7 year itch

Actually Its  8 years since this blog has started! First post was on 19/01/2009.
It was when Obama became president and my heart had leapt with joy.
Incidentally Yesterday it was Trump :-)

Full circle shall we say?

Now TBD is like a dear friend who I come back to ever so often, conversation between the me I was and the me I am.  I am glad I kept this blog. 

Demystifying mindfulness assignment 1

Instructions

Write a short reflection about which of the stereotypes discussed in this module means most to you? Which is most similar to your own opinions, which furthest away? Do you recognise yourself in any of them? Are you a mindfulness ninja? Do you fear becoming a zombie? Do you have a view on whether such stereotypes have use or value? Are they useful for you? Write 250-500 words.

How do you relate to the grand preconceptions?

I find the 4 archetype preconceptions of mindfulness really accurate and relatable, When I tell people I meditate, I am guaranteed to get one of the prejudices listed under one of the archetypes back. The jokes like "Do u levitate?" and "Can you tell me what I am thinking?", The moans like "I cant meditate I cant sit in lotus" , those that offer you a joint!! :)  those that assume that you are going to run away to Himalayas and warn your mother, those who keep their meditation secret to avoid controversy with religious relatives, I seem to have met them all !! 

What about me? What are my prejudices? I have been doing mediation and mindfulness practices for a long time, I think I first came into mediation from the ninja angle. I do believe in super powers and magic and I believe in Yoda from star wars ;) Okay, I don't actually believe it, But I am curious and I want to find out, so What drew me in was the curiosity towards the esoteric and magical. Also the spiritual, the need for calm, the need for more control over emotions and drama, this can relate to the monk and also to the ninja. For me meditation and mindfulness are inseparable from spirituality. I am from India, the birth place of Buddhism and yoga. As I see it, these practices were developed by the yogis and by Buddha to find out about the nature of reality, to find enlightenment, and Not to reduce stress or to make us happy. So may be I am more monk than a ninja at this point in my life. My main driver is curiosity and goal is probably enlightenment. lofty eh ;)

 I find that I do not have any negative preconception about mindfulness at all, I do not fear being mindless or being irresponsible like the hippie at all. I have a lot of respect for knowledge from all cultures, especially Indian and Buddhist, unlike the scientist archetype who views all non European knowledge suspiciously. I am very scientific and I find the cultivation of curiosity and  experimentation with the self a scientific pursuit, Why does the scientist archetype only trust peer reviewed papers and not his own experiences and experiments? He would have been mindful 40 years earlier if he didn't wait for someone to research on it.  
 Being still un-enlightened, I find myself ever so slightly annoyed (:-p) by the people who think mindfulness and detachment will make you a zombie, It is exactly the opposite, we are almost zombie now and we need to be aware! 
I do encounter a lot of hippie archetype people in the mindfulness and meditation circles, my view of hippie is neutral, neither positive nor negative.That being said, I too am looking for self transformation by mindfulness like all the archetypes 

Got a comment that this reads more like a blog than an assignment! very perceptive of that reviewer :-) 

Pushing myself gyan

few tricks to start new practices like exercise meditation etc etc
 Pushing myself is good - It brings about a drastic change. This attitude change happened after running.Last year or so I m being easy on myself...hesitant to push .  I have learnt the benefits of pushing myself beyond myself by that one run. we ran like crazy and I was making weird noises from my mouth while breathing but still ran and that HUGELY increased my stamina! which was just refusing to budge inspite of mild runs from 6 months. so yo! :-) let us push it!

Also taking body and mind into confidence rather than trying to trick them also helps. Ask mind and body for cooperation and help, When body says too tired, legs paining, instead of saying just one more step, say see let us run till home, it will help me feel good and build body stronger.. Is it really the state that we cant take one step forward? Only then lets stop. body didnt stop. Sometimes mind makes excuses like -boring lets stop etc.. then talk to mind also.. see it will make us feel good.. let us do it.or just notice that mind is trying to get out of it... Instead of trying to distract and lie to mind may be taking them both(body and mind) into confidence will improve performance.
( I wonder how sometimes it so much fun that all this is not required ! Ah that state! I wonder how to get their volunterily)
Strategy for any new practice is - to begin with - just do it, goodly/badly doesnot matter, do it half baked what ever.. then once u get slightly comfortable then concentrate on doing it right. once that is done then performance and pushing. Also one more thing I learnt is never to compromise fun for ..for anything. they day I started counting number of laps in the swimming pool - swiming became less fun, it was more about 20/30 laps..  pushing is good, but statistics and numbers are ok as long as they dont stop the fun,

true value

Does anything any inherent value or Is value of something always context sensitive?
If I write the code in India I get paid 1000£  a month and in UK 5000£
If you clean houses you get paid 1£ for an hour in India and 10£ in UK.

