Dedication

Shadows of Memories,
Lonelinesses,
Are from you.

You became a part of me,
Slowly, Gradually.

Life,
Is your love.

From you,
Are all my joys.

The row of affections,
The caravan of desires,
Are your gifts.

Shadows of Memories,
Lonelinesses,
Are from you.

The Lay Out

The days that pass by me
The nights that crawl up,

The vastnesses that I see,
The tightness that sneaks up,

Do thoughts have an age?
Do feelings need a hub?

Am I a lament of my thoughts?
Am I an idol I conjured up?

An Ode

When I look at you, it is as if I am looking at a collage. You are like a collage with bright and radiant colors. Each color shows an aspect of you. These colors are so mesmerizing that I want to drown in them. Each one of them has a depth. Each one of them has a soul. And each one of them is intoxicating.

I don't know where to start and where to end. It is as if you were timeless. An object of beauty, and an object of endless joy. When I am with you, I savor every moment of this colorful experience. You look to me as you are a world in yourself. A world where you don't need much else. Your presence is a spiritual experience. Your words are engrossing. Your laughter is music.

Being with you is a journey through the lightness of being. Being with you is like an aspect of life never felt before. It is as if life is worth living for. And I still don't know if it is your magical eyes, your all-encompassing smile, or just your beautiful presence.

You are beautiful.

Kinds of Love

Although there are several types of loves, but I am going to talk about three basic ones.

The first one is the love by familiarity. I mean familiarity in a strict psychological sense. It develops when we live and interact with someone on a regular basis. We become highly used to the other persons presence in our lives and integrate them in it. Such love is usually found among siblings, and in parent-child relationships.

The second love is what I call a crush. Actually, it is a very scientific phenomenon. Deep underneath, in our subconscious, mother nature has programmed our brains to reproduce. Just like a search engine searches for the right match, our subconscious searches for the means to reproduce. Has it ever happened to you that you looked at somebody of the opposite sex from behind, became attracted, but as soon as the person turned around, the attraction vanished? It is a very simple case of such crush.

What happens in this case is that our subconscious, which is acting as a search engine, thinks that it found a match. It is looking for the right age and the right biological indicators. Both male and female bodies possess physical features that indicate levels of fertility. Even when the search finds a partial match, it initiates an attention. But as soon as the partial proof is neutralized, the attention goes away.

In essence, the above mentioned love is not love, it is only a subliminal biological drive.

The third love is the soulmate kind of love. This happens when two people meet outside their bodies. By that I mean the meeting of two minds, and thoughts. This is when the thinkings of two minds come together. They create a sense of joy and harmony. The love that comes out of this situation surpasses other loves. It goes beyond the phsyical attraction and finds its home in our thoughts. It has the power to weather good and bad times alike. Given positive reinforcement, this love only grows, and doesn't diminish.

In Defence of Failure

There used to be a guy in my college who dropped out. Not that he wasn't smart, but he wasn't getting the results that he wanted. There was one thing very special about him: he gave the best advice. Why? you'd think. He had already failed in his techniques. So he knew they didn't work. He would always suggest something different from other people.

Failure carries a very negative connotation in our minds. To fail is to lose. And to lose is bad. Is it really so?

I don't agree. While failing leaves a very bad taste, it does leave experiences and lessons. Just like a flood, that destroys everything that stood, but leaves new soil. Just like Ford Motors made their best selling car, Mustang, after their worst failure, Edsel.

And after all, why do we fail in the first try? Because we were not aware of the factors that would cause our failure. What happens right after? Yes, there is misery. There is despair. But then, there is also experience. There is also knowledge. The knowledge we did not have.

Knowledge comes faster by failing than by doing nothing.

Aspects

For a very long time, I was stuck with the debate of what school to go for an MBA. How can I learn the best techniques? What school can teach me those?

It's all about the aspects. Just like a soccer ball, that has a number of aspects, every venture in life has aspects. For example, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you need to know the aspect of scanning a market, the aspect of identifying an opportunity, the aspect of creating a business plan, the aspect of hiring the best resources, etc etc.

The challenge is identifying the aspects. One needs to explore all the aspects that are required by a certain art. Once you identify all the aspects that would lead you to your destination, you put them together in one line. A + B + C + D ...... + Z. There you go. You know the aspects, you know their sequence, now go get them.

The concepts of aspects applies to pretty much all branches of knowledge. If you want to be a writer, learn the aspect of vocabulary, learn the aspect of phrases, learn the aspect of connecting, and so forth.

I wanted to know who can teach me. Who can make me the best? I did get the answer. Who can teach me everything? Myself. The process of learning would flow from inside out, and not the other way around. As they say, it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

Champions are born from within.

Greatness

Greatness is not a step function. It's a chain of gradual changes.

Slaves of Connotation

Killing a man on the street is a crime. Killing your enemy in the battlefield is a victory. What's the difference? The connotation.

Human psyche is a slave of connotations. We derive our pleasures and our griefs from the connotations of our surrounding, and not by objective reality.

Let me elaborate later....

Tattoos

Experiences are like tattoos. It hurts when you are getting them, but they leave indelible marks.

Paradigm Shift

There are times in our history when our values change. We are forced to rethink our traditions. We are forced to adopt new ways and leave old ones behind. In the history of all religions, and I don't speak of any one in particular, a person comes and redefines the way we live. We call such people by different names. We call them prophets, messengers, messiahs, avatars, and the holy men.

In Gandhi's words, the revolutionaries are first met with indifference, then with resistance, and then with a following.

At the time of the change, whoever follows the new thought becomes a target. The followers of Jesus were chased after, and so were Muhammad's. Galileo's followers were declared evil, and so were Freud's.

But what happens 'after' the trends have been changed? What happens 'after' the sacrifices of such people are accepted by the masses? The same things that were a stigma at one time become an honor. To be a follower of Jesus or Muhammad earns you respect by the peers. To praise Galileo and Kepler becomes bohemian.

This is the time when the paradigm shifts. Now Bible or Koran are not read to reach god, but to flaunt religiosity. Now beards are kept not to show dissidence, but to gain social acceptance. Kind deeds are not done to help humanity, but to show off. Heads are covered not to be modest, but to be able to run with the crowd.

Diplomacy

For a very long time, I hated being diplomatic. I equated diplomacy to two-facedness. I thought one should say what they deemed right. There shouldn't be any compromises when it comes to the truth. I was not quite right.

