LIFE Alignment

This is a highly valuable insight-containing blog. Please read this completely and share it so that it helps another too.

As I mentioned in Blog 55: A Compass for Life, this is also one of the concepts that can act as a compass/guide in your life. It definitely helps your decision-making process.

Actually, there are two concepts here:

  1. LIFE in Caps
  2. Union vs Alignment

LIFE in Caps

This idea/concept/philosophy has helped me a lot in my decision-making process. It was through intuition of course, that brought this concept into my life. I wasn’t aware of it in these actual words, but I was aware. Whenever I was supposed to make decisions, I gravitated towards LIFE.

This intuition was the by-product of the other two truths I had already realized. One, The Flower of Fulfillment model which has been the best tool for decision-making in my life. Since I realized that model, I could imagine or intuitively think about the ideal state – The peak state of Balance. Two – Jnana Yoga/Advaita philosophy’s one of the core truths, all suffering is due to ignorance, or lack of awareness. This clearly made me see that the ideal state exists, it’s the ignorance that has masked our awareness and hence LIFE. And no wonder there’s suffering.

So What is this LIFE? It is an all-good-encompassing idea. Of course, this should not be perceived just as an idea. But for now, think LIFE is nature or the natural state, the peak state with balance or you can call it the universe, the self, the ultimate consciousness, Brahman, whatever you call it. LIFE seems to suit very well.

Do you need shadowless awareness, ultimate health, infinite creativity, and boundless freedom? LIFE is all that. And as I said, it is the natural state. All you’ve got to do is move towards it.

Now, there’s nothing called a non-life. That is, there is nothing that is not part of life. Everything is life. But we can now see what is non-LIFE. Non-LIFE is when one is far away from the central node of life, that is, from LIFE.

One can be in non-LIFE mode for years or even lifetimes. But eventually, every individual will move towards and eventually become union with LIFE.

Here I must mention the other concept briefly.

Union vs Aligned

I believe that’s already clear to you. Speaking in terms of spirituality, you might not attain liberation, but you must not abandon the path, one must stay aligned in that direction. One need not be in Union but can be aligned, all the way long.

This brings us tremendous ability to keep going. You do not need any motivation to push you after you’ve realized this simple fact. Many times we break down, feeling not able to reach the ideals we’ve set for ourselves. We must try to remember this then. We might not reach the ideal, but we’d rather be aligned and be in the journey than be misaligned or directionless. Which would also be non-LIFE.

Speaking of non-LIFE, one of the most dangerous delusions one can be in is the state where one thinks or says to oneself that he/she is aligned with LIFE, but actually is not. That is the most dangerous place to be. It simply delays one’s alignment with LIFE. Because first he/she must become aware that what he/she assumed LIFE was, is not actually LIFE. Then, he/she has to seek and align with LIFE. Left to natural course, this may take years or lifetimes (based on an individual’s Karma/tendencies) because we know how powerful delusions can be.

However, with conscious effort to stay in the light like a bug, you can accelerate this process. You can be deliberate and choose LIFE! And even though the union cannot be guaranteed (in this lifetime), alignment can definitely be accomplished.

Again, just because this seems too ideal or cliché, please do not neglect or discard this insight. Try it out and see for yourself! Ask yourself this, what thoughts, actions, and emotions feel like LIFE to you? Choose and move towards that.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Become a Tap Root

In blog 80: Becoming Deep, we saw where all we are lacking and hence where all we need to go deep. In this blog, let’s try to understand depth at its core, even more clearly.

Because there is some confusion among many, and it persists at various levels. Some people think they are deep because they listen to inspirational YouTube videos or podcasts. Yes, you are definitely deeper than many people who are not doing that, but you are not deep (nowhere nearly deep) as the person who’s reading loads of non-fiction books every year or someone who is doing Vedhaadhyayana.

So, have you ever wondered what is it that leads to depth? When do we see, acknowledge or say something is “deep”? I asked the same question. And then, there it was, the only core in all that we call deep, or that has depth. It might be deep conversations, deep experiences, deep thinking, or deep personalities, but the core remains the same.

Depth is only through awareness.

There can be depth only through awareness. There might be other triggering aspects, like experience for example, through experience, one might get awareness. And it is that awareness we call “depth”.

And thinking about it a little longer, a mental model appeared, that integrates the depth, awareness, and work we do. This mental model uses plant roots to understand Depth.

First, let’s see what is depth vs shallow through this model.

