May you have the courage.....

Posted by Tandarin Nike Tuesday, June 29, 2010 12:07 AM 2 comments
The way people behave and act in this world is not as nearly as important as the underlying attitude through which it was possible in the first place to act and behave in such way, in that particular situation at that particular moment.

It remains necessary however to keep in mind that this attitude has a natural dynamism which requires growth to sustain itself in a healthy way. If an attitude needs correction and adaptation to a more natural state of mind, it’s up to us to positively answer this invitation.

However, this is not always the easiest thing to do. We appear to have the tendency to largely ignore the relativity of our attitude and logically regard it as an almost absolute, rigid moral power whose existence becomes so self-evident that instead of an attitude, actions are now used as the basis of judgment. Furthermore, it’s a judgment based upon the difference between right and wrong instead of sense and non-sense.

To facilitate radical change, attitudes need to change, not their resulting actions.

When only the actions are changed, nothing will essentially change. It will be more like a continuous replacing of mirrors to reflect different perspectives of a subject who remains essentially unchanged.

The key lies in not mistaking the mirror and the reflection it contains for the reality which is being reflected. Changing the mirror doesn’t change the reality it reflects.

However, change the attitude and motives and the resulting actions will inevitably adapt themselves. Something essentially different can grow now, because one becomes much better adapted, first inwardly, then outwardly, to one’s own innate humanity which always will be deeply entangled with the natural mystery of Life itself.

The subject himself changes so his old patterns will slowly begin to disappear and be transformed into what was once merely a distant dream beyond the horizon. When the subject changes himself, no replacement of mirrors will ever be able to capture the old patterns again.

Actions which are inherently forced to change by first changing the subject are genuine changes. These are the true changes which we individually seem to seek so immensely desperately and which have the power to change the world, starting from ourselves all the way through all layers of society up to all of Mankind.

Evolutionary changes and adaptation isn’t merely a physical phenomenon, but especially an individually psychological and spiritual one which then illuminates the collective.

Yet historical, social and cultural developments made us largely forget about the specific subject by keeping us extremely focused on the collective mirrors which reflect the image of whole societies. In fact, because contemporary society is based upon this distorted fixation on the material world and its shallow reflections, it needs us to live continuously in this state of outer strivings and collective delusions for its very survival.

The natural rhythms of human existence have become the arch-enemy for contemporary society; a society which even fears its own shadow because somewhere, deeply hidden, it knows about the fragility of its foundations.

Jung once said “nothing changes anything else without itself being changed”. If someone decides to stop focusing on this external world spinning out of control, but tries to cultivate his inner speck of light so he may roam the immensely dark and deep inner world of the soul he was given, he might find the true keys to change, made for the doors of his own imperfections.

The key to avert the pending world catastrophies of overpopulation, climate change, nuclear tensions, pollution, massive extinctions, and what not, doesn’t lie in political decisions but lies within the soul of each man, woman and child.

This task to change the world by changing individually, against the doctrine of contemporary society, is the huge responsibility each of us carries. One does not necessarily need to roam the planet in search of teachers, because the only true teacher who might help you is the one living deeply inside your Self. Changing the world is about befriending its natural inner imperfections, not running away towards a utopia of unnatural outer perfection.

Each one of us can only proceed on our own pace, in our own uniquely creative way.

A speck of light is enough to create a soft twilight needed to proceed in silence and solitude towards the roots of one’s being, an inner journey filled with suffering, continuous and painful confrontations, hardship and old wounds torn open again; yet it’s also an inner journey filled with such simple, yet amazingly beautiful moments that one would like to weep endlessly because words fail to show enough gratitude to have been a witness to those moments.

Those moments we’ve experienced our whole life, but up to that point we may have never truly felt the Beauty throbbing beneath its material veil.

It all boils down to positively answering the utterly frightening invitation coming from within to explore whatever lies beyond the control of one’s limiting ego.

May you have the courage to find the Will to proceed through all difficulties which you may find upon your way, not past them.

May you have the courage to tear down the huge and thick walls around your world and to trust Life that it will not be the end of you, but merely the beginning of a new you, a natural you, a genuine you.

