Research Papers / Research paper on Mormons! [20]

Thanks. That was a nice explanation. I'm glad I asked.

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]

I also want to tell you of something which has been coming to my mind as I have read your posts. You've been talking of a sudden enlightenment which may happen with persons engaged in this quest. I get the feeling that you think of this as some phenomenon like in a physics experiment, as when maybe, in some controlled chain reaction, a threshold is acquired and the entire phenomena changes. This idea may be getting enforced by thinking of meditation as a process which somehow refines our mind in gradual stages, and suddenly crosses some threshold value transforming it into super-consciousness.

I do not wish to say my meditation experience has been more meaningful than yours, nor that I have any greater knowledge in spiritual practices than you do. As a matter of fact, I have often felt happy reading things as you describe them, knowing I would have struggled in vain to put them across.

There is something though I wish to share with you, seeing you as an ernest seeker. It is a small thing in itself, but so much at the base of everything else, that thinking about things in a particular way might put you on quite a different course than if you were to look at them in another.

Is this not somewhat of a surprising fact to consider, that at any time, if we look at our circumstances they appear like some balanced system, the kind we are used to seeing on a larger scale; like the eco-systems say, in a neighboring marshland. Were something untoward to happen within its universe, the entire system moves into action, preserving as much of its original nature while adjusting itself and coping with this new presence.

The point being, that there is always an expanded boundary of this system such that this intrusive event becomes a predictable one. Then we can go a further step and think about exercising some control on this event, such as hastening or delaying it; assuming we have enough knowledge of the larger system.

I am suggesting that, while meditating, we think of the world around us in this manner; as ever increasing subsystems, encompassing those within. We can measure our progress then as our meditation develops, in an increasing knowledge of these expanding circles of subsystems around us.

I hope this conveys something worthwhile to you. I wouldn't be surprised though, if I didn't do too well..

Undergraduate / Personal Essay/Personal Statement, "connection between me and science" [10]

Thank you Adanne, for your remark on the other thread. :)

Undergraduate / Personal Essay/Personal Statement, "connection between me and science" [10]

Good for you !!!

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Would it surprise you if I said, after all, I am not very different from you in my beliefs either. The difference seems to me, that I am wondering about these things I ask here, wondering how to make sense of them otherwise .. actually even wondering how to make sense of them, even believing in a maker!

You don't ask these questions anymore? Or you just wouldn't ask them here in this fashion ? Or there are some answers you know to them? In any case, thank you for your gentle response. The italics are a young reader's responses when I sent her this writing.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Thank you very much Simone, and Notoman. Hope you enjoy this piece too.. As before, the reader responded in italics and I've indented my answers.

What if we turn to ourself and say, I am the only one in this entire universe. That would be a hard picture to hold on to. Yet there seems to be some truth in it. Actually, maybe its not a hard picture to hold onto, that I am the only person in the universe. Because what if all the people around me aren't people but merely puppets? I mean as far as I know, since I never feel what they feel or taste what they put into their own mouths, I could be the only human being. What I mean to say is that since I've never been inside another persons body, I've never seen things from their point of view or lived their life, honestly I could accept the fact that I'm the only actual person who really does feel things and taste things and say things that I want to say and everyone else is just trained to say things, like a puppet. I don't know, maybe I'm going too far on this theory, but I'm just trying to explain my point.

- I like what you are saying that there is some kind of a barrier in knowing yourself, and who the other person really is. Have you gone so far as to think - everyone being as they are - is connected to your larger life, not just the one you know about and seems to you, you live. Maybe you do agree to that.

The question is, what of the world? Lets deal with first the inanimate things around us. What is their nature other than how we know them?

Things are distributed by distance from where I am. When a thing is farther, that's the same as saying it seperated by a distance, though distance itself has no substance, but if I could say the more of distance is pored in between, the smaller it makes the object appear, could I hold on to the idea that in someway the thing never got further or closer. Speed is a property of distance, like distance is getting removed or added again. And distance depends on our visual perception, not of itself directly, but like sound depends on silence. It is a background. This actually-in a form-is science, right? Speed causing distance to be removed or added, objects appearing smaller when more of the distance is pored in between. I think you're leading up to a point which I haven't read yet so I can't really comment on anything yet, or give my viewpoint since everything in this paragraph is true, scientifically and theoretically.

- no this isnt the science you will be taught in school, but I thought you already had studied distance, speed, time - Newton's laws etc..

the idea I am reaching for here is, when we say a thing is moving away, could we think of it as distance like some substance being pored in between. Like things can appear sometimes smaller in a glassful of liquid, distance has the same property of making things appear small. And instead of a thing moving quickly away, something in between us and it, could be changing.

we can tell sounds because of the silence in between. Wouldn't the entire world just become one solid mass if things were'nt seperated by, distance. The effect of this mingling up has been to make us think of ourself as similarly small, and as one of the things in the world.

