Point of view

Although we cannot control events, we can change the way we view them. One event can be described in different and sometimes contradictory ways by different witnesses; each person comments, interprets the events according to his or her own standards and point of view and never the result is the same, because of different point of view ;and sometimes what determines our behaviours is not what happens to us, but how we interpret these events.

Philosophy of life

Consciously or unconsciously everyone has his or her own philosophy of life that build the behaviours. There is an interesting saying about life philosophy that says everybody unconsciously has a personal philosophy of life and is guided, encouraged, persuaded and corrected by it as time goes by. It does not take a long time to scent the life philosophy of anyone; it is shown in the conversation, in the look of the eyes, in the smile, in the general mien of the person; it has no hiding place,it is like the perfume of a flower: unseen but known almost instantly and it is the possession of successful and happy people.

Einstein and happiness

Einstein once said:"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?" For an ordinary reader it seems unbelievable, but a sensitive reader can appreciate the depth of this sentence from such a genius. In fact there are lots of interesting quotations from him about different aspects of life; quotation such as: "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. the important thing is not to stop questioning." And a fascinating and very true saying such as: "Let everyman be respected as an individual and no man idolized". If people could observe this fact, certainly we would live in a much peaceful and better society!

Photojournalism Festival

This is an interesting picture in current photojournalism festival in Paris. It looks somehow unique.

Habits

Habits are defined as routines of behaviour that are repeated regularly, without consciously and directly thinking of them and usually they are unnoticed. Entangling in a habit is easy, but getting rid of it is a very difficult task; the older the habits, the more difficult to get free of them...especially after certain period of time, because of the adaptability of human beings they become part of us and remain with us unnoticed; Chekhov interestingly says that the living organism possesses the faculty of quickly adapting itself to every condition; if it were not so, man would be conscious every moment of the unreasonable foundations on which his reasonable actions rest and of how little of justice and assurance are to be found even in those activities which are fraught with so much responsibility and which are so appalling in their consequences, such as education,literature and the law.

Pursue a goal

The first step for achieving a goal is setting it. There are lots of people who do not know what they want; they just live their daily lives.The most difficult part of the pursuing a goal is the start and the process of recognising and setting the aim. The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows what s/he is doing.

Ideals

An interesting piece about ideals:

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you can choose them as your guides, and by following them you will reach your destiny!

power abuse and self deception in small scale

Human complexities are really surprising, especially when you look into it in the small scale. A very simple example is what recently happened in the language class that I attend. We have a teacher who is very average person, average in everything: intelligence,look...but his recent behaviour was surprising...in the class test, he arranged an exam much more difficult than our level and everybody was terrified in the exam session and I looked at him , he was watching this with complet satisfaction...even the tape for listening test had the poorest quality and I was the only one who objected and he responded that he was aware of the poor quality of the tape! The result was obvious: everyone failed. I went to the office and looked at all papers, one by one, all failed the exam and what he had done, surprisingly he saved students by creating an imaginary mark for speaking and therefore he increased the final mark after leading students through the hell! Now each one of student are grateful to him that he saved them! and they are going to stick to him as a teacher and register in his class and be grateful to him! and the worst part: the students are congratulating themselves and others in e-mail network for this false victory! He abused his small power as a teacher and his students were joyful and deceived themselves and no one asked what was the purpose of this ridiculous exam and even more ridiculous result! because at the end everybody was happy: the teacher in his abuse of power and the students by self deception.

Good feeling

Without remorse for the past,

confident in the presence,

and full of hope for the future,

I woke up this morning and went for jogging in the park and told myself today is the first day of the rest of my life and I looked at the mirror and I saw my face was shining with joy and my eyes burning with gladness.

You know that all human inventions progress from complex to the simple and that perfection is always simplicity.

A haiku: eyes

Her eyes were open, but she couldnot see.

After that, she sees and now she cannot close her eyes.

Ses yeux grand ouvertes, sa cervelle enflamme'e qui

voyait de tout sans rien connaitre.

mother

"To the highly cherished memory of my mother, the most lofty lady that I have ever met in my life"

There are lots of beautiful pieces about "mother", the following one is my favourite:
The most beautiful word on the lips of mankind is the word "mother" and the most beautiful call is the call of "my mother". It is a word full of hope and love; "mother" is a sweet and kind word coming from the depth of the heart. The mother is everything- she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy and forgiveness. S/he who loses his or her mother loses a pure soul who blesses and guards her constantly.
Everything in nature bespeaks the mother. The sun is the mother of earth and gives it its nourishment of heart; it never leaves the universe at night until it has put the earth to sleep to the song of the sea and the hymn of birds and brooks. And this earth is the mother of trees and flowers. It produces them, nurses them and weans them. The trees and flowers become kind mothers of their great fruits and seeds. The mother, the prototype of all existence is the eternal spirit full of beauty and love. Mothers plant seeds of love that help us bloom forever.

