"Silent beauty, true love" Quoting J. Krishnamurti

Silent beauty, true love
(I found this article quite interesting. The article was originally published at http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/30Mar2008_out001.php)

When I say, "Love has no tomorrow and no yesterday," or, "When there is no centre then there is love," it has reality for me but not for you. You may quote it and make it into a formula but that has no validity. You have to see it for yourself, but to do so there must be freedom to look, freedom from all condemnation, all judgement all agreeing or disagreeing.

Now, to look is one of the most difficult things in life - or to listen - to look and listen are the same. If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset. Most of us have lost touch with nature. Civilisation is tending more and more towards large cities; we are becoming more and more an urban people, living in crowded apartments and having very little space even to look at the sky of an evening and morning, and therefore we are losing touch with a great deal of beauty. I don't know if you have noticed how few of us look at a sunrise or a sunset or the moonlight or the reflection of light on water.

Having lost touch with nature we naturally tend to develop intellectual capacities. We read a great many books, go to a great many museums and concerts, watch television and have many other entertainments. We quote endlessly from other people's ideas and think and talk a great deal about art. Why is it that we depend so much upon art? Is it a form of escape, of stimulation? If you are directly in contact with nature; if you watch the movement of a bird on the wing, see the beauty of every movement of the sky, watch the shadows on the hills or the beauty on the face of another, do you think you will want to go to any museum to look at any picture? Perhaps it is because you do not know how to look at all the things about you that you resort to some form of drug to stimulate you to see better.

There is a story of a religious teacher who used to talk to his disciples every morning. One morning he got on to the platform and was just about to begin when a little bird came and sat on the window sill and began to sing, and sang away with full heart. Then it stopped and flew away and the teacher said, "The sermon for this morning is over."

It seems to me that one of our greatest difficulties is to see for ourselves really clearly, not only outward things but inward life. When we say we see a tree or a flower or a person, do we actually see them? Or do we merely see the image that the word has created? That is, when you look at a tree or at a cloud of an evening full of light and delight, do you actually see it, not only with your eyes and intellectually, but totally, completely?

Have you ever experimented with looking at an objective thing like a tree without any of the associations, any of the knowledge you have acquired about it, without any prejudice, any judgement, any words forming a screen between you and the tree and preventing you from seeing it as it actually is? Try it and see what actually takes place when you observe the tree with all your being, with the totality of your energy. In that intensity you will find that there is no observer at all; there is only attention. It is when there is inattention that there is the observer and the observed. When you are looking at something with complete attention there is no space for a conception, a formula or a memory. This is important to understand because we are going into something which requires very careful investigation.

It is only a mind that looks at a tree or the stars or the sparkling waters of a river with complete self-abandonment that knows what beauty is, and when we are actually seeing we are in a state of love. We generally know beauty through comparison or through what man has put together, which means that we attribute beauty to some object. I see what I consider to be a beautiful building and that beauty I appreciate because of my knowledge of architecture and by comparing it with other buildings I have seen. But now I am asking myself, 'Is there a beauty without object?' When there is an observer who is the censor, the experiencer, the thinker, there is no beauty because beauty is something external, something the observer looks at and judges, but when there is no observer - and this demands a great deal of meditation, of enquiry - then there is beauty without the object.

Beauty lies in the total abandonment of the observer and the observed and there can be self-abandonment only when there is total austerity - not the austerity of the priest with its harshness, its sanctions, rules and obedience - not austerity in clothes, ideas, food and behaviour - but the austerity of being totally simple which is complete humility. Then there is no achieving, no ladder to climb; there is only the first step and the first step is the everlasting step.

Say you are walking by yourself or with somebody and you have stopped talking.

You are surrounded by nature and there is no dog barking, no noise of a car passing or even the flutter of a bird. You are completely silent and nature around you is also wholly silent. In that state of silence both in the observer and the observed - when the observer is not translating what he observes into thought - in that silence there is a different quality of beauty.

