I have nothing to give you

June 26, 2009 at 12:20 am · Filed under Stories

A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by.

“Spare some change?” mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap.
“I have nothing to give you”, said the stranger, then he asked: “What’s that you are sitting on?”
“Nothing” replied the beggar. “Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.”
“Ever looked inside?” asked the stranger.
“No.” said the beggar, “What’s the point, there’s nothing in there”
“Have a look inside” insisted the stranger.

The beggar managed to prey open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.

Moral of the story: we may spend all our lives looking for the treasure outside and never spare just a minute to look inside.

Origin: “The power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle

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Amazon.com – Freelance mode

June 21, 2009 at 1:51 pm · Filed under Ideas ·Tagged , , , ,

Amazon.com has always been my favorite online bookstore, nonetheless shipment cost was always a big problem for me since all my orders are delivered by international shipment.

What would be nice to see is a new mode in Amazon.com called “Freelance mode” in that mode you can buy single items or more and ship them almost anywhere in the world for free.

By slightly and intelligently increasing the price of each item when in “Freelance mode”, Amazon.com would be able to cover the shipment cost of the items.

Amazon.com can also improve its shopping cart system and lessen pages reloads when one deletes an item or moves an item to the shopping list.

And if “Freelance mode” is ever implemented, a nice feature would be to add an option so that Amazon store, intelligently, sends you the next book (you queued in your shoppingl list) on time just before you finish reading the current book. (It does that by teaching it how fast you read, and how much time the books usually take to arrive to your destination).

Ofcourse, in the advent of electronic books it is useless to introduce such modes.

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Baoding trackball mouse

June 21, 2009 at 1:36 pm · Filed under The Lab ·Tagged , , , , , ,

I routinely clean my trackball mouse but this time something else came to mind also: Baoding balls.

A small excerpt from Wikipedia about Baoding Balls:

Baoding balls, also called Chinese exercise balls, Chinese meditation balls, and Chinese medicine balls, are thought to have been created in Baoding, China, during the Ming dynasty. Baoding balls are a tool for injury recovery or as an exercise tool to improve manual dexterity and strength. They consist of two or more balls which are rotated to orbit in the hand. The iron-ball system is the greatest of Baoding prefecture’s “three treasures.” Long throughout history, renowned within China and other countries, this is Baoding prefecture’s traditional product. This item of Buddhist martial arts was first produced in the Northern Song Dynasty.

So imagine the mouse initially like this:

How the mouse normally looks

Then ready to be cleaned:

How it looks without its ball

But suddenly, the Baoding Balls sitting on the shelf catch my attention:

The perfect match!

So you can imagine what I did next:

Top view

Spiritual Baoding trackball mouse

Oh btw, Baoding balls produce a nice sound when you juggle them in your hands:

But I doubt you can use this mouse at work since it will produce lots of melody! ;)

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How to be ready for your first 10-days Vipassana Course

June 14, 2009 at 10:45 am · Filed under Self Improvement tips ·Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

If life puts Vipassana in your way and you are considering to take the course, it is best to read a little about the technique, read how to be prepared mentally and physically so that you can complete the 10-days course.

The purpose of this article is to tell you, from my experience, what should be known before hand, what mental attitude to adopt, and any other aspects that can help you.

The advises below do not follow any specific order, but all of them are essential points I discovered when I took the course.

  1. Waking up at 4am: It is daunting and discouraging just to think that you are going to wake up at 4am daily for 10 days.
    The first two days you may feel terrible, but that’s okay because after the second day you will start to get used to it.
    Anyway, what I did is sleep during breaks. Even an hour or half an hour nap helps me stay awake during meditations.
    If you feel tired because of waking up early, sleep during breaks. Not during meditation times in your room.
  2. Physical preparation: I knew that we are to sit and meditate at least eight hours a day, and naturally physical preparation is needed.
    But due to my lazy mind, I could not set time to prepare myself before joining the course.
    Guess what? It turned that being unprepared physically is as good as being prepared, because the key is not physical comfortability.
    The key is being aware, whether you are physically comfortable or uneasy, it does not matter.
    So do not stress yourself about your physical agility, just join the course and live each moment by moment.
  3. Counting days: After the 3rd day, I stared to feel bad and wanting to quit. Actually I kept on saying: “Oh, I still have 7 days” or “Oh, I still have 5 days”, etc, etc…
    Remember you did not come here because someone forced you.
    You did not come here just like that: You had to take a break from work or perhaps from studies, even from your duties as a householder.
    So you always remember every minute you are spending during the program should be justified by your hardwork, otherwise you are wasting 10 days of your life.
    Remember that you are here to learn and to change.
    Whenever you find yourself counting days and not being in the moment stop yourself and remind yourself of why you joined the course.
    Be responsible for every minute because the time you are spending during the course is a special time.
  4. Feeling sleepy: Although I already spoken about waking at 4am and feeling sleepy, there is still one important thing to notice:
    You may feel terribly sleepy during the meditations, even if you slept uninterrupted 8 hours and you took an hour or half hour naps during the day.The reason is because your mind wants to escape the meditation, it does not like that.

