Getting rid of materialism............(neo-spiritualism)

Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic.

There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists, until it's too late to do anything about it. It's the only reason you get up in the morning. The only reason you suffer the shitty puss, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. Fear or revere me, but please, think I'm special. We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The hip-hip-hoo-lalala' rah. Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on you crazy diamond, because we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others.

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday night. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons?

Have you ever crossed the road, and looked the wrong way? A car's nearly on you? So what do you do? Something very silly. You freeze. Your life doesn't flash before you, 'cause you're too scared to think - you just freeze and pull a stupid face.

God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

The opposite of materialism is spiritualism ..... this philosophy is very different from spiritualism as we know it ....... lets just call it neo-spiritualism or spiritualism redefined

The above para's are dialogs from select movies ...... 4 movies to be precise

Try and guess the movies ? if you can .
(I'm sure you can easily guess the movie from which the first and last para were taken however the other three are tough to guess)

Trying to break from the shackles of consumerism

Luminescent Shards of happiness

The last few weeks have been overpowering for me especially on the emotional front with the most important week of my stay at hel(L) approaching fast, People look at the placements as the ultimate leveler, no one cares what your CG is or what committee you worked for, but if you have made it into the slot 1 biggies , you have proved your mettle. But as the penultimate week seems to approach the days seem to get shorter and shorter leaving me gasping for time, not that there is a lot of work to do, but just this truck load of tangled thoughts that I need to sort out before I leap. I felt like I’m in this large pool of spaghetti and I need to make something understandable out of this.
Friends and everyone around try to help only realize that they are in no better place than me , bearing the load of the same mind crippling thoughts. The paradox here is the more you think and try to sort things out the more entangled you find yourselves. And as always I look to sleep as my best solution provider (clearing my thoughts ……. NAP ATTACK in Garfield style), but lately this potent formula has seemed to loose it effectiveness.
I wonder if you guys have ever been in a drag race, once the light goes off and you put your foot down, there is no turning back, suddenly the under a minute race seems like it would last like until eternity, the sudden head rush gives you a high incomparable to anything in the world, and after a few seconds its over and life seems to move in slow motion. Well right now I feel I have been strapped to an rocket and the world just seems like a streak out of the corner of my eye. The thoughts that once revitalized mind and soul are now like this huge burden I have to carry with me for the next few years.
So with sleep ruled out , I started looking for alternatives and as always I looked upon the great feline Garfield for answers, so the next answer that came out was lasagna. The weather was pleasant with a mild breeze blowing and the faint rumble amongst the clouds. I got on my bike and took off. As I was half way through a wonderful thing happened , it started to rain. Just me alone on my bike on this seemingly empty stretch of road engulfed by these little drops of happiness, which looked like these luminescent shards of light, in front on of the headlamp. Only then did I realize the amount of happiness you can get from smaller things in life like rain on a clear night, go a long way. Every drop of rain that fell upon my face seemed to take away the worries that were haunting me. Every drop made its presence felt and before I realized it I was bearing a smile from one ear to the other ear J .
I realized I was making too big a deal out of this whole placement thing. I thought to myself ” Placements will happen no matter what and I will give it nothing but my best shot; But the worry of placements will surely not keep me from enjoying my last few days at the place I love the most, hel(L) ! . Jobs will change but the memories of this place will surpass time ; Lets make the most of what’s left ! “. The rain never left and accompanied me on my way back, though a little chilly my mind was clear and I had a dreamless sleep that night. the rain stopped the same night but the smile continued into the next day.
I end this post here with a very good song from the “god of reggae” Bob Marley …..
the redemption song

Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generationTriumphantly.
Wont you help to singThese songs of freedom?
-cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? ooh!
Some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to singThese songs of freedom?
-cause all I ever have:Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to singDese songs of freedom?
-cause all I ever had:Redemption songs -
All I ever had:Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,Songs of freedom.

Luminescent Shards of happiness

The last few weeks have been overpowering for me especially on the emotional front with the most important week of my stay at hel(L) approaching fast, People look at the placements as the ultimate leveler, no one cares what your CG is or what committee you worked for, but if you have made it into the slot 1 biggies , you have proved your mettle. But as the penultimate week seems to approach the days seem to get shorter and shorter leaving me gasping for time, not that there is a lot of work to do, but just this truck load of tangled thoughts that I need to sort out before I leap. I felt like I’m in this large pool of spaghetti and I need to make something understandable out of this.
Friends and everyone around try to help only realize that they are in no better place than me , bearing the load of the same mind crippling thoughts. The paradox here is the more you think and try to sort things out the more entangled you find yourselves. And as always I look to sleep as my best solution provider (clearing my thoughts ……. NAP ATTACK in Garfield style), but lately this potent formula has seemed to loose it effectiveness.
I wonder if you guys have ever been in a drag race, once the light goes off and you put your foot down, there is no turning back, suddenly the under a minute race seems like it would last like until eternity, the sudden head rush gives you a high incomparable to anything in the world, and after a few seconds its over and life seems to move in slow motion. Well right now I feel I have been strapped to an rocket and the world just seems like a streak out of the corner of my eye. The thoughts that once revitalized mind and soul are now like this huge burden I have to carry with me for the next few years.
So with sleep ruled out , I started looking for alternatives and as always I looked upon the great feline Garfield for answers, so the next answer that came out was lasagna. The weather was pleasant with a mild breeze blowing and the faint rumble amongst the clouds. I got on my bike and took off. As I was half way through a wonderful thing happened , it started to rain. Just me alone on my bike on this seemingly empty stretch of road engulfed by these little drops of happiness, which looked like these luminescent shards of light, in front on of the headlamp. Only then did I realize the amount of happiness you can get from smaller things in life like rain on a clear night, go a long way. Every drop of rain that fell upon my face seemed to take away the worries that were haunting me. Every drop made its presence felt and before I realized it I was bearing a smile from one ear to the other ear J .
I realized I was making too big a deal out of this whole placement thing. I thought to myself ” Placements will happen no matter what and I will give it nothing but my best shot; But the worry of placements will surely not keep me from enjoying my last few days at the place I love the most, hel(L) ! . Jobs will change but the memories of this place will surpass time ; Lets make the most of what’s left ! “. The rain never left and accompanied me on my way back, though a little chilly my mind was clear and I had a dreamless sleep that night. the rain stopped the same night but the smile continued into the next day.
I end this post here with a very good song from the “god of reggae” Bob Marley …..
the redemption song

Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generationTriumphantly.
Wont you help to singThese songs of freedom?
-cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? ooh!
Some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to singThese songs of freedom?
-cause all I ever have:Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to singDese songs of freedom?
-cause all I ever had:Redemption songs -
All I ever had:Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,Songs of freedom.

Slow down you crazy childYou're so ambitious for a juvenileBut then if you're so smart tell me whyAre you still so afraid?Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?You better cool it off before you burn it outYou got so much to do and onlySo many hours in a dayBut you know that when the truth is toldThat you can get what you wantOr you can just get oldYou're gonna kick off before you even get halfway throughWhen will you realize...Vienna waits for youSlow down you're doing fineYou can't be everything you want to beBefore your timeAlthough it's so romantic on the borderline tonight (tonight)Too bad but it's the life you leadYou're so ahead of yourselfThat you forgot what you needThough you can see when you're wrongYou know you can't always see when you're right(you're right)You got your passion you got your prideBut don't you know that only fools are satisfied?Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come trueWhen will you realizeVienna waits for youSlow down you crazy childTake the phone off the hook and disappear for a whileIt's alright you can afford to lose a day or twoWhen will you realize...Vienna waits for you.And you know that when the truth is toldThat you can get what you wantOr you can just get oldYou're gonna kick off before you even get halfway throughWhy don't you realize...Vienna waits for youWhen will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Slow down you crazy childYou're so ambitious for a juvenileBut then if you're so smart tell me whyAre you still so afraid?Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?You better cool it off before you burn it outYou got so much to do and onlySo many hours in a dayBut you know that when the truth is toldThat you can get what you wantOr you can just get oldYou're gonna kick off before you even get halfway throughWhen will you realize...Vienna waits for youSlow down you're doing fineYou can't be everything you want to beBefore your timeAlthough it's so romantic on the borderline tonight (tonight)Too bad but it's the life you leadYou're so ahead of yourselfThat you forgot what you needThough you can see when you're wrongYou know you can't always see when you're right(you're right)You got your passion you got your prideBut don't you know that only fools are satisfied?Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come trueWhen will you realizeVienna waits for youSlow down you crazy childTake the phone off the hook and disappear for a whileIt's alright you can afford to lose a day or twoWhen will you realize...Vienna waits for you.And you know that when the truth is toldThat you can get what you wantOr you can just get oldYou're gonna kick off before you even get halfway throughWhy don't you realize...Vienna waits for youWhen will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Blast from the past
this is what I wrote last year, on the same day
Meaning of Time
Its 5:45am in the morning by my alarm clock, I have made 3 attempts to try and my myself into snooze mode to no avail. I have nothing to do but stare at the watch in front of me. And while just staring at the watch it occurred to me how slow time moves. Here’s an exercise for you! just try staring at a watch for 5 minutes, its only when you stare at the watch with a thoughtless mind do you realize that time is never running out on you and its you that’s running out on time. Time is an unstoppable force (please leave out the pseudo-theory of relativity now), no matter what you do or who you are time is always going to win. Everything is a slave time, and by everything I mean all living and non-living objects, even the stars we see are slaves of time, Time takes no prisoners and everything right from tiny ants to galaxies are like footprints on the shores of time, some higher up on the shores and the others in the path of the next on-coming wave.
This reminds me of a short story I once read about two children playing on the seashore building and destroying castles of sand, the irony however was the children themselves represent the sand castles on the shores of nature and how life has this never ending urge to move to an end, taking it a step further nature itself is like a raindrop that has left the cloud which bore it and is waiting to hit the ground below to loose its existence and identity guarded only by time. This thought led me to a larger question if everything including us are bounded by time which in itself has no end, how can one quantify time? Some how the units like years, months…..seconds seem very relative and artificial. Thus, making time (as we know it) a pseudo unit of measurement based only on the human percept.
It makes me wonder how a person’s percept of time changes according to the situation. For all those of you who have ever had a chance to make a presentation would realize the difference in the percept of time. While you are up there on the stage blabbering away to glory time flies away, One never realizes how long it has been since he/she took the stage, I have had my goof ups of overshooting my time limit in a presentation, while on the other hand it’s a so difficult to even stay focused (in my case awake) when someone (like profs) else is talking and you have to listen, every minute seems like ten and an hour seems like a day (remember the exponential graph hehe). If we think hard we all will realize that time will catch up with you and the only way to live like a happy life is to leave no room for the element of time in the journey of life and let time take its toll the way it does. My thoughts can be captured very well by a verse of Pink Floyd’s song Time.
“And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinkingRacing around to come up behind you againThe sun is the same in a relative way, but you're olderShorter of breath and one day closer to death”
OK now I think I better sleep or else the exponential graph of time will get extremely steep in tomorrows classes.