There is neither nature nor the observer. There is a state of mind wholly, completely, alone; it is alone - not in isolation - alone in stillness and that stillness is beauty. When you love, is there an observer? There is an observer only when love is desire and pleasure. When desire and pleasure are not associated with love, then love is intense. It is, like beauty, something totally new every day. As I have said, it has no yesterday and no tomorrow.

It is only when we see without any preconception, any image, that we are able to be in direct contact with anything in life. All our relationships are really imaginary - that is, based on an image formed by thought. If I have an image about you and you have an image about me, naturally we don't see each other at all as we actually are.

What we see is the images we have formed about each other which prevent us from being in contact, and that is why our relationships go wrong. When I say I know you, I mean I knew you yesterday. I do not know you actually now. All I know is my image of you. That image is put together by what you have said in praise of me or to insult me, what you have done to me - it is put together by all the memories I have of you - and your image of me is put together in the same way, and it is those images which have relationship and which prevent us from really communing with each other.

Two people who have lived together for a long time have an image of each other which prevents them from really being in relationship. If we understand relationship we can cooperate but cooperation cannot possibly exist through images, through symbols, through ideological conceptions. Only when we understand the true relationship between each other is there a possibility of love, and love is denied when we have images. Therefore, it is important to understand, not intellectually but actually in your daily life, how you have built images about your wife, your husband, your neighbour, your child, your country, your leaders, your politicians, your gods - you have nothing but images.

These images create the space between you and what you observe and in that space there is conflict, so what we are going to find out now together is whether it is possible to be free of the space we create, not only outside ourselves but in ourselves, the space which divides people in all their relationships.

Now the very attention you give to a problem is the energy that solves that problem. When you give your complete attention - I mean with everything in you - there is no observer at all. There is only the state of attention which is total energy, and that total energy is the highest form of intelligence. Naturally that state of mind must be completely silent and that silence, that stillness, comes when there is total attention, not disciplined stillness. That total silence in which there is neither the observer nor the thing observed is the highest form of a religious mind. But what takes place in that state cannot be put into words because what is said in words is not the fact. To find out for yourself you have to go through it.

Every problem is related to every other problem so that if you can solve one problem completely - it does not matter what it is - you will see that you are able to meet all other problems easily and resolve them.

The above article is from J. Krishnamurti's book, 'Freedom from the Known', published with permission from the Quest Foundation, Thailand .

You may contact: questfoundation@hotmail.com, for further information.

Loadshedding Crisis in Nepal

Comment posted to MySansar.com blog!
March 2, 2008 @ 8:45 pm
http://www.mysansar.com/?p=2443#comments

Dilli ji,

I think your calculation is wrong. You cannot compare energy and power. 16 MW*24 hr = …MWh that is energy. But here in the peak period we need peaking capacity and 16 MW is added to the capacity which is already mentioned by NEA. That will surely help in reducing the loadshedding. Also we know NEA is not reducing it during peaking hour i.e. 6-7 PM. This is very clear that 16 MW is not going to help during that hour!

But I support your theme that NEA should have exercised other means of reducing the loadshedding…e.g. transmission loss, electricity theft. Can you imagine we have around 25% electricity loss which is official figure and if you count on unofficial figure then it is more than 40%. Probably in the world this is the height of T&D loss. Further NEA does not have any plan for demand side management. Studies show that saving 1 MW by using deamnd side management is cheaper than installing a new powr plant with equivalent capacity. But NEA is turning its deaf ear towards this concern. Also NEA could have utilized seasonal tariff, peaking and off peak tariff to even domestic user. More than 50% of the NEA’s energy is consumed by residential sector. If people would be given flexibility to use electricity with appropriate tariff according to the peaking hours, then the peak load could have been shifted. Instead of current 2 peaking load hours, it could have been made horizontal throughout the day n night. NEA is sitting like duck waiting for bankruptcy and ironically, it is only eyeing big hydropowers to save it from bankruptcy. For your kind information, with the kind of trend, for 10 years, there will be no relief from loadshedding. Every year 10% demand is found increased. We have no plan for any power addition. Whatever we are planning is for export only. Also every new installation of hydropower plant will at least takes 7 years (if no obstacles is faced, we have e.g. of middle marsyangdi). On top of that NEA does not have any plan for large reservoir type of hydropower. All hydropower in the pipeline is run of river type. Even you install these run of river type of hydropowers, this is not going to help reducing load shedding. In winter, we have problem of loadsheding because of less water discharge in the river and these run of river type of hydropower plants will not generate power as per their capacity during winter time. Probably you are quite aware that every year the loadshedding hours has been increased. This is nothing but electricity demand has been increasing yearly and with the constant power generation, NEA has no option but to increase the loadshedding hours. NEA has no plan of mitigating this problem so far! I think what NEA should do is expedite the task of increasing the capacity of transmission line to Indian border which is power hungry states of India during summer time. Come with favourable policies to IPPs. Sell power to India during summer time and in winter time, purchase power from India. At the same time, other measures at mentioned above should be taken alongside.

