Subject:           rt38
    Date:           Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:28:44 -0400
   

Gentle friends of the earth,

(Please read P.S. first)

This golden summer is slowly fading and the warm pleasant breeze is
showing just a hint of coolness. At times it has been so idyllic that
one wondered if it were all a dream. But there are always moments when
you wonder about the grind of life, especially as you get older. Atleast
I do -- like today when I have written more "random thoughts" than there
are years that I have lived.

Every one of us has his or her own rationalizations and justifications
for their existence. Even those that don't think about it at all, have
made an implicit determination. For me, the lofty goals such as
understanding self, life and the universe, and making people happy, are
in the distant back-rooms of my mind. I find it enough to focus on
living and understanding what is happening in each moment, and making
someone happy everyday. I believe the lofty goals will take care of
themselves.

To put it all in a nutshell, life must go on. So must "random thoughts."

Hope you enjoy reading and write back with your own thoughts.
Sankar

P.S: I just got the letter from Howard University President announcing
approval of my promotion to Associate Prof. with tenure. Hope to have
party soon.

Random Thoughts (38)
9/9/04

1. The Boddhisattva training (and similar practices in all religions) of
a person aims to develop the ability to "love every living creature like
a mother loves her child." In practice each one of us tries our best.
Recently I discovered some unannounced house guests of the Rattus Rattus
species sharing my living space. After much consideration of various
options the only choice left to me was to trap and kill them. It took
some effort to snag those crafty survivors. After a while I felt almost
like I knew what they were thinking, and that they were part of my
house. It was, therefore, difficult to kill them. When it comes to
people, for most of us our love encircles mainly people who look and
think like us. People "stick to their own," and this is variously called
loyalty, patriotism, sense of duty, etc., But life feels much bettter
and one gets a sense of liberation when you can expand this circle, and
feel that the whole world is your country and everyone is your family.
One feels a sense of connection even with a rat upon spending enough
time with it.

2. Killing rats made me much more queasy and makes a deeper impression
on the psyche than swatting a mosquito. It has created a very strong
sense of the fragility of life. Any moment I could be squished by a
random force and my life will be over in a blink. So I better enjoy each
moment  to the fullest. It also made me painfully aware of the fact that
every moment of our life is borrowed from the lives of other creatures.
I am no more special than them, and I owe it to them to love all
creeatures as much as I can and to make sure that my life will benefit
others.

3. Some people ( a few?) are independent minded and live life on their
own path. Others are content to follow a particular path, be it a way of
life, religion, or a spiritual or cultural leader. Are the former more
selfish or simply stubborn? Is it wiser to follow than to blaze one's
own trail? I think not. In any case, I prefer not to follow anyone.

4. We often neglect those that we love the most. Anytime we find
ourselves ignoring or mistreating someone that we love, it is definitely
because we are not loving ourselves in that moment.

5. Read an interview of George Lakoff in the "Pathways" magazine. He is
Prof of cognitive linguistics at Berkeley. He was talking about how
conservatives have been working on the use of language in politics and
have perfected the art of propaganda. It is clear to everyone how the
right wing has managed to demonize various people and ideas, from
communism to liberalism and Dukakis to Kerry. But I was struck at how
deeply they have been studying the use of language, and the manipulation
of words. They have managed to associate certain qualities to some
people and ideas by simply repeating certain words in a derogatory way.
Especially the recent Republican campaigns have been particularly
Orwellian in their ability to use words to mean the opposite of what
they really mean, such as "Clean Air Act" for something that allows more
pollution.

6. It is difficult to understand how some people, otherwise cultured and
civilized, could exploit or kill others so ruthlessly as the Nazi
Germans and the colonial British did. But thinking about how the elite
in India and elsewhere live, separated and oblivious to the suffering of
those who work for them, gave me an idea of why. The elite think that
they deserve everything they have, simply because they have attained it
through better talent, hard work, and sheer intelligence. They feel that
the world will be better off if they are allowed to live the best life
possible, and that they know what is best for the world and that
whatever they do is in the best interest of everyone. Thus, killing a
few million Jews appeared to the Nazis to be no more heinous than
clearing their house of vermin, because they felt that they were
superior in intelligence and character. Just an idea--certainly there
are more things involved. The worst mistake we could make, whether we
are conservative or liberal or something else, is to feel, even
subconsciously, that we are superior in intelligence and we know better
than others. Many of us make this mistake without being aware of it.

7. Managed to visit the beach a couple of times with my parents. Bobbing
in the waves on a boogie board is certainly zen-like. Now I understand
why some of the surfers in Hawaii are so spiritual. Perhaps it connects
to the memories of floating inside the mother's womb that are buried
deep inside us. Perhaps it is the connection to the vast ocean, feeling
one with the waves. I certainly lost myself for a few moments.