fly? Is it because, It is faster than a ship, and I am not old enough yet to travel on a cruise until the retirement? Or else is it the wind which lift the metal up against all odds, which makes me fly tomorrow in the skies? Do I owe Wright brothers, or the people who died trying to build a marvelous machine of our times? Or the greed of the man, who wants everything to be conquered and controlled before he perishes? Why do I fly? Do I fly? Is it because, There is still plenty of oil to burn in the sky and the hole in Ozon is not big enough for the governments to make it banned? There are no missile launches scheduled tomorrow used in ballistic kind of wars? Or there are no storms, smooth running engines, well maintained craft and ground by crews? I fell asleep without no answers as too many variables were there for me to count. Thank you for reading: Why do I fly tomorrow? You may also like to read: Cockroach Ethics. Nature is beautiful- Robert frost

Have you ever wondered why there is still philosophy prevail and even flourish in the era of science? Undoubtably science have advanced in the last few centuries beyond earlier predictions and expectations giving answers to many of our questions, yet philosophy which is just imaginators science of humans still prevail. Why? From Aristotle to Plato to Friedrich Nietzsche, from western to eastern, philosophy still flourish. What function does it fulfill which science cannot? As a great admirer of science, I would go back to the scientific method to bring about answers to this question. As the scientific method is the tool which we use to build up our knowledge about the truth of nature. In science we deal with facts. Scientific method can be summarized in following steps. You find the question or a problem. Gather current information related to the problem to develop a hypothesis. Conduct an Experiment. Observe outcomes. Analyse outcomes and develop new conclusions to accept or reject hypothesis. It seems pretty clear. But when we do this kind of analysis there is a fundamental problem. There is a built-in error on the scientific method which science cannot answer and that is the why philosophy and religions still exist. It is not a scientific "error" as we find in experiments but an unavoidable problem. If I attempt to word that problem, it will be like following. The core part of scientific method is observing the outcomes. These observations are made by humans. Science assumes that observer is fixed when we measure outcomes. But the observer is never fixed. Observer is unique to each and every one of us and even animals. There is no way we can get away from this problem as we are separate from each other. Imagine we are measuring outcome of an experiment as Height of a cohort of people. Science assumes that the measurements made by a 'meter' is correct and that represents the true height of each person. But now think about two people thinking about a 'meter'. Clearly what length is meant by a meter is different for these two individuals and there is no way we can compare these two as we would never know they are thinking about the same thing when they talk about height. We can only assume they are talking about same thing. By definition scientific method assumes this is true, hence there is the problem of scientific method. "Scientific method itself include an assumption." By convention we are agreed about these scientific norms that nobody find this a problem to have a normal conversation. But when it comes to deeper level of understanding philosophy try to answer these questions and Will flourish and even take over science at some point in the future, when science starts to turn its experiments into human nature. Thank you for reading: Role of Philosophy in the era of science - scientific method. You may also like to read: How new inventions are made a philosopher's point of view. Nature of our greed and jealousy.

