Time and Life Planning

Life is short. If things go well, I have 2/3rd of my life to go. Time continues to flow at a fixed pace. There is no way to pause, rewind or even fast forward time. Though when I'm waiting for an event to occur it seems to pass slower and when I'm engrossed in a thought or an activity it seems to move faster. We can't undo or redo our past either. We can only regret, repent, suffer over past episodes or forgive, forget and move on. I actually spend less time living in the present and more time planning for the future or simply worrying about it. Sometimes, idly hoping and waiting for life to happen.

Time causes change. With time is associated the notion of aging, decaying, withering and also the notions of growing, healing, taking birth. Time is a healer. With the passage of time, we forget pain and suffering. Time administers justice; law, misfortune or disease and death catch up with the perpetrators of evil. Without the passage of time, there would be no music. The same seven musical notes can form infinite melodies because they can be placed in infinite sequences in time.

Time flows. Time is perceived with the occurrence of events in the order they happen. This perception is subjective to the observer. Each user has his or her own notion of time. Because observers could relate their observations to a common set of phenomena, caused by the earth’s rotation and revolution, an absolute scale could be attached to the notion of time. The biological clock in each species, on the other hand, runs at its own pace. Losing a tooth during infancy so permanent tooth can grow out, or hitting puberty are biological changes the body times internally.

Albert Einstein changed one notion of time and space dramatically. His theory of relativity suggests that there is a space-time continuum. His general theory suggests that if you sit in a strong gravitational field, time slows down. His special theory suggests that if you travel close to the speed of light, time slows down. This means it is possible to travel into the future. So, the future is out there. The future is certain. The space-time continuum was laid out at the time of inception of the cosmos. The future has already been and has always been determined. Time doesn’t flow, time is all out there. This means our notion of freewill is a subjective perception, and our thoughts, words or deeds do not determine the future.

Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, suggests there are only possibilities, no certainties. Quantum mechanics studies the behavior of particulate matter at subatomic level, while relativity works at larger scales. Quantum mechanics is based on wave-particle duality, i.e. matter and light exhibiting properties of both particles and waves. It states that the position and momentum of a particle (for eg. an electron, atom or a molecule) at any instant in time is not known. The values of these measurable variables can at best be described with state functions that encode their probability distributions. So, if the location of an electron is unpredictable, the future of matter and energy is non-deterministic. Hence, our free-will determines which of the infinite possibilities is committed to truth.

The Eastern concept of Karma has a cyclic view of time, just like the seasons or the day and night cycle, there is the cycle of life and death. After death, we cycle back to this world in a different form enveloped in a different consciousness. History repeats itself; empires come and go, so, in a sense, history has cyclical nature too. Karma says, what goes around, comes around. So life begins with a body that’s a function of past deeds, desires and tendencies. By adulthood, some desires are realized, some become continuous urges or addictions, and new ones crop up. It’s our active set of material desires that repeatedly brings us back to life in one mortal form after another.

Consider a plot of life (a function of life energy, drive, mental and physical health, societal power) against time. We're born with nothing; the life curve starts at zero. We're helpless in our tiny newfound bodies, dependent on our guardians to provide us with our basic needs. During childhood and youth, we prepare for our adulthood by nourishing our body, developing our personality, honing our skill sets and working on our social network. The life curve goes up as we grow into our bodies, discover our abilities and potential, and realize our dreams. Once an adult, we venture in the material world to pursue our desires. The curve sees its ups and downs based on how we perform in life. We are attached to our material existence. With success and good health, our attachment grows (i.e. we cling on tighter to our reputation, position, power, degrees, possessions; our family, friends and employees tie close to us) and time flies. The curve of life continues to go up. With failure and disease/dysfunction, we find the objects of our attachment wither or shy away and time seems to slow down. The curve of life goes down. Adulthood gradually transforms to old age. Old age can be similar to early childhood; some old folk find it difficult to chew on solid food, while some others lose control of their excretory activity. Old age is marked with impaired senses/memory, weakened constitution, and deteriorated biological functioning. Old folk depend on external assistance for their basic needs or to perform basic operations. The life curve seems to reflect on an axis at a time of adulthood when life seems to be going well. Life terminates with death, we’re left with the same nothingness we started with, and the life curve falls sharply to zero. The longer in life we are engrossed in our material existence the steeper the negative slope of the life curve at death. In our formative years we prepare for adulthood, later in adulthood we should prepare for the onset of disease/infirmity, for death, and be ready for what lies beyond. The retirement ages set by the state, are meant to optimally utilize citizens while they are physically active, before they become a liability to the employer. The earlier we are detached from material existence, the gradual the slope of the curve; which implies a graceful, relaxed, smooth and easy transition at death. A steep slope implies being forced out of our body, forced to lose our identity and ego, to give up our paraphernalia and to sever our attachments, all at once at the time of death.