Meaning of sounds occur in our minds and sometimes they don't, depending on our knowledge of that sound. Which is the association of sound to its meaning. Meaning empowers us. We accept the concept of meaning because it makes it easier to deal with similarity. So its like a similar thing multiplied on different occasions, or just presented to us so many times. I understand this paragraph up til here. So the more times we hear the repetition of the sound (the more it is presented to us), the more we accept it has a meaning. We sort of get a handle to most of its substance, and leave some specifics of that instance. We know almost certainly it cannot be the same thing.How would we know it is not the same thing? It is, if it is repeated again and again. Wait...I think I understand. Because we see it as similar since it is the same sound, we see it as unsimilar because of the different times it was said. So its separated through the specifics of that instance, as in different points in time the sound was used, not through the actual sound itself since that is the same.

For example, the tram I catch in the mornings. It is similar in many ways , but I cannot do it with my eyes closed. I think I get it now. You couldn't do it with your eyes closed because though yes, it is similar because you catch the tram everyday, maybe even at the exact same time everyday and the exact same tram, but you can't do it with your eyes closed because of other factors that make each time you do it different. So even if something is the same, there is also a way it's different. In this case, the traffic could be different. If you did it with your eyes closed you would bump into people, or a car might crash into you because of the differences around you, different people going different places every day. Every day is different, even if you yourself do the same thing everyday.

but what is the point about the similarity and meaning of things. Can we say similarity and unsimilarity is when it is about sameness in appearance, something we see or hear or even touch, taste or smell. And meaning is somewhere deeper, is real, very real, and the appearance and its meaning make up the actual thing we experience.

so getting on the tram automatically is no big deal, like a robot, and actually when the tram changes tracks down the line that's whats happening. The engineers have seen enough similarity that they can automate the whole process. I am only drawing attention to this dual nature of everything. The meaning part and the specific part. And though the specific part has differences the meaning part seems to exist elsewhere - and we can say it is the same, for all the times we see it differently.

Isnt this like ever increasing knowledge. Like swallowing up the diversity in the world around, into somewhere inside of us, and we just keep eating and eating the world. So is that the end of it, when its all eaten up. Can there be a state when there is nothing more to know. Definitely not. I don't understand how you came to that point.

why not? when everything becomes integrated together. Like everything fits as one whole piece. And there are no specific pieces.

this is like sometimes, specially 'wise old people', sit and say, oh that's what happened, I knew it would turn out so! Well they're saying something like, been there, done that - even if they're just thinking so about their experiences.

But, there could be those who have actually been through such intense experiences in life, that they really can relate with and understand the things happening ordinarily to others. And, I think we can extend this idea to think about some persons just actually knowing it all.

Perception may not be between a perciever and another object. That differentiation depends upon our seeing ourselves within, and behind our eyes, or to some central point within our heads where the sounds reach. That central point rests on visual perception again. Maybe, a person without sight has no need for a central point for sounds to come to. Loudness, like size of objects though giving an idea of distance feels like seeing with one eye. We cannot be exact about the distance its coming from.

Interestingly when there is no distance, there is contact, another sense perception coming into play, which by its absence enforces the distance idea.

Are we talking then about a immanantly existing something, conjured up for our minds, and how we deal with it is because of these sense interactions. When you write these essays what brings you to discuss the different topics? How did you come to write about this topic?

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Simone, responding to your post before the last one. You do me great honor in sharing your beliefs with me. I will probably never know you personally any closer than this, but at the distance I am now, you appear to me representative of many many women here in the US and most of the Western world. I think many of them would find your description as portraying their own inner 'connection' with the universe, and your 'role' in it, as very accurate for themselves as well. This is very valuable to know about, for me somehow -- and I am quite overwhelmed how you have so graciously and spontaneously shared it.

For whatever interest my writings have for you, eastern thought, mysticism or simply curiosity even, I would so appreciate your reflections on them. ...

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]

I'd really rather hear Simone's view on this. I understand she sees it as this as well !

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]

Sean, to my understanding the difficulty here is something personal to you. You look out from a point where everything can only appear the way it now does. You think it is objective, but that idea too is fallacious. The truth lies somewhere which at present is a "blind-spot" for you. You are looking for its forms and other characteristics, which you recognize objects, and even concepts in the world by. You are unwilling to see that "reality" may be so arranged, where this continous sense you have, that this much you understand, and this much you do not, is in reality something greater than yourself, always there, and your sense of understanding a slow unveiling of it.