Angry Monster There is a monster, who is an angry big ugly looking one. He is coming to attack you. When you try to fight back the monster gets stronger and bigger, because it is growing out of your anger. If you continue to fight this monster at some point the monster will destroy you forever. So, how are you going to defeat this? It is by doing opposite of fighting, you practice kindness, and care, treat the monster with love in heart. The monster will soften each and every kind act and will become a lovely kitten at the end. Harmless being. Good story for a child, right? But exactly this is the kind of story to explain happiness paradox. Happiness paradox Let's change the characters of the story. Let Happiness be -> the victory you get. Monster be -> the pain you feel trying to acquire the happiness in the process. Your effort to find happiness -> the effort you put in to defeat the monster. The more you try to find the happiness, bigger the monster will become, and you will feel more pain, and farther the victory will be. That is the essence of the happiness paradox. It is not an uncommon thing to lose happiness in the battle of per suiting it. And it happens too often. This can be a reason more and more people are unhappy. Imagine yourself trying to get your salary increased this year, trying hard to impress your boss, and failing at the end. Or you fail your exam after months of hard work. How can we overcome such situations in life. Overall, how can be happy and content with our own life? So how can we get over with the problem? Solution to a happy life. Not surprisingly the answer lies in our little Monster story itself. If you stop the fighting with the monster, you will get the victory at the end. Hence, less you search for it, more you will have it. As happiness looks like a byproduct of a virtuous life. Happiness is a byproduct of a virtuous life. This is a root principle of Stoicism. For Stoics, living a virtuous life filled with wisdom, courage, justice and Temperence, will lead to happiness itself. Instead trying to tackle with the monster, they try to weaken the monster. In summary what Can you do? Only thing according to the happiness paradox, we can do is not focus on happiness itself when we do something. Instead, we can focus on peace, relaxation, serving others, gratitude etc. This will lead to happiness itself at the end. I will end the article with another story, which I read in a book by Ven. Ajahn Brahm. In a war, there was a commander who had a small platoon under his command. Battled by the long marches and tiredness, they had penetrated deep inside the enemy territory. One morning, as they camped inside a forest, his spotters came up with a very bad news, that they were surrounded by a big army of the enemy of several thousand of them, heavily equipped. It meant they were doomed. Commander looked at the worried faces of all his men. They were prepared to fight, and die for their country, Yet the wise commander had other plans. He gathered all men and asked them to prepare some tea and have breakfast. And they did it in silence. And half an hour later, spotters came back again, and said that enemy just marched without spotting them. At least, they didn't die in a futile battle on that day and some of them lived to see the end of war and go home. Thank you for reading: Happiness paradox and Stoicism- Story of the Angry monster You may also like to read: How are we different from a dung beetle? How to understand platonic love.

Have you ever heard about imaginary numbers? Following is a definition for imaginary numbers. Imaginary numbers were formulated to explain square root of negative numbers. I am quite sure you are not someone who is interested in mathematics. So, do not even try to understand these imaginations. We will start our discussion with REAL or even NATURAL numbers. Something we all love to do, count them. definition: Imaginary number (from Wikipedia- image) Skip the following! "An imaginary number is a real number multiplied by the imaginary uniti,[note 1] which is defined by its property i squared = −1.[1][2] The square of an imaginary number bi is −b squared. For example, 5i is an imaginary number, and its square is −25. The number zero is considered to be both real and imaginary." We all know how to count. We counted them with fingers, sticks, pencils, later with symbols. Although they are called natural numbers, if you think about it carefully, Numbers does not mean anything themselves. If it is difficult to grasp, consider the following example. If you said an apple, you could point out to an apple. If you said a tree, you could point out a tree. If you said one? you can point out to "number" one which is a symbol. but not the real "one" in a sense number are platonic (you can read about platonic ideas here) So, to speak the truth All numbers seem to be imaginary even Natural ones! Here is some magic Now let's imagine a watch. You had this beautiful Swiss watch which was a gift from one of your most valuable friends, who inherited it. Imagine it stopped working and you had to get it repaired. You gave it to a professional and next day when you go there you see he dismantled the watch, and all the pieces are placed over a white cloth on his table. Where is your watch now? Can you call the collection of pieces on the table as a watch? You can name each part if you try but the "watch is not there anymore." Following day, you come back, and you have your watch as re-assembled before. Working and fine. And wait, it is the same heap of metal and glass and everything else, but when at specific configuration there "appears" a watch. "A watch" is not a real thing it is still a mental object. Who is the magician? Can you see the magic of your mind? You can apply this to anything you know. More you see more you will understand how much magic we are living in. You will see even Atoms and Subatomic particles are mental objects. Would you like to know characteristics of these mental objects? If so, read: Objects of mind- mental representation You may also like to read: Definition of mindfulness Thank you for reading. What can imaginary numbers teach about life? - mental representation.