Economy is not real, capitalism is not real, how can the price of something go up because more people want it? price which is governed by demand and supply it is totally wrong.
Or is it?
Anti snake venom is useless to me now, but after I have been bitten by a snake, it is most valuable.
but if I were selling snake venom, would I charge exorbitant rates for people already bitten by snakes and low prices for people who haven't?

Inherent value of an item is the time and effort required to make it/get it.
That also somewhat goes up and down with demand, For example things which are in great demand sometimes are cheaper because it is easy to mass produce ( this is true only after industrial revolution? ) but still remains the same. Should things be priced more like this? price = cost + little bit more for my sustainance. The definition of little bit more may be varies based on the greed( or need? ) of the person.


Another type of economy is need based. Basically venom in priceless. I make anti venom and I give to you for free when u get bitten. in exchange I get food water shelter. somewhat like our body, liver is not asking for money to clean our body and white blood cells are happy with oxygen and nutrition and do the killing for you. Brain gets more blood than most other parts because it needs it, not because it wants it.
Is this economic model better? Healthier? Can this kind of model even work for humans?   Or will Human nature get in the way of this Utopia.

The cells and organs dont get vacations, dont get weekend off even :D who will pay for the weekends and holidays and the fast cars? :D can we have luxury in such an economy? How do u divide the tasks? Some tasks have to be forced on some people. or use robots to do tasks no one wants to do? or  u do it like karma yoga i,e all tasks are equal, Its easy to say but is it practical?
Is it at all possible to get rid of this unfair system we have now?

JalliKattu

 In spirituality (meaning in philosophy, new age, meditation related books/articles/courses etc) They say dont fight with things u want to get rid of, It gives it more power and makes those things more powerful.
For example when you are trying to meditate dont try to fight your toughts
when you are trying to be virtuous dont try to fight your desires
when you are trying to be calm dont fight your anger etc

In prancing healing they say dont fight negative energy, when u oppose it, you energize it. Its like newtons 3rd law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, like walking, you push the earth to move forward, If earth didnt resist we wouldnt move forward. Its like Judo, the opponent can use ur power against you.

So the main trick to learn for spritual advancement is to let go of resistance and the quality of fighting.

JalliKattu reminded me of this, It was probably a dying practice followed in a few small villages in TamilNadu, Dont know about TamilNadu but rest of India or the world surely didn't know or care about it.
PETA went and created a hue and cry about animal cruelty ( they may have a point  ) and they got it banned by the supreme court. See now what has happened, The whole of Tamil nadu is behind JalliKattu, The practice which probably would have disappeared in 10 years by itself ( Dont know if that would have been good or bad, but atleast thats what PETA wants) has become the identity of a Tamilian.
This is one tight slap to by "Rebel" attitude, Isnt this a good example that diplomacy is better than open rebellion?!
 I am not ready to accept that, my heart still hates diplomacy, it is after all treachery. :-P 

What is the solution then? In case of thoughts or desires or negativity, the solution is to observe and understand them, apparently they desolve. There is a difference between doing nothing ( which is denial) and observing and understanding ( which may look like doing nothing, but the effect is different)  instead of fighting or resisting them.
Same goes here, people should look for a common solution, not a solution which involves tricking people into giving up Jallikattu which diplomacy would achieve, but finding a common ground. Save the Indian Cow Breeds, Dont judge the local culture but try to understand why they do what they do.

( Inspite of all this gyan,  I hate Karva Chout , It is sick and anyone who "chooses" to follows it, is still  a stupid ass woman, Same goes to Burka, any one who chooses burqa is  ****** ;-)   :D )