The God of Small Things - Ammu’s Dream and Details of Death

Was just leafing through Roy's novel once again the other day, and it appeared more meaningful now, rather than the first time...

I know that only reading it once is not nearly enough to grasp the importance and understanding of everything. I would like to discuss two things that really stuck out to me.

Ammu’s Dream

The chapter highlights Ammu and the relationship between her body and her cremation. Roy delves further into analyzing Ammu’s body during Chapter 11. She dreams of the one armed man (Velutha) that she cannot touch. The ultimate struggle in her dream is that “If he touched her he couldn’t talk to her, if he loved her he couldn’t leave; if he spoke he couldn’t listen, if he fought he couldn’t win” (p. 207).  The first problem with their desire was that they could not touch each other. This brings in the obvious caste difference because of Velutha being a dalit. The other aspects of their relationship presented in this quote (love, communication, future success of the relationship) are not given much attention. The physical barrier is too strong to overcome. Also at this point in the novel, the most interaction that we have seen between Ammu and Velutha was eye connect and unvoiced desire.

Ammu’s dream is interrupted by the twins. But they are afraid to directly wake her up because “she says you should never wake dreaming people suddenly…she says they could easily have a Heart Attack” (p. 207). She is dreaming about her physical reaction to Velutha while the twins are concerned about her physical reaction to them. I believe that Roy brought extra attention to Heart Attack because of it would be a physical death to her being as well as a romantic death to her dream of Velutha.  *Pappachi died of a heart attack (p. 49).

The twin’s reaction to their mother’s dream is also important. Estha thought that she looked like she was dying but Rahel was certain that she was having an “afternoon-mare” (p. 208).  To her children, she appeared sad and distressed during her dream even though she felt happy.  I felt like this was an accurate description of pending relationship with Velutha. Love should bring happiness but between Velutha and Ammu it is bound to bring death and sadness.

The question is that after the dream she recognizes that the one armed man, Velutha, was “the God of Loss, the God of Small Things” (p. 210). Why are loss and Ammu and Velutha’s affair classified as a “small things” in this novel?

The details of the deaths in the novel

All of the deaths in this novel involved destruction or dis-figuration of the body. As I previously noted, Pappachi died of a heart attack. The physical demolition surrounding his death was that which he inflicted on other bodies, not his own. He beat Mammachi and when he could no longer do that he destroyed his favorite rocking chair. As the novel continues, the family does not escape the trend of deadly destruction that he started. We have already spent a decent amount of time discussing Ammu’s death and cremation. Not only is her body decimated but so is her capability to invoke desire and lust. Sins of the body paid for by erasing her body.

But in Chapter 13, we finally learn the details of Sophie Mol’s death, the most central one to the narrative. When her body was laid out, “it was obvious that she was dead” and did not look like her living self (p. 238).  She had weeds in her hair, her face had been nibbled on by the fish, and she was wrinkled. She was completely disfigured. Her drowning had transformed her into a “spongy mermaid who had forgotten how to swim” (p. 238). The body that was hers now belonged to death.

I don't know about you, but if one had to pick the character that most people dislike in the novel, it would probably be Baby Kochamma. She's selfish, self-centered, snippy, and just downright mean. Still, a novel without an antagonist would be like chocolate chip cookies without the milk, or karaoke without a Kelly Clarkson song: it just doesn't seem to work as well if that key piece is missing. As much as we want to tell Baby Kochamma to get over herself and take a hike, we actually need her. In a novel that covers such a big stretch of time, Baby Kochamma's history is the longest of any other character.

But then, who is Baby Kochamma?

First, a little back-story: Baby Kochamma is not a baby, and her last name is not really Kochamma. We never find out exactly why she takes on the name Baby, but it's how everyone knows her. Her real name is Navomi Ipe, and Kochamma is just a title of respect and honor for a woman. Baby Kochamma's acts of getting Velutha and Ammu in trouble and manipulating Estha and Rahel after Sophie Mol's death are key moments that show us just how insecure she is when it comes to social status. Here's a woman who knows exactly what she's doing: she's a total snake in the grass, even if she acts like she truly cares about everyone else.

