If you are having trouble with insomnia, this is not the place for answers to your problems. Instead, this is going to be a descriptive way to look at life in a perspective of the sleep and wake. Average adult sleeps 7-8 hours per day, even more. If we consider this a fact, 20 years of your life you'd be sleeping. While rest of the world is functioning, the earth is rotating, while the ships are sailing and aero planes are flying all around the world, quarter of the world population is sleep at any given moment, if you consider the fact proximity of India and China maybe more than half asleep sometimes. Not Insomnia Since I started to fascinate by the world of books, novels specially, I became a night owl. I used to watch TV series late into the night. Often sleep after the midnight. I couldn't stop myself from reading a novel up until it finishes. One more chapter, before sleep. One more chapter before sleep. I would say to myself all night. Falling asleep only when I fear my parents figuring out that I have been up all night reading stupid novels. Later this passion would change, into watching films, TV series, learning programing languages, doing math while others are sleeping. It seems, I find interesting things year after year, which I cannot chose to stick to. But I would grab them with greed, and this had an effect that it became obvious to me, Sleeping is my enemy. My insomnia lesson So, all my youth even into middle life, sleeping I considered the enemy. Enemy which stopped me reaching a certain goal. Perhaps its finishing a novel, passing an exam or even partying with friends. (Latter was very rare, but we all want some nights not to end) Until I learned that there is a thing called insomnia. One day after middle years, I found I couldn't sleep. This time, for some reason, I was tired. I was tired, working away from home, depressed to the core from isolation, howling wind batting the rooftop, passing through the tiny holes of the ceiling bringing in freezing air inside. And I couldn't sleep. There was no one to talk, nothing to do. I didn't want to watch a film or read a novel. I wanted to sleep. But sleep did not come I was wide awake tired. I suffered for hours. It was agonizing. Sleeping was my enemy for my whole life, maybe I hated it so much that it was angry that night. It didn't come. I wasn't myself next day, but a tired broken drunkard who was daydreaming about sleep at work. Luckily, I embraced sleep following day soon as it arrived. And since then, I consider sleep as a privilege. A dream So, now I know how an 80-year-old man in a hospital bed struggle to sleep at night. I didn't realize what suffering they must be feeling, when they cannot have that peace which is provided free of charge by nature. Maybe you are a workaholic, in youth, and still would not value the sleep as much as your work hours, or leisure hours. As I said earlier, this gives me another perspective to look at my life. If the life is a continuum which is filled with tasks, any value we give to each, and every task is purely arbitrary. As an example, reading novel is not more valuable than watching TV, or studying, or sleeping or eating. The value given to any task is purely circumstantial and situational. When we say, studying is better than, sleeping that is just the perspective of a youth full of ambitions. But for elderly, they would not care for anything other than a simple sleep at night. One insomniac night taught me how to appreciate sleep. The question is What else are we taking for granted?

