Narcissus

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The Alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

"Why do you weep?" the goddesses asked.

"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.

"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."

"but... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.

"Who better than you to know that?" the goddesses said in wonder. "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!"

The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:

"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."

"What a lovely story," the Alchemist thought.

The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
------------------------------------------------------
Original version the parable taught us the sufferings of narcissism, an extreme obsession of appreciating one's own beauty. But this modified version of the classic parable has a much different lesson to teach, it teaches how beauty is contemplated through another’s beauty. Narcissus looked onto the lake in order to see his own beauty, but in return the lake looked onto Narcissus to see its own beauty too. Was Narcissus or the Lake narcissistic? In this version,they weren’t. Narcissism is an extreme obsession of oneself, an intense self-worship, where the person completely disregards every beauty and only cares about themselves. A narcissistic persons are blinded by their own self-obsession so much that they are unable to see other’s beauty. Narcissists do not really find their true beauty either,instead they are obsessed with trying to find their own beauty. In that process they completely ignore every true beauty in the world. But in this story neither Narcissus nor the Lake are true narcissists because knowingly or unknowingly they accepted and showed each others beauty and could see their own beauty too. This story says something important about ourselves, about how we see ourselves through the reflections from everything around us. The story is trying to teach us a very important lesson and that "the only way to see your own true beauty is to appreciate another’s".

Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes

Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants (Latin: nanos gigantum humeris insidentes) is a Western metaphor meaning "One who develops future intellectual pursuits by understanding the research and works created by notable thinkers of the past"(from wiki). A Dwarf standing on the shoulder of a giant could have a better foresight and guide the giant towards the light. This philosophy has one drawback. Though the dwarf could see the direction of light, it forgot to examine what's beneath his foot. The road to light may not be straight and it may have several obstacles. One miss foot could end the journey of both. So it is important that sometimes the dwarf has to come down and examine the local path.

"The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain."-Feynman
It's good to read and understand the works of the intellectuals of the past, but we don't have to take anything for granted. This is the philosophy of ignorance. In another words "Empty your cup".

302kmph

I love to travel by trains, especially by ICEs in Germany. Their elegant and aerodynamic look makes it more beautiful than any other trains in the world. Even though ICEs could reach the speed of 300kmph, it is allowed only on certain routes. Luckily I could pick up one such routes on my way back from Jülich to Regensburg. I took ICE 613 from Köln to Frankfurt airport, which happened to be an high speed ICE.

The train left Köln at 17:54, reached the next near by(25km) station Siegburg at 18:09 and left Siegburg at 18:11 to Frankfurt airport. The length of the train route is 143km. It reached Frankfurt station at the scheudled time 18:54. So it took 43 mins to cover 143 km. So the average speed is about 199kmph.

I knew this is an high speed track. So I sat in a place where I could see the digital screen which displays the speed of the train. The number on the screen fluctuating between 230 to 290. I was eagerly waiting to see the 300 mark. Finally it happened. I was so excited to see the number 302kmph on the screen. So On 17th Aug 2009 at 18:33 I hold the record of traveling at the speed of 302kmph on ground.

The ICE design is so good that I don't have a feeling that I traveling in such a high speed. The high speed is realized when a train passes in the opposite direction, the low pressure region between the trains pulls the train towards each other and I felt a slight shake in the train. It was a wonderful experience.

Congratulations Federer

Roger Federer became the greatest player in Grand Slam history as he beat Andy Roddick in five dramatic sets for a sixth Wimbledon and 15th major title.

"This is not why I'm playing tennis, to break records, and this doesn't mean I'm going to stop playing tennis. I hope to come back for many years." True words from true champion.

I hope his count won't stop at 15.

Illusion

I received a forwarded message, which claims that the above image could be read comfortably by blurring eyes, but not with the clear vision. It is true in fact. If you close your eyes 90% then you are able to read it.

This image was constructed beautifully. Initially our brain tries to construct the letters using white blocks. But white blocks are just gaps. The letters are really constructed by black blocks.

Second thing is the shading creates an illusion that the white blocks oriented roughly 30 degree to the left of our straight eye site and you are viewing the blocks from slightly above. This is the predominant view. But this is exactly opposite when you consider black blocks. The black blocks are oriented roughly 30 degree to the right of your straight view and we are viewing that from below. This is a hidden view. We can't have both views simultaneously, because they contradict each other.

