I would explore my mind on various aspects of life and having a sense of acceptance that you might differ with my opinion. When I was in a college one day my friend told me “Yaar tu badi badi baatein nahi karta hai kya” I humbly replied that I have nothing to lose and I am a dreamer. Hope is a big thing, it gives you strength to say “…………..Continue until you find what makes a difference”. Life is a journey and happiness, sadness, love, anger, success, failure are just a part of it. Like I have said, Explore all the part of this journey and it must go on. Read these thoughts on different topics and add up your valuable comment if you want. As a learner it will be a privilege for me.
Why “The Lost Monk” –
Stephen Hawking quoted “The DNA in a human egg or sperm contains about three billion base pairs of nucleic acids. However, much of information coded in this sequence seems to be redundant or inactive. So total amount of useful information in our genes is probably something like a hundred million bits. By contrast, a paperback novel might contain two million bits of information. Therefore, a human is quivalent to about fifty Harry Potter books, and a major national library can contain about five million books or the ten trillion bits.”
Unknowingly, we are not aware of the capabilities of human mind which has evolved over the billions of years. Every human has tremendous capabilities but they are not aware of the information, intelligence and knowledge they are carrying with. Many people asked me the question that why did I have keep my blog’s name as “The Lost Monk” ?
I would like to elaborate it further, Buddha once said, “I pay respect to all the Buddha before me, all the Buddha around me and all the Buddha after me”. His name was Sidharth Gautama , Buddha was just the title given to him. Buddha means the enlighten one, the knowledgeable one. He told that there was Buddhas before him, also in his contemporary time and there will be Buddhas in the future as well. He also quoted, “the way is not in the sky, the way is in the heart”. He conveyed us that everyone is a Buddha, you, He, she and they all are Buddhas but we don’t have such realization that we all are contained with so much of information and intelligence in our body and mind so we are the lost one.
So I gave it a name “The Lost Monk”.
Monk doesn’t mean that you are a Sadhu (hermit) or something. Monk means you are above the emotions and you have control over your mind. Our thoughts and outer objects generate different kind of sensation in our body which led our actions accordingly. But we are the lost one because outer objects/emotions are handling our actions. Collection some information from book can add up to your knowledge but we all have that intelligence within us which no book can teach us. The moment we have that sense of self realization, our entire understanding changes, our action changes and our outcome also changes. It is a long journey and we are have lot of things to learn.
Friendship and growth
Your personality is the average outcome of your closest five friend whom you can count on your finger. If they are gymnastic guys, defiantly your personality will be full of knowledge of it and its impact. Same goes for aspirants, businessman and sports persons. I will give you a best example how your growth depends on your friendship. My friend Rohit and I used to take long walks during lunch hours and discuss lot of business ideas. We use to share how we would do in future in respect of our ideas. I had a idea of third party business module in adventure field which we discussed and tried to contact many start up in this field. We just had a try and in response to that we received calls with 20 to 25 % of commission if we generate business to them. This was nothing serious but a fun. We understand one thing that if you talk about growth and progress among the people who have same interest, you will grow in your life. We dropped this idea later but still continued our business talks and enjoyed it. One day we talked about the business of unique restaurant having only healthy food items and this led Rohit to start a small start up in Delhi. He opened his first restaurant in Delhi. He is doing great because it is a big achievement if a government employee think beyond of criticizing Modi or Cognress.
I am really proud of him and happy for him. I just wanted to elabrote that growth comes only if you talk about growth. Your friends and friendship plays a very important role here.
Now let me explain another situation here. A group of friends having good jobs and money. But they are just involved in parties, boozing and fagging. If you do not follow them in this entertainment they would call you a fool or psycho may be. They don’t talk growth, they don’t talk about knowledge, they don’t talk about philosophy and they don’t talk about learning. Do you think you will grow in life?
No! You will never. You are actually decaying in terms of knowledge, progress and learning. Earning money is not something which adds up to real personality but the attitude to acquire knowledge does. And if you have good friends around you, they will push you further even if they see a little space of improvement in life.