Have you considered sticky minds? Minds any, have this remarkable quality of being sticky. Sometimes I wonder that is the key to understanding life. The stickiness of mind. But, you can see this only when you strip the essential obvious and famous qualities of mind. If you do not understand I will list some examples for easy understanding. But try to ask the question, what is the sticky bit of each function of the mind? sticky Let's start with "Love". Some people say love is greed. I have written an entire article on definitions of love by famous people, hence would not go into that detail. But can you feel the sticky bit of every love that you ever felt? As a mother, as a daughter, as a brother, as a human, as an animal, as a being, you might have felt love. Even towards the heartless ruthless and meaningless nature sometimes. But I always know when I feel love that there is a bit, which is sticky. Which I cannot get rid of when the object of affection is no longer there. And when and if I try to remove this sticky bit, so I can go back to natural state of being pure, it hurts. Like I have been in the bushes all day and my legs are caught up in sticky thorns all over. How about success. I love success. Like a CEO. Like Agatha Christie. Like Jim Simmons . However, when I think about it, I see there is a little bit of stickiness as well. When I am too involved, too attached with the prospect it tends to hurt, when things go unpredictable ways. Even if I do not approve the external validity, success depends on internal values. And the sticky bit seems to be there whenever I try to pursue anything. Stickiness is there inside kindness. Inside generosity. Inside good human being. It is there inside a criminal deed, a child who wants a sweet. It is there in a sportsman, a fisherman, a doctor. I would be lying if I said stickiness is not there in these words. But, paradoxically there is no way I can get rid of it. As stickiness is there when I try to get rid of it. Stickiness to the "Non sticky state of the mind". By this time I am sure I have lost 99% of the readers. Either because what I am trying to say doesn't resonate with them, or unfortunately they are too busy to investigate phenomena of mind. In either case I am glad, as I want to inject non stickiness to the words I am saying. sticky stickers How to get rid of sticky minds? One way someone can tackle the problem of stickiness of mind, is by asking, not how to get rid of it. But what is it? Maybe acknowledging it is there is the reason, it is there. What if that stickiness of mind is just another approximation to the reality, but not the reality itself? This approach might have the capacity to liberate myself from searching for eternal non-stickiness. Which I do not have to worry if it wasn't there in the first place. I can only compare this to a limit of a function, more about which in next article.

In the back seat observing his colleagues, James was in doubt. The questions lingered in his mind throughout the night, made him disgusted at himself. The question which doubted the sanity of so-called human nature. And the question he did not dare to ask the smiling fellow human beings who were sharing seats of the round table with him. Are we not modern monkeys dressed as such for the occasion? He had plenty of doubt. Of course, these doubts did not come from a void, it was backed up by the evidence which accumulated on top of each other in a pile, like on a desk of a lawyer who is preparing himself to defend his client. This time the defendant was the inner monkey of Himself. So, James decided to carefully consider the evidence which obviously was mounting against plaintiff of his saint self. Monkeys He was at the get together, which was not a glamourous, end of year party or a birthday celebration, but a routine, dull get together that occasionally some people like to have under a shady dim light in a secret joint. Everyone was invited, everyone was present, and everyone knew each other well enough. And on top of that, if there had been a flimsy barrier between the sanity and humanity against the inner monkeyness, it was demolished in the first half an hour he was at the table, during the first round of Alcohol. Modern monkeys on a round table. He could see the humans disappear, and inner monkeys start to enjoy themselves. They start to gossip criticize and argue about prime ministers, middle east crisis, work stress, last year parties, women and their short dresses, secret affairs, Drugs, lust and profanity. By the time it was the past midnight, the monkeys would have intercourse on the table itself with imaginary monkeys if it was not a reality. What would have happened if there was a billion dollars backing up intensions of these monkey minds. Would there be any limit, an upper boundary, societal, judicial or otherwise, which cannot be broken in the name of experience. Maybe there was a truth after all that they wear cloths only to pretend that they are some kind of superior beings than regular monkeys. Let's party Yet he had seen them monkeys in the wild. Who wear no cloths, and who do not hide behind rigid walls of ethics, which were broken by alcohol and lust. They had no need to hide their anger against each other. They did not need to hide their affection, or attraction. It is natural, they might fight with themselves till death for the right to mate. Aren't they driven by same underlying forces that moved monkeys to behave in their group. What does these rituals mean when it comes to individual intensions? He could see each and every one playing their own selfish game, hidden behind the safety of social norms. But maybe, James was being harsh on himself. After all, what evil will it be done by a one more profane story? So, finally he decided to open his mouth and join in the conversation after wreaking his train of thoughts. Verdict is Guilty. Tonight He will be a modern monkey. Maybe tomorrow he will wake up a saint again, just in time before the Play begins.