    Be aware that this obstacle is just temporary. Do not get discouraged, just be patient and fight this sleepiness.

    Anyway, in one of the nightly discourses, S.N Goenka will talk about this topic.

  5. Don’t be hard on yourself: You will be given instructions on how to meditate. Do not be hard on yourself by following them to the letter if your body and mind are not helping you.
    That means, if you are trying to be perfect, then you will feel frustration if you did not meet your expectation.They will tell you for example to focus on the breath all the time. Later your mind will start wandering; do not be sad because of that, do not be hard on yourself and start generating negativity.
    If your mind goes away, gently bring it back and be happy about it. It is natural.

    There is a big difference between being hard on oneself and being responsible. So don’t take my words “Don’t be hard on yourself” as if I am asking you to be careless.

  6. Be playful: It is important to adopt a playful attitude when practicing. Do not be solid and rigid. Respect your mind and body limitations. Go easy and little by little you will reach.
    I remember the 4th day when we were taught the Vipassana technique, we were asked to sit for an hour without changing the posture.
    Of course this could cause lots of uneasiness, but if you are playful, you can allow yourself to change the posture once or twice, but you do that only to help yourself focus and stop generating negativity during the one hour sitting:Be easy, be playful and be responsible.
  7. Be responsible: I’ve been talking about being playful and not being so hard on yourself. These two aspects are important only if you are responsible.
    Responsible means that you know your own best.
    You know that no matter what you will do all you can to get the best benefits of this program without being too hard to the point of generating lots of negativity.
    Do not be careless, skip meditations, or just sit physically in meditation but mentally somewhere else.Being responsible during the 10-days is of utmost importance.
    The course is structured in such a way that you get to meditate 3 times in the hall and the rest of the time you can meditate in your own room.

    You can easily be tempted to sleep anytime you go to your room, or perhaps not sleep but just lay there in the room and not meditate.

    No one is there in the room to tell you to meditate or to practice but yourself. And that, my friend, is being responsible.
    You have to tell yourself that no matter what, I respect this private time I am given and I want to meditate.

    This realization did not come easily to me. I was still suffering from feeling sleepy all the time, and some time around the 3rd and 4th day I was still allowing myself to skip some meditations and sleep instead. Only after the 5th day that a sense of inner knowledge and inspiration about being responsible came to my understanding.
    After that realization, I did not say to myself: “No more skipping meditations, no more counting days, no more negativity”
    No! It became clear (a truth for me) that it is important to be aware of what is happening in the mind.
    If my mind is so sleepy for example, I respect that sign. I go wash my face, go for a walk, and perhaps sleep a little (though the need for sleep will not be a problem after the 5th day). That does not mean that if you feel sleepy go to sleep, but know that whenever you get a chance to sleep more, sleep more, perhaps eat less so you are more energetic. Be smart and know how to have your mind and body work best for you.

    Actually, when you act responsibly and respect yourself and your being, then your mind and body will start working for you.

    Remember, even if the mind is like a monkey, jumping from a thought to another, it still is not an enemy. The mind is not something to hate even if it appears to be uncontrollable. Just be patient.

    Remember, you are the only person that made your mind like a monkey and no one else. If you could make it turn into a monkey, you can turn it back into a sharp and useful tool.

  8. The nightly discourses: Each night I was eagerly waiting the discourses. They explain the technique, they answer your questions and most of all they encourage you to continue.
    S.N Goenka will be talking about Dhamma, the technique and other things. You may disagree on many points and start a debate in your mind, or perhaps you may start to say:
    “Oh Goenka thinks he knows everything”, or “Goenka is wrong in that or that aspect”, etc, etc…
    Do not start a mental debate because of the things you heard that contradict your believes. It does not matter.
    What matters is to always remain aware of what is happening within yourself.In the discourse, take what you like and throw what you don’t like. But do not judge the teaching, it is not the time.
    Anyway, the very essence of this course is to have you experience truth and not have you intellectualize about it. So whether you agree with what you hear or not, it does not matter, just take what you like and do your best to experience the truth for yourself.
  9. Eating during the course: You will be served breakfast, lunch, and a small snack (not a dinner).
    It may seem not enough if you are used to eating 3 or more times a day.
    Remember that, essentially, you are not doing any rigorous physical activity so you do not need to eat that much.Also remember that any overeating will do you disservice. Why? overeating will make you feel tired rather than energized.

    So again, be wise and responsible.

