Wanna peaceful state of mind—throw away all your beliefs :D

Quick question: How do you know you are right?

I’m not talking about anything in particular; just in general. How do you know you are right about anything—your religious beliefs, political stands, causes you believe in, or whether chocolate cake truly is much better than vanilla cake.

I used to be a person who thought that my beliefs are strongly rooted in logic and common sense and anyone who didn’t agree with them was a blind stubborn imbecile with a rat’s $hit for brains stuck in the dark ages :D

Now I say, the only problem with common sense is that there’s nothing common about it!!

As for logic, well logic all depends on how far you tilt your head, your mood, or whether you are pmsing or not.

Logic is an illusion.

Have you guys seen that Facebook Right-Brain vs Left-Brain application that asks you to say which way the girl is dancing? When I first saw it, I thought WTH, of course it's clockwise; there’s nothing illusionary about it. It’s clear as day. Boy did I get the shock of my life when I saw how many people have said she is twirling counter-clockwise.

What, are these people blind??!!! This is NOT an illusion; she is clearly twirling clockwise; why couldn't they see it???

Ok, maybe a possible explanation is that it keeps changing directions. But no EVERY time I saw it, it was clockwise. SO WHY COULDN’T PEOPLE SEE IT THE WAY I SAW IT.

Again, I repeat this image is not an optical illusion. See with other optical illusion pictures nothing is clear; the pictures are always half way between something; so I can accept why some see a frog, some a horse; some and old woman, some young; BUT THIS PICTURE WAS CLEAR.

Then it hit me; if I just tilt my head to the left a little bit, I would see her twirling counter-clockwise!!! I practiced till I got her to turn the other way. :D

But then two days later, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t “see” her turning counter-clockwise. Apparently my mood also affects my perception.

Hmmm, so how often had I been so sure of my beliefs before, how often was I 100% what I was seeing is crystal clear and how often was I shocked that others didn’t see what I saw.

So if all those time I would have just tilted my head, I could have seen what they saw.

Are all our strong held beliefs just like this dancing girl?

PS. If you cannot see her turning in the picture above go here

PPS Also go there to get the interpretation of your test result.

PPPS. Baba, ya ammy, ya amu, ya walek...just go there :D

UPDATE: A non-virtual friend just sent me this video related to the above topic. Check it out:

Quick question: Which is worse/better?

Fork in the road-Melat Park-Tehran-April 2008

To grow old completely alone or to be stuck in a loveless marriage.


I don’t mean an abusive marriage, just one that there’s no passion; no spark, nothing to make your heart skip a beat.

Half the world celebrated something on Friday :D :D :D :D

Mom and I will hit the road in about an hour. I couldn't sleep, got up to surf and came across this article. Brought a smile to my face, thought of sharing it:

"...on this particular Friday, March 21, it seems almost no believer of any sort will be left without his or her own holiday. In what is statistically, at least, a once-in-a-millennium combination, the following will all occur on the 21st:

Good Friday

Purim, a Jewish festival celebrating the biblical book of Esther

Narouz, the Persian New Year, which is observed with Islamic elaboration in Iran and all the "stan" countries, as well as by Zoroastrians and Baha'is.

Eid Milad an Nabi, the Birth of the Prophet, which is celebrated by some but not all Sunni Muslims and, though officially beginning on Thursday, is often marked on Friday.

Small Holi, Hindu, an Indian festival of bonfires, to be followed on Saturday by Holi, a kind of Mardi Gras.

Magha Puja, a celebration of the Buddha's first group of followers, marked primarily in Thailand.

"Half the world's population is going to be celebrating something," says Raymond Clothey, Professor Emeritus of Religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh. "My goodness," says Delton Krueger, owner of www.interfaithcalendar.org, who follows "14 major religions and six others." He counts 20 holidays altogether (including some religious double-dips, like Maundy Thursday and Good Friday) between the 20th (which is also quite crowded) and the 21st.

You can read the whole article here: Good Friday! Happy Purim, Eid, etc...


