SepticPen ...

Recently Maggi (noodles) has been campaigning a lot . no Doubt , this nestle product is the bestselling noodles by any comparison in India. They had come up with a  new song , for their Ads very very catchy!!!  ear bug alert! i tried to find the song online and was unable to do so, not even a YouTube upload of the Ad itself. but i came to know that it is actually a Plagiarized version of Teresa brewer’s “Music Music Music” song from the early 1960s.

These songs are so catchy, just makes you soo gleeee!
I think i am going to be hearing more of her music for some time now, you should check it out too.
More about Teresa Brewer :

CHILD PRODIGY ...the 1930s
Theresa Breuer was born in Toledo, Ohio on May 7, 1931 - the first child of a glass inspector for the Libby-Owens Company and his homemaker wife. Neither of Teresa's parents possessed a particular aptitude or interest in music or performance, and none of the four younger brothers that would eventually make up the family pursued vocal music, but it was clear from early in her life that Teresa was a natural talent.

Recognizing her young daughter's remarkable abilities and drive, Mrs. Breuer auditioned Teresa, just over two years old, for radio station WSPD's "Uncle August's Kiddie Show". Teresa performed on the show, singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game, for pay consisting of cupcakes and cookies from the show's sponsor, the Lutz Bakery.
Continue Reading here: http://www.teresafans.org/l.html

 

Teresa Brewer (7 May 1931 – 17 October 2007) was an American pop singer, incorporating country, jazz, R&B, musicals, and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of the 1950s, recording nearly 600 songs – Continue reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Brewer

You can hear this and all other songs by Teresa Brewer here: http://www.teresafans.org/A337ainddsp.html
Teresa Brewer Center: http://www.teresafans.org/

P.S: Any Ideas on how to get rid of an Ear Bug without using another one?

you know its been a long time since you wrote your last post. to be frank, you had gotten yourself 'reset'. hard to explain it, but its similar to unlearning everything. so you somehow felt you shouldn't write another post until, you hit a problem.
    
Its not too hard for a problem to find you once you have reset. You work long days, cause when you lie down, you don't want to be able to think,you want sleep to find you easily.
But yesterday you couldn't sleep. Its back, those old days,when you were forced by life to stay awake at night without sleep to accept and recognize your existence and actions.At first its terrifying. you are afraid to peep inside. You know deep down you dont understand life. but some part of you wants to desperately understand it, and there is also a part which is scared of stumbling upon a possible truth. 


But you want to be at peace with yourself. its really late, in a few hours there will be sunlight. you can no longer lie down, your breathing is heavy,its almost as if you are breathing steel. But you are also tired. You sit up in your bed.


"Why? ... Nothing in life makes sense".The street light is flooding your room and You notice you are casting a long shadow across the floor. You look at it for sometime.... 'the constant companion'. Doesn't your shadow always follow you. is it not always less a feet away. An Old man once said the shadows are the greatest gift you could have asked for, it is the very form of 'Death'. that's how close death always is, less than a feet away.

Suddenly you are face to face with death, even though it had followed you for ever.It is no longer a stranger to you. A role that death plays for you is to remind you of how soon you are forgotten. You do much to impress yourselves upon the world, to make yourselves remembered, to stamp your existence.And yet, as Marcus Aurelius often reminds himself, after we die we are quickly forgotten. Our legacy is short in the larger time span of history.

"All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike" (Book 4, §35 ,Meditations of Marcus Aurelius).


If you have to be at peace with yourself, you have to prepare for things that are likely to remove that peace.

You might want to read my previous post titled “Evanescence”
http://septicpen.blogspot.com/2009/07/evanescence.html

Feel free to leave any comments & please tweet this post if you like it.

 

I have found a very useful Time Management software. i think it will help you. its called time left. i usually use it to track how long have i been online when all  really needed to do was check out if i got back that very important reply. Instead of just spending say 10 minutes i

often find myself spending at least 45 minutes in front of the comp every time i log in for a small job.

