Reading
Not a great reader or a fan of fiction but I do like to read interesting books on people, places, philosophy, history and the like. Started reading rather late in life, but when I do, I read everything in the book, from page one to the last, including the cover and the small print!
I find it pleasurable to hold the "book" in my hands and enjoy flipping through the pages and reading it, tablets (electronic gadgets) do not provide the same pleasure!
List of my books read since I started keeping records, for those interested.
Books read October, 2024 (revised Nov 13, 2024)
Full Articles:
Leonardo da Vinci (May 10, 2019)
Gems from my readings:
- Sharing one's joy is twice blessed!
New
Kintsugi - to repair broken things in Japanese art. Metaphorically, a great art to understand inner feelings in depth.
Trevor Noah
"Depression is a response to the past loss, and anxiety is a response to future loss."
Andrew Solomon in Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression.
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Reflection on the meaning of purpose. "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth".
Muhammad Ali. In Purpose Mindset by Akhtar Badshah. 2020. Published by HarperCollins Leadership.
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“The world’s long-run fate depends in part on the choices we make in our lifetimes,”
- William MacAskill
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Effective Altruism https://www.effectivealtruism.org/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/the-reluctant-prophet-of-effective-altruism?
“Effective altruism (EA), in that spirit, furnishes an all-encompassing world view. It can have an ecclesiastical flavor, and early critics observed that the movement seemed to be in the business of selling philanthropic indulgences for the original sin of privilege.”
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Yesterday is but a dream. Tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived make every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
- Kalidasa, the 5th century Sanskrit scholar.
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“It’s possible for doctors to go through medical school without being taught nutrition. That is Crazy.”
- Bill Bryson in The Body
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"Money and mansions are not the only wealth. Hoard the wealth of the spirit. Character is wealth: good conduct is wealth; and spiritual wisdom is wealth".
- Athrarva Veda: quoted by Jay Shetty in Think Like A Monk
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Life is a journey. Share your path. www. Paulocoelho.com/en
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“Mindfulness is to be aware of everything you do every day,” he wrote in one of his nearly 100 books. “Mindfulness is a kind of light that shines upon all your thoughts, all your feelings, all your actions and all your words.”
"Every day,” Thich Nhat Hanh wrote in his book “The Miracle of Mindfulness,” “we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child, our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022)
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“It’s possible for doctors to go through medical school without being taught nutrition. That is Crazy.” Bill Bryson in The Body
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There can be little doubt that living long is a much shared aspiration. Even though it is clearly not the only thing we seek, a long life is inter alia fairly universally valued – and valued very strongly. … big changes in mortality that are continuing to occur across the world does not involve extending lives to unimaginable lengths, but relate to the saving of premature mortality – of infants, children, and young or middle-aged adults.
In ‘Mortality as an indicator of economic success and failure'.
Amartya Sen, 1998
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"capitalism exists by permission of democracy”.
Billionaire Vinod Khosla
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“if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”
An African proverb.
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Orwellian “doublethink” – for by using the word one admits that one is tampering with the reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.
George Orwell in "1984"
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There are two things that ruin intimate relationships. The first is too much distance, and the second is not enough distance.
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"United States was the only country to go from barbarism to decadence without passing through civilization" - Oscar Wilde
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The Unraveling of America - Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/
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Inverse Care Law: The availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need for it in the population served. This inverse care law operates more completely where medical care is most exposed to market forces, and less so where such exposure is reduced. The market distribution of medical care is a primitive and historically outdated social form, and any return to it would further exaggerate the maldistribution of medical resources. Julian Tudor Hart. Lancet Vol. 297, p405-412, February 27, 1971.
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"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
James Baldwin
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Jeffery Robinson, on racial justice. In times of "I can't breathe".
The Truth About the Confederacy in the United States
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPGpE-sXh0
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"... to understand the present and anticipate the future, one must know enough of the past, enough to have sense of the history of a people."
Lee Kuan Yew, 1st Prime Minister of Singapore, in January 1980 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the People's Action Party.
