Blogging Pilot's Pilog

I am a FAA certified Airline Transport Pilot, and also a Certified Flight Instructor. For years I have taught new Flight Instructor applicants. And to be a Flight Instructor, among all other requirements, one is that you have to pass a written and oral examination on Fundamental of Instruction, or FOI. FOI is precisely some basics of human psychology applicable to any teaching and learning event.

One of the subject areas taught and emphasized in the FOI is called the learning process. How humans learn. And one of the key factors in human learning behavior is perception. How we perceive things. For example, a child growing up would not know what “hot” is unless he in fact touches something that is hot, and we as parents tell him, “Hot!”. Now he knows what hot is. His perception of “hot” in his mind has a meaning now, which was derived from an experience, and was reinforced by the parent.

The Perception of hot in the above example has now become the Truth and Reality in the child’s brain. Probably forever. Later on he will learn the the relative terms like hotter, hottest, extremely hot, warm etc.

Here, read this story now, and then I can explain the point that I am trying to make:

The Truth, Reality and Perception of a Camel

Camels were, and still are one of the most commonly used modes of transportation in the greatest deserts of the world. Convoys of camels are used by traders in the local commerce to move goods around from place to place.

This story is about one such camel and his jockey (rider). They were a part of this convoy, travelling, when a sandstorm hit them without any warning. The convoy leader ordered everyone to stop and camp out for the night. And a part of the camping out process is that every jockey pulls out a stake, buries it in the sand, and then ties up his camel with a rope, one end to the stake and the other around the camels neck.

This jockey realized that he forgot to bring the stake and rope set for his camel. He is sitting, cursing his luck out, not knowing what to do, when the convoy leader (he is the leader for a reason) comes over and asks him what was going on. The jockey briefed him on the situation at hand; no rope, no stake, and no ideas.

The convoy leader told him not to worry and simply carry out the process with an imaginary stake, imaginary rope, and the imaginary burying, and the imaginary tying the rope around the camel’s neck. I am sure you get the point.

The jockey does exactly as was told, and moved on with the rest of the chorus of camping out and sleeping off the sandstorm. Guess what! In the morning the camel was found sitting right next to that imaginary stake, waiting for the next set of orders.

Moral of the Story

The camels learning process from his experiences in his life were as follows:

“Every time my master performs this act (staking and tying), the result is that I can’t go anywhere. I have tried otherwise while growing up, but now for years I know this. So I don’t even try. My perceptions have given me a meaning, which are my Truth.”

My Point

If you ask the camel, “Were you tied up that night?”, I am sure his answer would be, “Yes I was”. Would the camel be telling you the Truth? Ha!

We have heard that Truth is Truth. And nothing can change the Truth. The Truth is an absolute statement. I say that the Truth is again nothing but a perception, or a result of a perception. The camel’s truth is that he was tied up. I am sure he will have no problem even going under oath and solemnly declare that he was in fact tied up that night. How about the jockey’s truth? He probably would smirk, or wink, and tell you that no, the camel was not tied up that night.

Truth is perception. The way one sees things from his or her point of view. So maybe, we can all agree to this:

Truth is a meaningful insight as a result of our past experiences, and nothing but perception.

How about the Reality though?

Now, let’s ask the question, “What was the reality like that night?”

Your comments?

Tags: Flight Training, god, Religion, spirituality, Travel, truth

Have you ever felt that when we are happy, or when we see someone else happy, especially for a little prolonged period of time, the experience seems a little unnatural? Well, allow me to elaborate a little bit more on this.

Ever since we are born, we are thrown into the preconditioning mill of unhappy equals normal, and happy equals something is not right. If you are miserable nobody is worried about it, and it all seems normal, but if you are too happy, your friends, your family, your loved ones, they all start worrying about you. They start thinking that you must have done something wrong.

Whenever a child is happy the parents start looking for the cause: he must have done some mischief or something. Why is he so happy?  The parents themselves are not happy, so they develop a sort of subconscious jealousy towards the child because he is happy. They may not be aware of it, but they are in fact experiencing jealousy. It is easy to tolerate somebody else’s misery, but it is almost impossible to tolerate someone’s happiness.

Read this very interesting Story

A deeply religious father was upbringing his son to be a good Christian man. One day when they were going to church he gave the boy two coins: one, a one dollar coin; the other, a penny. He also gave him the choice that whatsoever he thought was right he could put in the donation plate in the church. He could choose the dollar or the penny.

Of course the father believed, and hoped that he would donate the dollar for the church plate. After church he was very curious to know what happened. He asked the boy, “So, what did you do?” The boy admitted that he had donated the penny and kept the dollar for himself.

The father went in a state of shock, and said, “Why? Why did you do this? The boy said, “because the priest in his sermon said, ‘God loveth a cheerful donator.’ I could donate the penny cheerfully, but not the dollar!”

God Loveth the Cheerful Giver

God loveth the cheerful giver. I am absolutely in agreement with the boy, as it is immaterial whether a penny or a dollar, because the real coin that you are sharing is your cheerfulness.

But from the very beginning every child is taught not to be so cheerful. To be cheerful is to be childish, immature, and many a times, not civilized. So you have been brought up not to be cheerful and whatsoever you have ever enjoyed was condemned again and again. If you enjoyed just running and shouting around the house, somebody is bound to be there saying,”Stop that nonsense! I am reading the newspaper!”, as if the newspaper is something very valuable.