Shree

Alternative to Petroleum Crisis in BME52

----- Original Message -----
To: bme52 Group
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: Alternative to Petroleum Crisis

Hi!

I must say Great comment! Actually, I was expecting similar comment from experts in another forum and my article was just to provoke the thought of the like minded people in that group. But I am surprised that you have also similar thought and interest in this regard. Why can't be after all we are nepalese and will be nepalese no matter what!

Now, coming back to your comment, I fully agree on your international pricing mechanism not going to be affected by electricity consumption in Nepal. Very true, how can one control the international price even from exporting electricity from Nepal where the electricity price is one of the highest in Asia. Well, probably my article is not able to point out clearly that the article is in the present context where people are finding hard to accept the price hike. Government and intellectuals like you, me and others fully understand that the price hike with automatic pricing is the only solution in the long term. But my question is what now? Till when...one more price hike..Nepal bandha starts again. We already faced it...what do you expect from this government in transition...wait till CA... 2/3 months from now. As somebody said, the petroleum issue has been a hot potato now. Who is going to put the bell on cat's neck? Who is going to convince the general public? Till when the public like you and me will face the stringent problem like this. Who is in loss now? I am sure that if this continues for 2/3 months more, it is going to be the catastrophe now. Everything will come to a stand still. I think government is waiting for this to come and make people feel that the last option is price hike. I would say, if this is true and the govt is awaiting then I think it is inviting more anger from the public. It is not able to feel the public's sentiment and this may fire another Janaandolan III with more public with real concern in the street and imagine what would happen! If you would have seen the queque and the frustration of the public while lining up, I would say this is fatal. I used to be one of the victim so far.

Now what then? this is what my article tries to address it. Come up with policy that strongly make public feel that the price hike (or some other indirect taxing policy) you can have a safe landing in the present context...Just not simply a price hike only. People will feel that the higher price is for them not for NOC or whatever. This is the only bold step or I must say an active step rather than passive step (hike in price).

Now I must say, everybody should have felt that the country's dependency upon petroleum products can go to what extent! Can you imagine, transport takes up 100% petroleum products consumption in the country leaving few standbay generators and this is increasing day by day. Other developing countries are now taking a U-turn and trying to address their energy policy with more home grown energy mix. At least they started from some point. But for us, its not fossil fuel but it is hydro power. Make the hydropower in priority projects. Issue electricity bonds....Assure/guarantee the banks so that they give project loans to hydropower. Probably the project loans in USA is simple like our personal loan here. You won't believe we do have provision for project loans but non of the bank want to go for it or they have so stringent rules that it is non other than collatoral loan system. Now what to do in this context. I am not trying to address here subsidy and others, these are there and bring other issues too and I don't think this is that simple again. Because some subsidy has to be there like in kerosene. You cannot totally neglect its use in rural area where 100% lighting is dependent upon kerosene. But we are lacking good policy and at the same time we are lacking monitoring mechanism too. And on top of that, the policy never addresses till when the rural people will have to depend upon kerosene!

Now question arises, why only govt why not us. I am not talking about implementation here. I am just talking about policy and this is where the government can play a large role. There should not be doubt on that. For the cost meeting this, the ways I have suggested could be one part in several other ways.

