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The ability to empathise with the other is the secret of rapport, modern psychology says. Many of us try to help others by listening and empathising with people who suffer. However, our effort falls short when it starts to consume us, when the other's problems are so overwhelming that we have to lose ourselves, give ourselves, out time, and our life to empathise. Most people stop at this point.

We want to continue our little worlds.

However Amma, Mother Amritanandamyi, doesn't stop here. She gives herself without holding back, to share others' sorrows and suffering. That is why people are touched by her.

In this video you can see an incapacitated man, trying to express his feelings (go to 4:20). He can only move his eyes and facial muscles, but just see if they are effective!

What Really Matters At The End Of Life

Handling Gas Cylinder Leakages in India

You just need to learn how things move here.

Today morning our cooking gas cylinder ran out. We replaced the cylinder and the domestic help continued the cooking.

After she left, my wife complained of gas leakage. I took out the valve and tried to reconnect the cylinder.

In a particular position, it continued to leak gas audibly.

I immediately turned off the cylinder valve.

It was only a month ago that the gas supplier had checked the safety of the gas valve and replaced the tube (at a cost of course)

So, the problem must be with the new cylinder.

The emergency number for gas leakage was on Google. It was on the Indane Website:

I dialled the number on my mobile: first 1906, and then (011) 1906. The time: 13:08.

No body takes an emergency gas leakage call!!!

There was no answer.

Tried a few more times in vain.

There was another number at the top:1800 233 3555. I tried that one too.

The response:  You seemed to have dialled a wrong number.
The time: 13:06

It is  a weekday, Thankfully somebody answered at the local gas distributor's (Indane- Kitchen Aids). They would be sending somebody along.

He came by 14:40, 1 1/2 hours after the call, and fixed it.

The domestic help had not noticed the leak. Thank God that nothing happened while she was cooking.

NOTE:

I tried the above emergency numbers later (about an hour later). This time I got a response from an IVR.

This means you simply have to keep trying. Eventually somebody is going to respond.

Mantra Chanting Experiment For Wealh Creation - Results

These are the results of the Mantra chanting experiment.

Mahalaxmi being the Goddess of Wealth, I was expecting some windfall like lottery or unexpected financial gain that had no direct connection with my work.

However, nothing of that sort happened.

So was the mantra chanting useless?

Not at all. The mantra for me, seemed to work at a far deeper level, that produced longer lasting changes than just a momentary windfall.

The benefits are listed below:

Creativity

It provided me a stream of ideas in trading and writing. In trading I got the idea of Lunar ingress trading on a stop loss of 0.63%. It works more than 75% of the time for Crude Oil. Lunar ingresses occur every 2.5 days.

Note: Some traders have already written about Lunar ingress trading. However, reading about it and being convinced to try it are different. The main insight I got was that after the Moon passes 27 degree of the current sign, enter in the same direction as the next bounce off the Bollinger band (if it is not ranging). If it is ranging, do not enter.

Discipline

Keeping a weblog of my activities and having a target of 41 days forced me to stick to my schedule. 

Health benefits

After 41 days, I found that my eyesight had improved quite a bit.  I had trouble reading books like Lee Lehman's Horary Astrology, because it is in such small print. I had been considering taking up glasses, but they may not be necessary, atleast as long as I chant. 

Increased output of work

During this period, I was able to write and publish several blog posts on blogger and one on Linkedin:Could Cortana be the undoing of Windows? My writing had been lagging for many months.

Increased energy and optimism

It was as if I had been plugged into a main supply line of energy. It allowed me to complete my daily targets. It also inspired me to start two more new projects, (actually sub projects) as a part of Becoming a better writer. The building blocks of good writing are regular reading and writing. I took the target of incrementing the duration for each by one minute everyday with a minimum of five minutes.

In addition, there were some more benefits from the mantra chanting experiment:

• It sobered up my trading temperament.
• Inspired me to take up two more self improvement projects in writing
• Had an interesting experience with my car service station wherein they agreed to pick up and re-service my car without any unpleasant argument

And now, the money making part

By the end of the 41 day experiment, I was regularly having 1-2 profitable trades every day. Failures were becoming fewer. In the last week, I did not have a single losing trade. 

However, then the old enemy of the trader struck: Conceit. Oh this is all so simple. I became careless. and started flouting trading rules one by one. And then I traded with full leverage without proper analysis.