Let's say that you are driving an expensive car on a nice road. Suddenly, the road becomes rough. It has bumps and ditches. What would you do then? Would you keep driving fast? If you do, you would damage your car. You have to slow down. Over every bump and ditch, you slowly and carefully maneuver your car. You may even get off the road if you have to. You may actually come out of the bad patch of the road with your car unscathed. This is how delicate moments are in real life.

There are moments in our lives where being blunt would not help us. Knowing the right answer would not be enough. It would also depend on how it is communicated.

Entertainment

There is a very cliche moment in some Indian movies that I used to watch as a child. Bad guys would surround an innocent person, bully him or her, and then laugh on that person's misery. Was that a reason to laugh?

Mansour Hallaj was a sufi saint that lived during the times of Junaid Baghdadi. He uttered the words that took him to the altar. He created the biggest controversy of his time. He claimed to be God. Ana'l Haq: I am the truth. When people told him not to say that, he replied that he couldn't help it. The clergy decided to give him the death penalty. He was to be beheaded in front of the people of Baghdad. Before he was killed, his hands and feet were cut off. As his limbs were being severed, he smiled and started laughing. Was that a reason to laugh?

The things that make us happy or sad are indicative of who we are. Happiness is not an end in itself. One could be living in a fool's paradise, and still be smiling.

Shawshank Redemption

In the movie 'Shawshank Redemption', Tim Robbins is an inmate who plans to escape from prison. He does not have any tools to break open his cell. If you haven't seen the movie, stop here :)

But if you have seen it, then you know that he uses a spoon to dig a tunnel for himself. It takes him decades to dig it using his small tool. But with persistence and patience, he does it. Is a spoon really made to dig tunnels? If he were to hit the spoon too hard on the ground, it would have broken right away. So what did he do? He went slowly. Slow enough so that he doesn't break the spoon, but accomplishes something every day.

We are like those spoons. When the journey is long, and energies are limited, we should not stress. If we stress ourselves out, we will break right away.

They say, the tallest mountains are climbed very slowly, but persistently.

Positioning

In life, it's always about positioning. I used to like this song that said that sometimes you can never quench your thirst. You won't even be given a drop. And sometimes, pouring clouds will follow you.

Sometimes when the winds are behind you, you walk fast. You grow fast. You get the acceptance. You get the applause. You get the praise. You rise to a point where you would be given anything that came out of your mouth. People follow you. You become the authority. Then you are proud of yourself.

But then it takes no time at all to change all that. You fall. You become weak. You are forgotten, as if you were never there. You are in the dark. Everything seems impossible, and everything seems unachievable. You fumble in the dark and you catch nothing. Then you doubt yourself.

The fact is that it is the same you, each time. Its only your positioning that changes. Character shines during the high times, but it is made during the low ones.

Internalization

The process of learning is a process of internalization. Whenever we learn a concept or an idea, we learn its aspects and dynamics and internalize it. The best internalizers are the best students. They become what they learn. The key to any problem is to bring the problem to a domain that one understands, and then solve it. Once the framework is built, further learning becomes easy. Building up on previous knowledge is an act of using what is already a part of our psyche and extending it to a new level.

I give you a few examples. When children learn, it is easier to teach them a new concept using what they already know. You can start with abstract ideas of good and evil, but if you start with Spider Man and the Green Goblin, you can easily show the difference. In this case, the child has already internalized the concepts of Spider Man and Green Goblin, and extending further becomes much easier.

As another example, the sufis have used this concept quite frequently. If you ever read Rumi or Hafez, you would see many analogies. Rumi often uses the analogies of a flute, of animals, of relationships, and many other mundane objects. Just like a child is familiar with comic characters, adults are much more comfortable with the notions of a musical instrument, a fox, their brothers or parents and so forth. Teaching an adult with something they already consider their territory is a much easier task.

And as yet another example, the art of public speaking is not about copying an orator. It is about bringing your personal style out. You want to be comfortable with the podium, the staring audience, and the nervousness. You have to stand up there and talk as if you were in your living room speaking with your friends.

So whatever concept, idea or theory one has to master, the quickest way to do it is to start internalizing it. This is why Einstein said that the imagination was more important than knowledge. If you have a strong imagination, or a database of thoughts, you can always utilize it by linking newly learned concepts to the older ones.

Paintings and Idols

I used to watch this show on PBS. A painter used to draw paintings and teach his art on canvass. I once saw his program from beginning till end. He started with a layer of color in the background. He took his brush and painted half the canvass blue. At first I thought he ruined the painting because there was no space left to draw anything else. But he knew what he was doing. He later mixed other colors on top of the background layer and from that he drew mountains, trees, houses, birds, bushes and what not. The mixing of colors gave his painting a depth that I could never achieve in my 5th grade drawings. He was a master of his art, of course.

When hindus need to remember their god, they take a piece of stone and sculpt an idol. They hit that stone with hammers and whittle its details out. With every hard hit on the stone, it takes its shape. If the stone were to complain on the blows, it would never undergo that change. Once its features are carved out, the idol is then washed in milk and is worshipped as a god for the rest of the time.

Our experiences shape our character in that way too. When they happen to us the first time, we seldom understand. But one after another, they start taking shape. From those haphazard layers of colors arise shapes. From those hard blows arise features. From those unanswered questions arises a clear picture.

Time is an artist, and we are its art.

Absolute Value

I had been thinking about something for the past few days. I had been asking myself why is it that we often yearn for something so much, and once we achieve it, it loses its value. Last night, as I was going to check my mail, I stumbled upon a simple idea. I thought that nothing in this world had absolute value. I am not going to say that everything is relative. Rather, there is a supply and demand relationship in everything.

Firstly, the value of things is a subjective issue. I am not talking about how the value of a BMW varies from one heart to another. I am talking about how we value things in life as time passes by. A baby wants food, a boy wants toys, a guy wants a wife, a middle-aged guy wants stability, and a senile man would want peace and tranquility. Every age has its needs. Those needs only bother at that age, and not before or after. Its like looking for a parking spot during peak hours. The coveted parking spot means a lot when we need it. But if you visit the same place at off-peak time, that parking place doesn't mean much. Supplies are only needed when they are in demand.

It seems to me that before we get to a certain stage in our life, the demands of that time are already there. As old needs are met, the demands change and we have a new set of needs. Is there a need that never changes? Is there anything worth the attention of a lifetime?

