April 04, 2020

IT’S ONE LIFE, YOUR LIFE….MAKE EVERY MOMENT COUNT!!

IT’S ONE LIFE, YOUR LIFE….MAKE EVERY MOMENT COUNT!! 


This brings me to the end. Remember it is all about self –esteem. Do not be hard on yourself, do not be too self –critical and self depreciating. 

“Who am I to do great things?” is an unnecessarily self – critical statement. 

In fact, be simple, human , innocent- like a child or a youth 

Commit yourself to yourself – your ambition, your hero and find your peace. Then work to learn and do work that flows from true learning. It is really as simple as that. 

It is your life, an only life. Make the most of it. Make every moment count. 

May the universe shower you with all its blessings! 

Happy life!

THE PROCESS OF LEARNING-2

THE PROCESS OF LEARNING-2


You must ask honest simple questions in your chosen field. (Your choice of profession could be anything, even random, it does not matter ). You must read, struggle, try to ask people. Every book, even a bad one, every person will give you something , you don’t stop, you question further, you search and slowly, I promise you , YOU , your brain will begin to understand , to see patterns, links, principles. You will naturally now be excited. Your field will become precious to you. You will feel powerful. You go on and then –LIGHT! You will get the secrets, the foundations, the principles. You will not know all the details but now you will know the path of your learning, You will know that you can know all the details because the field basically and in essentials is now clear to you.

You will discover the handful of people, first handed professionals in your field, the masters and leaders in your field. You will talk to them, read them, observe them. Yu will suddenly realize you are at a height and there is nobody else. You have become a leader and you will see above all hundreds of possibilities. You will works ceaselessly and every day you will confirm and learn further. You will become better and better! Yes, you will laugh and you will also feel terribly lonely because you will be alone with such a wonderful and precious possession – your knowledge!

STEPS OF THE LEARNING PROCESS

So, when you begin learning in your chosen field, remember the following STEPS AND POINTS .

You will have to struggle for some time . This means that you will have to read several books and meet several people in you field. Unfortunately the world yet doesn’t have the book for each field where everything is laid out . Knowledge – as a rule –is in the minds of a few great masters and professionals in each field .

A ‘bad ‘or “ an average’ book will also help you if you read it critically that is carefully . You will get basic information from which you can begin to ask the right questions.

Asking questions is very important. Learning is a process of convincing yourself. If you don’t ask questions, how will you be convinced? How will you reach the end of the process of understanding? Do not accept too easily. You must go on until you really understand, really get it .

You may accept but only for some time. Then you must ask 

How is this true?

Why is this true?

What is the evidence?

Who said it, when and in what context?

(iv) is a good question. It will take you to the history of your field. The historical development is a step by step improvement with new ideas emerging. It can be very illuminating.

Asking questions lead to answers and to further questions and to answers and to still further questions. Knowledge is not isolated but a ‘whole’, that is, knowledge is a linked, interconnected pattern and picture of many things .Real life is not made up of compartments.

The above process honestly carried out with sufficient amount of reading and talking to people is enough. You will get the light – the basics, the principles, the foundations in your field.

From here you are more free. You can think on your own, try out, experiment. At this stage you will be able to come to new conclusions, new ways of looking at your field and a VISION will soon form in your mind .

What is that vision, purpose that comes after learning? How do we implement that vision and have a huge impact on the world? 

True learning naturally leads to a lifelong work that is vision. This will be explored in the next chapter.

THE PROCESS OF TRUE LEARNING -1

THE PROCESS OF TRUE LEARNING -1 

You see now, dear reader, to know that one doesn’t know is also a great thing because in that act your brain centers are receptive . When you are saying truthfully – “I do not know “, you are actually saying ‘ I want to know ‘, ‘ I will know ‘ and then the whole earth is yours to see, to know, to discover, to play with, experiment with as you please. This is the secret of learning, this is what happened and happens to great visionaries whether they are scientists, inventors artists, politicians, philosophers, cricketers, mothers whatever. 

To be real and true is to see and use your brain but then really use it as a tool to know and discover NOT use it to memorize and recall and get marks. Yes! You are not a computer but a human being and now you will accept it if I say that the greatest fallacy, the greatest myth is that some are intelligent and others dull. To be born as a human being is to possess the power to look, see, know, feel, think, discover. If you didn’t have that power, you would not be all ! 