May you have the courage to take away the fear to let the old you die, not by relying on the tight control mechanisms of your ego, but by trusting Life itself that everything will be alright in the end.

May you have the courage to grow an inner bridge towards the much greater darkness of the Unknown, while overcoming this pervasive fear through the realization that its factual darkness is not nearly as important as your attitude towards it. Change your attitude towards its existence and it will also change accordingly. Acceptance leads to a humbling allowance to pluck its healing fruits; rejection on the other hand leads to an ever more frantic flight from its twisted dangers.

May you have the courage to deeply change the way you look at the world and become an individually unique human being, less restricted by the movements of the herd.

May you have the courage to become a beacon for other people without clinging to its emitted light; to become a rock in the sea, deeply embedded in the good ol’ Earth without clinging to the sound of waves crashing onto its surface.

May you have the courage to become soft like water which always seeks the lowest places.

And finally may you have the courage to deeply change the world by deeply changing yourself.

Why the word “shift” is so important

Posted by Tandarin Nike Wednesday, June 23, 2010 11:40 PM 3 comments
If you excavate language, you can consciously discover obscured layers of meaning.

I have lately become very sensitive to the word shift - I find it everywhere. Shift is a sign that repeats along my path, a breadcrumb trail by which I make my way along the Shifting Path.

Once I started to notice the context of where this word can be found, and the myriad ways it can be used, I began to consciously dissect it.

The shifting of shift....

One of the first things I noticed is shift’s enormous flexibility and adaptability - the use, the meaning, and the context of the word itself shifts like few others.

As I continue to peel back the linguistic layers of the word shift, here are some examples of the layers of meaning I have found so far:

To Shift you are not required to Change much....

A shift implies that all the content or necessary components are already present, that what is required is a movement that does not gain or lose anything internally - the context changes, our perspective changes, the environment around a Thing changes; or the level at which we experience the Thing which has shifted has changed.

The nuances of meaning are powerful....

A Shift is about the relationships between things:

■ proximity

■ intensity

■ connection

■ distance…

When we shift something, it is also implied that the change we make is small. It implies that we are already close.

Paradigm Shift .....

You may have heard the term paradigm shift - this is related to ascension and transcendence. We’ve taken an Idea as far as it will go at its current level; to take it further we don’t start from scratch — we don’t go back to square one — we go to the next square.

Shifts are about increments....

The series of small, manageable changes by which greater changes are reached.

Calculate the Meaning of Your Name through Numerology.....

Posted by Tandarin Nike Monday, June 21, 2010 11:36 PM 11 comments
Here's how to calculate the meaning of your english name according to Numerology....

I ran across this exercise in the book Write Your Own Magic by Richard Webster. I can’t recall who the original author of this English Numerical system IS.

I’m recreating the following Table and Examples from my own notebooks.

This system was adapted from older written languages to work with the English alphabet. The process works like other Basic Numerology — individual letters and characters in a word are expressed as a number; the numbers are added together, then reduced to single digits 1 - 9.

There are two exceptions: you do NOT reduce double digits — 11 and 22.

In Numerology, 11 and 22 are considered to be Master Numbers.

                                   Numerical English Alphabet Table

Soul Urge and Expression - Two Levels of Meaning

Vowels : reveal the soul urge of a name

Consonants + Vowels : reveal the expression of a name

You calculate the Vowels and Consonants separately. The reduced number corresponding to the total of the Vowels –alone– is the soul urge; the soul urge added to the consonant reduction gives the full expression of the name.

Easier to grasp with examples:

Here’s the system applied to my name 'MANJUNATH'.

                  1        3      1             =  5
             M A N J U N A T H
              4      5 1     5      2 8      = 25
                                          Total = 30

    So thats 5 SOUL and 3 EXPRESSION ( 3+0=3)


Using the Table above, write the corresponding number for each vowel in your name on a line above the letters. Now, write the number for each consonant on a line below the letters.

Add the vowel numbers together in top line:

example: 1 + 3 + 1 (the vowels in my name A, U and A) = 5

Add the consonant numbers together in the bottom line:

example: 4 + 5 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 8 = (the M, N, J, N, T and H in my name) = 25

The Soul Urge of my name is the one digit vowel total — 5

To get the Expression of my name, I have to add the vowels and the consonants together, and reduce to one digit.

