Good use of technology?

Wearable technology, or smart shirts, is making an entry everywhere. One such area is our constant efforts towards weight control. Here, it is aiding us in choosing type of exercises or regimes for muscle toning to enhance our body shape. But I have some doubts.

Today, we are all after toned muscular shapes and an hour glass body, only because it is unusual to see such features. If a good majority among us is able to acquire such a body, I think we are not going to continue our quest. In all probability we will then be after some other shape, where, our present body constitution could become a sought after one. (Of course, wearable technology could come to good use then as well, this time for choosing the muscles to be freed from toning!)

New 'Hub'

Is it possible to know everything about life? Could there be a limit to what we can know? Published a 'hub' about this.
http://hubpages.com/education/How-to-get-an-idea-about-life

Book Review: The One Skill

‘The One Skill: How Mastering the Art of Letting Go Will Change Your Life’ by Leo Babauta, explains ‘letting go’, by narrating the hurdles of letting go.

The resistance, most people feel to the idea of letting go, takes the forms of Stress, which is always with us,  Procrastination, which shows our fear of Failure, Habits & distractions, which shows our fear of change, Irritation/frustration with people, which arise because others never behave the way we’d like, and fear of Loss. (of dear ones, loved things, job, etc.) But if we let go, the difficulty we face shall lead us to achievement, the discomfort can lead to growth, and the uncertainty (What awaits us, once we let go?) shall surely lead to learning. In the chapters following this, the author explains how to effectively deal with the many imponderables, we find on our way. (That prevented us from letting go) Like how to deal with Procrastination, Fear, Difficult People, Distractions, Habits, Possessions, Resistance from Others, Change, and Loss. Thereafter, the book explains how to practice the necessary skill by breaking it down into smaller skills. The author then goes on to explain the process of practicing these skills, which involves steps like,

 •  Accept this moment for what it is, be grateful for it, and enjoy it.

•  Accept another person for who they are, and enjoy their company. Just be with them in acceptance.

•  Accept yourself for who you are, and be content with yourself.

•  See that someone else (or yourself) is acting this way because they are suffering, and try to be compassionate with them.

•  See that there’s a legitimate problem to be solved, other than the anger you’re both feeling (which is just a symptom). But letting go of the ideal and the anger helps you and the other person to solve the problem more calmly and compassionately.

•  Let go of the ideal, see reality as it is, and respond appropriately.

•  Just be in reality as it is, without judgment. Just be, don’t try to solve a problem or achieve anything, for a little while.

•  Let go of controlling things and just let them happen for a bit, being in the moment as they happen without trying to control things.

•  See the impermanent nature of reality … watch it change and flow each moment. This is a fascinating and enlightening learning process.

To make matters very clear, the author the goes on to explain what letting go isn’t.  Letting go isn’t about giving up, Letting go isn’t about being a victim, Letting go isn’t about not improving, Letting go isn’t about letting someone else get away with something, Letting go isn’t about letting your house get messy, etc., are some of the possible misconceptions discussed here.  Then comes the best part of this book, examples of practicing ‘letting go’. Many cases are examined, like

•  Your co-worker is rude to you.

•  Your son doesn’t clean his room.

• Your daughter throws a tantrum. She’s not behaving according to your ideal of a perfect child, and so you’re frustrated.

•  Your father is dying of cancer.

•  Your wife seems distant and uninterested in you.

•  You have too much to do today.

•  You want to exercise but keep putting it off.

 The book ends with an interesting question to the reader. ‘Will you nod your head at this book, and say “interesting ideas” and then go on with your life as before? Or will you make a commitment to practicing letting go, and see if it has any benefits in your life?’

Is there a limit to knowledge? If so, What is it?

Is there a limit to knowledge? Can we learn everything about everything?

Let us take the reigning idea. We hold certain things as beyond the mind, thus beyond understanding. The mind, also is conceived as an entity having its limitations. We also consider all infinite and never-ending things to be beyond the mind, and we attribute to everything, something infinite and never-ending. Example: we cannot comprehend how the universe continues forever, but we are to understand that it has to. Something has to keep filling out, including empty spaces. This is expected to be a proof for the existence of infinity. Thus we are in a position to accept that infinity exists without understanding infinity. Outer space is the easiest place to visualize infinity. This also is the nature of everything in one way or another.

The difficulty in comprehending these things is accepted as something associated with life. We feel that, in all probability this could be the truth.

Inner space: space is everywhere, both inside and outside of everything. The presence thus has to be acknowledged of an infinite number of universes inside every atom in the universe. If a piece of a material is cut it in half, and cut the half in half and so on, it can go on limitless. In this case, one will never run out of something to cut.

When you burn something, you are just turning the material into heat, light, ash and smoke etc. Also nothing is lost in this reaction. Even the electric power that runs TV or computer is not lost. One can look at electric power as water flowing through the cord into the screen. This then sprays out into the room and back into the environment again. Nothing can be considered as lost. All that takes place is just a change in form, everything moves in a circle or cycle, back and forth.

Isn’t it, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle says, ‘when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?’

By using techniques of elimination, extrapolation, or any other method of reasoning, it has been acknowledged that one can learn about life. 

I think we are going on a tangent. That too motivated by our predilection with another dimension of life, the spiritual world.

Think of a group frogs residing in a well. And another group, living outside. The cosmology of those inside may contain ideas of universe, as well as that of a variety of species, limited in its extent. For example, they will be having strong notions of a cosmic background noise, as they will be hearing a lot of noise during their lifetime without actually seeing where the sound comes from. If the owner of the land follows a pattern of cleaning the well yearly, as most villagers do, those frogs may also possess certain ancestral knowledge about the end of universe.  (Even divinity is likely, assuming that some frog, in the past, happened to escape back into the well during the cleaning process)

Now think of the other group. These frogs will be having a totally different cosmology with better grasp about things and, will be free of illusions like cosmic background noise. Questions like the end of universe may not occur at all to them, having never experienced a discontinuity.

How does this story fit in for humans? On all matters except those concerning life, we are like the latter group. (Assuming that reality exists, whether we perceive it or not) And there is no logical necessity for an end, whichever facet of the universe is under consideration. But when it comes to life, I think we are severely handicapped. Like the earlier group of frogs, our idea of life is only what we experience from inside life. Unless we are able to view life from a plane different from life, all the notions we entertain about life cannot describe life in full. (Nobody can say I understand what a globe is, unless one has a look at it, that too, from the outside of it) 

This is where, new ideas are needed the most. But here, our fondness for the spiritual dimension of life is effectively putting a brake in our quest for new ideas.

One more Hub

Violence, I think is an element of life. For all other forms of life except humans, this can be easily seen in the activities of food gathering. But, when it comes to humans, it takes a different route.
An examination of human history can show us that, unlike all other species of life, we are regularly under threat from within our own society. Rather than attempting to put this to an end, we have been constantly engaged in activities that can make the threat more potent, including, for example, organizing our society into convenient chunks called class, caste, religion, or country, like teams for a match.
Shouldn't there be a rethink about the way we organize things? If so, what are the desirable changes?
Penned some thoughts in these lines and published as a 'hub'.
http://hubpages.com/politics/Organize-or-Perish-Is-this-our-Choice

Another HUB!

I always used to have this doubt. How come humans, the most developed of all beings, make mistakes in whatever they do? Shouldn't there be a reason for this?
http://hubpages.com/politics/To-err-is-human-Why