Another example of friendship is that group of friends with same ideology and they are just involved in criticizing individuals, government or the system. They have criticism to everything but contribution to nothing. There is a famous quote that “Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder”. If you see success, growth , positivity ,you will find it everywhere. If you count mistakes, if you see negativity you will invite negativity in life. Your approach decide your attitude. Progressive thoughts bring growth in life.
My girl Panda, having so much of potential in her sometime she is battling with her emotional issues which is leading her to fear of failure and anxiety. In response to that every day we are talking about growth, positivity and learning. She is becoming more confident and happier. She is ready to accept everything as it comes to her life. This is how we can build up positivity between us. She has tremendous capabilities and potential to achieve everything she has ever cherished. But when you have not a right approach to deal with it, you start losing your belief. I will tell her how many times I have failed in life but every single time I remember that glory is not in the falling but in standing back every time you fall. Your failure and success are just impermanent and play a little role in life but this journey of life must be beautiful.
We have to always remember it that “Journey is happiness, not the destination”. You can enjoy every aspect of life because it will bring more experience to your life. I have given a quote “The theory of universe” which gives us so much strength. Try to understand the value of these wordings
“वक़्त की बात है दोस्त
कि मजबूर भी मज़बूत हुआ करते है
शिद्दत से देख ऑसमा को ज़रा
सबसे बड़े अंधेरों से सबसे बड़े उजाले हुआ करते है”
Friendship, love and relations play a major role in our growth. A true kind of friendship /love is what brings the best in you and always leads you to progress. Friendship/love doesn’t mean that you can die for someone or what! But it means showing a right path when you are lost, pushing you more when you have failed in life, making you belive that you can do it to achieve something more and to stop you when you are at fault. Our today’s conversation can lead us to start a startup, to learn new skills and to build a dream which we had never discussed before. So make your friendship/relationship worth it and walk this journey with some beautiful memories.
If you are true friend of someone, please do not talk about people, do not indulge yourself in meaningless entertainment because it will give you nothing, instead of it “Talk about philosophy, talk about life, talk about progress and talk about dreams” it will design your life. Sometime life may not give you what you dream but it will always give you what you need.
Fragility and the opportunity
I have not read many books, even I could not prepare for civil exams because I could have not finished my set of NCERT. But I have a little experience of life many of journeys in different places. On the basis of this experience I write things, poetry and quotes which inspired me. Everything happens in life brings you a kind of opportunity. Lets us talk about fragility. Your fragility (worst time) works on the principle of uncertainty, randomness and unpredictability. I know a young man who had a beautiful mind but was in financial crises so he could not pay just Rs.150 /- for his school’s practical fees. He thought it was his worst time of life and nobody helps him. But this fragility brings him an opportunity to build up more durability that he becomes antifragile to such crises in life.
I know another young man who had a beautiful mind but could not succeed in engineering entrance exam and also failed in B.Sc. He thought this is the worst time of his life and he could not even face himself. But this fragility pushes him with more opportunity to be antifragile to failure.
I know a friend who was in relationship with a girl but after a 3-4 month they got a break up. She tortured him so much that he breakdown, could not handle the situation. He called me and told that he his committing suicide. I was in shock, did not understand how to react. But I convinced him that I will talk to girl. I called her but she was not ready to listen to me. Finally she listen me and I convinced her but she wanted a certificate of HIV of my friend. I know you are laughing because it seems very funny but it is a true story. I assure her of that since we had no choice and then we produce his HIV report to her. It was a happy break up then. In the evening we went to wine shop, purchased a bottle of old monk. After three peg my friend told me that it is his worst time. He titled me lord “Krishna” the savior. Since then he was careful regarding all the fun way relationships.
What did we notice in these three instances that life is so random, uncertain, unprintable and fragile. Another explanation “you are blind until your eyes are not wide opened”. Your assumptions of people on the basis of fragility are never a true assessment of someone’s true nature.
