Blogging Pilot's Pilog

If we were to thoroughly understand the famous teaching of Christ, and grasp the essence and spirit of his message, we have to prepare the grounds for it, before we even start to discuss it here. First things first, we need to review the differences between a religion and morality. The dictionary definitions are available on Wikipedia and you can read them by simply clicking on the links above.

In simple words:

Religion is something that signifies life, and morality is the dead corpse that is left behind when the religion dies.

Morality is what used to be the religion, when it was not dead. Religion over time, always, without any exception, deteriorates, and turns into morality. I am talking in terms of a society here, over long periods of time, and not necessarily in terms of a single person. And even if we have to talk in terms of a single person, the same would be true, but this almost never happens. As you read on, you will start getting the picture of what I am trying to relay here.

When I am talking about religion, I am not talking about the Church, the priest, the rituals, the traditions, and definitely not the religious morality. In fact, there is no such thing as religious morality. One can either be religious, or of great morality. Morality and religion, they both look the similar, but religion expresses life, compassion, freshness, joy, simplicity, love, happiness and peace; whereas morality signifying nothing but hypocrisy, selfishness, prejudice, and hate.

A religious person does not need to worry about morals, and the great morals follow him around just like a shadow. When we are walking about, we don’t have to worry about our shadow, as we know that it not going anywhere without us, similarly, morals follow a religious man like a shadow and he does not have to worry about them. A religious man does not have to, and in fact he does not live his life revolving around the morals. Good morals are simply a by-product of him being religious.

A religious person has eyes to see, the eyes of awareness. When one can see with his eyes, he does not have to think or worry about the right path. With awareness, the actions are naturally good. One does not have to somehow manage them to be good. They just simply are good. When the eyes (awareness) are not there, then one has to think many time, stumble and fiddle around, and then simply guess which was is the right path. Now one can manage to be good, but that goodness is not real, it’s fake and superficial. It’s hypocrisy, and it’s about the traditions and “what others will think or say”. Religion is awareness, and morality is blind. When religion is present, morals are automatic, when religion dies, morality is what is left behind.

A religious man’s goodness is natural and spontaneous; just like the sky is naturally blue and the oceans are naturally salty. He may not even be aware of his morality, or his goodness, and of his good deeds, but he definitely is aware of himself. And out of this self awareness comes the good deeds, the right acts, on their own. No need to be cultivated, practiced, or managed. Here the morality is beautiful, and alive; but it is not morality anymore, it is simply moral. This is the religious way of living.

But what happens when the religion is dead? Now one has to really think about right and wrong. The eyes of awareness are not there anymore to see it for you, the heart of goodness is not there to feel it for you. You don’t have the goodness happening naturally anymore. Goodness is just going be a talk that has to be managed somehow from now. Traditions will come to the assistance now. Not your own mind, the naturally flowing acts of goodness, but the external help and guidance of the traditions.

Tradition is a word derived from the same source as traitor and trade. Rules of trade are, in general and basic terms, pretty standard and universal, and have been the same for thousands of years, passed down from generation to generation. This is tradition. It may be dull, dead, heavy, cruel, ugly, boring and inhuman, but it is still accepted as it is a tradition. And if one moves away form something that is a tradition, it falls under the category of traitor.

I mentioned earlier, religion is life; it is also born anew. In Jesus, religion was born again, fresh and full of life. It was definitely not the religion of Moses. It did not come from Moses, and in fact had nothing to do with Moses. Just like a new rose on a rose bush does not have anything to do with the roses that were there in the past. When religion was born to Moses, it was fresh as well. And when it happens to anyone else, it is still fresh, and is always born anew, and always discontinued from the past.

When and if religion happens to me, or you, it still will be fresh. It will make our lives bloom, and spread kindness, love and forgives all around. But when we die, it will die with us as well. It is not something that can be transferable. It can be felt, and expressed, and experienced, but not transferred. It is contagious, so it can lead to new born religion in others around us as well, but it can not be given, borrowed or inherited. Religion is not a thing. It can be leaned and taught, if one so desires, but can not be written down in books. Just like we end up humming a song sometimes, not consciously, just in simple bliss, similar are the qualities of religion.

Tags: god, love, Religion, spirituality

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

In Fundamentals of Instructing (FOI) we learn that there are different levels of learning, namely:

1. Rote Level – This is the most basic level of learning. At this level the student can repeat the steps, and duplicate the action demonstrated, however, he/she may not have any understanding of why it is done that way, and what exactly is happening in the background (or technically) resulting in the desired outcome.
2. Understanding Level – At this level the student develops a basic understanding of what exactly is happening, and why it is done in that manner.
3. Application – At this level of learning, the student can apply the knowledge learnt and can cause the desired result.
4. Correlation Level – This is considered the highest level of learning, and at this level the student can correlate between all the different things he/she has learnt and can apply them in various different situations, and can even perform correct complex tasks.

In Guru Granth Guru Nanak explains the levels of spiritual learning as follows:

1. Dharam Khand – At the level the student can perform one’s duties sincerely and may not have any understanding of why.
2. Gian Khand – This is where the student develops the understanding of God, His greatness and His true attributes.
3. Saram Khand – At this level the student gains the purity of mind and heart.
4. Karam Khand – At this level the student acquires the divine grace and true spirituality.
5. Sach Khand – At this level, with the grace of the Almighty, the student enters the realm of God, and is beyond the human and worldly experiences. Here be becomes one with God.

I have been teaching aviation for a while, and the FOI is the basic human psychology that we teach the flight instructors so they can understand the mental state of the student better, and can teach appropriately.

Guru Nanak’s followers are called Sikhs, and the literal translation of the word Guru is teacher and Sikh is student.

Tags: Aviation, learning, Religion, teaching