Basic necessities of Life

If some one were asked what they were, the answer would obviously be the following:

1. Food
2. Clothing
3. Shelter

Very soon, we would probably have to add the following.

1. Air
   
2. Water

They were already not on the list as we currently take them for granted. What if they were not so easily available and we have to work to get them as we do for the current necessities? We humans are experimenting with this possibility and hard work always pays off!

For quite some time now, the atmospheric percentage of oxygen remains close to 21%. As far as I know, the only source of oxygen for humans (and animals) are plants (trees). Now, what if we wiped out every single forest in the planet? Inevitably, the oxygen percentage will come down and carbon di oxide percentage will go up (these two go hand-in-hand or nostril in-and-out).

(Abdul Kalam already imagined this scenario, per a forward I got) Soon (say twenty years from now), we may see oxygen bunks all around the place and these will not even be strange. Drive into the bunk, buy your oxygen supply for one week and you're all set. Then drive into another desalination bunk and buy your water supply for one week!

We'll get settled to the situation. Only, we'll be telling our children stories of how the world used to be when we had all these for free!

grace

Note: The title of this post references to a 30 minute video link by Al Gore. Watch the video definitely!

The title of the post is "grace" with a small g (capital G has a different meaning!).

1. I am not at all qualified to write about this topic (see below why). But more people need to see this video, hence this post
   
2. I have very little knowledge about the topic, though I realize something needs to be done
3. I am not optimistic at all, as Al Gore is. I feel we are already beyond damage control to a state of irreversible situation. We may however minimize (to an extent), the repercussions by acting now, which we must do definitely

Some real shockers (surprises) in what Al Gore mentions. These statistics are mind boggling and can be grasped only at a number crunching level. I don't think we are equipped to grasp the true implications - this is part of the reason why I am not at all optimistic

1. The gasoline consumption by US is higher than the consumption of all other countries put together (!!)
2. The level of emissions of all developing countries put together in 2025 will be what US was in 1980 (!!!!). This is not to mean the developing countries are low-emission zones. It gives an idea of what US pumps out. I sit here in India, and I see what we emit in my city daily.
   
3. The amount of Co2 that US pumped out into the air in 2007 is equivalent to the weight of 1.2 billion elephants! Venus has a surface temperature of 800F primarily because of Co2 in the atmosphere. With dry sarcasm, Al Gore says that it is a good idea to do the same here as well.
4. The amount of ice that melts each year in the arctic cap is equivalent to the size of Arizona. It is estimated that the rest of the ice will be gone in five years. Greenland will start melting thereafter.

A side note - Al Gore references, surprisingly, to Jill Bolte Taylor's video. I thought it was a very good coincidence!

Now to the title of the post! I called it "grace" because, as I said earlier, I am not at all optimistic. What we need to learn is to go through the repercussions gracefully, because it will not be easy. As human beings, consider what we are doing to the planet today:

1. The amount of rainforest reserves in the planet today is roughly equivalent to the size of the US. Every year, we cut down an area equivalent to the size of Florida! [From Thom Hartmann's "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight"]. Clearing off everything will be one cool achievement.
2. Co2 emissions [see above]. Also correlate (2) with (1). Trees are incredible Co2 sinks (not to mention incredible O2 sources)
3. Population of 8 billion+ - I am not sure what our target is
4. No more polar ice caps. No arctic cap, no Greenland, no Gangotri or Ganga and no more white Himalayas
5. Severe droughts all across the planet (perennial rivers dry up in India, huge lakes go dry in Australia) - 20 years or so, down the line, our only water source might be the oceans
6. I don't know how many species of other life forms we are going to bury in the process

In the midst of all this, we need to learn to live without torturing each other. I have no clue how, but if we do not even manage grace amid this situation, I think this place will be the demonstration of the "hell" our scriptures have written about! When Sadhguru was talking about this, he said this about how he would be if he does see the planet going up on a bonfire: "I will probably have tears on my eyes and a smile on my lips". Now that is one expression of grace!

Brain Hemispheres and the Consciousness Experience

Prior to reading this post, please click on the title link and watch the (~20 min) video there. Everything else below will be horribly out of context otherwise.

A friend of mine sent across this video link, and I thought it warranted more than a two line comment.