The Baby Kochamma of 1993 lives a pretty simple life in comparison. There's not really anyone left to manipulate. Ammu and Mammachi are both dead, and Chacko has moved to Canada. She's totally addicted to satellite TV, and as a result she's let the house fall to pieces around her. She sits around wearing all of Mammachi's old jewelry as though she's playing dress-up. Rahel observes that it's like Baby Kochamma is "living her life backwards" (1.136). All in all, Baby Kochamma is hard to like, but all in all, she's a complex and interesting character.

Who is Estha ?

Estha, short for Esthappen Yako, is the other half of our dynamic twin duo. He was born eighteen minutes before his twin, Rahel, which is sort of fitting since in many ways he seems like he's her older brother. Even as a child, Estha is almost painfully earnest and sincere. He loves his mother and Velutha, and he's protective of Rahel. Because he's such a sweet boy, it can be hard to watch what happens to him throughout the novel.

First, a look at Estha in 1969. He is a seven-year-old who loves Elvis Presley (he wears his hair in a puffed-up style to imitate him) and has a very childlike view of the world. He loves The Sound of Music, and one of the book's most heartwarming moments is when he sings so happily from the top of his lungs that he has to leave the movie theater.

fast forwarding... Estha's reunion with Rahel brings back a number of painful memories that up until this moment he has kept packed away. Estha and Rahel end up delving through many memories of their childhood, and he notices how much she looks like their mother. At the end of the novel, he and Rahel have sex – though it happens so quickly and quietly that we barely notice it – and grieve together for all that they've lost...

Who is Reverend E. John Ipe/ Punnyan Kunju ?

He's Baby Kochamma and Pappachi's father. He was a well-regarded priest in the Mar Thoma Church. He became known as Punnyan Kunju (Little Blessed One) after the Patriarch of Antioch, who is the head of the Syrian Christian Church, personally blessed him. His portrait hangs in the Ayemenem House.

Who is Urumban ?

Urumban is not a real person. He is the fake "twin" that Velutha makes up when Rahel claims she saw him in the Communist march.

Does the details of these deaths classify as small things? Why does Roy primarily use tragic and non-normative deaths?

We know Ammu best as Estha and Rahel's mother, but it's important to look at her early life when we examine her character. Ammu isn't just a mom; she's also Pappachi and Mammachi's daughter and Chacko's younger sister. Through a number of flashbacks in the novel, we get a good sense of how her past helped shape who she is as an adult.

While Chacko, as the son of the family, is proudly sent off to school and eventually to Oxford to study as a Rhodes Scholar, Ammu doesn't get the same kind of treatment. In fact, it seems like she doesn't have all that many options. Life at her parents' house is tough. Pappachi is kind of a drunk jerk, terrorizing Mammachi and Ammu. Feeling like there's nothing left for her in Ayemenem but to wait around for a husband, Ammu gets permission to go to Calcutta for a summer. She meets and marries Baba, which turns out to be a bad choice.

Ammu divorces Baba and moves back to Ayemenem when the twins are toddlers. Ammu is both a strict and loving mother. What's interesting about her is her resistance to social norms. She doesn't feel like she needs to be ashamed of her divorce. Instead, she feels like she wasted her best years. This quality sets her apart from the other women of the household, who are totally preoccupied with looking better than others in society.

Ammu doesn't think too much of social rank. In fact, she's kind of proud that Velutha was spotted at the communist march, figuring that they both find society's norms oppressive and wrong. This doesn't mean Ammu doesn't care about appearances altogether; she wants her kids to behave well so that everyone can see that a woman on her own can be both independent and a good mother.

Ammu's affair with Velutha is a great escape for her, and we can tell that she has really strong feelings for him, even though she knows their love can never be public. In a way, it's their love that brings about both of their downfalls. Baby Kochamma wouldn't have had to make up stories about Velutha to the police if they hadn't had an affair. Ammu's life after Velutha's death is unimaginably bad. She's lost the only man she ever loved, and she's separated from her kids. She dies alone, likely of tuberculosis, in a dirty hotel room. Still, when she is cremated, Rahel doesn't remember her as the disgusting, hacking, slightly loony woman that she ultimately becomes.