Memento

In the corporate world, there is a thing called initiatives. Initiatives are taken to bring a much-needed change in the company. Recently I read an article that talked about what makes an initiative successful. The onus fell mainly on the shoulders of the CEO and the senior management. Companies initiate a change to fix a chronic problem or to mitigate an imminent risk.

Initiatives happen at a personal level, too. People often decide to change something about them. They find out that something is wrong and they decide to take it by the horns. Then the struggle begins. Of all the struggles, the oldest one is the struggle between good and evil. This is the struggle between our morals and our desires. It is between our knowledge and our impulses. It is between our social pressures and our chosen paths. It is between our minds and our hearts. It is between our souls and our bodies.

Its not that we don't know the problem, or we don't know how to fix it. It is the perseverence that poses the challenge. It is hard to leave the comfort zone and jump into the unknown. It is hard to resist the urge and be desciplined. It is hard to let go what we think we deserve, while everybody else is enjoying.

When I saw the movie 'Memento', I felt a connection between it and the human nature. Even though you hardly come across a character like the one in that movie, but it can be used as an allegory. Memento is the story of a man suffering from amnesia. He is trying to find out who he is, but keeps forgetting. So he devises a method of remembering by leaving notes for himself. Each time he loses his memory, he reads his notes. But how to remember to read the notes? You'd have to watch the movie to find out.

I just realized the connection between the struggle of the protagonist in the movie, and the struggles that we go through when we want to change. We do want to improve, and we do want to follow our heart. But, as the strong winds of our desires blow, an amnesia plagues us. We forget what we aimed for, and what we decided was best for us. It is like a storm hitting a boat in deep waters, when everybody loses orientation. It is when our philosophies fail and we disgrace ourselves. It is when we forget about the sublime, and stoop down to the sub-standard. It is precisely at that time, when we need a memento.

The Celebrities

We all love some celebrity. It could be our favorite actor, actress, writer, or anybody. Most of us have also had the opportunity to meet one of our favorite celebrities in person. I once had such a chance too. I met with a favorite musician of mine. It was awesome. I was so enthralled to meet him. On the contrary, he didn't know any of the fans surrounding him. He was giving us his stock smile and bandied words with us. That meeting got me thinking.

I started to think about what makes somebody a celebrity? After all, they are only human beings. What makes them so special? I came up with a very simple model. I am calling it, 'One-Way Influence'. One-way influencing means that when we watch people on the TV, or in the movies, our psychology falsely assumes that we know them. The next step to this knowing is the formation of a trust and bonding. Since this trust is based on false assumptions, it surprises us when we read about the same people in tabloids. The interesting thing to note here is that the other person does not know anything about us. He is not bonding with us. It is only happening in one direction. Slowly, the person on the screen becomes very dear to us.

In order to test my theory, I began to think of an experiment. I thought that if I were to stand up in front of a group of people and speak, a 'very minor' case of one-way influencing will occur. So I went to a party where I hardly knew anyone. It was a musical evening. A small band was playing and a couple hundred people were listening. I went up to the host of the show and asked them if they could let me tell a few jokes. Of course, I had the hidden agenda of making friends, but at the same time, I wanted to test my theory. They kindly gave me a few minutes. I went up to the stage, and did some stand-up comedy. People laughed and apparently liked my jokes (phew!!).

When I finished my jokes and walked off the stage, a group of people invited me and started talking. It was like an instant friendship. I didn't have to introduce myself at all. One-way influencing had actually worked! My appearance at the stage had subconsciously made me a friend of the audience.

Since then, I have used the same theory over and over. Many a times, I don't get the same response as in that party. For example, in one of my classes that I taught, my students were adament about not expressing their feelings. They thought I would count it against them. But other than that, one-way influencing has always worked for me.

You'd ask, where does this theory apply? I can give you two applicable areas. One is the relationship between politicians and common people. Due to one-way influencing, people tend to believe in the eloquent politicians, even though they may not know them at a personal level. How much were you shocked to hear Clinton-Lewinsky story? Another case is online dating. One can say that online dating is interactive and not one-way. In my opinion, online dating is very one-dimensional. We do get glimpses of the other person's attributes, but the majority of the personna of the other person is created by our own mind.

If you meet a gregarious person, observe their ways. You will see that most extroverts keep talking. Their talk breaks the ice and paves the road for further contact. I wanted to share this with my friends who have a fear of public-speaking, are shy, or have difficulty making friends. Try one-way influencing. If your audience does not have any inhibitions, you'll be surprised to see how it works.

The Notebook

I went to see this movie, 'The Notebook', with a friend today. I think it was well-made. I am not going to do a review of the movie here. But, at the end of the movie, all the women in the theatre were crying, while I was really happy. I was happy to see that my theory about women was proving to be correct. Women are more sensitive to emotions and are better feelers than men. I've already expressed my thoughts on it in 'Daughters of Eve'.

After the movie, my friend asked me if I believed in true love. I was startled by this question coming from a person who has a PhD in psychology. Its not about true or false love. Its about a reality of our lives. Love is not magic. Its a scientific phenomenon. I told her that the biggest flaw in human beings was that we only wanted to hear good things. If reality doesn't sound too pleasing, it might as well wait.

Love is a force, just like many other social forces in the human world. I ask you this: How else would you put a man and a woman, who may come from two entirely disparate backgrounds, together to raise a family? How?

Love is neither a luxury, nor a privilege. It is an embedded mechanism, that pushes people to seek companionship. But look at how it works. Talking scientifically, an adult male would not be attracted towards a toddler female, nor would he be attracted to a 70 year old grandma. Why? They are females, they have souls, they could be 'beautiful'. So goes the case for adult females. By the time our biologies are ready for reproduction, this urge called love strikes us. We think we are doing it. The fact is that we were bound to do it.

Love is a facilitator sentiment. It facilitates a mother in taking care of her children. It facilitates a man and a woman to compromise and be bonded as a family. It facilitates the children in caring for the parents.

I would like to add that human beings are different in their adoptation of love. The degree to which a person 'can go crazy' in love varies from person to person. Not everybody is capable of becoming intimate. The reasons go back to genetic, nurture, and cultural elements. I told my friend that when she would start her own counselling practice, she will come across many cases of broken love. Those would be the examples of love-misused.

Love is a wonderful emotion, though. It has the ability to give us our greatest joys, and our greatest pains.