Tap Roots vs fibrous roots. We’ve all learned this in our schools. It’s just that we are trying to learn something else through it.

Fibrous root depicts a dabbler, he’s trying a lot of things, learning things but none of them are integrating into solid active wisdom, i.e awareness. A tap root however depicts a polymath. He too does various kinds of works, but all of it originates from his solid active wisdom, i.e awareness. And whatever he learns through those works also integrates back to the primary root.

We can learn more through this if we observe keenly.

Here,

Primary root – Awareness

Branches – Work ( not a job )

Thickness – Dimensions/Multi-facets

Through this model, we can see how our work is derivative of our awareness. We can also see how work can lead to awareness. That is, when one of the branches grows in the same direction, parallelly and closely to the primary root, then eventually, that branch will become part of the primary root. That is possible only in a tap root and not possible in a fibrous root. Of course, this is just a mental model to understand the concept of depth relative to awareness, work, and multi-faceted-ness. So don’t get into the nuances or fight over tap root and fibrous root or which plant grows better.

And the thickness signifies the broadness of one’s awareness. Let’s say a root is very thick and deep, then the person’s awareness it represents is deeply aware of not only a small group of niches, but it depicts that the person is aware of a broad spectrum of topics.

This model can also be used to understand the difference between a generalist and a specialist. As I mention in my Infographics Yearbook 2022, this model can be used to understand who is a generalized specialist and who is a specialized generalist too.

I don’t know if I was able to convey and make you understand the concept.

But basically, it is the awareness that brings depth into your life! Your work can indeed be a means to that awareness. You can choose awareness, even while having multiple domains of interest you’re pursuing. All you’ve got to do is, Be a Bug and go deep!

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Monthly Wrap! (December)

Monthly Wraps are blogs that are up on the last Sunday of the month which include:

  1. Blogs of the month
  2. Book recommendations 
  3. What did I curate? Resources I’m binging on – of course, I’ll be choosing the major ones. Just a brim of how much I curate!
  4. Reminders & Reflections to ponder – Of various of my reflections of the month, I’ll choose one or a few. And some re-realized reminders!
  5. My writing journey/ my book updates 

Here’s December’s “Monthly Wrap!”

Blogs I wrote this month:

  1. Blog 84: Be a Bug!
  2. Blog 85: Viveka – The Super Power of Objective Thinking
  3. Blog 86: Last Key to Success

Book Recommendations:

This month I could read 4 books:

  1. Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey. I listened to this as an audiobook because, I liked the previous audiobook I listened to by the same author, How to Train Your Mind – which is a book on meditation, its scientific benefits, the author’s experience, and simple tactics. I loved that book, so I chose to buy this book with Audible’s free credit. I loved this book too. Great narration. This book makes you even more mindful of your attention & energy.
  2. Be Your Own Sunshine by James Allen. I listened to this audiobook because it was available for free on Audible. This is a compilation of 4 books written by James Allen. I had already read “As a Man Thinketh“. Such books really act as the best kind of reminder to be mindful of your thoughts and deliberately choose what you think.
  3. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. I read this book because I ran out of books I had bought, and my sister lent me this book. This is a decent book.
  4. Never Be Sick Again by Raymond Francis & Kester Cotton. This is a great book. Everyone must read this. However, it seems a little repetitive multiple times. The basic concept remains – 1 disease, 2 causes, and 6 paths to health.
  5. Do Epic Shit by Ankur Warikoo is a decent book. It is more like a compilation of insights/reflections of the author, like my Free ebooks. The only difference is he has sorted those insights based on chapters like money, entrepreneurship, relationships, etc. Or you can say that this book is dead similar to The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, the only difference is that Naval did not write that book, his talks were compiled to form a book by Eric Jorgenson. And that is no coincidence. Ankur himself suggests The Almanack of Naval Ravikant as one of the 3 best books to read for his readers. I think authorship should not come that easily. Or in other words, authors should feel more responsible for their time and attention and try to give more value through deep discussions, instead of tiny wisdom nuggets. Sure, all he says rings the sound of truth. But the gong is not able to resonate long enough, because he hits again, that is, he soon shifts the topic of discussion.
  6. Million Dollar Habits by Robert Ringer is a good book. But I wouldn’t call them habits considering how they are presented in the book. The author has presented or explained them like principles or values one needs to adopt. Nevertheless, this is worth reading (or listening to, like I did).

