Sunday, March 08, 2009

Will this synchronicity happen?

4 comments
Scribbling my soul desire
on a 100-rupee note,
signing it with my love
on a south Bangalore road,
I gave the note away,
ancipitating it will come back to me
I still wait for this soul synchronicity.

Friday, January 16, 2009

11:11/ 911

1 comments
I have been seeing 11:11 and 911 for a few months now...444 is still on...Mr. God, could you be little more specific please and stop playing the number game?

:S

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Un-fated Freewill

2 comments
These quotes from Viveknanda and Ralph Waldo Emerson explain in a few words what all there is to be understood about the phenomenon of freewill:

“The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.” (VN)

“ Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.” (RWE)

The mystery of existence is the mother of the fate or freewill quandary. To understand the daughter, we must first understand the mother. But, for the sake of confusion (read clarity) let’s try to understand both simultaneously.

There are all types of people in this world: those who believe in fate and those who have chosen to be free of fate by choosing freewill. There is another set of people too, that has found a middle path. This group believes that the main events are the fated milestones in the journey of life, but how we reach each milestone is under our control. My belief swings between “only fate” to “both fate and freewill”. Certainly my belief is tilted toward the middle path.


Why Don’t We Have Freewill to Change the Physical Events?

I have started watching The Hero season 1 again. So the question why can’t we change our future (read physical events) in real life enjoys the hot seat on the top most layer of my conscious mind. This morning, just before reaching the office, the thought that this question itself is unfounded oiled my mind.

Consider this: the world is a stage and we are its actors. The scriptwriter and director is, of course, God. Therefore, we are just acting upon his script and following his directions. Sounds clichéd?

God doesn’t give each of us much leeway because we are egoistic beings. So let’s say if he gives me the leeway to change the physical events in my life, I’d inevitably change the permutation and combinations (energy and matter) such that my actions will disturb the plans of those connected with me directly or indirectly. As a corollary effect, the plans of others who are connected with those whose life I have affected will also be disturbed. Moreover, if I have the power and the leeway, others have it too, which means there will be a collision of power, freedom, energy, matter. This collision will not let the world function the way it is designed to function. Point to be internalized is, each and every thing and being is intricately entwined, and therefore change in one leads to change in the other.

God is perfect. He is absolute genius. He created a perfect situation: egoistic beings who want everything their way, but no freewill—not in the way (acausal) we would want to exploit it. He created angels and demons, he created night and day, he created deserts and oceans, and he created barren and fertile lands. His game plan is clear. He wants the opposites to first fight, then unites, and finally become absolute. The power and freedom to change the physical events acausally would have destroyed his world not long after he created it. So he laid out rules: cause and effect, action and result. Whether we realize it or not, the world despite all the violence and environmental imbalances, is in perfect balance. We have both murderers and healers…

( I’m not sure how acausal synchronicity is. Jung’s notion of synchronicity is that there is an acausal principle that links events that have a similar meaning, by their coincidence in time rather than sequentially. I’d rather remove “a” from acausal and call it the casual principle of sychronicity. The similarity of meanings between two or more events creates the cause for a sychronicity to happen. Doesn’t it?)

Why Is the Question of Freewill Unfounded?

Why do we need freewill? To change something in our lives isn’t? Why do we want to change things? Is it not because we are unhappy with their current state? Why don’t we like life as it is? Why do we not understand that things are the way they should be? This is because we have divided everything into good and bad, right and wrong, pain and happiness. If we strip our minds of these categorizations, there will no longer be any need to change things, and therefore, we will not want the freewill to change events. Elimination of categories and divisions will bring a divinely harmonious order into this world. Consequentially, the question of freewill won’t arise at all.

Friday, July 04, 2008

The Ghost and the Witch

2 comments
Warning: This title is misleading!

Throughout my teenage, a ghost that I could never see or touch haunted me. It was shapeless as real ghosts usually are. Did you know that they don’t have shadows either, contrary to the belief that they are bodiless shadows? It seemed that this ghost had silently chartered my spacious mind, but then it fled soon after I bumped into a witch, who eventually rid me of this ghost.

I want to share with you how the witch rid me of the ghost that occupied my mind for so long. Goes without saying, I’ll introduce you to both, the ghost and the witch.

The ghost was disorderliness of my thoughts; my inability to think in correct order that can simplify complex situations; to perceive various pieces of a situation that can be attended to in a certain order, one by one. The ghost was the condition of my mind that always complicated things. So I would name this ghost unstructured thinking! Why I think that unstructured thinking is a ghost, because I believe that ghosts are none other than the negativities or limitations of our own mind. We create ghosts and therefore only we have the power to destroy them. The witch is the line of my career that I chose accidentally, which changed my thinking model completely. The witch is technical writing. Needless to say, only a witch can restrain ghosts.