You can use this for many many reasons.
1.Its Completely FREE. 
2.Users can select between setting a clock, a stopwatch, a reminder, an auction watch, a timer or a sticky note.

For a list other Alarm and Time Management Software check this link out:
http://download.cnet.com/Windows/Alarms-Clock-Software/3150-2350_4-0.html?tag=mncol

Download Links for TimeLeft:
1. http://download.cnet.com/TimeLeft/3000-2350_4-10034817.html
2. http://www.timeleft.info/

Other Opinions:
1. http://www.ghacks.net/2009/05/16/time-management-software-timeleft/

I read a lot of books related to topics presented in this blog. I have found many rare books in  second-hand Book Stores in and around where i stay. They are relevant to this Blog i feel. These are not reviews in any sense, but hopefully will introduce you to some rare titles, that are relatively unknown.And may help you in buying in something which may interest you.

The Heart of Buddhist Meditation,
A handbook of mental training based on the Buddha’s way of mindfulness by
Nyanaponika Thera

 

Now let me tell you a few things that are not printed on the back cover.
This book is actually a handbook of “mindfulness". It contains an extensive commentary and text of the Maha-Satipathana-Sutta, as well as all other citations from the all the Buddhist cannons regarding Mindfulness. All of them contain very good commentaries. This book is the first and last book you would need to read regarding the “Mindfulness & clear comprehension teachings of the Buddha”

part of The Readings in Silence: (Series)

Related Links:
1. About the Auhtor of the Book http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=Nyanaponika%2C_Maha_Thera

1.One cannot be in touch with silence and time at the same time.
2.Silence and time cannot exist together.
3.Silence is ever present and ever existent
4.hence, time must be a phantom, a mere illusion

1.when one listens to silence, one forgets time
2.Is it that one forgets time?
3.No, It is not so.
4.Time and your self just get separated when one listens to silence.It no longer has a power over 'you'.

People often ask me where can they find the Buddhist Pali Tripitaka, in English. Many spiritual teachers often refer to the Tripitaka to make their point. The Pali Tripitaka is clearly the first and last stop for anyone to learn the dhamma through the buddha's words. The Dhamma again is a timeless teaching in itself, in that it is always applicable , at any time , to any human condition. It truly is a complete doctrine in itself. And I would always request people to read the original scriptures(be it any religion/practice/doctrine) before reading any third-party commentary.


The entire Pali Tripitaka collection itself is very very huge, and it can almost cover five feet of shelf space. The entire HardBound Tripitaka collection is available for about 1000-2000$ from the Pali Text Society. i must emphasise the fact that not all of the Tripitaka has been translated into english uptill now.


I would personally suggest you to go for an Online version, it has certain advantages such as fast searching,and better cross-indexing. According to my knowledge 'Access to Insight' is the most comprehensive collection of English translations of the Pali Tripitaka. it also has an extensive list of all terravadan teachers and their important writings.

Upon visiting the site and after reading a few suttas , you might naturally have the tendency to locate a complete EBook version of the translations for off-line viewing. In the Home page of 'Access to Insight' there is link to download the whole Website for offline viewing (Note: its about 100 MB). Please keep in mind that you are downloading html files and not a PDF format of the Tripitaka.


Another method for you have an organized offline version of 'Access to Insight' is to get a free software called HTTrack, which allows you to easily download and view an entire website(including it sub-pages and linked pages). And after that your would have your very own offline electronic version of the Pali Tripitaka in English.


Hope this was helpful,
Sachin

Related Links:
1. www.accesstoinsight.org
2.HTTrack Free Website capture Software
3.http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=Tipitaka

1.What is Time? ( the author is referring to Psychological time)
2.When one is carried away by thinking/emotions/thought patterns etc, like a falling leaf is by strong winds,
3.One loses touch with Silence and a separation occurs between oneself and silence.
4.This separation is time. (Clearly time is mind-made ; It is a creation of mind which does not operate consciously from silence).

