Quoting continues

Lately I have been using quotes instead of writing things by myself. It’s just that many things have already been said very well and there’s no need for me to put the message into different form. So here are once again some quotes and short comments about each of them.

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. ~Ludwig Börne

Truth is not something to be found. Truth is left when illusions have vanished.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~Henry David Thoreau

When I was in high school I wrote an essay about ”philosophy of fishing” which was exactly about this.

Don't Look Before You Leap. ~Book by Osho

I once wrote to my friend that ”life is like falling freely without trying to grab anything to stop you from falling”. Our most common mistake is that we tend to think and analyze, we try to be in control of everything - we don’t just leap. Lack of spontaneity is actually denying life.

One day, someone showed me a glass of water that was half full. And he said, "Is it half full or half empty?" So I drank the water. No more problem. ~Alexander Jodorowsky

Problem is not finding an answer to some question but question itself. Once you see that questions rising in your mind are just troublemakers, nature of ego, then questions start dissolving.

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. ~Zen

People tend to think that something wrong has happened to them. That they did not deserve this or that. Instead of accepting how things are they whine how things should be. Everything is perfect right now, always has been, always will be. However, it’s up to you to realize it.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. ~Matsuo Basho

This should be written with capital letters on the sky. People of all religions (and outside religions as well) follow someone. Whether that someone is their ideal visualization about some historical character or their interpretation about some holy book makes no difference. Do not follow footsteps of Jesus. Do not follow footsteps of Buddha. Seek what they sought. Seek truth.

Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Personally, this is something I have been tasting already for sometime now. If you don’t know what do you want to do or where do you want to go – you can do anything and go anywhere.

I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, do not be fooled by what I am saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying. ~Charles C. Finn

Nothing more to add to that.

Some thoughts

Here are some random thoughts about different topics that are related to my current everyday life.

Life

Life never stops amazing me. It’s so huge, so deep, so mysterious and so beautiful. I often think that I have lived very rich life, which is another way to say that I have experienced plenty of fabulous moments. A lot of has to do with travelling even though I admit that it’s entirely possible to live rich life without travelling at all. Every now and then I take glimpses to the past and smile to the memories, to the reflections what was there. I don’t think about the future, I never was really interested about planning things and thinking what’s going to happen next.

Nepal

Well, it’s bit over one month to my holiday. I’m probably going to one monastery to study tibetian-buddhism for some time and then do some serious trekking. I was supposed to prepare myself into trekking by doing a long walks beforehand but that hasn’t happened. I have infinite faith in myself though :) Today I found out that there might be a new regulation coming up in Nepal, which would basically stop independent trekking completely and force trekkers to use services of trekking agencies. That’s not pleasant news at all as I was going to trek on my own. Anyway that’s not clear yet, it might turn out to be just a fee for extra permit.

Travelling plans

So, what’s next after Nepal? I don’t know. There are plenty of ideas but I can end up anywhere outside these ideas. As for short trips, I will probably visit my friend in England. Here are some random ideas about longer trips: Inca trail leading to Machu Picchu, roadtrip through USA, visit some of the famous treasure sites such as Cocos island, Rennes le Chateau and Oak island, Japan (also go to watch Pride (MMA event) while there), New Zealand & Australia, India (would be nice to visit Osho’s ashram in Pune) and live on deserted island somewhere on Pacific Ocean.

MMA

Few years ago I could not have imagined that some sport would get my interest, that I would become interested about some sport more than chess. Well, it happened. MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is one of the fastest growing sport in the world. People’s (especially girl’s) first impression about it usually very negative – and without open attitude one does not get into it. There’s a lot going on in the MMA world at the moment and I’m following it keenly. It’s funny how most people know who Mike Tyson or Muhammed Ali is but not many know who, for example, Fedor Emelianenko is (answer: the best fighter in the world – I have his autograph :)).

Chess

Not too much chess in my life nowadays. I still play speed chess in internet and sometimes go to tournaments but don’t really spend much time on it. Of course I still enjoy playing it but I have learned to enjoy lots of other things as well so it has moved to the background.

Poker

I have always liked all kind of games, card games being one of them. Sometime ago my friend started playing Texas Hold’em in internet and was telling me about it. First I wasn’t really interested but then slowly became acquinted with it. Nowadays I play mostly Omaha and No Limit version of Texas Hold’em. I play mostly in net but also have some poker friends with who I play with live.

Books

I don’t think I have ever been in a situation where I didn’t have any books to read. At the moment I’m reading one book about finnish mountain climber who climbed on mount Everest, one book of Osho about Taoism, one book about boy who grew up in Osho’s ashram, one book about internet poker and couple of chess books. Couple of poker books ordered from England should arrive soon :)

Spirituality

Lately I have been somewhat quiet about spirituality. I live it and describing fragrance of a rose with words is just not possible. Sometimes I have tried to explain things, to answer to questions but too often I notice that message does not go through. Message being only hints of course as one must reach the point by him/herself. Here’s one general hint that cannot be said too many times: empty yourself from all ideas, beliefs, preconceptions before trying to see truth & reality.