Surfer Dudes

Whenever I visit the ocean on the west coast, I see a lot of surfers. I don't know where they come from, but they all bring their wet-suits and surfing boards with them. The west coast cold water doesn't seem to bother them too much. They put on their wet-suits and take their boards into the water. They swim to a certain distance where there are waves and then wait. I found out that surfing was not as easy as it always seemed to me. Waves are not as friendly and soothing as they seem from a distance. If you are out there with the surfers, you would notice that waves come at different angles. Not only that, you may have one current coming in, while the other receding. If you get caught in such a motion, you can flip a full circle just standing there.

The surfer dudes know what to expect. They don't always catch a wave. Sometimes they miss it. Sometimes they catch part of it. Sometimes they do so well that they can have a full 20 second glory of riding an amazing wave standing on their board. But thats the thrill--catching the right wave at the right time. Nonetheless, the whole thing is very exhausting.

A lot of times we look for our niche in this world. We want to find out what we are best at and then do it. I think we should learn from the surfer dudes. See, even if you wear a wet-suit and have a surfing board, it doesn't mean you would always catch a wave. You have to jump in, and then wait. You would certainly fail. But thats part of surfing. In order to achieve anything big, we have to be able to digest failures like lost waves.

Last but not least, you have to be in the ocean to catch a wave. Nobody catches a wave sitting on the beach.

Stages

We come across quite a few people who don't know how to earn a living effectively. They either don't have enough education, or they don't get good guidance for the future. Many parents start teaching the basic survival skills to their children. They send their children to schools and colleges. The primary reason is so that they could be independent, and tomorrow, they should be able to support themselves. A lot of us still miss out on that opportunity and are never able to become independent.

Then there is those people who do succeed in getting the vital skills. They get their degrees and/or experience, and learn how to live independently. This group is larger than the above mentioned group. Within this group, there are many kinds. Some of them acquire skills just enough to make a living. Some go to senior levels. Some even go to the highest levels of education and become teachers. Some become entrepreneurs. They master the art of business and instead of looking for jobs, they create them. A lot of people end their lives in this stage.

Then comes the third group. This happens to be the smallest of all. These people realize that there is more to life. These are the people who dive into the vastness of their souls and read the universe from within themselves. They unlock the infinite powers within them, and draw upon the hidden strengths of their psyche. The world becomes a place of constant contemplation for them. They enjoy this life, but at the same time know its limitations. They transcend the common notions of happiness and joy. Sorrow or fear don't bother them.

TNT

Trinitrotoluene is the chemical name of TNT. Its an explosive, which burns as a result of an exothermic reaction. It releases energy and inflicts damage on the target. But once it is burnt, it burns no more.

As human beings, we carry a lot of TNT in ourselves. This TNT is our complexes. Superiority or inferiority, they are complexes after all. Everyday, I meet people with both kinds of complexes. Any kind of a complex is unhealthy. An inferiority complex takes away what we have. It cripples us and does not let us do what we are capable of. It hides our good qualities from us, and we miss opportunities. On the other hand, a superiority complex fools us by assuring us that we possess something that we really don't. It makes us arrogant, and we stop developing. There is nothing more remorseful than finding out about our arrogance too late.

Carrying any kind of a psychological ailment is like carrying TNT. It is dangerous. You never know when it may explode. But there is something that heals us and cures this ailment. That panacea is called hardships. Hardships burn our TNT. They put us face to face with our complexes. We are lucky if they come sooner than later. And we are even luckier if we can go through them and survive. There are two dangers, though. Either you never come across a hardship, or you don't survive it.

But if you can do both--Voila!! Congratulations. Your TNT has been burnt. You are free.

The Criterion Within

Those who opened the first learning institutes in the world did not go to school themselves. How could they? They taught students and granted them degrees, but did not have any degrees of their own. They set their own standards and perfected the art of teaching. Their wisdom was not endorsed by a college or a university, but it stood on its own. They did not have classrooms to go to, but they did seek knowledge. Before they became advisers, they sought advice from within.

There exists a natural built-in conscience in us before we learn it.

It is the same built-in conscience that prompted people to follow prophets, messengers, yogis, avatars, sadhus, sufis, and saints. It was this built-in conscience that pushed people to listen to Plato and Socrates. Their prior beliefs didn't matter. Before we had any religion, we had this conscience. It is this conscience that is shared by humans of all colors and ethnicities. It is their automatic mechanism that draws them close to the truth before they formally accept it.

Our conscience transcends all religions. It is the same force that pushes us to probe different ideologies and makes us question our traditions. It is the same force that seeks tranquility and peace, and keeps us restless. It is our guide to the truth.

Give and Take

I feel sad when I see siblings that are not chums, parents that are not friends, and relatives that are not allies. I feel sad when I see a rising number of people paying 50 dollars an hour to have them heard by a therapist. Whats the problem?

The problem is that we take our relationships for granted. We think being born from the same womb or having the same blood entitles us to get the attention that we need. We think a blood-relation is an obligation on others, but not on us. We don't believe in the principle of give and take.

Look around. Give and take is happening everywhere. We let the sun use our solar system. We gave him a place to stay. In return, he gives us light and heat, that we use to grow the grain and so much more. A mother feeds her baby and cares for her. In return, the child loves the mother back. We spend hours and hours studying for the exams, and the results reward us.

I know, love should be selfless. Love should be selfless when you are giving it, but not when you are receiving it. Sincerity begets sincerity and kindness begets kindness. If we don't have the time to go the extra mile for a relative, why should they bother doing that for us? If we don't have the time to praise our brother or sister, and nurture their talent, why should we be treated any differently? If we can't commit ourselves to the person we say we love, why should we get anything in return? If we don't support our spouses and always flaunt a frown, why do we think they are obligated under the law to please us?

This is how it is. Give, and take.

Contact

In the movie 'Contact', Jodie Foster plays the role of a researcher who yearns to find other intelligent life in the universe. One day she succeeds in getting a message from outer space. The aliens communicate with her, and tell her how to build a shuttle so powerful that will enable humans to fly to their planet. Humans build the ship. After finishing everything according to the alien guidelines, they fix a seat in the main cabin for Jodie. Now they think about her safety and realize that there is no seat belt in the original design. They install a seat belt.

The next day, Jodie takes off in her new shuttle. When the shuttle gets into the air, Jodie's seat starts shaking violently. She panics. She doesn't understand the problem. Out of her confusion, she opens up the seat belt and tries to walk out of the seat. As soon as she opens up the belt, the vibration stops. Turns out that the vibration was caused by the belt. Humans felt that the original design had missed it, and they must add it on their own.

