A disciple went to Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav:
– I shall not continue with my studies of sacred texts – he said. – I live in a small house with my brothers and parents, and never have the ideal conditions for concentrating on that which is important.
Nachman pointed to the sun and asked his disciple to place his hand over his face, in order to hide it. The disciple obeyed.
– Your hand is small, yet it can completely cover the power, light and majesty of the great sun. In the same way, the small problems manage to give you the excuse you need in order to hinder your progress along your spiritual journey.
“Just as your hand has the power to hide the sun, mediocrity has the power to hide your inner light. Do not blame others for your own incompetence.”
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Its Not Too Late For Buying Gold
"It's not too late for buying gold. I still haven't seen anything in the gold market that is reminiscent of any kind of mania or bubble. The average American is still way underinvested in gold: probably 99 out of a hundred Americans don't own any gold at all other than their jewelry and most people who have jewelry are selling it for cash-for-gold programs.
We have a ways to go. Even all the way up to 2,000 USD an ounce you're going to see a lot of retail buying. Once it clearly crosses the 2,000 USD level we'll start to draw in a wider segment of Americans. By the time it reaches 5,000 USD, and it won't be that long, it will be a lot more common for people to own gold." in Forbes.com
We have a ways to go. Even all the way up to 2,000 USD an ounce you're going to see a lot of retail buying. Once it clearly crosses the 2,000 USD level we'll start to draw in a wider segment of Americans. By the time it reaches 5,000 USD, and it won't be that long, it will be a lot more common for people to own gold." in Forbes.com
The cracked jar by Paulo Coelho
An Indian legend tells of a man who carried water to his village every day, in two large jars tied to the ends of a wooden pole, which he balanced on his back.
One of the jars was older than the other, and had some small cracks; every time the man covered the distance to his house, half of the water was lost.
For two years, the man made the same journey. The younger jar was always very proud of its performance, safe in the knowledge that it was up to the mission it had been made for, while the other jar was mortified with shame at only fulfilling half of its allotted task, even though it knew that those cracks were the result of many years hard work.
It was so ashamed that one day, while the man got ready to fetch water from the well, it decided to speak to him:
– I want to apologize, but because of the many years of service, you are only able to deliver half of my load, and quench half of the thirst which awaits you at your home.
The man smiled, and said:
– When we return, observe carefully the path.
And so it did. And the jar noticed that, on its side, many flowers and plants grew.
– See how nature is more lovely on your side? – commented the man. – I always knew you were cracked, and decided to make use of this fact. I planted flowers and vegetables, and you have always watered them. I have picked many roses to decorate my house with, I have fed my children with lettuce, cabbage and onions. If you were not as you are, how could I have done that?
“All of us, at some point, grow old and start to acquire other qualities. We can always make the most of each one of these new qualities and obtain a good result.”
One of the jars was older than the other, and had some small cracks; every time the man covered the distance to his house, half of the water was lost.
For two years, the man made the same journey. The younger jar was always very proud of its performance, safe in the knowledge that it was up to the mission it had been made for, while the other jar was mortified with shame at only fulfilling half of its allotted task, even though it knew that those cracks were the result of many years hard work.
It was so ashamed that one day, while the man got ready to fetch water from the well, it decided to speak to him:
– I want to apologize, but because of the many years of service, you are only able to deliver half of my load, and quench half of the thirst which awaits you at your home.
The man smiled, and said:
– When we return, observe carefully the path.
And so it did. And the jar noticed that, on its side, many flowers and plants grew.
– See how nature is more lovely on your side? – commented the man. – I always knew you were cracked, and decided to make use of this fact. I planted flowers and vegetables, and you have always watered them. I have picked many roses to decorate my house with, I have fed my children with lettuce, cabbage and onions. If you were not as you are, how could I have done that?
“All of us, at some point, grow old and start to acquire other qualities. We can always make the most of each one of these new qualities and obtain a good result.”
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The US Dollar Outlook
The intrinsic value of the US dollar is zero and that’s where it will go. Whether it will happen in five or 10 years time, nobody knows… I don’t believe in a new world reserve currency for the immediate future, but I believe that the U.S. dollar, after a near-term rebound that could last three-four months, will continue to depreciate.
