Life and Spirituality

F ew people realize how much of our food comes from grass. Wheat, Sugar, Rice and Corn are forms of grasses. Animals we depend upon for food, such as meat, eggs and milk, produce that after consuming grass. Grass as bamboo is an excellent building material. In fact more research is needed for construction of human dwellings based on a structure of bamboo combined with minimal use of wood, plastered with mud, inner walls covered with wallpaper made of grass and the outer surfaces covered in waterproof paint. Floors may be made of jute matting and roofs out of clay tiles and solar panels. One need not avoid cement, steel and glass completely but all of them use copious amounts of energy for their production and it is wise to minimize their use. With proper design such a hybrid building can be just as strong and elegant while being much greener. Just as humans stand out amongst oxygen breathing life forms, the tree stands out in the plant world. Trees as a food source have no...

A s one advances in age it is inevitable that one would have to contend with some health issues. Some that I have faced in recent years is reduced energy, occasional disturbed sleep, stiffness in muscles and occasional lapses of short-term memory. However if one works on these or other such health issues it is definitely possible to improve the situation. It is wonderful if one can age gracefully without any major health issues and move on to the next world when still physically independent. It is tragic and basically bad karma if one undergoes a prolonged disability requiring help or hospitalization before exit from this life. There is much about karma in older posts. I do not rely on modern medicine and allopathic methods for chronic and minor ailments. For me allopathic methods are a resort for acute conditions, emergency or diagnosis. Therefore I have been working on my health issues through more natural means such as diet, exercise, yoga, life style changes,...

Wealth and Happiness Graph The desire for happiness is widespread amongst humans. A misunderstanding about how that happiness is to be achieved is equally widespread. It appears that humans do not fully understand the mechanism for the production of happiness. Humans do know that a sensuous spicy meal, a breathtaking sexual experience, a binge drink of good champagne, a sudden appreciation of the look of awe on the faces of friends and acquaintances by a flashy car or a swanky apartment produces a sudden surge of Joy. But they are also aware (or become aware of it sooner rather than later) that this sort of joy does not last very long. It is followed by depression in the very least or pain in severer cases. Therefore some possibly wiser humans seek and cultivate other more durable avenues for happiness such as philanthropic pursuits to add happiness in the life of others that just reflects back on them, learning to commune with nature or finding and spending life in the comp...

Image source (modified here): http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/universe20110722-image.html B ack from my trip and checking out some of Vincent’s posts I was delighted to read that Vincent has now started to believe in the existence of Angels. He will not believe in anything easily unless he has very sound proof of it. I hope this belief of his is long lasting. Simultaneously, Vincent mentioned that he still does not believe in God. That is all right because as discussed much in this blog earlier that is a matter of definition. There is as yet no common definition of God among humans. I too disagree with several prevailing definitions of God.  My own definition of God is very simple and so I have no difficulty in believing in God. To me God is everything there is, the entire universe and beyond, if there is anything beyond the universe. I also believe that this Everything has an infinite intelligence and an infinite consciousness with our own being small pa...