In this case, 5 (vowels) + 25 (consonants) = 30.

Reduce the 30 (3+0=3).

So, my name’s Expression — 3

Meanings of The Numbers

1 — independence/attainment

2 — tact, diplomacy, intuition

3 — creative self-expression, joys of life

4 — limitations/restrictions, system, order

5 — freedom/variety

6 — service to others, responsibility

7 — introspection, analysis, spirituality

8 — material freedom, power

9 — humanitarian, concern for others

11 - illumination and inspiration

22 - master builder, unlimited potential

According to this system and these interpretations, my name Manjunath, has a soul urge of 5 - freedom/variety; the expression of my name is 3 - creative self-expression, joys of life.

I thought the name meanings were very basic, but I spent hours one afternoon few days back calculating the soul urge and expression of the names of everyone and everything of significance in my life — I was actually surprised by how accurate, even if simplistic, the meanings were.

*Note: I calculated variations, such as my full name, by treating all three names as one. I also applied other meanings I already associate with the numbers, and with various meanings I found in online research — to add some nuance, or depth to the meaning layers.

What does YOUR Name mean?

Leave a comment below and share what you discover in the numerology of your name.

Mysteries.....

Posted by Tandarin Nike Sunday, June 20, 2010 2:21 AM 3 comments
They’re not always meant to be solved.

I think the most interesting part of being human is having no idea what it all means.

Things just are, and you can’t prove any of it to exist. Even questioning is a paradox, the paradox itself is a paradox, ad nauseam.

It’s called being too smart for your own good, letting your mind take over when it has no idea what to do when encountering anything that doesn’t fit nicely into its own illusions.

But I question the validity of all these logical constructs and black holes of thought: What happens when your mind has collapsed entirely? Where does the strenght to keep living come from?

There’s something else there, beyond all this existential angst.

These circumstances don’t have to dampen your joy of living. It’s definitively not a productive way to spend your time.

At the end of each day, even if you still find yourself utterly clueless, unable to comprehend even the tiniest sliver of existence, you can still choose curiosity instead of fear, wonder instead of despair.

And that is, to sum it up, why I believe in divinity.

getting back at your colleague...

Posted by Tandarin Nike Tuesday, June 15, 2010 9:29 PM 4 comments
We have all been there.

There, where it feels like it is you against the world.

Much like the Career-Builder ads on TV where a helpless, hapless person is up against a bunch of monkeys.

Literally. Here are a few thoughts that let you get back at those monkeys (read colleagues), should you be out-of-office the next time.

Quite a few are compelling than a “Mmm interesting. Let me think about it and revert back” I have been tempted to use.

My personal favorites are 6 & 7.

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

2. I’m not really out of the office. I’m just ignoring you.

3. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.

4. Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed so that I may be promoted to management

5. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation on 6/30/10. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

6. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.

7. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.’(The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).

8. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

9. Please reply to this e-mail so I will know that you got this message. I am on a holiday. Your e-mail has been deleted.

10. Hi. I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.

11. Hi! I’m busy negotiating the salary for my new job. Don’t bother to leave me any messages.

12. I’ve run away to join a different circus.

13. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Soni’ instead of ‘Sonu’.

Now what tickled your funny bone?

Attention is what we all seek.....

Posted by Tandarin Nike Wednesday, June 9, 2010 7:35 AM 5 comments
Most people enjoy getting attention. It's one of our basic needs. Little kids go through a "Look at me!" stage that lasts years. I believe we never grow out of that. All we do is learn how to be more subtle in saying, "Look at me!"

There are lots of strategies for getting attention. Perhaps you like to select clothing that will make people spend a bit more time looking at you. Maybe you excel at your job, or at a team sport, so people will notice you. I believe that personal attention is a big part of what makes you enjoy getting a massage or a haircut or a pedicure.

I was in customer service in the caveman days when video machines were new. The big fear from customers was the loss of "personal service” on extremely expensive equipment. That's code for "I like to get attention from the service manager."