Now to your question on 8 hrs loadshedding and all. To tell you honestly, I would like to remind about the article about Abdul Kalaam as Poudel has forwarded some days ago. You need to believe on your strength and your capability. Have a long term vision. Rome was not built in one day. Petroleum economy did not come over night. I am not trying to put the things such a way that you can do it over night. Its a long prospect. If you don't act then probably you won't even act in the long term. This is where policy matters. Making an environment fostering enough so that private investors like you and others (of course BME52) can come into play. Policy give them a level playing field. I will give an example of Delhi where Supreme Court has to rule that the city has to be converted to CNG vehicle. Now, I don't believe that there is no intellectuals like you and others who never thought about it in Delhi. But circumstances and on top of that as in the case of Delhi,investors/technocrats/intellectuals do need policy to support their endeavours. And this is 100% true in the case of developing countries like in Nepal and others. If it was in USA then probably government only need to come up with stringent measures like emission standards and fine the public for their emissions or whatever just control it no matter what they do. But can you do the same thing in Nepal? Probably not then what can you expect then? At least some measures in policy that even as you said some investors like Manakamana Cables come infront and take their stake in the development! This is what I am expecting once there is policy. But if you ask the owner of Manakamana Cable then you will understand the story he has to go through. Luckily it is surviving even after going through a number of hurdles. If it was not the case, then probably by the time, we should have seen cable car in Muktinath, Naamche etc. Without government policy, non of the investors would like to even think about it rather seeks personal backing from policy makers and this is profitable for handful of people and it is good neither for public nor for the independent market. So, putting a long term prospect and keeping good track of hydropower development in planning process, it should start from some point at least. Why not metro in outer ring at least! But to tell you honestly, if you come over this 8 hrs load shedding, then you will have surplus amount of hydro energy that you will find hard to even take up in the grid. On top of that NEA will be paying for that spilled energy on the other hand and this is the reason that NEA is putting off some IPPs even though it has to go thru load shedding. It is in loss in this cases.

Best regards,

P.S. some of the personal notes are removed!

Update:
Nepal government has successfully hiked the petroleum products price once but it has faced a severe resistance from the public against its decision for the second price hike. As a result, the government has annulled the second price hike and now the government is seeking experts' advice for smooth supply of petroleum products.

Alternative to Petroleum Crisis published in CE Newsletter

Clean Energy NEWS Vol. 7, Number 34, July 17, 2007
CE News is published weekly by Clean Energy Nepal.

Alterantive to Petroleum Crisis

By Shreekar Pradhan

Some People are of in favor of price hike as the only solution for current fuel crisis in Nepal. But, in the current situation, this bold step will have to go through a difficult resistance which we have already faced earlier too. Will the current transitional government have that courage? Or will it wait till Constitutional Assembly?

I strongly believe the government of Nepal along with Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) is not able to come up with strong reason for price hike till date. They are not able to convince the people that the price hike is not for the bonus/revenue for the government/NOC. The critical question is, “How can people be assured that the price hike is for them and not for government/NOC?"

In the current context, the government should come up with a strong policy which provides relief to the people from dependency of petroleum products. A number of policies have been taken in other cities to relieve them from pollution and promoting energy security. Good examples can be found in neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan, where millions of CNG vehicles are running. Pakistan is considered as number one CNG vehicle user in the world. They are using their own resources and also relieving people from air pollution. In our context, we have hydro resources and we have already developed electric vehicles. So the government should come up long term strategy on cleaner electric vehicles. The strategy should not be isolated strategy as we see in the past. The promotion of electric vehicles should be for limiting the use of petroleum products. The current policy of government is more focused on managing the demand and supply of petroleum products and it does not consider the alternative way of limiting the petroleum demand by promoting electric vehicles in the long run. The government should start consider the following implementation strategy without any delay:

a) East to West Electric Train: It will relieve pressure on urbanization and tourism can be boosted in other parts of the country. Expenses relevant to road maintenance, vehicle maintenance, health can be lessened to larger extent. On top of that, a larger rural mass can be employed

b) Electric Train that links India to Tibet through Nepal: This has been thought for long time as this would boost the economy of country as two Asian giants will start trading with Nepal as transit point.

c) Electric Train in Outer Ring Road: A huge relieve from city centered urbanization to rural satellite towns. It will reduce the vehicle activities in the Kathmandu valley and reduce the pollution.

d) Electric Vehicles like safa temp, buses: It can be used in the central city and can be used as feeding vehicles in every route.