Result: Two devastating losses which took out most of the profit.

Mantra chanting is no substitute for work (a trader's work involves analysis). I could not sit in a car and chant the mantra for the car to move. I had to drive it intelligently and responsibly.

Conclusion: 

Mantra Chanting, if taken up in addition to one's regular work and study schedule, can be significantly life altering. It has created a positive transformation in that I'm willing to have another go.

One should note that just chanting the mantra is not sufficient to produce results, by itself. One has to pursue the bare minimum of activities necessary to take small steps towards one's goals.

Important Note!

If, after reading this, you plan to take up mantra chanting, be sure to read the first part here. There are some precautions that I took that you may find useful. 

Chanting mantras can cause some people to stress up, as we are forcing the mind into new channels. If this happens, go easy a bit. Pull back on the number of mantras When you feel relaxed and comfortable again, get back into the practice as earlier. 

Mantra chanting can also bring out repressed emotions, so you need to learn to relax when the emotional turbulence strikes. You can do this by avoiding a direct confrontation with the emotions and thoughts and just watching your breaths. Counting the breaths or counting the rise and fall of the abdomen is a great and fun practice for this.

This article is still being updated.

Amma Sets An Example Of Humility In Live Kairali TV Interview

Watch the last three minutes. The interviewer is John Brittas.

It's amazing how She heeded his request. This is a rare quality to come by in today's troubled world.

The prison of your mind | Sean Stephenson | TEDxIronwoodStatePrison

Mantra Chanting Experiment

People all over the world have used mantras from ancient times.

Mantras were popular in India and still are. Believers chant them for different benefits-health, wealth, and for other material goals. However, the highest purpose of mantra chanting is to purify the mind to make it fit for enlightenment. Still, without experiencing fulfilment of material desires, man doesn't start thinking about enlightenment.

A major concern of mankind is wealth. Many times our best efforts to procure wealth do not bear fruit. One reason is the negative karma from current and previous lifetimes. Mantras help us remove the effects of bad karma and attract the desired goal.

After reading this article, and this I wanted to test out the efficacy of mantra-chanting.

I am starting an experiment with the Mahalakshmi mantra for prosperity: 

"Aum Gam Shreem Mahalakshmyai Swaha"

In Hinduism, Mahalakshmi is the Goddess of wealth and prosperity.

Shreem is the root syllable (bija mantra) for MahaLakshmi; Gam is the bija mantra for Lord Ganesha, who removes all obstacles.

The Plan

The plan of the experiment is to chant a minimum of 108 mantras or more (not more than 1080)  everyday, for 41 days.

The aim is to complete it sitting or standing, in one or two sessions. It has to be done in an alert state of mind, hence standing up may be necessary sometimes,

I will share the results here with you.

Day 01 11/01/17

Competed today's quota of Mahalakshmi mantra and some more.

I do trading for a living. Today wasn't a good day trade wise - a bad day.

However, there are several positive changes I noticed.

I am feeling very energetic and upbeat. I wrote two blog posts today.

I am also feeling very confident. Previously I used to shy away from taking chances and exposing myself, for fear of what my circle of family and acquaintances will think...Now, I feel that it doesn't matter... trying is everything.

I am also training to be a freelance writer. I got a number of ideas today on how to improve my writing. If you're aspiring to be a writer, you may find them useful. They are here : Polishing up your writing.

Towards the evening, I observed something interesting in Crude Oil price around the time of a lunar ingress. Lunar ingress is the period where the Moon changes signs: It happens roughly every two and a half days. If the trading volume is large enough, the price tends to reverse around that time. You need stop loss, risk and money management, of course. No method is fool proof in trading.

So these are the results of the first day of chanting:

• High level of optimism, energy, and confidence.
• A stream of new ideas has opened up

Day 02 12/01/17

Completed today's quota of mantras.

Day 03 13/01/17

My trading temperament seems to be sobering up.
By evening, had a profitable trade in Crude.

Day 04 14/01/17

Completed today's quota of mantras.

Keeping a log of planned activities online ensures that I'll complete the task. In that sense this weblog is useful.

I am experiencing higher energy levels after starting this experiment. More energy to complete tasks and makes them really enjoyable, too.

Note: When you are starting a discipline like this, sometimes you may experience emotional seesaws.  Prepare yourself to tide over any such disturbances by dedicating a few minutes to breath observation everyday Watching the breath is an excellent way to heal emotional upheavals.