It is only this that explains a Newton , an Aristotle , a Socrates, a Buddha, a Kalpana Chawla….. 

Whatever they saw, they saw and then they were not the same! 

Have you observed their psychology? They are childlike, humble, as if they were noting! They did astounding things but to them it was simple and it really was because it was real and true, and their brains were on and they were not blind. 

You see, blindness is not just of the eyes, it also pertains to the 99% of people who do not know and do not see even one thing with their own eyes, minds & hearts! 

This too is a wonder! 

This explains all problems of the world, doesn’t it? 

There is no problem on earth but this and it is not a problem as such; it is plain, impotent, worthless ignorance, a plain nothingness and hence terrible suffering. 

Not to know, not to have discovered the process and power of true learning is the most pitiable thing. True learning is simple, natural like breathing. At least it should become like that. 

Now you might ask me –then what is it that the majority are doing? Don’t they know anything? 

They “know “things but for me to explain that, I must bring In the concept called ‘compartmentalized learning’. 

You can know physics but not biology (or the reverse) as it happen in the school. This is pretty common. People say “I am good at singing but not painting”, “My son Is good at Maths but poor in physics”. 

In work a man says –“I know CAD”, ‘I know C++ “,” I know how to design buildings “and so on. They are even paid for it. A professor says – “My specialty is economics. I know everything about it “And he does, in a manner of speaking. 

If you “ know “ physics but not Maths, it means you know physics in a somewhat detached, abstract way and in a disconnected way . You know for example mechanics, heat, light ,etc., separately. You know the formulas and you have accepted the explanation but, you see, such a person has not linked those facts with the whole world, to reality. 

He has learnt “heat” but he doesn’t see the “heat“ in things Heat is the phenomenon of energy of atoms inside a body Everything is made up of atoms. You feel it too. If you are sincere and honest, it will stagger your imagination. You will read and get more facts (even from bad books and bad teachers), you will ask further question and think and think and ask and answers will again be got –Dalton’s postulates, discovery of electrons and protons ,Rutherford’s experiments, Bohr’s model etc. 

Slowly a picture , almost a story , reality will emerge , the links will starts forming …it will take you slowly to the periodic table , to chemistry, to biology ,to geography ,to applications, to the industrial revolution, to politics etc. 

You see a series of questions lead to a greater understanding of the world. One question naturally leads to another and then to another and ultimately you are forced to understand the whole world! This is not a fantasy and we are not talking about details. You will get a basic understanding of the whole world. There are many who have this kind of holistic understanding. 

But think! If a person knows only a narrow compartment he has not asked how that particular information has come. He doesn’t know the roots of his knowledge so his knowledge hangs in air and only used as procedures in a narrow domain. To know how to design buildings using ready made formulas is not true knowledge. It is a procedure and you will now understand that such a person cannot go out of a procedure. He can do only that and cannot think beyond that. Of course the procedure is important in practical life but it is delimited and confined and cannot claim to be a deep, wide, powerful knowledge. 

So now you understand, most people only know procedures and hence cannot be leaders, that is, cannot hold a wide vision and do wonders. Remember also that a wide knowledge created by somebody leads to procedures ultimately, not the other way round. Somebody has to discover true knowledge so that the majority can then on earn a living through acquiring compartmentalized knowledge. 

So now I can answer the question –how to learn? We will see that in the next section.

DEVELOPING TRUE UNLIMITED AMBITION

DEVELOPING TRUE UNLIMITED AMBITION 



First, one must love oneself, i.e. one must value one’s life. We all start our lifelike that. When young nobody says I want to give up life, I don’t want a great life. I want to be loser. 

Your self-esteem must be brought back. I will tell you a secret of life, an open secret which people don’t usually tell you. It is a simple secret. 

You are the most important person in your life! This is a selfish attitude. But notice that it is a basic truth. Your life is important and precious, that means you are important and precious,. You are a value to yourself and hence to others and to the whole world. But then what is you? “You” means your true, honest self not some image of what others think or say about you. “You” means your real, actual self – your thoughts, your feelings. 

Can you start with that –become naked, strip yourself of all pretence and look at yourself? 

No, you don’t have to tell anybody anything. In fact in this context, others don’t count. We are not speaking of them now but you. 

