Component Object Model

In the animation movie Horton Hears a Who! there is a world of living beings on a dust speck, which Horton carries on a clover and which he tries to frantically protect after having known that such a world exists.

The universe seems like an lot of space if we are alone. While we keep discussing on the possibility of similar beings like us (that means intelligent) elsewhere in the universe, we neglect the probability that the universe as a whole could be one organism. ... Maybe even a component or cell of another! If could be true, many more such universes could be part of a more complex organism.

Changing from the telescope to the microscope and diving deeper into our own basic units, doesn't the picture of inner space have similar patterns as with the outer space? Electrons around the nucleus; atoms together forming galaxy like cluster; and it is an awful lot of space in there too, proportionately the nuclei is like a peanut in middle of a football stadium of electrons. There could probably be many earths in the many layers of worlds as we go deeper.

If this sort of imagination gives one the creeps it is because of our self-made importance. It is only arrogance that makes us shun this line of thought. We believe that we are the most significant ones, the chosen tribe, the caste that knows God by default, Lord of the Earth. We should be at the centre of the universe. In the Middle Ages, Galileo was forced to recant and do penance for downgrading the importance of earth by taking it out of the center of the system!

Macrocosmically or microcosmically it is scary but intriguing to think that there may not be any end. There may be world within worlds within worlds within ... you get the picture. The word ‘salvation’ as per Eastern philosophies may mean nothing but allowing oneself to exit living on this earth and having the pass to enter the next ‘higher’ world.

The idea can also make one feel so insignificant, empty and meaningless.

A story from the Puranas (Courtesy www.mahashivratri.org):
"
Shiva once intervened to settle a dispute between two of the triads of Hindu Gods: Brahma and Vishnu. He assumed the form of a flaming linga and asked them both to measure this gigantic phallic symbol of Shiva.

Brahma took the form of a swan and went upwards while Vishnu took the form of a boar and went into the earth towards nether land. Both searched for eternity (as per our timings) but neither could find the ends of the linga.

While on his journey upward, Brahma came across a Ketaki flower which was supposed to reside on Lord Shiva's head. Brahma exhausted with his search to find the uppermost limit of fiery column, he made Ketaki assent to lie that he had seen the top of the column. Brahma then asserted that he had indeed discovered the origin of the cosmic linga.

Shiva appeared and then explained to Brahma and Vishnu that He is both the alpha & the omega and that both of them were born out of him and that the three were then separated out into three different aspects of divinity.

But Shiva was angry with Brahma for making a false claim. Shiva cursed Brahma that no one would ever pray to him. (This legend explains why there is hardly any Brahma temple of significance in India.) Shiva also punished the Ketaki flower for testifying falsely and banned the flower from being used as an offering for any pooja (worship).
"

Maha-maya

A portion of 'The Matrix’ movie script:
"
…
Neo: Right now we're inside a computer program?
Morpheus: Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are different. The plugs in your arms and head are gone. Your hair is changed. Your appearance now is what we call residual self image. It is the mental projection of your digital self.
Neo: This...this isn't real?
Morpheus: What is real? How do you define real? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you know. The world as it was at the end of the twentieth century. It exists now only as part of a neural-interactive simulation that we call the Matrix. You've been living in a dream world, Neo
…
"

Coming to think of it, what is reality? Is what we see real? What if our eyes are deceiving us? What if the color of this wall is not white but something else that our human eyes cannot register? Does Bats see it better because they do not see light but see sound! Bonzu the dog's vision is blurred where it is two dimensional. He cannot see photographs or watch television, but sometimes barks at nothingness....ghosts?
So who can see really? Us or them? I read once that cats see in black & white, so is that the real reality of the world? Are our eyes distracting our real vision of reality with 'unreal' color?
Elephants can hear sounds that are on one extreme end of the sound spectrum; Bloodhounds and bears can sniff out their objectives many tens of miles away. We cannot. So are we incomplete in our concept of reality?


Now read this para about solidity by Deepak Chopra:
"
...
At a deeper level, there is really no boundary between ourselves and everything else in the world. When you touch an object, it feels solid, as though there was a distinct boundary between it and you. Physicists would say that we experience that boundary as solid because everything is made up of atoms, and the solidity is the sense of atoms bumping against atoms. But consider what an atom is. An atom has a little nucleus with a large cloud of electrons around it. There is no rigid outer shell, just an electron cloud. To visualize this, imagine a peanut in the middle of a football stadium. The peanut represents the nucleus, and the stadium represents the size of the electron cloud around the nucleus. When we touch an object, we perceive solidity when the clouds of electrons meet. That is our interpretation of solidity, given the sensitivity (or relative insensitivity) of our senses.
...
"
So we perceive solidity wherever we 'feel' a force-field AND when we 'see' there is something to touch?