Will was a Krill, in the movie happy feet. One day he decided to swim against its own swarm. The swarm contained a trillion krill, and all their lives krill had been just swimming with the swarm. But Will was different, he decided to see the end of the world by swimming opposite to its own swarm. And after so much swimming one day he was far away from its swarm. And what he saw was an amazing site. That whole swarm was just a gigantic ball of krill, and there was a whale, who was feeding itself from the swarm. The swarm that Will lived was the lunch for the whale. And Will who is a krill with a gigantic will was out of the reach, of the whale and would never be able to unsee the truth that he had seen. Even if he goes back to the swarm and tried to educate the other krill, it wouldn't work. As krill do not have much of a Will to follow their own thinking. Will the krill This may sound very unfamiliar scenario for someone who is novel to the subject of self examination. Yet it is a powerful way to illustrate what happens when we start to think on our own. Just like the Allegory of the Cave Example by Plato, the Will the Krill story shows us that to break the pattern of learned thinking one has to start a journey against the current of the natural flow. The natural flow of the world is to believe in things from the past. We start by learning correct sentences, correct mathematics and correct grammar. But only that when one truly master any of their craft will realise that the "correctness" Is just an assumed value. Arbitrarily given by ancestors, because it helps the longevity of an individual. If not the society. That is the way of the nature. The way of the nature Sometimes the way of the nature is stupid. The nature doesn't know how to overcome the problem of change. Hence it tries to preserve this by proliferation. A heard of buffaloes that walk across a savana are killed by crocodiles when they cross the river. Hunted by prides of lion and chased by hyenas. They die due to lack of food. But the nature overcome the problem by making a remarkable number of calves each year. Born with wobbly legs, in the meadows in monsoon season. Nature solve the problem by proliferation. I am not trying to be harsh on nature. Infact someone would argue that nature is not a thing and has no intention as such. And I would agree there. But by understanding that the stupidity of the nature helps us break the illusion that everything has a meaning. The matrix that we are stuck in is infact harder to break. As all we know, all others value is swimming with them. Like a bunch of krill, straight into the mouth of the whale. However, we are different. We are the mistake of the nature. Nature has given us a Will, that we can execute at our own terms. While all the humans follow other humans by fear, of being left out, some chose to swim In the opposite direction. I would not say thus is not a gamble. That is a risk. Going towards your own roots of existence is a gamble. But if you assume it is more risky than swimming with the swarm, you're wrong. Infact simple probability calculation will show that these two are just two random processes. And either one atleast have an equal chance of being correct. Numbers A krill with a will So, what would you do. I'm sure we all are a little more than Krills without wills who end up swimming inside digestive juices of a whale.

Maisie Brumble is a fictional character, who is the ultimate hero of the movie "The Sea Beast". And this is not the only quote that she happened to utter. She also said the history written in books can be wrong. And for the nature of it large part of historical records are actually wrong. But that is for the discussion on another day. Today, we can see why heroes are not always correct. Why you can be a hero and still be wrong? There is danger in a hero's journey. Every hero runs a course of multitude of calculated risks to win the title of the Hero at the end of the quest. Sometimes they never succeed. And when they do, they will go into the history books as brave people who conquered their fears against beasts. Who are such heroes? There are plenty, there are political leaders. Historical war heroes Like Napolean, Mathematical geniuses who dedicated their whole lives on cracking brain teasing equations that nobody wants to do. And there are local heroes in each and every town. In families, single mom's, elder brothers, head of a pack of wolf. As you can see everyone is a hero if you consider life as a pursuit and you are successful in your mission. But, that little wisdom from the children's movie marvel make me realize there is great danger in this view of life. Heroes What if we become a hero, winning a battle that not ours to fight? What if we chose the wrong game? This is the risk that we run when we chose to play the game of heroes according to society rules. The society is not always correct, in-fact time and time history has proven the society is proven to be wrong many more times than we think. 21st century is better than 20th century in every aspect of the human life. Hence, who were thinking that games of the 20th century were the games that brings meaning to life were wrong as we have defined better meanings to life. They were correct, relative to their own time and space but not anymore. We know historical mistakes of many such heroes. Consider Wehrmacht of Germany. They were considered heroes until they learned that it was a historical mistake of monumental size. So, if you think you have picked up the correct side in battles of 21st century wait until its 22nd century for our children to prove that we were heroic fools. How to overcome the problem? So, if you can be a hero and still be wrong, how can we get over this problem? Nobody wants to become a hero for wrong reasons. I think the solution is provided in the problem itself. You have to have some self-doubt in your course of actions. As you cannot postpone your game until you arrive at the 100% truth in your life. But, if you are willing to accept and keep opportunity to change your course of action every time, you traverse through time. Ultimately you might be able to 99.999% correct in your path. So, doubt your core believes, challenge them every night when you go to bed. What if the things you stand for doesn't exist? What if there is no Arian nation that persist? What if there is nothing called a perfect society? The time you spent on politics would be such a waste of time because of a one lunatic. Same goes to the family you try to save from the doom. Monumental Historical Mistakes. It might seem that you never reach a conclusion when you take this iterative approach to life. But it doesn't matter. Even mathematicians satisfy themselves with approximations. It really doesn't matter the ultimate truth is an empty space. But, knowing this yourself is hard unless we are willing to examine our own minds with rigorousness of a professor of life.

