koolhead17
We all make a bucket list. How about we also make a list and keep it near us of all the things we are thankful for.
I was reading Ashtavakra-Gita yesterday. Thanks to Nirajan for recommending me. It is a 60-page discourse between King Janak and his guru Ashtavakra. I found the section on Bondage and Liberation hitting hard to me. I felt like sharing the same here.
When the mind desires or grieves things, accepts or rejects things, is pleased or displeased by things– this is bondage.
When the mind does not desire or grieve, accept or reject, become pleased or displeased, liberation is at hand.
If the mind is attached to any experience, this is bondage. When the mind is detached from all experience, this is liberation.
When there is no “I” there is only liberation. When “I” appears bondage appears with it. Knowing this, it is effortless to refrain from accepting and rejecting
Other quotes I had shared on Twitter earlier.
“You are what you eat.”, said a doctor friend to me last week. We are living in a different world post COVID. Some of us are on Long COVID. Its cure is still under process. It has made us take our minds and body more seriously.
As we age, we are only deteriorating on the health front: mental pressure, pollution, and food habits are making it only worse.
It took me good 35+ years to realize what all foods are harming me and how my brain reacts once I eat out because of the oil, meat best of the best places are serving.
Health is wealth is said for the same reason. What will you do with billions if your health is bad?
Is shame a currency used by a few manipulators, religious leaders, or society? Why are we so vulnerable to shaming?
The other day while speaking to a friend’s son heard about how other folks in his class make fun of his ponytail. Some of us are scared of sharing our photos on social media because of how we look or our skin color.
How can someone overcome this shame labeled to them by society?
It takes effort to make a peer group or adjust to a new glittery world. It requires a lot of learning and unlearning. It requires not taking anything personally and growing a thick skin.
Unlearning is mostly on stereotypes and underconfidence. Learning mostly on grabbing all the opportunities coming on the way.
We have limited time on this planet and so much to do for ourselves. Choose your tribe wisely, it can make or break your life.
Social media is full of stories about depression and how it is killing us all silently.
Is depression a disease? Are we born with it, some hormonal deficiency causing it? Or could it be our inflammable gut? If it requires medical support, we can cure it. Is it not?
But what about self-inflicting depression? The mental state which makes us go bonkers because of our unmet desires or torn ego? Or cloning artificial lifestyle, Or fake it till you make sermon and fall flat.
We want everything: money, glory, love, appreciation, and always be a winner. Like never settling for less, is it making us more depressed? Is depression a lifestyle disease?
Or depression is a byproduct of our fear of losing?
How can we live a life without expectations? Are we not living in a society whose fabric is cemented by expectations. Be it parents, friends, or siblings: each has their wishlists or the way they want us to be for them.
Bhagwad Gita says expectations are the root cause of our misery.
And stoic philosopher Epictetus talks about things in control and not in control.
The trench of expectations is too deep, and one becomes acetic or a misfit, depending on whose side you gauge.
Living in a society like a herd, we fall into the trench of never-ending expectations. We also call it responsibility or karma.
What can we do? If we are part of this society, we should give our best and help in whatever ways our loved ones. But, it should not come at price of our happiness and life principles.
I was going through Yash’s tweet and the random thought came.
Be here now is Ram Dass’s journey of life. The book starts with his origin and love for psychedelics and ends with him landing in India and meeting his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba.
A good amount of pages in a book are his scribbles under psychedelic state.
I liked reading the book and knowing how one can transform his life into many different worlds. The book covers various aspects of healthy living via yoga, meditations, and other ancient wisdom are also shared.
If you are in a zone of seeking something for your life and are open-minded, you should read this book. Personally, the biggest takeaway has been getting back to yoga after 25 years and in a short duration seeing its benefits apart from doing regular pranayam.
Lastly, as the title says: live your life moment to moment now. Past is gone. The future will come. Now is what we should live.
We are living in the hustle culture. We have to be always online, always doing something. We measure our blood glucose, sleep, water intake, and whatnot.
In the modern era of watching, Netflix has become the definition of being idle. Sitting silently, doing nothing, or getting disconnected from the world is unimaginable.
Our history suggests a lot of magic got created in an idle state. Archimedes found buoyancy while bathing, and Newton found gravity sitting in an apple orchid.
100 other similar inventions came at leisure not being on the go. Our brain needs to be lost time and again on its own.
Propaganda, marketing, or public sentiments has one thing in common: “narrative.” People agree, buy, relate or join a movement over narrative.
Take an example of crypto-mania: the movement started with the narrative of changing the banking system and making a better financial world. It has ended up with jobless youth getting into multi-level marketing.
Edward Barney took the cause of women’s freedom and liberty and got them addicted to smoking. The cigarette brands had access to a new customer base.
Gorge Bush lied to its public and rode on the nationalism wave by attacking Iraq, killing millions and wasting tonnes of taxpayers’ money and innocent civilians and American soldiers. He wanted revenge and put closer to 9/11 at all cost; building a narrative on nationalism was easy. And yes, he got away with it.
Indian media has forgotten about the rising prices but is building a narrative over religious hatred. It gets them viewership and money from the right-wing parties. In return, politicians win the election over religious hatred, not countries’ development. Changing the narrative and winning the election.