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Just a note to my faithful readers and wandering surfers, who happened to stumble upon this informative blog. My martial arts blog (http://www.resourcesonmartialarts.blogspot.com) has finally been brought to life. To all martial arts enthusiasts, just to let you know that I am a martial arts enthusiast as well. I have been researching on all sources available to my eyes and hands on various forms of martial arts since the age of 9. Not claiming to be Mr Know-All but I will try my best to provide information to anyone who is interested to know something specific about a particular martial arts. I have started off that blog with 2 articles. One is on the oldest martial arts in the world and the other on origins of Shaolin Kung Fu. Enjoy.

Everyone is marketable

I realise that everyone is marketable. Marketable in the sense that everyone is unique. Everyone is talented at something. Everyone is good at at least one thing. We can therefore make money out of what we are good at. Of course, being good at something is not enough and we have to be marketable but since we are different in our own ways, we are all marketable. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Hence the bottom line is that everyone has the ability to acquire success and wealth owing to the fact that he/she is skilled in something and is unique in his/her own ways.

Did you know that if you write a story of your life, regardless of how eventless it may be, and publish it, it will still be salable enough to make a fortune? It works because people, by nature, are interested in knowing others' affairs. I am planning to do so later on in life, in that way I will have more to write. Not that I don't have much to write now, in fact if I do now I will be over pouring with information but I prefer to do it later. So if you want to have a healthy weight in your pocket, write a story of your life in your own style. Try it, after all there is nothing to lose because even if our life is filled with memories which we don't want to keep, we will feel better after sharing the information. In fact, we can even choose to omit certain events if we don't wish to keep them in the story.

Creativity at its best

What is the best way to achieve creativity? We know that the mind has to be open first of all. Much like how the saying goes "the mind works the same way as the parachute, it can only function if its open." To achieve the full potential of creativity, one ought not to be creative with the intention of creating something creative. Nice paradox, isn't it? The person should explore at their own leisure and discover things along the way. That is how most inventions are born. Some people call it "by accident". Irregardless, inventions are usually done unintentionally. They could not have happened if the inventors were concerned about the end result.

"We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys." - Eric Hoffer

Competition vs Collaboration

There is this tidbit from my favourite blogger. She compares which is better between competition and collaboration. Collaboration obviously seems more beneficial in almost any kind of situation. She ended off with a funny thought as to what would happen if both the mother and the father of a family have a competition to serve the family members. Haha, that will be a disaster...

Speaking of which, we might have noticed that people who are very highly successful in their particular field has become so not due to competition but because they love what they are doing. If I give an example of a Kollywood superstar, Kamal Hassan, who is an epitome of acting (has won 171 awards, more than any actor in film history) is best at what he does because he loves it so much and not because he wants to compete with other actors. Think about food as an example. Home cooked food is better prepared than commercial food simply because the former is done out of love and commercial food is done out of competition.

Infinite with finite paradox

Hinduism is factually the world's oldest religion and thus, there is a number of misconceptions on it.

Probably one of the most famous misconceptions, even within Hindus, is that they are required to worship idols. The truth is Hindus are asked not to worship idols, but worship God in the form of idols. With so many idols and faces of the Almighty, people tend to easily get confused between God and idols. The purpose of worhsipping God through idols is to facilitate contemplation of the infinite with our finite capabilities. Reaching the infinite with finite capabilities is one of the paradoxes in Hinduism.

To digress slightly, most paradoxes make us think and the simple reason is that they contain the universal truth in them. Note "simple reason" and "universal truth", even that is a paradox I just thought of!

I read this online article (Hinduism, the world's oldest religion - a simple introduction to a complex religion) on misconceptions of Hinduism and noticed a quote of a great intellectual, Swami Vivekananda, "if a person wants to drink milk, he uses a cup as he cannot drink it directly. For the quivering and unsteady mind, there should be a visible form or a symbol, the idol, so that it becomes a foundation for his adoration. The idol form of God is akin to a vessel which enables a man to drink the milk. Through the instrumentality of an idol, a devotee comprehends divinity."

More interesting facts can be found through this website http://www.geocities.com/Athens/forum/9410/hindu1.html

Ancient evolution theory in Hinduism

There is an interesting insight on how evolutionary is being depicted through the ten incarnations of the Hindu Lord Maha Vishnu. This is what it is believed to be.

Matsya(fish) to Kurma(tortoise-amphibian) to Varaha(boar) to Narasimha(half-man/half lion) to Vamana(dwarfed man-with stunted growth) to Parasurama(axe wielding primitive man) to Rama(justly king-epitome of goodness) to Krishna(worldly wise-machiavellian) to Buddha(enlightened one) to ?

