LISTENING

Man learns less by reading, more by observing and the maximum by listening. Research proves that we learn 80 per cent of what we know by listening but most of us absorb just 25 per cent of what we hear. Books are vocal words told in black and white. Speech is not always lip service. It can motivate, enlighten, guide, clarify, provoke, educate, inform and entertain.

Listening requires to be learnt. Everyone talks but only a few listen. We hear to overhear and drop to eavesdrop. Gettan, a Zen monk used to say, “When you have a talking mouth, you have no listening ears.” People love their own voice more than the symphony of Mozart. Read More...

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Fire is beautiful. One gets enthralled at viewing the sanguine sky during dawn and dusk. Fire maintains its eternal pristine purity. Air gets congested, water gets poisoned, earth gets polluted and sky becomes saturnine but fire remains untouched. Water tends to go down and fire always flares up. It aims high and stays pointed. If energy is directed upwards it is meditation and when it flows down the lane it is indulgence. Water cleanses but gets turbid. Fire distills without getting disturbed or distorted. Fire burns but also purifies, destroys but distills, scorches but synthesizes. Fire multiplies on its own. A spark can become an inferno and a leak can lead to a holocaust. Light envisages god and enlightenment implies realization. Read More...

A cup of Tea

An ounce of tea has gallons of antiquity. It is replete with resplendent history, mesmerizing mythology and appealing anecdotes to its credit. It is the oldest beverage and still widely drunk for its rejuvenating capacity and refreshing quality. It triggers the dimensions of our dynamism. To day, it competes only with water in consumption.

The origin of tea and the discovery of its taste were purely serendipity. Chinese emperor Shen Nung was a serious stickler for boiling water. Once, it was done in garden and the leaves from a nearby plant accidentally fell to render the water brown. The emperor drank the mixture and declared it a delicacy. He eulogized it as donor of ‘vigour of body, contentment of mind and determination of purpose’.Read More...

Battle and war

Exploitation is ubiquitous. It is found both in flora and fauna. Parasitic vines and insectivorous plants are not rare. Every organism fights, strives, struggles and exploits for survival and continuance.
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Darkness deciphered

Darkness is beautiful. It is ubiquitous and universal. Light highlights and darkness hides. Light is shallow and darkness is deep. Light was begotten by darkness. Light is not absolute. We have darkness dispersed even during the day and the intensity decides the hour. Transparency is a utopia and translucence is the reality. Shades of trees, shadows of beings, shelters of buildings are all darkness dissolved in doses.
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Desire to be desireless

Ascetics describe desire as devil and hedonists, as preface to pleasure. Many acknowledge desire as driving force and striving source for all progress.

Needs are to be distinguished from wants. Needs are limited and wants are infinite. When one fulfills needs, one is not labeled greedy. The basic requirements need not be sacrificed to become ‘Master of Austerities’.
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God is a verb

Our prayers are both conditional and conditioned. The viscosity of fear and gravity of grief determine the density of prayer. Prayer is popular, as it is easy to preach and practice. We are comfortable with rituals because others can perform them on our behalf. Affluence is the affordability to maximise sloth.
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Paradoxes of growth

Growth per se is insignificant. Proliferation has to be proportionate. Aptitude should match the age and spiritual advancement, mental calibre. Single dimensional expansion is baneful and worse than regression. We identify bulge with strength by mistake. Swelling should befit the girth of the finger, lest something must be incongruous.
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Envy

Envy is a master killer. It creeps as comparison, consolidates as denial and culminates as slander. It is the offshoot of inferiority disguising as faultfinding mechanism. It is obsession in passion, pessimism in attitude, narcissism in perversion, sadism in pleasure and thus the crest of all the demeaning dimensions and the crust of all deplorable degradations.
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Intelligence

Intelligence is neither inherited nor inborn. It is not a prerogative or proprietry of a particular person. Intelligence or imbecility is a moment to moment phenomenon and it is purely one’s own choice. Shrewdness or stupidity, sharpness or bluntness is a frame of mind. Acumen has got nothing to do with ancestry. No one knows the parental performances of prodigies. The family tree of outstanding musicians, poets, scientists and painters is still an arena of obscurity. The word ‘genius’ is not a derivative of ‘genes’. Imputing intelligence to racial ratings, communal chords and facial features assumes it as a concrete concept.
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Womb to tomb

Security is the greatest form of insecurity and is jeopardy in disguise. It is actually Janus-faced. There are only two places absolutely safe and secured: one the womb and other the tomb. They are also not entirely protected due to advent of science and paucity of space. Foeticide has become rampant and burial grounds are overcrowded. In some sepulchres, bodies are buried in standing posture. Some mausoleums are found encroached. There is a grave threat even to graveyards due to occupants in advance.
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Handwriting

The invention of the alphabet was a significant step in the human history. It constituted a better way of representing speech in any articulated language. It allowed all words to be fixed in written form with only a small set of phonetic signs. Before the advent of printing press, knowledge was transmitted only through hand written manuscripts and the mistakes were also meticulously carried over to the next generation. Employees were recruited with legible hand writing as the sole criterion to undertake such cumbersome work. All of them were rendered redundant with the invention of print medium. The practice of linking characters of the alphabet to produce the small letters used today in writing originated in the monasteries.
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Boredom

Boredom is a sign of intelligence. The utterly stupid and the highly enlightened – both never get bored. Only the brilliant feel doldrums with the regular routine things. The ordinary people crave for stereo typed events and long for the status quo to be maintained. Anything new shocks them and change would upset them.
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An eye on the eyes

Eyes reign supreme among the physical faculties. Nostrils function for the continuance of life. However, parents prefer to refer their wards as eyes. Eyes are special for they shed tears for aches and pains of all other organs. They are known for sacrificing their self-interest. They help in perusing the other parts but see not themselves.
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Colours

Colours make the world beautiful and rich. Indiscriminate ill treatment to nature may leave the globe black and white. Creative attempts are mere imitations, as per Aristotle. It is impossible to mimic the innumerable varieties of inimitable nature. No master craftsman can paint the sparkling snow clad peaks in dawn and dusk either with words or with brush. Firmament is a kaleidoscope changing its endless patterns from moment to moment offering infinite varieties to gaze and wonder.
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BEAUTY

Beauty is an abstract idea. It simply means sense of proportion. Any organ out of shape and anything out of place is considered repugnant. However, proportion is the concept concocted by constant conditioning. Region specific stipulation renders chunky physique, chubby nose or bulky lips appealing or repulsive. Elegance lies in the eyes of the beholder. It emanates from the mind and not from the sight.
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