Now the question arises how to meet the cost for the infrastructure. Government should come up with strong policy with a committment that the revenue generated from petroleum products will be spent for building cleaner vehicle infrastructure and for limiting petroleum product dependency in the long run. A price hike with this reason may have soft resistance from the people. Rather than direct price hike, the government can levy certain emission tax, energy tax, congestion tax and carbon tax on these petroleum products or vehicles using it. This way, in one part, the government is limiting the petroleum product use and in other hand it will be showing the government's commitment towards promoting cleaner vehicles in the country. But importantly, these taxes need to be spent for the development of the cleaner electric vehicles in the country. If every citizen feels that the money he/she has been charged is for the purpose of clean transportation, then he/she may not be hesitant to be charged at all. They will be more assured once the development starts to take place and it should be a pride for every citizen that it is his/her contribution that has made it possible.

(In response to article "Alternative to petroleum Crisis" by Ganesh Regmi-Kathmandu Post-July 9, 2007, CE News Vol 7, No. 33)

Alternative to Petroleum Crisis

I would like to share some of my articles (correspondences in forums and e-mails to the listserv) about emerging issues like petroleum crisis and loadshedding in Nepal.

Posted to Clean Air Network Nepal (CAN-N)
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:09:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Alternative to Petroleum Crisis

Hi to all!

I would like to draw your attention on the issue raised by "Alternative to petroleum Crisis" (by Ganesh Regmi-Kathmandu Post-July 9, 2007, CE News Vol 7, No. 33)

Quoted here:

"Hence, the government should boldly hike the petroleum price adjusting to the international rate in order to facilitate a smooth supply of the same to the people and create a mechanism of automatic pricing so that international pricing is balanced by internal pricing in the future. If NOC comes with crystal clear pricing methodology, people will not hesitate to pay a higher price for petroleum products that would be available without any hassle."

in which the author tried to advocate price hike as the only solution in current situation. In my personal opinion, in the current situation, this bold step will have to go through a difficult resistance which we have already faced it earlier too. Current transitional government will have that courage? or it will wait till Constitutional Assembly?

We need to understand what went wrong in the past and why people were not agreeing to the price hike as the solution in the current context even though people have to queue up long for petroleum products for days and weeks. If we do not understand this and we think that the price hike as the only solution, then in my opinion it will not only invite more difficult consequences but also it is not complete solution in itself for the future of Nepal.

The author even mentioned that the crystal clear of pricing mechanism would make people pay even higher price. I do not see any strong ground on that in the current situation. But I agree that it will help people aware about the pricing mechanism but NOC has to go through the people's anger first once the price hike is carried out. Because the reason that fueled anger of the people on pricing of the petroleum products is not pricing mechanism or price of petroleum products as such. I strongly believe the government of Nepal along with Nepal Oil Corporation is not able to come up with strong reason for every price hike till date. They are not able to convince the people that the price hike is not for the bonus/revenue for the government/NOC that it used to enjoy earlier but instead it is a need in the current context. Currently I see NOC as the merchant who took high profit in the past and now going under loss and it is trying to put the loss to the head of each citizen. People are not aware of these in the past and they were compelled to get quiet in many occasions. Now the political situation is different than in the past. Every citizen can raise his/her voice on autocracy and the current transitonal government has no other option but to listen and address it. In my opinion, in the current situation, if one thinks that the people are not aware of the need of price hike and hike in international prices, and this is the single reason people protesting price hike then, in my opinion, I would say, it will be no other than a grave political mistake.

In the history of petroleum products pricing, every price hike has the following reasons:

a) To maintain the higher price from other side of the border
b) To minimize the price disparity in international price.

