Are the habits you want to get rid of your true nature?

A Zen student said to his teacher, “ Master, I have an ungovernable temper. Help me get rid of it.”
“ You have something very strange,” said the teacher.
“Show it to me.”
“ Right now I cannot show it to you.”
“Why not?"
“ It arises suddenly.”
“ Then it cannot be your own true nature,” said the teacher, “if it were, you would be able to show it to me at any time. Why are you allowing something that is not yours to trouble your life?”
Thereafter whenever the student felt his temper rising he remembered his teacher’s words and
checked his anger. In time, he developed a calm and placid temperament. Awareness & regular practice definitely helps!!

Why do you seek categorization?

Is it to keep like things together (inclusion)? Or is it to keep unlike things away from each other (exclusion)?

If you seek exclusion, then, you are progressing towards a goal and don't want to waste your time unnecessarily on things that are not related to the goal and hence, you are excluding.

If you seek inclusion, then, you could be exploring options in order to set a goal, which you don't know or haven't been able to arrive at earlier. Or, you could be plain confused and don't know where to go and hence are collecting information from every place possible and hope to act on it.

Categorize to "Exclude", if you want to go ahead. Categorize to "Include" if you want to ponder.

For example, I cannot the amount of information a person following 356 people in twitter and having a reading list which generates about at least 100 unread items per day. Add to this, emails and links being suggested in twitter.

How much of this information is really useful? How much of this can actually be read? I can categorize by labels like sports, entertainment, tech, blah. But, what is the whole point?

(cross posted on tangents)

The world as I see it. An essay by Albert Einstein.

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."

"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

Last respects

Last Respects
Frozen Thoughts

One day not too long ago the employees of a large company in St. Louis, Missouri returned from their lunch break and were greeted with a sign on the front door. The sign said: "Yesterday the person who has been hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral in the room that has been prepared in the gym."

At first everyone was sad to hear that one of their colleagues had died, but after a while they started getting curious about who this person might be. The excitement grew as the employees arrived at the gym to pay their last respects. Everyone wondered: "Who is this person who was hindering my progress? Well, at least he's no longer here!"

One by one the employees got closer to the coffin and when they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood over the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.

There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see himself. There was also a sign next to the mirror that said: "There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU." YOU are the only person who can revolutionize your life. You are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realization and your success. You are the only person who can help yourself.

Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your parents change, when your partner changes, when your company changes. Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realize that you are the only one responsible for your life. The most important relationship you can have is the one you have with yourself.

Dragon

Dragon Fly.

Even thou this time flower show in bangalore was not so great , but i found a dragon there. this dragon was something special.

It was standstill the way its in the snap for almost an hour, i donoo what was it doing so long , i took around 20-30 snaps of it , but i could only found one which was good engh to upload, one of the biggest dragon fly i have ever seen. it was huge. its eyes were beautiful , large wings. overall it was amazing to see such a large fly.

Squirrel antics

Check out the little squirrel enjoying the Adhirasam. There is a little ledge outside our bedroom window, which serves our purpose to keep little fresh rice everyday for the crows to eat. (This is a part of South Indian Brahmin tradition, which indicates us paying respects to our elders who have left us for the heavenly abode).

However, the poor crows are too slow for the swift squirrels which wait for some such tidbit to lay their hands on!
After trying in vain everyday, I finally managed to capture a quick picture of the squirrel pouncing on the yummy adhirasam made for Krishna Jayanthi :).