I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that’s all I do. You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a …
Time flies past, doesn’t it? The hair that you struggled to control and style now you have to find a hundred ways to stop it from falling Food takes longer to go through you, most times it just becomes part of you and refuses to leave, never mind all that exercise that you pretend to …
What role does choice play in our lives? I read a book somewhere that spoke about parallel realities. Every time we are faced with a choice, we make one and our lives go forward from that point on. But there is a possibility that the other choice is also made, and reality splits there so …
A trip to the bookstore… A trail mostly forgotten By most of us who find ‘better’ things to get busy with… A trip to the bookstore… A joyful journey to an exciting destination of discovery… A trip to the bookstore… one that brings back fond memories of Mecca Stores and a once in a month …
“Watch your thoughts, they become words;watch your words, they become actions;watch your actions, they become habits;watch your habits, they become character;watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” This quote is a favourite of many Instagrammers and finds its way to many WhatsApp message inboxes in a ‘good morning’ wrapping. It has been attributed to …
Dr. Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist and author of “Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence”, writes that we humans share ancestors with “bats, begonias and bacteria that go back at least 3.5 billion years.” Hanson describes these ancestors as living in a world of carrots and sticks. Carrots are rewards (food, sex, shelter), and sticks …
Aparigraha – not holding on to experiences, both positive and negative. Just experiencing. Emotions are just what you feel, not what you are. Suffering happens when you cannot let go, or distance yourself from negative emotions. Suffering also happens when you cling on to positive experiences, which by their very nature, are momentary – they have to end …
Amani Bhava – the concept of no-mind You may have heard of the Zen concept of no-mind. The term no-mind is shortened from Mushin no shin (無心の心), a Zen expression meaning the mind without mind and is also referred to as the state of “no–mindness“. Widely used in the context of martial arts, it denotes the state of mind when you …
Mother Nature – We are born from nature, we live by nature, and when we are gone, we become part of nature again. Dr. Qing Li is one of the world’ foremost authorities on the Japanese art of Shirin-yoku. Shirin means forest and yoku means bath. Shirin-yoku means bathing in the forest atmosphere, taking in the forest through our senses. उद्यान अवगाहन is a derivative …
Yesterday, we had a look at how Sanatana schools of thought address the concept of collective effervescence. Today, let’s look at embodiment. Most religions usually prescribe some kind of movement that marks the activity as devotional. Such movements are proven to enhance feelings of communion, similarity and trust, which means it makes a group of disparate …