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“Love is very patient, very kind, Love knows no jealousy; love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never irritated, never resentful; love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, always hopeful, always patient.” (From the Moffatt translation.) - I Corinthians – Chapter 13 – Verses 4-8
Ida Scudder's favorite passage from the New Testament. (1870-1960)
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"An Aboriginal Elder once told me that the best way to move healthily into the future is to move backwards into it. Like rowing a boat, looking back on all that is known as we sail into an unknowable future. It’s an image that fills me with hope and gratitude".
- Jon Owen. Wayside Chapel. 23 April 2020.
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Many of life's failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.
-Thomas Edison
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In Thailand, they speak of the triangle that moves the mountain. The three sides of the triangle are Government, Knowledge, and the People. get the three sides in place together and you can move mountains.
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“Good morning, my name is Lebogang Brenda Motsumi aka African Queen. I am NOT HIV, I am LIVING with HIV. I am not the virus, the virus lives in me. I am not defined by HIV, but I define HIV.” (Facebook Post)
- Lebogang Motsumi
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“Government’s role is not to command but to catalyze, not to dictate development but to create the conditions that will allow it to take place.”
- Michael Bloomberg to Conservative Party Conference in the UK, 2007.
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“I slept and dreamed that life was a joy. I awoke up and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy”
- Rabindranath Tagore
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....he told me how he now loves restoring abandoned cars and explained, “They’ve got a few scratches but there’s life in them yet”. I like that guiding metaphor for life. Are we looking for the scratches or for the life that lies beneath?
Jon Owen. Beneath the Surface. Wayside Chapel. 16 May 2019
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Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership. Richard Stengel, TIME Magazine. Wednesday, Jul. 09, 2008.
- Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it
- Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind
- Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
- Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
- Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer. After all, he used to say, "people act in their own interest." It was simply a fact of human nature, not a flaw or a defect. The flip side of being an optimist — and he is one — is trusting people too much.
- Appearances matter — and remember to smile
- Nothing is black or white. What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there?
- Quitting is leading too (Perhaps the most important lessons for many leaders today)
We don’t know when we started doing many of the things we’ve done. We don’t know what we are doing right now or how our present actions will affect the future. What we do know is that there is only one planet to do it on, and only one species of being capable of making a considered difference..... We enjoy not only the privilege of existence, but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better.
---- at the end of Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly" Everything".
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Some quotes from Deepak Chopra
- Holding on to anything is like holding on to your breath. You will suffocate. The only way to get anything in the physical universe is by letting go of it. Let go and it will be yours forever.
- The present moment dies every moment to become the past, is reborn every moment into the future. All experience is now. Now never ends.
- You are here for a reason.
- Religion is belief in someone else's experience. Spirituality is having your own experience. Atheism is no experience only measurement.
- Awareness isn’t passive. It directly leads to action (or inaction). As you take steps to expand your awareness, you will naturally find yourself harnessing your mind’s infinite power to create greater health, happiness, and love in your life.
"the precision and openness and intelligence of the present."
Chogyam Trungpa. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. (London: Robinson & Watkins, 1973)
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Simplicity is the whole secret of well-being. - Matthiessen in The Snow Leopard.
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On man's need for a personal god and a divine saviour:
.... Mahayana suggests that spiritual attainment will be limited in him who seeks God only for himself:
"Hast thou attuned thy being to humanity's great pain, O Candidate for Light?" Tibetan Toga and Secret Doctrines. Ed. Evans-Wentz. Oxford University Press, 1958.
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Contract: "An agreement that is binding on the weaker party" - Frederick Sawyer.
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“He who knows not,
and knows not that he knows not,
is a fool; shun him.
He who knows not,
and knows that he knows not,
is a student; Teach him.
He who knows,
and knows not that he knows,
is asleep; Wake him.
He who knows,
and knows that he knows,
is Wise; Follow him.”
Attributed to Omar Khayam, 13th century philosopher
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Put simply, social injustice is disempowering. It deprives people of control over their lives.
Michael Marmot. Viewpoint. The health gap. The Lancet. Vol 386. December 12, 2015 p2442-2444.
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It is not what you have that is important for health, but what you can do with what you have.
Sen A. Inequality reexamined: Oxford University Press. 1992.
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Marriage:
If you don’t respect the other person, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. I f you don’t know how to compromise, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can’t talk openly about what goes on between you, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don’t have common sets of values in life, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike.