In the past, non of the Nepalese saw any problem with these because these were obvious reasons. But this situation did not stay long when they became aware about past deeds of NOC involved in sharing (i would say amassing) huge revenue as a consequence of price disparity in international fuel pricing. How would a citizen can digest that their hard earned money was enjoyed by handful of opportunists taking advantage of a loop hole in the policy? How can the people be assured that the past reasons for price hike will not repeat the same story in some other way?

Now the question is again, how to solve this status quo? In my opinion, if this question "How can people be assured that the price hike is for them not for government/NOC? ", then any policy on pricing of petroleum products will not have to go through difficult time as it has faced earlier if political vested interest is not considered here!

In the current context, the government should come up with strong policy which should relieve the people from the dependency of petroleum products. If this is achieved, then I think it is win and win situation for both. A number of policies has been taken in other cities to relieve them from pollution in one hand and in other stepping in energy security. To name a few, a good example can be found in neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan, where CNG vehicles are running in million with fuelling stations in thousands. Pakistan is considered as number one CNG vehicle user in the world. They are using their own resources and also relieving people from air pollution. In our context, we have hydro resources and we have already developed electric vehicles to much greater extent. Much of hydro power projects are in pipelines. So, in my opinion, the government should come up with strong policy on long term strategy on cleaner electric vehicles. The strategy should not be isolated strategy as we see in the past. The promotion of electric vehicles should be for limiting the use of petroleum products. The current policy of government is more focussed on managing the demand and supply of petroleum products and it does not consider the alternative way of limiting the petroleum demand by promoting electric vehicles in the long run. In my opinion, the government should start consider the following implementational strategy without any delay, if not else:

a) East to West Electric Train (Cross Country Train linking Mechi and Mahakali): With this train, I don't think I should write more on the advantages of the development of rural areas. In the cities, it will relieve pressure on urbanisation. People can live in Achham (Far Western region) and come for office Narayanghat in half and hour. Tourism can be boosted in other parts of the country. Expenses relevant to road maintenance, vehicle maintenance, health can be lessened to larger extent. On top of that, in my opinion, a larger rural mass can be employed. A huge population will be engaged in business activities that should reduce the political unrest to larger extent once people feel they are busy.

b) Electric Train that links India to Tibet through Nepal: This has been thought for long time as this would boost the economy of country as two asian giants will start trading with Nepal as transit point. A lot of has been already discussed on this regard for quiet some time.

c) Electric Train in Outer Ring Road: A huge relieve to city centered urbanisation to rural satellite towns. At the same time, it will reduce the vehicle activities in the Kathmandu valley and reduce the pollution.

d) Electric Vehicles like safa temp, buses: It can be used in the central city and can be used as feeding vehicles in every routes. A huge relief to the city people in air pollution.

Now the question arises how to meet the cost for the infrastructure! This is very pertinent issue in the current context when the government is in loss in petroleum products and facing a stiff resistance from people on price hike.

In my opinion, the government should come up with strong policy with a committment that the revenue generated from petroleum products will be spent for building cleaner vehicles infrastructure and for limiting petroleum product dependency in the long run. A price hike with this reason may have soft resistance from the people. Rather than the direct price hike, the government can levy certain emission tax, energy tax, congestion tax and carbon tax on these petroleum products or vehicles using it. This way, in one part, the government is limiting the petroleum product use and in other hand it will be showing the government's committment towards promoting cleaner vehicles in the country. But importantantly, these taxes need to be spent for the development of the cleaner electric vehicles in the country. I think if every citizen feels that the money he/she has been charged is for the purpose of safa tempo, electric bus and for electric train, then he/she may not be hesistant to be charged at all. They will be more assured once the development starts to take place and it should be a pride for every citizen that it is his/her contribution that has made it possible.

With this, I would rather conclude that instead of easy (so called bold step) solution, the government should take bold steps for the betterment of the country and even if the price hike is taken due to various reasons, the hike should couple with strong commitment towards the promotion of cleaner vehicles in the country that would lessen the problems each citizen is facing in the current context and this is the only win and win possible solution for all in the present context.

Comments are highly appreciated!