Part 698 : The Real Meaning of Richness is the Ability to enjoy things!

You like your peg of liquor. You grow rich. You also grow old and get severe Diabetes. You lose the ability to drink. Because you have liver problem, and alcohol is poison to you.

You are a bike racer, but in poverty. Later you make heaps of money, but you are old, and your reactions have slowed down. You can buy all the bikes, but are unable to use them, as you do not have the skill & confidence any more.

A hen pecks the foodgrains on the floor. It ignores a diamond lying there. Since it does not have an ability to use a diamond.

Some senior citizens will sacrifice anything to listen for hours to Classical music. Yet young(and unexposed) people feel that it has nothing to offer them.

Rich people surround themselves with huge quantities of cash and gold. Yet they are unable to use them to get happiness. Because already they have bought all the happiness that money by itself can procure.

If you lose the ability to enjoy, then you are bound to feel poor, even when you possess all the riches.

There are Three important Links which form the Chain of (Material )Happiness. (A)The Availability of things in the world. (B)The Availability of things to us. And (C)our Ability to Enjoy them.

If the Link-A is missing, then you simply cannot enjoy it. For example, you may want to travel to Jupiter. But such a facility is simply not available in the world. Link-A is absent, and no amount of money or service can achieve Position B.

Money is a tool to be used to get a thing from A to B. Money is only one of the tools, as a wide variety of other things also can be bartered for A to B movement.

But that is not enough. Link-C is important. Without the ability to enjoy things, even if they are available to us, it doesn’t make a difference, still we are unable to use them. For example, if you are unable to walk uphill, then you miss the joy of a peaceful walk on the Himalayas. The pleasure is available, but you cannot use it.  Similarly, if you are allergic to roses, then you cannot enjoy their softness. If you do not want to learn to swim, then all the pleasures of swimming are denied to you.

Though moving many things from A to B involves money, it is also true that there are a large number of things which do not need money. The beautiful sunset, the touch of the evening air, the sounds of nature, Music on the radio, the pleasure of friendship, things like these are available to every one. Still, many of us do not enjoy them. The major reason is ignorance, and not being exposed. Not knowing that there is pleasure in those.

Enjoyment of certain things is simple. A chocolate, or an ice cream gives instant pleasant feelings to most of us. But it is not so simple to enjoy classical music.

Enjoying certain things need a little amount of learning and experience. To enjoy Classical music, you need some knowledge and exposure. After that time, it will appear too enjoyable.

In certain things like bitter gourd, the enjoyment is hidden. To tell that they are not enjoyable is like telling that we cannot eat a jackfruit because it has thorns on the surface. Or that a Coconut is inedible because it's shell is too hard to bite.

In some other things, it takes some practice to start enjoying them. A smoker tries very hard in the initial days, despite a lot of coughing, to learn the habit. Once this stage is crossed, he enjoys it so much, he even becomes an addict.

Some enjoyments are hidden by glare. You cannot see the stars while the sun shines. You cannot feel the nice taste in a cup of tea as long as you add sugar. You cannot find the mild taste in any rice item as long as you use a side dish. You will find it difficult to enjoy walking as long as you use a car.

Some enjoyments are taken for granted, and remain unappreciated. The fish does not feel great about water, since it is surrounded by water for its entire life. It comes to know the real value of this enjoyment only when it is taken out of water.

Yes. The Real Meaning of Richness is the ability to enjoy things!

Part 964 : Disobedience

Part 964 :              3/11/2013

Disobedience

I think that people feel some pleasure in disobeying, and not accepting that you are right. 

Apart from the normal disobediences which we see in parent-children, Boss-employee situations, we even see this effect between friends. When a friend suggests a choice, the first instinct of the other friend is to tell an alternative suggestion, in effect not accepting the choice of the first one. This happens 99% of the time. I think that this is human nature.

Confronted by this fact, leaders and army commanders have to work hard to achieve obedience from their juniors. In certain situations, this is achieved by preventing the men from thinking too much, and forcing them to act mechanically, by trigger words. But in a business management situation where intelligent thinking and mental processing is very much required, this is not possible. Hence no military obedience is possible with business managers, even with senior employees who have well-developed thinking capability.