This is how we treat the truth. If we really believed in our faiths, whatever we believed in, we would never fight over them. We think that the truth needs our support and we should be belligerent about it. When we add our personal interpretations to the truth, we deface it. How wrong. The truth does not need our help, instead, we need its help. The truth stands on its own--alone and strong. It is, its own evidence.

Traffic

Life is like traffic on a freeway, and we are like cars. Some of us are sports cars--small and fast, but we carry only a few people. Some of us are like buses, with a lot of patience and little ego, but we provide for many. Some of us are normal sedans, moderate and optimum. Some of us are like eighteen wheelers, selfless yet highly important. We are all equally meaningful.

And life has different lanes. The fast lane, the middle lane and the slow lane. Some of us like to go fast, without caring about the others. Some of us are bound to go slow, maybe because we are lost or maybe just our car is not in a good condition. Some of us are mid-paced, slowly and steadily winning the race.

Sometimes, during the rush hour, we tend to act smart and get into the lane that seems to be moving the fastest. But what happens is that everybody gets into that lane, and we become fools. Sometimes, the road becomes wide open for us, without us even trying. And sometimes it just narrows down so much without a reason.

The freeway of life has many exits. Sometimes we take the wrong exit and we end up in a ghetto. It happens when we don't know the directions. We end up wasting our time. But you know what, if you feel like you took the wrong exit, I assure you that there is a ramp somewhere that'll get you back on the freeway. The small ghetto roads may slow you down for a while, but they can't stop you forever.

Just make sure you are moving in the right direction.

Javier

At the end of my first day at my new job, I was worried about my car. I was worried about the noises coming from the front right wheel. It was a brand new town for me and I didn't know where to go or what to do. I came out of the office building and I saw Javier. He was our all-in-one guy. I asked, "Javier, do you know any mechanic?" He looked at me, gave me his warm smile, and said, "Yes, I am one." From that point on, he made me forget all my worries. He took me to his buddy's workshop, told me what was wrong with my car, and advised me what to do. I was relieved. But he was nicer than that. He sensed my loneliness and took me to his house. He introduced me to his wife and kids. It didn't end there. He took me to an authentic mexican restaurant, where I had the best mexican food ever. I was really happy.

After that day, Javier would stop by my office every now and then. I would joke with him and he would offer me some sort of help every time. He always advised me to be cautious of the office ergonomics. I wanted to thank him for the first day. I would never forget that. So I took his cell phone number and made a plan to take him and his family out for dinner to the same place. I was waiting for my first pay check.

Now I was looking for a good day to catch Javier and invite him for dinner. He had gone to Sacramento over the weekend. The monday after that weekend, I returned to office and someone at work told me that he had a heart attack and he was in the hospital. He was only 36, and this news was unbelievable. At the same time, I got really mad at myself. I thought that I should have done this earlier. But that was ok. I just had to wait a couple of weeks.

The next day, an email came with a subject-line of 'Javier's Final Arrangements.' He didn't survive the heart attack. I read it over and over. It felt like my legs were going numb. I couldn't move my body for a few minutes.

They burried Javier in Parlier, California. I saw many people that cried that day. Seemed like I wasn't the only one whom he had touched.

Javier didn't give me enough time to thank him. I still have his number in my cell phone.

The Case for the Law

When we study sub-atomic physics, the first thing we do is that we form models. To verify that our models are correct, we then have to perform experiments. In 20th century physics, most of the experiments were performed inside the laboratories. Those experiments required special setup, but they were feasible to be performed inside a lab.

As we continued our journey in the study of physics, we came up with newer models. Not every model was testable inside a lab. For example, in order to test Einstein's matter-energy duality, you had to accelerate a particle at very high speeds. Only then, you would be able to see matter converting into energy. So we built particle accelerators and cyclotrons.

Now, the cutting-edge physics has a bag of even newer theories, but we can't test them. Why? Because there is no physical way to test them on earth. These experiments require such high energies that the only place you can perform them is on the sun.

The case for law making follows the same pattern. Law and policy making is one of the most challenging tasks. Policies have the power to catapult or obliterate a nation. Making a law or a policy is like coming up with a model that will ensure that the society stays inact. Law makers concern themselves with not only the present, but also the future.

Today, we face a multitude of social laws. I am talking about laws that address things like who and how to get married, abortion, divorces, sexual freedom, freedom of speech and media, etc. They all represent different situations in our lives. Some situations are easy, and laws regarding them come intuitively. While other situations are not intuitive. Laws regarding such issues would not show their true effect until after years. There is no way for us to test them except for observing the outcomes for years that span generations.

Taxi Drivers

They say that the taxi drivers are the same no matter where you go. I think they are right.

On my way back from Nashville, my flight was delayed. Out of my compulsion to talk, I started talking to this guy sitting on the floor right next to me. He turned out to be a Harvard business school grad. So we got into some quick discussions over consulting, M&A's, the Wall Street, VC's, and how freakin' expensive Harvard was.

Got to Denver, and I had already missed my connection. So they gave me a hotel room nearby. I came to the hotel and went to this eatery. Again, out of my compulsion to talk, I started talking to this guy sitting right next to me on the bar. He turned out to be a truck driver. He was very articulate and had opinions about almost everything. We discussed how the social security wasn't working right, how the interstate system was the biggest asset of America, what some of the most scenic routes in America were, and how Lord Jesus gave him peace by taking away his stresses everyday.

The more I talk to people, the more I realize the patterns in humanity. Just like the taxi drivers are the same, from Manhattan to London to Lahore to Makkah, all other genres are also the same. Instead of classifying people based on their ethnicity or nationality, we might be better off describing them by what they do. Truck drivers have the same daily routine anywhere in the world. They share the same concerns and headaches. So do business men, doctors, engineers, teachers, scientists, journalists, nurses, farmers, accountants, poets, musicians, actors, and so forth.

When you lead a nomadic life like mine, you start seeing the similarities more than the differences.

Thorns and Needles

When we are stung by a thorn or a needle, we feel an excrutiating pain. We become motionless for a moment and all our senses numb. At that very instance, all we want from anybody in the world is to take that thorn or needle out. Our thoughts converge to a single point in the whole universe and we forget about everything else. Even though, it is usually a very small thing. As soon as you take it out, we come back to normal life as if nothing ever happened.

