NOTES

2026.1.25

If a brick can't turn into a mirror by polishing, how can meditating make you a Buddha?

— Zen parable

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The object of the search will never be found by searching itself. The contemplative life is first of all, life. It implies movement, diversity, interactions. To reduce it to a set of narrow esoteric practices (like meditation) is intellectually and spiritually sterile. I personally find little ease in meditation's immobility and silence. The relief comes after, sporadically.

2026.1.1

“I hate when people ask about my career goals. Listen buddy, I just want to read a good book, play outside, take a nap, and have a snack. Basically, I am trying to get back to kindergarten, but with adult money”

— A random quote read online

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Compeletly resonate with it.

2025.12.12

Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole

— Marcus Aurelias

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This is a great time to remember as one turn wraps up and another spin is just about to begin!  

2025.10.02

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present and future mingle and pull us backward, forward or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

— Anais Nin

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So easy to overlook this fact in the world where it seems everthing in one's life has to follow a society-set timetable. 

2025.09.27

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know

— Pema Chödrön

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I know that something will later make sense on an emotional level. It usually is a subconscious process that crystalizes in a ah-ah moment during a conversation.

2025.08.07

Whenever you are threatened by a hostile presence … emit a thick cloud of love like an octopus squirts ink.

— William S. Burroughs

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Octopuses squirt ink as a defence mechanism to protect themselves from predators. 

 While I don’t think it is possible for me to jet away, the idea of emitting a smokescreen of love to protect myself sounds like a good idea. It will certainly guard me and maybe … just maybe help the ‘hostile presence’ too.

The challenge though is going remember emitting this cloud of love.

2025.07.04

And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

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​A classic example of a big mouth and pretty words that lead me to glorify gross oversimplifications. Yes, one might be misunderstood by others who cannot appreciate their perspective. Everyone hears a different music... the allure of perspectivism gets me everytime. It can justify almost everything.

2025.06.02

Like wildflowers, you must allow yourself to grow in all  the places people never thought you never would.

— Anonymous

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​And it dawned on me that I might have to change my inner thought patterns… that I would have to start believing in possibilities that I wouldn’t have allowed before, that I have been closing my creativity down to a very, narrow controllable scale… that things have become too familiar and I should disorient myself.

2025.05.05

Unlike the brain, the stomach alerts you when it’s empty.

— African proverb

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The only difference being the stomach alerts that person only, whereas the brain alerts everyone when its empty….

A reminder to pay attention to both our physical and mental well-being. Just as we respond to the hunger signals of our stomach, we should also actively seek out ways to nourish our minds and foster intellectual growth. 

2025.03.28

The place is oneself, the walk is time, the setting is human.

— Kizil Goncalar , ep 38

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This needs to be here - so I can come back to it again.

2025.03.15

If there is no solution then that means there is no problem

— Jacques Rouxel (Les Sadocks)

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I spend much of my professionally productive time wrestling about problems, searching for solutions... which in the corporate world riddled with growth BS can be quite an absurd task. A tangled mess revealing that the knot itself is the illusion. So I'm going to make myself some masala chai (the real) and enjoy the serenity of non-problems.

2025.02.26

Incredible things materialize when you learn to let go

— Zen / Buddhist formula

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Let go : Two words. Immense effort. Constant perseverance. Conscious choice. Repeated preference.

But that doesn’t mean that things will take it own course. It is in fact letting go of my pride, my supposed  control on outcomes, my need for results as per my choice. It has not been easy to pick ‘let go’ but whenever I have, I have been amazed by the outcomes and possibilities that present. And for that sole purpose, I am now actively choosing to ‘let go’.

2025.01.31

Yeah, that sucks – I'll be mad about it in another life

— Uncle I meet in the park

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Whatever the cards you get in life, there will always be struggle. Your choices won't change this fact. Many people find solace in realizing that humans have little control over their own fate. I prefer to focus on taking responsibility for how I feel about it to avoid throwing myself a pity-party. Feeling oppressed by some cosmic power is a dead end. Most of my pain comes from resisting this fact.

2025.01.07

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

— Roald Dahl 

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​A gentle reminder at the begining of the year to me (and you) to not take take the world and myself too seriously. To keep and nurture a wide-eyed atttiude and wonder alive. 

 

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

 

Sometimes it’s not about seeing the magic but knowing it’s there.

2024.11.09

The key to being a wonderful writer is not to write. You just get out of the way. Leave room for God to walk in the room.

