Back to Work

I'm back.

i spent the last two weeks at a meditation retreat.

i had zero access to my devices. no phone. no internet.

only people, nature, books, and my thoughts.

i learnt a lot about myself. about people.

impermanence. you and i.. we're made of the same essence. atoms. so how can you harm me? you are me. i am you. we were born to work together like two rows of teeth.

death hangs over us all. eventually our elements will be dispersed into the that from which we came.

the metta bhavana is a powerful tool for me while meditating.
1. think about myself.
2. think about someone i love.
3. think about someone i don't care about.
4. think about someone i hate.
5. think about everyone as a collective (thanks karol, i didn't know this)

and then mindfulness & breathing meditation.
1. count on the out breath.
2. count on the in breath.
3. focus on bodily sensations.
4. focus on breath sensations.

on kindness.
making someone smile is among the highest honors that one can receive as a human being (sidenote song: kisi ki muskurahaton se by mukesh).
in verbatim of marcus aurelius, "be the vine that produces grapes without asking for anything in return"

do nothing.
get comfortable with the silence of my own thoughts.
do nothing.
sip tea and do nothing.
earl grey, green, chamomile, peppermint, rooibos

walking.
walking is meditative.
take small steps.
i'm not in a rush.
breathe in the beauty of nature.
keep a notepad handy to write down thoughts.

eye gazing.
phase 1: stare into the eyes into a random person for 10 minutes and repeat a random phrase like "flowers grow here", or "the sky is blue today". they should respond with "yes".
phase 2: phase one, but the person repeats their own phrase back to you.
phase 3: stare into each others eyes in silence.
this worked exceptionally well with vashudeva (if you're reading this, have you read meditations yet?).

on assumptions.
first impressions are often wrong. i don't know what someone has been through.

i'm a pretty scientific person. but what i experienced, i cannot not explain:

by day 2, i began to vividly see geometric shapes and patterns in my environment.

by day 3, i began to see the "third eye" on peoples foreheads. there was a vivid tube-like object connecting their "third eye" and others' "third eye". and the stronger the affection between a pair of people, the brighter and wider the tube.

i experienced "energy" between people. marcus aurelius said that one's thoughts should be so pure, that if another were to ask you what you were thinking, you would be able to answer immeditately with complete honesty.. so, smile, and the world smiles with you.

the world and the people in it are my friends. like hands and feet, we were born to work together. to obstruct each other is unnatural. to turn your back on one another. these are obstructions.

on the universe. carl sagan said "a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam". i kept zooming out. from planet, to solar system. to galaxy. to clusters. to universe.
"somewhere, He sits joyfully, creating galaxies and planets." - Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

my allegience to Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj.

rich visualisations of our evolutionary process as humans, when starting into vashudeva's eyes. cambrian explosion. dimetrodon. leaves. neanderthal.

the folds and wrinkles of his face. each tells a story. this man is composed of the essence as i am. he has a network of people who love and care for him. and if he passed away tomorrow, they'd all be affected.

the subtle cues in body languages. i used to see human beings as a black box. only to realise that our emotions are not a secret. they are written all over our faces. and our body language. pay attention.

He told me what i needed to do. to focus on meditation. to clear my mind of all distractions. to get to the next level. while i was in bed (adrian was of course snoring loudly). the hand of God.

yeah it was a life-changing experience. i'll try to do a retreat every three months.

thank you to karol and ed. maitrebhandhu. vashudeva. adityabhandu. devamitra. kusalasara. sophie (1). sophie (2) donna. dave. theo. adrian. natalie. mandeep. anna. jacob. charlie. roma. hong xi. minh. dominic.

back to work. back to changing the world.