The natural order by Paulo Coelho
A very wealthy man asked a Zen master for a text which would always remind him how happy he was with his family.
The Zen master took some parchment and, in beautiful calligraphy, wrote:
– The father dies. The son dies. The grandson dies.
– What? – said the furious rich man. – I asked you for something to inspire me, some teaching which might be respectfully contemplated by future generations, and you give me something as depressing and gloomy as these words?
– You asked me for something which would remind you of the happiness of living together with your family. If your son dies first, everyone will be devastated by the pain. If your grandson dies, it would be an unbearable experience.
“However, if your family disappears in the order which I placed on the paper, this is the natural course of life. Thus, although we all endure moments of pain, the generations will continue, and your legacy will be long-lasting.”
The Zen master took some parchment and, in beautiful calligraphy, wrote:
– The father dies. The son dies. The grandson dies.
– What? – said the furious rich man. – I asked you for something to inspire me, some teaching which might be respectfully contemplated by future generations, and you give me something as depressing and gloomy as these words?
– You asked me for something which would remind you of the happiness of living together with your family. If your son dies first, everyone will be devastated by the pain. If your grandson dies, it would be an unbearable experience.
“However, if your family disappears in the order which I placed on the paper, this is the natural course of life. Thus, although we all endure moments of pain, the generations will continue, and your legacy will be long-lasting.”
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
In 1987 The United States Was A Creditor Nation
The US dollar is now a terribly flawed currency. The US as recently as 1987 was a creditor nation. Now it’s the largest debtor nation in the history of the world and that’s going to continue to cause problems.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Welcome to the age of excess
We live in the Age of Excess and no one knows this better than the Americans. The Recession may have hurt them and toned down their extravagance a bit, but they are still a nation that consumes more and lives a richer, more flamboyant lifestyle than any other nation in the world. As any environmentalist or social scientist will tell you disapprovingly, the world simply can’t afford another America. It will simply collapse.
But even though no one can quite match America’s excess, the world aspires to it. They see it as Development, Growth, Progress. That’s why every nation, including us and our neighbours, the Chinese, frugal by history and instinct, now want to become modern by emulating the Great American Dream. You see it in all that we do these days. We are raising 100 storey towers kissing the skies even though we know how unreliable our builders are in terms of the right building material and technology to ensure their safety and security. We wouldn’t even know how to rescue people on the higher floors if a fire broke out or an earthquake. In fact, wherever you look, new vertical townships are coming up without adequate infrastructure like electricity, roads, water, public transport to support them. The idea is simply to build, build, build. In the hope people and prosperity will grow at a fast enough pace to buy into them. That’s why we measure our success and well being in terms of GDP growth without worrying about the price we pay for it.
Look at simple things and you will know exactly what I mean. The humble pizza has grown more fanciful with newer and newer toppings. The even humbler dosa, once the vegetarian’s favourite, is now sporting an incredible number of variants, from meat to oysters and snails. The poor man’s rolls are becoming bigger, fatter, more bizarre in their fillings. Nothing’s what it once was. It’s not just food. Look at the interiors of homes, offices. Look at the amount of marble and granite we use when we do our interiors. If you recall, Poonam Chambers in Worli came crashing down under the dead weight of the stuff its occupants used.
Have you seen how Indian weddings have grown in recent times? Have you noticed how much people have begun to spend on them, even in the smaller towns of India? Bollywood movies flaunt their budgets. Fashion designers show off their price tags. Malls, till recently, were parading luxury retail brands till the economic slowdown forced many of them to downsize or shut down. Even magazines have become fatter than they ever were. Computers and cell phones are offering so much memory and so many more features that you can spend a decade learning how to use all of them. Even the amazing iPod, once considered a marvel of simplicity, is fighting competition by being many things to many more people. Just as software variants are becoming so complex that every new version offers more glitches than conveniences.