And the biggest one of these is values.
Tuesday with Morrie. Mitch Albom
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“We are not alone. The world is changing, and we are a part of the transformation. The angels guide us and protect us. Despite all the injustice in the world, and despite the things that happen to us that we feel we don’t deserve, and despite the fact sometimes feel incapable of changing what is wrong with people and with the world, and despite all of the Grand Inquisitor’s arguments – love is even stronger, and it will help us to grow. Only then will we be able to understand the stars and miracles.”
The Valkyries. Paulo Coelho. Paulo ends the book with this last paragraph of the Epilogue.
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To live without comparison! It means no dependence, no self-sufficiency, no seeking, no asking; therefore it means to love. Love has no comparison, and so love has no fear. Love is not aware of itself as love, for the word is not the thing.
The man who is not wholly committed is the only one capable of listening, inquiring and asking.
The Second Krishnamurthy Reader.
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Attitude towards life around us – value of life (any) how we take it for granted that everything around us is for our benefit – killing animals for food, even killing so called pests – cockroaches, grasshoppers, ants etc lest they spoil our food (pleasure) – directly or indirectly – I am not suggesting that one ought to live with the ants and cockroaches – but to consider life in everything and give some respect. In other words humans are the biggest pest on this earth – shouldn’t somebody come and start culling them to restore some order!
Satyanand Stokes, an American turned Indian in the Himalayas in early 1900s, wrote to his cousin, Warrington Stokes, in America in early 1943, “ If you want a happy world, it must be a world in which you do not seek for special privileges and try to keep special advantages cornered for your nation. You cannot have them both. And after this present terrible business (World War II) you certainly cannot have the same world you had before, whatever choice you make. It is either to be much juster – and consequently happier – world, or it will be one with all the past evils and dangers and hardships immensely accentuated. It is not mearly a question of a world you are ready to accept for yourselves but what fate you are prepared to hand to your children.”
Extracts from: An American in Khadi - Satyanand Stokes. Asha Sharma. August 1999.
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"Duniya me sab se bara rog,
Mare bare me kya khain ge log"
The biggest disease in the world is, what will people say about me.
Navjot Sing quoting on NDTV during interview on 19 Aug 18.
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The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. Read on... William Shakespeare
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"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food". Hippocrates
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“It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
― Steve Jobs
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“The best is the enemy of the good” - Voltaire 1772.
This quote, in its many variations, has been used to point out that good solutions to problems can be passed over or actively discarded in the quest for an often elusive best or perfect solution!
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Time of awakening
I was too proud - over confident of myself, ignorant of the reality of this world.
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They say it takes a village to raise a baby – The Element. Ken Robinson
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‘What is now proved was once only imagined’ – William Blake
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“The real issue” is not charity, he writes in his autobiography. It is “giving every human being a fair chance”.
also “poor are profitable”
Muhammad Yunus. Economist, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh.
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The Visudhimagga, a fifth-century Indian text, poses a riddle:
Precisely where is what we call a “chariot” located? Is it in the axles, the wheels, the frame? Is it in the poles that connect to the horse?
The answer: Nowhere. What we mean by term “chariot” refers to the temporary arrangement of its component parts. It’s an illusion.
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On leadership, The Five Rules:
You need no title to be a leader
Innovation
Mastery
Authenticity
Guts
Ethics
Turbulent times build great leaders
Speak with candor
Prioritize
Adversity Breeds Oportunity
Kudos for Everyone
The deeper your relationship the stronger your leadership
Helpfulness
Understanding
Mingle
Amuse
Nurture
To be a great leader, first become great person
See clearly
Health is wealth
Inspiration matters
Neglect not family
Elevate your lifestyle
The leader who had no title – Robin Sharma
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On contract:
An agreement that is binding on the weaker party - Frederick Sawyer
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Two roads diverged in wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost 1920
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The rich must live more simply so that the poor may simply live. - M K Gandhi.
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Success in the global economy needs three things:
- Massive investment in human resources
- A passion for product improvement
- A deeply caring attitudes for customers - Introduction to India Unbound. Gurcharan Das
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A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself.
A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn itself – Rabinder Nath Tagore
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Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely day dreaming, but vision with action can change our worlds.