I worked as a desk clerk for a few summers when I was in college. My boss trained us to understand that half of the complaints we received were valid and the other half were from people who wanted some personal attention. We were trained to give that attention by carefully writing down the complaint and then throwing away the piece of paper when the customer left, assuming the complaint was obvious nonsense. It happened a lot.

The main reason I write this blog is because I like the attention. The main reason people leave comments on what I write is for the attention. We can all concoct other rationalizations, but attention is the main payoff.

Consider the odd concept of asking for autographs. My theory is that the attention of a famous person seems more valuable than the attention of an unknown because the famous person is himself the subject of much attention. It's as though the famous person is a magnifying glass, focusing the sun of attention on the recipient at the moment that the autograph is given. It's like regular attention but supercharged.

I assume there is some evolutionary advantage to seeking attention. The first step in mating is making someone else notice you exist. On a psychological level, I believe attention from others is a necessary condition for staving off insanity. Regardless of its purpose, attention is clearly a deep and natural human need.

This brings me to the question of the day. If the India Times asked you to write a guest editorial, for no pay, on the topic of your choice, would you do it? Suppose you know that your writing won't change any opinions, and it would take five hours for you to research and write your article. Also assume that the Times editors would tighten up your writing to make it sound professional, so it's no problem if you're not a great writer. All you would get from this experience is attention, and probably a lot of it. Would you do it?

If your answer is yes, then it provides a basis for putting an economic value on attention. There's a price-per-word range that publications are willing to pay professional writers for content. If you would do that same work for free, at least once, then that is one data point for beginning to determine the average value of attention.

Someday an entrepreneur will make a fortune by figuring out how to monetize personal attention in the most efficient way.

If any of you come across this entrepreneur, please do let me know…

Paranormal Phobia...

Posted by Tandarin Nike Sunday, June 6, 2010 3:20 AM 3 comments
The paranormal and science have an uneasy relationship. The occasional scientist is courageous enough to take the plunge into researching the paranormal, but in the main, the subject is anathema.

This has led to what could be called a ‘paranormal phobia’ amongst those who claim to be rational. The world is explained through individualism, atheism, materialism and specialization.

The paranormal doesn’t fit into any of these, so forget it.

And science does a marvelous job at doing so. Indeed, many scientists become evangelical in their manic need to show that they are right, and paranormalists.... well, mad.

They’ve even recruited an army of groupies – non-scientific types who nonetheless have absolute belief in the wrongness of the paranormal. Forming sceptic societies the world over, they do a marvelous job of publicizing paranormalists, even being responsible for some careers.

This manic need is interesting.

They doth protest too much, me thinks. And when someone exhibits this kind of fundamentalist mentality, we really must ask if the reason is not ‘rationality’ based, but an exhibition of fear.

If we go into the history of science, it is clear that it grew out of mysticism and philosophy. Even just over 400 hundred years ago, many scientists were of a mystical bent. Think Keplar and Newton. Even in the 19th century, it was a monk- Mendel, who defined genetics.

But somewhere along the way, science crossed the line.
It divorced itself from mysticism, and the absolute idea of inquiry it entailed. This seriously reduced the things it could study - namely, the definite physical world, if such a thing actually exists.

At first, they could be comfortable with this, for society was still religious enough to allow science a repository for things they could not explain. Some things could still be the preserve of God.

But as God was banished from the universe, it had to change.

And the repository for awkward ‘bits’ was taken away. And once this occurred, science did something that was the exact opposite of the rational.

It created what I call ‘anti-superstition’. You can see it at work all the time in statements from scientists such as: ‘There is no evidence for this.’ Now, think about what is being said here.

The vast majority of people accept science as the last word on an issue. Science itself accepts the world works based upon their theorizing. But the above statement suggests that what ‘is’ is defined by what science can investigate and explain.

All else is non-existent. Thus, the world becomes not a reality, but an image created by the ‘thought-form’ which becomes scientific consensus. Only as a scientist sees a place for other things do those other things exist.

But the reality is, those things still existed. It is just that science was not yet up to the task of explaining them. Which leaves us existing in a world virtually ignored through science’s fear of non-explanation and superstition.

The paranormal is just one casualty of this mentality. Who knows what dangers may be creeping up on us through their fear.