Airports are increasingly looking like townships, offering everything from hotel rooms to spas to movie theatres to hundreds of dining options. Movie theatres offer you anything from dinner to a bed with warm blankets. Offices are no longer just workplaces. They have gyms, pool tables, basketball courts, libraries, auditoriums to watch movies, crèches for working mothers. Even mutual funds have become so many and so complex that they obfuscate buyers. Choice is the argument proffered for excess. But does excess really help you make a better choice or does it make it tougher, so much tougher that we have to hire middlemen for assistance? How many of us can file our income tax returns on our own or see our assessment through? How many can any more take a simple OTC drug and hope to cure a flu attack? How many can decide which life insurance plan to buy?
What’s the result? Even our most basic needs are getting more complex. Our expectations are rising and we are killing ourselves to meet these expectations. Pavements are disappearing because roads are widening, flyovers are multiplying. Pedestrians don’t matter any more. Even those who once cycled to work are now buying cars and killing themselves to afford petrol and maintenance. Everyone’s learning to multi-task and simple jobs have simply vanished because running companies is no longer what it once was. Even owning a bank account is no longer what it was. You spend more time trying to protect your savings from eroding or disappearing than managing costs.
Excess is taking over our lives. Look at the kids on TV. Look at models on the ramps. Look at clothes on the racks, fine dining menu cards, bathroom accessories, jewellery shop displays. Bookshops no longer sell just books. Cake shops no longer just sell cakes. Music shops no longer sell music. Just as life is no longer only about living and marriage is no longer just about love. That would sound terribly boring, wouldn’t it in today’s larger than life world?
But even though no one can quite match America’s excess, the world aspires to it. They see it as Development, Growth, Progress. That’s why every nation, including us and our neighbours, the Chinese, frugal by history and instinct, now want to become modern by emulating the Great American Dream. You see it in all that we do these days. We are raising 100 storey towers kissing the skies even though we know how unreliable our builders are in terms of the right building material and technology to ensure their safety and security. We wouldn’t even know how to rescue people on the higher floors if a fire broke out or an earthquake. In fact, wherever you look, new vertical townships are coming up without adequate infrastructure like electricity, roads, water, public transport to support them. The idea is simply to build, build, build. In the hope people and prosperity will grow at a fast enough pace to buy into them. That’s why we measure our success and well being in terms of GDP growth without worrying about the price we pay for it.
Look at simple things and you will know exactly what I mean. The humble pizza has grown more fanciful with newer and newer toppings. The even humbler dosa, once the vegetarian’s favourite, is now sporting an incredible number of variants, from meat to oysters and snails. The poor man’s rolls are becoming bigger, fatter, more bizarre in their fillings. Nothing’s what it once was. It’s not just food. Look at the interiors of homes, offices. Look at the amount of marble and granite we use when we do our interiors. If you recall, Poonam Chambers in Worli came crashing down under the dead weight of the stuff its occupants used.
Have you seen how Indian weddings have grown in recent times? Have you noticed how much people have begun to spend on them, even in the smaller towns of India? Bollywood movies flaunt their budgets. Fashion designers show off their price tags. Malls, till recently, were parading luxury retail brands till the economic slowdown forced many of them to downsize or shut down. Even magazines have become fatter than they ever were. Computers and cell phones are offering so much memory and so many more features that you can spend a decade learning how to use all of them. Even the amazing iPod, once considered a marvel of simplicity, is fighting competition by being many things to many more people. Just as software variants are becoming so complex that every new version offers more glitches than conveniences.
Airports are increasingly looking like townships, offering everything from hotel rooms to spas to movie theatres to hundreds of dining options. Movie theatres offer you anything from dinner to a bed with warm blankets. Offices are no longer just workplaces. They have gyms, pool tables, basketball courts, libraries, auditoriums to watch movies, crèches for working mothers. Even mutual funds have become so many and so complex that they obfuscate buyers. Choice is the argument proffered for excess. But does excess really help you make a better choice or does it make it tougher, so much tougher that we have to hire middlemen for assistance? How many of us can file our income tax returns on our own or see our assessment through? How many can any more take a simple OTC drug and hope to cure a flu attack? How many can decide which life insurance plan to buy?