Economic cries, war, love adventures, disorders, emotional breakdown are fragile but benefit from it leads us to antifragility. Every time we are stronger than we were before. So fragility is a true opportunity to enhance your capabilities.
Meditation :
Having difficult time how somebody can still manage to wake up very cheerful in the morning?
We are lost in to the past or into the future and every action of our body is just derived by it. As a student when we prepared for exam we always thought of our selection or results. We are away from the reality that success and failure is impermanent. If you fail it brings another challenge to start harder to achieve that goal. If you succeed, new goal entered in life. Meditation gives you the opportunity to understand yourself. You can understand the depth of meditation by this quote
“Without the focus and clarity provided by this practice (vipasana meditation), I could not have written Sapience or Homo Dues. At least for me, meditation never came into conflict with scientific research. Rather, it has been another valuable tool in the scientific toolkit, espacailly when trying to understand the human mind”
——-Yoval Noah Harari , writer of Sapience, Homo Dues and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.
Meditation gives you the strength to understand your own mind. Have you ever thought of it how your brain generates these electrical signals to your mind in different situation? Our brain has really very complex system. No machine could have found the reason how our emotions works. Machine can read only these electrical signals but not the emotions. Meditation gives you a sense of realization of reality that our mind is a root cause of our suffering. Meditation also strengthens us to control over our mind. Once you start mastering it, you start observing reality as it is.
We all have accumulated so much of impurities over the years in our mind. Without the sense of realization it is stored systematically layer by layer in our mind. Like we wanted something desperately when we were in school but unfortunately we couldn’t get it. The sense of regret is stored in our mind though we moved on. Same for the other aspect of life. As a result of accumulation these impurities come out as anxiety, hatered, aversion, lust regret and desire and become a root cause of our sufferings. When we start observing the reality as it is, these impurities start eradicating from mind. When we have control over thoughts, we have control over mind and hence control over our actions. Read out these thoughts
“Coming back after seven months in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the western world as well as its capacity for rational thoughts. If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things— That’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline, you have to practice it”
—- Steve Jobs, on his India visit.
Meditation is tool which gives you a sense of clarity, focus and reality. You start being more, living more and accepting more. You start accepting yourself without changing your nature. You start accepting your failure, success, happiness and sorrows as the way they are. You start observing your surrounding with calmness and cheerfulness.
“That is why having trouble and struggle yet you can still manage to wake up very cheerful in the morning.”
Morality , Character and Reputation-
Morality is a subjective terms and it has a broad meaning. A man hankering morality is the most corrupted one. A man indulged in Rs.100/- Crore frauds are the same as a man who lied to his father about his drinking or smoking. First one is cheating to a public and second one to a father. So every person on the planet lied to someone for a reason but we had ignored it because of less weigh but on the other hand we have consider fraud as a immoral act .
Because the first one covered up by the law but what about to cheat someone with love, trust and belief? You can not define it because of the subjectivity. You have moral values if it is within the ambit of law. That is the true definition, may be !
Let us now talk about the reputation. Reputation is polished, impermanent and fragile. Reputation comes after immediate success, money or outer current actions which has strength to influence society. You might have seen many people around you that they have so much lean into social reputation so that they can earn acclaim from society but they do not have that much compassion in their heart. They may not have respect their parents, family members and friendship. They can show the boot licking attitude when they are in front you but they will never lose the opportunity to criticize you behind. Reputation can be built up within a day by organizing some social event, donation, contributing something to influence blind society. But on the other hand character is something which has been developed by over the years of ups & down, love & compassion, knowledge & sharing, care & friendship, brotherhood & family values and success & failure. Character is something when you have strength to appreciate people who had different opinion than you, when you do not talk about people behind their back and when you have true compassion in your heart.
Character is antifragile. Reputation can be destroyed within a second by person or society but character is something which is yours. It will always remain within you through the push & pull and hail or high water. Let us built a character rather than a reputation.