politics

World of politics and politicians is full of deception, hypocrisy, lies, hatred, manipulation, murder and there is no place for honest,committed persons with high values and whenever an honest person involves in politics, he will be removed....there is no people in politics and it is only idea; there are no feelings, only interest. In politics, everything is permitted and justified under the excuse of removing obstacles. An example is coup d'etat against democratically elected government of Iranian prime minster Dr Mohammad Mossadeq on 19 August 1953. God bless his soul, he was such a lofty and honest person that even his enemies respect him. He was not a puppet and he was a free man with idea and alas his involvement in politics brought him much suffering...Iraj Mirza, famous Iranian poet(1874-1926) wrote a letter of advice to his friend, Aref Ghazvini, an honest poet whose involvement in politics resulted in his death and told him that avoid politics because politics is for hypocrites and charlatans, do not involve in it; the politicians in different opposing parties apparently fighting, but in fact they know each other and save each other when it is necessary and they just think of power and interest; but honest people like you (Aref) who are friendless will be trapped in politics and loose their lives; and also Iraj advise him not to be naive and forget about saving people and he describes the majority of people as sheeps and cows that are manipulated and are directed accordingly and have no real quest for freedom. How Iraj Mirza was right...! Politics is for politicians and there is no room for honests...even writing about politics makes me sick! but today I just remembered the suffering of Dr Mossadeq; how such a talent was wasted for the people who did not deserve him! At the top of the page there are two pictures of Dr Mossadeq, one on cover of Time and the other one in court at his trial that causes pain on any human being who knows about his suffering and has a heart. God bless his soul.

True love

How pleasant is the feeling that there is a person who is ready to move heaven and earth on your behalf and just for your own sake. But how many percent of people have experienced such a feeling?! Of course this is what mothers and fathers do and sometimes it is taken for granted...but what about another person in your life?

Putting self deception aside, how many percent of people have experienced the touch of true and genuine love?

How many percent of couples, husband and wife have this honest, sincere and trustworthy feeling for each other?

How many percent of them are a source of physical, material and moral refuge, a refuge of confidence, for each other?

How many percent of them do not wear a mask and do not play a game and are loved for their true self?

How many percent of them can keep the limits and respect the other person personal space?

How many percent of them are not a pawn in the other person's hands and their independence is respected?

How many percent of them truely love and enjoy their physical and mental union?

How many percent of them feel cheerful and full of life in accompanying each other?

How many percent of them turn their eyes away from the other person's weakness and mistake?

How many percent of them have a real and particular desire for each other and feel the other person's presence as the warmth of the Sun?
I hope that these percent is not less than one?!!

Anyway just imagine that how beautiful our world would be that the percentage was higher than 50. Touch of true love really change and transform people for better ; there is no doubt...even the most evil and sinful person could be transformed into a nice person by the mere touch of true and at the same time balanced love.

Happiness

There is an old proverb that says when you are happy the black stone is shiny and when you are sad the pure gold is dull.

The followings are two interesting quotations on the merry hearts:

A merry heart does good like a medicine,

but a broken heart dries the bone.

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are having :

something to do,

something to love

and something to hope for.

Knowledge and understanding

Learning does not make one learned:there are those who have knowledge and those who have understanding. The number of people who have the understanding is considerably less than those with knowledge. To acquire knowledge you need memory, and there are plenty of persons with knowledge in different fields: law, medicine, business, science and etc,but for gaining understanding you need intuition, sensitivity,gift and philosophy that is not easy.

Facial expressions and culture

The way people move, walk, talk, their gestures and facial expressions have much more influence and effect than their verbal words in communication. Researchers have found that just 7% of any message about our feelings and attitudes comes from the words that we use; 38% comes from our voice and its rhythm and finally 55% comes from the most important element that is our facial expressions and body language. And this is a fact that when the facial expression or tone of voice contradicts the words, normally the listeners put more weight on the nonverbal message.

This is interesting that the body language differs from one culture to another. Especially you can recognize Italians, Indians, Japanese and South Americans merely by their body language...sometimes these gestures have quite opposite meanings in different cultures; for example for Chinese people usually narrowing the eyes has the connotation of dislike and disapproval and exactly we see the opposite in some other cultures that the act of widening the eyes shows dislike. So cultural misinterpretation of gestures can produce unpleasant results and a person's cultural background should always be considered before making any judgement.