In our journey towards our greatest and dearest goals, we are often stung by thorns and needles. The higher the aim, the tougher it becomes to achieve it. As if achieving sublime goals wasn't hard enough, we also stumble upon tons of superfluous distractions. Sometimes, these distractions are so sharp and pointed, just like a needle or a thorn, that they make us forget what we were heading for. They have the ability to throw us off the balance so much, that we lose all sense of orientation.

The key is to stay focused on the main objective. If we come across something very difficult, we should always think what we still have in our hands. Often times, the fix of a problem is very simple, as long as we don't lose our composure.

Often times, the problem itself is not as big as its pain.

The First Knot

When we are tying our shoe laces, we always start with a starting knot. The first knot is very simple. It doesn't hold long enough if you don't tie the second one, but you cannot go to step 2 if you don't start with it. The first knot does not have much of a meaning by itself, but it gives meaning to all the other knots.

Our families serve as our first knots. When we are growing up, not only we are weak physically, but our minds are very amorphous too. At this stage, the love that we get from our surroundings, or the lack of it, becomes our foundation. It is during those days that we learn about love, affection, loyalty, and modesty. Even though, a lot of these things are not taught to us in a lecture style and we learn them indirectly.

If we look back, the way our family members encouraged us on our small successes may seem so trivial today, but it worked wonders for us. A healthy childhood not only helps the individual in his adult life, but it contributes a healthy mind to the society.

Love Actually

My friend Najaf used to joke about love. He used to say, if you don't understand something, call it love.

We all know what love is, but at the same time, we all don't know how to define it. We have only seen it in action. What is it, really?

Emotions are what clearly differentiate human beings from other animals. We often tend to put emotions down because of their blinding power over us. Uncontrolled emotions outweigh intellect at times leading to foolish decisions. At the same time, emotions can be used as a positive force. Emotions are crazy things. They make us do what we cannot and wouldn't do otherwise. Its all a matter of tapping the energy the right way. Emotions are energy and energy can be used both positively and negatively.

What I wanted to lay forth was a semi-biological definition of love. Love is a formation of neural pathways or circuits in our brain. It all starts with an object and a stimulus, or stimulii. Lets take the common example of a man falling in love with a woman (I know, thats just way too common. Sorry ;) ) Man is the lover, woman is the object of love, and the stimulus could be a number of things--her physical attraction, her kindness, her style, her mannerisms, her emails, her voice mails--anything! After the first attraction, neural circuits begin to form in the lover's brain. With every continuing stimulus, these circuits get stronger, and within a matter of some time (which varies from person to person) these circuits get ultra strong. Not only that, anything pertaining to the object of love is also linked to the main circuit. The object of love's surroundings, their belongings, their city, their choices, gets connected to the main circuit. At the height of it all, we have a super strong main circuit with half the brain serving as its adjutant.

After we have a strong circuit, it becomes a stabilizing force for us. It actually gives us joy and pleasure to use it. We experience a heightened sense of being and a feeling of pseudo-intoxication.

And here is the most critical part: These circuits are self-protective.

What I mean by self-protective is that once a circuit is formed, the lover is forced to think in a certain pattern. Any memory, no matter how remotely attached to the main circuit, brings us back to thinking about the object of love. Now, if your relationship is going fine, it gives you joy. On the flip side, if the relationship is not going fine, it would turn into something not so joyful.

This is what happens at break-ups. These self-protective circuits don't want you to destroy them. So they fool you. Lovers often think that thinking bad things about the object of love would cure them. Wrong! Even when you are cursing your object of love, it is acting as a positive stimulus for the main circuit. The safest thing to do is to unplug all stimulii.

And here is the second critical part: These circuits are reversible.

There is one more thing. The object of love dictates the strength of the main circuit. In case of an object that ages with time, the stimulii weaken with it. On the other hand, if the object is divine, the biology of such love is very different altogether.

Mathematics

Mathematics has proven to be the single most important analytical tool devised by the human mind. It has enabled us to calculate masses of tiny particles that we cannot see and trajectories of planets we cannot hold. Pick any science, and you will see mathematics used in it. It is used not only in engineering and physics, but also in biological sciences such as genetics, and in social sciences like economics, and in humanities such as psychology.

The question is why? Why is mathematics so effective?

Let me get to the point. Mathematics is a language. A language that describes the order of the universe. I would like to emphasize that it is the inherent order of the universe which led to mathematics, and not the other way around.

For example, it is a natural occurrence that objects appear in quantities. Numbers were created 'after' we saw varying quantities of different things. We needed to talk about four fingers and one thumb, so we came up with numbers four and one.

Similarly, the ratios in trigonometry, sines and cosines, are second order natural occurrences. Whenever you would measure the sides of a triangle, you would always get the same ratio.

Believe it or not, there is an order in every single thing around us. From the motion of the smallest particles, to the reproduction rate of bacteria, to the market fluctuations, and even in human relationships like romance and flirting!

It just so happens that the language of mathematics falls short of elegant explanatins for more 'human' activities. It is easier to say that someone is 'lazy' or 'nice' than to actually sit down and derive equations for this behavior. Not that it cannot be done. It can be, but it only takes longer and nobody has bothered to do so yet.

Can you imagine the beauty of this order?

Titanic

Most of us liked 'Titanic', the movie. I liked parts of it too. My favorite part was where the hero takes the heroine to the nose of the ship and asks her to do something she had never done before. He asks her to stand right at the tip and spread her arms. She hesitates at first, but eventually gives in. At that point, she realizes what she had been missing all this time. She experiences something that she never knew existed. That leap of faith transforms her and gives her the strength she never knew she had.

The scriptures say that God gave a wooden stick to Moses. God told him to use it in the time of need. Moses did not know how to use it or when to use it, but he took it. When he got back to the town, the Pharoah ordered his sorcerers to beat Moses in what they thought was magic. When the sorcerers threw their snakes in front of Moses, God told moses to throw his wooden stick. He hesitated at first, but then God said, "Fear not." Moses threw the wooden stick in front of the snakes and it turned into a python that ate up other snakes. The sorcerers immediately accepted Moses as the true prophet. They didn't do it because their snakes got eaten by Moses' python, but they saw how scared Moses himself was at his own miracle.

There comes a time in our lives when we have to take a leap of faith, when we are at the crossroads and we are uncertain. Maybe it is the beginning of a new journey. Maybe it will reveal to us a power that we never knew we had.

