SAMVAD (Together In Conversation): Recent Episodes
Sunil Rao
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – Stereotypes – What it is? Can its negative effects be neutralized? from a collection of articles titled ‘Connecting with Others’ by Robert Ornstein, PhD; David Sobel, MD, MPH; and Sally Mallam
These articles draw our attention to this important fact – Connecting with others, and the world around us, has been central to our survival. We evolved to go beyond the individual and transcend the “self”. This universal capacity makes us human and is responsible for our success on the planet.
Stereotypes – What it is? Can its negative effects be neutralized?
Stereotypes are another way in which we organize our experiences. Our social identities come from a lot of places: our race, our sex, our age, our political affiliations, our medical diagnoses, our high schools, colleges, our favorite baseball teams. And each of those identities comes along with a set of expectations or stereotypes.
We’re all members of groups, and we all have social identities that are negatively stereotyped. Being old, being young, being gay, being conservative, being liberal, having cancer, and so on. But stereotyping interferes with our connecting with others; it prevents us from being open, interested and accepting of each other as individuals. As you go down list of identities, you recognize that, in some circumstances, you could feel like you’re going to be seen negatively because you’ve got that identity, and that’s stereotype threat.
Researchers found that performance follows whichever stereotype you make most salient or most obvious in the situation.
What can be done to counter its negative effects?
Create a situation where everyone can trust that they are not going to be exposed to negative experiences based on their identity. The researcher notes that this requires a deliberate extra effort but is the only way in which everyone can excel. Being reminded of positive role models and providing information that is more accurate and includes a hopeful narrative about the setting can greatly reduce the damaging effects of a negative stereotype.
Excerpt from ‘Stereotyping: What Is It and Can We Neutralize Its Effect?’ by Robert Ornstein, David Sobel & Sally Mallam
I am sure that you will enjoy reading these articles; you can click on the following link: https://humanjourney.us/mind/connecting-with-others/stereotyping-what-is-it-and-can-we-neutralize-its-effect/
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – Connecting with Others from a collection of articles titled ‘Our Capacity for Social Connection’ by Robert Ornstein, PhD; David Sobel, MD, MPH; and Sally Mallam
These articles draw our attention to this important fact – Connecting with others, and the world around us, has been central to our survival. We evolved to go beyond the individual and transcend the “self”. This universal capacity makes us human and is responsible for our success on the planet.
Connecting with Others
Humans evolved with innate abilities that help us live together in diverse groups. We are able to live all over the planet and in all conditions because we can adapt and because we have the ability to understand that different people have different ideas and experiences than ourselves, and we can learn from them and adapt to and with them.
While humanity is certainly dominant on Earth now, we forget that our early human ancestors were scrawny and scarce. Living in isolated bands of a few dozen, they needed to bind into communities to help them survive predators and climate fluctuations. It is most probably the case that human beings have thrived as a species because of sophisticated social bonding and attachment to others, which fostered such virtues as forgiveness and gratitude.
While it often doesn’t seem like it — especially these days — almost all of human life is based upon cooperation and connection. Many animals do, of course, show both minor and elaborate cooperation: Wolves and lions do so in the hunt; dolphins work together to chase, corral and scoop up schools of small fry; and ants are legendary in their organization.
But humans are flexible in cooperating in countless pursuits, and with different partners: with a single collaborator, with a few or with many; with a large work-group and so on.
To achieve and expand on our ability to connect with others, our brains became exceptionally adaptive, able and open to responding in multiple ways; the unique success of our human journey is evidence of this. The downside is that we are vulnerable to forces that can be detrimental to our welfare.
Excerpt from ‘Our Capacity for Social Connection’ by Robert Ornstein, David Sobel & Sally Mallam
I am sure that you will enjoy reading these articles; you can click on the following link: https://humanjourney.us/our-mind-in-the-modern-world/connecting-with-others/our-capacity-for-social-connection/
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – Know Thyself from a collection of articles titled ‘The Multiple Nature of Our Minds’ by Robert Ornstein, PhD; David Sobel, MD, MPH; and Sally Mallam
These articles draw our attention to the many facets of our mind. It seems reasonable that we should know our own mind. But what we know is just one small aspect related to the controlling functions of consciousness. We are far less aware of other equally important parts of the brain.
Know Thyself
There exist different centers of mind in the brain and “we” often don’t know what we’re doing until we see what we do. Non-conscious routines lead us automatically, and thus unconsciously, along lines of thinking and action without our ever directing them.
A “spontaneous” act begins before we are aware that we have “decided” to act. The decision, then, is often not up to “us,” our conscious selves. Rather, we watch a part of our minds begin actions, “on their own authority,” and can sometimes veto the orders before they make it out to the muscles.
We have a system of many small unconscious minds, each with its own program. We are each somewhat like a multiple personality, organized and controlled to a limited extent by the conscious self.
Excerpt from ‘The Multiple Nature of Our Minds’ by Robert Ornstein, David Sobel & Sally Mallam
I am sure that you will enjoy reading these articles; you can click on the following link: https://humanjourney.us/our-mind-in-the-modern-world/the-multiple-nature-of-our-mind/the-many-facets-of-our-mind/
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – How do You spend Your Day? from a book titled ‘Personal Freedom – On finding your Way to the Real World’ by Dr. Arthur Deikman.
In Personal Freedom Dr. Arthur Deikman shows us a key to unlocking the door of this invisible prison of ideas that has enclosed us since birth. We deceive ourselves, he demonstrates, by taking our identities from the people around us instead of looking closely at what we actually are. With a lyrical yet scientific approach he enables us to see the possibility of freedom and to take steps to make that freedom our own.
How do You spend Your Day?
On waking in the morning, things are unsorted. The first stumbling steps informed by a foggy vision give way to clear re-entry into the familiar. You wash your face, you brush your teeth, without realizing the sensations of your present moment. Thoughts of the day’s work, yesterday’s events and wishes for the future, all perform an act of transmigration, and you fly through your breakfast world, only occasionally aware of the taste of the food and its texture, or the colour and light of the room.
The morning paper absorbs your attention with a thousand details, giving you the same news daily, none vital yet arousing concern, fear and desire.
At work, you put in continuous efforts, get tired, have a lunch while laughing and talking with the others, but not tasting your lunch. During the day, if you were lucky, a brief suspension of concern and will took place. Your energies flowed, converging on the task, and with just the lightest touch to guide the stream; something whole emerged, new to you, not exactly yours. The creative moment was complete; it filled you solid, there. You felt it’s difference from all the rest, its flowing life, that magical appearance of something more than you- from you.
The housewife’s routine is the same. She lives a thousand fantasies while the vacuum cleaner sucks up the dirt, its noise washing out detail. As she does the dishes, prepares the grocery list and then gathers with friends for a talk; did she notice the texture of the cup or capture the feeling in the eyes that touched briefly?
At the end of the day, man, woman and child gather there to receive, for so much effort wants reward. The super meal, biggest of the day, designed to fill, can give some joy of not washed under by the daydreams or the talk. Each moment focuses on “doing” rather than “allowing”.
During the weekend, working around the house, going to restaurant or even a movie; it is the service and the expectations that are more important than the food. Movies ensure that you have nothing to do but to surrender to someone else’s world.
Consider; Every thought you have is unreal. Each one is an abstraction, a shadow of the thing that is. Your future is not real (imagine a purple cow). Your past is not real for the past is memories (how can you fit the ocean in your living room)? Memories are images of where you are not, so how can the past be real? Concepts are not real.
All that which you remember having, all that which you imagine will come – all are unreal.
So, what if the day that you just lived in fantasy- in abstraction, concerned with past pleasures and future problems- How Much Was Real?
Excerpt from ‘Personal Freedom – On finding your Way to the Real World’ by Dr. Arthur Deikman.
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this thought-provoking book. You can click on the following link and buy your copy: https://qsconsultants.in/resources/books/
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – The Real You from a book titled ‘Personal Freedom – On finding your Way to the Real World’ by Dr. Arthur Deikman.
In Personal Freedom Dr. Arthur Deikman shows us a key to unlocking the door of this invisible prison of ideas that has enclosed us since birth. We deceive ourselves, he demonstrates, by taking our identities from the people around us instead of looking closely at what we actually are. With a lyrical yet scientific approach he enables us to see the possibility of freedom and to take steps to make that freedom our own.
The Real You
Remember those times you were touched by something impalpable emanating from that “outside” realm of people and things. Music, nature, sports, prayer, insight, friendship, or love — a moment when you felt connected, merging, exalted. I’m talking about those special times when you felt a joyous reverence and gratitude and mystery and recognition, at finding yourself, once again, at that place. Of course, you can “explain” it and nothing need change. The mechanical puppet called the cosmos can clank along forever: just tell yourself that those experiences, “mystical” or otherwise, are the infantile derivatives of wishes, fears, and early memories. It’s simple. But is that what they feel like? Talk to children and see if they experience such things. Consider carefully whether those special moments really fit the vapid formula: “Infantile derivatives.” Isn’t that explanation something you have swallowed, force-fed, like an infant, indeed, but have never been able to digest? It’s indigestible because it doesn’t fit, that’s why. It’s another swindle, like Time.
You are told you are basically alone — in empty space. Yet, when you love, are you alone? When you look, unguarded, into another’s eyes, clear place to clear place, are you alone? When you wholeheartedly engage in work or play, are you alone? There is only one way to be alone: by thinking about it. The thought creates the aloneness; the concept is the problem. “Aloneness” does not fit experience.
Excerpt from ‘Personal Freedom – On finding your Way to the Real World’ by Dr. Arthur Deikman.
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this thought provoking book. You can click on the following link and buy your copy: https://qsconsultants.in/resources/books/
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – Empowering Approach – Human Givens from a book titled ‘Human Givens – An Empowering Approach to Emotional Health and Clear thinking’ by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell.
In this book the co-founders of the human givens approach, Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell, exquisitely describe one of the most important psychological insights of our age: how we all come into the world with a partially formed mind containing a genetic treasure-house of innate knowledge patterns: the ‘human givens’. We all experience these givens as physical and emotional needs, powerful forces that must be satisfactorily met in our environment if our minds and lives are to unfold and develop to their fullest potential. How these innate patterns connect up with the world, and unfold in it, determine our own and our family’s emotional health and happiness – as well as the maturity and humanity of the society we create around us.
Empowering Approach – Human Givens
At a basic level, all organisms seek nourishment to renew themselves and then give waste material back to the environment to be recycled again and again. Oxygen the waste gas of plant life, for example, becomes an energy source of animal life.
If we look at human beings in the same way as a gardener studies plants, we can ask: what physical, psychological and social nutriment does this creature need for the successful bringing to fruition of its innate nature? We can also look for what might be preventing these inner templates from connecting to the greater world. But a person is not a plant and we need not just material but also mental, emotional and, some would say, spiritual nourishment if we are to flourish. And, while plants ‘know’ how to grow, children and adults need structured guidance to optimise their own self development…”
Excerpt from ‘Human Givens – An Empowering Approach to Emotional Health and Clear thinking’ by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell.