What I curated:

Movies:

1. Klaus, 2. Sightless, 3. Guru Shishyaru, 4. Vikrant Rona

Series:

  1. Young Sheldon S6 Ep8

Must watch YouTube videos:

  1. Inside the Navy’s Indoor Ocean
  2. How to Build Your Bullet Journal (&Second Brain)
  3. This Design Trick surprised me! – Hats off to his level of dedication!

Reminders & reflections to ponder:

  • Every individual must indulge in a pursuit in life. A pursuit that brings a sense of scarcity permanently in him. And yet, motivates him to move in that direction. Creativity & spirituality are the only such pursuits that I can think of.
  • Most people are shades of grey. They are not black or white. That’s why we must not judge people. However, a spiritual person is trying to move toward the light. He is gradually becoming white removing his ignorance. People with very less self-awareness are confused about who they are. That is why they swing between darker & lighter shades of grey.
  • Guiding someone from ignorance to awareness is most likely the toughest job in the world
  • Spreading awareness through art can only provoke & only at the surface level. For deeper awareness, there must be long format texts, question and answer dialects read or listened.
  • Everything should empower you
  • All you’ve got to do is play. Creativity is the beautiful offspring.
  • Workers are not critiques. Critiques are not workers.
  • There’ll be no question of ” how to not quit” or resilience when what you’ve chosen to do is simply your nature of being.
  • You may not be able to imagine it, but first, learn to acknowledge the greatness of the feat accomplished by someone. Or in fact, first of all, try to recognize an accomplishment when you see one, instead of discarding it as something you can’t even imagine doing.
  • Depth is only through awareness. There can be depth only through awareness.

My Writing/Book update:

  • I’ve made no progress in terms of writing this month as I was completely occupied in various projects and concerts.

Thank You,

Yours Loving,

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Last Key to Success

I thought about and questioned myself as to what would be the last piece of advice that I would give to someone who’s already living by all the virtues and principles I’ve talked about in the previous blogs. And hence, this blog.

The theme for my blogs from November has been about making the coming days (2023) beautiful. We saw why we need to Become Deep, set steps towards INTENTional Living, Get ourselves a Headstart and Be like a Bug & move towards the light with Viveka.

Even if you’ve mastered all that, as we all know, you still need one key aspect to reach success. And that is resilience. That is, sticking long enough to reap the benefits. But I’m not here to tell you just that.

Resilience is just a word, that’s an amalgamation of different virtues. One of the main ingredients would be patience. But I’m not here to talk about patience too. Patience is required but I practice only as a reminder when I’m overwhelmed or overthinking.

I’m here to tell you the ingredient, the actual secret ingredient that lies in resilience. Once you’ve figured this one out, resilience is natural and obvious.

But I don’t know what to call it. Passion? No, This is not an impulse or reactive. This is a state of being where you know that you are born to do just that. And this comes from a place of awareness. It feels natural in this state. And does not feel that way otherwise.

It is a way of living, you know intrinsically, that makes you fulfilled. You wouldn’t budge from that lifestyle even if given a billion dollars. Again, as I said, this takes a lot of awareness. Lots of Shravana, Manana & Nidhidhyasana.

But there’ll be no question of ” how to not quit” or of resilience, once you’ve figured out this piece of the puzzle, that is when what you’ve chosen to do is simply your nature of being.

I still don’t know what it’s called. Purpose? No, this is like, If the purpose is totally present-oriented, then yes, it might be it. It’s like rowing a boat without bothering about the destination. You know your destination, but you don’t bother about that. You are totally immersed in the act of rowing the bow because you feel that way your life is lived at the fullest, each moment.

Probably, this feel, this last piece of the puzzle is also an amalgamation of different aspects – Passion, purpose, and focus, completely immersed in what you do, “not bothering about the result”.

So, when you figure out that task in life that you’re super passionate about, and that has become your purpose, and moreover, you don’t feel like bothering about the result and you are completely immersed in the task at hand, that’s this natural state.

We’ve already discussed passion in Blog43: You’re a Multi-passionate? Purpose and the other two aspects, probably, I’ll write about them in the future. Regardless, you now know what to work on.

Thank You
Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Viveka – The Super Power of Objective Thinking

The theme for my blogs from November has been about making the coming days (2023) beautiful. We saw why we need to Become Deep, set steps towards INTENTional Living, Get ourselves a Headstart and Be like a Bug & move towards the light. Or in other words, let these be part of your theme for the year 2023.

These are all the tools and weapons you’ll require to live a life that you’re happy about in both the present and in the long run.