A great achievement is not when you surprise others. It is when you surprise yourself.

Yoga

Yoga is in folks. I was in LA over the weekend, and there are yoga centers around every corner. Madonna has endorsed yoga. There is a new magazine named 'Yoga'. Its circulation went upto 300,000 from 100,000 last year. People are becoming more and more conscious of their health. There is a food store by the name of 'Whole Foods'. I went there and I think you should check it out too. It has aisles and aisles of organic foods. Low-carb spaghetti imported from Italy and healthy drinks differentiate it from regular grocery stores. Once you step into the store, you feel like cooking healthy food, you imagine yourself running and working out and getting into the shape you always wanted to get into. Atkins is also in. People have made businesses out of selling Atkins-friendly stuff. Not only that, there is also a South Beach Diet, and something else I can't think of at the moment.

What about our souls? Is there a yoga that could make me a better person? Is there a diet that would make my soul strong and curb my materialistic desires?

But why is materialism so bad? What is materialism anyways? Materialism is the name of looking 'only' at our extended and immediate lives, and not worrying about our inner life. See, wanting a healthy body is not materialism. Being able to run 30 minutes every day is not materialism. Wearing good clothes and looking nice is not materialism. Materialism is when you are 'only' concerned with the above, and nothing else.

Being a Punjabi

Punjabis have a unique reputation in the world. We have our own language, our own music, and our own dance. Even though, Bhangra is not a sequence of any co-ordinated movements, but it is some sort of entertainment. You can tell that people are having fun. Which is good enough for Punjabis.

Punjabis are known for their open-heartedness and their straight-forwardness. If they love you, they will make sure that you know this, your dad knows this, your mom knows this, and whoever sits or breathes in your periphery knows this. If they hate you, don't worry, they will tell you that too.

Punjabis are open. Open all the way. As my friend Kasim rejoices the phrase everytime it comes up, "Khullay khao tay nangay nahao". Phrases. Yes, I love punjabi phrases. These phrases encapsulate the wisdom of hundreds of years. They are simple, elegant (I have to think about this one), and to-the-point. Yes, sometimes too to-the-point.

Punjabis have an inherited talent. They can use very crude words with affection. For example, if a punjabi is trying to greet you, he would just say "Oye". If a punjabi thinks you are lying, he would tell you honestly, "Bakwaas bund kar". If he doesn't like you, he'll say, "Fitay Moonh". If a punjabi is proud of you, he'll say, "Ah mera Sher!!". If he is not so proud, he'll say, "Paray mar".

Not to forget that Punjabis are very good at calculus. They take a derivative of every name. If your name is Pervaiz, for example, it will be a simple 'Peja' in Punjabi. An Iqbal would be a 'Bala', and a Rasheed would be a 'Sheeda'. Punjabis also have the equivalent of english names. When a Punjabi says Jaarj Bursh, he is basically trying to refer to George Bush.

The best part about being a punjabi is that we have excellent conflict resolution techniques. Not to mention we are also experts at creating conflicts--but we are looking at the bright side today. No matter how bad the arguement gets, punjabis have a magic phrase that can calm the storm. It evaporates all the turmoil and people go back to normal life. And that is "Mitti pao". Amazing, isn't it?

My favorite? My favorite is when a punjabi makes you really mad, he then uses his best technique to make it over. We call it the J&P technique. See, no matter how mad one gets at a punjabi, all he needs to do is a J&P: A japphi and a pappi. ;)

Group Personalities

Before I forget this, have you ever thought why a story written in Russia a hundred years ago resounds with us? Or why Shakespeare is still alive? You would say, these writings are timeless. But what makes them timeless?

Let me give you an example. Often there are stories and plots that when we see them, we grab them immediately, and are able to predict what is about to happen. An ambitious teacher trying hard to correct her rogue class, while her students are talented but are falling behind because of poverty? Sounds familiar? Immediately, you think of that one special student, thats the toughest to penetrate among the rest, but eventually the teacher will win her heart over?

I bet it sounds familiar. And there are hundreds of other examples. These patterns of social behavior are found not only in literature but also in our daily lives. For example, we all remember the top student in our class. We all remember the hip squad in our class, the ones who were aware of the fashion and knew how to mingle with the opposite sex so well so ahead of time. And then there is always a group of people thats totally clueless. Any bells ringing?

Just like individual personality types, where a person tends to behave in a certain way under given conditions, there exist group personality types. These group personality types exhibit similar patterns of behavior. For example, the eldest child in a family takes charge. He knows he is the leader. The youngest takes life a bit easily. Of course, these are coarse generalizations, and there are always exceptions. But we will see majority of the cases in this way.

My point is, often we get caught up in our 'perceived' role in a group. If we are the eldest, we would keep behaving like that. We would never try to be frivolous like our younger siblings. If we are the mod-squad type, we would always think that thinking and reflection is for the valedictorian type. If we are the valedictorian, we would always think that athletics are for the jocks.

For a day, break away from your 'group personality'. Experience a different life.

Daughters of Eve

Nobody knows what is inside a woman's heart. Is it really so?

I want to find out if women are actually that mysterious. If they are, then why?

My ambition is not an easy one. I have had to reconstruct a lot of my notions about the opposite gender. I began with observing little differences between the two sexes. The first thing that I noticed was that being a guy, I didn't pay too much attention to fashion and how I dressed. Even worse, I expected the same from the women. Wrongo!! Women are a lot more aware of, and sensitive to small things than men. Guys tend to brush over a lot of stuff, but women won't do the same.

Women, by their nature, happen to be a lot more detail-oriented than men. This makes them excel at professions like nursing and teaching. But why is that?

My eyes opened a bit more when one of my friends told me that she would have loved to receive flowers on her graduation ceremony. Flowers? Who wishes for flowers? Guys don't care about flowers. But, women do. Notions of remembering, caring, giving and receiving gifts are a lot stronger in women than in men. Women are much refined sensors of acts of emotions. Ever seen a music video where women are crying in the moshpit and trying to reach the stage? Ever seen a guy doing that? 

The only explanation for this behavior that I can come up with is that women are designed to be mothers. It is because of their detail-orientedness, that they can become excellent trainers of children. They pay attention to everything from their toe-nails to combing their hair. Do you think dads would do that? I don't think so.