I am sure that you will enjoy reading these articles; you can click on the following link:
https://www.humangivens.com/publications/human-givens-book
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – Maintaining a Stable World from a collection of articles titled ‘Our Mind In the Modern World’ by Robert Ornstein, PhD; David Sobel, MD, MPH; and Sally Mallam
These articles draw our attention to the fact as to how we have created an unprecedented world for ourselves, whereas all other animals live inside their original habitat where they have adapted ‘by design’ to it. And the way forward for us in our unprecedented creation would be an evolution of our consciousness.
Maintaining a Stable World
The achievement of the human mind is to have stability in a world where there is constant change. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes to make this happen, and it comes at great cost: We have to simplify, overgeneralize, ignore, predict, and make assumptions. It’s a constant that much of our experience is edited out scene by scene, moment by moment, feature by feature. Remember: You haven’t seen your nose lately, nor are you aware of what happens, thousands of times per day, when you blink and the world doesn’t disappear into a black nothingness.
Our experience of the world assembles in a fleeting instant, with no time for thinking but just enough for producing a best guess of the world. To act quickly we assume a lot about the world we perceive.
It is very difficult for us to judge anything absolutely, as we are wired to measure things only by comparison. Things are not heavy but are heavier than we expect or were previously experiencing — brighter, richer, more intelligent. We adapt to temperatures, to a level of income or net worth, to comfort, to taste; and we judge based on our assumed level of adaptation.
What we actually experience is the category which is evoked by a particular stimulus, not the occurrence in the external world.
Excerpt from ‘Our Mind In the Modern World’ by Robert Ornstein, David Sobel & Sally Mallam
I am sure that you will enjoy reading these articles; you can click on the following link:
How Do We Maintain a Stable World?
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt which we have titled – Rapidly Changing Modern World from a collection of articles titled ‘Our Mind In the Modern World’ by Robert Ornstein, PhD; David Sobel, MD, MPH; and Sally Mallam
These articles draw our attention to the fact as to how we have created an unprecedented world for ourselves, whereas all other animals live inside their original habitat where they have adapted ‘by design’ to it. And the way forward for us in our unprecedented creation would be an evolution of our consciousness.
Rapidly Changing Modern World
The world has been comparatively stable for tens of thousands of years, and for tens of thousands of years it has been our practice to take what we wanted from it without recompense. All that mattered was a rising standard of living. Only rarely, if ever, did we look back to examine the effect of these actions on the world, because our brains didn’t need to do so to survive and progress always led us forward.
From the Industrial Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century our “tool” use began to speed up, backed by powerful new energy sources: from coal, to gas, to electronics and nuclear energy, to the internet and renewable energy. And as we discovered different energy sources and later, digital technologies, the world changed radically, over and over.
Excerpt from ‘Our Mind In the Modern World’ by Robert Ornstein, David Sobel & Sally Mallam
I am sure that you will enjoy reading these articles; you can click on the following link and read these articles:
Our Mind in the Modern World
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Music In Our Lives from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Music In Our Lives
Over twenty-five hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras may have been on to something. He advocated daily singing and playing of an instrument as a cathartic to cleanse the emotions of worry, sorrow, fear, and anger. Learning to play a musical instrument can increase the pleasure you get from music, and give you a sense of mastery and pride in your accomplishment. And while a sonata a day may not keep the doctor away, it will probably feel good regardless. Enjoying music is one of the best examples of human-made sensual pleasures, and is an easy way to reclaim some of the sensuality lost in our lives.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Good Vibes from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Good Vibes
Almost everyone has a musical preference, playing “radio roulette,” tapping feet in time to music, singing along with a favorite tune at the top of our lungs. We don’t have to splurge for a subscription to the symphony, retreat under headphones, or go to church to tune in to how music affects us. Be it Bach, jazz, rock, gospel, or pop, music is a mood mover. The right music at the right time brings us joy and serenity and soothes frazzled nerves. It lifts us up when we’re down, and calms us when we’re too excited.
One study showed that moving to an even rhythm made muscles flex and extend more smoothly. And music may get you in tune with your body, increasing endurance, regulating breathing, and getting you in the mood to exercise.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Looking at Life from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Looking at Life
We seem to be designed to view natural scenes, and this is reflected in our emotional and physical well-being. We prefer certain types of landscapes, perhaps as a result of a deep-rooted evolutionary experience. Regardless of cultural background, we tend to favor park like scenes with smooth ground cover, scattered trees, lakes, and a degree of openness and depth.
Evolution may have given us a deep need to look at life.
So, try to include some elements from the natural environment in your home and work place. Plants, pets, windows with views of natural scenes, paintings or photographs of nature, or even an aquarium can transform a lifeless man-made environment and reconnect you with nature.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Light and Our Mood from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Light and Our Mood
Almost everyone experiences some change in mood related to the presence or absence of sunlight. On bright, sunny days we tend to feel better, perhaps more energetic, and “sunny.” On dull, gray days, we may feel moody, blue, and out of sorts. Most of us seem, at least to some degree, to be biologically programmed to follow the sun.
It appears that light talks to the brain via the pineal gland. This tiny gland, buried deep within the brain, secretes a brain hormone which can induce sleep as well as depress mood.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Room with a View from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Room with a View
Gazing at fish slowly wandering back and forth in a tank, Looking out of a window at a small stand of trees. Staring into a fire as a burning log consumes itself. Watching clouds form and reform on the canvas of a blue sky. Contemplating the surface of a tranquil lake. Watching birds nest in a tree. We have an appetite for such visual feasts.
Given a choice between viewing a natural scene rich in foliage or an urban landscape devoid of vegetation or water, we nearly always favor the nature scene. This may come as no surprise, but there is now mounting evidence that such choices may be more than simple aesthetic preferences. Flooding our brains with rich natural visual stimulation helps us recover from surgery, tolerate pain, manage stress, and attain well-being.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
https://humanjourney.us/product/healthy-pleasuresEnjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Mental Channel from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Mental Channel
The mental channel (second) determines the way we judge the world and ourselves, our tendencies toward optimism or pessimism, and our interpretation of the world. The mental channel assesses life satisfaction.
The “programs” of the mental channel address such questions as “How’s your life going?” “Are you happy with how fast you’re moving up at the firm?” and “How satisfied are you with your marriage?” These questions are more intricate than those asking whether you enjoy the taste of a peach or the sound of music. So, understanding the “internal mathematics” of judgment—whether we are satisfied, optimistic, happy—is important to health.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – What Our Senses Do? from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
What Our Senses Do?
Our senses do more than send alarms about sporadic hazards. They shepherd us to agreeable experiences that increase survival. Smell and taste incite us to seek a wide spectrum of taste sensations, encouraging us to eat a variety of foods with a full range of essential nutrients.
Touch alerts us to danger; a hot fire or a sharp thorn. Our sense of touch helps us locate and handle food. We touch to communicate.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Change & Simple Pleasures from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Change & Simple Pleasures
The human world has changed, and changed drastically from the one we were “fashioned” to sense. Many sensual pleasures we are primed to receive are blunted in the modern world. City dwellers often miss the glory of the sunrise and sunset as they hustle in their commutes. The synthetic foods in our markets bear little resemblance to the tasty real foods we were built to eat. Our ancestors heard the pleasant sounds of a stream and wind rustling in the trees, but for us it’s the din of traffic and horns blaring.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Simple Pleasures from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Simple Pleasures
Healthy habits don’t need to be grim. Exercise doesn’t need to be a painful marathon to be healthful. Puttering in the garden or taking a pleasant walk is sufficient. Relaxation doesn’t need to be twenty minutes of silent meditation. Watching fish in a bowl, laughing at a funny movie, watching football on television, or even taking a quick deep breath at your desk can let you ease off.
Many simple pleasures and indulgences are helpful to health.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt which we have titled – Healthy & Robust People from the book titled ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Playing to the natural strengths of mind and body, Healthy Pleasures explores the many ways to extend our lives as we enrich them, by understanding the crucial role of pleasure in our health.
Using the latest research in medicine, biology, and psychology, the authors — a renowned brain researcher and a leading expert in preventive medicine — propose a new way to manage health, with less effort and more fun.
Healthy & Robust People
They aren’t necessarily rich or famous. But the way they live and envision their lives nourishes their life itself.
They expect good things of the world. They expect that things will work out well; they expect that their world will be orderly; they expect that other people will like and respect them.
Many robust people seem to maintain a vital sense of humor about life, enjoying a hearty laugh, more often than not at their own expense. Others bring an unbridled enthusiasm to everything they do and everyone they touch. They’re deeply committed to someone or something outside of themselves. They care more for people, pets, political causes, or volunteer organizations than for micromanaging their blood chemistries or fiber intake based upon the latest headlines and health advice. They’re ardent about life itself. And they see themselves as a part of life, rather than apart from life.
Excerpt from ‘Healthy Pleasures’ by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Healthy Pleasures
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention once again another excerpt which we have titled – The Road Ahead from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
The Road Ahead
In the beginning, the marks that our axes made were hardly noticeable amongst the immeasurable riches of the planet. So we gave little thought to the destruction, only looking ahead to a horizon we never seemed to reach. However, some measure of what we were doing tens of thousands of years ago can be understood from an event that left the last and best-preserved record of the effect the axe may have had in Eden. The event took place only a thousand years ago, when the Maoris arrived in New Zealand.
At the time, the dominant animal there was the moa, a large, flightless bird. It weighed anywhere between 10 and 200 kilos, and as there were no threatening mammals it had taken over the role normal to browsers and fruit eaters. Moas were so numerous that later European settlers often found ploughing difficult because of the sheer number of their bones. But within five hundred years of the Maori arrival, every moa in New Zealand had vanished. Archeological evidence shows that moa meat had been so plentiful it supported the first Maoris in groups as large as fifty without the need for agriculture. The Maoris took the moa to be a free lunch and only later learned there was no such thing.
The Maoris also burned large tracts of vegetation that had very few fire-resistant plants, so within a few hundred years there were parts of the country that the settlers had transformed from a rich, diverse ecology into a virtual desert. Only bracken flourished, because it was resistant to fire and did not need the moa to spread its seeds. Having originally enjoyed a rich and varied diet, the Maori settlers were eventually reduced to surviving off bracken roots.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
https://humanjourney.us/development/the-axemakers-gift-james-burke-robert-ornstein
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Good Feelings – Good Vibes & Spiritual Pursuit from the book titled ‘The Mind Field’ by Robert Ornstein.
In this book the late Robert Ornstein extends his argument to the sacrosanct psychiatric profession, as well as to meditation, parapsychologies, shamanism, and the numerous trademarked “awareness systems.”
And the author in the books preface highlights a very thought provoking aspect, he points out that – We are now on the threshold of a new understanding of man and of consciousness, one which might unite the scientific, objective, external approach of Western civilization and the personal, inward disciplines of the East.
Good Feelings – Good Vibes & Spiritual Pursuit
The current cultural difficulty is that many people who are trained to believe that they need help in their personal lives mistakenly assume that “higher studies” will give them what they seek.
Yet, probably worse than the confusion in the public is that of the practitioners of therapy themselves, who often offer a warmed-over mash of misinterpreted religion, reduced or inflated, and an attempt at “good feeling” or good vibes” to their often unwary clients.
