Archive for the ‘General Stuff’ Category

10 steps toward a peaceful life

By Dwayne Lee

Get to know your neighbors. Do this while doing the next step.

 Clean up and maintain your neighborhood. In many places, there is too much garbage and litter lying around. Store owners don’t seem to care, so neighbors must. 

Establish an air of mutual respect and ownership even if you don’t own the house or apartment building where you live. 

Overlook insults, slights and ignorant and foolish provocations. These often come from dysfunctional people. Sometimes people behave this way because they are bored or under peer pressure.  

Override pride and fear of shame or embarrassment and the need to make a reputation violently. Instead, flip the script and use your energy to do something positive for the neighborhood. 

Help those who may need a hand,such as the elderly and handicapped. Also, look out for children and know that many times teenagers may need wisdom and guidance. Do not let these violent events make you apathetic or pessimistic about the next generation. Some will listen to you. Really. 

  Be an agent of peace,not an instigator of discord in any way. This means: Stop gossiping and fighting and begin talking and organizing to make your neighborhood a safe and positive place. It is important for adults to act like adults. 

 Be understanding of other people’s shortcomings and challenges. Some people will always choose to behave in a disruptive, destructive manner.   Don’t despair and never give up.

 Smile.

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007

The Solar System

The Solar System consists of (from the Middle outwards) The Sun, an average sized star of average brightness, Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars, four small rocky dense planets and then, seperated by the Asteroid belt, Jupiter Saturn Neptune and Uranus, four giant and not very dense ‘gas’ planets. Then there are the dwarf planets - a category of object invented in 2006 to describe other large objects orbiting the Sun which are however too small to be termed ‘planets’. Currently there are three dwarf planets - Ceres, which is situated in the asteroid belt and is the largest known asteroid in the Solar System, Pluto, which lies beyond Neptune, and Eris, the largest of the dwarfs, which lies beyond Pluto.

In figures, the Solar System is made up of: Sun: 99.86%
Planets: 0.135%
Comets: 0.01%
Satellites: 0.00005%
Asteroids: 0.0000002%
Meteoroids: 0.0000001%
Interplanetary Medium: 0.0000001%

The Sun is the centre of the Solar System and the Earth orbits it at an average distance of 1 AU (150 millon kilometres). This is quite far and it takes the Sun’s light 8.3 minutes to reach us. The are 8 planets which orbit the Sun, the smallest being Pluto and the largest being Jupiter. The Solar System isn’t just made up of planets though and in between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter there is what’s known as the asteroid belt. This belt consists of many, many asteroids which also orbit the Sun. You can find out more by visiting the asteroids or Meteors pages.

    The Kuiper belt is a belt of icy, frozen, lifeless lumps of ice which sometimes enter the inner Solar System. I goes round the moon in a highly elliptical fashion, at its closest being just beyond Neptune yet at its furthest linking up with the Oort cloud, about 500,000 AU or 2 light years away!

    The Solar System was born when a cloud of gas (made up of about 75% Hydrogen, 25% Helium and nearly 1% heavier elements) condensed enough to form solid objects, which slowly joined to make the Solar System as we know it. Ever wondered why the four planets closest to the Sun are small and rocky whereas the ones further away are big and gassy? Well, it’s because close to the Sun it was too hot for most of the gas to survive so it got driven away from the sun or it vapourized leaving the inner planets with thinner atmospheres.

Monday, June 25th, 2007

What is Stress

 It’s not stress that kills us …It’s our reaction to it!

  We believe there are two types of stresses when associated with human life and behavior. One could be deemed as being good and the other as being bad. The good type of stress we refer to is demand. Through demand we have an opportunity to grow and become more. The bad type is the reactive emotion of overwhelm and worry, a failure to cope under the situation. This type of stress leads to sickness and death.

We will first cover the “good” stress. Demands and Challenges (problems) are a sign of life and to become stronger one must develop the solution finding skills that can only come through calm (self control) and focus. Without these demands how can we become better and stronger. There’s a saying that goes “I’ll show you a place where everyone has no problems, it’s called a cemetery!”

To grow from stress one must retain a positive frame of mind, that is why yoga is so beneficial when it comes to your outlook on life. The demands, stresses and changes that takes place with your mind and body can be huge. However the great thing about yoga is that you learn the art of control. Through the breathing techniques that are associated with yoga you have the ability to stay as calm as you like while you turn the intensity up even more.

It’s an amazing feeling to have total control and so when situations take place- that place demands (stress)- you have the ability to stay totally calm and look for solutions. Learn the 80/20 rule. Spend 20% of the time defining the challenge and 80% on the solution. People who stress out all the time spend 80% on the problem and very little on a solution! That’s why they get no where they only get weaker. Stress is like a weight, you can use it to get stronger or you can let it squash you!

The choice is always yours!

The bad type of stress referred to is the reactive state that you choose to place yourself under. When something happens to you, you always have a choice in the meaning you choose to give to it. The weaker or untrained mind will choose to go into a state of overwhelm. Basically the mind will lose control. This is where all the negative emotions and all there unwanted effects show up.