Charm

I really like the description of "charm" by Alexander Dumas; he says charm to a woman is what scent is to a flower and charm to a man is what flavour is to a fruit, for it is not enough for a flower to be beautiful and also it is not enough for a fruit to be fine looking...It is a beautiful and philosophically true description of charm by Dumas.

Smart cooking

Do you want to keep your health and save your money too? Be self sufficient in cooking! I do not pay for ice creams, yogurt, pickles, juices, desserts and etc...I make them myself...I buy Organic milk for about £1 and turn it into yogurt worth about £7 and the same for the rest; I make delicious ice creams, tasty pickles...it is much cheaper and much more healthier, because you can use the better and fresher materials in your kitchen that is far more hygienic than even the most luxurious restaurant...it is easy, rewarding and full of fun! Later I will write the receipe for each of them.Enjoy smart cooking!

Men and Women

There is an old proverb that says a really nice girl is more valuable than seven nice boys; that is completely true and I should add that also a really evil girl is worse than seven evil boys! Women because of their emotions have this capacity that when they are nice, they become very good and when they are evil, they become very bad but men usually are not in these two extremes

...in an interesting French film a band of the experienced gangsters that consist of four men ,by chance, recruit an inexperienced woman and train her for the job...at the end of the film after they have nearly finished a big and difficult robbery that resulted in death and also severe injury of two of them, the situation is so difficult that even the heartless person at head of the band is in tears while looking at their friends, but the woman is so fascinated and occupied by counting the stolen money that she dose not notice anything else...even when they are back at their house and there are only two of them: the eldest in the band that is a person who saved life of the woman when she was trapped in a room in process of the robbery (she was playing the role of a prostitute) by endangering his own life and the second person present at the house is the woman...what does she do? Shockingly she kills that man who saved her life one hour ago!! while he is eating food! and runs away with all the money!!

I am a woman and I am much more terrified by an evil woman than an evil man!! The evil woman has terrifying eyes and her stare is sickening that must be avoided!And on the other hand, the really good woman has heart of gold and pleasant eyes and is unbelievably nice that no man can reach her in loftiness and nobility.

Human being

Some interesting extracts from "Le Horla" by Guy de Maupassant:

À présent, je sais, je devine. Le règne de l’homme
est fini.
Il est venu, Celui que redoutaient les premières
terreurs des peuples naïfs, Celui qu’exorcisaient les
prêtres inquiets, que les sorciers évoquaient par les
nuits sombres, sans le voir apparaître encore, à qui
les pressentiments des maîtres passagers du monde
prêtèrent toutes les formes monstrueuses ou
gracieuses des gnomes, des esprits, des génies, des
fées, des farfadets. Après les grossières conceptions
de l’épouvante primitive, des hommes plus
perspicaces l’ont pressenti plus clairement. Mesmer
l’avait deviné et les médecins, depuis dix ans déjà,
ont découvert, d’une façon précise, la nature de sa
puissance avant qu’il l’eût exercée lui-même. Ils ont
joué avec cette arme du Seigneur nouveau, la
domination d’un mystérieux vouloir sur l’âme
humaine devenue esclave. Ils ont appelé cela
magnétisme, hypnotisme, suggestion... que sais-je ?
Je le ai vus s’amuser comme des enfants imprudents
avec cette horrible puissance ! Malheur à nous !
Malheur à l’homme ! Il est venu, le... le... comment
se nomme-t-il... le... il me semble qu’il me crie son
nom, et je ne l’entends pas... le... oui... il le crie...
J’écoute... je ne peux pas... répète... le... Horla... J’ai
entendu... le Horla... c’est lui... le Horla... il est
venu !...
Ah ! le vautour a mangé la colombe ; le loup a
mangé le mouton ; le lion a dévoré le buffle aux
cornes aiguës ; l’homme a tué le lion avec la flèche,
avec le glaive, avec la poudre ; mais le Horla va
faire de l’homme ce que nous avons fait du cheval et
du boeuf : sa chose, son serviteur et sa nourriture, par
la seule puissance de sa volonté. Malheur à nous !
Pourtant, l’animal, quelquefois, se révolte et tue
celui qui l’a dompté... moi aussi je veux...

Experience of playing on the chessboard

Do you want to know a person, play chess with him or her!

