Who is a friend?

 

"Everyone is the other and no one is himself."

~ Martin Heidegger

Carrying Coronavirus fear much too far

 

A policeman stopped and fined a friend for driving his car without wearing a mask, even though  the glasses of the automobile were rolled up and there were no other passengers in the car.

This is typical behaviour of people who implement guidelines without understanding the intent or application of mind. Actually, that is not entirely true, they are indeed thinking, but about the wrong things. Rather than focussing on doing a good job, of assisting, they are thinking more about how to dominate and control others. 

Those who have volunteered or been paid to be appointed into any position of responsibility tends to attract people who want to exert control and dominance over others. 

Wearing a mask is an excellent idea when one comes in contact with other people outside their immediate family circle. 

The best prevention for nose, throat or lung infection is to breathe fresh air. Most masks permit adequate oxygen to reach the lungs but there is tendency for masks to pick up dust and pathogens. So disposable ones must not be reused, and reusable ones must be washed and cleaned regularly. 

An associate informed me that there are three of them at home, and stay confined to their bedrooms, emerging only when essential.  They wear masks all the time, even within the house.

I put up this image because I imagined that the terrified ones must be wearing masks even to bed. Now that is typical of most people who carry their fear so far that they have turned paranoid and I suppose it is their individual privilege. 

Caution is good but paranoia is not. The question is, 'Can paranoid people be permitted to make life impossible for others?'

________________

Interesting Links:

• Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Myth Busters - World Health Organisation
• The COVID-19 Cytokine Storm; What We Know So Far - Frontiers in immunology
• COVID-19: Are 80% cases in India really asymptomatic - Down to Earth
• Global Coronavirus Statistics
• Fear does not stop death - Guru Wonder
• Will Coronavirus COVID-19, kill me? - Guru Wonder
• Can a coronavirus recovered patient be reinfected with Covid-19?

What it takes to be at peace with oneself

Goodbye, Dear Father

Loss of livelihoods is bad enough, compounded by illness and loss of some near and dear to many people.

Humanity now lives under a pall of great fear as the pandemic stalks the land.

No amount of sympathy and condolence can fill the void of sorrow. But life will go on irrespective of how we feel. 

I am reminded of the loss of my father Sardar Man Singh ji, his life and the great lessons he provided us.

Six years ago, on the 1st day of Sept with a gurgle and a cough my father left this world just as he arrived into it.

I was inconsolable, because my mindless heart could not stop crying.
I was unduly brave, because my heartless mind refused to let me grieve. 

Some said it was an auspicious day to die. 
How can any day be a good day to lose someone you love? 

Fate was both kind and cruel to our father, Sardar Man Singh ji (1928 -2014). In spite of his many failings his life was crowned with great success and accomplishments. In spite of his kind, brilliant, hardworking, witty and charming nature he encountered numerous misfortunes. Yet he never lost his balance nor his zest for life. 

On the contrary he transformed setbacks into success and taught his family, friends and colleagues so much by sharing through stories his own experiences and learning. He thus enriched the lives of whoever he touched.

Father was old but in good health, yet he knew that his time was near. He thanked everyone in his life and sought forgiveness from them  for any offence he may have caused them. He devoted the last decade of his life time and effort to helping whoever and whenever he could. The critical and aggressive nature so essential for achievement was replaced by understanding and compassion.

The spirit and wisdom
is transmitted through the generations

As the Guru taught, life is uncertain, for we are owners only of this moment this breath, for we know not whether the next moment, the next breath may come or not.

So use this moment and do what is important, to meditate and understand the insignificance of man and the infiniteness of Creation/Creator in the general scheme of existence.  

As I noticed with my father a transformation took place. We begin to view everyone as good at heart and some as merely misguided. The heart overflows with love and compassion, respect and contentment for whatever life doles out.  A friendly nature emerges not out of cowardice but fearlessness.

As I witnessed with our father, such an awakening enables us to confront all sorts of challenges, to unflinchingly cope with  the most difficult situation, possess the sagacity to accept the outcome and the courage to embrace the inevitable. 

Such a being, a warrior knows, one can fight and yet lose or one can pass on with dignity and grace and yet win.That is why they give life the best they can.

Please believe me. It is not what it seems like.

We now live in a society of organisations and institutions. Local, district, state, national and at international level. Each one of them managed by 'professionals' (bureaucrats) following complicated processes which no one can completely understand or implement. They are all political creatures, and therefore possess all of the negatives of politics.

We humans and even nations believe that things will just happen by themselves, but they never do. The cunning amongst us know this all too well and take full advantage.

In recent times the Chinese Communist Party has quietly and cunningly infiltrated every multilateral international organisation of consequence, across the world numerous politicians and their parties, governments, educational institutions, social platforms, gaming,  sports organisations, and finally media and film production. They do not serve the cause or the objectives of these organisations were created for but are servants of the CCP and its party members.

Learning from Plato, One could summarise 'The greatest penalty for refusing to actively participate in the governing and functioning of organisations that affect us is, we land up with the most ignoble, corrupt, and incompetent individuals and groups leading and governing us and our humanity. All this because of their great cunning and our intellectual and physical laziness.