The objective understanding you seek, of the biosphere, ecosystems or even your own life is quite an illusion. Its reality is always present, energized, if that's the term you are comfortable with, from a realm whose dimensions we grasp only in the fringes. Meditation is the process, if you will, of gradually focusing towards that center, that reality. It is in this sense that we connect with events everywhere, looking "inside".

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

I am in conflict where I have developed my own understanding and beliefs, and asked to accept the principle that society itself is the object of all improvement, served best through focusing on one's advancement as a component of that society.

This goes against the good of the poor; because it is allright then, to exploit them and their situation. Living conditions are like another apparel on our existence, and we tug and pull to make it better for us, and around us, and try to ignore the uncomfortable feeling identifying with those who suffer due to our actions.

Pursuit of knowledge is a path free from this, and somehow fulfilling, but does not seem to have the same content of purpose. What knowledge could compare to objectives people commonly work for? Only this, that even as we try to do the work we are doing, it is really happening not as a consequence of our wishes and desires, but by a design determined other than by these, and yet of ourselves.

This is a search which will take us closer to the meaning of existence, even more than knowing the physical nature of things.

What do I know about the part of me which determines the events of my life? A subtle feeling when we look deep, and the recognition is a small one. We say, I look deep within and I find... . Yet we acknowledge its significance, it seems true, and likely to pass.

Are these feelings deep within, the ones coming true for us? One could say they exist simultaneously, and not that we act to make them happen. We attempt to quicken the goal, but often when things do not happen as we are wanting, is it correct to enquire if they were instead responding to something deeper within ourselves? So that we are satisfied as things turned out.

Does this point to a path within for ourselves? Identifying our deepest feelings, associating them with happenings around us? The greatest changes may come to our lives then, not by intervening in the playing out of events, but these feelings within.

Chapter 2, Sutra 19 of the Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali explains the Samkhaya perspective of the order of natural things, and ourselves; a quite distinct way from the physical view we otherwise adopt of nature. We know the physical view falls short of explaining reality: our consciousness, our emotions and more physically even -- the edge of the universe? Or why, in quantum dimensions, do things lose their individualness?

It isn't a stretch to think of our senses as instruments with some limitations, and of ourselves, with finer abilities, the readers of these instruments.

Western philosophy says too, that apart from the limit due to minuteness, underlying what we percieve, has to be in essence something else. Samkhaya goes on to say that our perceptions of the natural elements - earth, sky, water, or from other senses, air and fire, are properties of even more real substances.

We feel a distinctiveness about ourselves, a completeness and independence from the rest of the world, and with it goes our ability to control our motion and direct our senses and attention. We see our bodies composed of the same materials as other things, posses life as trees do, but we also see this life-force and our senses apart from our bodies. And of these distinctive aspects of ourselves, we do not deny their existence though they are without any physical dimensions.

Space is what we make of what our eyes see. Objects appear to be at a distance, and have extent, so Space should be somehow beyond dimensions, since it manifests our singularity for us, and we acknowledge that we are not our bodies or senses alone.

Similarly, we come to a sense of hardness within ourselves. We could not sense hardness without touch, so we are a part the hardness we can feel. We take this further to ask .. what feels as hardness? It is external, and exists. We can even think of it without extent, and beyond visibility, caused by an independent entity in creation. This is an instance of Tanmatra in Samkhaya.

Other natural elements like water, air and fire are similarly Tanmatra manifestations; we struggle with their existence in our mind because existence is naturally associated with perception, and occuping space and extent. But even their every instance appears different, only due to the action of the space Tanmatra upon it.

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]

Is it possible for you to understand what I believe and not believe in it yourself .. one cannot even say that to someone much younger, for you would not be reckoning then with the strength and nature of the younger person's belief, which is more likely to be of a purer and disaffected kind.

Can it be possible you have never thought about this -- that two-thirds of the world, known also as the developing world, have people who do not see life as just to them at all in just these facts -- that they were born into countries which had lost out their riches to those who "colonized" them, which was a very accepted thing just a century back, or from countries which were actually left behind in terms of material progress.

You might think the philosophy of these people, specially those of the first kind, is only a mechanism for coping with their unequal destiny. It is very obvious you think this without a doubt. I will not be the one to try convincing you of anything, only give this some thought, that there are yet people in exactly the same circumstances as yourself, who for reasons of their own have felt as uncomfortable with this seeming unjustice of fate, and have looked very hard outside their normal circles.

More than me, it is someone like this who will convince you, that you are not indeed the "have-its". That those in the struggling world, for the larger part, are also nearer some more absolute truth, which you never turn to, believing that wealth is the end all of existence, and everyone saying otherwise seeks only to decieve those who have it.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Dear reader: I struggled with this idea once earlier on this same forum. I will really appreciate your thoughts ...