One should, of course, not hold that personal problems never do exist. These difficulties, whether in the realm of interpersonal relations, illiteracy, poor nutrition, or social and cultural difficulties, must be met and tolerably answered before one’s involvement in esoteric studies begins. Otherwise, this study can become reduced to an appendage to, and magnifier of, a person’s difficulty. Once personal problems are met, the irrational desire for visible “progress” and for the comfort of a secure system of mysticism may be lessened.
Excerpt from ‘The Mind Field’ by Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Mind Field
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Known World from the book titled ‘The Mind Field’ by Robert Ornstein.
In this book the late Robert Ornstein extends his argument to the sacrosanct psychiatric profession, as well as to meditation, parapsychologies, shamanism, and the numerous trademarked “awareness systems.”
And the author in the books preface highlights a very thought provoking aspect, he points out that – We are now on the threshold of a new understanding of man and of consciousness, one which might unite the scientific, objective, external approach of Western civilization and the personal, inward disciplines of the East.
Known World
We normally consider that which we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, smell with our nose, feel with our hands, and that impressions thus derived exhaust the nature of reality. Although this is partly true, the main biological function of our sensory systems is to discard information which is irrelevant to biological survival. Our senses are as selective as cats’ whiskers; our eyes focus on a small spot within the radiant electromagnetic band, our ears respond to a narrow bandwidth of mechanical waves. Very little of the available information passes the barrier into our “known” world.
Excerpt from ‘The Mind Field’ by Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Mind Field
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt which we have titled – Evolution & Dissonance from the book titled ‘The Mind Field’ by Robert Ornstein.
In this book the late Robert Ornstein extends his argument to the sacrosanct psychiatric profession, as well as to meditation, parapsychologies, shamanism, and the numerous trademarked “awareness systems.”
And the author in the books preface highlights a very thought provoking aspect, he points out that – We are now on the threshold of a new understanding of man and of consciousness, one which might unite the scientific, objective, external approach of Western civilization and the personal, inward disciplines of the East.
Evolution & Dissonance
Cultural evolution is much more rapid than biological evolution. An alteration in learning or the acquisition of a skill can be transmitted quickly between individuals, or with modern means of communication transmitted to an entire culture, yet our genetic structure remains unchanged.
Thus the biology of living systems always lags behind alterations in the environment or the social situation.
The human remains basically unchanged genetically since the Stone Age. The primary aim of physical evolution is biological survival, both of the individual and of the race. At points in the history of a large population system, individual survival may proceed along the same parameters as the survival of the population, though at later points on the curve of increasing population and social complexity there is often a dissonance between them. It is in large part a human’s increasing mastery over his environment that cleaves the individual and collective prerequisites of survival and occasions the need for new choices, and new development.
Excerpt from ‘The Mind Field’ by Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Mind Field
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Reductionism from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
Reductionism
Even as Bacon was formulating his new system, in a small town in Bavaria a snowstorm kept a French military engineer in his lodgings for a whole day and night during which, he said, he had formulated the concept that was to solve the problem of evaluation. His method for doing so would also give specialists a powerful new gift to help them in manufacturing knowledge. In 1637, after much rethinking, the engineer, René Descartes, published his new concept in a book called Discourse on Method, in which he set out the rules for seeking certainty in an uncertain world.
The secret lay in what he called “methodical doubt,” by which everything except self-evident truths were to be questioned until they had proved themselves to be true (and for Descartes, every-thing, especially the evidence of the senses, was to be doubted in the absence of any “evident truth”). Descartes’ method provided the supreme cut-and-control approach to the world in the form of a technique known as “reductionism.” In an echo of the medieval resolution-and-composition technique, the method called for a problem to be divided up into its smallest parts so that it could more easily be understood and then solved. All reductionist thinking should proceed from the simple to the complex and all statements about the world should be expressed only in non-metaphysical terms: size, shape, and movement.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Axemakers Gift: Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – The Town Clock from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
The Town Clock
The gift of the clock immediately made possible new forms of wider, more effective marshaling of social forces. Demand for clocks from royal courts and from the growing number of towns throughout Europe was overwhelming. Town clocks gave guilds and governments the means to regulate all behavior. In Brussels, textile workers rose at a dawn bell, weavers and twisters ended their day with an evening bell, and there was a special clock for cobblers, In 1355, in Amiens, France, the city government would issue an ordnance “concerning the time when the workers… should go each morning to work, when they should eat and when to return to work after eating; and also in the evening when they should quit work for the day,” and they used a special bell for this purpose.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Axemakers Gift: Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – History – Oral & Written – A Perspective from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
History – Oral & Written – A Perspective
Key to the new way of thinking is that where pictographs were in a sense representations of the object, alphabetic letters were not. For example, an “A” represented nothing specific in nature. The alphabet codified nature into something abstract, to be cut and controlled impersonally. In this way, to some extent the alphabet removed us one more step away from our environment. It also gave us a new view of the past.
While literature was one obvious offspring of the development of the alphabet, a less obvious outcome was the concept of history. Oral memory deals with the present, and recollection is concerned with what is relevant to the present. Biography in an oral tradition is not as much careful scholarship as it is a creative act, in which events are woven into coherence with the aid of imagination. But the accumulation of written records makes it possible to separate the present from the past. Somebody who can read is able to “look back” at what happened before, in a way that the non-literate person never can. Written material is by necessity “dated” and fixed, while an oral tradition is “living” and fluid.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Axemakers Gift: Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled –Plato and Alphabetic Thinking from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
Plato & Alphabetic Thinking
Plato expressed his concerns about how alphabetic thinking might affect our view of knowledge in an admonition that would go largely unheeded until the late twentieth century:
It will produce forgetfulness in the souls of those who have learned it, through lack of practice at using their memory, as through reliance on writing they are reminded from outside by alien marks, not from inside, themselves by themselves: you have discovered an elixir not of memory but of reminding. To your students you give an appearance of wisdom, not the reality of it; having heard much, in the absence of teaching, they will appear to know much when for the most part they know nothing, and they will be difficult to get along with, because they have acquired the appearance of wisdom instead of wisdom itself.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Axemakers Gift: Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled –Tools & Lifestyle from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
Tools & Lifestyle
As the population centers increased in size and number, new axemaker gifts facilitated their organization and maintenance. The ox-drawn plough boosted grain production, the wheel and the sail transported it, the potter’s wheel made jars to store it, and the waterwheel ground it into meal for people now living in houses made of kiln-fired bricks in communities protected by metal weapons. Draft animals fertilized the soil, the plough increased the area of workable land, and “short-fallow” farming (with frequent cropping and growing) produced crops in faster sequence. Things were changing faster now.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Axemakers Gift: Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – New Tools & their Effects from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
New Tools & their Effects
With the acceleration also came major change in the nature of the relationship between us and our axemakers. When tools like the alphabet appeared, they encouraged new ways of thinking. The linear nature of the alphabet facilitated sequential, reductionist, logical forms of expression and thought. Its ease of use promoted literacy and with it the involvement of citizens in the governing process.
Above all, the alphabet made it possible to ask questions that were not immediately essential to the well-being of the community. These questions, about matters such as the origin of the universe, the nature of life, or the sum of the internal angles of a triangle, generated increasingly esoteric axemaker vocabulary. They also changed the way we thought about the way we thought.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Axemakers Gift: Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Social Effects & Innovations from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
Social Effects & Innovations
The social effects of axemaker’s innovation also shape those aspects of our lives that cannot be so readily observed. For example, In the late eighteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution suddenly brought hundreds of thousands of farm workers into city factories, their potentially disruptive presence provoked draconian legislation, which included capital punishment for such minor offenses as stealing a handkerchief. Today, television coverage of the glitterati provides influential role models for behavior, while television soap operas offer glimpses of a world whose values many viewers admire and adopt.
Through history, when the axemaker’s changed our world in these ways, we were in most cases willing and eager participants in the matter. Most of the time the axemaker’s gift was irresistible. More often than not it was a cure for a disease, or a faster way to do something, or a means to facilitate what we wanted to do, So we came back for more, unmindful of the other, not easily visible, changes the gift might eventually bring. But we could never unmake history, and with each gift there was no choice but to adapt to the effects of the change.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Axemakers Gift: Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Gifts & Change from the book titled ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ – Technology’s capture and control of our minds and Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.
This book is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. The gifts we accepted from them gave us the power to change the way we lived, but doing so also changed the way we thought. It is a stunning account of how scientific thinking and technology have gained control over the way we perceive and value the world.
Gifts & Change
Their gifts not only changed the world of their time but also remain in use, to affect later periods. Any modern environment is a mixture of these world-altering changes, whose origins range back thousands of years into the past. The fact that you are able to read this book originates with the effects of the fifteenth-century printing press. The food you ate for breakfast today was delivered to the supermarkets thanks to the nineteenth-century combustion engine. The clothes you’re wearing now began their existence on a prehistoric loom. You are alive, in all probability, thanks to one or another medical advance dating from some time in the last hundred years or maybe older than that. Your workplace probably includes thirteenth-century paper, sixteenth-century lathe-turned furniture, nineteenth-century plastics, fifteenth-century toilets, seventeenth-century electricity powering nineteenth-century telephones, and early twentieth-century computers. The water supply in the restrooms is delivered by sixteenth-century pumping systems. The paint on the office walls contains nineteenth-century artificial dyes. Your business itself likely runs on a top-down decision hierarchy dating from command structures first established seven thousand years ago to run the first city-states.
Only rarely, if ever, did we look back to examine the effect of our passage on the world, because our axemaker’s always led us forward, toward the horizon we never expected to reach.
Excerpt from ‘The Axemaker’s Gift’ by James Burke and Robert Ornstein
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Axemakers Gift: Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Narrowing Perspective – Obscuring Context & Meaning from the book titled ‘Uncharted’ – How to Map the Future Together by Margaret Heffernan.
In her bold and invigorating book, Margaret Heffernan explores the individuals, organizations and mindsets that aren’t daunted by uncertainty but seize the challenge of making the future for them-selves and explores answers to these questions, how can we think about the future? What do we need to do – and who do we need to be?
Narrowing Perspective – Obscuring Context & Meaning
As organisations grow, hierarchies and bureaucracy develop; measurement and rules drive standardisation and efficiency. As the work becomes atomised, it loses meaning and motivation is supplied by targets and rewards to keep the work on track. Such institutions have succeeded when uncertainty has been largely absent. But as they grow and complexity increases, their own hierarchies and bureaucracies overwhelm them. Eventually, the only way to function is by adopting shorter and shorter timeframes: quarterly returns or just-in-time production processes limit uncertainty. But the shorter the time frame, the smaller the aspiration, the more ephemeral the human rewards. Obsessive managerialism, with its measurable, predicted targets, overwhelms them, narrowing perspective and obscuring context and meaning.
Excerpt from ‘Uncharted’ by Margaret Heffernan
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
http://www.mheffernan.com/book-uncharted.php
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Future – Crisis – Friendship from the book titled ‘Uncharted’ – How to Map the Future Together by Margaret Heffernan.
In her bold and invigorating book, Margaret Heffernan explores the individuals, organizations and mindsets that aren’t daunted by uncertainty but seize the challenge of making the future for them-selves and explores answers to these questions, how can we think about the future? What do we need to do – and who do we need to be?