1.The Sky is not the word "sky".
2.The Flower is not the word "flower".
3.Nothing is not the word "nothing".
4.Similarly, Silence is not the word "Silence"

1.One cannot seek to Surrender to find out how to meditate.
2.One cannot seek to Surrender to find out what is surrendering.
3.One cannot seek to Surrender to find out what one gets by surrendering.
4.One can only seek to Surrender to stop all further seeking.

1. How do I Surrender to Silence?
2. I shall not ask that question.
3. "How can I fall asleep?" , do I ever get sleep by asking that?
4. I just sleep; asking how does not help.

1.True Meditation is to listen to Silence.
2.It is to look at noise and feel the silence underneath it.
3.Meditation is to surrender to the Silence
4.It is to realize I am that Silence.

1.To live is to be.
2.To die is to live.
3.To Meditate is to die.
4.Unless i get rid of my fear of death how can i ever truly be.

1.To be Fragile is true Strength.
2.To be strong is fragile.
3.Ask not how to be Fragile.
4.Ask not how not to be strong.

1.In Silence It is seen.
2.All Noise point towards It.
3.You hear It hearing you.
4.It hears you hearing It.

1.The Sun shines, the Plants grow
2.The Rain showers, the Flowers bloom
3.I see it
4.It sees me

1.I know not the answers.
2.I knew not the questions.
3.Mind does not doubt.
4.Mind IS the Doubt.

1.The Sun rises , the dawn breaks
2.The Sun sets, the dusk fades
3.The wind blows,for us to hear
4.What is heard?... By whom is it heard?... what does the hearing?

A disciple said to the Zen master Hogen. "When I was studying with my previous Master I got some insight into what Zen is all about."

"So what is this insight you have?" asked Hogen.

"When I asked the master who Buddha was(by which of course, I mean Reality), he said .'Ping-ting comes for fire'"

"That was a fine reply," said Hogen,"but i fear you may have got it wrong. Tell me what meaning you gave to his words."

"Well,"said the disciple,"Ping-ting is the god of fire.Now to say that the god of ire comes for fire is as absurd as to have me , whose true nature is really Buddha , ask who the Buddha is. How can one who is actually ,even though unconsciously,the Buddha, formulate a question regarding the Buddha?"

"Ah, ah!" said Hogen. "Exactly what i feared! You're completely off the mark. Now you ask me."

"Very well. Who is Buddha?"

"Ping-ting comes for fire." said Hogen

I came across an old journal, in which i used to capture a few lines of what i paid attention to each day. I had completely forgotten it existed. I started reading it , and i was surprised as to why or when i wrote it?... i find it somewhat appropriate to read every time i feel like i need a glimpse of what i should look at.

I have taken up the task of continuing the work, one day at a time. meanwhile i think it might be nice to post the old entries one by one....

I have decided to call the series of post "The Awakening of Silence" cause most of this work deals with the topic of silence and meditation etc , and also i feel like i am drawn into that beautiful silence every time i read a verse.
Try reading it one at a time and give some attention to the space that clears up in you.

Please do let me know if it was of any help to you.

'Brief is the life of men
The wise man should not take delight therein.
Let him act as if his head were burning
For there is no way whereby death comes not.' --Samyutta Nikaya(Buddhist Scriputre) I:108


"Think of your many years of procrastination; how repeatedly granted you were of further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realize the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then , to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again." -- Meditations of Marcus Aurelius II:4


"Why are we here? What are we doing here?", these were the first two questions that arose in my mind as i read my first 'Spiritual' book . I was 13 years old when i read it. Unlike many of you , that spiritual book was 'A Brief History of Time' by Stephen Hawking. It was , to be frank with you, the first book i had actually read. I mean i had read comics before and i was forced to read my School textbooks. but this was the first book which i picked up and read out of a shear innocent curiosity and interest.

A Brief History of Time is a book about the universe, its vastness , and man's humble effort to conquer it through his laws and equations.It is not so much that it is a spiritual book in the conventional sense, but i did have a very powerful spiritual experience by reading it. It was through this book that i was introduced to a powerful meditation . As i was reading about the far outer reaches of space and this universe whose size has only been able to be introduced to us through this book, I couldn't help but be filled with awe and wonder.