Scholarship / I have studied intensively, especially maths and physics for the past twelve years - scholarship [38]

Since childhood my dream was to matriculate [from] a reputable university in Vietnam and at that time, an university which is in group A is very valuable . So [for the past twelve] years I have learned [studied] hard, especially maths and physics, in order to pursue my dream. But Once, when I was free and invited to a workshop of RMIT Vietnam, I thought [to myself] : " let come [me go] and find out how an international university works, I'll lose nothing to [by] doing this". Then I known [discovered] that I was right; it was the milestone that have changed decision and my whole [life. ]path!. A few months [Only 4 months] before my most important enchange exam which is considered a great deal of life; actually only 4 months, I decided to apply for scholarship of [at] RMIT Vietnam. I have had to complete both, work at school and studying English by myself at home at the same time as well . Getting 6.0 IELTs in 4 months practise [of] assiduous [practice], I [was] totally [very]pleased, although it does not satisfy your [the] base point. From my result, I strongly believe that I own [have the] ability of studying with a high level [of] determination and energy.

Grammar, Usage / Logical Fallacies (for debate and persuasive writing) [23]


--- could you give a citation for this please !

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Why does math have such a revered place in society, more so the Western one? Actually, an even subtler facet of this question is - why is anything expressed mathematically accepted without question ? Mathematical facts are facts in reality - why? eg., equations of relativity were always held as true, lacking only sufficient rigor in the conditions of the physical experiments in proving them right .

Knowing that all mathematical operations are possible on computers, we can make this simplifying statement that mathematical operations are in their lowest form only addition and subtractions. These operations can be applied to anything, even hypothetical quantities, which is what variables are. So, length into breadth always will give us the correct measure of area, even as a real fact.

The magic seems to be in the operation we call multiplication... the operands involved we've learnt are a quantity, which itself has a reality only in our minds, though it is constant. That is the number two has a certain behaviour, and so do the other nine digits.

The interesting point is it is their behaviour which is real, not them, that is they are real but are not objects. A conclusion here is that mathematical reality exists in a parallel domain of reality where properties of functions are expressed in a given way. Where we have discovered that only properties exist.

In this domain, Newton and Leibniz, discovered the mathematical property of calculus, which allowed a different way of relating properties within it. Einstein and Lorenz expressed extensions to the way fundamental variables like length, mass and time can be associated, based on this fact that the speed of light is a constant quantity.

Speed or velocity, is not in the real world, but it does exist. One could say it exists as a mathematical quantity. We can take the measure of an object's speed, that is we take a number quantity and applying the multiplication operation , to another specific number associated with a universal property called time, also in a mathematical domain, we simply take the resulting number and know that this can be associated to a physical point expressing the length from the earlier point. We know our object will be here then.

Our sense of reality of motion is as much due to this tangebility of the mathematical expression. Its truth and reality in our minds.

Speed, time, length, mass .. all these are considered fundamental but only length can really be seen, that is it's there in our world. The absolute quantity time, nevertheless exists but is a measure of a completly intangible, but unversally agreed to quantity. Something to relate change with, a sort of a common denominator of change.

Mass is something of a feeling of a downward force on any object; and we know it is related to the body pulling this object towards it, in this case the earth.

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]


... and this is what I'm concerned about. Will this attitude not colour everything you write here?

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]

OK Sean -- I want to put anything personal in our discussion behind. I do not think you have any bias anymore; and I'll be far more productive knowing you are thinking with me than against.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Let me begin to answer this somewhat dramatically and say -- we are all blind. And like some earthy worms, if we were looked at from a distance, we would appear as this.. nodding our heards, shaking them side to side, stopping and sniffing the air .. or feeling with our antennas, then pushing on. Wiggly little creatures, such an urge to squish them; can't even say why this urge. Maybe it is their pathetic helplessness, and their fat bodies and knowing, they are almost completely harmless and unable to hurt back in any way.

.. sometimes I see this picture. A castle, like we read about in fairy tales, floating in the sky, clouds obscuring everything around it. Actually more than a castle, an entire city, shining, golden... where is this? Somewhere deep within, and it is a vision that persists. Is it imaginary? I more and more think not.

I imagine watching them for a while and can feel a slow surge of frustration building up inside. It isn't just their clumsy crawl, but some assurance in their walk, as though they knew exactly what they were doing, where they were going. Stupid slugs, I hold myself back from screaming.. I see you walking up that stem and like some nincompoop you're going to reach it's end, then only turn back.