Aloness

I have seen so many times how people consider aloness as something negative. They turn aloness into loneliness. And what is loneliness? You are lonely only if you desire to be with someone (=if you desire all the things connected of being with someone). If you are alone without that desire, there’s no loneliness. Most people in this world are looking to be with someone, looking for ”love”. That’s why they suffer when being alone. To them, solution to that suffering is finding guy or girl to be with. Then relationship becomes the substitute - escape from truth.

Change

Sometime ago I sent a short email to one person and found out that email address was no longer valid. It was amusing on crazy way, reminding me how everything changes. How, on one moment two can become one and then on next moment you don’t have faintest idea about that other person’s life. No, that’s not a problem for me.

Links

If there’s a crazy or unusual question in your mind, you might find answer from here:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/index.html

Will the wolf survive?

Through the chill of winter
Running across the frozen lake
Hunters are out on his trail
All odds are against him
With a family to provide for
The one thing he must keep alive
Will the wolf survive?

Drifting by the roadside
Climbs each storm and aging face
Wants to make some morning's fate
Losing to the range war
He's got two strong legs to guide him
Two strong arms keep him alive
Will the wolf survive?

Standing in the pouring rain
All alone in a world that's changed
Running scared, now forced to hide
In a land where he once stood with pride
But he'll find his way by the morning light

Sounds across the nation
Coming from your hearts and minds
Battered drums and old guitars
Singing songs of passion
It's the truth that they all look for
The one thing they must keep alive
Will the wolf survive?
Will the wolf survive?

~Los Lobos –Will the wolf survive?

Wolf facts

- Wolves are one of the common sacred spirit animals that act as guards. In Zuni mythology sacred animals guard the six cardnial directions. Mountain Lion to the north, Badger the south, Bear the west, and Wolf guards the east.

- To the Navajo people, Wolf is the leader of all the hunting animals.

- There is not now, nor has there ever been any record of healthy wild wolves ever attacking or killing humans. Yet, people have killed about two million wolves since North America was settled by Europeans. Native Americans have always regarded wolves as teachers, not enemies. They revered the wolf an embodiment of their own cherished ideals.

- A wolf’s sense of smell is 100 times more sensitive than a human’s.

- Wolves can hear as far as 6 miles [9.6 kilometres] away in the forest and ten miles [16 kilometres] away on the open tundra.

- Wolves have been known to respond to human imitations of wolf howls from 4 kilometres away.

- Popular imagination has long held that they also howl at the moon, but there is no evidence that this is so. Wolves may be more active on moonlit nights, when they can see better, or we may hear them more often on such nights, because we feel more comfortable tramping about in the light of a full moon, but a wolf howling at the moon would be wasting its breath.

- Wolves are the largest members of the dog family. All domesticated dogs are descendents of the wolf.

- When wolves howl, they are greeting one another, guarding their territory or calling their pack together. Also they seem to like howling.

- Wolves can go up to 2 weeks without eating a meal.

- Wolves do bark, but very seldom, and when they do it it's really quiet. They do not bark repeatedly like most dogs.

- Small animals and birds are the common prey of wolves. They also occasionally eat berries.

- In the winter, the wolf's tail helps keep the face warm.

- Wolves can maintain a chase for at least twenty minutes.

- You can tell wolves are friendly ,when they roll over and show their bellies. When they want to play, they put their paws down and wag their tail. When they want to fight, they show their fangs and start growling. When they want to stop they put their ears back and lay down.

- In the highly social communities of wolves, a wolf alone is nothing admirable or desirable. A lone wolf by definition is an outcast for some reason -- illness, weakness, unsociability. Nothing personal, just the business of nature. He or she who is alone is an alien threat to any pack leader's dominance and the pack's food supply, breeding and pure bloodlines. Being alone and in a pack's private hunting territory makes hunting -- and survival -- infinitely harder.

Some more quotes

"I cannot tell if what the world considers 'happiness' is happiness or not. All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it, I see them carried away headlong, grim and obsessed, in the general onrush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or to change their direction. All the while they claim to be just on the point of attaining happiness."
~Chuang-tzu

"Having seen that you are a bundle of memories held together by attachment, step out and look from the outside. You may perceive for the first time something which is not memory. You cease to be Mr-so-and-so, busy about his own affairs. You are at last at peace. You realize that nothing was ever wrong with the world, you alone were wrong and now it is all over. Never again will you be caught in the meshes of desire born of ignorance."
~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

"The things we touch
have no permanence. My master
would say... there is nothing we
can hold on to in this world. Only
by letting go can we truly possess
what is real."
~Li Mu Bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

"Just think of the trees: they let the birds perch and fly, with no intention to call them when they come and no longing for their return when they fly away. If people's hearts can be like the trees, they will not be off the Way."
~Langya

"GO!! ---not knowing where.
Bring---not knowing what.
The path is long, the way.....unknown."
~Russian Fairy Tale

"Only the phoenix arises and does not descend. And everything changes. And nothing is truly lost."
~Neil Gaiman