Day 05 15/01/17

I just completed today's quota of chanting mantras.

My mind was not focused during the entire session. Still, completed somehow. Felt rather strangely emotionally upset, too.

Breathing into it and remembering Karma seemed to have brought some calm.

Day 06 16/01/17

Completed today's quota of mantras. Nothing worth mentioning except that some coincidences have been happening. Indications of some desired outcomes occurring without my taking any initiative. I will post them here once they completely manifest.

Day 07 17/01/17

I completed today's quota of mantras.

The incidents that manifested today were:

My car had been serviced last week. I'd told the service centre to check out the suspension, as it was a bit bumpy for a two year old car. Later I found out they hadn't checked it. When I complained, they neither denied it nor acknowledged their mistake. They just asked me to come around for a recheck, which I didn't want to do. It'd take another half day, and also they were bound to honor their commitment.

They called about three times, and the issue wasn't getting better.

After I started chanting the mantra, on the 6th day, they called and asked if I could bring the car. When I expressed my inability,they agreed to pick up and service the car. There was no need of persuasion. Today they came and did it.

So far, so good.


For the past two days, I've been experiencing some emotional ups and downs, and there were some arguments in the family. It passed off without escalating, thank fully.

Meanwhile, I came upon an interesting booklet "It works" by Byron Katie. It's very short, just about 14 pages, and hence the claim of the title " It works!" Good books do not have to be long, they do deliver the goods.
Some interesting excerpts from this book:
"...

I noticed that I wasn’t breathing—I was being breathed. Then I also noticed, to my amazement, that I wasn’t thinking—that I was actually being thought... ...Do you wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “ I think I won’t think today”? It’s too late: You’re already thinking!.....  Thoughts just appear. They come out of nothing and go back to nothing, like clouds moving across the empty sky. They come to pass, not to stay. There is no harm in them until we attach to them as if they were true...."

You can download it for free here.

Day 08 18/01/17

Completed today's quota of mantras.

Since the chanting started, there has been an improvement in my trading performance, though no windfall has occurred. I am using very small capital at the moment.

Day 09 19/01/17 through Day 12 22/01/17

Completed daily quota of chanting mantra.

Day 13 23/01/17

Completed 11 malas (11x108) today.
Changed the plan to increase chanting to a maximum of one extra mala (1080) everyday.
Three losing trades today.

Day 14 24/01/17

Completed 12 x 108 mantras.

Today morning got a profitable trade in ICICIBANK.

Day 15 25/01/17

Completed 11x108 mantras.

Two profitable trades-Crude which I entered yesterday night, and ICICI, today.

Day 16 26/01/17

Completed 14x108 mantras.

Day 17 27/01/17

Completed 15x108 mantras.

Profitable trades in Crude and ICICI today. ICICI was to be delivery, but because results were very good, closed today itself.

Day 18 28/01/17 through Day 20 30/01/17

Completed the daily quota of mantras, increasing one mala a day.

Day 21 31/01/17

Completed 20x108. Had the second successful lunar ingress trade tonight,

Chanting has improved my trading in these ways:

• Guides me to read specific articles, that help my trading
• Helped me to formulate and stick to trading rules--trading once in eight hours, abiding by risk reward ratio, 5% vaR, sticking to one instrument and one strategy for one month
• Stabilised my emotional rollercoaster

Day 22 01/02/17

Completed 22x108.
One winning trade in Crude.

Day 23 02/02/17

Completed 23x108
One winning trade, and one loss in ICICI. The swing trade entered on 30/1/17 turned out to be a win, night one loss in Crude.

Day 24 03/02/17

Completed 24x108.

Losing day, Broke trading rules. Entered too many trades. Lunar ingress seems unreliable when there is another ingress (today Venus ingressed into Aries).

Day 25 04/02/17 through Day 41 20/02/17

Completed 41.
Bad day in trading. Losses. I had grown accustomed to range trading so was caught off guard when it trended today.

As per plan, the experiment concluded today. However, as the results were encouraging, I'd like to continue the practice. For how long, I have no idea.

Day 42 21/02/17

Completed 42.
Very bad day. Large losses. Crude oil trend continued strongly even though it was overbought.

How Jeannette Walls Spins Good Stories Out of Bad Memories

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/magazine/how-jeannette-walls-spins-good-stories-out-of-bad-memories.html

A very touching review by Alex Wichel:

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