The Divine child - AK

Oh! Most noble child of the Crazy Kali,
Your soul is poetic and your song is mystic
But why doubt your own Mother?
She who is worshiped by the Trinity
and who is Divine Love personified
Will she forsake her own child?
Nay, Never, Not once in an eternity.

How can ignorance catch hold of thou?
Thou has risen from the Womb of Perfection
From Perfection is born Perfection
and what remains is only Perfection
So have declared the glorious seers of yore
who drank the holy milk of the Vedas.

You weep for your Mother
Who protects you in her very bosom
Shun this misery and bother
Arise, Awake and Shine
from the deep slumber of Maya,
You are Divine!  You are Divine! You are Divine!

-AK

Meditation and thoughts....

Whatever thoughts and emotions arise in meditation, allow them to rise and settle, like the waves in the ocean. Whatever you find yourself thinking, let that thought rise and settle, without any constraint. Don’t grasp at it, feed it, or indulge it, don’t cling to it, and don’t try to solidify it. Neither follow thoughts nor invite them; be like the ocean looking at its own waves, or the sky gazing down on the clouds that pass across it. You will soon find that thoughts are like the wind; they come and go. The secret is not to “think” about the thoughts but to allow them to flow through your mind, while keeping your mind free of afterthoughts.

Edge of the Cliff - God

When God leads you to the Edge of the Cliff, Trust Him fully and Let Go, Only One of Two Things will happen, Either He'll Catch You When You Fall, Or He'll teach You How to Fly! "

refutation 1:I think this question doesn't even arise, since God is leading you right ;) The trust that God is leading you doesn't leave any space for doubts and questions.

refutation 2:For a person with complete faith, the thought may not arise. But, it is obviously meant for someone who's faith is still not 100% firm. Why,  even Jesus during his last moments cried out - "Why Lord have you forsaken me..." - something like that.  The real test of the firmness of one's faith is when one is on the edge of a cliff...most of the times, we are not on the edge, in fact we are far from the edge.

The porcupine

Rumi likens the soul of the believer to the porcupine: when you beat it, it spreads out its quills and grows bigger!

There is an animal called the porcupine that grows big and
fat when beaten with a stick.
The more you beat it, the more it thrives: it grows stout
on the blows of a stick.
The true believer’s soul is a porcupine, for it grows stout
on the blows of suffering.
This is why the suffering of the prophets and saints is
greater than that of any other creature.

~ Jalaluddin Rumi (A.D. 1207--1273)

Socrates and Talmud

A Harvard scholar, Mr. Sean Goldstein approaches a learned Rabbi telling him that he has a Doctorate in philosophy, and would now like to learn the Talmud to round off or complete his knowledge. After summing him up for a few minutes, the Rabbi told him " I seriously doubt that you are ready to study Talmud. It’s the deepest book of our people. If you wish however I am willing to examine you in logic, and if you pass the test I will teach you Talmud. "

The young man agrees. Rabbi holds up two fingers " Two men come down a chimney. One comes with a clean face and the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?

The young man stares at the Rabbi. "Is that a test in Logic?” The Rabbi nods.

"The one with the dirty face washes his face" He answers wearily.

"Wrong. The one with the clean face washes his face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So the one with the clean face washes his face."

"Very clever" Says Goldstein. . "Give me another test"

The Rabbi again holds up two fingers " Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face and the other comes out with a dirty face. which one washes his face?

"We have already established that. The one with the clean face washes his face"

"Wrong. Each one washes his face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So the one with the clean face washes his face. When the one with the dirty face sees the one with the clean face washing his face, he also washes his face. So each one washes his face"

"I didn't think of that!" Says Goldstein. " It’s shocking to me that I could make an error in logic. Test me again!."

The Rabbi holds up two fingers " Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face and the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?

"Each one washes his face"

"Wrong. Neither one washes his face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. But when the one with clean face sees that the one with the dirty face doesn't wash his face, he also doesn't wash his face So neither one washes his face"

Goldstein is desperate. "I am qualified to study Talmud. Please give me one more test"

He groans when the Rabbi lifts his two fingers "Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face and the other comes out with
a dirty face. Which one washes his face?

"Neither one washes his face"

"Wrong. Do you now see, Sean, why Socrates logic is an insufficient basis for studying the Talmud? Tell me, how is it possible for two men to come down the same chimney, and for one to come out with a clean face and the other with a dirty face? Don’t you see? The whole question is narishkeit - foolishness - and if you spend your life trying to answers foolish questions, all your answers will be foolish."

Scarcity Thinking and Traps

Some of the other common mental traps we fall into because of scarcity thinking ....

* Everyone wants to be a star

* Everyone's in it for the money

*If it isn't a hit, it's a miss

*The only success is mass success

*"Direct to video"= bad

* "Self-published" =bad

*"Independent" = "They couldn't get a deal"

*Amateur=Amateurish

*Low-selling=low-quality

*If it were good, it would be popular

Adapted from Chris Anderson's - the Long tail.

Communism and Free-Market

During the Cold war, from 1958 to 1988 , some 50000 Soviet citizens traveled to the US, most touring an American supermarket on their trip. The supermarket showcased how a free-market economy could deliver abundant, affordable food and became a metaphor forf what capitalism could do and comunism could not. In his autobiography, Bois Yeltsin gave this account of his 1989 vist to a supermarket in Houston: "When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons , and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with desair for the Soviet people. That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! IT is terrible to think of it"

-Adapted from the Long Tail - by Chris Anderson (page 45)