Imagine a typical day of yours. Since the start of the day, getting up from the bed up until now you have done hundreds of decisions making to give certain outcomes. Tiny decision makings. You have no doubt that you have made those decisions for yourself hence you would blame no-one but yourself if something goes wrong. Would you be surprised if I say some of the philosophers think otherwise? Some of them think, that whatever we think are not really our "free will" in action, but rather determined by the nature. Even before you were born! What would this so-called determinism do to our way of thinking? If such determinism is true, Everything which happened in the past and will happen in the future are pre-determined- there is no point of blaming anyone, not even yourself if something is not working properly. There is no true will for us. there is no way you can change the outcome. Although you think you are changing the outcome, that is already pre-determined by the laws of the nature. If we understand the fundamental laws of nature, we should be able to predict the future. And it appears it is not true at least for most of us. We really feel that we can change the outcome by conscious decision making. Imagine, in a world deterministic theory is considered true. A lawyer can argue his client, killed or raped someone solely because it was determined by the nature for it to happen. And the perpetrator can walk free. Such as society would be insane to live in. There are some observations in the nature to show that deterministic world may not exist as per se. As an example, in quantum physics the outcomes of a same experiment can be differ each time even if the conditions of the experiment are the same. Outcomes can vary and can be only given as a probability. What determines of these outcomes are not yet known. (some deterministic argue that still there are layers which we haven't explored hence, quantum physics itself doesn't argue that non-deterministic nature of the universe) Example: Imagine a physical experiment with certain x conditions are met, the outcome will be only A in a deterministic world. In a quantum experiment, although the certain x conditions are same, the outcome can be A, B and C with certain probability without clear explanation why that is so. Determinists (such as Einstein) argue there are certain rules we haven't yet understood to explain outcomes of a quantum experiment. Let's think that deterministic nature is not true and there is true randomness which effect, the causes and effects of the nature. It seems that when we lean towards non-determinism and true randomness, we can explain some of the phenomena we naturally see. Life seems to be a more of a random walk rather than a deterministic one. Even though some of our life events seems to be disastrous, they may eventually be the best things happened to us and vice versa. It is really unpredictable to determine what happens for you tomorrow depend on what you determine to do today. Yet, deterministic and non-deterministic both of these argue that we cannot have a true will. Determinists argue that our thoughts and actions are determined by nature. Non-determinists argue that our thoughts and actions are subjected to randomness. Both these arguments don't agree with a free will, outside the nature and randomness. It is chilling to think that there is a possibility that free will may not exist. What are your thoughts of a free will? Thank you for reading deterministic world and free will. You may also like to read the boy the dog and the mathematics A game of chess AI and life

If you asked me how to practice mindfulness. I would definitely say I would not give you set of instructions to follow. I am not capable of doing it as I am still a humble student of the great wisdom. Then you would think what the point if so, writing this article. I would say, 'wait- listen -my friend- I know I am not capable, but I know people who are capable. And this is the link to such a simple and complete guide to mindfulness. First for you who do not like to read beyond this point check out the link. It is a great guide by Ashin Tejaniya who has practiced and prepared the guide for people who are interested. You can download the PDF guide and follow it in your own time. Don't look down on the defilements, they will laugh at you. Once one of my teachers said, there are two kinds of knowledge. One type of knowledge you memorize. Other type of knowledge you memorize where to find. In essence these second type of knowledge we do not use routinely and yet we know, where to find if such a need occurred in the future. Above book by Ashin Tejaniya was a one such book I kept in my mind that I needed to access when I have time. So, keep it in your memory if you think one day you would start thinking about food for your mind to have a look. Here I will summarize few concepts presented in this book. Mindfulness practice presented in the book is not to be done one specific time of the day but throughout the life. It