  10. Internal fights: You will have a lot of internal fights. Some thoughts will push you to run away, other thoughts will push you to be negative.
    Other thoughts (even more dangerous) will disguise themselves as positive thoughts but yet again their sole purpose is to take you from the moment, from the present, from the actual reality.
    Do not be fooled to think that thinking negative is bad and thinking positive is good. Remember, if it is not the time to think and imagine then don’t.
    You are asked to focus on your breath (for instance) or on the bodily sensations, then any thought (negative or positive) is not doing you any service.If you want to think positive thoughts, imagine things or find solutions to problem that’s fine, but only do that when it is time to do that and not during your meditation.
  11. Secret of success: As you will later learn, the secret of success is the continuity of practice, or said differently: “Continuity of awareness” and in simple English, the secret of success is the realization that you have to seek the truth moment by moment and be aware.
    Do not drift into imagination, identification, negativity, etc, etc…
    Even when you are walking, be aware you are walking.
    When you are eating, be with the eating. Do not chew your thoughts and ideas, instead chew and feel the taste of food in your mouth.With experience you will learn that there is no such thing as time for meditation and time for daily activity. You will learn to do all your daily activities meditatively, consciously and fully aware.

So to conclude:

  1. Be wise: don’t be hard on yourself, don’t be careless, be playfully responsible.
  2. Respect the time: every minute counts. You are not here to count the days as to when the program is over. This is not a prison, but a chance for you to grow. Remember to make use of each minute
  3. Be aware: being aware is something that you are learning during the program, but it is also important to be one step ahead and know that being aware is of benefit to you.
    That means be aware of what is happening inside your mind and body without being reactive. Just be aware, observe.

That is all I can think of, and hopefully these are the most important points that can help you make best use of this 10-days Vipassana course.

Good luck to you.

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The young professor and the old layman

June 14, 2009 at 9:22 am · Filed under Stories ·Tagged , , , ,

On board of a big ship a simple old man met a young professor and they started to have conversations along the journey. Every night the man came to the professor’s cabin, trying to learn something from the learned man.

On the first night, the professor asked: ‘Old man, do you know what Geology is?’
‘Oh, Professor Sir, I never went to school, I know nothing about Geology. Could you tell me what it is?’ replied the man.
‘Oh, poor old man, you don’t know what geology is. It’s the science of the earth. You’ve wasted a quarter of your life.’ said the professor.
The old man felt so sad, if the professor said that he wasted a quarter of his life than it must be true.

On the second night, the two men met again and the professor asked: ‘Old man, do you know what Oceanology is?’
‘Professor Sir, I am just a simple man, I don’t know that Oceanology is. What is that sir?’ replied the old man.
And the professor said: ‘Oh, poor old man, you don’t know what oceanology is. We are sailing and you don’t know the science of the sea. You’ve wasted half of your life.’ The old man felt so sad, so incredibly sad, he just found out that he wasted half of his life.

On the third night, still eager to learn, the old man came to the professor’s cabin and was asked: ‘Old man, do you know what Meteorology is?’
‘Professor Sir, you know I am just a simple man, I don’t know that Meteorology is.’ reply the old man.
‘Oh, poor old man, you don’t know what geology is; you also don’t know what oceanology is. And now you don’t know what meteorology is. It’s the science of the sky and the weather. You’ve wasted three quarter of your life,’ said the professor.
The old man felt so sad, so incredibly sad, he just found out that he wasted three quarter of his life.

On the fourth night, the old man ran into the professor and start asking: ‘Professor Sir, Professor Sir, do you know swimmology?’
‘Old man, I know a lot of things, but I’ve never heard of swimmology. What is that?’ replied the professor.
‘Do you know how to swim, Sir?’ Asked the old man.
‘To swim? I didn’t have time to learn how to swim; I was busy learning other things. I can’t swim,’ said the professor.
‘Oh poor professor, you’ve wasted all of your life. If you had known swimmology, you could have swim to the shore because the ship is sinking now.’ said the old man.

Origin: Dhamma 10 days discourse by S.N Goenka

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Oh that’s very good! … No! It’s not!

June 14, 2009 at 9:09 am · Filed under Stories

so joe the old farmer, was sitting outside his farm, with a sad look on his face; them sam, his neighbor, comes and asks joe what’s the matter:

sam: joe, you look sad, what’s up?
joe: we had one horse that helped us alot, but now it ran away
sam: oh, that is so so sad, …poor joe
joe: no it isn’t sad!
sam: what? your only horse ran away and it is not sad?
joe: no, it is good! the horse ran away, but returned with 3 other horses!
sam: that is great!!!
joe: no, that is bad!!! ;(
sam: you now have 3 + 1 horses, you can do more work now
joe: true i have 3 horse more, but one day my elder son was mounting one of the horses, and that horse went wild and my son broke his leg!
sam: oh! how sad!
joe: no it isn’t!
sam: what?! your son with a broken leg? and it is not sad?!
joe: no it is not sad! last week, the military was recruiting young boys; when they saw my boy’s broken leg, they did not enlist him!
sam: oh that’s great!!!
joe: no it isn’t!
sam: ……..

and it goes on…..

do you love the story? what do you think happened next? what did they talk about, write me!

origin: Hans DeJong, Silva Method

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Trying to be nice

June 14, 2009 at 9:06 am · Filed under Reflections

I found myself saying internally “..but I was trying to be nice…” and that made me wonder: “am I not nice in the first place?” ;)

It turns out there is nothing as “trying to be nice” there is either you’re nice by your nature and how you act, or you’re not nice. Anything in between can be superficial, acting and not natural, and that does not work for whatever purpose you were “trying to be nice” for.