You can find out about a person's characteristics just from playing chess with him/her. This is my personal experience...I play chess online as a guest and for a guest there is no option for chatting or sending messages...these services are only for the members who pay membership fees that I never do , because I have much more important things to pay for such as healthy eating!..so I play the chess with a person whom I have no information about, except the flag of the country that s/he lives in and a five-digit number of the guest!!!But it is not difficult to know what sort of persons they are in their real life...for example, the majority of them immediately resign when they loose an important piece such as queen and sometimes even loosing a castle makes them to resign quickly and not continue the game! I do not have patience for long game and usually I choose 3minutes game...these people do not continue even for 2 or 3 minutes and they avoid challenges and in some case if they choose to continue, there is the possibility of winning, but they do not!

In the rare occasion I encounter with the persons who behave in a very understanding manner such as providing the option of correcting the move or etc for the other player...and it is exactly like the real life that encountering understanding people is not a frequent experience. How lucky are those who have already found such people and definitely it is a blessing for them that they must cherish it and not loose it at any cost!

Job and our character

Oh job,job,job...!!!

Are we what our job is or not? Some people are working in the area that is contrary to their true nature, but they have to go on because they need to earn the money for living and apparently they have no other choice. How many percent of people are quite satisfied with their job? How many percent of people hate their job?...It is difficult to say...to what extent the type of job influences the characteristic of a person?

Chekhov's attitude to this matter is interesting to read he says that people who have an official and professional relation to other people's suffering- for example: judges, lawyers, police officers, politicians, doctors- in course of time, through habit grow so callous that they cannot, even if they want it, take any but an indifferent and formal attitude to their clients,in this respect, they are not different from the peasant who slaughters sheep and calves in the back-yard and does not notice the blood.

What about writers and filmmakers, especially those who portray the murder scene in the smallest details...I remember once I read the comments of a crime writer's wife that she described her husband looks like a murderer with blood on his hands whenever he finishes a crime novel...Any action and experience affect our soul and we will not be the same person anymore...that is why that only very young children look like angels because their souls are still PURE.

colourful minds

How close to the nature are we?!

DO WE HAVE A COLOURFUL MIND ??!!!

the air pollution, climate change and modern life have created a big gap between us and the nature...especially the air pollution in big cities has deprived us of breathing fresh air that is basic and the most essential necessity of life...after all what life is about? study, work, routines...or is something loftier? I like this extract from"Notes from the memoirs of a man of ideas": "...a place where the scent of lilac and bird cherry permeates the air, where lilies of the valley and butterfly orchids compete to caress your eyes with their delicate whiteness and gleaming diamond coloured dewdrops...that's where you'll understand what life is all about..."The modern life has dulled our senses and the remedy is at least once a month to leave everything and take a train and go to a place in the wide open space, beneath the blue vault of heaven and amidst the green woods and forget about everything...it helps you to regain the strength of your senses.

Painting and the soul

I wrote some pieces two years ago and I was just reading them and I found out I still like them so I transferred them on this blog. Why not?!

Two years ago I visited an art gallery and for the first time I saw the paintings by "Patrick Caulfield"...oh my God...it was so natural, genuine, heart-warming, profound and witty and it was expressed in the most simple way. It is very easy to copy his works, even the least talented painter can do it easily, but the original idea that came to Patrick's mind was amazing. I have not seen such a wonderful works of art for a long time. Each of his work is not just a painting; it is more...I think it is a piece of poem. Once Patrick said that nothing was stranger than life itself! This theme is echoed in nearly all of his works...His works had deep effect on my soul...now I feel more human! Isn't it all that art is about?!!!

I like nice life

How many percent of peolpe think about the life they are living?! Most of us just live and follow the routines and habits without thinking what we are doing! Years pass and we are busy with following the routines...some people have never lived and they die without being lived...how many percent of people have lived beautiful, true and honest life: being honest to themselves and to others?!?! Years ago I had a teacher who taught literature and she used to say to us that "deception is a part of life and somehow inseparable of life" and now I think that she was somehow right and also I do think that we must minimize the "deception part" as much as we can; and the more successful we are in this task we will live more true, honest and beautiful life. Unfortunately living honestly is a isolating factor. When you want to live nice and be honest and get use to this type of healthy life by following healthy style of life: eating healthy food, exercising, thinking clean, respecting yourself and other people's rights, enjoying pure life, being close to nature as much as possible and ...all these in the society that people used to living the other ways are somehow isolating factors...I must confess that now I think it is not just society but some of them is innate that you have when you are born...being able to live nice is a blessing , it is very difficult when there are so many obstacles from financials to spirituals ...but for living a nice life we should want it first and be sensitive to untrue aspects and be appalled by them...I do love nice life!