should be effortless and relaxed. Objective is to observe the mind without judgement. (judgements are defilements or values we give to mental objects) If there is stress and pain, doing this, something is wrong with the method. Such smooth mindfulness should gain momentum over time. In the land of thousand rivers, one day I walked onto a bridge. Alone, by myself. I can still picture the green mountain tops and trees covering each bank of the river. Majestic tropical trees shading parts of the massive water which runs down the river. I can remember the clouds and the reflections of them on the water. I looked down below. Water from upstream flew downstream passing under the bridge. And I continued to look, second after second, minute after minute, I could see new water replacing old water, still flowing downstream. It was continuous. There was no end to it. And I know the bridge is still there, water would be still flowing, if I went back and look at it tonight. There is something similar about the mind that these great teachers try to teach us about. Maybe one day It will occur to me. By writing about this wisdom, I have given you the power to change your mindfulness practice hoping it would help you the way it helped me. Thank you for reading, how to practice mindfulness - defilements. You may also like to read: fisherman and businessman story and life lessons. How to understand platonic love

Humans are the most creative animals on planet of earth as we have ability of innovation. We have everything which are necessary to invent most fearsome inventions to survive against a cruel nature otherwise. Now we do not see ourselves as vulnerable, yet God like powers, given by our innovations. We have become undoubtable rulers of the world. Have you ever thought how this innovation came to life? This is an attempt to identify the answer to the question, philosophy of innovation. It is almost 120years since Wright brothers took their flight to the sky in the first airplane, they built by themselves. It seems that they build it themselves. From the first appearance of it seems so. But the truth is we are not capable of doing such a great complex invention unless we build upon our ancestors. It is much clear that all those failed attempts which occurred before the Wright brothers influenced their invention to avoid those errors. Let's argue it is not true, for some truly genius inventions by single persons. Often, we see such inventions. Yet we cannot forget, no single human would survive without the love of a mother and the help of a family to survive those early years. Until we are enriched by our language and teachings. Only secondarily we become inventors. And that is our gift to the human race, increasing knowledge, contributed by us. I am often fascinated by the great minds which creates future for us, it may be Einstein, Stieve Jobbs or Elon musk. there Seems to be fountains of new interventions and ideas working in these minds all the time. How can they harvest such geniuses. Not only new inventions, even great artists of the history, Michelangelo for example. How did he create a great sculpture of David from a heartless chunk of a marble? We all know about all those great names. But what about unknown names. What about your and my father who build a playhouse for us? What about a builder who build a house and a farmer who grows some crops? They are also essentially building new things. They may not be new inventions. Yet those are unique inventions. What is the characteristic which is present in both, great inventors of our times and everyone else who builds something? One such characteristic common to every innovation is that it is an outcome of a suffering of a person. It seems the greater the suffering the more value is there in the item itself. Imagine Wright brothers, they took great effort and suffering, to build their flying machine. They had the idea of flying. Once the idea is deep rooted, they suffered a lot, months and years to build the flying machine. Once they did fly of course that ended their suffering and that made them happy. That is truly a negative way of looking at things! You may argue that that is not true. That they enjoyed every minute of working. Towards their goal. I am not suggesting that it is not. Yet, when we think, that our thoughts carry us to the skies, I just cannot imagine the suffering those thoughts brings upon us that we cannot do anything other than flying. Over the years these thoughts have made us crazy inventors. We build to destroy each other, and now even racing to Mars. And It seems time for us to stop and think and look at our own minds to end the suffering as solutions are surely not written in the space either. This idea of power of suffering to generate materialistic things was captured in comedy movie Brass Teapot 2012. Thank you for reading: How new inventions are made? - philosophy of innovation You may also like to read: Mental objects - characteristics How we are different from a dung beetle Egotism.