Start from your life, your real self and do not be apologetic, self-critical, or anything. 

Just remember that your life is precious and life means to live (nothing else) and that you have to make that life. 

When you honestly be with yourself and not be tempted by the world’s false and worthless beliefs , you start liking yourself and you start wondering truly what to do with your life 

Simple questions would come to you. What is life? What is a career? What do I want? 

You will get the answers too. I want a great adventurous, exciting life. How? How to get it? 

You will decide one thing naturally. It would be anything and for any reason. It could be even a random reason. But you will commit to a field – one field. 

I will learn and struggle and know and do something important in my field- you will slowly commit. With that decision made you are free, peaceful and happy. You will suddenly realize - I have 30,40,50,60, years. You will realize, yes, I can make a true, great life. 

In that natural decision you will start learning, struggling to know, discover, understand your field. Learning is the core of life. Life means to know, to discover, to learn, to apply learning. It is through that that our love grows without limit. Learning, true learning is laughter. It is the human being unleashing his weapon, his reason, his intellect on to the world. The fire of learning burns forever and impacts on the world like nothing else. It leads to creation of values and that is the profound joy. 

What is involved in learning? That is what we will explore in the next chapter.

TRUE AMBITION VERSUS LIMITED AMBITION

TRUE AMBITION VERSUS LIMITED AMBITION


There are two kinds of ambition. In both types, the individual pursuing the ambition wants to ‘come up’ in life. Both kinds of ambition require energy and hard work. Yet there is a profound difference between the two. 

One kind of ambition is to get a name and respect in the minds of others, in society primarily. 

The second kind of ambition is to enjoy exploring a field and deriving great joy by creative work in the field. 

The first comes from fear that leads to losing one’s courage deep within and then on doing only what society expects us to do and spending a life time in satisfying that expectation. Since the desire is not based on what the person wants, truly wants, he does not derive a satisfaction or happiness finally but feels as if he missed life somewhere. This happens, not in youth but in midlife and usually many people go through this so called mid life crisis. 

But if all lived only a life of compromise and do only average work that is only a routine kind of work, would society survive? If all become mediocre, society will crash, in fact, in one day. This means there are a few , there must be a few who do all the work & create the work for others . 

Yes, such people have always existed in history. It is these people who carry the world forward. It is these people who gave us this magnificent world – scientifically and socially. It is these people who have the vision to see what is possible and achieve it! It is these people who are the real heroes with an extraordinary character and tremendous talent and true joy beating in their hearts. They burn with passion and know no rest! This is the second type of ambitions people and the real workers who create and take the world forward. 

What drives such people? 

Such people are very difficult to understand not because they are complicated but because they are clean, profoundly simple people, basically and at root. 

Such people love their work! More –they are mad about their work. Their work means more than anything else to them –even their true loved ones. Their work is their god and they are slaves, passionate slaves to their work . They are so consumed by their work that they cannot think of an alternative way of life. Take away work from their life and they are dead. That is why they cross all obstacles –for their work. That is why they achieve magnificent success, a little delayed and with unspeakable struggle but eventually. They mean business all the time. They cannot understand the link between ‘friendship’ and work. They despise, even hate those who compromise in their work and do mediocre work. They are merciless and aim at perfection, it is their love and they cannot spoil it. It would be the greatest sin to them. They are, hence, filled with unlimited energy and drive and even patience. They love their work so much that they can wait it out and work. Hence they win because the world needs them. They don’t fight for leadership. They find that they are forced to be leaders, as there is no one else! They are natural leaders. Nobody is around them who can come even close to what they can do. 

Such people control and rule the world. They may earn money, fame, position but it is an inevitable byproduct of their tremendous love. They like all these things but not too much. They know too well what they like and they move the world and are impatient with it . They brush aside the world and are, as a rule, innocent and pure. 

They look different but that is superficial. Inside such magnificent beings are all same. They are mad about their work-100%. 

This is true ambition, true living. What else can be life it not using one’s powers and losing fear completely? What else can be life if not being powerful personally, not forcing others? Life is work and passion and drive. To be human is to be human .i.e. use one’s mind to achieve, not manipulate others and cheat oneself ultimately of life. 

How does one develop such love, such a true unlimited ambition? 

That we will see in the next section