Future – Crisis – Friendship
Suddenly the future is here. We experiment, explore and aim high, but life can prove more inventive than we are and, in an instant, we are shocked into a crisis: of identity or endurance or survival. However much we are prepared to make the future, it sometimes arrives too soon, too fast and threatens to make or break us.
Knowing you are in a crisis is essential to surviving one. Routine responses – layoffs, cost-cutting, exhortations to work harder – breed cynicism, division and contempt. To define a future no one can see yet requires radical imagination. When time is tight and money is running out, a company can’t afford binary choices; it needs lots of options. But, under pressure, thinking often becomes even more constrained and hackneyed, rigid with fear.
Friendship is a topic rarely talked about in the upper echelons of business, but it should be. Nobody survives these crises alone. Survivors have friends: people not necessarily in the business but who know what it’s like, what it means, people who have only each other’s best interests at heart.
These relationships aren’t transactional, they’re not networking. Some leaders refer to their friends as their ‘north star’, others as the bridge between intellect and character. What gets people through crises and into the future is each other.
Excerpt from ‘Uncharted’ by Margaret Heffernan
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
http://www.mheffernan.com/book-uncharted.php
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Mindset from the book titled ‘Uncharted’ – How to Map the Future Together by Margaret Heffernan.
In her bold and invigorating book, Margaret Heffernan explores the individuals, organizations and mindsets that aren’t daunted by uncertainty but seize the challenge of making the future for them-selves and explores answers to these questions, how can we think about the future? What do we need to do – and who do we need to be?
Mindset
The mindset at CERN(European Organization for Nuclear Research) is both tight and loose: rigorously committed to doing physics that matters at a level of acknowledged excellence, but loose in its responsiveness to new ideas and technologies. Plans aren’t sacrosanct, but accuracy is. This paradoxical combination of super-human scientific detail with human improvisation requires a mindset that is both open to change, to disconfirmation and correction, but which can function in a discipline that demands absolute precision. Such punctilious flexibility is a CERN hallmark, as critical to the institution’s management as its science.
Excerpt from ‘Uncharted’ by Margaret Heffernan
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
http://www.mheffernan.com/book-uncharted.php
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week again I bring to your attention the book titled ‘Willful Blindness’ – Why we Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril by Margaret Heffernan.
This book tries to understand, why after every major accident and blunder, do we look back and say how could we have been so blind? Why do some people see what others don’t? And how can we change? Drawing on studies by psychologists and neuroscientists, and interviews with business leaders, whistleblowers, and white-collar criminals, businesswoman and writer Margaret Heffernan examines the phenomenon of willful blindness, exploring the reasons that individuals and groups are blind to impending personal tragedies, corporate collapses, engineering failures even crimes against humanity.
Excerpt
When individuals read, they focus on the information that supports their current opinion, paying less attention to information that challenges their views. Overall, people are about twice as likely to seek information that supports their own point of view as they are to consider an opposing idea! Rather than broadening their attitudes, the very process of discussion renders them blind to alternatives. We stop looking at places or jobs or information or people that will prove too uncomfortable, too tumultuous for our closely held beliefs. We may think we want to be challenged, but we really don’t. Our intellectual homes are just as self-selected and exclusive as our physical homes.
Excerpt from ‘Willful Blindness’ by Margaret Heffernan
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
https://www.mheffernan.com/book-wilfulblindness.php
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week again I bring to your attention the book titled ‘Willful Blindness’ – Why we Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril by Margaret Heffernan.
This book tries to understand, why after every major accident and blunder, do we look back and say how could we have been so blind? Why do some people see what others don’t? And how can we change? Drawing on studies by psychologists and neuroscientists, and interviews with business leaders, whistleblowers, and white-collar criminals, businesswoman and writer Margaret Heffernan examines the phenomenon of willful blindness, exploring the reasons that individuals and groups are blind to impending personal tragedies, corporate collapses, engineering failures even crimes against humanity.
Excerpt
Familiarity, it turns out, does not breed contempt. It breeds comfort. The familiar makes us feel secure and comfortable. We want to feel good about ourselves and to feel safe, and being surrounded by familiarity and similarity satisfies those needs very efficiently. The problem with this is that everything outside that warm, safe circle is our blind spot.
Now that we enjoy so much freedom to move around, choosing the jobs that we like, we can also choose the communities that we like. And by and large we choose “those places and people that are comfortably akin to ourselves.”
We seek confirmation and validation from those around us, even if it is just a matter of our pastimes.
Excerpt from ‘Willful Blindness’ by Margaret Heffernan
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
https://www.mheffernan.com/book-wilfulblindness.php
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale titled ‘The Half-Blind King’ from the book titled ‘Knowing How to Know’. It is a collection of Tales, stories, fables, aphorisms and statements that draw our attention to the basic factors that must be in place so that knowledge and understanding is acquired.
It reveals concealed pattern, normally invisible to our customary modes of thought.
The Half-Blind King
Once upon the time there was a king who desired his portrait painted. He was blind in one eye.
The King invited the three greatest royal portraitists in the world to paint his picture, saying: ‘If you do a bad portrait, I shall punish you; but if you do a good one, I shall reward you beyond your dreams.
The first painter produced a picture which showed the King’s eye to be blind. The King had him executed for disrespect.
The second painter showed the King’s eyes as perfect. The King had him thrashed for falsification.
The third painter, however, pictured the King in profile, showing only his good eye.
This man was made the official portraitist, and heaped with gold and honours.
Tale from ‘Knowing How to Know’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Knowing How to Know by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a statement titled ‘Strange World’ from the book titled ‘Knowing How to Know’. It is a collection of Tales, stories, fables, aphorisms and statements that draw our attention to the basic factors that must be in place so that knowledge and understanding is acquired.
It reveals concealed pattern, normally invisible to our customary modes of thought.
Strange World
In our world real short cuts are numerous, but not easily seen. They lead through jungles where hostile savages abound and provisions are scarce. The fruits which look nutritious are poisonous, and the survival rations appear unpalatable.
The view from the start of the short cut is almost exactly like the prospect from the other side.
These are short cuts with a vengeance. The attractive-looking ones are not short cuts at all.
Statement from ‘Knowing How to Know’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Knowing How to Know by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a statement titled ‘Questions and Answers’ from the book titled ‘Reflections’. It is a collection of fables, aphorisms and statements that challenge the conditioned mind.
It confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free so as to see how things really are.
Questions and Answers
One of the big differences between questions and answers is that, a question maybe asked at almost any time and place, but its answer may come at a special time and place.
Statement from ‘Reflections’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Reflections by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a statement titled ‘Toys’ from the book titled ‘Reflections’. It is a collection of fables, aphorisms and statements that challenge the conditioned mind.
It confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free so as to see how things really are.
Toys
People used to play with toys.
Now the toys play with them.
Statement from ‘Reflections’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Reflections by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’
Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a statement titled ‘Who Cares?’ from the book titled ‘Reflections’. It is a collection of fables, aphorisms and statements that challenge the conditioned mind.
It confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free so as to see how things really are.
Who Cares?
It is not only a matter of not caring who knows – it is also a matter of knowing who cares.
Statement from ‘Reflections’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Reflections by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale titled ‘Greed, Obligement and Impossibility’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
Greed, Obligement and Impossibility
A Sufi said:
None can understand man until he realises the connection between greed, obligement and impossibility?
This said his disciple, ‘is a conundrum which I cannot understand.’
The Sufi said:
Never look for understanding through conundrums when you can attain it through experience.
He took the disciple to a shop in the nearby market, where robes were sold.
‘Show me your very best robe;’ said the Sufi to the shopkeeper, ‘for I am in a mood to spend excessively.’ A most beautiful garment was produced, and an extremely high price was asked for it.
It is very much the kind of thing I would like, said the Sufi, but I would like some sequins around the collar, and a touch of fur trimming.’
Nothing easier,’ said the seller of robes, for I have just such a garment in the workroom of my shop.’ He disappeared for a few moments, and then returned, having added the fur and sequins to the self-same garment.
‘And how much is this one?’ asked the Sufi.
Twenty times the price of the first one, said the shopkeeper.
‘Excellent,’ said the Sufi, I shall take both of them.’
Tale from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a fable titled ‘The Aim of the Nightingale’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
The Aim of the Nightingale
A nightingale who happened to have no home of his own decided that he would try to settle in a certain forest. The birds who were already there, however, had their own ideas about the matter, and soon drove him out.
One day, sitting disconsolately by the dusty road nearby, he was spied by another nightingale, who stopped to ask why he looked so forlorn.
‘I tried, said the first bird, ‘to make my home among other birds, but they pecked, and they mobbed me, and they flapped at me until I had to leave yonder forest.’
Perhaps you were boastful, said the other nightingale.
When, in a similar situation, I sought a tree of my own, all the birds first collected and asked me what I was doing, why I was singing.’
‘Yes, those birds did the same with me, said the first nightingale.
“And what did you say?”
‘I said: “I am singing because I simply cannot help it.”
‘And then?
‘And then they attacked me, as I have described?
Ah, said the other bird that was your mistake. They thought that you had no self-control, that you might be mad and that you might try to make them behave in a similar manner.
When I was asked the same question, I said: “I am trying to please you with my song.” That was an aim which they could understand?
Fable from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale titled ‘Dialogue’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
The Persian word dervish is generally considered to be derived from the verb der-vekhtan to wait at a door. The reference is to waiting before the door of enlightenment.
Dialogue
A disciple asked the deputy of a dervish:
‘Why has so-and-so not been through the Phase of Acquiring Patience?’
He said:
‘The test of his patience is you – for you ask questions all the time, while he has no need of other tests in that direction in this place of study.’ The disciple then asked:
But when do I begin my exercises in developing humility, which is said to be my need?
The deputy told him:
‘Just as you are a source of exercise in patience to him, he is a source of developing humility for you. Enduring you should help to make him patient. Observing your own attitude towards him should help to make you humble. It is not humility to demand to be made humble.’
Tale from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale titled ‘Secret Teaching’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
Secret Teaching
One of the Sufi masters was asked:
While your beliefs and school are known, your teachings are secret, given only to those whom you desire, and nobody is allowed to be present as an observer at your meetings, unlike the practices of the philosophers, who allow, indeed welcome, hearers of all kinds. What is the explanation of this?’
He said:
‘Light of my eyes! Teaching is like charity: it is to be given secretly for the reason that the public display of charity is bad for the giver, for the receiver and for the observer. Teaching is like nutrition, and its effects are not visible at the time it is being given, so there is no point in there being an observer except of the fruit of the nutrition. Teaching, again, is not to be considered as separated from the circumstances in which it is given. Therefore, if there are observers, their presence changes the circumstances and also therefore the effect of the teaching. If the effect of the presence of an audience were to increase the beneficial effect of teaching, then I and everyone else would have welcomed and demanded such an audience.
And, fourthly, teaching varies with the Sufi dictum of the necessity for “right time, right place, right people”. To ask even for information about knowledge is like throwing a lifeless carcass into fresh water: the intention may be good, but the result will be poisonous.’ The inquirer said:
‘I understand what you say, but I wish to remark that this is not the manner in which ordinary teaching is carried out.’