I have been tired. I think you have been too. A pair of tired people. I have been so tired that I could not even get up. Then I thought why? Do you know why? If you read the famous book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi about 'Flow' it gives some idea about root cause of our tiredness. The book itself is not about tiredness at all. Instead, it reads about the opposite of tiredness. He gives the idea of optimal state of the mind which is called 'flow' where an individual is continuously engaged in productive activity without thinking about time. We will dig deep into this idea to understand tiredness. Here I am not talking about physical tiredness, it is mental tiredness. Of course, if it is physical tiredness, you just have to rest. But, as you can understand, mental tiredness is taking a long time to recover, and even after physical rest it won't go away. Traditional approach to tiredness Traditional approach to overcome tiredness is to have a rest. We try to take a walk, try some meditation, relaxation and yoga. I think you have tried them all. To overcome tiredness, and these are very good techniques. If they work for you that is really good, you should continue with them. If they do not help, maybe we are addressing the wrong problem. Flow state of the mind. Imagine a person who love doing work. Imagine Elon musk, do you think he feels tiredness? He has built a technological empire around him and he is trying to travel to Mars, he has a mission vision and devotion. He is always pushing his boundaries, and his internal motivation drives him. I bet he do not feel tired, and he even feels sad when he goes to sleep as he has lot of working hours spend in sleep. Do you know why someone would feel such energy? Now imagine a farmer in Tibetan plateau. He wakes up in the morning, drives his cows into pastures, goes to his land plough it, sow it, and look after the crops. Plenty of work at home, plenty of work in field. He may feel physically tired end of the day. But I bet he doesn't feel mentally tired of because it will happen only if he is passionate about his work. That is the word, being passionate about the work. Which is a natural phenomenon. Why am I so tired? How to overcome tiredness If the work you are doing is not something you are passionate about, I suggest you would not fall into a flow state. The 'flow state' is when you do not feel tired about your work. There is a balance in your mind between accomplishment and progress. And you would not feel time passing. If you look at your life, you will identify some experiences from the past where you have been in flow states. And that is the kind of work you should be doing every day. Imagine how much your life can change and how much progress you can make if you get into a flow state on your work. One day you might land on Mars. So, for anyone who is thinking on a tireless work, and a healthy career advice is to find something passionate about and do not be afraid of changing otherwise. Even if it is less pay than what you are being paid now, in long term it will be beneficial. Remember, happiness cannot be bought with any amount of money. If you do not agree, ask rich. In summary Flow is an optimal state of mind where you can continuously work without feeling tired. Flow state arise naturally when you are doing an activity which is pushing your boundaries as well as inherently rewarding and is key to overcome tiredness. To get into flow state you will have to choose work which you are passionate about. You may be helped by relaxation exercise and meditation, which may or may not improve your tiredness, however 'flow' helps in the long term. Thank you for reading: Why Am I so tired? How to overcome? You may also like to read: Pomodoro's and growing trees, how to hack smartphones for study? What is a life well spent?

How often we would like to hear a story? Ah ! such good times of childhood. We all loved a good story. It made us to imagine things, carried us in dreams woven with real and fantacy world. Here I will tell you a once upon a time story about a scarecrow. Stories are told for different purposes. Often, they are for entertainment. However, some are good enough to carry throughout our lives as they carry the message of wisdom. This is one such story. Bear with me its short. But its message is deep enough to the core. Story: Once upon a time a man, went on a journey. I really do not know where he was from, and where he was going to. Yet, he came across a vast field. (Like ones they have in Russsia). He had to cross the field. On the middle of the field there was a scarecrow. He passed the scarecrow to get to the other side of the field. There at the other side of the field he met another man. And alas ! I really do not know what he was doing there and what he was up to. Don't ask me ! Imagine and help me with the story. The second man, was looking at the field and he was about to cross to the other side of the field too. And he saw the scarecrow in the middle of the field and he mistook it for a man. And he asked from the first man. Is there a man in the field? The first guy was wise, he said " I wouldn't say there is a man " Is there no man in the field? Still wise, he said " I wouldn't say there is no man " And the first guy now angry he said, "Is there a man, or no man? One must be true?" First guy, smiled and said, "Neither is true my friend, why don't you take the path, and see for yourself? " And he carried on his journey. That is it. And that is the complete story. For the ones who understand it completely you can skip the rest. For others like me, I will try to explain what it means in simple terms. Meaning: Simply said the question of the first man is wrong each time. He attributed the figure to a man, which is fundamentally wrong. When he asked the first question he was wrong because he never thought that there is a scarecrow. A scarecrow is not "a man". If the wise guy agrees or disagrees to the first guy he also have to first agree to the illusion of a man, which was never there. When he asked the second qestion still he was wrong because he still did not think it is a scarecrow. A scarecrow is not a "no man" Do you follow the thought process of the wise guy? Still if you do not, do not give up. Read it again. Think about it again. There is a lifetime of wisdom hidden in the story. Hope you will find it one day. And when you do. Drop a comment. You may also like to read: Falling leaves in Autumn Hailstorms in summer (Poem and story) Horse races and rat races