Another very crucial tool is Viveka. It is so crucial that, without it, you cannot use the other tools I’ve mentioned. Even if you use it, it’d be a waste of effort, or worse, you may get into a vicious cycle of trauma that originated from ignorance. Vaguely translated, Viveka means discrimination. It is the power of our minds to dissect anything and gain knowledge from it. It is the power of objective thinking.

All I’m doing when I’m writing these blogs, or my books, is engaging that superpower Viveka. I’ve already talked about thinking and how not thinking has become the Biggest Problem for Humanity.

Viveka is one of the tools, that is more accessible to us that can even give us spiritual progress. Especially in this modern era, youngsters are finding it hard to practice the path of Bhakthi. And Karma, Kriya, or Raja yoga path – most youngsters haven’t even got the freedom from their family, the institution they belong to, or the system in general, to practice that.

Jnana is way more accessible if and only if they can understand and learn to use their Viveka – objective thinking. However, I’m not saying it comes easily to everyone. In fact, since that is the opposite, we have this world dominated by ignorant minds, like you & me:)

Objective thinking is not easy because we all tend to think subjective to our emotions & personalities. Now, I’m not saying emotion is bad. In fact, emotions can be great indicators or pointers of where we need to look with the eyes of Viveka, to explore and grow in the awareness timeline.

But when we think, strongly influenced & held by our assumptions, & emotions, we’ll get trapped in a MAYA – delusion. Many times, such powerful delusions make you feel as though you have practiced objective thinking and are still trapped in a specific problem. Or even worse, it may make you feel like, the cause of your suffering itself is that you know something.

That can never be the case. There can be suffering & pain only when there’s ignorance. Knowing the truth can never lead to suffering & pain. It is knowing half-truths, i.e when there is an adulteration of ignorance in it.

I’ve seen myself and many people, struggle so much because of such half-truths and truths they think they’ve realized but their actions and lifestyle in general convey the opposite.

There’s a difference between the acknowledgment of truth and actual realization. And confusion between those two can cause a lot of suffering and pain. What one gets through practicing Viveka, is pure realization.

You actually move in the awareness timeline, when you practice Viveka.

How to practice Viveka? These pointers may help you in practicing Viveka:

  1. Observe. Everything from what you hear from & see in the world to what you hear & see within. Talk less, see & listen more. If you’re someone who travels at least once a year to various houses in your village, you can notice that the people who listen more and ask questions about your lifestyle, than bragging about themselves, are living a more fulfilled and progressing life.
  2. Pre-requisite data. How can we learn anything without having a database that can relate to the new information you feed in? This is why consumption is very much essential. Shravana (consumption of Knowledge), Manana (Contemplation), and Nidhidhyasana (Meditating upon the truth realized) are the processes that lead to awareness/realization.  To understand and analyze anything we are observing, we need pre-requisite data.
  3. All thoughts are assumptions. I mean, do not affix any thought or an idea, the permanent state of being true. And hence,
  4. Question Everything. Repeatedly. To ensure you are not in a delusion. Question even the assumptions you’ve already assumed to be true.
  5. Planes of Reality. You must know that there can exist planes of reality. That means you must understand that there can be truth on both sides of viewpoints, and you must realize the plane at which each truth is originating.
  6. Tharka vs Debate. Both are probably the same. But what I wanted to convey is to discuss or debate for the sake of finding the truth, not for the sake of debating. I see most amateur seekers fall into this trap of debating for the sake of proving their point. Even though there isn’t even anything contradictory to debate on.

Well, to be honest, I cannot teach you the art of practicing Viveka, through these one-way connected blogs, it can be taught well, in real-time, specific to your lifestyle and problems. Practicing Viveka is a very practical skill and art that cannot be taught entirely through one-way communications like blogs, podcasts, or books. One can only be pointed towards and some key pointers suggested. I hope through this blog I could do that for you.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Be a Bug

In Blog 82: Get yourself a head-start, we understood the importance of giving ourselves a head-start and start working towards the ideal we’ve set to achieve. And in Blog 81: INTENTional Living, we already saw that the first significant step to change your life would be to set yourself on fire, burn with high intensity, or in other words, it is to set an INTENT!

To set an INTENT, however, you need to consider your ignorance. Do we know whether we’ve set an intent that leads to growth? Of course, any movement is better than stagnation, but that does not mean we should be lazy in our thinking, make poor decisions and set foolish goals. [By the way, I’ve also written about what aspects of life are the most important and it is those that one should consider while setting an INTENT, in my book.]