How about middle east crisis affecting you? Middle east is again on fire. More than ever, it has started to overspill into the global economy and even individuals in rural Africa are feeling the heat this time. Rising fuel prices, interrupted international cargo, cancelled commercial flights. Thousands of people stranded in airports. Even if you are living in the opposite corner of the world (If the world had corners in the first place) you will be feeling the pressure and tension of the WW3. Its, only just one lifetime passed since the last world war, and here we go again. Camel Rational person's response. So, what is the solution to the middle east crisis? Yes, I am speaking to you, the random person who is reading this article. The fact that you are reading this article makes me think that you are not a busy, CEO of a company, A leader of middle east country. Or a politician, or an Oil importer. It is likely you are a consumer, just having least amount of power and wealth. It is likely you are just a commoner, who is surviving with little bit of money earned through hard work barely enough to provide food for your loved ones and once a year vacation. Which you will have to postpone this year. So, now we have established the background, I would address to 99.99% of the world population. Think about it for a moment, What is the solution to the middle east Crisis? When I look at responses of my colleagues, general public and everyone who belongs to the 99.99% of the population, I can only laugh with myself. I think about it for a moment, I can see the rockets, launched, ships destroyed, markets collapsing. And I can see I can do nothing about it. I am not the president of the United States, neither of Iran. I am not an owner of an Oil company. I do not have shares. I am not stuck in an airport in the middle east. What good is I talking about it with my friends would do to resolve the issue. I am not even interested in going on a protest Infront of the US or Iran Embassy to stop the killings, even we are thousands of kilometers away from there. In-fact, I feel like it is one way flow. Like I am not the independent variable of this "Middle east crisis" function. My involvement would have no effect on the outcome. Crisis How does this differ from inaction? I do not mean that 0.01% who are directly involved in the ruling of the world, has no connection with the rest of the 99.99% of the population. I am not against action, according to the values and views of a person. If you are an Iranian, I would agree your choice to defend. If you are An Israeli, I would agree your rights for the land. But what I am thinking is me talking about something which is out of my scope of action, is stupid. So, I do not talk about it with my friends. I keep on laughing at the people who panic. They do not even know what their own scope of influence is. We can only change a limited number of variables. It is better to work on my writing while the rest of the world is fighting. As, that would have the ability to influence or make a change. Other than that, I still chose to spend my entire afternoons looking at the brilliant colors made by the sun reflecting on the middle east dust. There is enough stupidity in the world, that it would just do fine, without one stupid person. So, what is the solution to the middle east Crisis? Don't worry about it. And it is true for at least 99.99% of the population.