The teacher replied:
‘God grant that ordinary teaching may indeed one day be carried out in this manner! When that comes to pass we shall have no need to see any division between Sufi and other teaching!’
Tale from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale titled ‘Confined Thinking’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
The Persian word dervish is generally considered to be derived from the verb der-vekhtan to wait at a door. The reference is to waiting before the door of enlightenment.
Confined Thinking
In a rest-house on one of the great Central Asian highways of the Silk Route, a certain man was talking, loudly and incessantly, one evening.
Everyone hoped that he would stop, so that travellers could get some rest before the following morning’s early start.
But this man showed no sign of quietening down, and few of those present were pleased when a wandering dervish approached the garrulous one, greeted him politely and said:
I wish to listen to every single word of yours with the greatest possible attention. Please continue to talk.
The talker continued with greater volume and verbosity, phrasing his harangue with more and more virtuosity, while the dervish sat before him, his gaze fixed upon him with intense concentration.
Within a few minutes the man had almost stopped talking-and the dervish was asleep.
In the morning, as the caravan’s animals were being saddled up for the march, some of the travellers asked the dervish the meaning of his behaviour. He said: That man wanted your attention, and you did not want to give it, because you wanted to be doing something else.
I wanted rest, but I knew that I would have to pay for it in advance. As soon as our friend had gained his objective, he no longer wanted it. As soon as I gained mine, of relative quiet following concentrated effort, I took advantage of it – and you people benefited too.
When asked his own impressions of the night before, the talker said:
That pretended dervish had the insolence to fall asleep as I spoke, after pretending to be interested. He was only trying to impress us all. Let that be a lesson to you.
Tale from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale titled ‘City of Storms’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
City of Storms
Once upon a time there was a city. It was very much like any other city, except that it was almost permanently enveloped in storms.
The people who lived in it loved their city. They had, of course, adjusted to its climate. Living amid storms meant that they did not notice thunder, lightning and rain most of the time.
If anyone pointed out the climate, they thought that he was being rude or boring. After all, having storms was what life was like, wasn’t it? Life went on like this for many centuries.
This would have been all very well, but for one thing: the people had not made a complete adaptation to a storm-climate. The result was that they were afraid, unsettled and frequently agitated.
Since they had never seen any other kind of place in living memory, cities or countries without storms belonged to folklore or the babblings of lunatics.
There were two tried recipes which caused them to forget, for a time, their tensions: to make changes and to obsess themselves with what they had. At any given moment in their history, some sections of the population would have their attention fixed on change, and others on possessions of some kind. The unhappy ones would only then be those who were doing neither.
Rain poured down, but nobody did anything about it because it was not a recognised problem. Wetness was a problem, but nobody connected it with rain. Lightning started fires, which were a problem, but these were regarded as individual events without a consistent cause.
You may think it remarkable that so many people knew so little for so long.
But then we tend to forget that, compared to present-day information, most people in history have known almost nothing about anything – and even contemporary knowledge is daily being modified – and even proved wrong.
Tale from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale titled ‘Economics’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
Economics
A man saw his bus going so slowly that he decided to walk home.
On the way he met another man – a citizen of the Land of Fools.
“Ah, Foolslander! He cried, I’m saving a shilling by walking instead of travelling in that bus.’
“You’re a wasteful idiot, the Foolslander immediately replied.
‘Why?’
Having discovered such an important saving as that, you could have walked behind a taxi, and saved ten times as much!’
From ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a fable titled ‘The Fruit’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
The Fruit
There were once three men, all of whom wanted fruit, though none of them had ever seen any, since it was rare in their country.
It so happened that they all travelled in search of this almost unknown thing called fruit. And it also happened that, at about the same time, each one found his way to a fruit tree.
The first man was a heedless man. He got to the tree, but had spent so much time thinking about the directions that he failed to recognise the fruit. His journey was wasted.
The second man was a fool, who took things very literally. When he saw that all the fruit on the tree was past its best, he said:
Well, I’ve seen fruit, and I don’t like rotten things, so that is the end of fruit as far as I am concerned.’ He went on his way, and his journey was wasted.
The third man was wise. He picked up some of the fruit and examined it. After some thought, and racking his brains to remember all the possibilities about this uneatable delicacy, he found that inside each fruit there was a stone.
Once he knew that this stone was a seed, all he had to do was to plant, and tend the growth, and wait for – fruit.
Fable from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale titled ‘Thirsty’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
Thirsty
There once was a king who was thirsty. He did not quite know what the difficulty was, but he said: ‘my throat is dry.’
Lackeys at once ran swiftly to find something suitable to alleviate the condition. They came back with lubricating oil.
When the king drank it, his throat did not feel dry any more, but he knew that something was not right. The oil produced a curious sensation in his mouth. He croaked: ‘My tongue feels awful, there is a curious taste, and it is slippery…’
His doctor immediately prescribed pickles and vinegar – which the king ate.
Soon he had stomach-ache and watering eyes to add to his sorrows.
I think I must be thirsty, he mumbled, for his sufferings had made him do some thinking.
Thirst never made the eyes water, said the courtiers to one another. But kings are often capricious, and they ran to fetch rosewater, and scented, syrupy wines fit for a king.
The king drank it all, but still he felt no better – and his digestion was ruined.
A wise man who happened along in the middle of this crisis said:
‘His Majesty needs ordinary water?
“A king could never drink common water,’ shouted the court in unison.
‘Of course not?’ said the king, ‘and, in fact, I feel quite insulted – both as a king being offered plain water and also as a patient. After all, it must be impossible that such a dreadful and daily more complicated ailment as mine could have a simple remedy. Such a concept is contrary to logic, a disgrace to its originator, and an affront to the sick.
That is how the wise man came to be renamed ‘The Idiot.’
Tale from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a fable titled ‘The Disease’ from the book titled ‘The Magic Monastery’.
The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be read and enjoyed at many levels. It is also designed as a course in non-linear thinking.
The Disease
A nightingale once said to a peacock:
When I trill, people gather to listen to the beauty and purity of my voice – man may be a murderer but he is also an aesthete.’
The peacock listened well, and decided to get an admiring crowd for his beautiful plumage, something far more exquisite than anything that the nightingale could show.
So he went to a place where human beings congregated, and pranced in front of a group of people, folding and unfolding his tail, strutting and thrusting his feathers in front of everyone’s eyes.
One of the men said:
There is something wrong with that unfortunate peacock – he cannot keep still. It must be some illness.’
So they seized the peacock and killed it, in case the disease spread to their domestic fowls.
Fable from ‘The Magic Monastery’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a fable titled ‘The Oyster’ from the book titled ‘Reflections’. It is a collection of fables, aphorisms and statements that challenge the conditioned mind.
It confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free so as to see how things really are.
The Oyster
An oyster, lying open on the ocean bed, felt a loose pearl wash over it.
The oyster closed its shell, and the pearl fell into a rock-crevice.
After tremendous effort, the oyster managed to retrieve the pearl and placed it on a leaf just beside it.
“This bribe may prevent the oyster-catchers from taking me,” it thought, for it knew something about men who sought for pearls.
When a pearl-diver, however, was ultimately in the vicinity, his eyes were alert for oyster shells, not pearls lying about loose.
So he took the oyster, which as it happened did not contain a pearl – and the real pearl rolled away. It has not yet been rediscovered
Fable from ‘Reflections’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Reflections by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a fable titled ‘The Log and the Mushroom’ from the book titled ‘Reflections’. It is a collection of fables, aphorisms and statements that challenge the conditioned mind.
It confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free so as to see how things really are.
The Log and the Mushroom
A rotten log was providing the nutrition for a growing mushroom.
As the fungus burst its way through the wood, it shouted:
“Down with this restrictive institution trying to inhibit my freedom!”
Other growths, which were spectators, were much affected by the struggle. They said, in admiration:
“How beautiful is the irresistible heroism of fungi! What a lesson for our descendants. Let us never forget this day. That log thought that it was strong. Indeed, had it not been for the unconquerable spirit of the mushrooms, none would have dared to conceive, let alone carry through, such a glorious enterprise.”
Some toadstools, which had thrust their way with ease through leaf-mold, said:
“All this effort, this boasting, surely it is unnecessary?”
But they were soon silenced, in the rising clamor from the fungus chorus:
“Destroy, destroy, destroy tyranny, so that we may have harmony and peace.”
Fable from ‘Reflections’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Reflections by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a fable which is used in the foreword from the book titled ‘Reflections’. It is a collection of fables, aphorisms and statements that challenge the conditioned mind.
It confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free so as to see how things really are.
The Story of the Mice
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a certain building was infested by mice. The people in charge decided to kill them. One night they put down mouse-killing poison. But the next morning the poison had been eaten.
“We shall change the type of poison,” the people said, and they made another attempt. But this second lethal dose the mice also ate happily, and left signs that they were thriving on their new diet.
It was decided to use old-fashioned, spring-operated mousetraps. These were baited with succulent cheese to tempt the poison-proof mice.
But the mice refused to touch the cheese.
One of the mouse-catchers now had an inspiration. He thickly coated the cheese in the traps with poison. “Perhaps the mice have developed a liking for poison: it may even be doing them good,” he reasoned.
The new plan was put into operation late one evening. The following morning the spring-traps were full of strong and healthy mice.
Foreword of ‘Reflections’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Reflections by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Concluding today’s post and podcast episode, I thank all who take time out and read (the blog post) and listen to the episodes each week. For those who listen and have not subscribed to the podcast I suggest you do and click on the bell icon so that you can be notified for all the new episodes that get uploaded every week.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a fable titled ‘The Lizard and the Spider’ from the book titled ‘Reflections’. It is a collection of fables, aphorisms and statements that challenge the conditioned mind.
It confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free so as to see how things really are.
The Lizard and the Spider
A lizard and a spider met. The lizard said: “What do you eat?” and the spider replied:
“Flies.”
“So do I,” said the lizard, “it seems that we are suitable companions.”
They set up house together.
One night they were out catching flies. A cat approached. In the instant before it pounced on him, the lizard cried to the spider:
“A cat is going to catch me, what shall I do?”
The spider called back:
“Just spin out some web and make your escape into this tiny hole where I am.”
While the lizard was trying to understand this, the cat caught him.
Statements from ‘Reflections’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Reflections by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a tale, which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking compilation, titled ‘Letters & Lectures of Idries Shah’.
Abundance
There was once a conceited and ignorant aristocrat. He had convinced himself that everything which was in any way connected with him was of a special nature, which could function or yield its greatest value, only because of his association with it.
Among his possessions were a number of excellent fruit-bearing bushes, some plants which bore beautiful flowers, and a number of exceptional hens which laid abundantly.
The citizens of the town adjacent to this odious man’s estate tried everything they could to make him more humane. For decades men of spirituality tried to reason with him; philosophers tried to argue with him, scholars tried to convince him that they were more learned than he.
Nobody ever succeeded in making any impression on the man. One day, one of the townspeople decided to visit a wise man, a Sufi who lived in the nearby hills.