However, this calls for a certain attitude towards everything in life. You need to enter a different mode altogether. THE SEER MODE – the path of awareness.

This is not the same as the student mindset people talk about. It is not just about curiosity and humility. They play a major role too. But this is beyond that. This is the purpose of your intellect and intelligence, and this is you practicing to use it. It must become your nature. It is already in our nature, we may have forgotten it.

Just like a bug. It does not move towards light because of humility or curiosity, it is just its nature to move towards the light. That’s how we need to train ourselves, to be in that natural state, to always seek and move towards awareness.

If you choose to stay ignorant, beware! Being ignorant is also a Karma. It catches up with you.

Ignorance is bliss. You might have heard people say that. It is true, but it is a half-truth, again, like most, popular nuggets. The full version of it would be this – Ignorance is bliss until there’s a glimpse of light. And the glimpse of light is natural and eventual.

Moreover, just like you’ve heard this quote – “You may be born poor, but you must not die poor”, you must also realize and remember that you are born ignorant, but you must not die ignorant. If not enlightened, let’s at least die trying the path.

Put simply, with such an attitude, you don’t do something for the sake of it, or, because you believe in it, or, because your family did so for generations, or because society says you do so. You do something out of awareness.

I’m not saying you do something after you’re totally aware and enlightened. All I’m saying is to interrogate, and self-interrogate every action of yours.

Observe your thoughts, words, & actions. Question everything. For example, if you said you hate someone, ask why. In reality, there’s no such thing as hate. If you had felt offended by someone’s viewpoint on a societal norm, ask why & deeply reflect till you realize the truth. There is no place for feeling offended when you become aware of this non-dualistic reality.

Start eliminating words and actions in your daily life, which are originating from these reasons:

  1. You blindly believe it to be true
  2. Doing it for the sake of it
  3. Your family told you that’s tradition
  4. Society says you be that way

You can add the prefix “blindly-” to all of those reasons. You can keep doing the actions you are doing for those same reasons if you are aware of the actual reason behind it.

Someone told me, you are asking too many questions, once you stop that, everything makes sense. It didn’t fit into my belief system, but I took it in and analyzed it to look for the truth. And then I realized two things:

That person wasn’t someone who should be giving advice to a Jnana Yogi or a Seeker.

He had mistaken or misspelled “Stop” for “Subside/reside”.

I now know what he may have meant. Questioning will eventually fade, with awareness. But stopping one from asking questions is a crime. You should not do that to yourself either.

I even wrote a poem in Kannada a few months ago (May) to convey the same

ಬೇಡವೈಯ್ಯ  ಯನಗೆ  ಆ  ಜನುಮಾ

ಕಣ್ಣಿಲ್ಲದಂತಿರುವ ಆ ಬಧುಕು ಬೇಡವೈಯ್ಯ

ಬೇಡವೈಯ್ಯ ಯೆನಗೆ

ಚಂದ್ರನಿಲ್ಲದ ಇರುಳಿನಲಿ

ಕತ್ತಲಿನಂತಿರುವ ಆ ಜನುಮಾ

ಅಂಧಕಾರದೊಳು ಮುಳುಗಿರುವಾಗ

ಧೀವಟಿಗೆ  ಬೇಡವೆನುವ  ಆ ಜನುಮಾ

ಎದುರಲ್ಲಿರುವುದನು ಕಾಣದಿರುವ

ಅಜ್ಞಾನ  ಸಾರವಾದ  ಆ  ಜನುಮಾ

ಸಿರಿವಂತನೂ  ಆಗಿ  ಬಲವಂತನೂ  ಆಗಿ

ಮೂಢನಾಗಿರುವಂಥಹ  ಆ  ಜನುಮಾ

Translation (Of course the beauty is lost when translated):

Let there not be such a lifetime for me, like there are no eyes.

Like the darkness in a moonless night, let there not be such a lifetime…

Like the state where one rejects a torch while sinking in the darkness, let there not be such a lifetime…

Like the state where one cannot see what’s in front due to ignorance, let there not be such a lifetime…

Like the state where one is rich, one is powerful, yet is a fool, let there not be such a lifetime…

Basically what I’m trying to say is whether you become a soldier who serves the country with pure patriotism, or you may become an artist who serves with pure love and passion, but before & within all that, nurture the soldier within, who’s striving for truth, who’s constantly working to seek awareness, all the time, forever.