Summarizing..

• Ammu has kind of a rough upbringing.
• Pappachi runs Ammu and Mammachi out of the house from time to time.
• One night, he tears up her rubber boots, her most prized possession.
• Ammu's parents don't think it's necessary to send a woman to college, so she spends her young adulthood living at home and waiting for marriage proposals.
• One summer, Ammu's parents allow her to move to Calcutta. She meets Baba, who proposes to her five days after they meet. She accepts.
• Ammu gives birth to Estha and Rahel in 1962.
• When the twins are 2 years old, Baba loses his job. He tells Ammu he can keep his job if she agrees to sleep with his boss. He punches her when she says no. After this happens a few times, she takes the kids and moves back to Ayemenem.
• Ammu gets mad at the twins for misbehaving when Sophie Mol comes to visit. She thinks they make a bad first impression.
• Ammu sees Rahel run off to talk to Velutha.
• When Margaret Kochamma makes an ignorant comment about the local culture, Ammu gets angry and storms off.
• Ammu falls asleep and has a dream about a man she calls "The God of Small Things" (actually Velutha).
• That night, Ammu goes out for a walk in the dark. She encounters Velutha, and they make love.
• Ammu and Velutha meet every night for the next thirteen nights.
• After Vellya Paapen rats Velutha and Ammu out, Baby Kochamma locks Ammu in her bedroom.
• Ammu yells through the door at Estha and Rahel that it's their fault she's locked in.
• After Sophie Mol's funeral, Ammu goes to see Inspector Thomas Mathew to clear Velutha's name. He tells Ammu that Velutha is already dead.
• Ammu is forced to leave Ayemenem. She becomes severely ill.
• Ammu dies alone in a hotel room. Chacko and Rahel take her to be cremated.

Basically... Ammu is remembered as lovely and, most importantly, loving....

Quotes from Arundhati Roy...The God of Small Things....

“Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.”

“Ammu said that human beings were creatures of habit, and it was amazing the kind of things one could get used to.” Besides, careless words make people love you a little less.”

The trouble with families is that like invidious doctors, they know just where it hurts.......

Its Time We Stopped Hurting Each Other And Joined The Fun

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? ... As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others…Isn’t it time we stopped hurting each other and joined the fun…

Is Hell Exothermic Or Endothermic

The following is an actual question given on a University of Arizona chemistry midterm, and an actual answer turned in by a student.

The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over,it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct.... ...leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+

Love - Start In The Right Direction

What is the secret of a healthy relationship?

A good relationship first begins with YOU.

This works more efficiently when two partners are focused on a goal of keeping their relationship better than ever before.

A lot of relationships have begun so well only to end in disaster. Ever wonder why this happened?

This is mainly because, couples have the tendency to take each other for granted and as a result have become more negligent of each other over the years and months they have been together. This is not how a relationship should progress. In a way as the relationship grows old, it should be viewed in a mature perspective. In other relationships it is not correct to say that relationships grow old, but it should be said “as the relationship matures”.

In most cases, love that has the hottest beginning has the coolest end. In other words, love does not develop over time.

While it is true that there can be a love at first sight, it depends on the partners how to maintain and sustain that love they have felt from the start.

It is important that partners work together in achieving their goal of making the relationship works for them. It is definitely a combined effort and a shared endeavor. Part of every great relationship is setting common goals, then figuring out a way to work together to accomplish these goals. This gives couples a sense of purpose and direction. It also teaches couples how to work together, making their relationship stronger and more rewarding.

This takes a great deal of focus, commitment, and compromise, but the rewards are well worth the effort. Actually, this concept is not limited to only relationships, but applies to other aspects of life such as work and career.

Remember, when you really love yourself, you cannot help wanting to give some of your love away. You must learn to be alone and happy before you can be together with someone else and still be happy. Your happiness always depends upon how you feel when you are alone.

