Rituals of Radiant living by Robin S. Sharma

Here are the ten rituals of radiant living that Robin says, in his book "The monk who sold his Ferrari", should be practiced everyday;

1) Practice brief periods of solitude to recharge your batteries
2) Exercise. Practice yoga.
3) Eat vegetables and fruits.
4) Read and expand your knowledge.
5) Take time for personal reflection.
6) Awake early.
7) Listen to music
8) Repeat Mantras within yourself.
9) Build a congruent character – “You sow a thought, you reap an action. Reap an action, you sow a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap your destiny.”
10) Lead a simple life.

And keep in mind that according to the Ancient rule of 21 , if you do anything for 21 days in a row, it will be installed as a habit.

So, baddies! what do you got now ? 10 new habits to cultivate in 21 days ??

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

It was in the times when I was reading about “Deluxe Moksha” offered by the new-age religious tourism promoters in the form of helicopter rides to the cave shrines of Bhadrinath-Kedarnath, and private havelis and poojari’s on the banks of Ganges at Haridwar for the salvation of the rich, that I also read this book called “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin S. Sharma. And the stark contrast between the easy-snazzy route and the hard-disciplined way to enlightment came to the fore.

While the former as a part of the “Incredible India” campaign peddle Indian spirituality with contemporary sops like spas, yoga, cyber cafes, gym etc, Robin’s book packages traditional Indian recipe for success and happiness, which needs a lot of dedication and self-discipline. Most of what Robin has to say is already known to us, but which we rarely follow.

The book talks of seven virtues for an enlightened living, and here’s what I extracted of each of them;
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Mastering your mind – Mind is like a garden. Cultivate it through meditation. Relentlessly and painstakingly replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts.

Follow your Dharma – Clearly define your personal, professional and spiritual goals, and have the courage to act on them.

Improve your body, mind and soul constantly through Kaizen – Follow the 10 rituals of radiant living.

Live with discipline – Will power is the essence of fully actualized life.

Respect your time

Selflessly serve others – Practice daily acts of kindness. Cultivate richer relationships.

Embrace the present – Don’t be a captive of past. Live your children’s childhood.
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I didn’t particularly like Robin’s style of writing. At best, the book is just a good consolidation of age old Indian rituals and their effectiveness.

Quotes from the book "Ubiquity"

Here are few interesting quotes from the book "ubiquity". Unlike the quotes on love, romance, office, men, women etc that we normally get through our yahoo/google groups, these are quotes on science & history;

“History is the science of things which are never repeated.”

“To trace something back to something known is alleviating, soothing, gratifying and gives moreover a feeling of power. Danger, disquiet, anxiety attend the unknown – the first instinct is to eliminate these distressing states. First principle: any explanation is better than none…..”

“A science is any discipline in which a fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the genius of the last generation.”

“Time is what prevents everything from happening all at once”

“All truth is simple – is that not a compound lie?”
“Basic research is like shooting an arrow into the air and, where it lands, painting a target.”

“The purpose of models is not to fit the data, but to sharpen the questions.”

“The capacity to get free is nothing: the capacity to be free, that is the task.”

“Eventually, everything we currently believe will be revised. What we believe, then, is necessarily untrue."

Ubiquity

That’s a book by Mark Buchanan that I recently read. Though the book promised to be an interesting one, something like “The brief history of time”, it turned out to be a drag. Or so I felt because of the author’s, often, lengthy scientific deliberations. But what else could one expect from a Science writer. The ideas in the book are thought provoking, though.

As the title “ubiquity” suggests, the book dwells on certain laws of physics and mathematics that can explain, at the same time, events of diverse non-equilibrium systems like earthquakes, money markets, epidemics, forest fires, wars and revolutions. The illustrations drawn up to explain the commonalities between these seemingly varied phenomenons are down to earth and make sense. I especially liked the “pile of grains” game that has been used to explain how and why a simple incident triggered the First World War.

It answers questions like if history is repetitive, and if wars and revolutions occur cyclically. Why certain wars have more casualties than the others? Why certain cities are bigger than the others? One interesting thing that I learned from the book is that of the fractal pattern embedded into almost everything that humans know of. For example for every earth quake of intensity, say, 10, there are four earth quakes of intensity 5, and for every quake of intensity 5, there are four of intensity 2.5. The shapes of tributaries when blown up, represent, roughly the whole river. Basically, it seems, there is self-similarity in everything from geographical features to biological phenomena. So, if you have seen the small picture, you can faultlessly picture the big one. Interesting, isn’t it?

Quotes in the book are interesting. Shall post them later……