If you wire your mind that way, nothing is just suffering and pain. Everything transforms into an opportunity for you to get closer to the light! And whether you get enlightened or not, this path definitely brings you a great life!

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Monthly Wrap! (November)

Monthly Wraps are blogs that are up on the last Sunday of the month which include:

  1. Blogs of the month
  2. Book recommendations 
  3. What did I curate? Resources I’m binging on – of course, I’ll be choosing the major ones. Just a brim of how much I curate!
  4. Reminders & Reflections to ponder – Of various of my reflections of the month, I’ll choose one or a few. And some re-realized reminders!
  5. My writing journey/ my book updates 

Here’s November’s “Monthly Wrap!”

Blogs I wrote this month:

  1. Blog 80: Becoming Deep
  2. Blog 81: INTENTional Living
  3. Blog 82: Get yourself a head start

Book Recommendations:

This month I could read 5 books:

  1. This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin is an interesting book. I knew most of the musical effects on the brain by reading Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. In this book, however, the author nudges you to think about various specific aspects of music. Can be helpful for music producers.
  2. Kundalini: An untold story by Om Swami. This is a myth-buster. It provides clarity on what kundalini actually is and removes any inaccurate notion we have picked up from the noisy internet. Moreover, the author’s specialty is to tell you everything as though you were his friend. It is easy to read and inspiring!
  3. Daily rituals: How Artists Work (Audiobook) by Mason Currey is a monotonous yet useful book. I say it to be monotonous not because of the narration. The narration is good. But it is just a compilation of the daily routines of various great artists. No inferences, making connections, or conclusions. You need to focus and work on it mentally to take something out of it. I found it a helpful read.
  4. Death – A must-read book by Sadhguru. Incredible read!
  5. Art Money Success by Maria Brophy. Good book but I wouldn’t buy it if it were not for the free credits in Audible. But these kinds of books will definitely nudge you to think in the direction of self-promotion, sales, money, etc which can be helpful especially as most of us (Artists) tend to think less about such aspects of our life.

What I curated:

Movies:

1. Mike, 2. Wish Dragon, 3. A simple Favor, 4. Dear Zindagi, 5. Searching, 6. Vivo, 7. Karthikeya2 , 8. 100, 9. Secret Obsession, 10. Ocean’s Eight, 11. Ocean’s Eleven, 12. Ocean’s Twelve, 13. Ocean’s Thriteen, 14. Kanthara

Series:

  1. Manifest Season 4
  2. Zootopia+
  3. Young Sheldon S6 Ep7

Trailer:

  1. Avatar: The Way of Water
  2. Zootopia+ (Series)

Must watch YouTube videos:

  1. Inspiring home studio
  2. Irrigation pivots
  3. Nuclear Submarine
  4. World’s Largest Digital Camera
  5. MrBeast Burger Opening (One of a kind event)

Reminders & reflections to ponder:

  • There exist great compositions created by great people. But no matter which composition you choose to recite, it can never match the joy of creating your own!
  • You may not do what you imagined to do, but you may do what you couldn’t even imagine
  • Two kinds of people based on forgiveness – One, They forgive themselves immediately but do not forgive others until they’ve vented out or lectured them. Two – They understand and forgive others easily and quickly but find it hard to forgive themselves
  • You can keep rowing a coracle at the same place or if you can work hard the same way with intent, you’ll at least reach somewhere. Hard work for the sake of it is stupidity.
  • Hard work for the sake of it is stupidity

My Writing/Book update:

  • I’ve made some progress in both the books I’m writing.
  • I realized how we are trapped by our karmic cycles and make the same mistakes we already did. Just like I did with my first book, I had abandoned writing itself and I resumed writing again, realizing how important it is and also that the best way to come up with a great book is to make writing a consistent habit.

Thank You,

Yours Loving,

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Get yourself a head start!

I know, this whole thing about setting a New Year’s resolution has turned out to be a poor joke to many. And it’s probably because you set a too ambitious goal [If that’s even a real thing], or it was just because you didn’t want it that badly. If you introspect deeply, you’ll have to admit that the latter seems to be the case for almost all of us.

That’s where the role of setting an INTENT comes in. [ Whenever I say INTENT, just assume I said “very strong” as a prefix to it, let that prime your brain that way]. Once you set an INTENT, that’s it, it is done! If you’ve failed after setting an INTENT, it is most likely, that it was not an INTENT, to begin with, unless your intent was such a difficult task as consecrating a Dhyanalinga or something similar.

