When Terrorists get obsessed with Hollywood style trailers and Game of thrones

It is seriously depressing video of a human getting decapitated. No wonder source of such videos are often from terrorist who have been releasing such videos time and over. They are normally shot on hand held camera with low resolution. Their amateurishness is worse than those of a amateur youtube uploader. For best it can be compared to home made videos who are more concerned with content than the production values. But, a recent video showing decapitation of American journalist made me reconsider this conclusion.

The video is not hand held or does not uses cheap camera. It clearly uses a decent DSLR or even video camera which is held in a good tripod that does not shakes in desert's constant wind where this is filmed. The voice is not disturbed by the desert wind. One of the big thing to notice was it is in 720p resolution. The camera angle changes depending on where to focus sometime on the terrorist and sometimes keeping the victim at center. I am sure the team behind this must be obsessed with Hollywood production techniques.

Lets focus on the content. I am not going to talk about decapitation as it is actually not shown in the video! It starts like a movie trailer or even GOT season trailer. There is an introduction which is obama speech about his authorization on strikes on ISIS members. It then blackens to show the main scene. The victim who is a photojournalist says without any fear or doubt that it is US who is responsible for his death. I can feel no sense of fear or even hesitation. The angle of camera changes from center to right side during this time similar to what happens in movie trailer to show intensity of the situation. The camera is still during all this time. It feels they are taking multiple shots for this shot or using multiple camera for single shot which was later merged. The killer who talks in heavy British accent is next shown talking explaining the reason why he is being killed. He screams no Koran lines or any of those loud Arabic words. He reminded me of the wannabe terrorist guys from the movie Four Lions. All while watching this video, I was thinking there must have been a lot of 'cut' calls and two guys ending laughing of the mistake while taking the line. Considering the seriousness of the content, I always ended up regretting this thought. Then there is break in video and next part shows the guy moving on with chopping the head. It basically shows the terrorist applying the knife without any blood spilling out. The next part shows directly the decapitated head of the journalist. The decapitation process is not shown. Obviously, the censor board of terrorists video should actually require decapitation as mandatory part of video. But, it was not shown. Perhaps, the terrorist have learnt of humane way of killing and displaying it. Or, was it that these people are motivated by Hollywood style movie trailers or Japanese porn that censors from showing genitals. Or, perhaps it was the work of Hollywood people. We can only speculate.

When Terrorists get obsessed with Hollywood style trailers and Game of thrones

About Buddha

The birth of Buddha becomes a topic of conflict among India and Nepal. Gautama is now beyond doubt proved to have been born in Lumbini, Nepal. But, he was enlightened in India converting him from Gautama to Buddha which is in some sense a new birth. For me this birth raises no conflict as I belong to both countries. If a Nepalese says he was born in Nepal and is thus Nepalese then I am happy, for Nepal is my Motherland. If India says he was enlightened in India and thus is Indian then I am also happy as I was myself born and raised there.

And, If tomorrow any human comes and says he is human then I would be most happy because I am also human just like him and feel all the suffering that he had gone through. I too have my share of attachment and hatred towards things born out of my own desire of things. But, if tomorrow some God comes and says that he is God then I would slap that God and be thoroughly angry at him. First, he is not God and is not born among them. Second, The reason that Buddha is motivation to me is that he was able to transcend from being an average human to a higher state all on his own. The path he took was not like the one God would take. There was no magic to his method or is. There was no faith, let alone blind faith. However, There were failures. There were risks. There were utter disappointments. There was struggle. But, There was steadfastness that kept him throughout. And, that has kept us humans alive in this world in face of all the struggle that we face daily. Also, There was open mindedness to change and experiment. And, there was science. Don't expect Buddha to make you like him in a matter of seconds like God can. Even he had to struggle for lifetime for that. How come you get that in matter of seconds without your own focus and seriousness towards it? At the end, he is a teacher whose teaching suffers from the same fault as any human teacher have. It is highly open for misinterpretation and false judgements owing to ambiguity of human language and understanding nature of humans which applies previous assumptions over actual guidelines. If he was God, then there would not be so many division of Buddhism. Maybe there would not have been the word Buddhism at all!

So, this is message to all humans. If any Nepali says Buddha is Nepali. Smile. If any Indian says he is Indian. Smile. If entire humanity says he is human. Smile more. But, if anybody says that he is God. Hit him and hit him hard.

About Buddha

Why do plants stay fixed while we animals move?