Karma is a bitch –
It is complicated to understand the existence of the universe. This corona virus outbreak has taught us that we are nothing but a cell that is very fragile. This has also proof that virus do not discriminate us. Virus is much more powerful than God. It is killing thousands of people irrespective of religion, cast and creed.
I was a hardcore believer when I was young but with the time my curiosity is towards reality. I am rational and non believer. I enjoy faith if it brings peace of mind. I had another belief of karma but it is also changing with the time. Einstine also quoted, “God do not play dice”.
I will show you some events below:
I was good in study in school. I helped to pass many of my friends in board exams. One of my friends later got selected in police. It was evening time when the result came out. One of my friend touches my feet and quoted, “Bhai ! You are a God for us” just because I helped them with my sheet and they passed the exams.
When we were preparing for engineering my younger brother use to write me kind of note. In one of them, he quoted, “Brother ! You are a God for me who guide me through the darkness”
My friends, who had no knowledge of competitive exams and I filled up their forms and they got their first job by attempting their first competitive exam of life later titled me as a ‘God’ believing that I had kind of contribution on this.
A girl quoted me, “I have not seen a God but you are not less than a God”.
My friend who was about to commit suicide because of his girlfriend titled me “God” because I helped him with peaceful break up and saved him.
What did you notice in these examples that God is a reflection of your Karma. When you have enough contribution and influence on someone’s life you are something meaningful to them.
But let’s talk about some contradiction here.
What about the karma of a terrorist?
Do you think Karma has all the control over it like what goes around comes around ? I think Karma can bring you result according to your capabilities. Karma cannot punish you for the wrong, law does. Like Hafiz Saeed has who had the mastermind of Mumbai attack is still alive with luxuries of life. Even, you might have seen all the corrupted people with all the luxuries of life. Does Karma punish them ?
Answer is ‘No’. They are not punished until they are caught by the enforcement agencies. They have looted millions of rupees and break down the back bone of the system. They are enjoying everything in life.
So karma is not a bitch. Our life is nothing but a mechanical cycle and it has nothing to do with Karma or God. Your good karma (as per your own definition) can brings you happiness, titles, success and fame but at the same time bad karma (as per your own definition) can bring you luxury , comfort, peace and happiness.
Your actions are fragile and impermanent, so mourning up on the past action will bring nothing but sadness in your life. There is nothing like “Karma is a bitch”. You will always receive all the things you deserve. If you have strong intention to get anything, you will get it by hook or crook, no matter what. It is up to you what you chose, either Karma or God. Just remember you do not lose your character while pursuing it because once it is lost, you lose everything.
Thank You for your valuable time.
Regards.
The Lost Monk
Ref: Brief Answers to the big questions- Stephen Hawking
Steve Jobs- Walter Issacson
Antifragility – Naseem Nicholas Taleb
Sapience – Youval Noah Harari
21 lessons for the 21st Century – Youval Noah Harari
(PS: These are just thoughts, nothing like philosophy or something. I am a human being like you and I might have not followed lot of things I had discussed above. I talk positivity, motivation, progress, learning and dreams. I have not written it to influence people but to explore ideas, life and adventures. I am not a good reader and very weak in English as well. So ignore all the grammatical mistakes and enjoy the ideas. Do not judge me on the basis of these writings because life has broader meaning than this. Moreover it is like “it is better not to judge me if you are not grown like me”. I hope it is a worth reading for all those who has little interest in life adventures.)
Lalit Hinrek 
2 replies on ““Adventure of a silent mind””
[…] lot of uncertainty all around. In my previous blog I had talked about life that how it works on “Adventure of a silent mind”. You have to understand one thing that attitude is something which defines our life. It can lead us […]
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[…] of uncertainty all around. In my previous blog I had talked about life that how it works on “Adventure of a silent mind”. You have to understand one thing that attitude is something which defines our life. It can lead us […]
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