BEING AND BECOMING

Descartes was the father of modern science. His vision of mind-body dualism (known as Cartesian dualism) led the foundation of science, which is based upon a dualistic conception of observer and observed. Descartes was a rationalist who did thought experiment to reach at the conclusion that Mind, Body (external nature), and God exist. Because no finite being could possibly exist without infinite reality. Newton went further and ensured to displace God from the realm of natural cosmic reality. But the central proposition of mind-body dualism remained as the foundation of modern science. Francis Bacon claimed that "we must put nature to rack to compel it to answer our questions". Here "We" denotes the reality of a rational mind, which is not subjected to the law of cosmos. Cosmos is a machine for Descartes, which is governed by mechanical law. On the contrary, mind is free from the bondage of mechanical law. It has freedom of will in Kantian systems of ethics. Because...

Our past sometimes becomes a burden for the present. I wonder what unites so many emotions into being. Whether being is any unity or it is fragment of totality. Fragment in its concrete is material, psychic, or spiritual reality? I remember past with fondness sometimes with little anxiety, like if I would have chosen this path; if and but are integral to my daily existence. It is made out of choice and co-incidence. Sometimes, I feel, everything is perfectly designed by forces unknown to us; but the rationalist commitment makes me suspicious. Being and becoming are two strange words; neither I am aware of being and there is no possibility to become, since being itself appears to be super-imposed thought. Without beingness I exist without any burden of past or expectation of future. There is no scope of sin or guilt. Every experience is new and fresh. Consciousness is really a timeless reality; it doesn't evolve in Darwinian sense. The ignorance which clouds it are removed in due co...

Love is like a flower Nourishes the soul Through its sublime existence It is transfered by hearts  Without ownership Its life is momentary But fragrance is momentous There is no better healer No efficient medicine But love which is truly like a flower

I have always been a shy person, but when you're in the world, you're no longer a private person. At a time I feel if privacy isn't a myth like any other story? I believe everyone of us is living a story, a fictitious journey, whose every fragment appears to be so real to think otherwise. Somebody rightly said that only fiction reveals the true reality. I don't find any difference between fiction and reality. As Pablo Picaso rightly said that "everything you can imagine is real". What I love about life is not that it is a fixed destination rather a journey, whose direction is seldom commanded or have any particular direction. I believe, my life is already determined to a large degree. The concept of free will is quite mythical. My language, culture, identity, religion, genetics, and environment, etc. are already determined here. I have done nothing to choose between these things which are so integral to my being. My life is determined by many accidental journe...

In every morning, new ideas knock the door. To whom it approaches? The self or to itself? This question appears to be so simple but profound. In our daily reality, we find acquaintance with the self or the image of the self? In Buddha's vision there is no soul, no essence, and of course, no quintessence. What is, then, the meaning of I, you, We, and Them? Whether language has any compulsion to indicate self through these denotational practices? Or it indicates something in our conventional experiences, but to stretch the language further, it is reduced to that zero level from there on there is hardly anything representable in speech, word, thought, or experience. There is silence. Silence is not void, in fact. It is the supreme intelligence to recognize the enslavement from thought in form of conditioning. There is well known saying that whatever comes passes away. It is a fact. If things are so momentous; how can anyone be so sure about quintessence? In our daily life, many people...

You're at a journey of becoming something, so am I and everyone. Since your birth, what have you become? Which growth so powerful to proud of? You're getting old. You haven't realized that. You're getting too bored in the mechanical repetition of vocation, profession, career, or whatever you call it. You have adopted a mentality of belonging someone, as a religious or gender identity, caste or class mentality, I v. You and we v. them. You have shown to the world how much successful you're; you have all the great fortunes, all the wealth and prosperity. But is there someone unhappy inside you? Don't you try to forget your conscience for material outward progress and success? Do you smile like a child or do you have to smile to please someone out of compulsion? Do you dance or like to dance but cannot do so since you're matured old person, habituated and enslaved in your own known world that you don't have time to be so naïve and childish? Do you like to t...

When I say fundamental question, I assume certain questions which are not so fundamental, rather it may be treated as superficial. Whether you have taken a cup of coffee since morning, qualifies the latter question. But it still deserves to be known as question. Second, Why do I assume that there are certain fundamental questions? Because, my life is so intriguing often that I ask certain questions. At least, I try to search certain questions whose answers may or may not be available to me or may not appear as easily as a cup of tea or coffee. To me, the first characteristic of a basic question is "why". People often talk about what is this or that. Such questions are verbalized by the meaning provided dictionary. It's all about language and interpretation, like a lawyer knows how to manipulate a word. But such questions float around at the superficial water. Question such as what deserves to be called as a questions related to known world, created by linguistics discipli...

Information, idea, and knowledge are treated as power. From Francis Bacon to the era of the emergence of social media, information is revered for its capacity to transform the world. Many spiritual commentators like, Jiddu Krishnamurti, did not appreciate the idea of accumulation. Be it knowledge, information, or wealth, accumulation is nothing but a burden to carry. It is often believed that the great people like to carry burden like what Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi did. Sometimes, they ignore their own families to treat humanity as a family. Information overload is problem for our age. So, filtering is required to prioritise what is significant and what is not. If I can shift the responsibility to know the world and rehabilitate myself in an "inner retreat of  citadel", what Isaiah Berlin made a remark about German Romanticism, and particularly about Kant, Fichte, and Schelling (See, Berlin, The Two Concepts of Liberty). Martha Nussbaum was, similarly, skeptical about ...