The last incarnation is believed to be Kalki Avatar. The incarnation He takes to destroy the world which is equivalent to that of what other religions believe to be "judgement day".

There is another belief of how Lord Surya's (Sun) had seven chariots which correspond to the seven colours of the spectrum.

It is fascinating that our forefathers knew well about science which we know of today. In the Golden and Silver Ages, some civilisations were known to have used technology more advanced than ours. Just imagine, people in those days used technology greater than that of computer's.

Lord Krishna - Best example of a leader

Economic Times, December 2004, provided a case study on leadership portraying Lord Krishna as the best example of a leader.

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are two great masterpieces of ancient Indian literature presenting two philosophies of life. Valmiki’s Rama represents idealism and Ved Vyas’ Krishna, realism.

Ram is a character. Krishna is an actor; he involves himself without being involved. He is a catalyst energising others into action. He refuses to circumscribe his life with ideas and ideals. For him life is larger than all ideas and ideals put together. They are for life; life is not for them. It’s the same mind that gives rise to both good and evil, virtue and vice. Both aspects are different transformations of one and the same energy. Krishna doesn’t deny these dualities. A mirror reflects everything that appears before it, but unlike a camera, it doesn’t retain impressions. A man of mirror-like consciousness will relate with people and things, but he won’t enter into relationships involving attachment. Rama is a doer; he acts for his ideals and is therefore called marayada purshottam. Krishna on the other hand, is an incomparable actor; he turns the whole world into his stage. He plays a friend and a foe without being involved in friendship and enmity. Krishna is called leela-purshottam. He accepts all contradictions and ambiguities of life. He isn’t afraid of them. That is why he’s called complete or purnavatar. Krishna’s mission of life was to uphold dharma. His whole life is like an open book. He wears no mask. Whatever he is, he is. He doesn’t deny anything; he is transparent. It’s true that life is full of contradictions and absurdities. To Krishna all that doesn’t justify escapism. He does what is situationally appropriate. Since it’s not possible to remain a mere witness, it’s better to act with complete self-knowledge and moral courage.

Creative destruction - There’s one event in Mahabharata, which generally doesn’t catch popular attention: the burning of the Khandava forest. After the plan to kill Pandavas failed, Dhritarashtra was forced to give them a share of the kingdom. Keeping Hastinapur to himself and his sons, he gave a little-known town Khandavaprastha to the Pandavas. On a hot summer day, younger members of the Pandava family with Krishna’s family went for a picnic to the nearby Khandava forest. There they drank, sang and danced. Suddenly everyone saw that the forest caught fire and Krishna and Arjuna together guarded all sides so tightly that no creature fleeing from the blaze could escape. Furiously driving their chariots, the two slaughtered everything in sight. Fire consumed almost all vegetation and life. It’s not known how the fire really started. But, the question remains: why Krishna and Arjuna acted so ruthlessly and so mercilessly? Of course, the Pandavas were planning to build Indraprastha, a city bigger than Hastinapur, which they did. And, they may also be trying to fulfil the duty of a ruling king to provide more land for cultivation. Forests had to be cleared for human settlement and entire region made rich and fertile.

Swadharma as ordained by swabhava Krishna makes a distinction between ends and means. Ends can be idealistic but if means are absolutely pure, they will soon become ends and the distinction between ends and means will disappear. Is a pure end ever fully achieved? It’s always there as an ideal. Often at times the problem is to choose between greater evil and lesser evil. If it’s found necessary Krishna breaks his own vows. Violating the kshatriya code, he once even ran away from the battlefield because discretion could sometimes be a better part of valour. His elder brother, Balarama, decided to remain neutral in the battle at Kurukshetra. Krishna knew great issues were at stake. He was also aware that both sides looked at him as a friend. Neither side was totally right nor totally wrong. The way he divided himself is extraordinary. He told them they had two options: he or his army. It’s obvious if one is anxious for victory he wouldn’t choose Krishna without his army and, more so when he says, he wouldn’t fight. The Pandavas chose him because they knew he was a great strategist, at one moment a sober statesman, but very often also the shrewd manipulator bent upon achieving his purpose irrespective of means employed. He manipulated killings of all outstanding warriors of the Kauravas’ army. They knew his presence was more important than his participation.

Krishna is perhaps the best example of a leader as a catalyst available in world literature. He has no interests, no position and no power. Yet on almost all important occasions when great events occur in Mahabharata He is present. He does nothing, his presence makes things happen. The word Krishna means centre. He is the centre of attraction. He stands for certain values of life and wants to destroy all those who make others suffer. Unlike Rama he doesn’t try to walk on a straight line. He deviates when it is situationally appropriate.