Sense organs scan the surroundings and send the information, within their limit ranges, to the brain which then create the experience of the world around. How are we to know that this experience is the right one? Are our instruments of reality sensors ineffective or inadequate? Was this a deliberation or isn’t there anything called reality?

Are we dreaming?! Are we living in a (virtual) reality that is only a generation by our brains?

Blind men sizing up an elephant?!

A buoy in the water

Pai spent what seemed like ages on a sail-less (row-less & motor-less) boat floating helplessly in the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Though he had initially thanked all the stars for providing him with the presence of mind to run for the safety boats while the ship was tilting, he now curses all the gods for putting him through this misery of slow death. The safety boat, that he is on, moves very slowly only with the little movement on the ocean surface. The boat seems almost still. Pai wishes that the relentless sun would at least fry-off his noisy brains at least. Severely dehydrated, hungry, sun burned and hallucinating, he contemplates suicide. He once jumped out of the boat to drown himself only to instinctively swim and pull himself back in…curses his father for teaching him to swim when he was six. His father had taught him never to give up in life.

After a few more miserable days: He sees something on the surface. He was just able to sit upright only because his thirst was quenched by a drizzle that blessed his boat’s location a few hours ago. What’s on the ocean surface is flotsam…a piece of tarpaulin…a sail! It’s what was lost of the safety boat in the violent drop into the water. This will certainly help the boat move at least in some direction. Something is better than nothing. Some progress is better than being stationary. Pai realizes that it is coincidental that the sail & boat crossed (in the least of probabilities…considering the sheer expanse of the ocean area). There should be some surface current carrying what floats towards a particular direction. This current carried the boat and sail in the same direction.

After a few more weeks: Pai was sure the boat is moving now; but was it still in circles….towards nowhere? Pai could make out the difference in the water color and the surface choppiness. Wondered where the hell in the world he was, was he near land? He could see nothing in the horizon except water. He was starting to give up hope.

After a few days (?): He was sleeping too much the last couple of days, so was up when the first lights came up the horizon. Pai almost sees something and then it disappears. Was it hallucination? Whatever it was that's his only glimmer of hope, he has to try and reach whatever it is. Energy explodes into his being and he tries his best to use the sail to direct the boat faster towards that possibility. Occasionally he uses his hands as row. After what seems like an eternity, he sees it clearly this time…on the horizon…it's a top of a coconut tree! Thrilled and now brimming with optimism we works as an athlete would. As luck has it one of the rows, that was also lost earlier in the violent fall, is also found floating...this is too much of a coincidence, does the ocean have intelligence? He picks it up and put it to use like a man driven by a vision.

Pai has to reach close enough to bring himself to the notice of the few people on the island. He gets the feeling they would soon leave on the yacht anchored close. He shouts, waves and beats the water frantically with the row until one of them finally sees him. He is saved ! And he praises his stars repeatedly for getting him back to civilization.

Musings: Life is meaningful in pursuit, else it is like a flotsam

The False Ceiling

A false ceiling, as I call it, is the limit or barrier that one mentally sets. It is false because it actually do not exist; it is imaginary and is the hindrance in to one’s progress or performnace. I believe therefore I am. It would be more agreeable if the line went: I am told so I believe and therefore I am.

Looking back at the networks model, we can see that our identities are defined by what was enforced upon us. And since we have allowed ourselves to be enforced, so the self is also partly responsible.
Similarly, what we can (Potential/Possibility) is also defined by the environment (network nodes around) and the self. And since this is a ‘can’, the ‘can’ limit is only virtual.

Though false and artificial, these ceilings have an origin and a reason to exist. But the situation ends up as in the baby-elephant syndrome . The ceilings were built on:

1. Fear : one’s past experiences, particularly failures
2. Mental blocks and disinterest
3. Bars and limits set by surrounding nodes. This can be done quite indirectly

‘I am not good in mathematics’ is a common statement by many. This translates to one such false ceiling. The liner acts like a post-it remainder slip whenever the associated person come anywhere near calculations. And it is no surprise that this person would end up with repeated failures in related situations. Programmed to fail as per JM and rackets as per the forum. The correction here would be to mentally tear off this slip; trying to understand mathematics and being comfortable with it. Knowledge empowers.

‘I haven’t done this before’ is yet another statement which creates a common but unnecessary ceiling that avoids the challenged from kick starting one’s static thought circuitry. ‘Nobody does it this way’ is another such statement which translates to the ceiling: ‘I can’t do it’. But if one is a goal oriented person then this liner shouldn't be bothering you.

The examples above are of type 2 and 1. Type 3 ceilings are set by groups and communities. They can be set by the closest members in the family themselves, like ‘You are sickly, don’t overexert’. And likewise, by the neighborhood, by the religious community, by the nation and so on.