When I wrote my first document, the witch cajoled me to gaze into her crystal ball and review the big picture. Her crystal ball revealed a simple truth that my entire life is a document, and I have the freedom to design and create it the way I want.

“How are thoughts and thinking different?”- the witch asked. Thoughts, she said, are ideas that we acquire from others. “Like writers plagiarize content.”- she laughed. Those are thoughts, not thinking, she added. Thinking is when you question everything not for the sake of questioning, but for better understanding a situation or a challenge. You will question only when you try to go deeper into things and ideas. Blindly adopting ideas and beliefs is quite like copying and pasting content from someone else’s document. Whether in documentation lifecycle or in real life, adaptation of an idea or strategy without in-depth analysis adds little value.

The crystal ball drew a parallel between the tasks that I perform as a technical writer and situations in my real life. It showed me that researching into product, domain, and technology that I write about is quite similar to identifying the purpose of my life. It made me realize how all my life I kept postponing this task assuming that the purpose will be revealed on its own accord. Perhaps I thought it was not important enough, just as an inexperienced writer I didn’t realize how important is thorough research. My first reaction to the idea of research was that I would learn about the subject matter while writing the document through trial and error. However, the realization of its importance saved me from a documentation fiasco. Similarly, shunning the task of finding out the purpose of my existence could lead to an inconsequential life.

I was told to always keep in mind the audience, what it already knows, what it expects to learn from the document, and what it wishes to achieve through the documented instructions. The witch drew an analogy between audience analysis and self-observation. It coerced me to keep in mind my strong desires, natural talents, and inclinations to achieve what I want. The witch emphasized, “The “self” is the audience in real life.”

The witch then asked me to find similarities between documentation users and we the living. I was dumbfounded! I began to mumble; the ghost was playing tricks again. The witch then tapped my third eye between the eyebrows and wisdom began to flow. I knew it!
In the world of computer programs, users learn by doing, in the real world the law of karma teaches us the lessons of life.


Like users learn by thinking and reasoning, we learn by observing each thought that crosses our mind and each action that we perform in daily life.

Like users are prone to performing actions without thinking carefully, we jump to conclusions in life.

Like they avoid planning, we rarely think how we can fulfill our most cherished dreams.

Like users detest detailed instructions, we abhor self-analysis.

Like users subconsciously apply previous learning they acquired from similar tasks, we are conditioned to behave and act in ways defined by society and people that surround us.

Like users have difficulties comprehending and fixing errors they encounter, we have problems finding the root cause of most psychological problems.

Like users use error analysis and troubleshooting information to explore their knowledge, we look into our past to see how we dealt with similar situations.

Like there is a learning strategy for each problem that users encounter, there is learning in each situation that we face in real life.

Just when I was overwhelmed with what I saw in the crystal ball, the witch drew a parallel between the role of content outline and objectives in documentation and that of listing down dreams and creating affirmations in real life. The witch said, like creating a content outline helps you focus on the crucial topics and the order in which they should be developed, listing down your dreams keeps you focused. Like writing objectives for topics enables you to cover useful and appropriate content, creating affirmations empowers you to fulfill your dreams. The witch concluded this point by saying: “If content outline serves the purpose of documentation map, affirmations become the gateway to a fulfilling life.”

The witch explained, just as minimalism ensures only that information is delivered to users, which they need to achieve their goals—nothing less nothing more, the state of silence or meditation sweeps the clutter of the mind, and from that clean slate unfurls suppressed creativity. She then drew a comparison between using only positive phrases that is, using no negatives, in documentation and always thinking positive in real life. Never say there is a bug in particular functionality, but specify the alternative (a workaround) to achieve the expected results. Likewise, never think in life that you cannot do it! Focus on how you can do what you want to.

She asked me to recall how my first troubleshooting document had helped an agitated user resolve a serious problem. “Picture him struggling with that problem in absence of the troubleshooting document.” she said. She admonished me for not using my inner strength to find right and simple solutions to problems that bother me in routine life.

“You create risk mitigation plans for your documents. However, sometimes the risk mitigation plan fails due to unidentified risks. You complain about it, but you gear up to meet the new challenges, because you know that anything less than success won’t do. So you find ways to accomplish your goals. You mitigate risks in your personal life, too. Saving a certain percentage of your salary every month is one example. But when an unknown risk quakes your life, you rarely say to yourself, “I can handle this, or this is part of life, and this too shall pass if I remain patient and face it with courage and faith.” She drew another parallel. She rotated her crystal ball and this message flashed: “If challenging documentation work gives you mental stimulation, challenging situations in life help you internalize the truth that most people just talk about.”

Before dematerializing, the witch gave me a talisman that still scares the ghost that once ruled my mind. The talisman has this message: “You will achieve the purpose of your life when you have identified who you are and what you are here for. You will be a thinker in the true sense when you follow your inner guide that shows you the path best for you; prepares you to walk on that path, and bestows the ability to meet challenges that you will face on your journey toward a fulfilling life.”