I started imagining our position in space, i look at my house slowly i started zooming out until i could see my whole block,then my city then my state, then my country and then earth , the solar system and so on and so forth .... until a point when earth was not even visible anymore.Then a startling revelation occurred to me...
Our 'lifestory' was all so small,All our problems seemed soo trivial and unimportant.


This little existence of ours is nothing compared to the immense timescale with which things happen in the universe.

"Letting go all else, cling to the following truths. Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant: all the rest of his life is either past and gone,or not yet revealed.This mortal life is a little thing, lived in a little corner of the earth; and little , too, is the succession of fast-perishing little men who have no knowledge even of their own selves, much less of one long dead and gone." -- Meditations of Marcus Aurelius III:10

"The water drop on the lotus leaf trembles.
So too if life, precious and unstable.
Know it to be in the grip of disease and anxiety,
and smitten with sorrow." -- Bhaja Govindam of Sri Shankara [Verse 4]


"Who are you? Who am I? Who is my mother, and who is my father?Reflect on this.
You will then realize that the world and its cares are but the cares and anxieties of a dream, and you will be able then to free yourself from that dream." -- Bhaja Govindam of Sri Shankara [verse 23]

--Feel free to leave your valuable comments on this post
-- If you have come across more verses which deal with the above theme please let me know, and i will add it to this post. I always try to incorporate (relatively unknown)materials from all forms of philosophies, religions, and practices to make these themes universally appealing.

I reached the auditorium just in time and couldn't hear the Introduction to the talk. "The Seekers these days are definitely just looking for something to add to their FaceBook profiles so that their friends think they are interesting...." - so began a spiritual talk given by a 18-year-old vibrant young man a few days back, which i attended. A person next to me quietly commented to me "Doesn't HE have a facebook profile???"Four monks decided to go into silence for a month.They started out well enough but after the first day one monk said. "I wonder if I locked the door of my cell at the monastery before we set out."

Yesterday Night , It was there, a sacred presence that filled the entire room.

It was very late when I had finished my work,I noticed a silence so beautiful that i dint feel like falling asleep even i was considerably exhausted. i was in touch with silence after a really long time. i marveled at the quietness of it like baby that is seeing a new face with a beautiful smile. I was suddenly filled with a feeling that cannot be expressed, or measured or compared to anything i had ever felt before. The brain can be quite dull at remembering such sacredness. I wasn't even sure if it was a feeling in the first place. Bliss may be a term that can come close and point at it.


It was nearly early dawn. I don't know how long i lay there totally absorbed in this silence. Not thinking, Not trying to tell my self the beauty of it. I was completely at one with it.


I know not when sleep came.
I know not which of the many peaceful gaps between the in and out breaths it choose to enter me.
But I had fallen asleep

I woke up early, only to find my mind was still filled by that silence that visited my room. It is said that the first thought you have as soon as you wake up is a continuation of the last thought u had before you slept.But strange as it were, I had no thoughts this day as i woke up, Just pure inner silence.


For the first time i was able to wake up to the presence of my true inner essence.

Brownie, our dog, sat looking up the tree; ears cocked, and tail tensely wagging. He
was attending to a monkey. Just one thing filled his consciousness: the monkey. No
thought disturbed his total concentration, no worry for tomorrow. Brownie was the
nearest thing to Contemplation I have ever seen.You may have experienced some of this yourself when you were totally absorbed watching a cat at play.

Here is a formula for Contemplation, as good as any 1 know: Be totally in the present.
Drop every thought of the future, drop every thought of the past, drop every image and
abstraction, and come into the present. Contemplation will arise!

After years of training, the disciple begged his Master to bring him to Enlightenment.
The Master led him to a bamboo grove and said, “See that bamboo, how tall it is ?
See that other one there, how short it is?”
And the disciple was enlightened.