This is a topic I will revisit often enough so I remind myself how amazingly I can spend my own life If I was just aware of everything it has to offer in a given instant of time. The way we are going to look at it today is through the eyes of an economist at a budget line principle. I will give you a simple example. What is budget line principle? Imagine you have 1000 dollars which you can spend on anything you like. And you only have this amount for a whole month. Although there are thousands of products available, you will only use this on food and clothing and some medicine. As hunger and health are fundamental needs of a man. Now imagine you have 2000-dollar income. Then you might spend more on shelter. And little more on food. Increase your imaginary budget by 1000 dollars and see what happens. As the budget increases so does your needs. And at 5000 dollars per month income, I am sure you will become seriously overweight, unless you have mastered self-control. But unfortunately, we are animals, who have built in systems, that, naturally and automatically we will consume more when there is abundance. Hence, majority of the effluent society will race towards obesity. Piggy bank What is the solution to tackle unlimited abundance? A simple solution would be to reintroduce budget restraints on our spending. The important thing this does to our system of consumption is make us aware of our own spending and use it only on essential items. Because each and every choice we make would make us more restraining on our next choice. This has been used successfully in some of the modern weight reduction apps. Where you are allowed to "spend" imaginary cash on any item of food but within your budget constrain. As an example, if you have a budget of 20 dollars for your day, if you spent 10 on McDonald's you will be left with only 10 for two more meals. This has shown to be more successful than trying to diet on a regular basis (according to the Yale lecturer) This made me to think where else I can use budget constrain principle? What else is limiting in our day to day lives? How about time? You only have 24 hours per day. If you chose to watch films 6 hours straight, you must really value and enjoy doing that. Otherwise, you're going to suffer of the opportunity cost of 4 extra hours wasted of your life. How about viewing your life as 72 days. One day for each year. If you spent one more year doing those stupid Mundane tasks of achieving nothing, that is 71 more days (one less) to spend on other things which are important. Is it really worth to continue what you're doing? How about words you speak? Can we put a budget constrain on our words? Can you survive with speaking 100 words per day? How about 5 words. Just to notice how many unnecessary chits chat you do throughout the day which doesn't improve your or someone else's life? How about number of words, and examples I chose to give you in this article? How about I can use only 1000 words in each of my article, with a 3-minute reading time. So, I am aware of valuable human time spent on these words. Maybe it's just enough to pass my message and I would choose words wisely. Choose your words Wisely So, how else are you going to spend your rest of the day? Provided that you're aware of that the day would end at 12 midnight, maybe you should stop crying over whatever is gone and spend it on your pursuit.

I have great news for you. If you consider yourself, a sad angry or even antisocial, depressed negative person, Or even a cheerful, happy energetic one, it doesn't matter. As all these are temporary states of mind, just like the high and low tides of the sea. However, the good news is the inherent nature of mind is pure peacefulness. Yet, one has to reach this conclusion by themselves by extensive investigation of self. Inherent nature of mind is shining, like a polished diamond. The inherent nature of mind can only be seen when it is content enough and calm enough without external disturbances. As, by definition, mind is a surface which reflects the environment. So, if you live in a chaotic environment, with constant bombardment of unwanted information, the mind cannot calm down and settle itself. You may suspect that the mind is a very bad place, even label yourself, as anxious, angry, destructive human being. However, this is not at all true. Even in these circumstances the mind holds the capability of becoming its true self of being at peace. If you batter a child from the day 1 and deny any love or care, surely that child will grow into a criminal. Or a failure. Just like that if you batter your mind day in and out with stressors and unnecessary cravings, the mind will not show any content, instead it will be distressed all the time. This I think is not a modern-day problem. I am sure, even in the past people had their own problems, it may not have been the rising oil prices due to middle east crisis. Maybe it's just scarlet fever without