Out of body experience

Observation of any event or process without getting involved is the best way of understanding. When a person gets involved, understanding of  an event can be different and biased based on own beliefs and experiences.  It is very important that observer must be a detached and does not have  any emotion about the observation.

Normally we believe that only our body is “self”.  But most of the time this self is extended to other human beings or even to objects. We may feel more pain than the subject itself if that subject is our beloved person ( child, spouse or lover).  In an object, Even a scratch on a new car is more painful and lasting than the scratch on our own body.  If we have a habit of connecting with somebody, it may not be a good thing all the time. If we observe something and note down things as a plain observer, we are better in explaining or understanding that stuff. Take an example of Kama Sutra which is written by Vatsayana. Now Vatsayana was known to be bhramacharya (unmarried and practiced abstinence).  Kama Sutra can only be possible by a neutral person who observes and notes down carefully without getting any pleasure or involved in it. I also read recently a priest who was never married himself has written a famous book on how to be sucessful in marriage. His explanation was that he met so many couples and counsel them for their problems in marriage that he becomes the master of marriage. If he himself was married, he might have a biased opinions or confused beliefs.

Now same is true with our own self. Normally we are always involved with our own self through out our life journey. This is the reason most of the time we believe we are right. Even if we think we were wrong , we might have lots of reason to defend ourselves. So we have to detach from our  self to understand the whole event and the role we are playing. In any event,  Imagine yourself observing the whole activity as an another observer floating up on the ceiling or up above. Normally this looks easy in dreams or remembering any past events. You are observing the whole scene as another observer. If you are lying on a bed, thinking about some past events. It is very easy to see how wrong you were in certain past incidents. You may burst into an inner laughter which is a good sign. This is a simple way of judging yourself as another person. Slowly you can imagine yourself in any live situation and give live feedback mentally about yourself. Pretty soon you will get used to it and start truly judging yourself.

Real out of body experience may be difficult and can only be  achieved thru higher form of meditation. It can be induced with banned drugs like ecstasy. But this process is just an act and might help you in great deal to rewind your past experiences and may think how foolish you were at certain times. Slowly you can think of yourself observing your moves which will help you better aware of the situations. Just look up in the sky or roof and imagine you are watching from above.

…. and the story is ?….

Stories are very powerful way for expressing ideas. Almost all of the holy books contain stories to explain verses or ideas spoken by prophets or holy men. Understanding of any idea or verse depends upon the beliefs or experiences of a listener  which can be interpreted differently. This is the reason why story is important to explain the context. This also brings clarity in a consistent way for everybody.

In the absence of any story, ideas can be misrepresented based on the understanding of any individual. A person might twist an idea for personal benefits. Now somebody can very well said that Buddha has told lies in his lifetime many times. But if we can frame a story we can figure out in what circumstances Buddha has told a lie. Let’s make up a story as an example regarding Buddha falsehood. Once upon a time a guy knocked on a door of Buddha while he was sleeping. Buddha opened the door. The guy requested Buddha to save his life as some goons are looking for him to kill. Buddha  told him to come inside the house. After some time, few people came following that man and knocked on the door.  They asked Buddha whether they have seen a man. Buddha thought for a moment and told a lie that he was sleeping and nobody came. Based on the Buddha reputation of truth, all men left and the life of man was saved. Now without a story anybody can be misguided about the Buddha falsehood but if story is narrated everybody can understand the motive. The Lie can be treated as truth if it  saves somebody’s life.

Same is true with Bhagwat Geeta, holy book of Hindus. If somebody only reads Bhagwat Geet, he or she might get confused – Why krishna is preaching Arjuna to kill his own cousins?  There is also an example in one of the Hindi movie “aks” where manoj bajpai is reciting the verses of Geeta and killing people. So people can use verses of Geeta and feel right in killing somebody. But most of the Indian people understand the meaning of Geeta as they know the story behind Bhagwat Geeta which is Mahabharata. So Mahabharata is story behind The bhagwat Geeta which explains the context and meaning about the verses of Geeta. So It is important to read Mahabharta before reading Geeta.

In Qur’an, one of the verses 24:4 goes like this “and those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witness – lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after”.  This can easily confuse a person – How a women can bring four witness of her molestation or rape to prove her point ? But the story behind the verse is something like this. Some people were talking about Muhammad’s most loved wife Aisha and accusing her of adultery. Muhammad knew the truth about her innocence. So this verse might be designed to actually save women from a false allegation by men without any proof.  But in some cases, men use this verse to get away with crime. So actually a verse which is meant to protect a women can very well used against women without understanding the context or story behind that verse.

In Science, any equation can be treated as a verse and science does define the story behind that equation with assumptions and derivations. Hence the confusion is less.  But in real life without a story any verse or idea can be interpreted  in infinite ways. This could be for good or for worse. It is not important that all the stories mentioned in the holy books are true. These may be reference stories trying to explain any verse or ideas  consistently to people. So next time if anybody tell you any idea or verse ask him …. and the story is …. ?

Not raining , But where is my umbrella ?

Risk management is one of most important aspect in investment. But most of the time people are trying to manage too much for the uncertainities.  Don’t risk what you have to get for what you don’t need. Let’s try to understand with real life example.

Take an extreme case, when a person is managing too much for risk. A person decided to take umbrella 365 days a year no matter if it is raining or not. He thinks it is not inconvenient to carry umbrella all the time. Moreover, He also wants to keep it simple and not to worry about whether it is raining or not. This looks odd but some of the people are doing exactly the same. There are other types of people who react differently. Now there are some intelligent investors who are carrying umbrella based on the weather prediction of that day. They are normally informed investors. Even sometimes if it does not rain inspite of prediction, they know that weather is unpredictable and cannot be right all the time. Now some people are confused and try to create their own predictions and not sure about anything. They are confused as sometime they have umbrella but it does not rain. Sometime they don’t have umbrella and it rains heavily. They take tips about the rain from the friend who knows nothing about the weather. Some contrarian people do opposite of other people and are quite successful in that.

Some people take this step to a spiritual level. They enjoy rain and never carry umbrella. They don’t wear expensive suits and hence don’t worry about their clothes. If it does not rain, it is well and good. But if it rains they don’t run for shelter and enjoy every drop of rain. For others they may be insane but they consider themselves as mystic.

In Summary, one has to take a judgement call regarding the safety from the uncertainities of life. The fear is always created by the market to sell insurance or umbrellas. Companies  are even selling funeral insurances.  Is it really worth ? So it is important to think beyond the fear before taking any decision.