In my blog 72: Scrap your book, I talked about considering discarding your past and envisioning an ideal future. And I recommend you read blog 81:INTENTional living, where we saw the importance of setting an INTENT. And I recommend you re-read the second chapter of my book to let the truth of an INTENT, really sink in.

Anyway, suppose you’ve already set an intent with clarity/self-awareness, then the next step is to get yourself a head-start. That’s what we’ll be seeing in this blog.

This is very well-known by most of us. People know it & use it in all fields. People wake up early to get a head start for the day, they log in to work, an hour earlier to get a head start on their day’s work, they start working on a project months/weeks earlier than their expected deadlines, great wise stock investors of all time like Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger suggest you invest as early as possible, even before you are at the required age, if possible.

So, why don’t we apply the same to our lives? Of course, we can’t go back in time and plan or work on our lives before we were even born and come to life with a huge head start. That’s not possible, or at least, most of us are not that aware.

However, what’s possible is to give a head start for the next 365 days. Especially now when you have almost more than a month of time to the change calendar.

Ok, we have to admit that we all have our own energy cycles. We have seasons we are high in energy & productive, and we have seasons that aren’t for us, we stagnate. So do I. I have my own energy cycle, creative cycle, and/or productive cycle. I’ll be more productive & consistent in the first 3/4th of a year, and on average, it is usually at peak levels in the month of May [Probably because of added INTENT or resolutions on my birthday], and January [New Calendar].

To be honest, I’m the kind of person who’s looking for any unique date that happens yearly, so that I can convert it as an opportunity to encash the power of the compound effect by building a habit around the intended aspect of my life. So it doesn’t matter what dates or seasons you choose to work.

Of course, it’s not just me, every spiritual seeker, or every person who’s trying to transform himself, in general, is trying to and are evolving constantly on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis.

Getting a head start is something that really helps if you’re such a person. It is simply to start working towards whatever the ideal Life you’ve imagined and set clear INTENT off it before you are expected to show it to the world or you can say before you expect yourself to do it. So, why not just do that now? Why not give yourself a head start for the year 2023? Why not work on that project you had planned for January or February? I believe this blog pushes you to take actions that make your life great for the year 2023!

Thank You
Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Intentional Living

Honestly, I didn’t know how to write this blog, I didn’t know where to begin, what to name it, etc. Because this is a topic that connects to many other major topics and it is easy for one to lose track of what’s writing.

I’m talking about INTENT today. And that connects to a lot of other concepts like the power of choice, purpose, essentialism, etc. I’ll try my best to convey all that’s connecting to INTENT, without getting overwhelmed by this inter-connectivity.

First, even though not in chronological order, we’ll see what’s INTENT. INTENT is a “FIRE”, I mention in my book. Of course, if you have already read my book, you know how a dream, wish, intent, desire, and craving are related. And you also know the candlestick analogy. I’ll paste an excerpt from my book itself to know what is INTENT.

“The intent is the controlled desire! And in my early days, I was confused with intent as desire, desire made me very miserable, and then I realized that it is the intent that you need to accomplish anything, something that has the intensity to push you to your maximum abilities and doesn’t burn you at the same time. You call it intent, purpose, the ‘why’ power, fire, determination, You can call it passion, whatever, but it is something that is of high intensity like a desire but at the same time in control. To make it simple, we’ll just call it ‘THE FIRE’. The intent is Productive restlessness, productive entropy or if you don’t like the word productive, let’s say controlled entropy.”

The power of intent can be understood by understanding the relationship between intent, purpose [life purpose, here], and choice. Essentially, PURPOSE is an INTENT for life. When you have INTENT in your life, there’s a certain energy or enthusiasm, or you can say DRIVE in your life. As mentioned earlier, it is a productive kind of entropy, it makes it easy to overcome inertia/resistance.

When we dissect what is actually working in your life when you’ve set an intent, in the now, we’ll notice it is the power of CHOICE. INTENT and CHOICE are inseparable. Your intent is influencing your choice, in the now. And the choice you make now is influencing your intent too. And again, as mentioned in the book, the choices you make every day will form HABITS. And habits can break or make a life, you know that.

And if you look at the core, you’ll see that the power of INTENT, is mainly, the power of FOCUS. Concepts such as the Dopamine detox (which has nothing to do with the neurotransmitter, it’s a pseudo-concept trying to imply intentional living), essentialism, or even minimalism, “The One Thing”, intentional or conscious living, etc are all just offshoots of this same core. But FOCUS is just one face of the core of an intent.