The Coronavirus - CCP virus pandemic is proof of that.

Those who have not lived, should not philosophise

Who is Voltaire? - Wikipedia

The eighth wonder is, swallowing the world.

There is so much beauty, and wonder in the universe, but it seems, we spend most of our lives, wondering, 'What is wrong with the world?'
Nothing and yet everything.

Nothing is wrong with Nature and Creation, its exquisite and unfathomable. So what we do not understand, we condemn.
Humankind, now that is a completely different matter, for here, everything seems to be wrong.
Which leads us to the question, 'What is the root cause of all that is wrong?'

The 'will to power', the desperate and insatiable desire to dominate all that we humans set our eyes on or even conceive, is the root cause of human suffering.

With time the methods and approach to acquiring power and dominating has changed and  grown more sophisticated. However two fundamental approaches remain unchanged, wealth and force. Both are transient, and temporary, but that has never stopped the human animal from relying on them.

Unfortunately other great human qualities of friendship, compassion, wisdom and respect which are more useful and enduring traits of our human nature have all been subordinated to the pursuit of wealth and power. The two are synonymous, because in a material world all power originates with wealth.

Almost every human benefit and progress, tragedy and setback can be traced to Man's pursuit of money.

So called modern society, is designed to earn, steal or extort money at every occasion. Government, politics, society, justice, law and order machinery, education, religion, healthcare/illness-care, art, literature, music, every aspect of society is structured focussed primarily on obtaining more wealth and power.

Those who don't have wealth want it, those who have it want even more of it. This craving is insatiable.

Unfortunately incredible material, and scientific progress has resulted in an unhappier, unhealthier and unsustainable world. This has made us beautiful humans, ugly.

The single greatest factor for all this misery is not poverty but a ridiculous excess of wealth. This wealth in the hands of few individuals, organisations and countries compels them to put this wealth to earn more wealth by deploying it as loans to others.

To get the world hooked on borrowing, we are made to feel inadequate about ourselves and our situation. Our GDP has to zoom, we must have this and we must have that. As aspirations rise by leaps and bounds while our ability to pay for them are restricted, we are compelled to borrow.

Not only individuals and families fall in this debt trap, many organisations, and all countries fall in this debt trap, spending money they do not have to get things they want but do not need. Then borrowing more money to pay the interest. Modern slaves are not in chains they are in debt.

Baron Rothschild a member of the wealthiest family in the world is supposed to have remarked, at a dinner party, "I can't name the Seven Wonders of the World,  but I can tell you that the Eighth Wonder is compound interest.”

'Compound Interest' is the accumulation of interest to the principal amount repeatedly on money borrowed. So by compounding the interest at a rate of 7% per year the amount invested doubles every 10 years. Or as in many developing countries where the interest rate of 18% per year the money returnable is doubled every 4 years.

The wealthy need to use their wealth to earn even more, and the way is lend it to earn more money by the compounding of interest on loans. It is because of the this the world of finance has come to dominate all aspects of human existence. This is why the people at the head of private banks, funds, and financial trading are paid obscene amounts by their employers.

This driving force that creeps and consumes humanity is compound interest. Debt is this cold and ruthless creature if not kept contained or limited slowly creeps and consumes the world.

From the lenders point of view, the beauty of lending money is that the lender can go about doing what they want while the meter of interest grows and compounds continuously, every second, night or day. In fact debt gnaws at the innards of its host the borrowers, eventually consuming all of humanity and the world.

When Napoleon had the concept of compound interest explained to him, he exclaimed: “I wonder, it has not swallowed the world.”


When 10% of the world wealthy have 80% of  the wealth, it creates an imbalance and everything in modern society and economic policy is designed to not only conserve but enhance this.

Numerous revolutions, religions and ideologies have failed to change this situation of human self destruction.
This is because we try to use the same thinking, philosophy, institutions and social order to solve the problem which itself we have created.

Throughout history, great spiritual and philosophical masters have come, warning us humans of our foolish and excessive ways. But we are so smart hat we have even converted them and their messages into instruments of increasing our wealth and power. Now God is sold as religion. Love, friendship, compassion, and our intrinsic nature itself are all being traded and sold.

Driven to despair many of us drown ourselves in alcohol and drugs, violence and plunder, and those who cannot escape by these means indulge ourselves in a frenzy of entertainment, and acquisition of things and relationships. It seems we are doomed to remain unfulfilled and unhappy.

Some of the materially wealthy seek escape by unburdening ourselves, we donate all ur possessions, to institutes of religion education,  government and social organisations. But our name must be there on the foundation stone and plaques. We trade cash for the wealth of a name in a memorial.

We try a number of ways to escape. To the hills, and wilderness, to the seas  and the desert, to monasteries and to therapy. Nothing helps because at the core of our being our nature remains unchanged.

To live with dignity one needs wealth, and relationships, but how much?
I have discovered to my surprise, that when I stopped exploiting things and relationships, seeking neither power nor wealth, I have become liberated, grown happier and more peaceful.