Most of us don’t have answers to the following: Why was I born? What am I supposed to do in life? Why should I live? Is it to pursue a successful career? Is it to pursue a successful family life? Is it to pursue money, women and power? Is it to pursue happiness, peace and freedom? Is it to serve ourselves or to serve others? Is it to work or to play? We are proud of what we create and maintain, but is that our purpose when everything, including us, is guaranteed to be destroyed? We need to know the answers, or else we live in ad-hoc mode, chasing our desires and running away from troubles.

Health, Healthcare and Medicine

The human body is a complicated machine. This is a humble effort to describe my layman's understanding of it. Let's compare our body to a relatively simple, well-understood and widely available machine, the automobile. There are many types of vehicles in the market. Trucks and pickups are meant to haul voluminous and heavy loads. Sports cars allow precision control for high speeds on smooth roads. Luxury cars are known for their style, class and comfort. Economy cars deliver on low maintenance and fuel consumption. Utility vehicles are best for traveling in rough terrain. Similarly, every person's body is well suited to perform a certain set of activities under certain conditions and therefore requires a certain type of diet and form of medical care.

If I exploit a machine, I can't expect it to run too long without complaints. A sports car won't perform well or last long if it's used to haul heavy loads on cheap gas and low maintenance. Machines and human beings are all striving for physical wellness and longevity. While our body grows and changes, machines don't. Software systems may learn, adapt and evolve with time but the change isn't physical. Hardware machines require external agents to have replacements or additions. Bodies use the fuel they ingest/inject/inhale to serve as both matter and energy, while machines only use their fuel as a source of energy.

I can't misuse/abuse my car and then expect the mechanic to keep it fit and running forever. Similarly, if I suffer from gluttonous habits, I can't assume liposuction will cure all ill-effects of my over-indulgence. I can't leave it to heart drugs or bypass surgery to cure cholesterol related heart problems, while I continuously consume processed food and sugar. Prevention is better than cure. My body is my privilege and my responsibility, not the doctors.

Some of the greatest discoveries we know of happened in modern medicine: blood groups, anesthesia, X-ray, germs, penicillin, vaccination, and insulin. Thanks to them, today we enjoy a longer and healthier life. Unfortunately, today, pharmaceutical research and development is in the hands of multi-national corporations that are driven by profit, not scientists who are driven by curiosity or compassion for those in pain and suffering. Like any corporation, they seem to invest more time/effort/money in sales and marketing than they do on actual medicinal research and development.

People with fixed salaries turn to insurance companies for managed health care plans. Insurance companies determine monthly payments and coverage based on age, diagnosed health conditions, overall health and lifestyle. While employed individuals (and dependents) with middle incomes can afford to purchase managed health plans, those in lower income brackets or unemployed find it difficult to purchase. Managed health care (vs. the pay-as-you-go system) prompts consumers to over-utilize the healthcare system since they put the burden of their health on the healthcare system and don’t invest time/effort/restraint in themselves to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

With hospitals being equipped with the latest technological instruments, prescription drugs becoming increasing expensive and physicians/surgeons purchasing medical-malpractice insurance, health insurance is unaffordable to many. Whether the expensive high-tech medical equipment is actually useful and beneficial is also a question. Hospitals keep it because it attracts patients, most of whom have blind faith in the miraculous powers of modern technology.

Over the years, deaths due to infectious diseases have reduced significantly, and chronic diseases have taken over like cardiovascular, cancer or stroke as the leading causes. A lot of research and development has gone in to prolong life beyond its natural time span, attempting to alter the course of nature to challenge the higher powers. Detection of these diseases is in their late stages, where usually there is no cure available. Chronic diseases result from a toxin buildup in our body, initiated from the food we ingest, air we breathe and water we drink. Such diseases are usually detected at late stages when immediate cures are not available.

