Suffering

As long as you strive to be somebody, there will be endless suffering

Suffering can only be experienced by somebody

As long as there is somebody to experience it, there will be suffering

If there is nobody there is no suffering

Perspective

Wanting
The key to happiness is to stop wanting

All sufferings originate from wantings
Therefore we want - only to suffer

Wanting to know
Wanting to go
Wanting to do
Wanting to have

These are sources of misery

Not wanting is also wanting
It is wanting in the opposite direction

There is no end to wanting
So why suffer endlessly?

When you want, there is longing
When you don't want, there is misery

When you stop wanting, there is no more suffering

The Farm

And as I hurry to finish my work,
I remember that there is nothing to hurry to,
no quotas to fill,
no one looking over my shoulder.

Suddenly I can hear the birds.

Perspective

There's running away from something and then
There's running towards something.

One of them leads to a destination.
One of them leads nowhere.

Perspective

Sometimes you need to be selfish -
Or else you end up living the life others want you to live.

Perspective

Don't wait for anyone before beginning to live your life -
Or else you might never get started.

Priceless

2 L bottle of water - 0.50$
3 course meal for 2 - 1.50$
Having a cow walk into the restaurant - Priceless!

The City

The city takes.

Disclaimer

Unless otherwise stated everything I post is stuff that comes out of my head. If you suspect I have taken credit for someone else's work, do let me know so I can give proper dit.

-Drifter

Perspective

Even the longest of journeys begins with the first step.

-Drifter (the artist formely known as Y)

Inquiry

Ask yourself:

Am I living the life that I want, or
Am I living the life that feels safe?

One is the source of liberation.
The other - of imprisonment.

-Drifter

Perspective

Being somebody is very limiting.

By having in mind who you are, naturally you will limit yourself to doing those things that best fit into your idea of who you think you are.

When you live with "this is who I am" in mind, you exclude all other possibilities of being. You are limited to only being yourself in the way you have defined yourself, acting the way you should and making choices affirming who you think you are.

When you realize that you are nobody, there are no limits.

You can do whatever you want.

-Drifter

Creativity

Family
It's a cold, cold world.
That's why you need a good blanket.
Keep it close to you, and it will keep you warm.
Always.

-y

Creativity

Manomaya
In a moment of distraction
Mind plays upon the fertile fields of thought and time
For what seems to be what has been an eternity
I have become a fugitive of the Now
A prisonner of Tomorrows to come

-Y

Growing Apart

I had come to terms with the fact that we were no longer a couple. After all, it had been a year already since we had broken up. I was also fine with the fact the she had moved on with her life and that she had found someone else to spend her time with. What I couldn’t understand was eventhough we had spent four years of our lives together, telling each other everything, for that moment I was nothing more than a stranger.

-Y

Lyrical Content

I don't believe this.
I must be way out of line, but I can't help but smile - by your side.
Though sometimes defiant, you've got me soaring so high.
You must know you leave me so inspired...so alive.

Forget me not as this world silently whispers us away.

-Y

Lyrical Content

Smitten
I heard; you were thinking out loud today and
I must say, I like where you're coming from.
You and I aren't that different. in fact, we're the same and we've always been
But tonight from where I'm sittin'...I'm smitten

As our shadows dance on the wall - playin' that's all.
Forgetting who we are, where we've been 'cause
None of that matters.
Right now, nothing else matters.

-y

Fortune Cookies

"Your dreams will be realized by your own efforts."

I still have that fortune that was inside a cookie at a Chinese restaurant.

It's true. If you want something to happen in your life, you have to make it happen. It's one thing to have dreams, but what good are dreams if you don't live them through.

In themselves, they bring hope that one day, life will be this way. But why wait. Why not make it now?

Some might save dreaming for tomorrow. Not I.

-Y

Travel update
Someone will pick me up at the airport in Bangalore and from there I will be taken to a Yoga ashram about an hour away from the city. The intent is to spend a few weeks there to slowly get adjusted to India and to ease into the new culture. It might be a couple weeks before I get access to a computer...

Perspective

Happiness
Where there is unhappiness, happiness cannot exist.
Where there is happiness, unhappiness cannot exist.

Either you are happy, or you are not.

Hold on to things that make you unhappy and you will remain unhappy.
Let go of things that make you unhappy and happiness will remain.

Holding onto requires great efforts.
Letting go of requires no effort.

Why put so much effort into being unhappy?
-Y

Creativity

Bluetopia
-Y

Mango Lassis and Determinism

Last night I decided to head to Roses Café for a mango lassi.

As it turns out Ashley, the server, is a Philosophy student at Ottawa U who has recently found a love for eastern philosophy. Around the sitting bar, interesting discussion was developing from topics ranging from meditation to fate and free will.

The debate between fate and free will is one which has been going on seemingly forever. The notion of fate says that everything is already predetermined in life and that you don’t really have a say in your destiny. Free will on the other hand argues that we are 100% responsible for our lives and how it turns out.

My take on the whole fate vs free will debate is that they coexist - to some extent. It’s not merely a question of black and white. One exists by virtue of the other in that the options from which you can choose from now, have been determined by all that has happened up until that very moment. What you choose to do next is your responsibility and each choice that you make inherently predetermines what choices will be available for you to choose from next.

Buddhism calls this concept Dependent Origination.

Dependant Origination
At any given moment in time, everything in your life is exactly the way it is supposed to be.

Everything that has happened up until this very moment was necessary to set the stage to determine what will happen next.

Everything that happens next ultimately depends on what has happened just before.


This is dependent origination...at least this is my interpretation of it.

I know it sounds paradoxical, but only if you choose to.


Peace out
-Y

Creativity

Pomme
-Y

Creativity

Dusk in the Outback
-Y

Perspective

Becoming
To become first implies that you are not.
To work towards being something, first you must not be what it is you are working towards becoming.

Who were you before becoming who you are?
-Y

Perspective

The Meaning of Words
Who gives meaning to words that are spoken?
Is it the speaker or the hearer?

The one who speaks gives them intention.
The one who hears gives them meaning.
-Y

Philosophy of Life

The Meaning of Life
The meaning of life is to realize that there is no meaning to life.
Whatever meaning you give it, that’s what it is.
You give it meaning.
-Y

Philosophy of Life

Reminders
Replace every “have to do” with “want to do”.
Replace every “should do” with “will do”.
-Y

Philosophy of Life

Life As A Medium
Live your life as a creative expression of yourself.
Creativity is the very foundation of life. Life is only possible through creation.
Approach everything as a creative endeavor and you will create a beautiful life.

-Y