Simple Life

For all of us who grew up in mother culture where food is cultivated and material comforts are ready made, its difficult to imagine any alternative lifestyle. Its a common notion that hearts content money and material comfort are reciepies for happiness, here is a article which shows a simple life on a remote island in Pacific ocean where you hunt your own food, no electricity, no basic amenities, basically no material comforts we take for granted. Such a life might sound miserable or rather primitive but on the contrary people there seem quite happiest.

Quote from the article
"The twin pillars of a classically happy life - strong family ties and a general absence of materialism"

Article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7427768.stm

If you really want to understand why such a simple life is more meaningful and sustainable I would highly recommend reading Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael".

Ishmael
http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Adventure-Spirit-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553375407/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212287096&sr=8-1


Courtesy of the picture
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/1365722296/


Venkat Reddy

Dualistic Tao Principle

A nice Tao quote I came across, not sure to what extent this applies:

" Thirty spokes join together in a single wheel,
but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
We shape a lump of clay into a vessel,
but it is the emptiness inside the vessel that makes it useful.
We hammer doors and windows of wood for a house,
but it is the empty inner space that makes the rooms livable.
We build with the tangible, but the intangible is what we use."


Venkat Reddy

Aqua Zen

Most of the aquariums we encounter have few gold fish , couple of rocks and few aquatic plants spread around, nothing interesting about it. Check out this new radical rethinking by a Japanese designer about how a aquarium aught to be designed, these new nature inspired aqua designs are nothing less than Zen experience.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelebrutti/tags/takashi/show/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=adDeLAdWnHM

The difference here is the arrangement of same building blocks in a perfect harmony, not randomly throwing things into the aquarium.

Zen: Seeing into one's own nature.
by Hui-neng

Venkat Reddy

Biggest Drawing in the world

Usual guinness records span something like 100's of feet by 100's of feet, that scale itself is awe inspiring, but the madness would be treating the globe as a canvas and drawing a self portrait sounds bizarre and improbable. Well not so for this slick guy who drew a self portrait by moving a suitcase around the world with a embedded GPS device and track its journey. Quite a impressive idea.

Making the art
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irDEzQovftM

Official Site
http://biggestdrawingintheworld.com/drawing.aspx


Venkat Reddy

-Ideas worth Sharing