So, when you want a great love partner, become a great love partner. Sharing love with someone must only and always begin with YOU

Make Most Use Of Your Time

The Trouble Is That All Of Us Think That We Have Time - The Buddha

Tapping Into Your Subconscious Mind

For years, I have been absolutely fascinated with the power of the subconscious mind.

Its power have made the sick healthy, the poor wealthy, and the sad happy. Those who understand and apply the methods for using the subconscious mind find themselves bathed in more abundance and joy than they could have ever imagined.

Given below are two powerful tips for harnessing and applying your subconscious mind power, to help you achieve far greater success than you have ever dreamed.

As you might already be aware of, the subconscious mind is the seat of all memory, fears, phobias, behavioral patterns, habits, beliefs, and expectations. An astonishingly true fact is that only 2-4% of our day is controlled by our conscious mind, and the other 96-98% is all done by the subconscious. 96% of all your decisions, actions, thoughts, and feelings are all done automatically, unconsciously by your subconscious mind.

It is amazing to think how much our subconscious mind does for us. It beats our heart, digests our food, and breathes for us all without any conscious effort. With all of the amazing things it does, our subconscious doesn’t always do everything we want it to. Many people have realized that they have several bad habits of doing and thinking, and understand that in order to grow and prosper, those habits must be changed. But here is in the problem most people face. How do you change the subconscious to promote success in all areas of life?

The answer is simple.

You must harness the power of your subconscious mind. The first technique in order to do that is called suggestion. A suggestion is a passive statement given to the subconscious to either accept or reject. Hypnotists use the power of suggestibility to promote changes in their subjects.

When a person is in a deeply relaxed state, their conscious mind is out of the way, and the gateway to the powers of subconscious is open. This is where true changes happen. In order to suggest the subconscious to change, the body and mind must be completely relaxed. A person must first have a reason to change, and accept the new suggestion. Then the suggestion for change may be given with intense emotion and desire so that the suggestion is firmly accepted.

The next subconscious mind tip is repetition. If you are suggesting your subconscious to accept the idea of wealth in your life, using repetition can help firmly implant that idea quicker and easier. Our reptilian brain is highly receptive to ritual and repetition. Repetition of an affirmation, or suggestion, such as “I am wealthy and successful” helps firmly implant the idea deeply into the subconscious mind. Over long periods of repetition, the suggestion will reshape thinking patterns, habits, and deeply held beliefs. The entire neuronal structure of your brain will begin change in order to promote the new idea of wealth and success. And once the idea is finally accepted without doubt or question, new worlds of possibilities begin to arise.

Repetition is the tool of suggestion – Repeat an affirmation for change in a deeply relaxed state – Repeat on regular intervals to help the reptilian brain accept the suggestion.

These two subconscious mind control tips can help you clear mental and emotional blockages in your life that are withholding your from your full potential. The power of suggestion to the subconscious mind, combined with ritualistic repetition is the ultimate key to unlocking your mind, and achieving what you desire.

Thought For The Day

It is believed that with the blocking of one senses, you are able to open the other areas of senses.

Just imagine, if you are floating in water, just like a cork in a soundproof, dark room, where the body and the head cannot figure out your senses………

The chances are it will open avenues to other areas of the senses which we never knew that we possessed.

Perhaps the sixth sense or the seventh ?

The movie "Altered States" starring William Hurt further emphasizes this theory.

He floats in a isolation tank on water to experience this unique experience. The  movie is pretty good, although it is  sci-fi in nature and is also kind of scary at some points.

In the below clip, the snake and the woman both represent one and the same thing, "Carnal lustful desires" or earthly desires. Besides, after the loud and crazy joyfulness or "sex" is over,  you are nothing, but dust in the wind. You are left with absolutely nothing, because this whole physical human experience is based around sex and wasting our energy on things that never last...



And for these who hate the ending - i am sorry to tell, but its true, all you need is love...

Must try it one of these days – it can open answers to many a question that have been lying unanswered for years

Power Theft And Control Dramas

We must face up to our particular way of controlling others.