In personal situations, we need not take this disobedience seriously, because in fact, it is only machines that obey our instructions 100% of the time. Any living thing, including pets, do not do what we say, all the time. The funny thing is when a pet does this, the owner actually feels happy. It is against normal logic ! Obviously because by that, it shows signs of life, that it has a distinct personality !

When we design robots, to give them a lifelike behaviour, we should make them disobey sometimes. We should make it appear that the robot sometimes prefers to take decisions of its own, not accepting our instructions! Somehow this makes it appear like a living thing!

So why should we get upset when grown up people or teenage children do not obey us always ?

Part 792 : Saturation

Part 792 :              29/11/2012

Saturation

Eat a spoon of sugar, and then have coffee. You will feel that the coffee does not have sugar in it.

After having a lot of sweetness, our tongue becomes less sensitive to the sweet, to the extent it feels that there is no sweetness!

Not only that, our desire for the sweet takes a nosedive, till we start disliking them. We all know that this is a temporary feeling, and soon we will want to eat the sweets again.

This applies to the sweetness in relationships too.

Relationships do get saturated at times, and this is very natural. Nothing wrong in it.

People should be able to identify such situations where Relationship Saturation happens. During these times, persons need to increase their distance from each other. This is only temporary.

Many people do not realize the human need for temporary seperation and end up being miserable to each other. Each of them do not understand why the other is behaving hostile.

Not understanding that the separation required is temporary, they often break relations permanently. Soon they are longing to be back in relation again. They are again confused.

This is why close friends feel the need to be away from each other. This is one of the reasons that married couples want to be divorced, and divorced couples want to be with the ex-spouse again.

There are many examples of divorced couples wanting to be together again, after misunderstanding their psychological need to be temporarily separate.

When we feel the saturation for sugar, we do not ban sugar from our lives. We avoid it for some time, temporarily. After some time, the sweetness and the desire is back.

So be aware of Saturation in relationships, to have better control of life, to enjoy life more.

Part 953 : Charity

I don’t believe in Charity for humans. Except to the real invalids, who are very few. Except as a temporary measure, to give the recipient time to adjust or when they are sick and unable to work, or to people who just suffered great trauma, and those who need to strengthen their mind to combat feelings of inferiority.

Because Charity creates laziness, in most people.

Because by Charity, we create parasites of the society. Those who live out of others’ hard work, while not contributing anything themselves. Sometimes we create exploiters, those who create unpleasantness in order to get their benefits. Thieves, blackmailers, those who collect protection money, fall in this category.

Because Charity is un-natural. In nature, a bird gets its food free. But still it has to work hard to find the right prey. An animal gets its food free in the form of grass and plants. But it has to travel long distances, and in the process, it serves its own race, often other life forms. A bee gets free honey in the flowers, but it has to travel long distances, playing similar roles. Helping its own race, and helping other flowers and plants. So effectively, everyone pays the price, within their ability.

Because people do not see value in things they get free, or easily without effort.

Because by giving things free to workers, you are encouraging them not to go to work making them, their work environments, and the society to suffer in the process.

Because idle minds you create by removing the necessity for work, get a lot of free time and energy to create more problems for others and themselves.

In future, I will use my money and abilities to create opportunities for people. And to train them to make use of those opportunities. And a little charity for those who really need it.

Part 949 : How we spend our life minutes

Whichever way we live, days will go and life will pass. We have to decide how we want to spend our moments. Thinking too much about the future and past is really not required. We have to live for this moment, this day.

Of course, we have to ensure, by some steps, the finacial security to lead the life as we want. But too much time taken to achieve this also robs us of the days. It is a compromise. Some portion of our life we should sacrifice for achieving financial security. But not too many days.

The typical way people waste life is to go and catch a problem, and then spend many months and years, attempting to deal with it. This is an unpleasant period full of mental tension and stress. By the time you solve the problem, many years have gone by.

The point is that you forget to live life, being engrossed in the problem.

Steps? Decide a lifestyle. And do things to enable smooth functioning. Do not attempt things which consume too many days of your life. Do things which you enjoy, even if it is work.