1. The most revealing part was when she brought out a real brain to show how the hemispheres look. Wow! The hemispheres are really not physically connected, and as we have studied before, they perform distinctly separate functions. The "real" brain, also cleared up a long lasting confusion in my head - which side was the right hemisphere and which side was the left (right hand / left hand - same logic)
   
2. Most people, thanks to eductational upbringing, work primarily through the left hemisphere (logic, reasoning, analysis)
3. Creators (especially the master creators) can get to the right side almost at will. The right almost seems to be hard wired to the brain of God!
4. When we have an intuitive hunch we travel for a split second to the right and come back with a treasure trove of details. We do not know how it happened but we just remember the stark contrast later - we were hunting for water in a desert, and an eye-blink later, we are in front of an Oasis. Yanni mentioned about how his compositions happen - once he closes his eyes and goes deep down, he sees all his compositions existing there in a pre-composed fashion! Truly a master-creator!
5. When what happened to Jill Bolte Taylor happens to most of us, we would probably go unconscious. She was incredibly lucky (if I can use that word) to have been aware when the experience was happenning. Being a neuro-anatomist, she was able to instantly correlate this to the workings of the brain hemispheres.
6. The English movie, "The Phenomenon", explores this exact same aspect! The character has a tumor in his brain and brings him to that experience. Movie makers, especially in Hollywood, blow me away! The character actually dies as an enlightened person, I think (conscious exit from the body).
7. Where I feel she may be missing her mark is when she actually had that experience (of cosmic oneness), she actually transcended both hemispheres (as opposed to being on the right). That is a trivial aspect, for what is truly significant is that her blood clot allowed her to experience a perspective that is so so far out of reach for the common human. It is a perspective that will cause a paradigm shift in the way we experience and relate to the rest of Life - forever.
8. The other thing - it may be possible that both hemispheres actually interact. This is not a theoretical observation. For around a year in my life, I was using a technology called Holosync which synchronizes both hemispheres of the brain through sound technology. As the process happens, I could feel the synchronization in my head, so it is sort of proof that the hemispheres interact. This is not an ad for Holosync - I will actually recommend you to stay away from it. I wrote about that here. Writing about Holosync and why to stay away from it will be deviating from the topic, but in summary, it creates a technological dependancy (a costly one at that) which we can do very well without.
9. You are better off taking up a Yoga practice that provides the same benefits. Shambhavi Maha Mudra has been proven to provide the sync up between hemispheres.
   
10. Jill Bolte Taylor's experience is not unique to her. This happened to Michael Hutchison - an experience that left him paralyzed - and enlightened! To sum up his entire experience, in his own words - "So, to sum it up: I'm a quadriplegic. I live in poverty. I'm the happiest man on earth.". Read the article here.
    
11. The creator of Holosync, Bill Harris, wrote a book called "Thresholds of the Mind". In some ways, it is an ad for Holosync, but I recommend that you read this book. It provides really vital insights about how brain changes bring about experiential changes. Also, his discussion on "thresholds", things you will understand to be intuitively true ("Aha") after it has been explained to you.
    

All in all, what is the summary or gist: If you already know at an intuitive level that we are much more deeply interconnected with the rest of life that what seems on the surface, all of these will just be intellectual curiosity, which you can bypass. It will make little experiential change.

But if you are the scientific kind and will not take a step unless you "see proof", these evidences will be vital. What the Buddha said two millenniums ago, science is scratching the surface now. People like Jill Bolte Taylor or Michael Hutchison (or even the movie Phenomenon!) will be vital pointers in the years to come.

As Science will later tell, and humbly retreat knowing where objectivity ends and subjectivity begins, "We appear to be one"! For it can never say "We are one" without knowing - and Science can never know from the outside! "We appear to be one" will be the most important observations Science will ever make in it's entire history. And that will be the time for humanity to let go of Science's hand and take Patanjali's!

The Tide

The Ocean, my friend, will rise
high above the earth until it
towers on you and floods your skin,
The wise man told me at the shore

I have never seen one rise
above my knee all my life
How long must I wait for the deluge
to flood my skin, I ask, eager yet sad

Ah, but you visit the shore,
Once in a long while, spoke he calmly
As me does, sit here one long month
and watch for the tide

When the time is right
and the pull is in might
The waves will rise to height
and put your spirit to flight

Poetry and the joke

Rhyme, meter, rhythm
I know not on the verses
Mind, body or soul
I know not on the source
Expression, sharing or approval
I know not on the intent
A heady cocktail of all
it must be, for it is not all of any
All adjectives discussed
If a glimpse of me or you it shows
Call it anything you please
for it's job is more than done!

Longing

My being weighs thick,
For a kiss from You,
light on the forehead even
Will do good for long to come
Holding You with one hand,
Pushing You with another,
A mad frenzy I see yet
do nothing to stop
Bondages from a distant past
alive and fed by acts
driven by crazy compulsion
Dew drops of nectar
fall by my wayside
Trample upon them I do
knowing well and shaking my head
Holding to the ropes
the idiot in me yells on
Snap, snap, snap!