Today, a sixth of the US GDP is spent on healthcare, a significant amount of which goes into prescription drugs. Pharmaceutical companies recover their investment in research and development from the end user. Compared to other industries, the pharmaceutical industry enjoys many tax breaks. In spite of this, drugs are expensive for the developed world and virtually unaffordable by the underdeveloped world. Drugs take many long years from inception to reach the market after passing a series of clinical trials on animals and humans. Drugs are first tested on mice, rats, dogs and monkeys. Initial human trials may be conducted in the poorest of the 3rd world where ignorant citizens are unaccounted for by local administration. A small portion of drugs conceived reach the clinical trial phases in developed nations. Most are rejected in preliminary tests because they don’t show the required quality or quantity of effect or they have harmful side-effects that can’t be overlooked to proclaim the drug safe. Once the drugs reach the physicians, still in the trial phase, pharmaceutical companies give them various incentives to promote their drug. How much of an improvement the new drug achieves over and above those currently available in the market is questionable. Pharmaceutical companies are continuously under pressure to post positive results. They introduce slight modifications of currently marketed drugs to add to their intellectual property, brand image, and sales.

Clinical drug prescriptions consist of high potency synthetic chemical substances. Whether the effect a drug is having at the target site in reversing the diseased condition is significant enough to overlook the adverse effects it is having at other sites has become questionable with drugs showing side effects years after they are introduced in the market. (U.S. pharmaceutical company, Merck, discovered its arthritis painkiller drug - Vioxx – doubled the chance of heart attack or stroke if consumed for more than 18 months, 5 years after it hit the markets.)

Modern medicine is symptomatic in its style of treatment, and doesn’t take a holistic view of constitution and history. Eruptions on the skin may be a side effect of poor digestion or poorly oxygenated and purified blood, but symptomatic treatment will prescribe medicine to subside the eruption but may not cure the root issue. Artificially forcing the brain to ‘function normally’ by taking anti-depressants that increase neurotransmitters count and flow to increase message passing across neurons is not relieving the patient of the circumstances that caused the mood in first place hence isn’t curing him/her. Can a physical disease be prompted by our philosophy of life, frame of mind, tendencies, or habits?

Surgery is a practice whose ease and frequency of recommendation alarms me. I have been surgically operated on; my sinuses were cleared under local anesthesia. I was scared even though it ultimately relieved intense pain. But, was it necessary to manually intervene, cut open and physically reach organs with mechanical/electro-mechanical instruments that are extremely crude in nature compared to the sophistication of the human body? Are there any other curative paradigms out there less invasive in nature? Was the surgical option brought up too soon, or was it appropriately selected as a last resort? I am inclined to believe the body has regenerative/purgative potential that may only need to be restored, rather than getting the body physically reconstructed.

The utility of recreational or performance enhancement drugs and appearance enhancing plastic surgery is altogether questionable. Are they addressing a defect, deficiency, or error that needs to be fixed? Or are they just addressing jealous desires that come from seeing how others are or what they can do?

In genetics, biology is studied at molecular granularity. As a result of advances in genetics over the past 100 years, we know of the existence of DNA in the chromosomes of cells that constitute the genetic sequence that encodes the total physical appearance, constitution and possibly behavior of living beings. When genes express themselves, DNA transcribes to RNA, which subsequently translates to proteins. The sequence of amino-acids in the protein, to some extent, determines its structure, which captures its enzymatic functionality that ultimately causes the chemical/biological processes in the being. Mutated genes result in altered protein formations which cause genetic diseases. With the discovery of physical and chemical processes to isolate, manipulate and reintroduce DNA, RNA and proteins, it is possible to play God. Now we can clone organisms, i.e. make identical replicas of the original, possibly to utilize their organs/parts for the faulty versions of the original. By determining RNA that interfere with selected gene expression we can prevent the formation of protein that cause disease. Much of the work in genetic engineering aims at artificially modifying the DNA of an organism to achieve a practical end. While gene therapy aims to artificially insert functional genes to supplement defective mutant ones and instead make functional proteins. Scientists have in their hands the basic building blocks of life; but they don’t have the book of dos and don’ts. What’s actually in their jurisdiction and how much they trespass into nature’s territory is a question. Will this tampering with DNA tip the ecological balance?