“The remedy is quite simple” said the Sufi; “and the only reason you have not thought of it is that your resentment of the man was stronger than your desire to learn how to overthrow him from his own behaviour. Now this is what you must do.”
He sent the man away to make a collection amongst the other people of the town. When they had amassed a certain sum of money, they went to the aristocrat and bought from him three of his bushes, six of his plants and twelve of his hens.
These things they installed in a garden near the town, in a place where the conceited man was sure to pass.
Some months later, when the aristocrat was riding past, he looked and saw that the flowers were blooming, the bushes were laden with fruit, and the hens were laying in plenty.
The realisation that such things could also serve the common people, and were not withering or ruined in such profane hands, so demoralised the arrogant man that he had a seizure, fell off his horse, and died.
Story from – Letters & Lectures of Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link: https://idriesshahfoundation.org/books/lectures-and-lectures-of-idries-shah/
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a fable titled ‘Three Wishes’ from the book titled ‘Reflections’. It is a collection of fables, aphorisms and statements that challenge the conditioned mind.
It confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free so as to see how things really are.
Three Wishes
A man, after many years of study and effort, found out how to gain power over spirits. He conjured a jinn.
The jinn gave him three wishes.
He immediately wished for money.
Spending all his money on high living, he became an alcoholic.
His second wish went on making him well again.
Now he felt so undecided as to what to do, he used up the third wish to restore himself to his original state, and to forget his experiences.
Statements from ‘Reflections’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
Reflections by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a joke titled ‘How to get out of Trouble’ from the book titled ‘Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin’. Mulla (Master) Nasrudin is the classical figure devised by the dervishes partly for the purpose of halting for a moment situations in which certain states of mind are made clear.
The Persian word dervish is generally considered to be derived from the verb der-vekhtan to wait at a door. The reference is to waiting before the door of enlightenment.
How to get out of Trouble
A man had fallen between the rails in an Underground station when Nasrudin came along
one afternoon. People were crowding around, all trying to get him out before a train ran him over. They were shouting, ‘Give me your hand!’ But the man would not reach up.
The Mulla elbowed his way through the crowd and leant over to the man. ‘Friend,’ he said, ‘what
is your profession?’
‘I am an income-tax inspector,’ gasped the man.
‘In that case,’ said Nasrudin, ‘take my hand!’ The man immediately grasped the Mulla’s hand
and was hauled to safety.
Nasrudin turned to the open-mouthed audience. ‘Never ask a tax man to give you anything, you
fools,’ he said, and walked away.
Joke from ‘Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin’ by Idries ShahI am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Concluding today’s post and podcast episode, I thank all who take time out and read (the blog post) and listen to the episodes each week. For those who listen and have not subscribed to the podcast I suggest you do and click on the bell icon so that you can be notified for all the new episodes that get uploaded every week.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a joke titled ‘Why We are Here’ from the book titled ‘The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin’. Mulla (Master) Nasrudin is the classical figure devised by the dervishes partly for the purpose of halting for a moment situations in which certain states of mind are made clear.
The Persian word dervish is generally considered to be derived from the verb der-vekhtan to wait at a door. The reference is to waiting before the door of enlightenment.
We tend to look at events one-sidedly. We also assume, without any justification that an event happens as it were in a vacuum. In actual fact, all events are associated with all other events. It is only when we are ready to experience our interrelation with the organism of life that we can appreciate mystical experience. If you look at any action which you do, or which anyone else does, you will find that it was prompted by one of many possible stimuli; and also that it is never an isolated action-it has consequences, many of them ones which you would never expect, certainly which you could not have planned.
A Nasrudin “joke” underlines this essential circularity of reality, and the generally invisible interactions which occur:
Why We are Here
One day Nasrudin was walking along a deserted road. Night was falling as he spied a troop of horsemen coming toward him. His imagination began to work, and he feared that they might rob him, or impress him into the army. So strong did this fear become that he leaped over a wall and found himself in a graveyard. The other travelers, innocent of any such motive as had been assumed by Nasrudin, became curious and pursued him. When they came upon him lying motionless, one said, “Can we help you-why are you here in this position?”
Nasrudin realizing his mistake, said, “It is more complicated than you assume. You see, I am here because of you; and you, you are here because of me.”
Joke from ‘The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin’ by Idries ShahI am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention a story titled ‘Stealing Advice’ from the book titled ‘A Perfumed Scorpion’ which is a collection of lectures, meditations and also illustrative anecdotes. The ‘perfuming of a scorpion’ referred to by the great Sufi teacher Bahaudin symbolises hypocrisy and self-deception: both in the individual and in institutions.
Idries Shah, in these lectures and meditations, directs attention to both the perfume and the scorpion – the overlay and the reality – in psychology, human behaviour and the learning process.
Stealing Advice
A man once applied to a Sufi to become his disciple, but was rejected, as not being ready for this path. So he decided that he would learn what he could by direct methods. What could be wrong in adopting Sufi practice?
Finding out that a new disciple was being enrolled that evening, he climbed onto the roof of the Sufi meeting-place and listened to the first instructions being given by the Teacher:
Do not walk on the left-hand side of a street; do not avoid a fortunate person; do not push yourself forward before others.’ Well, that seemed easy enough to the eavesdropper, who, naturally, at once proceeded to apply these teachings to his own life.
But, as he was walking home along the right-hand side of a street, a plant-pot fell on him from a balcony, and he was injured.
Making friends with a prosperous merchant, all that happened was that the man swindled him. Finally, when he tried to apply for employment to feed himself (as he had lost all his money) he found that there were always other applicants there first, and without pushing he was unable even to obtain an interview.
Story from ‘A Perfumed Scorpion’ by Idries Shah
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:
A Perfumed Scorpion by Idries Shah
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Before concluding today’s episode please pay attention to these words of a Storyteller.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Concluding today’s post and podcast episode, I thank all who take time out and read (the blog post) and listen to the episodes each week. For those who listen and have not subscribed to the podcast I suggest you do and click on the bell icon so that you can be notified for all the new episodes that get uploaded every week.
Namaste!
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, →
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Who is at Fault? Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. […]
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.
‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.
The Silent Couple
Once upon a time there was a newly married couple; still dressed in their wedding finery, they relaxed in their new home when the last of the guests at their feast had left.
‘Dear husband,’ said the young lady, ‘do go and close the door to the street, which has been left open.’
‘Me shut it?’ said the groom. ‘A bridegroom in this splendid costume, with a priceless robe and a dagger studded with jewels? How could I be expected to do such a thing? You must be out of your mind. Go and shut it yourself.’
‘So!’ shouted the bride, ‘you expect me to be your slave: a gentle beautiful creature like me, wearing a dress of finest silk – that I should get up on my wedding day and close a door which looks onto the public street? Impossible.’
They were both silent for a moment or two, and the lady suggested that they should make the problem the subject of forfeit. Whoever spoke first, they agreed, should be the one to shut the door.
There were two sofas in the room, and the pair settled themselves, face to face, one on each, sitting mutely looking at one another.
They had been in this posture for two or three hours when a party of thieves came by and noticed that the door was open. The robbers crept into the silent house, which seemed so deserted, and began to load themselves with every portable object of any value which they could find.
The bridal couple heard them come in, but each thought that the other should attend to the matter. Neither of them spoke or moved as the burglars went from room to room, until at length they entered the sitting room and at first failed to notice the utterly motionless couple.
Still the pair sat there, while the thieves collected all the valuables, and even rolled up the carpets under them. Mistaking the idiot and his stubborn wife for wax dummies, they stripped them of their personal jewels – and still the couple said nothing at all.
The thieves made off, and the bride and her groom sat on their sofa throughout the night. Neither would give up.
When daylight came, a policeman on his beat saw the open street door and walked into the house. Going from room to room he finally came upon the pair and asked them what was happening, Neither man nor wife deigned to reply.
The policeman called massive reinforcements and the swarming custodians of the law became more and more enraged at the total silence, which to them seemed obviously a calculated affront.
The officer in charge at last lost his temper and called out to one of his men: ‘Give that man a blow or two, and get some sense out of him!’
At this the wife could not restrain herself: ‘Please, kind officers,’ she cried, ‘do not strike him – he is my husband!’
‘I won!’ shouted the fool immediately, ‘so you have to shut the door!’
World Tales – Idries Shah
Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
World Tales by Idries Shah
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.
‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.
The Desolate Island
There was once a very wealthy man, who was of a kind and generous disposition, and who wanted to make his slave happy. He therefore gave him his freedom, and also presented him with a shipload of merchandise.
‘Go,’ he said, ‘and sail to various countries. Dispose of these goods, and whatever you may get from them shall be your own.’
The freed slave sailed away, across the wide ocean. He had not been long on his voyage before a storm blew up. His ship was driven on to the rocks and went to pieces, and all on board was lost except the former slave himself. He managed to swim to a nearby island and drag himself ashore.
Sad, despondent and lonely, naked and with nothing to his name, he walked across the land until he came to a large and beautiful city.
Many people came out to meet him, crying, ‘Welcome! Welcome! Long live our King!’
They brought a rich carriage and placing him in it, escorted him to a magnificent palace, where many servants gathered around him. He was dressed in royal garments and they addressed him as their sovereign: they expressed their compete obedience to his will.
The ex-slave was, naturally enough, amazed and confused, wondering whether he was dreaming; and all that he saw, heard or experienced was merely passing fantasy.
Eventually he became convinced that what was happening was in fact real; and he asked some people around him, whom he liked, how he could have arrived in this state.
‘I am, after all,’ he said, ‘a man of whom you know nothing, a poor, naked wanderer, whom you have never seen before. How can you make me your ruler? This causes me more amazement than I can possibly say.’
‘Sire,’ they answered, ‘this island is inhabitated by spirits. Long ago they prayed that they might be sent a son of man to rule over them, and their prayers have been answered. Every year they are sent a son of man. They receive him with great dignity and place him on the throne. But his status and his power end when the year is over. Then they take the royal robes from him and put him on board a ship, which carries him to a vast and desolate island. Here, unless he has previously been wise and prepared for that day, he finds neither subject nor friend: and he is obliged to pass a very lonely and miserable life. Then a new King is selected, and so year follows year. The Kings who came before you were careless and did not think. They enjoyed their power to the full, forgetting the day when it would end.’
These people counseled the former slave to be wise, and to allow their words to stay within his heart.
The new King listened carefully to all this: and he felt grieved that he should have wasted even the little time which had passed since he came to the island.
He asked a man of knowledge who had already spoken:
‘Advise me, O Spirit of Wisdom, how I may prepare for the days which will come upon me in the future.’
‘Naked you came among us,’ said the man,’ and naked you shall be sent to the desolate island of which I have told you. At present your are King, and may do whatever you please. Therefore, send workmen to the island, and let them build houses and prepare the land, and make the surroundings beautiful. The barren soil will be turned into fruitful fields, people will go there to live, and you will have established a new Kingdom for yourself. Your own subjects will be waiting to welcome you when you arrive. The year is short, the work is long: therefore be earnest and energetic.’