The other wing of the core is intensity. The intensity helps in two ways actually, one, you can do a lot in less time. But of course, the focus is also helping you do that. If you can recall the candlestick analogy, a blazing fire on a candle can burn up the wick faster. And spiritually that means, you burn up your pile of Karma at a faster pace, that’s super good obviously. And two, again coming to the candlestick analogy, if you can remember that magic candle we used to get as “FREE” for buying two chocolates, it wouldn’t go out if you blew it, it would relight itself. Similarly, intensity, keeps you upright, no matter how much your circumstance is pulling you down. This again connects to the previous fact that, with this intensity, you can handle much more in this life. Concepts like willpower, “so good they can’t ignore you”, etc are all offshoots of this core.

So, you can imagine intent as point-focused sunlight under a magnifying glass on a sunny day. It is point-focused, as you can see. And super intense if you happened to place your finger under that magnifying glass. Ok, so I hope you’ve got to know the power of intent by reading all the way through. But there’s still a key piece missing from this whole puzzle. And that is awareness. An individual sets an intent based on his awareness, right? And the questions like what intent to set? etc falls into the lap of awareness.

What I’ve mentioned in this blog is just the second chapter: THE FIRE in my book, THE FLOWER OF FULFILLMENT. It’s in the further chapters, that I help the readers answer the questions concerning the intent, as mentioned above. I would apologize to you for mentioning my book multiple times in this blog, but I plead not guilty because for one, this blog originates from my book and hence it demands giving credit to my book. And two, because, no matter how many times or how much I yell about my book, it’ll still be under-promoted, and hence remain an underrated book, in my opinion. Because if the insights in it could change my life, then it can do that to every reader.

Thank You
Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Becoming Deep

In the blog: People don’t want good, I write something similar. However, this blog is practically more useful I believe. We are talking about depth today – from deep attention to deep personalities.

1 – Deep attention

Everything great arises from great attention – from artistry to liberation. From getting into the state of “Flow” to awakening your latent energy, everything requires great attention. When there’s no deep attention, how can there be deep learning? When there isn’t deep learning, how can there be deep work? And, what can anyone achieve without deep learning and deep work?

The role of attention is very well known to most people and yet people are getting accustomed to 15 secs of content to get knowledgeable or entertained or inspired. It’s only when there’s deep attention, can there be deep experiences. However, everyone’s attention span is decreasing a whole lot, day by day. Social media is definitely a major ‘blame’. But still, it’s a “blame”. Because don’t we agree that the power to choose, is always in our hands?

2 – Deep conversations

If not none, I have very less friends. Why? Because I don’t like to make superficial or even artificial conversations for the sake of it. It’s very hard for me. Asking tough questions and making deep conversations are how I make friends. Masking my personality in the hopes of making a friendship is not something I do. Unless there are deep conversations about various topics, how can you know the other person? The fact that someone asks deep questions and gets me involved in deep conversations itself tells a lot about that person, doesn’t it? But if you look around, or if you meet anyone, people are only having superficial conversations. They are unwilling to take off their social masks and be their true self in front of the other person and ask deep questions to make a deep conversation. Why? Most people are afraid they’ll lose that relationship. They want to “fit in”. Is any relationship worth it to fake yourself? How great it would be if we could talk about and try to solve each other’s internal struggles!

3 – Deep thinking

The problem, as mentioned in my blog: The Biggest Problem for Humanity, is that we don’t think, and not enough. And of course, everything is interconnected here. When one doesn’t have great attention power, how can he/she think deeply? It’s not possible because of 2 reasons: One, the obvious one, it’s because when one has a low attention span, he/she cannot concentrate long enough to think deeply, and two, since one hasn’t spent time in any form of deep learning, there merely exists anything in his/her mind to think deeply, let alone the ability to think deeply. *And here, as mentioned in that blog too, think refers to reflection, imagination, etc, all forms of thinking.

4 – Deep personality

When there’s less depth in one’s attention, hence experience, less depth in conversations, hence less deep relationships, and due to less deep thinking, will one’s personality be less deep. As I said, all of these aspects are so much intertwined. How can there be deep conversations when there’s a not-so-deep personality, to begin with?

This is not a rant, at least I hope it didn’t come across that way. By looking at these points, I think we can try to work on ourselves to deeply expand our attention, and hence learn deeply, do deep work, and have deep experiences. We can try to ask deep questions to make deep conversations. We can try to think deeply and hence build ourselves into great personalities. I hope this was a deep one 🙂

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

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