Is this the road to Rome?

Discussing sayings (9)

Accumulation Vs Passing-it-on.

- In the pursuit of learning, everyday something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, everyday something is given away. – Lao Tzu
- Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things and you will be yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the universe. – Chuang Tzu


Everyone is talking of Happiness. Let me talk about unhappiness. Why are we unhappy? In other terms this question reflects our inner being’s query of which way to happiness. If we can find a way to cut out unhappiness, then surely happiness would result? We need to delve a little deeper.

Do you ever feel the Universe? Are aware of its flow? Have you ever been lonely and in that state of self-pity which is also a state of questioning, wondered where all of this was moving to? Life comes and goes. The rivers flow on and on. The plants grow and grow.
Something is moving towards something; in spite of our inability to see the bigger picture.


In contrast see how we pattern our lives. The very first mistake is that we do all to stop the flow. First we cut ourselves from the “everflowing” that is happening all around us. Then we purposefully train ourselves to acquire and accumulate. This becomes our wealth. Then we put all our energies in saving it from grabbers and are mostly worried sick. Then when all this activity has provided us with all our wealth, it is often time to move on which we fight against tooth and nail. Is this the way to happiness?


The saying “Live happily ever after” is a joke played by humanity on itself. First there is no ever after. It is all in the now. The present now creates the future now; and our miserable existence rebirths itself everyday. So perhaps it is time to sit by the river and growing trees and re-ponder over the question and rework our priorities. Let’s ask ourselves the ultimate question “Quo Vadis?” – wither goest thou? Life is not there to accumulate things; that is conclusively clear. Then what is it? But then who am I to be professing so much? Let me speak from the greater personalities who have seen the error of our ways and have shown the way to be followed. I have learnt that having too much is in-prisoning and we must learn to live with less and let the rest move on. And the knowledge acquired has to be put into practice or it stales, locked up in the head.

- In the pursuit of learning, everyday something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, everyday something is given away. – Lao Tzu
- Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. - Goethe
- Remember people or for that matter the universe, remember you for your actions; not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but then so does a hard-boiled egg. - unkown
- Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in. Napoleon Bonaparte
- Never mistake motion for action. - E Hemingway

From the above it is clear. That everything comes to us and that the universe is taking care of things if we shall let it; if only we can grow out of our narrow-minded agendas but everything also needs to be later passed on. Or will get passed on willy-nilly.

So perhaps to not be unhappy we just need to learn to flow rather than grow too many rigid roots and not stick on to what we really do not need?

Finally got my book off the ground

17 artists from all over have got together to show case their offerings in a book.
Name of the book: The ABC of ARTnership.
Full color paperback, 154 pages
Will be available on Amazon.com from June onwards.
Identy Code nos:
EAN-13 9781442165359
ISBN 1442165359
You can see some of the wonderful pieces on offer in this slide show: Pl clik on this link:
http://www.slide.com/r/Fnu-gedt6j9HFzY-yA5afpPw_ykngdsh?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

The book is a piece of Art by itself. You'll love to browse through it, gift it, keep it on your coffee table.
Artists featured are:

Kiran Soni Gupta, PK(Pradeep), Shirish Vasant Deshpande, R C Sharma, Martha Philbeck, William Lieberz, Nin Tanneja, Woody “Charcoal”, Rashi Gupta, ”Magnussa” Elisabeth, Narendra Srivastava, Prof Aekka Y Rao, Shalini Sinha, Imelda Maguire, Nataera, Sonia Singh, Shiva Hiremath

For more details contact: PK at gunaspublishing@yahoo.com
Thanks & Regards
PK

Not listening

The Art of not listening

Do you like to live your life your way? Then you must absolutely cultivate the art of not listening. Don’t be fooled by all these lectures on listening that will improve your life by making you more efficient and bringing in more value to your existence. It is absolute baloney. Listening never did any good to anybody. It only brings duties and commitments and who wants any of this?

Look at this guy hogging the road or even that pedestrian walking merrily in the centre of the road. Both have been taught and told, I am sure often enough, to be a little more “giving” and considerate; if not for others at least for their own selves. From their behavior you would believe that they both acquired white hairs by standing under the sun. Then coming down to the immediate present, no amount of honking seems to affect them. Are they deaf? No sir, nothing of this. They are tax payers so they have rights and the roads are for public use; although I would keep my fingers crossed when making this statement.

The art of not listening has some techniques that can be mastered by anybody.

First obviously is to go deaf. Refuse to allow a certain level of higher frequencies to titillate your nerves in the ear. What will the other guy do? Hang you by the nearest tree?! There is really no point in being considerate and raising our blood-pressure levels, is there?

Second, learn to convert every exchange into an argument. Put the other guy in the position to having to clarify. Any stupid remark will do as long as it is made as an accusation. Keep this up till the poor other guy gives up and rearranges his life to cut you out. The problem is that this technique is used mainly in marriages where cutting out is not so simple. It would be better then to learn to grin and bear it.

Third, treat every question as an incriminating statement and answer accordingly with a lot of anguish and hurt in your voice and demeanor. Your words should show it by saying immediately in response something like: you are always shouting at me. The idea would be clearly to put the other guy on the defensive; the subject then getting conveniently brushed under the carpet. The other guy will eventually realize that he has been had but what can he really do except grind his teeth?

Fourth, be the nice guy. Grunt a yes sounding something and almost certainly do your own thing unless it is blatantly against your good health policy.

Fifth, is by changing the activity. Let us say you are watching the TV and your partner starts speaking to you. Immediately start fluffing the pillow with a loud noise then say sorry and then ask him to get you a glass of water. This does require a little presence of mind but practice makes perfect.

Sixth, just lose your temper. This will act as rumble-strips and slow the other fellow down and even embarrass him. Take advantage of the situation and accuse him of everything you can think of. It will not only take care of the present situation but make him downright scared for even daring to open his mouth in the future.

Happiness is in not listening.