..back to other picture again. I do not know why its walls seem made of glass, at least they appear to be to my eye. The streets are cobbled, I think this part is from pictures I seem to remember from Pied Piper and others of those sorts. Ah, I think I know why the walls were of glass, because I am myself formless, no one sees me, and like in some 3D-picture where I can move around at will, I seem to be able to swish in and out of, wherever I wish.

It isn't just that I can will myself anywhere I wish, but I seem able to do even more. I seem able to make things appear, things to happen. Well, not exactly, but somewhat like this .. I seem to make myself come towards a central part of this city - it's like a city square and see there some kind of a show taking place. A man is climbing up a rope, he is turbaned, the kind we see snake charmers illustrated as; and his rope reaches up to somewhere high, higher than the rooftops around. I too am wonderstruck with this phenomena and alight from my journey, joining the few people standing underneath him. There's something riveting about this performance, more enthralling even than my so recently discovered abilityto fly, and I stand there amongst everybody else and wait and watch for what will follow.

.. ah now I notice, you're not a worm, but a caterpillar. Quite suddenly my disgust for you is gone, and I watch instead your bright colours and the subtle patterns along your frame. Your slithering has given way to grace, your dumbness to meaning. I can even smell the green leaves now and see hues in the flowers.. you yourself appear so fitting in the tree. In my mind, you are a colourful butterfly -- there is a lightness in the air.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]


Correct me if I am wrong. You see the difference in our perspectives as this. According to you, there are objective truths out there following their own laws, and totally independent of what we may wish them to be. The Pythagoras theorem and the math of nuclear energy( e = mc2) ... are instances of that, you say.

And I, you are saying, imply that everything out there is really without any objectivity of it's own, and conjured up by some process of our minds. I hope you are not saying, that I simply imply, we fool ourselves into believing things out there are the way we wish them to be .. like castles in the air. And instead that, I say we ourselves create the objectivity in the Pythagoras theorem, and e = mc2.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

This is a complement-like approach to yours. That first, there is as much of ourselves we do not know, as of the things out there.

Our reality and working-ground is this "substance like" ignorance, really responsible for all our lack of clarity and understanding. Our life is about dealing with this substance.

What we know, we are connected to already. It's objectivity and ours is the same. It isn't that we acquire something in coming to know something, instead we relinquish some misunderstanding, or vacous-like knowledge of it.

Graduate / Post-graduation Statement of Purpose [22]

Nishessh. There are two things here. One is learning to write well, and correct english; and the other to get the "best" essay out to the university you're applying to. Learning can be fun, but then be prepared to come here very often and keep putting up things you write. Over months and maybe longer, you will find substantial improvements in your writing -- and being able to say the things you really want to.

For this essay, if you want to send out the best you can, because your need is the admission, then repost the essay I corrected. After some more inputs, that one really will serve the purpose you want.

Graduate / Post-graduation Statement of Purpose [22]

Thank you Simone.

Scholarship / I have studied intensively, especially maths and physics for the past twelve years - scholarship [38]

Since childhood, I have always dreamed of matriculating from a reputable university in Vietnam. For 12 years I pursued my dream, by studying intensively, especially maths and physics. But When I was invited to a workshop of RMIT Vietnam, I decided to explore the workings of an international university work . Then I discovered that It was the milestone [that] changed my whole life. Only months before my entrancechange exam, I decided to apply for scholarship at RMIT Vietnam. I have had to complete both, work at school and study English by myself. Getting 6.0 IELTs in [four] months of assiduous practice, I was very pleased [with]. From my result. I strongly believe that I have the ability of studying with a high level of determination and energy.

During 3 years in high school, I worked tirelessly in many leadership roles . Throughout my tenure, I worked hard to make beneficial changes in both school and society, driven by my desire to meet my own high expectations; and so does [did] my academic performance[also improve].

While in 10th and 11th grade, I was a volunteer, helping set up school anniversaries with some of the students. I noticed that I love children and doing charities. When my school funds village-children in mid-autumn and on many other occasions, we hold parties and give the children presents. I felt very happy seeing them quickly open the gifts and smile brilliantly. In the end of the day, we are [were] loath to part with one another. During that joyful time, I always went home late, around 9.00 p.m., finishing my homework on the bus ride home.

In addition to taking part in extracurricular activities in 11th grade, I attended a dance-sport club and discovered my passion. My teacher said that I had aptitude for dancing. Not only did I learn, but I also offered to work in the collaborator's position. After [only] a month of being a member, I managed a group which had the function of running [the] club's forum. Sometimes I had to help them understand one another and come close. It is responsible for [This developed] my interpersonal and problem solving skills enhancement .