The Fourth Insight of The Celestine Prophecy,  reveals that humans have always felt short of energy and have sought to control each other to acquire the energy that flows between people. The Fifth then shows us that an alternative source exists, but we can't really stay connected with this source until we come to grips with the particular method that, we, as individuals, use in our controlling, and stop doing it-- because whenever we fall back into this habit, we get disconnected from the source.

Getting rid of this habit isn't easy because it's always unconscious at first. The key to letting it go is to bring it fully into consciousness, and we do that by seeing that our particular style of controlling others is one we learned in childhood to get attention, to get the energy moving our way, and we're stuck there. This style is something we repeat over and over again... our unconscious control drama.

I call it a drama because it is one familiar scene, like a scene in a movie, for which we write the script as youths. Then we repeat this scene over and over in our daily lives without being aware of it. All we know is that the same kind of events happen to us repeatedly. The problem is if we are repeating one particular scene over and over, then the other scenes of our real life movie, the high adventure marked by coincidences, can't go forward. We stop the movie when we repeat this one drama in order to manipulate for energy.

"A perfect example of how a control drama interferes [is] how you were so aloof you didn't allow an important coincidence to take place. Everyone plays a drama of [some] kind.

At least now you know how yours works.

Your way of controlling people and situations... in order to get energy coming your way, is to create this drama in your mind during which you withdraw and look mysterious and secretive. You tell yourself that you're being cautious but what you're really doing is hoping someone will be pulled into this drama and will try to figure out what's going on with you. When someone does, you remain vague, forcing them to struggle and dig and try to discern your true feelings.

The first step in the process of getting clear, for each of us, is to bring our particular control drama into full consciousness. Nothing can proceed until we really look at ourselves and discover what we are doing to manipulate for energy.

The next step [is that] each of us must go back into our past, back into our early family life, and see how this habit was formed. Seeing its inception keeps our way of controlling in consciousness. Remember, most of our family members were operating in a drama themselves, trying to pull energy out of us as children. This is why we had to form a control drama in the first place. We had to have a strategy to win energy back. It is always in relation to our family members that we develop our particular dramas. However, once we recognize the energy dynamics in our families, we can go past these control strategies and see what was really happening.

Each person must reinterpret his family experience from an evolutionary point of view, from a spiritual point of view, and discover who he really is. Once we do that, our control drama falls away and our real lives take off.

[You] begin... by first understanding how your drama was formed.
Tell me about your father.
Well, he was always critical. I could never do anything right.
How did he criticize you?
He asked questions, then found something wrong with the answers.
And what happened to your energy?
I guess I felt drained so I tried to keep from telling him anything.

You mean you got vague and distant, trying to say things in a way that would get his attention but not reveal enough to give him something to criticize. He was an interrogator and you dodged around him with your aloofness.

An interrogator is another kind of drama.

People who use this means of gaining energy set up a drama of asking questions and probing into another person's world with the specific purpose of finding something wrong. Once they do, then they criticize this aspect of the other's life. If this strategy succeeds then the person being criticized is pulled into the drama. They suddenly find themselves becoming self-conscious around the interrogator and paying attention to what the interrogator is doing and thinking about, so as to not do something wrong that the interrogator would notice. The psychic deference gives the interrogator the energy he desires.

Think about the times you have been around someone like this. When you get caught up in this drama, don't you tend to act a certain way so that the person won't criticize you? He pulls you off your own path and drains your energy because you judge yourself by what he might be thinking.

Let me explain the classifications spoken of in the Manuscript.... Everyone manipulates for energy either aggressively, directly forcing people to pay attention to them, or passively, playing on people's sympathy or curiosity to gain attention. For instance, if someone threatens you, either verbally or physically, then you are forced, for fear of something bad happening to you, to pay attention to him and so to give him energy. The person threatening you would be pulling you into the most aggressive kind of drama, what the Sixth Insight calls the intimidator.

If, on the other hand, someone tells you all the horrible things that are already happening to them, implying perhaps that you are responsible, and that, if you refuse to help, these horrible things are going to continue, then this person is seeking to control at the most passive level, with what the Manuscript calls a [poor me] drama. Think about this for a moment. Haven't you ever been around someone who makes you feel guilty when you're in their presence, even though you know there is no reason to feel this way?