The King followed this advice. He sent workmen and materials to the desolate island and, before the end of his term of power, it had become a fertile, pleasant and attractive place. The rulers who had come before him had anticipated the end of their time with fear, or smothered the thought of it by amusing themselves. But he looked forward to it with joy, for then he could start upon a career of permanent peace and happiness.
And the day came. The freed slave who had been made a King was stripped of his authority. With his royal robes he lost his powers. He was placed naked on a ship, and its sails were set for the island. When he approached its shore, however, the people whom he had sent ahead came forward to welcome him with music, song and great joy. They made him ruler, and he lived ever after in peace.
World Tales – Idries Shah
Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
World Tales by Idries Shah
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.
‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.
God is Stronger
Ibotity had climbed a tree when the wind blew, the tree split, Ibotity fell, and his leg was broken. ‘The tree is strong, for it broke my leg,’ he said.
‘It is the wind which is stronger than the tree,’ said the tree.
But the wind said that the hill was stronger, since it could stop the wind. Ibotity, of course, thought that strength was of the hill, to be able to stop the wind, which split the tree, which broke his leg.
‘No,’ said the hill, explaining the mouse was strong for it could burrow into the hill. But the mouse denied this: ‘For I can be killed by the cat’ – and so Ibotity thought that the cat must be strongest of all.
Not so; the cat explained that it could be caught by a rope, and Ibotity thought that this, then, must be the strongest thing.
The rope, however, explained that it could be cut by iron, which was therefore stronger. The iron, in its turn, denied being the strongest, since it could be made soft by fire.
Ibotity now thought that the fire must be strongest, to soften the iron: which cut the rope, which bound the cat, which caught the mouse, which undermined the hill, which stopped the wind, which split the tree – which broke the leg of Ibotity.
The fire then said the water was stronger; and the water claimed that the canoe was yet stronger, for it cleft the water. But the canoe was overcome by the rock, and the rock by man, and the man by the magician, and the magician by the ordeal by poison, and the ordeal by God, so God is the strongest of all:
Then Ibotity knew that God could beat the ordeal, which stopped the magician, who overwhelms man, who breaks the rock, which overcomes the canoe, which cleaves the water, which puts out fire, which softens iron, which severs the rope, which binds the cat, which kills the mouse, which undermines the hill, which stops the wind, which splits the tree, which breaks the leg of Ibotity.’
World Tales – Idries Shah
Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
World Tales by Idries Shah
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), before we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.
‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.
How Evil Produces Evil
A certain hermit was walking one day in a deserted place, when he came across an enormous cave, the entrance to which was not easily visible. He decided to rest inside, and entered. Soon, however, he noticed the bright reflection of the light upon a large quantity of gold within.
The hermit, as soon as he became aware of what he had seen, took to his heels and fled as fast as he could.
Now in this desert area were three robbers, who spent much time there so that they could steal from travelers. Before long the pious man blundered into them. The thieves were surprised, and even alarmed, at the sight of the man running, with nothing in pursuit; but they came out of their ambush and stopped him, asking what was the matter.
‘I am fleeing, brothers,’ he said, ‘from the Devil, who is racing after me.’
Now the thieves could not see anything following the devout old man, and they said, ‘Show us what is after you.’
‘I will,’ he said (for he was afraid of them) and led them to the cave, at the same time begging them not to go near it. By this time, of course the thieves were greatly interested, and insisted that they should be shown whatever it was that had caused such alarm.
‘Here’, he said, ‘is death, which was running after me.’
The villains were, of course, delighted. They naturally regarded the recluse as somewhat touched, and sent him on his way, while they reveled in their good fortune.
Now the thieves began to discuss what they should do with the booty; for they were afraid of leaving it alone again. Finally they decided that one of their number should take a little gold to the city and with it buy food and other necessities, and then they would proceed to the division of the spoils.
One of the ruffians volunteered to run the errand. He thought to himself: ‘When I am in town I can eat all I wish. Then I can poison the rest of the food, so that it kills the other two, and all the treasure will be mine.’
While the rogue was away, however, his companions were also thinking. They decided that as soon he returned, they would kill him, eat the food, and divide the spoils so as to gain the additional third share that would otherwise be his.
The moment the first thief arrived back at the cave with the provisions, the two others fell upon him stabbed him to death. Then they ate all the food, and expired of the poison which their friend had bought and put into it. So the gold, after all, did indeed spell death, as the hermit predicted, for whoever was influenced by it. And the treasure remained where it had been, in the cave, for a very long time.
World Tales – Idries Shah
Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
World Tales by Idries Shah
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.
‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.
Don’t Count Your Chickens
Once upon a time there lived a woman called Truhana. Not being very rich, she had to go yearly to the market to sell honey, the precious product of her hive.
Along the road she went, carrying the jar of honey upon her head, calculating as she walked the money she would get for the honey. ‘First,’ she thought, ‘I will sell it, and buy eggs. The eggs I shall set under my fat brown hens, and in time there will be plenty of little chicks. These in turn will become chickens, and from the sale of these, lambs could be bought.’
Truhana then began to imagine how she could become richer than her neighbours, and look forward to marrying well her sons and daughters.
Trudging along, in the hot sun, she could see her fine sons and daughter in-law, and how the people would say that it was remarkable how rich she had become, who was once so poverty-stricken.
Under the influence of these pleasurable thoughts, she began to laugh heartily, and preen herself, when, suddenly, striking the jar with her hand, it fell from her head and smashed upon the ground.
Seeing this, she was as cast down as she had been excited, on seeing all her dreams lost for illusion.
World Tales – Idries Shah
Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
World Tales by Idries Shah
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.
‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.
The Two Travellers
There was once two men, one good and one bad, who went on a journey together. They were in quest of their fortune. The good man shared his food with his companion until it was all finished.
The good man then asked: ‘May I have some of your food?’
‘Certainly not,’ said the other, and he became so irrationally infuriated that he plucked out the eyes of his unfortunate partner, robbed him of everything he had, and left him alone and helpless in the wilderness.
The blinded good man became aware of some birds singing, and decided to climb, feeling his way, into the tree in whose topmost branches they were, to be safe from any prowling wild beasts, at least until the morning, when he might be able to think of some way of continuing his journey.
Now it so happened that he found that he could understand the language of the birds. As he listened, he learnt from their discussion that any blind person who bathed his eyes in the dew of that place would have his sight restored. Further, the birds said that the daughter of a certain king was ill, but could be healed by the use of a flower which grew nearby. The same flower had the power of locating water and restoring fertility to gardens.
The blind man immediately bathed his eyes in the dew and found that he could see. Then he plucked the plant. He made his way to the place where the Princess was ill and, having gained admittance, cured her. When he made the King’s garden flourish again and found water which was badly needed, he was rewarded by being given the hand of the Princess in marriage.
He continued happily in life, until the villain who had blinded him turned up gain, having heard of his inexplicable good fortune. The miscreant asked him how he had arrived at such a happy and prosperous state.
‘It was quiet simple, in fact,’ said the honest man, for he was one who bore no ill-will. ‘All I did was go up a certain tree, and I heard what to do from the birds, whose speech I suddenly understood.’
The bad man thereupon hurried to the place where he had blinded his companion, and waited. Presently the birds arrived and perched on the top of the tree. He found that he understood their speech. They said:
‘Someone has overheard our conversation, for the King’s daughter is now well, the garden is blossoming, and water has been found!’
They looked all around to see whether an eavesdropper was about, saw the bad man, flew down – and pecked out his eyes.
World Tales – Idries Shah
Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
World Tales by Idries Shah
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.
‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.
The Ass in Pantherskin
There was once a donkey belonging to a washerman, which was exhausted through carrying heavy loads of laundry. His owner, to help him recover, put a panther’s skin over him for warmth and turned him into someone else’s field to graze.
The ass could eat as much as it liked, for people thought that he was a panther and did not drive him off, and so he revived somewhat.
A certain farmer, glimpsing the wild animal’s skin, was greatly afraid and stole away as cautiously as he might, wrapped in his grey cloak.
But the donkey, seeing what he took for a female ass in the distance, started to run after it. The man put on speed. The ass thought that he would give a mating-call, in case his quarry had mistaken him for a panther.
As soon as the man heard the donkey braying, he knew what he was, and, drawing his bow, killed him on the spot.
World Tales – Idries Shah
Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
World Tales by Idries Shah
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘Tales of Dervishes’ by Idries Shah.
Dervish tales were never presented merely on the level of a fable, legend or folklore. They stand comparison in wit, construction and piquancy with the finest stories of any culture, yet their true function as teaching stories is little known.
The Ant and the Dragonfly
An Ant with a settled programme in its mind was looking at some nectar when a dragonfly swooped to taste from the flower’s cup. It flitted away and came and swooped again.
This time the ant said:
‘You live without a labour, and you have no plan. As you have no real nor comparative purpose, what is the dominant feature of your life – and where will it end?’
Said the dragonfly:
‘I am happy, and I seek pleasure, this is existence and objective enough. My aim is to have no aim. You may plan as you will; you cannot convince me that there is anything better. You to you plan, me to mine.’
The ant thought:
‘That which is visible to me is invisible to him. He does not know what happens to ants. I know what happens to dragonflies. Him to his plan, I to mine.
And the ant went his way, for he had admonished as far as was possible in the circumstances.
Some time later their paths crossed again.
The ant had found a butcher’s shop, and he was standing under the chopping-block with discretion, awaiting what would come to him.
The dragonfly, seeing the red meat from above, came gliding down and settled on it. At that moment the butcher’s cleaver descended and cut the dragonfly in two.
One half of the body rolled on to the floor at the feet of the ant. Taking up the corpse and starting to drag it towards his nest, the ant recited to himself:
‘His plan is finished, and mine continues. “He to his plan” is ended, “Me to mine” begins a cycle. Pride seemed important, it was transitory thing. A life of eating, to end with being eaten by something else.
When I suggested this, all he could think was that I might be a killjoy.’
Tales of Dervishes – Idries Shah
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra” which in turn has inspired many story telling traditions directly or indirectly.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’
The Lion Who Saw his Face in the Water
There was once a lion who lived in a desert which was very windy; and because of this, the water in the holes from which he usually drank was never still, for the wind riffled the surface and never reflected anything.
One day this lion wandered into a forest, where he hunted and played, until he felt rather tired and thirsty. Looking for water, he came across a pool of the coolest, most tempting, and most placid water that you could possibly imagine. Lions, like other wild animals, can smell water, and the scent of this water was like ambrosia to him.
So the lion approached the pool, and extended his neck to have a good drink. Suddenly, though, he saw his reflection – and imagined that it must be another lion.
‘Oh dear,’ he thought to himself, ‘this must be water belonging to another lion – I had better be careful.’
He retreated, but then thirst drove him back again, and again he saw the head of a fearsome lion looking back at him from the surface of the pool.
This time our lion hoped that he might be able to frighten the ‘other lion’ away; and so he opened his mouth and gave a terrible roar. But no sooner had he bared his teeth than, of course, the mouth of the ‘other’ lion opened as well, and this seemed to our lion to be an awful and dangerous sight.
The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah
This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra” which in turn has inspired many story telling traditions directly or indirectly.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’
The Tale of the Sands
A Stream, from its source in the faraway mountains, at last reached the sands of a desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but it found that as fast as it ran into the sands, its waters disappeared.