The same logic goes behind why women feel higher emotional state than men. Take them in any role, sisters, wives, mothers, and you will see the devotion is much greater than their male counterparts. This emotional strength also plays a role in their motherhood. During the nine months of pregnancy, it is their emotional bonding with the child that helps them go through it. And after the birth, the same emotional bond gives them the strength to stay up late at nights and take care of the new guest.

Could guys do that?

Women experience a heightened sense of emotions. They are detail oriented and are more sensitive to small changes than men.

My research continues...

Hidden Forces

Our collective psyche is representative of the social forces that surround us. A social force is an agent that shapes and controls our behavior. For example, the fear of law-enforcers is a social force. It keeps us from over-speeding and running red lights. Do you really think that other person in that black uniform has any super powers? No. Certainly not. These social forces are embedded in our psyche for higher purposes that are hidden from the naked eye. Aside from their ostensible benefit, social forces often play a crucial role in economics, politics, and other areas.

One social force is fame. The celebrity status. Do you see how powerful that is? We tend to look only at the benefits the celebrity gets out of it. We don't see the flip side. We think of Bill Gates and his billions, but we forget how many jobs his company creates and how it shapes the future to come.
Even if Bill Gates' company drowns tomorrow, it will leave behind it a wealth of technologies and precedents.

Another social force is beauty. Yes, I am talking about the looks. If you looked at it closely, you'll see the wonders of this social force. We still don't have a quantitative measure of attraction, but we all feel it when we experience it. Beauty polarizes the society. It puts more value on one side than the other.

We are not discussing if its fair or not. We are just analyzing what it does.

People love to see pretty faces. They love watching them on the TV or in the movies. What does this do? It creates a force. It creates a demand. What does Hollywood do with this demand? Behind the scenes, entrepreneurs convert this demand into lucrative transactions. Look at how much economy it creates. The filming crew, the marketers, the advertising agencies, the newspapers, the telecom industry, and not to forget, the pretty faces themselves, get benefit from this demand.

We are surrounded by such social forces all the time.

Subject Matter

When we study the universe at a very small scale, where the distances are measured in microns, we call this study, Physics. At this level, all we see is atoms and their constituents like electrons, protons, and neutrons. We come across the dynamics and forces between these particles. We measure their sizes, we try to state their masses, and we determine what forces keep them together. At this level, there is no definition of life. There is only energy.

Change the scale a little bit. We go from atoms, to molecules. Now the distances under study are a bit more than they are in Physics. What we study is molecules, their chains, their complex aggregates, and we call that, Chemistry. Still, life is nowhere to be found.

You get the idea. If we look at the next level up, we would be studying organisms and complex chemicals. We would find ourselves in the realm of Biology. Now, we can talk about something called life.

Towards the other end of the spectrum, we would find sciences like Economics. At the economic level, the scales would change drastically. The objects under study would be masses of people, their groups, their trade, their policies, and their markets.

The fact is that the universe exists as it is. It is us who like to break it down into different domains for our convenience. My point is, that the universe renders itself to such layering. Surprisingly, you don't have to understand how the atoms in your friend's head are spinning if he or she is in a bad mood. You don't need to know physics to mend relationships. You don't need to know mathematics to win people's hearts. You don't have to be an economist to understand the big picture.

Kayaking

Life is like kayaking. Have you ever kayaked? When you push the paddle on the right hand side, your kayak moves a bit to the left in a very small circle. When you push the paddle on the left hand side, your kayak goes a bit to the right in a very small circle. For every right push, you make a left push. This keeps your kayak going in a straight line. Even though, you never go in a straight line.

Life is like that. Sometimes, we make a mistake, and our life gets pushed in one direction. It changes our mood, it makes us remorseful, and it makes us want to quit. But all you have to do, instead of being upset, is to make up for that one small mistake. If you paddled left, paddle right!

Don't be too hard on yourself. Smile. Life is forgiving.

The Four Lives

There is nothing sweeter than understanding. Understanding our society, our culture, our roots, our beginnings and our end. For understanding is what our souls seek. True word is sweeter than the sweetest song.

When we are young, we start learning and understanding the first order concepts--our ABC's and our numbers. From those foundations we jump on to higher-order ideas. They serve as our building blocks. In order to understand a complex phenomenon, we need a framework. We use our fundamental building blocks to create that framework.

From a very high level perspective, we live four lives. Our first life is our infancy. This is when we are totally dependent upon our guardians. They feed us, they bathe us, and they make sure that we don't fall. They teach us how to walk and talk. This life is nothing but utter oblivion. As surprising as it may sound, this phase of life is a major determinant in our personalities to come.

As we grow older, and develop personalities, our lives tend to branch out in three directions. The first is our Extended Life. Extended life refers to elements such as the city we live in, the traffic we face everyday, the restaurants we visit, our weather patterns, the fashions that surround us, etc. For example, a person living in Manhattan has strikingly different extended life than a person living along Amazon in South American jungles. Our extended lives play a role in determining who we are, but only upto a certain extent.

The second branch is Immediate Life. Immediate life refers to our family, our friends, our loved ones, our romantic partners, our co-workers, our homes, our relatives, etc. For example, an orphan living in a foster home has a very different immediate life than a child that has six siblings and loving parents. Besides food and the basic needs, we need love more than anything else. We may not realize it, or admit it, but we do. It is our immediate surroundings that provide us with love. For no matter how beautiful a city you live in, if you are alone, it doesn't make a difference. Hence, immediate life is a bigger determinant of who we are than the extended.

The third branch, the one often overlooked, is our Inner Life. The inner life refers to our spirituality, our faith, our soul, and the truth. Shockingly, a very small number of people pay attention to this reservoir of peace and energy. Partly, it is because there is little guidance to our inner lives. We see Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer talking about our selves, we read Rumi and Hafez, we read Jung discussing self-realization, we know about whirling dervishes, but spirituality remains nebulous to us. Nothing is a bigger determinant of our personalities than how well connected we are to our true selves.

In fact, it is in the pursuit of our Inner Life wherein lies peace and tranquility.

In the beginning

I hate to copy the idea, but the fact is that this world is a matrix. A huge matrix. A matrix made up of people. People being you and I, who in turn are huge matrices within ourselves. We are in the middle of two infinties. On the outside, we are part of an overwhelmingly large system, and in the inside, we carry our own universes. This is what differentiates a scientist from a mystic. A scientist dives into the world that's outside of us, and explores the external matrix. A mystic, a sufi, a dervish, or a lover, dives in the world within himself and faces the infinite matrix within him.