It's because you have entered the drama world of a [poor me]. Everything they say and do puts you in a place where you have to defend against the idea that you're not doing enough for this person. That's why you feel guilty just being around them.

Anyone's drama can be examined... according to where it falls on this spectrum from aggressive to passive. If a person is subtle in their aggression, finding fault and slowly undermining your world in order to get your energy, then, as we say in your father, this person would be an interrogator. Less passive than the poor me would be your aloofness drama. So the order of dramas goes this way: intimidator, interrogator, aloof, and poor me.

Some people use more than one in different circumstances, but most of us have one dominant control drama that we tend to repeat, depending on which one worked well on the members of our early family.

If you are a child and someone is draining your energy by threatening you with bodily harm then being aloof doesn't work. You can't get them to give you energy by playing coy. They don't give a damn what's going on inside you. They're coming on too strong. So you're forced to become more passive and to try the poor me approach, appealing to the mercy of this person, guilt tripping them about the harm they are doing.

If this doesn't work, then, as a child you endure until you are big enough to explode against the violence and fight aggression with aggression.

A person goes to whatever extreme necessary to get attention energy in their family. And after that, this strategy becomes their dominant way of controlling to get energy from everyone, the drama they constantly repeat.

How does the interrogator develop?

What would you do if you were a child and your family members were either not there or ignored you because they were preoccupied with their careers or something? Playing aloof would not get their attention; they wouldn't notice. Wouldn't you have to resort to probing and prying and finally finding something wrong in these aloof people in order to force attention and energy? This is what an interrogator does.

Aloof people create interrogators [and] interrogators make people aloof. And intimidators create the poor me approach, or if this fails, another intimidator.

That's how control dramas perpetuate themselves. But remember, there is a tendency to see these dramas in others but to think that we ourselves are free from such devices. Each of us must transcend this illusion before we can go on. Almost all of us tend to be stuck, at least some of the time, in a drama and we have to step back and look at ourselves long enough to discover what it is.

Once we see our drama, what happens next [is] we are truly free to become more than the unconscious act we play. As I said before, we can find a higher meaning for our lives, a spiritual reason we were born to our particular families. We can begin to get clear about who we really are.

[About finding "true self"]

There's only one way. Each of us has to go back to our family experience, that childhood time and place, and review what happened. Once we become conscious of our control drama, then we can focus on the higher truth of our family, the silver lining... that lies beyond the energy conflict. Once we find this truth, it can energize our lives, for this truth tells us who we are, the path we are on, what we are doing.

The process of finding your true spiritual identity involves looking at your whole life as one long story, trying to find a higher meaning. Begin by asking yourself this question: Why was I born to this particular family? What might have been the purpose for that?

What did your father stand for?
Has he been able to do this?
Have you thought about why?
What about your mother?
Can you see what her life represented?
So where did that leave you?

Didn't they both want your allegiance? Wasn't that why they were interrogating you, to make sure you weren't siding with the values of the other? Didn't they both want you to think their way was the best?

You're looking for the meaning her life has for you, the reason you were born to her, what you were there to learn. Every human being, whether they are conscious of it or not illustrates with their lives how he or she thinks a human being is supposed to live. You must try to discover what she taught you and at the same time what about her life could have been done better. What you would have changed about your mother is part of what you yourself are working on. [And} how you would improve on your father's life is the other part.

We are not merely the physical creation of our parents; we are also the spiritual creation. You were born to these two people and their lives had an irrevocable effect on who you are. To discover your real self, you must admit that the real you began in a position between their truths. That's why you were born there: to take a higher perspective on what they stood for. Your path is about discovering a truth that is a higher synthesis of what these two people believed.

How does one live a life that is both? From your mother you received the knowledge that life is about spirituality. From your father you learned that life is about self-enhancement, fun, adventure. For you, spirituality is the question. Your whole life will be about finding one that is self-enhancing. This is the problem your parents were unable to reconcile, the one they left for you. This is your evolutionary question, your quest this lifetime.