[Indeed,]to prepare for an IELTS test in four month is very [extremely] difficult. I am currently a member of a nonprofit organization named SEAMAP. It is [,] the most famous and qualified english club in Hanoi, contributing my speaking skill improvement in 2 months.

My parents think that an International university is reserved only for rich people . If I want to study at RMIT Vietnam, [and] they won't help me with my educational expenses. A scholarship will allow me to continue with [the] International University and give me a chance to prove to my parents that their thinking was wrong. Besides, I have always enjoyed being a leader and am wish to pursue a career in leadership. I have learned that leadership means teamwork, patience, as well as the ability to take calculated risks. I hope to continue learning about leadership through my school years, and this scholarship will allow me focus on a viable career that none of [the] Vietnam universities can do.

I [am determined]have devoted my life both, to working to better myself and to improving society as a whole. If I am awarded this scholarship, I will continue in this same manner of being [as] a student at RMIT Vietnam. I [will]commit my[self] life to studying hard and to developing [furthering] movements [the causes] at your university.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to apply.

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]


Why don't you write more about this.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Thank you for picking your way so cleanly. You've described the situation well, balancing the two aspects - relinquishing misconceptions and acquiring fresh knowledge. And naturally, the larger interest is in the latter process - how do we learn?

Using your scenario, let me assume someone approaches this object in the room. Let us think it is a Laptop. If he approaches it without any question in his mind, he would be like the bushman who came upon the coca-cola bottle; only wishing in the end that he hadn't found it. So I assume the person is aware of technology, knows some programming even, yet cannot figure why the computer does what it does. For instance interpret keystrokes, or perform math and make logical decisions. He knows there's a microchip-processor in there with many million transistors on it -- but somehow this doesn't add up in his mind to the almost intelligent action which the machine performs.

The question he is scratching his head about is, how is all this made to happen in this postage-stamp sized chip? Are there new laws for the physical behaviour of things in there -- contradicting those we're accustomed to in nature? How are electric currrents so precisely manipulated ? What mechanism lies within it and how was it put there at all ? And one big personal question, how much smarter are those people who do this - will he himself have the intelligence to grasp it all ?

With this last question, he is burdened with something tremendously heavy, and as though slung around his neck. And this is despite the fact, as we can see, that the question is totally irrelevant.

We will assume the electronic-engineer wannabe overcomes his phobia, and wonders where he must begin to fathom the mystery. What comes to his mind are recollections of figures and of stuff similar to that he is looking for, from previous times when he was browsing books in some book-store or library. He sits down and makes a determination of where his search is likely to be most fruitful. Where will he find the right material, with the right amount of complexity, neither too difficult, nor lacking in content. Basically, he also has a good sense of what will be fulfilling in his quest.

Interestingly, he is getting to know the object in the room by going elsewhere, and hopefully even spending much time pondering what he reads. Being a good student we expect that as he studies, his mind keeps coming back to the object in the room, enforcing his original questions and clarifying the answers as he finds them.

We can now examine the process as this student reads, or does whatever else we can consider as contributing to his study. Point is, he now has a mindset, and what and how it is, determines how well he learns. If we compare this with our original situation, we find this mindset as the distinctive factor in the two scenarios.

I'll continue .. feel free to say anything here if you wish to.

Scholarship / I have studied intensively, especially maths and physics for the past twelve years - scholarship [38]

Hi Thaihanguyen,

I feel like asking you to do the same thing I suggested to Nishessh.

To achieve your present purpose, that is, get yourself accepted to this University and also hopefully recieve some scholarship, use the essay of yours I corrected last. When I read what the moderators sometimes suggest to you, it seems either completely unlikely that you will be able to correct it in that fashion, for this essay, or what they suggest takes away the original flavour of your writing. I tried to make corrections which I think are acceptable as current english, maybe sometimes grammatically a little off. Hey, but that makes it only more authentic-sounding then, doesn't it!

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

... but really I would hesitate to think of myself superior to another human by virtue of my personal circumstances -- of where I was born, the race or nation I belong to and the opportunities I had simply owing to those factors.

Somehow I would think I was disrespecting something within myself if I thought myself intrinsically superior to another human. So I appreciate your frankness about your opinion regarding the aborigines.. if I were to meet them, I'd really be interested in sharing their simple outlook to life, which we can be sure it is.

Ofcourse communication would be difficult or negligible, but I believe they would be peaceful people and maybe I would sit around a fire on the open plains on some late evening with them. Maybe there'd be atleast one older person, a man most likely I would somehow relate to. I can imagine he'd communicate himself by gestures and verbal expressions which would appear just as we would, in situations that we are comfortable in. I expect he would be treated with respect by others in that group. I can even imagine him looking sometimes towards me and smiling through yellowed teeth. But his eyes would speak from depths I would fain find in cities of US and Canada.