The constant reaction of stress is not an illness…
however it will cause illness!
 

 With this loss of control, people turn to artificial solutions to cope with or escape from the pressures of daily life. Substance abuse (cigarettes, alcohol, prescription and street drugs), eating disorders, gambling and destructive relationships are some of the substitutes people grasp at in their desperate search for consolation.

 But while these measures may provide temporary distraction or oblivion, the root cause of unhappiness and stress remains unresolved and only gets worse. Western Society is constructed to make most people lose the plot as this generates billions of dollars for pharmaceutical companies, alcohol and tobacco producers, casinos, lawyers, medical professionals and the likes. If everyone knew how to look after themselves there would be no need for all these so called solutions!

Yoga is a real solution and it’s free if you want it to be. Sure you can pay for a video or a class but the skills once learnt can be practiced anywhere and anytime. Become totally resposable for yourself and take control. Look to become better and constantly test yourself when it comes to times of demand. The choice is always yours to make on how you choose to perceive situations and events.  

Are you looking to get stronger and live
or do you want to get weaker and die.
 

Sunday, June 24th, 2007

The Power of Concentration

Concentration on your Higher Self (the soul within) will encourage detachment and detachment will lead to power.

Everything in creation (as we understand it) is influenced by the law of magnetism. The law of magnetism teaches us that whatever we concentrate upon, we draw to ourselves. If we focus on goodness, our life can be a garden of happiness; if we concentrate on wealth, we will draw wealth to ourselves.

Success in life presupposes the power of concentration. Just as a magnet draws to itself iron filings and not rice grains, so too, the quality of our focused thoughts will create a dynamic but silent power within that will find us placed in situations akin to the nature of our thoughts. If we think ‘ good health ‘ and with faith and belief embed this deeply within our minds over a sustained period of time, we will gradually create for ourselves situations and an environment, which will be conducive to good health . Yet as we understand the workings of this power , it is essential that we not misuse power and that we be more involved in purifying our desires so that all that we seek only be bathed in the hue of wisdom and righteousness. Before we choose we always have an option, but once chosen, each action will bring forth a concomitant reaction.
Each of us is born with a certain degree of latent developed concentration, but the more we are aware of the existence of this power, and the more we seek to consciously use it, the more will we actually develop it. Men of success are men of concentration. Nothing of essence in life is achieved without concentration.

Be it in prayer, business, sport, art, or healing, concentration is the real key which helps one harness one’s inner divine potential. Concentration aids you in drawing more of the life energy into your physical self and thereby raising your level of existence to higher layers of awareness. As you spiritualise your consciousness through Guru-channeled techniques of concentration, your energy pattern becomes more vibrant and pure, ushering all round tranquility and calmness into the temple of your mind.

With good concentration one can fulfill a task in virtually half the time and with double the accuracy of an average person. Paramahansa Yogananda said that we should do our interesting and enjoyable duties with all our heart and the uninteresting ones with our deepest attention. As we concentrate with will power on the task at hand, we learn to shut out unnecessary disturbing thoughts, doing nothing haphazardly. The mind thereby attains the ability to be one-pointed. The greatest power, remember always, is lodged in the fine, never in the coarse.

When one is able to lift a heavy object with muscles flexing, we appreciate the physical strength and the look and feel of the muscular part, but we must remind ourselves that the power to lift comes not from the muscles but from the life energy within, which in turn is drawn by the power of will and concentration. The greater the will and the more focused one’s thoughts, the greater will be the inflow of the life force.

Each thought that we think forms a pattern in our brain cell grooves. These patterns then determine what our future patterns of existence will be. If we wish to change the nature of the existent (past) patterns or if we seek to create desired patterns (circumstances) it is vital to understand the workings of the science of concentration. Though any sincere practice in concentration may seem arduous and boring at the outset, after some time, internal interest is definitely developed.

The platitude before the flowering is only natural as new forms of mental thought seek to erase typical thought habits of the past. Evil and harmful habits are what we have gifted ourselves through concentrating repeatedly on the wrong thought patterns and now if we are to be rid of them, it is necessary to concentrate on the opposite. For example, if we have a habit of biting our nails, we must concentrate on seeing ourselves as living without any trace (even in imagination) of that habit. We must see only the goal, and the obstacles will fall off by themselves. With the coming of His Divine light, the darkness of eons can melt away.
 

Thursday, June 21st, 2007

Inspirational Thoughts

Courage doesn’t always roar

Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying…

“I will try again tomorrow

Thursday, June 21st, 2007

Hello world!

Hi,

Welcome to my blog! My name is Karthik and I am from India - the land of the Gods and many mystical experiences. However India today, has taken many facets and one of them is becoming the IT services outsourcing hub. Attached to this booming industry is an economy very buoyant with nearly all financial sectors and banks in particular doing well. I belong to the bankers tribe! A role complimented by an PG degree and vast experience to boot.

Feel free to walk along with me in this path of life and share your views as I would do mine. Your company will make the journey worthwhile.

Smile with the whole world!

Karthik Ananthanarayana

Friday, June 15th, 2007

Close
E-mail It