UPDATE: I just realized that Mother's Day in the Arab world was also this Friday :D :D

Hey maybe this is a sign that 2008 is the year of world peace :P :P

Are you a Goodman Brown?

As she was talking to me, and I was conversing with her an old story started roaming somewhere in my head. I couldn't quite place the title, character, plot, but I felt I this story was what first installed a certain belief in me.

SHE: I trusted her, she was my role model. How could she do this?

ME: Come on, you two have been friends for 10 years now. Don’t let a little dispute ruin a great friendship.

SHE: What she did affects my work reputation. The thing is that I always wanted to be like her. I looked up to her. She was the perfect example of a great manager.

ME: See that’s why you shouldn't be friends with your manager

As that last sentence rolled off my tongue I knew there was some other point I had to make, some more important point.

SHE: No one is to be trusted anymore. Everything was a lie. Our friendship was a lie. What she taught me was a lie. I’m tired of……

ME: Hold on!! Why was it a lie? The message wasn’t wrong, the lesson she taught you wasn’t a lie; the messenger or teacher may have made a mistake. So what? We are humans, we make mistakes; but that doesn’t erase the good things we did in our past.

SHE: You don’t understand. What she did to me was the exact opposite of what she taught me.

Ahaaaa…I remember the story, I remember the plot…it was about a man who had a dream that his wife who he thought of as innocent and sinless was actually involved in satanic rituals...and...and he found out all his town folks who he also considered as puritan weren’t so pure either, as a result he loses his faith and lives miserably ever after…what was the name now...aaahhaa...I got it…the name of the short story was ‘Young Goodman Brown’. Now I remember, I read it about 12 years ago. I remember thinking to myself at that time, why would anyone put faith in a person, the message they are preaching is important, not how they live it out themselves. If the messenger errs, that doesn’t mean the message was wrong. That’s why I have never actually had a role model; I have never put my faith in any person

[5 minutes later]

…which could also explain why I have never been in love…or even close to it…but now I am going off topic…ok…back to my conversation with her…actually forget that conversation…you got the point…I told her about the story, she was still hurtand upset with her friend/manager, didn’t pay much attention to what I was saying…I wonder if she is going to end up being another Young Goodman Brown, hmmmmmmm?

If you are interested, you can read YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN here…or you can read the summary here… now I have to go and contemplate if I was right all these years in never trusting or looking up to anyone…hmmmmmmm

Week in review and the week ahead

Week in review

1. Sis b-day and a free yoga video

Yesterday was my sister’s birthday. She’s the kind that makes a list. One of the items on her list was a yoga DVD, so I gave her this link: http://yoga.org.nz/yoga_vidoes_download1.htm

Happy birthday sis :D

PS. Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes she did make me get off my ass and go out and buy her and actual gift. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could just give people links as gifts :D

2. Getting signs to start taking pix again

I got this personal belief that either do something with a passion or don’t do it all. So that’s why I haven’t picked up my camera in such along time. So when I got an email from some dude who is writing a book and wanted to use one of my pix; I’m like…hey maybe I could establish a relationship with that little thingy again. But this DSLR thing is too complicated so I went shopping for a good point-and-shoot camera. So far found nothing I like. Waiting for exhibition on feb 4^th to buy a camera and a laptop. Oh and thanks hamid for that email a couple of weeks ago also pushing me to start picking up that camy.

3. Thought of trying to develop a passion for cooking

Since a lot of people I meet these days seem to love cooking—even guys—I thought maybe I need to see if I can find the joy of slaving over a hot stove as well. So I thought of checking out you tube videos. Love this one :D

Week ahead

1. Gonna see my niece

My bro who (I don’t like using whom) I haven’t seen in over 15 years is coming this Tuesday :D :D :D…with his wife aaaaaannnnnddddddddd my niece :D :D :D This little angel has her own website!!! Damn times have changed, when I was born all I got was a bunch of pictures taken with a regular camera :(

PS.

FREE DVDS Yoga Online

Visit the Yoga.org.nz Online yoga website
heaps of cool yoga stuff including a free downloadable Videos and DVDs.