Maybe, for some reason I might have been carrying a gun or something of that sort with me and if our attention somehow went towards that, or to my own clean shirt, or immaculately tailored coat, he would not appear uncomfortable and so make me feel that. He would probably just see that as the way people from where I came, did it. Carry arms, or dress in that fashion. Maybe as the evening passed someone else within that group would become the common source for light hearted amusement of all. And most wonderously, sometimes animal voices would ring in the clear darkness behind and around us, and these people would say something -- identifying the creature no doubt, but even what the cause for its cry may have been. A call to its mate, a lament of the beast's condition, maybe it hadn't found anything to feed that day, or maybe, just that someone like myself with a gun had killed its baby. I think, the aborgines would surely know that much of the wild language.

And then when I parted from them, that same evening or the next day, they'd stand and regard me without any awkwardness at all. Maybe watch me mount my horse and I'd look at them and feel humbled that I had so little to give them in return for their easy and genuine hospitality. I'd ride away, sorry of this distance between civilizations, that there are those who will never experience this quiet and serene company of these people.

Scholarship / I have studied intensively, especially maths and physics for the past twelve years - scholarship [38]

No actually Simone's idea is great and as you have later put it in your essay -- that sounds very good, so go with it.

You often have some awkward grammar constructions which I think just cannot be overcome by simply following instructions you recieve here. You'll have to keep writing for much longer. For your present purpose of securing admission and the scholarship, I suggest you get through this stage by taking a jump-start with the essay I corrected for you, add the first paragraph, get more inputs from that stage onwards, then submit it.

Your vocab is good enough, your intelligence obviously is, else you wouldn't follow through with this persistence -- and your grammar is likely to improve probably faster at this university you're trying to get admission into, so why not just do whatever, to get in !

I am an Indian, and a student in this forum. Take the moderators' word as the final one.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

If one were to look for what concerns the people in US, I would say it is their own progress as a society. They totally believe that their model of society can carry the entire humankind forward. A healthy and vigourous community of people is their ultimate end. The big answers are in outer space, and till quite recently, robotic intelligence.

Europeans, in some contrast, are less concerned with the health of their society. Maybe because their societies already are healthy and matured. They look for their big answer in the atomic particle regions. In studying conditions when the big-bang occured at the start of the universe. They believe that is where they should apply themselves for ultimate answers. Religion for both peoples, is only a component of the society's health. Either way -- believing in, and not believing at all in some higher power, or better still, having some of both, is the most stable state for society.

There are some questions though, independent of the health of the society. A healthy society will in no way bring anyone closer to the answers of the ultimate kind. One could say, nor does it take them away. It is just a fact of human existence, that these are independent issues of equal importance.

Too often, people in Western countries, seeing those from other lands clamoring to get into their societies, start to confuse both of the above. They start believing their own pursuit of knowledge as the correct one. But it is mostly the young people from other countries concerned with stability in their lives and often starved for the basics of material existence, who turn to the west.

Following generations in western countries on the other hand, may well recognize the twist caused in the minds here only as consequence of this clamor -- and look eastwards, towards those who directed their efforts solely to answers of the other kind.

Scholarship / I have studied intensively, especially maths and physics for the past twelve years - scholarship [38]

The bus bounced along the rutted road as I bent over my books, finishing my homework after spending the evening helping children at Hoa Binh children's village. It was late [and] I felt tired but happy. I had [had] a joyful day with them. My high school held many parties for the children in mid-Autumn, the International Children's holiday, and on many other occasions. Each time I volunteered, I discovered something new and exciting. Children here were very polite and loveable.

...

Scholarship / I have studied intensively, especially maths and physics for the past twelve years - scholarship [38]

I apologize for what I said above about the corrections suggested by the moderators sometimes taking away the flavour of the writing. I wanted instead to say, that being a foreigner, I perhaps get a better sense of what the person wishes to convey, which the moderators may not at times.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

At this point I should say something definitive about Eastern practices and their methods in the quest for answers. Not only that, but also the results which can be expected when someone follows this practice.

There are eight stages of the practice that I can talk a little about here, and in the first two stages itself there is enough for anyone to work with and verify the consequences. He or she is likely to resist accepting these consequence as truly following from the practice. Which is fine, but dwell at the same time on this, that the currently accepted explanation we might give ourselves is also a conditioned one. We carry over the mechanical behaviour we see in objects to our own interactions with them. But human interaction with objects, according to Eastern thought, is of a completly different kind.

One may develop some appreciation of this by recollecting that in quantum dimensions -- the observer's presence itself affects the outcome of the experiment. Similarly, relativity shows that classical mechanics is an approximation, valid in the limited spectrum our lives are confined to..