Again, confined, trapped, caged.

Self-Imprisonment

I am beginning to increasingly believe that maintaining the quality of the relationships within one’s network maybe quite useful. Not really for altruistic reasons, but useful for at least one’s own good living. The better the relationship maintenance coupled with the depth of one’s reach within their network, the better it is for one’s own quality of life; while it may be not presently the situation then definitely in good time. By reach I meant one’s network being as big as possible. Knowing more people and keeping good relationships certainly helps in generating ‘good luck’ – opportunities for better life/helping hand/good fortune etc. In short, it pays to have a high likeability quotient.

It can also be said that doing the opposite can provide the negative results too. This is clearly apparent with individuals who are generally bashful, inconsiderate to the people around them, with few friends and/or pessimistic to life itself.


I know of a fortunate yet unfortunate person; a very experienced yet immature person; an educated yet ignorant person. Hmmmm…aren’t we all this way?

Fortunate I say because at the time I began closely observing this person he seemed to get the best things in life very easily while the majority of us had to struggle very hard for the same. Some of us had agreed then that he is in the right place at the right time. He earned in tons, got his way in situations, everybody knew him and used to command the steering wheel of life. That would make him wealthy, successful and famous in our envious eyes.

Unfortunate I say because nobody actually likes him. At least nobody that I know who also knows him. The person I am talking about, to say the least, is arrogant, a corporate bully, extremely manipulative, irritatingly talkative and flamboyantly egoistic. And the worse part: his act in life (in landmark education terms :-) ) is “I am right and all the useless rest of you are wrong”. Yup it’s hard to change him. The guy never listens and he adamantly believes he is right. in fact he once adviced me: “Making enemies is the norm in a successful corporate career. What’s wrong?”

How long can the stray good fortune go on for people like this? And here is my observation.

Like the person mentioned above, when one start the interesting phases of life (like career) they are in a space like the white space in the box. The space can be as big as the box boundaries. So many possibilities in life, so many opportunities, endless vistas and there is excitement.
Naturally, very soon one would encounter a problem: an obstacle in their way in the white space. For the kind of individual like the above person, the problem would almost always be a relationship issue. The momentum in excitement and confidence would not allow the individual to bow down. And if not resolved one creates a virtual fence. A fence that cuts that leg of our relationship network; that limits the opportunities in one’s life from that network; that which is only an interference to the positive opinion signal across the relationship network; in the macro level, limits our luck factor. "But so what?! Who the hell needs that relationship anyway? One has the rest of the space around it for life." So, the haughty one go ahead in full steam.

What next? The attitude lands one in yet another problem in life. Promptly he creates another fence for himself.
“Bah! Just another fence in the infinite space. The opportunities are endless.”

And a few years later …

Guess what are loud taglines at this junctures:
“Life is this way, it sucks” ,
“Shit happens”,
“Everyone is a fool”,
“I don’t need anybody”,
“Who needs friends anyway”, “What good they bring?”,
“You know my child, I have learnt not to trust anybody in life”

Slowing down

One perspective to the Recession:

This is a corrective phase...correcting the collective greed that was prevalent during the bulldozing and hyped-up economic situation that was before.

The corrective intensity is directly proportional to the amount of collective greed (conscious or subconscious) that was prevalent in the earlier period.

Its victims are individuals and the systems that surfed the greed wave. But the most 'corrected' would be the individuals or systems, in order to achieve their selfish needs, that totally disregarded either the connection to the basic principles (ethics) or the connection with the grassroots(ordinary people).

A new order and learning has to come out of every such phase.

A recession can also be in the personal scheme of things. This personal phase may not have anything to do with the outside world scenario.

Bandwidth

Creative thinking, Positive thoughts, Productivity, Peace: How can we achieve any of these when our internal bandwidths are all hogged by the multiple threads of conversations? The conversations I am talking about are all internal; the noise between our ears.

We are always talking to ourselves: Finding reasons, meaning making, debating, reconfirming our points of view, planning, scheming and not the least passing judgments on others. But this is what we are 'designed' to do.

Not only do these internal dialogues waste our precious bandwidths but also push the foreground (current) dialogue to the highest priority for processing. Unfortunately, most of the time, this foreground dialogue should not have been in the foreground; this power processing space could have been utilized for more creative thoughts.
External (work) pressures enable a change of dialogue priority. A trauma can temporarily kill all of the conversation threads, but not for long.

What we really need to understand is that all these threads of conversation are based on unresolved internal conflicts. Resolution for these conflicts allows one to take a stand instead of vacillating between the extreme poles. These vacillations are the cause of the tempest within the ocean in the head, the mind. Once the mind is still & clear, one sees.

But how do we resolve these internal conflicts?