Movies I recommend

Here are some movies which changed my perspective about life and helped me unfold spiritually

* Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
http://imdb.com/rg/an_share/title/title/tt0374546/

It is a beautiful story about the law of karma and it's consequences.

* The Tree of Life
http://imdb.com/rg/an_share/title/title/tt0478304/

A beautiful story which focuses on meta physics. About how everything is connected. About love and how life is meaningless without it. Evolution and human experience.

Learnings from "Learning about Learning course"

• Even if you practice 10 minutes everyday -- its OK as long as you do it everyday, preferably same time.
• Concentration playback is very important, idea is to if you do a mistake, it should be only once in life, learn from it and not repeat it.
• Time bound yourself for every small activity, it develops a sense of urgency and enforces concentration. Avoid distractions during a pomodoro.
• Live in the now everyday, don't carry your past, its like a burden. Live vibrantly in the eternal now.

The power of Belief

The Power of Belief - Mindset and Success: Eduard…: http://youtu.be/pN34FNbOKXc

Self control

Self Control: Dan Ariely at TEDxDuke: http://youtu.be/PPQhj6ktYSo

The first 20 hrs

The first 20 hours -- how to learn anything: 

from Josh: 

I know not

I know not , Sivas will be done. Let go of the illusion of control. I surrender to Sivas will. There is no more I.

Power of affirmation

Started reading this chapter.  Thanks God for giving me the will

Im not the doer

As days progress it is becoming increasingly easier for me to realize the fact that I'm not the doer. I am making a consistent and honest genuine effort to be clear at all times that I'm not the doer. Master oogway says this to master shifu very beautifully in kung fu panda

The panda will not realize his destiny nor will you realize yours until you let go of the illusion of control.

Watch

everyday i watch it, it watches itself. It has nice thoughts, it has bad thoughts. It is the saint, it is the sinner. It is fame and success, it is humiliation and loss. It is stability. It is change. It is creating new relationships and discarding old. Craving for old, discarding new. It is what it is. A self created principle. The great illusion which you dare to think of as real.

It is ambition and willpower, it is peace and being. It is addiction and instinctive. What gives it that power if it were unreal? It is the one which seeks answers for questions. I am Not that. I am ....

Surrender

One of the things that happen after complete surrender is the belief that all is Siva's will

Being completely stranded of all things which was valued once .... There still are few lurking desires. But most of the attachments were burnt by Him. Now there is no goal other than the Self remaining.

Things don't take place as we wish in life. It hasn't happened to me. Never did I know I would be here in life wherever I am. Never did I dream things that happened to me this year would happen. Yet fate had its own plans.

Don't have any clue when and where life will take a U turn. Thank God for whatever is available and move on. If it's not in your destiny it won't and can't come your way.

Life's lessons

Experiencing all the miseries of what material possessions can offer. Everything is temporary. Everything gives a temporary kick. Then after a few days the feeling of emptyness is back.

The mind is just not happy. It Feels lost. Nothing excites it anymore. It doesnt change. It has its own addictions. It has fear it has anger it has the desire to enjoy and continue its existence. It seeks continuity through ramification and seeking new goals and trying to convince itself of why the next carrot is better.

The mind got a lot of new seasons episodes, a beautiful LED TV 40 inch, new furniture, lots of new stuff. Yet after a few days the sense of unfulfilled feeling is back. Mind is after something else. After new goals. After new desires. After new carrots.

When it doesn't have something it seeks for it. When it does have something it forgets to appreciate the blessing and it is after something else.

Gurudeva states "A life of discipline is not an easy life, but it is a joyous one, with many soul satisfying rewards. Monastics follow their rigorous 24 hour protocol even in their dreams."

He further states "young souls merge with each other. Intermediate souls merge with projects & learning new things, merging with the mind & the intellect. Older souls Seeking the Self beyond the mind, merge with the Spirit & with the things spiritual. For them a pure and nearly perfect life calls. They intuitively know that the profound merger of Jiva in Siva is no easy task, to be accomplished in a weekend seminar or yoga class. So they go farther,they renounce, they take up the ideals of the four Vedas. Not to parrot them but to live them, just as did the Rishis of yore. That leads to the path of the renouncer, to the Sannyasin in the Indian tradition.

Excerpt from "living with Siva" from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniya Swami.

Be detached. Renounce. Live life like a drop of water on a lotus leaf.....

Let even one second be that of vigil and contemplation.

Being Detached

The whole process is designed to make you detached. I was in USA had everything around me including alcohol, best LED TV, comfortable hotel, but i had no interest in anything, because inside i was burning with an issue which is i was away from my family. But then everything came my way. New experiences which i had never expected, easy comfortable life.

The people who make you forcefully step outside of your comfort zone are the ones which make you detached / or make you aware of your attachments. Thanks to my wife -- she has played a great role in this. She made me aware of many of my attachments. Sleep, money and parents being some of those.

Inner room mate

Excerpt from the book "the untethered soul"

You're ready to grow when you finally realise that the"I" who is always talking inside will never be content. It always has a problem with something.

Before you had your current problem, there was a different problem. And if you're wise you will realise that after this one's gone,there will be another one.

The bottom line is, you'll never be free of problems until you're free from the part within that has so many problems.

Approaching death of the ego

Sometimes god gives our ego a new low. He redefines how much the ego should bend to humility. such an experience lightens the heart but leaves a memory and a mark.

I observe the same fear in people all around the world -- job related insecurity, old age and being single, divorced people who feel people with family are blessed, lonely people who resort to mindfulness and meditation. Happening all over the world. I attended a sangha meditation centre in Milwaukee and saw that a pediatrician was there, an old lawyer was there, a man who was about to get divorced was there, old women who are about to die were there, relative middle aged people who have gone through much sufferings were there.

Sometimes we don't understand why people dislike us -- but go deep inside them and it becomes clear the sufferings that they are going through and what it is which is making them hate us. when someone does something to you which you are not able to understand, it means there is something about you which you don't understand yourself. Why? because the same energy flows in them which is flowing in you. Everyone is behaving out of conditioning and therefore nobody is guilty. Yet nobody is innocent because they have a choice on how to use their energies. Wow -- such an awesome creation of God. He creates the world of opposites and gives a choice to souls.

Looking again at the back of the mind, there is nothing else other than the present moment all the time. memories is what makes the mind interfere. As UG Krishnamurthy says there is no way you can experience anything at all without the knowledge of it. The vicious cycle is such that Knowledge "enables" experiencer to experience and the experiences fortifies the knowledge. In the present moment there is no memory, no knowledge, no experience -- just beingness. Yet there is no word to describe the state. Buddha calls it emptyiness, Jesus called it the fullness of life. Yet they all describe the same thing.

Surrender

Anyatha Saranam Naasthi Tvameva Saranam Mama
Tasmat Karunya Bhavena Raksha Raksho Ganeshwara

I have no refuge but oh Lord. I surrender to you. With mercy and kindness please protect us from the problems