You can go right back into your old drama, or you can wake up tomorrow and hold on to this new idea of who you are. If you do then you can take the next step in the process, which is to look closely at all the other things that have happened to you since birth. If you view your life as one story, from birth to right now, you'll be able to see how you have been working on this question all along. You'll be able to see how you came to be here in _________________ and what you should do next.

The Sixth Insight is my special insight. My truth is helping others grasp this insight. And I'm effective because I've gone through the process myself. I was an interrogator.

My father was a poor me and my mother was aloof. They completely ignored me. The only way I could get any attention energy was to pry into what they were doing and then point out something wrong with it.

My father stood for accomplishment. He was very goal oriented. He planned his time to the minute and judged himself according to how much he got done. My mother was very intuitive and mystical. She believed that each of us received spiritual guidance and that life was about following this direction.

Because of my father I was sensitized to the idea that life was about accomplishment: having something important to do and getting it done. But at the same time my mother was there to tell me life was about inner direction, an intuitive guidance of some sort. I realized that my life was a synthesis of both viewpoints. I was trying to discover how we are guided inwardly toward the mission only we can do, knowing it is of supreme importance to pursue this mission if we are to feel happy and fulfilled.

And you can see why I was excited about the Sixth Insight. As soon as I read it I knew that my work was to help people get clear so that they could develop this sense of purpose.

Wil's drama was to be aloof, like yours. Also, as in your case, each of his parents was an interrogator and each had a strong philosophy they wanted Wil to adopt. Wil's father was a German novelist who argued that the ultimate destiny of the human race was to perfect itself. His father never advocated anything but the purest of humanitarian principles, but the Nazis used his basic idea of perfection to help legitimatize their murderous liquidation of inferior races.

But searching out the Manuscript awakened all this in him.

The insights spoke directly to his main question. They reveal that the thought of both East and West can indeed be integrated into a higher truth. They show us that the West is correct in maintaining that life is about progress, about evolving toward something higher.

Yet the East is also correct in emphasizing that we must let go of control with the ego.

We can't progress by using logic alone.

We have to attain a fuller consciousness, an inner connection with God because only then can our evolution toward something better be guided by a higher part of ourselves.

Does Everything Have A Reason

Most of us believe in God, but there are a growing number in the new generation that are fast becoming atheists...

Thank God for that!!

Let’s not confuse being agnostic and being an atheist.

People who are agnostic don’t believe in religion as a mean to reach God, they prefer a more direct path. Most people believe in the big guy above [with due apologies], but in a different way. The problem is in the concept of belief and worship…. Idol Worship, temple, church, monasteries…this is where the argument is

People who believe in a higher power, in a controlling force, in destiny usually tribute everyone of their actions to God…. That is sometimes fear and excuse….Mainly because, most of the wrong actions that lead to pain are ONLY because of their own wrong doing and there is NO punishment from above… The wrong doing can also be done as a good deed only to realize later…that was bad…

The flaw is that when you completely give up everything to God that basically means that you have no control over your own actions, over your own sense of morality. This way any action would be justified as an act of the ‘Big Chief’. Pretty much meaning that anyone can get away with murder by believing that was the man above’s decision. This is not to condemn those good people… but it is just a personal viewpoint….. Just that service is above everything else.

Obviously, all roads lead to the asylum after that...

In the middle of all this, there is a lot of confusion and most of the time it is here where people are completely lost, and thus people like those guys who teach you the Art of Living, and those evangelical priests who make very forceful speeches, make money. They also need a living!!!

They provide you answers to go from the gray to the black and white again.

Belief is something that can’t be taught…. A new born doesn't trust in his own body, until he is cognizant or as you say until his brain is completely in control of it…. that’s all there’s to it.

The logic is pure, and the rationality of thought also, but what atheists fail to explain, is that voice inside.

What is that single force that unites us all in so many different ways makes every human similar?

There is something within us which blossoms only when we are cognizant and we have a fuller understanding of ourself. In other words, by believing God is within you, inside you, is the most powerful force on earth, only you might not call it a God.

That kind of belief is true power, a power to achieve any goal.

He ain’t gonna be upset, that’s for sure.

Phew ….. It gives him an opportunity to take a break!!