Alright kiddo! It’s time to go to bed. But I am not sleepy. Well, it doesn’t matter, the routine says that it’s bedtime. Same thing happens in the morning, when the kid wants to sleep in a little longer; it’s time to wake up. All this is reinforcing the fact that being miserable, and unhappy is normal.

If you ask me, there is only one religion in the world and that religion is to be happy. Everything else is immaterial and irrelevant. If you are happy, you are normal; if you are unhappy, you are not.

Get Rid of Your Hesitations

Get rid of those hesitations and be happy. Forget about all the upbringing you had in your life, as none of that matters when it comes down to being happy. And quit blaming your parents for it, as they themselves have been victims of the upbringing of their own parents. This is nothing but a vicious cycle, and only you can stop it.

Explain to your kids why certain things are not good for them, rather than simply dictating the rules with no explanations. Too much ice-cream or candy is not healthy, so go ahead and explain it to them. It is much better than simply saying, no you can not have ice-cream right now.

God is Happiness; Happiness is God

It is our human nature to be happy. It’s just that being brought up in civilized society we have created too many un-human like behavioral changes in our lives, and this is what makes us unhappy. Consciously work towards getting rid of all the unhappy “crap” out of your mind, your habits, and eventually your nature. And when this is done, you will feel happy, religious and closer to God.

People who cannot enjoy love, life, food, a beautiful view, a sunset, a morning, beautiful clothes, a good bath, a walk on the beach; just simple small things in life, these are the people who eventually end up seeking God. And guess what, God is so far out of their reach!

You see the reality is that God enjoys these trees, otherwise why does He continues on creating them? He is not miserable at all, not a tiny bit. For millenniums He has been creating trees, and flowers, and birds, and all other sorts of life and nature. He goes on replacing and replenishing new beings, new earths, new planets. He is really very colorful! Look at life, observe it closely, and you will see the heart of God, and feel His joy and happiness.

Unhappy People Seek Good

People who are up-tight, unable to enjoy anything, unable to relax, incapable even of enjoying a good night’s sleep; they are the ones who seek God. And they become interested in Him for lame reasons. They think that because life is useless, futile, they have to seek and search God. Their God is against life remember.

I have searched into every religion, into every church, mosque and temple, and I have found that the God of the religious people is against life.” And how can God be against life? If He is against, then there is no reason why life should exist or should be allowed to exist. So if your God is against life, in fact, deep down, you are against the real God. You are following a Godot, not a God.

So, in a nutshell, be natural, be happy, and you will see and feel God happening to you; and let all the unhappy, life haters keep on seeking Him in some imaginary place; church, temple, mosque; wherever.

I have been occasionally visiting Arvind Devalia’s blog, and in one of his posts he talks about 17 Tips to Become Happy Right Now!. Maybe you should go read that post, and grab some more happiness ideas for yourself.

Tags: god, happiness, love, Religion

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. Samuel Johnson

Tags: quote, Wisdom

Work is a necessary evil to be avoided. Mark Twain

Tags: mark twain, quote, Wisdom, work

The other day a friend of mine asked me what were my thoughts on the economy turning around and starting to get better. And that got me thinking, and within a few seconds a few years of recap went by on the flat panel screen within my brain. Don’t ask me if it was colored or black-n-white, as I still ponder over that one.

I replied back to him, telling him that I think, for the economy to turn around quickly and on the path to recovery, there has to be some sort of a catalyst. Maybe, win the war against terrorism in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or anywhere else. But, actually, undoubtedly, win a war. What are the chances of that happening in the short future? Or, release some sort of a new technology that would make a big difference in the world today, and is high up on “you are wanted” list of most who can afford to spend. The rest will not matter how, but will get a job to pay for the new toy.

Either one of the above two, and we can see an immediate turn around of the economy. Otherwise, hang tight, and give it it’s time to recover, and believe in, “patience is a virtue, my friend” wisdom. Forget about the wars ending anytime soon, especially with a clear cut “victory” and troops coming home with a tangible trophy in hand. Let’s focus on looking deeper into technology and dissecting the possibility of economic turn-around caused by new consumer goods which people can drool over and have to buy, no matter what. That will make this almost dead animal (consumer spending) come back to life and live happily ever after. Ok, at least for a while.

This was then, a few weeks ago. Today I decided to actually start doing what I told him that we should do, i.e. see what is happening out there in the technology sector, and what kind of consumer goods are on the horizon. And my friends, in about 10 minutes of doing so, I regained my hopes of this economy getting better very soon, and also, found some inspiration to start writing about my findings. In the next few articles, I will be a reviewing the technology factor of economic turn around.

By the way, the first thing I reviewed was Google’s Chrome browser. I had it downloaded and installed on my laptop since a few months now (just about when it was released), but never tried using it. You know it is kind of difficult to start using something new (unless it is a part of your job and not an option) when you are already happy with what you have, which in my case is Mozilla Firefox browser. As I am writing this article, I have the following internet browsers open on my laptop, and in use: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and Opera 10, besides the Google Chrome. And I am using Opera Mini browser on my Blackberry 8830 world edition, hacked to work with MetroPCS. So, ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned for my reports on my findings on technology advancements and consumer goods as a possible catalyst for quick recovery of this economic mess.

Tags: catalyst, consumer, Economy, flat panel, internet browser, laptop, Mobile Phone, mobile service provider, Technology, war against terrorism, Wisdom