Bottom line: don’t try to be nice, just be as you are.

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The Law of Jante

June 14, 2009 at 9:02 am · Filed under Reflections

I was reading Paulo Coelho’s blog and he mentioned “The Law of Jante”

As Google is our first best friend, Wikipedia is our second best friend, so here’s the Law of Jante:

There are ten different rules in the law, but they are all variations on a single theme and are usually referred to as a homogeneous unit: Don’t think you’re anyone special or that you’re better than us.
The ten rules are:

  1. Don’t think that you are special.
  2. Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.
  3. Don’t think that you are smarter than us.
  4. Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
  5. Don’t think that you know more than us.
  6. Don’t think that you are more important than us.
  7. Don’t think that you are good at anything.
  8. Don’t laugh at us.
  9. Don’t think that anyone cares about you.
  10. Don’t think that you can teach us anything.

I love this law, since it puts an end to our ego and selfishness, and tells us that we are not better than anyone else, and we should be humble.

By knowing we are not special, that does not mean we are not really special, it just means that we don’t have to act special and show off in front of others.

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Resetting NTFS files security and permission in Windows 7 RC

June 14, 2009 at 8:59 am · Filed under Tips and Tricks ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

Resetting NTFS files security and permission on Windows 7 RC
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I was running Vista with two NTFS partitions (OS and DATA), then formatted first partition and install Windows 7 RC.
The second partition (DATA) had some security settings on some files and folders.
After Win 7 was installed, some files on drive D were not accessible anymore and I was getting “Access Denied”
I tried to right-click on the folders that were not accessible and changed their owner and changed permissions but still some folders were still inaccessible not matter what I did.
Just before giving up, I remembered that since Windows NT, there was a tool named “cacls” that allows one to display or change ACLs (access control lists).
Ok, to make a long story short, on Windows 7 it is called “icalcs”.
So to reset files permissions:
1. Run “cmd” as Administrator
2. Go to the drive or folder in question, for example:
CD /D D:
3. To reset all the files permissions, type:
icacls * /T /Q /C /RESET
4. And that’s it!
After that, the file’s permissions were reset and I could access them back again.
cacls is a handy tool to change permissions of files en-mass.
Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318754

I was running Vista with two NTFS partitions (C: and D:), then formatted C: partition and installed Windows 7 RC.

The second partition (D:) had some files security set on files and folders.

After Win 7 was installed, some files on drive D: were not accessible anymore and I was getting “Access Denied”

I tried to right-click/properties on the folders that were not accessible and changed their owner and changed permissions but still some folders were still inaccessible not matter what I did.

After some research, it turned out the tool “cacls” that allows one to display or change ACLs (access control lists) can help to reset ACLs.

In Windows 7 it is called “icalcs”. To reset files permissions:

1. Run “cmd” as Administrator

2. Go to the drive or folder in question, for example:

CD /D D:

3. To reset all the files permissions, type:

icacls * /T /Q /C /RESET

4. And that’s it!

After that, the files permissions were reset and I could access them back again.

cacls is a handy tool to change permissions of files en masse.

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318754

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Some dreams that can become true

October 19, 2008 at 2:12 am · Filed under Reflections

Hello Reader,

How does it feel when you wake up in the morning after having a dream showing your best friends dieing and you had the chance to sit with them and tell them goodbye before they part you the next day?

I know it is a sad feeling, how you cannot afford loosing such dear person to you….you may forcefully wake yourself up from the dream…you may allow your being to express the sad emotions and let tears flow from your eyes….

But why are we really that sad?

Perhaps because we are loosing something?
Loosing a good company, a good friend, good times, support, the presence of that person?

I always wondered if there are advanced humans (yogis, gurus, masters, etc…) that are not affected by the departure of their friends. Apparently there are such people. Once Jaggi Vasudev was heard saying about this subject: “Crying and being emotional is a luxury and I allow myself to express it from time to time”.
If that’s how Jaggi thinks, then he must have had a different bond with the deceased other than just good times, good company, etc…
He perhaps had a soul to soul link where death does not really matter or affect this relationship….

So dreams do come true…and nothing lasts forever.

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