They say Buddha practiced every form of asceticism known to the India of his times,
in an effort to attain enlightenment. In vain. One day he sat under a bodhi tree and enlightenment occurred. He passed on the secret of enlightenment to his disciples in
words that must seem strange to the uninitiated: “When you draw in a deep breath, oh
monks, be aware that you are drawing in a deep breath. And when you draw in a shallow
breath, oh monks, be aware that you are draw-ing in a shallow breath. And when you
draw in a medium-sized breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a medium-
sized breath.” Awareness. Attention. Absorption.

This kind of absorption one sees in little children. They are close to the Kingdom.

When i was young i was deeply influenced by Bertrand Russell a lot, His philosophies had a very positive effect on my life. Recently i remember i had once written down an excerpt from his autobiography in a notebook i used to frequently read. Recently i have been reading a lot of about the workings of the mind, the ego and emotions etc. I found it strange that Bertrand Russell had in that work given a very nice way to over come the drag the ego can have on our lives.


I believe that Our mind is like a garden. You can plant beautiful plants in it, and it will grow into a beautiful and serene place. but if u don't bother to take interest and sow the plants that are wonderful, your garden will soon be filled with weed and bushes. You need to maintain your garden, by constantly cutting the weed and unwanted shrubs.


observe your mind for 5 minutes. now.
there are two types of thoughts that can arise in your mind.
the first kind is that of a constant background radio that keeps playing in your head.... keeps telling you want to do and what not to do almost with no logic or reason what so ever, these kinds of thoughts are deeply rooted in the past and keep reminding you how things are not the way u want them to be .... these thoughts , according to the Buddha, cause you dukha (suffering) . these are like plants that grow in your garden when u don't maintain it.... these are like weeds... these are unwanted.

There is another kind of thoughts that can arise, these are the thought that u have the control to think consciously with an effort. these are the thoughts that you are aware that YOU are thinking! these are like the beautiful plants you plant in your garden and nourish constantly.


In his book The Conquest of Happiness, Bertrand Russell says, "I was not born happy. As a child, my favorite hymn was: 'Weary of earth and laden with sin.' . . . In adolescence, I hated life and was continually on the verge of suicide, from which, however, I was restrained by the desire to know more mathematics. Now, on the contrary, I enjoy life; I might almost say that with every year that passes I enjoy it more . . . very largely it is due to diminishing preoccupation with myself. Like others who had a Puritan education, I had a habit of meditating on my sins, follies, and shortcomings. I seemed to myself— no doubt justly—a miserable specimen. Gradually I
learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals
for whom I felt affection."




"It is quite possible to overcome infantile suggestions of the unconscious, and even to change the contents of the unconscious, by employing the right kind of technique. Whenever you begin to feel remorse for an act which your reason tells you is not wicked, examine the causes of your
feeling of remorse, and convince yourself in detail of their absurdity. Let your conscious beliefs be so vivid and emphatic that they make an impression upon your unconscious strong enough to cope with the impressions made by your nurse or your mother when you were an infant. Do not be content with an alteration between moments of rationality and moments of irrationality. Look into the irrationality closely with a determination not to respect it and not to let it dominate you. When it thrusts foolish thoughts or feelings into your consciousness, pull them up by the roots, examine them, and reject them. Do not allow yourself to remain a vacillating creature, swayed half by reason and half by infantile folly... " ....


.... "But if the rebellion is to be successful in bringing individual happiness and in enabling a man to live consistently by one standard, not to vacillate between two, it is necessary that he should think and feel deeply about what his reason tells him. Most men, when they have thrown off superficially the superstitions of their childhood, think thatthere is no more to be done. They do not realize that these superstitions are still lurking underground. When a rational conviction has been arrived at, it is necessary to dwell upon it, to follow out its consequences, to search out in oneself whatever beliefs inconsistent with the new conviction might otherwise survive. . . . What I suggest is that a man should make up his mind with emphasis as to what he rationally believes, and should never allow contrary irrational beliefs to pass unchallenged or obtain a hold over him, however brief. This is a question of reasoning with himself in those moments in which he is tempted to become infantile, but the reasoning, if it is sufficiently emphatic, may be very brief."