- SMS from Rt Rev Anand Chandu Lal 29 Sept 2012
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History belongs to past; but understanding it is the duty of the present.
- An Era of Darkness. Shashi Tharoor. 2016
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In the words of a Persian sage: Love is a disease no one wants to get rid of. Those who catch it never try to get better, and those who suffer do not wish to be cured.
- The Zahir. Paulo Coelho
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“We are all a little greedy. (Some of us are plenty greedy.) We’re all somewhat courageous, and we are all considerably cowardly. We’re all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections.”
- The measure of a man. Sydney Poitier
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The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.
- The New Asian Hemisphere. Kishore Mahbubani
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Poor health causes poverty and poverty contributes to poor health.
- The End of Poverty. Jeffrey Sachs
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Purifying Emotions
- Not allowing the negative emotions such as anger and hatred
- This prevents leakage of emotional energies
- This would keep one in a resourceful state
- With resourceful state, one’s energy levels would be high and our actions would be filled with vitality.
Goodness
- Looking good
- Feeling good
- Being good
When looking good is not based on being good, life becomes a mess.
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Seeds appear to be finite
But they have infinite capacity to grow
We are like seeds and deep within, we have infinite capacity to grow.
- Ruby Kaul shared it with me on 14 December 2008
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A Message by George Carlin:
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
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These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, ' I love you ' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
- George Carlin
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Mandela’s 8 Lessons of Leadership
- Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it
- Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind
- Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
- Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
- Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer
6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile
7. Nothing is black or white
8. What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there? - Quitting is leading too.
- Richard Stengel. Time Magazine. Wednesday July 9, 2008.
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Illness of my life has been repression:
Repression of my spirit, of my sexuality, of my anger
- A Journey in Ledakh. Andrew Harvey
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On Buddhism
Buddha was born around 566 B.C and lived a life of a young prince but with increasing dissatisfaction, until he left his family and disappeared one night to become an ascetic. After an austere six years he decided that asceticism was not the path to salvation and discarded it. He then resolved to discover the means to salvation through meditation, and eventually on the forty-ninth day of his meditation he received enlightenment and understood the cause of suffering in this world. He preached his first sermon at the Deer Park at Sarnath (four miles from Banaras) and gathered his first disciples.
This sermon was called the Turning of the Wheel of Law, and was the nucleus of Buddhist teaching. It incorporated the Four Noble Truths:
- The world is full of suffering
- Suffering is caused by human desires
- The renunciation of desire is the path to salvation and
- This salvation is possible through the Eight-Fold Path
- Right views
- Resolve
- Speech
- Conduct
- Livelihood
- Effort
- Recollection
- Meditation
Nirvana or extinction – Freedom from the Wheel of Rebirth
Buddhism was atheistic – God was not essential to the universe – there being a natural cosmic rise and decline.
- Romila Thapar – A History of India 1. 1966. Pelican Books.
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Matthiessen (2010) sums it up like this in The Snow Leopard:
The Four Noble Truths, Sakyamuni perceived
that man's existence is inseparable form sorrow;
that cause of suffering is craving;
that peace is attained by extinguishing craving;
that this liberation may be brought about following
Eight-fold Path:
right attention to one's understanding,
intentions,
speech,
and actions;
right livelihood,
effort, mindfulness;
right concentration.
sitting yoga
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One day Gibran was asked, “Suppose you were compelled to give up – to forget all the words you know except seven – what are the seven words that you would keep?”
You
I
Give
God
Love
Beauty
Earth.
- Mirrors of The Soul – Kahlil Gibran
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To live without comparison!
It means no dependence, no self-sufficiency, no seeking, no asking; therefore it means to love. Love has no comparison, and so love has no fear. Love is not aware of itself as love, for the word is not the thing.
- The Second Krishnamurti Reader
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Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is a bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is costly, care for it.
Life is wealth, keep it.
Life is love, enjoy it.
Life is mystery, know it.
Life is a promise, fulfil it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, comfort it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it!
- City of Joy. Mother Teresa
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“Sharing knowledge is like a little bird taking a beak full of water from the mighty river; it does not reduce the amount of water in the river.”
- An Indian Poem I learnt in school - I think it is Kabir Das, the mystic Poet (1440-1518)