It was convinced that its destiny was to cross this dessert, yet how was this to be achieved?
All at once, a voice came from sands: ‘The wind crosses the desert, Allow yourself to be absorbed by the wind, and it will carry you across in its arms.’
This was not acceptable to the stream. It feared it would lose its individuality. Once having lost it, what guarantee was there it could ever be regained?
The voice of the sands said: ‘You cannot in any case remain the same stream you are today. If you allow the wind to take you, your essential part will be carried away and will form a stream again.’
When it heard this, certain echoes began to arise in the thoughts of the stream. Dimly it remembered a state in which it, or some part of it, had been held in the arms of a wind. It raised its vapour to the welcoming arms of the breeze, which carried it gently above the dessert and dropped it as rain upon the roof of a mountain, many miles away.
And because it had its doubts, the stream was able to remember the details of the experience more strongly. It reflected: ‘Yes, now I have found my identity.’
But the sands whispered: ‘We know, because we see it happen day after day and because we, the sands, extend all the way from the desert to the mountains.’
And that is why it is said the way in which the stream of life is to continue on its journey is written in the sands.
The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah
This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra” which in turn has inspired many story telling traditions directly or indirectly.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’
The King Without a Trade
There was once a king who had forgotten the ancient advice of the sages that those who are born into comfort and ease have greater need for proper effort than anyone else. He was just a king, however, and a popular one.
Journeying to visit one of his distant possessions, a storm blew up and separated his ship from its escort. The tempest subsided after seven furious days, the ship sank, and the only survivors of the catastrophe were the king and his small daughter, who had somehow managed to climb upon a raft.
After many hours, the raft was washed upon the shore of a country which was completely unknown to the travellers. They were at first taken in by fishermen, who looked after them for a time, then said:
‘We are only poor people, and cannot afford to keep you. Make your way inland, and perhaps you may find some means of earning a livelihood.’
Thanking the fisherfolk, and sad at heart that he was not able to enlist himself among them, the king started to wander through the land. He and the princess went from village to village, from town to town, seeking food and shelter. They were, of course, no better than beggars, and people treated them as such. Sometimes they had a few scraps of bread, sometimes dry straw in which to sleep.
Every time the king tried to improve his condition by asking for employment, people would say,: ‘What work can you do?’ And he always found that he completely unskilled in whatever task he was required to perform, and had to take to the road again.
In that entire country there were hardly any opportunities for manual work, since there were plenty of unskilled labourers. As they moved from place to place, the king realized more and more strongly that being a king without a country was a useless state. He reflected more and more often on the proverb in which the ancients have laid down:
‘That only maybe regarded as your property which will survive a shipwreck.’
After three years of his miserable and futureless existence, the pair found themselves, for the first time, at a farm where the owner was looking for someone to tend his sheep.
He saw the king and the princess and said: ‘Are you penniless?’
They said that they were.
‘Do you know how to herd sheep?’ asked the farmer.
‘No’, said the king.
‘At least you are honest,’ said the farmer, ‘and so I will give you chance to earn a living.’
He sent them out with some sheep, and they soon learned that all they had to do was to protect them against wolves and keep them from straying.
The king and the princess were given a cottage, and as the years passed the king regained some of his dignity, though not his happiness, and the princess blossomed into a young woman of fairylike beauty. As they only earned enough to keep themselves alive, the two were unable even to plan to return to their own country.
It so happened that one day, the Sultan of that country was out hunting when he saw the maiden and fell in love with her. He sent his representatives to ask for her farther whether he would give her in marriage to the Sultan.
‘Ho, pleasant,’ said the courtier who had been sent to see him, ‘the Sultan, my lord and master , asks for the hand of your daughter in marriage.’
‘What is his skill, and what is his work, and how can he earn a living?’ asked the former king.
‘Dolt! You peasants are all alike,’ shouted the grandee. ‘Do you understand that the king does not need to have work, that his skill is in managing kingdoms, that you have been singled out for an honour such as is ordinarily beyond any possible expectation of commoners?’
‘All I know,’ said the shepherd-king, ‘is that unless your master, Sultan or no Sultan, can earn his living, he is no husband for my daughter. And I know a thing or two about the value of skills.’
The courtier went back to his royal master and told him what the stupid peasant has said, adding: ‘We must not be hard on these people, Sire, for they know nothing of the occupations of kings…’
The sultan, however, when he had recovered from his surprise, said:
‘I am desperately in love with this shepherd’s daughter, and I am therefore prepared to do whatever her father may direct in order to win her.’
So he left the empire in the hands of a regent, and apprenticed himself to a carpet-weaver. After a year or so, he had mastered the art of simple carpet-making. Taking some of his own handiwork to the shepherd-king’s hut, he presented it to him and said:
‘I am sultan of this country, desirous of marrying your daughter, if she will have me. Having received your message that you require a future son-in-law to possess useful skills, I have studied weaving, and these are examples of my work.’
‘How long did it take you to make this rug?’ asked the shepherd-king.
‘Three weeks,’ said the sultan.
‘And when sold, how long could you live on its profit?’ asked the shepherd-king.
‘Three months,’ answered the sultan.
‘You may marry my daughter, if she will accept you,’ said the father.
The sultan was overjoyed, and his happiness was complete when the princess agreed to marry him. ‘Your father, though he may be only a peasant, is a wise and shrewd man,’ he told her.
‘A peasant may be as clever as a sultan,’ said the princess, ‘but a king, if he has the necessary experiences, may be as wise as the shrewdest peasant.’
The sultan and the princess were duly married, and the king, borrowing some money from his new son-in-law, was able to return to his own country, where he became known for evermore as the benign and sagacious monarch who never tired of encouraging each and every one of his subjects to learn a useful trade.
The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah
This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
As I conclude today’s episode;
Let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’
The Happiest Man in the World
A Man who was living in comfortable enough circumstances went one day to see a certain sage, reputed to have all knowledge. He said to him:
‘Great Sage, I have no material problems, and yet I am always unsettled. For years I have tried to be happy, to find an answer to my inner thoughts, to come to terms with the world. Please advise me as to how I can be cured of this malaise.’
The Sage answered:
‘My friend, what is hidden to some is apparent to others. Again what is apparent to some is hidden to others. I have the answer to your ailment, though it is no ordinary medication. You must set out on your travels, seeking the happiest man in the world. As soon as you find him, you must ask him for his shirt, and put it on.’
The seeker thereupon restlessly started looking for happy men. One after another he found them and questioned them. Again and again they said: ‘Yes I am happy, but there is one happier than me.’
After travelling through one country after another for many, many days, he found the wood in which everyone said lived the happiest man in the world.
He heard the sound of laughter coming from among the trees, and quickened his step until he came upon a man sitting in a glade.
‘Are you the happiest man in the world, as people say?’ he asked.
‘Certainly I am,’ said the other man.
‘My name is so-and-so, my condition is such-and-such, and my remedy, ordered by the greatest sage, is to wear your shirt. Please give it to me; I will give you anything I have in exchange.’
The happiest man looked at him closely, and he laughed. He laughed and he laughed and he laughed. When he had quietened down a little, the restless man, rather annoyed at this reaction, said:
‘Are you unhinged, that you laugh at such a serious request?’
‘Perhaps,’ said the happiest man, ‘but if you had only taken the trouble to look, you would have seen that I do not possess a shirt.’
‘What, then, am I to do now?’
‘You will be cured. Striving for something unattainable provides the exercise to achieve that which is needed: as when a man gathers all his strength to jump across a stream as if it were far wider than it is. He gets across the stream.’
The happiest man then took off the turban whose end had concealed his face. The restless man saw that he was none other than the great sage who had originally advised him.
‘But did you not tell me all this years ago, when I came to see you?’ the restless man asked in puzzlement.
‘Because you were not ready then to understand. You needed certain experiences, and they had to be given to you in a manner which would ensure that you went through them.’
The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah
This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
As I conclude today’s episode;
Let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to, ‘Teaching Stories’, what they are and what is their utility. This week let me bring to your attention a teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, by Idries Shah, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’
The High Cost Of Learning
There was once a sage who set up business in the market place as a seller of knowledge.
One of his customers was a young man, newly married, who wanted to test out this strange form of commerce. ‘How much is your knowledge, if I buy it piece by piece?’ He asked the wise man.
‘It can cost as much or as little as you can offer, but the advice will be proportionate to the price in its usefulness,’ was the answer.
‘Very well,’ said the young man, I’ll try a piece for one copper coin.’
‘The advice is,’ replied the sage, Don’t eat more than you have to, and get exercise – or you’ll get fat!’
‘Nothing cheap without reason,’ thought the customer to himself. Aloud he said:
‘What can I have for five pieces of copper?’
‘For five I can tell you that if you neglect your duty, you may lose eighteen years of your life!’
‘I shall certainly try not to have that happen to me; but what will you tell me for one silver piece?’
‘For that I can tell you that if you attempt to act without a proper basis and lack of understanding, you will ruin your life.’
Partly out of politeness to the older man, whom he now thought of as perhaps a little mad, or perhaps just a minor swindler, the youth thanked him and said to himself, ‘Perhaps what I have learnt today is to follow my own good sense and not to try to buy advice when I should gain wisdom by experience.
He put the whole matter out of his mind.
Not long afterwards, the young man was walking along a street when he saw a beggar, who said to him: ‘It is your duty to give alms, and I call upon you in the name of that duty, so that good shall befall you and so that evil shall be averted!’
Instead of giving the man anything, he started to walk faster, muttering, ‘May God give you something!’
It so happened that his increasing his speed brought him face to face with a military patrol whose task it was to capture strong young men for the army, for the king of his country was waging a war. He was seized and spent the next eighteen years in fighting and captivity.
This gave him a great deal of time to think, and the words about the eighteen years which would be taken from his life if he failed his duty now bore strongly upon his mind.
Finally he was ransomed, and found himself back in his native town, looking for the house where he had left his wife, such a long time before. No sooner had he approached the building than he saw a woman, whom he recognised as his wife, going through the front door with a young man, holding him by the hand.
The blood rushed to his head, and he put his hand to his sword, thinking, ‘I might as well die for murder, but I cannot stand the sight of this infidelity!’
Then he remembered the words of the sage: ‘If you attempt to act without proper basis and lack of understanding, you will ruin your life.’ At that moment he could not see that there was any lack of understanding, or that there was no proper basis for killing the miscreants. But somehow he restrained himself, just in case there was some better course of action.
All that day he walked about, tortured by the thought that his wife had played him false, or, at least, had given him up for dead and taken a new husband or a lover. When evening fell, he went back to the house and lurked by the lighted window, almost resolved to commit the double murder.
Inside the room he could see the couple sitting together on a sofa. Then he heard the words of his wife: ‘I have been told that another ship has arrived in port, from foreign parts. Tomorrow morning you should go, my son, and enquire from the sailors, as we have done for almost twenty years, if there is any news of your father.’
Thus it was that five pieces of copper were shown to the price of eighteen years of suffering; while one silver piece was the value of three lives, although, without an understanding of how life works, nobody would have suspected it.
The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah
This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
As I conclude today’s episode;
Let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.