Few months back, I watched a video Where Do Trees Get Their Mass From? in Veritasium that concludes that trees get all their mass from carbon dioxide that we animals exhale. We animals on the other hand get our mass from trees which is commonly known from our good old textbook topic called food chain. What it lacks is the fact that we in turn were being eaten by plants through our process called respiration (Are You Lightest In The Morning?) that we do continuously and photosynthesis that plants do mostly during day. So, nature does not acts like a bitch as it sounds in the food chain. The food indeed passes backwards in a circular manner. So, there starts a couple of question that bugged my mind. Are plants totally dependent on us animals for the carbon dioxide supply for its survival? What other roles does plant and animals play for the stability of ecosystem and its resources? Obviously the topic of this blog too. So, plants form the source of capturing energy from sun that forms as source of energy to all other living beings in the earth. They basically convert carbon dioxide into glucose which is petrol for us fuelling our activities. We animals lack such mechanism so we are totally dependent on them for getting that source of energy. This energy is used by us in doing all sort of activities like keeping us alive (involuntary actions) and those that we choose to do because we like to (voluntary actions). We have built complex organs in that process and us humans have gone to the extreme in developing advanced intelligence. On the other hand tree seem quite vulnerable, do not have complex systems like we animals have. They have simply skipped them all and are quite satisfied in staying fixed in one place forever making them quite vulnerable to all sorts of risks. So, just like we animals plants also respire. This is basically the process of extracting energy to allow life processes to support. The byproduct of respiration (aerobic which is most common form of respiration) is carbon dioxide. If plants respire then all the oxygen that they generate will be used by plants themselves nullifying any oxygen to be used by us. But, why it wont happen? Maybe because they don't move. I learned this during my Vipassana meditation days where we were asked to stay fixed like tree without moving virtually stopping all voluntary activities which automatically slowed involuntary activities. This helped focus all the energy being generated by respiration in increased mental activities which was then used in the stage of killing all bad thoughts in mind. Vipassana topic aside. Plant dont move or any such rapid activities that consume high amount of energy like we animals do. That allows them to survive with much less energy than us animals. The, the process of photosynthesis that yields oxygen is more then they can consume. This is where we animals come in. Our job is take that glucose generated by plants as their byproduct and burn it with oxygen to generate carbon dioxide which become byproduct for us but source of food for plants. Plants cannot generated carbon dioxide on large scale(because they don't move, right?) like we do so they need to get that carbon dioxide from us animals. All our life activities revolves around this thing. So, next time if you think that plants are dumb beings just sitting in the open land think a second. They are actually eating you all throughout your life.

Why do plants stay fixed while we animals move?

My Vipassana Observations

At start of the course on 0th day, Goenka says to follow the course without doubt and then make conclusion only after final day. So, here I am making my observations public though this blog.

While applying for vipassana when they ask if you have read their documents they mean it by every word of it. Make sure you have read before filling the form.

Goenka looks like Lalu Prasad yadav

Goenka has three distinct voices: Discourse, Sing and Meditation Guideline

When Goenka sings, he sounds like frog croaking before rain

I want that alarm bell as my alarm

The speed of people entering dhamma hall and speed of people leave hall for lunch simply is opposite every time

Staying one place without moving for hours during meditation sucks for guys but staying quiet for 10 days is what sucks for girls

Vipassana may not sincerely teach meditation to all students but it does teaches exercise to all students old and new

Dhamma sewaks are Bouncers and this is ultimate truth of vipassana with no exceptions

Two things need to be added in requirements of Noble Silence: Loud Farting and Snoring especially during group meditation hours. They are way more important than silence of body and mind

If you normally snore loudly during sleep you are going to have hard time during group meditation when you fall asleep especially in morning and after meal

If you are interested in signing up for Dhamma Sewaks, 1st day and days from 5 to 9 are going to be your most difficult ones.

Arrive early on the first day first mediation and grab 3 or 4 cushions. You will realize the importance each day

That word Anichyat sanghara upatdaya dhammaya becomes a magic spell during group meditations starting 6th day

If during meditation you feel like you are flying then you are hallucinating and its totally normal there

Goenka does have sense of humour

If you go vipassana with the purpose of meeting new girls then back off. Better go to Art of Living or Osho

Donations are optional

Its totally fine to take food more than one time

If you have person who snores loudly during sleep in your dorm room, you are seriously fucked up

Dont buy CDs. They just don't work.

New and Old students are two separate category of students with different expectations and experience during course

My Vipassana Observations

Some random thoughts while sitting on desk

I am dying. I just fell down while walking in a long road without any reason. I feel terribly weak and know that my time has come. It is very dark and a lonely road. The only power now i have is to contemplate on those lifetime memories that i usually do during my daily morning time. I know this is last time i will do that contemplation and it will be lost forever. This thought sends shivers all over my body. I think of those silly childhood days when i couldn’t control myself. The first baby steps, first day of school, last day of school and all those weird memories when i thought i wouldn’t last more than that day. The thought of those achievements and thought of competing against that person and putting anything just to overcome. The feeling of supporting one thing and hating other. The levels that I go underwent to prove that what i believed was the only thing correct. That childish nature of hiding my true self just to feel happy around socially. The art of lying I mastered and the design of killing regret I engineered. I laugh at myself and then cry. All through those memories I knew exactly what i was doing and knew the way for proper path yet I didn’t acted on it and I dont have time to act now even if I want to. The laughter opens my mouth and the tears from my eyes enters mouth and meet my tongue spoiling the taste of time. All those years seems just like yesterday. Suddenly i feel very light and raising above like a helium balloon raises automatically when left. The force of the earth no longer seem to have control on me. Suddenly, I see a dawn of light whose light is spreading all over and the world being illuminated in its light.

This is the feeling I get every time when listening to the soundtrack Finale from Once upon a time in West by Ennio Morricano.

Some random thoughts while sitting on desk