RIFLE RANGE BOY

A congregation of people in mass quantities may herald the beginning of a new dawn. Be it a revolution of sorts of minds, of ideology or mass deception. The streets of Moscow reverberated with emotion with echoes of change hailing the teachings of Marx and Engels led by Lenin's secret meetings. The cry for bread of starving mouths orchestrated the march to storm Bastille. Gandhi organised motivational meetings in the guise of prayer meetings to change the mindset of an average Indian while instilling self-dignity, inculcate cleanliness, pride to race, self-confidence and eventually Swaraj (self-rule). On the other hand, we have seen people succumb to persuasions and commit philosophical if not physical suicide. Like the one in Jonestown and Waco, Texas. The unthinking mob mindset of Man is evident. The idea of scores or more voluntarily ending their lives under the spell of the leader is unthinkable but true. I had the privilege of attending one such congregation of people. ...

One of the most significant drawbacks in the manning of a human-crewed mission to Mars is the mental strength (or rather lack of) of astronauts in being able to stay sane over extremely protracted times in solitary confinements. After all, can one stay for 4 years in the company of the same boring company? They say that Man is a social animal and he needs friends and company to live. Deprive him of the ability to interact with his fellow kind and be sure that he would hit the loony bin. They fight, they laugh, they cry together, they loathe each other, but they need each other to survive! So say the scientists. A man needs to compete with each other or emulate each other to come out with a newer protocol for the next generation to improve so that they can continue surviving as the most dominant species on the planet. Perhaps,  they would remain as the only species as they annihilate other 'less' intelligent ones. Once they have done that, they would step into an intra-specia...

In many religious salutations and prayers, we always emphasize that there be peace on Earth, tranquillity should prevail, sanity is restored, and justice is done. My nimble mind goes into sarcastic thinking mode again... How can all these things prevail at the same time? Is it not all a balance? The good forces vs the evil? The yin and the yang? Order and anarchy? For peace to occur on one side, there must be anarchy on the other side. For a tiger to have peace of mind and satiety, there must have chaos and tragedy in the goat family. For new generation to seamlessly continue life on Earth, there must be death and sorrow on the end of the oldies. At one said time, there can never be complete peace on Earth. Every one is looking for an illusive utopia, a fictitious Garden of Eden which is as natural as a herd of unicorn running wild or grazing in the fields. I suppose that peace on Earth can be achieved when all of us can accept that it is a balance. Peace of mind can be achieved...

"How does a person look into the eyes of a terrified child and have the guts to pull the trigger?" screamed somebody's status on Facebook. Another joined in to say, "the same way the Malaysian man beat the living daylight of his 3year old step son." It looks a daily occurrence. Somebody dressed as a superhero shooting aimlessly. Some recluse going a shooting spree. A loner shoots down his classmates and teachers in broad daylight. And a man from China goes amok stabbing 20. From time in memorial, we are trying to understand what goes through our minds that makes us do the things that we do. Some call it being possessed, others karma. From the 19th century, we have been blaming it on our upbring, childhood, repressed sexual deviations and chemical neurotransmitters. Of course, they are many opinionated individuals jumping on talk shows' settees emphasising that all these are hogwash. They say man should take hold of his life and control his future a...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaih%C5%8Dgy%C5%8D Kaihōgyō From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Kaihōgyō (回峰行?) is a set of the ascetic physical endurance trainings for which the Japanese ‘marathon monks’ of Mt. Hiei are known. These Japanese monks are from theTendai school of Buddhism, a denomination brought to Japan by the monk Saichō in 806 from China. Their quest is to serve Buddha through many duties but they are best known for their physical endurance in running, a form of extreme asceticism. The school is based north of Kyoto, at Mt. Hiei, which overlooks the ancient capital city. The Monks and their quest for enlightenment Part of Tendai Buddhism's teaching is that enlightenment can be attained in the current life. It is through the process of self denial that this can be achieved, and the Kaihōgyō is seen as the ultimate expression of this desire. There are many serving priests at the temple on Mt. Hiei, but very few of them have completed the kaihōgyō. M...

Reason for their predicament? Who decided that Nicol David should be a world class squash star and not, say a chess master? Is it the parents' strict drilling and tireless pestering which Nicol took willingly at her stride that helped? Is it the neighbourhood that she grew in? Is it that an unexplained power from above that gave her and her parents this vision? Did a wise man who appeared from nowhere who suggested to them this path to follow? Did she or people around her realise that she had this special talent that made her where she is today? Is it the alignment of stars at her time of birth, if so I am sure there must be someone born exactly at the same time as she was but has not held a racquet in her life? Who gives the inner strength for an individual to excel in something whilst someone else with almost the DNA make-up fails miserably. Who decides that the adequately prepared marathon runner should have a bust up midway through his race? Is it karma? If so who decides ...

Life is a continuum that Man is trying to make sense of. Ignorance and the zest to acquire the hidden secrets of the universe, which he perceives as 'an awful waste of lots of space', linger on and will linger on till 'Thy kingdom come' (i.e. if you believe so). From time immemorial, Man tried to figure out various mind-boggling natural events like natural calamities, disease and emotions. The eldest amongst the pack, the most powerful, the most domineering, the bravest or the far-travelled will take charge and dictate how 'life' should go on. And life went on with a few hitches here and there. The magnificent forces of nature still could not have answered all their questions. The question of angering the 'forces' above came to mind. The leaders decided that certain manoeuvres be done to appease them. Much to everybody's dismay, the misery just kept on rolling. Variations to ways doing things were introduced by disgruntled individuals. Alternativ...