Point is, we are functioning under some conditioning in our minds which we expressly carry over from mechanical behaviour in objects to human interaction. But in reality, the outcomes of our actions might follow a very different chain of events than we now think them to be -- thinking of ourselves as objects too, and we touch and push to make things happen.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Sorry Sean. You were probably waiting for Simone's response to your questions above.

Essays / Describing a bombing. [5]

You're sitting in Afganistan, the corrections you made to an essay posted earlier were very good --- don't know why it suddenly went away. I am thinking you're fighting the war there, your name has a German ring, yet it means 'love'. I'm also thinking you're craving for some intellectual outlet amidst the barren landscape.

Well. If so, tell us, I for one am very interested in hearing of things in your part of the world!

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

We were talking above about societies and their health. A community can be governed and its state of health measured - but this is an external sort of governance. Though it is more and more the way the world has moved to governing and measuring development.

In contrast is, when people decide to individually take up some principles and follow those. The laws then are from within. We focus only on an individual taking up a discipline voluntarily. No one polices or measures how much we slip. The consequences too are finally, ours to judge. Our connection is with our own circumstances, and practicing and watching the changes in them.

The perspective we wish to establish is that everything happening with us is in fact a consequence. Even though there is much of our circumstances we are not able to rationalize in this way. But that should not mean that it isn't the case.

There are two phases into the practice. First a struggle to fit our behaviour into the norms. Following that, one starts to become that changed person. And our understanding of the principles, is reflected in our behaviour.

My endeavour is not to impose any idea to be taken as is, rather, to carry us to a point from where we can conceptualize that everything out there has only this intimate relationship with us. If we can look at it this way, we can appreciate the significance of our power to change it -- and recognize these changes as they happen.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

I hadn't responded yet to this -

We take this as our hypothesis, that everything happening with us is nature following some signature pattern written after our own deeds. These patterns are discernible in our faces.

Of the practice, the first stage has five principles: non-violence, not-stealing and truthfulness are acceptable generally; two others, sexual restraint and non covetousness, have varying emphasis in different parts of the world.

As we make these principles dominant in our lives, our circumstances are affected as well. Greed, lust, anger, deceit show themselves on our faces and our life follows accordingly.

The next stage of our practice is a deeper cleaning of these negativities. Living in cleanliness, the first of these principles, we feel the effect on our minds as well, soothing and invigorating.

More subtle is the effect of being accepting of difficult situations, at all times they may occur. Of controlling any agitation and reacting only with patience.

Building fortitude and tolerance has the effect of smoothening our minds further still; such as we notice in those who have stoically undergone hardships. Bearing physical pain has a ring of sadism in it, but if seperated in thought from sensuality, which is its purport in sadism, the effect is positive.

Next is concerning matters such as we are talking of now. We may not see an answer to our quest, yet the struggle is rewarding and feels meaningful like any other effort. This effort is the cause for positive changes to our personality.

Lastly is the principle of accepting the fathomless-ness of the universe, and its mysterious ways of responding to our entrities, whenever we make them. The principle encourages us to surrender to this idea that the universe responds to us. As though holding back on contrary thoughts, rational as they are, will cause that to happen.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Just moved to India. I've always wondered this about myself and others.. it is so important to us to feel we are knowledgable about the really important things. Which is surprising because, on the other hand, I know that I am looking for answers to many questions. Yet I seem to have difficulty in saying I know little.

I am sitting on a fence at this moment. On one side is the world, familiar now, but left behind. And on the other is this unfamiliar one, which is really mine !

I am thinking of a glass like door, toughened, which I have opened and it is swinging back. I am turning and waving to you, my head is slightly bowed as I try to catch the expression on your faces; but much is mixed in the reflections on the glass walls as I walk away rolling my bag along. I am wearing a long coat and a hat, and I never ever wore these .. they were symbols in my mind of the world you belong to, the one I wanted to hate; because your forefathers had hurt mine. But you treated me gently and I find it hard to show you the anger in my eyes. Or now, that I have come to care for you like friends.

I'll turn and face the dust and heat now, and I'll keep writing ... this side of the glass!

Writing Feedback / "The Attitude of Success!" - CBEST: successful person essay! [14]

In many cases, People's attitudes [often] change [on] after they becom[ing] successful. The prosperity gained makes [them] some persons believe that they are no any more the same [person] as before. As a result, the[ir] behavior towards those close to them is [also] changed. Surprising, [how] people are change ing from [having] a good and positive attitude to an arrogant and disrespectful [one] position . My friend Tim changed [in this way] his manner after becoming very successful in marketing.