any cure. Pealing onions How to reach inherent nature of mind? So, pauses are important. I would say very important midst of chaos. As it provides the opportunity for the stressed mind to relax. And reach its own true nature. The good news is that whatever happened prior to that moment in time, that mind choses to be at peace, would have no effect on its current status. Inherently mind, do not want to achieve any target. There is no chase of success. It is inherently content. It is inherently peaceful. Just like the peeling of an onion, will show more and more pure nature of its core. Just like opening of outer petals of a lotus, reveal its brighter and softer and pure inner self, you may find the mind is not the wrong doer. It is just a function which is observing the nature. The interpretation of the observations made by mind is what creates the chaos, unrest and uneasiness. In the heart of practice of mindfulness, we try to understand the core nature of mind. When it is at peace, when it is silent. I would not force oneself into such a state, which otherwise should be natural. Instead, I would plant few good habits. Like being with the nature. Letting silence fill the empty spaces of the day. And by feeding the mind with better information, than Trump News. So, day after day mind would know how to be at peace on its own. How about few breaths? to remind ourselves that we are still living. Polished diamonds

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" Photo by @WFozStories -X 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. Image @WFozStories -X Dr Seuss 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. https://unsplash.com/@picsbyjameslee 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! Philosophy of things -Thing 1 and thing 2

I have been fascinated by math equations for a second time in life. I used to love it as it stretched my brain capacity to the maximum as a teenager. Then the life happened and I had neither time nor the peace to tackle with brain teasing calculus. I never learned the calculus, so as I had a limited free time I thought I would give it a go again. Apart from Robert frost poems, and Ganong physiology I think Stewart's calculus is a best of its craft. Boy, Calculus is hard to self-study. So, I would guess a novel by Shakespear. But, this time around I have a little help called ChatGPT, which gives great explanations which suit my level of understanding. It is perfect getaway when I am stuck, and the other thing came to my mind is MINDFULNESS. calculus I am not going to discuss double integrals or partial derivatives, or any of the math stuff. But obviously I would tell you that calculus is at the heart of the modern understanding of the nature. If you study any subject to a reasonable advanced level, I am sure you will come across some models, and equations of functions, which fundamentally derived and modeled by using calculus. The reason behind this is the calculus is the study of change. If you read my previous article which I wrote about understanding time, in 2023, I wrote about infinite observations of a person can make on a falling leaf, if given enough time to comprehend. What I did not know at that time was calculus. And as calculus puts the framework to understanding such infinite possibilities of the changing world I would say you will come across it whenever there is a change needs to be described. Where do you think these changes occur? In fact, the question we should be asking ourselves is where does not change occur? As I can understand, everything is in motion relative to time, in one way or the other. In massive scale or in tiny fractional scale of particles. So, at the heart of chemistry, social science, engineering, or geography you will find formulas of some derivatives and integrals. But there is one place calculus cannot describe or model. And that is the function of human consciousness. And there is the topic for today's discussion. "CALCULUS OF MIND" Mindfulness - Calculus of mind Mind You cannot understand the mind function by a mathematical formula. As fundamentally you are the formula itself. But we can use principles of calculus to understand this fundamental function of life. The science is tricky here as we are bounded by our subjective understanding. So, we have another method which is called "Mindfulness". Mindfulness is none other than watching the mind function in the infinite timescale to see how the values (and) things change in mind relative to the time. However, just like the models made by mathematical formula is not the reality by itself but just an approximation of it, the conclusions the mind makes about itself by mindfulness process are not correct themselves, or not the reality itself. Maybe we should just call it another "derivative" or "integral". Useful, but limited. My question is, are you willing to make your own formula for the mind function? How is it doing lately? Positive?