The arrival of this witch in my life is not a coincidence, because it’s the universe’s conspiracy to defeat the ghost. It’s a significant synchronicity in my life.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Synchronicity of “The Lovers”

0 comments
Osho’s Zen Tarot and I enjoy an unspeakably beautiful connection. It has happened many times in the past that I could see in my mind’s eye the card I would pull after spreading the deck. So, today is one of those days when Osho zen tarot and I are telepathically connected.

This morning, when I opened www.osho.com to choose a card for the day, the first thing that I noticed was the image of “The Lovers” card (VI of major arcana) in the collage that has 6/7 card images. I instantly new I’d get this card. The principle of ask and you shall be given was really at work in that moment. I clicked the card for the day link under the all cards (major + minor aracanas) section, and to my surprise I got The Lovers card.
Such incidents leave me wondering whether it’s the power of my mind that makes things happen, or it’s really the case that I can see them before they happen.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Love Synchronicity

1 comments
If my memory serves me right, then I think it was in late 90’s when I took the pledge to save water. This was when a friend’s father who is a follower of Brahm Kumari’s showed me a form with three pledges to choose from. Since then I have been very sensitive toward the issue of saving water. I don’t know if this sensitivity is a result of that pledge or I’m supposed to be this way. I pick up fight with my mom on this issue at least once every week. She keeps the water tap open even when the vessel is overflowing….

This morning I got an e-mail about Sigmund Freud’s test on our priorities in life. Here is the test. Surprisingly, in this test also I chose to stop the overflowing water first.

“Five things are happening in your house at the same time. In which sequence would you solve them?

1. The telephone is ringing!
2. The baby is crying!
3. Someone's knocking or calling you from the front door!
4. You hung the clothes out to dry and it is beginning to rain!
5. You left the tap on in the kitchen and the water is already overflowing!

[ You should see the following list only after choosing the sequence of points mentioned above.]

On the list you can see which meaning every point has:

Telephone represents Work
2. Baby represents Family
3. Door represents Friends
4. Clothes represent Money
5. Tap represents Love Life

Your chosen sequence determines the priorities in your life.”


The meaning of my name—someone told in early 2000’s—is “full of love”. But the irony of my life is I have not yet found it--neither within nor without. Is it because Love is the purpose of my life, and I can only achieve it toward the end?

Celebrating 2 Years of the 444 Synchronicity

0 comments
The 444 synchronicity is still on. The link to my blog posts on TWIN has 444 too: http://www.twin-india.org/index.php?q=blog/444

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Synchronicities are nature's play

2 comments
While reading Osho’s commentaries on Patajali Sutras, I learned about some major synchronicities that Osho had unearthed and discussed in this book. Osho said it was a synchronicity that both Darwin and his childhood friend Russell were working on the same theory without knowing about it. Since they were living separately in far off geographical locations and they were not in touch, none of them knew that they were working on the same thing. But when lazy Darwin received Russell’s letter one day and learned that Russell too was working on something miraculously similar, he pulled up his sox and went about publicizing his theory. Three months later the world knew that Russell too had worked on the same thing. Russell however agreed that Darwin should get the credit, because Darwin perceived it before Russell did—it was just that Darwin was lazy and didn’t accumulate his findings regularly.

Osho also discussed in a couple of lines the synchronicity that he found in Einstein’s statement that if he (Einstein) had not worked on the relatively theory, then someone else would have formulated it in a year’s time. The message that both Osho and Einstein tried to communicate is that the consciousness of the universe is one. Therefore, an idea that can change people’s life comes simultaneously to several minds. However, only a few make the best of out of it.

In fact, it’s also a synchronicity that while Einstein was working on his theory Carl Jung was trying to make the world understand his concepts of archetypes and collective unconscious. While Freud opposed Jung, Einstein supported Carl.

Osho found a beautiful synchronicity, that is, when Patanjali designed the science of yoga, somewhere in China acupuncture points were being discovered. In the same era when Patanjali was born, Heraclites, the Greek thinker was also conceived.

***

This morning, while coming to the office an interesting thought sparked my confused mind. Here it is:

I strongly agree to J.Krishnamurti’s school of thought and Krishna is my favorite God form. J.Krishnamurti has Krishna in his name. Basically Krishnamurti means Krishna’s idol (rather avatar/incarnation).

In the same moment, a car overtook my cab. The car had the following slogan on the rear windshield.

Chant

HARE KRISHNA
…and be happy.

Unbelievably, the daily OMs that I receive daily have been synchronous with my life since the time I subscribed to www.dailyom.com. It is indeed incredible that each daily OM that I receive answers or solves a current problem in my life. Therefore, I have decided not to write about daily OM synchronicities on my blog, or I’ll end up pasting Daily OMs here.