Eastern forms of exercise like martial arts and yoga align well with nature. Yogic poses and martial arts borrow postures, techniques, and even strategy from animals. They have been minutely adjusted according to the human body structure, to channelize energy, with a goal to minimize discomfort and maximize benefit, doing so in harmony with nature. Pranayama and Qi Gong are about deepening and regulating the breath, therefore purifying the blood without rushing the flow, aerating the organs, and relaxing the mind. All these exercises find birth in Hindu and Buddhist principles. They emphasize meditation to discipline the mind and realize the spirit. Their idea of good exercise isn’t running on treadmills in closed gyms late at night.

Health is about wellness of the body, mind and spirit. It starts with respecting the body clock, inhaling lots of clean air, drinking lots of pure water, and eating food we trust in freshness, nutrition, and hygiene. Processed food and drink contain additives we don’t require. Our organ systems require a chance to relax, stretch, contract and expand at various paces to relieve their tension, boredom and stagnation.

Faith and Surrender

Sometimes I feel I have so little control on my own life. I didn't have any say in choosing my parents, my race or caste, my nationality, my IQ, my bodily constitution nor will I get to decide my death. Chance plays a significant role in life framing events, whether in meeting the person you end up marrying, or getting the interview call to the job you always wanted, or stumbling upon the business idea that changed your career path, or even contracting the disease you haven't heard of. Though the cause and effect rule holds, yet, in spite of all the learning and evolution, we still haven't found a formula for perfect happiness. Life lacks determinism. I guess there is divine intervention in our worldly existence.

We've created mechanisms like pension, insurance and social security to safeguard ourselves in an uncertain future. We attempt to earn more than we can spend presently and store excess earnings for the planned or unknown expenses of tomorrow. But, for those who lack the means or mechanisms to achieve a livable present, who continuously question their existence in tough circumstances, their life force comes in the form of faith in the presence of God and His divine nature. Faith is easy to understand, if God created us, it's His responsibility to maintain and destroy us too. Is faith only for powerless? It might be, but the pension, insurance, social security and investment funds of the powerful, haven't freed them from grief, pain and misery of old age, disease, disability and death.

We spend a lot of time wishing, planning, working, investing and worrying for the future. The time we get to live in the present is short and it flies by. Faith in the Almighty gives us more time to live the present, it relieves us of wishing and worrying for the future. Faith doesn't guarantee a better or secure future in the worldly sense; it helps us accept the ups and downs as God's grace. If God is all-good, He is our true well-wisher and sincere caretaker.

Faith begins where reason ends. Our senses have a limited capacity, yet we heavily rely on them to perceive the world around us. We have invented many devices and equipment to aid our senses. Modern science uses the process of induction, by analyzing and reasoning with what we see, hear, touch, smell or taste, it formulates the conjectures and laws of nature. Our gross senses could never sense the existence or presence of the spiritual being. For faith, we need to set aside reason. Then we can follow the process of deduction, i.e. we deduce the truths from scriptural texts summarizing the knowledge and wisdom granted by God and His messengers.

Faith in God means dependence on Him. He who depends on others for life becomes humble, tolerant and respects fellow living beings. But those who loudly declare their faith, when faced with questions about their philosophy/religion, assume the responsibility of proving the superiority of the school they are members of. If the school is only interested in growing its community in number and strength, victories in these battles, whether verbal or physical, do aid the school, but each debate or war won pumps the fighter's ego and real faith eludes him/her. So many "faithful" people become members of this community, not for the philosophy or religion, but for the political, commercial and social perks that come with being part of it.

So faith is belief in the existence and presence of God. Faith is knowing God to be all-good in nature. Faith is depending on God for life. Knowing God to be the creator, maintainer and destroyer, to accept life and whatever happens in it as His mercy. Faith is the first step towards developing a loving relationship with God. Just like parents create a child, not so it can go out and play around in the world, but to enjoy it's company and it's love, so did God create us, but we forget this and assume the purpose of our life to go out and conquer the world, no one has managed to do so yet, yet we continue trying till we die.

The culmination of faith is complete surrender to God's will. Surrender is when the last ounce of ego of being the great doer of deeds is wiped. In a scene from the Mahabharata, the Pandavas lost their wife, Draupadi, to the Kauravas in a game of dice the Kauravas had rigged. Draupadi was being disrobed in full public view by the Kauravas. Unable to further hold her sari from being tugged off, she let go her grip completely and surrendered to the will of God. She prayed to God that she has taken His shelter, it is now up to Him to do as He pleases. After that, Draupadi's sari seemed to have infinite length, the Kauravas pulled off wrap after wrap, but the sari never ended. They failed to disrobe the helpless woman. So is the power of surrender.