I saw this wonderful story about a monk who asked the question in the book about "Paths" by Andras Gulyas. It is open access book about paths in general. As the story is a fascinating one and related to mindfulness, I thought of including it here. It is short however I will tell it in my own words. The origin of the story is in the book Su-La-Se One day a monk came to his teacher and asked. Teacher, I have been a monk for this long years, I have followed the path of ancient monks, to the best of my ability, I have meditated on mountain tops. Survived with one meal per day. I have spoken in soft words, walked in forest paths in silence. But, Who am I? I don't have answer to this. Who am I master? Can you give me an answer? Who am I? The old monk, saw the frustration and eagerness of the young monks' eyes. He was kind, he wanted to help. So, he asked the young monk. Not one but a series of questions. Son, did you wake up before sunrise today? Yes, master I did, I woke up before the sun. Did you groom yourself in cold water, and clean up your cave Yes, I did clean up myself. And cleaned my cave. Did you sweep the forest floor, and water the plants. Yes, I did clean the forest floor, watered the plants. Did you have your breakfast, from the nearby village? Yes, I walked with my bowl and had my breakfast from the village. Did you meditate afterwards, in the peaceful part of the monastery? Yes, I mediated for good half an hour in peace. Did you get confused after doing all that and came rushing to meet me? Yes, master! I did. I was so confused after that I came running to meet you. Did you ask the question "Who am I from Me?" Yes, master! I asked the question, "Who am I?" Can you please tell me who am I? Yes, I can. You are the one who, woke up this morning, before the sun, who groomed yourself in cold water and cleaned up your cave, who, swept the forest floor, watered the plants, who had the breakfast in the nearby village, and who meditated in the peace of the monastery, and who was confused, and asked the question who am I? You are all of that. There is nothing more and nothing less to that. Who is reading? Who am I? An essay type answer. Sometimes obvious answers to our question, is hardest to reach as it is too simple. Having been a student of mindfulness, having observed myself day after day, I would come to the same conclusion as the above young monk. The life, consciousness, or mind seems to be a mechanism which constantly deluding itself by trying to reach a conclusion about life. A definite answer to the question who am I? But it seems, answer to the question Who am I? is not a best response type. Answer to the Question is an essay type answer. Where a single sentence of that essay would not make any meaning, unless it is interpreted in context. Now at this point a real question someone would ask is, how can an essay contain a meaning, which is not there in individual letters by themselves. Isn't it all depending on the interpreter?

What are paths? I am sure you have taken a path, one day as a kid, to become an educated adult. You started on this path of babbling out monosyllables, and now you are reading this article written in sentences. I am sure there was a time that you could not do that. "Learning a language" is just a one path that we take in our lives. But there are numerous examples for paths. Consider following list of items as paths. A hiking trail up a mountain A road trip route from one city to another The trajectory of a thrown ball The orbit of a planet around a star The path of a river flowing to the sea A career progression (student → intern → professional → expert) A learning journey (basic math → algebra → calculus) The path of light through a lens A decision tree in problem-solving The browsing path through folders on a computer A path Anything which includes a movement through a trajectory, can be considered as having a path. In fact, this article seems to have a path of its own. First, I started by explaining a path, then a list of things which can be considered as paths and giving a definition from understanding of the examples. So, you are right at the middle of the way down the line I want you to take, as at the ending of the article I am going to show you what a destination is. Path -> movement What are destinations? Merrium Webster Definition 1 : a place to which one is journeying or to which something is sent when the package has reached its destination kept their destination secret 2 : a place worthy of travel or an extended visit a popular tourist destination —often used before another noun a destination restaurant a destination resort 3 : the purpose for which something is predetermined or destined 4 : an act of appointing, setting aside for a purpose, or predetermining Although above definition of destination came straight out of the Dictionary, I would say it doesn't capture the essentials of a destination. When I think about destinations, I can understand that it is different from paths, by having no paths. All paths can assume lead to destinations; some may point to the eternity. But destinations by definition should not have paths, but only paths leading towards it, or away from it. Destinations are for rest, lack of movement, or stillness. Path -> movement Destination -> stillness Destination - Venice Destination have no paths - What can you do with this knowledge? I would say plenty. Consider a life as a combination of both. When there is less movement, stillness, silence know that you are at a destination and enjoy the silence in mindfulness. On the other hand, when there is lot of movement, know that it is just a path. When you know characteristic of destination, you can even create your own moments of stillness. You do not have to wait until everything falls into the right place to stop the journey. If you are walking in the park, you can just sit on a bench to make it a destination. When there is no movement of the mind the mind itself will become destination. You may stay there as long as you want, as there is no need to take a path unless destination becomes hostile. Which is unlikely to happen in a hurry. When you are on vacation, make sure you bring your mind to the present, and enjoy the destination. Without letting it wonder into the past and future, into unknown paths. Isn't it a wonderful way to look at life?