Life

I have a lot of cousins in USA who have had good lives. Lived the life which I wanted to live. Sid, my Mama, etc. He had a life which there was no shortage of money , healthy kids, care of parents and their presence all over until their end.

What's it that I learn from their lives ? That yes despite that ideal life -- one has to let go of everything sooner or later.

Seeing the movie "The curious case of Benjamin Button" where his life runs in reverse direction. Born old and grows younger every day. The maturity of an old man in a youthful body.

Everyday is just gone in attempting to make oneself or your near and dear ones happy. Why all this accumulation of wealth when there comes a time where your ears listen less, eyes see less, sleepiness and tiredness takes over ?

This continued cycle of birth and death is a pain and suffering and one has to be free from it by going back to a Guru and learning yoga.

New Learnings

Didn't get a chance to blog for a while. Have to get this going. Have had a lot of experiences over the year

Leadership is about taking charge. The key is not hurting anyone while doing so.

This requires knowing the job and knowing the people who do the job

Take charge of your body and mind

Experience everything that you want to experience. Remember the law of karma.

Concentrate deeply and DO one thing at a time. It's very simple to get things done in the world if you believe it.

Remember that nothing can affect you or even touch you

Leave the world alone and change your conceptions of yourself

The "untethered soul" book learnings

Thanks to my Milwaukee colleague who recommended this book

• We do only two things in life: cling and resist

• Living life with the mentality of dying any moment will make you more accommodating of people, more patient with circumstances and more soft and pliable. In other words - death teaches us how to live.

• Who are you that is lost and trying to find yourself? The concept of you and your world and your clinging and your resistance was created by you out of nothing. You created the dark clouds (thoughts) around and now trying to find who exactly are you in those clouds?

• Do your dharma (duties) well and then it will clear you from your karma

• The inner room mate is always there trying to tell you something, it doesn't let you stay quiet. Surrender to His will and stay so, The "quiet" will come.

• We end up meeting our destiny in the path we take to avoid it (this line is from Kung Fu Panda actually).

• Everything is predetermined. Its an illusion to think you are under control. You can will what you wish, but can you will what you must wish?

• Use the circumstances offered by life to free yourself by staying as the subject. Do not ever try to identify yourself with the objects

• Sometimes when the ego is watching the object, it suffers or enjoys, becomes the possessor or loser, owns or disowns. So both the subject and the object are the creations of the mind only.

• First the one became two, and then more vrittis followed. Know that the moment you name/give a sound/form for something, you have switched from nonduality to duality.

• Lack of inner resources leads to laziness and boredom.

• All the states that you want to attain in life are already present in the mind.

• That emptiness is the fullness of everything. Say loudly "Siva's will be done" and stay quietly.

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.