— Micheal Jackson

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Creative work relies on breakthroughs - eureka moments. Over the years I’ve developed an appreciation for the little control I have over how the breakthroughs happen. One can give himself a slight edge with a few hacks and rituals but in the end, it's never fully in our control. Appreciating the struggle of it all and creating the space allows one to elevate the creative act beyond oneself. I’m a big fan of Higher Power, making Art and I sense little free will in my own process.

2024.10.31

Have you seen the size of a donkey’s ears? You don't need to whisper loud. They hear everything. They even hear your thoughts.

— Theo du Plessis

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Babies, animals, rocks... all things that appears to not 'understand' the complexity of the world extend us an invitation to pure awareness. It's easy to see ignorance where there is only presence.

A sense of wholeness that only the momentary cessation of thought and movement seem to enable. I'm not great at sitting still or not thinking, especially at the same time.

2024.10.01

There is beauty in mediocrity

— Beau Miles

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As someone often caught up in the torturous feelings of creative process, I find some comfort in this zen-like statement. If the thing I'm chasing exists (goodness) it must be contingent on the existence of its opposite (mediocrity). Thus encountering mediocrity should be accepted as part of the process. That doesnt make it easy, but somehow confirms forward motion.

2024.09.18

I have to constantly re-identify myself to myself, reactivate my own standards, my own convictions about what I’m doing and why.

— Nina Simone

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Important rule to live by. Keeping watch on where and why we are going, not getting sucked into the routine but to keep bettering oneself.  

2024.09.02

I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s mind as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxical, iridescent creature rather than an actual person.

— Franz Kafka

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And we tend to do the exact opposite these days.  We create an “image” of ourselves and then stick to it whether it works for us or not. We fear change, fluidity in us and others. I wonder how to overcome that?

2024.08.27

Embrace the past, live in the moment and look forward to the uncertain future.

That is all part of the circle of life and one should spin inside it.

— Anonymous

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I used to often think that circle of life as a symbolic representation of birth, survival and death. It is interesting to notice another circle as a subset of the larger. And with that “spin” , stuff in my mind has rearranged – again!

2024.08.03

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Do not swim, just float.

Rather than fighting life’s currents, embrace effortlessness and let things unfold naturally.

— Anonymous

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Most times, its an unnerving to let go of control and go with the flow. I have learnt over and over again that resisting doesn’t help, delay or stop what’s to come. I am going to keep this quote on a sticky note where I can read and remind myself everyday – to let things unfold naturally!

2024.07.25

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The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go

— Dr. Seuss

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I am grateful to my parents that reading as a habit was inculcated in me from childhood days. My earliest memories of books are of 1. cupboards filled with them – of various shapes, sizes, languages, genres and authors and 2. Of reading as collective pastime in the family.

2024.06.19

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Strength like beauty comes from harmony

— Diane Setterfield from 'The thirteenth Tale'

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Strength  :  the quality or state of being strong; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Harmony : the ability to generate unity or interconnectedness through diversity.

Go figure!

2024.05.05

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Genius differs from talent not by the amount of original thoughts, but by making the latter fertile and by positioning them properly, in other words, by integrating everything into a whole, whereas talent produces only fragments, no matter how beautiful.

— Franz Grillparzer

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The words ‘Genius’ and ‘Talent’ are reversibly used these days.

From the many definitions that I have read, heard; this Austrian author has explained it the best

2024.04.17

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Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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We are bombarded with mediocrity these days in all domains of life. It does become difficult to sieve through it all but with the right eye, heart and mind its easy to find the gems from the stones.

2024.03.24

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Of the ones who have nothing to say, the quiet ones are the most pleasant

— Coluche

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I often launch into a whole spiel, convinced I have some profound insight, only to realize 2 sec later that I'm just making noise. Even when I’m clueless, I always have an opinion that I should really keep to myself. I am learning restraint. 

2024.03.05

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God and nature do nothing in vain

— Aristotle

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This concept took some time to understand, accept, appreciate and reiterate.

2024.02.18

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“I know there are people who don't read fiction at all, and I find it hard to understand how they can bear to be inside the same head all the time.”

— Diane Setterfield

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This statement can easily be taken in a negative way. But for me, it has been a source of inspiration to delve into other people’s mind, sometimes long long after they are gone!

2024.01.31

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In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion.
In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle

— Hindu Scripture

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There is a similar saying "Still water runs deep"

However, I like this one better it creates a graphic which is easy to understand and hence reflect upon. 

2024.01.13

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"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."

— Soren Kierkegaard

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And how often do we believe and work solely with the idea to influence?

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2024.01.01

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"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."

— Mark Twain

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Blind spot : unsure if its how our brain is wired or whether its our conditioning or our egos.

I believe its partly ego and partly unwillingly to look at different perspectives.