You can ask your brain to switch view instead of closing the eyes to 90%. It's little bit hard, but not impossible. First you should train the brain, for that you should tell the brain that the letters are made up of black blocks, they are oriented 30 degree to the right and we are watching it from slightly below. Once you keep all this in mind and then you are able to see the words.

Try this also, close your eyes to 90% then slowly open your eyes and see at some point the word will disappear. It is quite interesting to watch it disappearing. Then try to force your brain not to switch the view, even after completely open your eyes. It is possible, but you can't hold that view for long time. I try to see how fast I can switch the view back and forth with out closing the eyes. It's hard.

The Matrix Reversed

Recently I happened to listen the talks presented at the 30th anniversary of the book "The selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. I haven't read the book yet, but still I got some idea, what is it all about. I have ordered the book and looking forward read it.

It is all about the gene centered theory of evolution. "The evolution occurs not just to favor the species, but to favor the gene; we are just a mechanism created by genes in order to make sure a successful and safe propagation of gene by transcription and transmutation." This is the basic idea of the book. We are just machines controlled by this tiny little genes and now we try to over power them by human genome project and genetic engineering. This is something similar to the situation, when the machines took control over us(like in the movie Matrix). But now we are machines fighting against our masters, so the matrix is reversed.

Some people criticized that this book is really depressing. This book arguers that human life is nothing and its just a traveling vehicles for genes. In a scientific stand point this may be true. If that's the way nature is going to work, we should accept it. Any way let me first read the book and then I'll give complete review.

Consiousness

It was Saturday afternoon. I logged in to Skype to listen the first online discussion meeting of "Indian School of Thoughts on Consciousness" . I must appreciate the efforts of Eswar to organize such an online discussion. This is the second active event from our Institute for Natural Philosophy.

It was an introductory meeting. Eswar explained various aspects of the consciousness. Even though I didn't actively participate in that discussion, I had many thoughts on consciousness.

I feel that consciousness is highly subjective. It's not a measurable quantity as well. We are in a world, where people live comfortably with varying degree of consciousness. Some not even heard the world "consciousness". They knew how to earn their bread and butter, that's it.


The problem of consciousness can be addressed in many ways. As I understood they were not discussing about the basic level of consciousness every one has. It's also called survival instinct, which prevents us from exposed to dangers and protects us in life threatening situations.The point of discussion is beyond survival, because we are not just born to survive.

Is it possible to have "complete consciousness"? I mean the highest form of consciousness. It's not an easy question to answer. The idea of consciousness is triggered by "non-trivial questions". These are the fundamental questions.Buddha asked him self "Why people have suffering?, Is there a way to stop it?". He started his search and finally found an answer, and he reviled the truth to the world. Now we all knew the answer to those questions, but why we can not reach the state(level of consciousness or enlightenment) of Buddha? My answer is simple,IT IS NOT THE ANSWERS ,WHICH LEADS TO ENLIGHTENMENT. IT IS THOSE QUESTIONS AND THE PATH HE TOOK TO FIND THE ANSWERS. Does he attain the "complete conscious sate"?. No . He is no different from a person, who doesn't ask such questions and strongly believes there exists no such answers or consciousness.They both have different level of consciousness, but the point they both BELIEVE in it.

A child's ignorance could be compared with the enlightenment of the mind. Until a child knows that he is ignorant, he is perfectly happy. Once we know that we are ignorant, we try to get rid of the ignorance by asking questions. If someone finds answers to all those questions, he is happy and enlightened. Does this mean that there aren't any questions to answer?. Certainly not. He is also now like a child, but relatively bigger world of knowledge, that's all. This is true even in the case of Bhddha or who ever believed to attained enlightenment.

This concept is beautifully explained in the book "Siddhartha". The protagonist of that story tried several paths to attain enlightenment.Even once he was a student of Buddha At the end he met a ferryman called Vasudeva, who has done nothing but ferrying all of his life time. He took him as his Guru, and finds answers to his search. At the end he says about Vasudeva that "he is no different than Buddha".

One must find his own way to achieve consciousness. It would be dangerous to follow the footprints, without knowing where it leads to. When you follow the footprints, you believe the guy walked before, but when you take a new path, you believe in your self.