What’s the result? Even our most basic needs are getting more complex. Our expectations are rising and we are killing ourselves to meet these expectations. Pavements are disappearing because roads are widening, flyovers are multiplying. Pedestrians don’t matter any more. Even those who once cycled to work are now buying cars and killing themselves to afford petrol and maintenance. Everyone’s learning to multi-task and simple jobs have simply vanished because running companies is no longer what it once was. Even owning a bank account is no longer what it was. You spend more time trying to protect your savings from eroding or disappearing than managing costs.
Excess is taking over our lives. Look at the kids on TV. Look at models on the ramps. Look at clothes on the racks, fine dining menu cards, bathroom accessories, jewellery shop displays. Bookshops no longer sell just books. Cake shops no longer just sell cakes. Music shops no longer sell music. Just as life is no longer only about living and marriage is no longer just about love. That would sound terribly boring, wouldn’t it in today’s larger than life world?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Noticed and Known
Two important human needs that don’t change over time are the need to be noticed and to be known.
While there are those who might hide these needs for any number of reasons, leaders need to remember the importance of both.
Kids in a classroom that can’t be noticed for good grades or behavior often resort to bad behavior. Why? Being noticed for being bad is preferable to being ignored.
The famous Hawthorne Effect experiment proved that workers on an assembly line improved their performance when they perceived management was paying attention to them. The changes in working conditions were superfluous, but the resulting perception was “They’re finally paying attention to us!”
Noticing employees and colleagues begins with simple courtesy and acknowledgement. It is more powerful to pay attention to the contributions and good work they do. Too often we notice only the negative or problematic behavior which inadvertently can reinforce that behavior. (Remember the classroom example above?)
Getting to know someone takes much more time and effort. Obviously no manager or leader wants to be obtrusive. The appropriate approach is making the time to understand an employee’s hopes, fears and goals at work. The objective should never be gratuitous; it should be motivated by the value you place on the person and a genuine need to help them be all they can be at work.
Bob Seger wrote a song about being an autoworker in Detroit many years ago. The refrain? “I feel like a number.” Underlying that sentiment is feeling neither noticed nor known.
Being noticed and know are simple but critically important needs. Regrettably they are often overlooked.
While there are those who might hide these needs for any number of reasons, leaders need to remember the importance of both.
Kids in a classroom that can’t be noticed for good grades or behavior often resort to bad behavior. Why? Being noticed for being bad is preferable to being ignored.
The famous Hawthorne Effect experiment proved that workers on an assembly line improved their performance when they perceived management was paying attention to them. The changes in working conditions were superfluous, but the resulting perception was “They’re finally paying attention to us!”
Noticing employees and colleagues begins with simple courtesy and acknowledgement. It is more powerful to pay attention to the contributions and good work they do. Too often we notice only the negative or problematic behavior which inadvertently can reinforce that behavior. (Remember the classroom example above?)
Getting to know someone takes much more time and effort. Obviously no manager or leader wants to be obtrusive. The appropriate approach is making the time to understand an employee’s hopes, fears and goals at work. The objective should never be gratuitous; it should be motivated by the value you place on the person and a genuine need to help them be all they can be at work.
Bob Seger wrote a song about being an autoworker in Detroit many years ago. The refrain? “I feel like a number.” Underlying that sentiment is feeling neither noticed nor known.
Being noticed and know are simple but critically important needs. Regrettably they are often overlooked.
Thoughts are things
if you don’t want something bad to happen, or if you want good things for yourself in your life, be careful about what you think, for you will become what you think as sure as the dawn follows night. Always remember, thoughts are things.’ Wow, the entire world wrapped up in those three magic words: Thoughts are things! A thought is the most powerful force in the universe. You can make of your life whatever you wish if you learn to make your thoughts work for you,
Day Trading Methodology
I have been reading the latest book from Van Tharp, Super Trader and I want to highlight this passage about daytrading methodologies:
"For example, if you are a daytrader, open up a position and either take a small loss or get out at the end of the day. When you do that, you are not tied to the market all day, and you may find that you take small losses and get huge profits. Simplify your entry technique and concentrate on exits"
Now, lets cross this with Jesse Livermore remarks on the speculative line of least resistance:
"It sounds very easy to say that all you have to do is to watch the tape, establish your resistance points and be ready to trade along the line of least resistance as soon as you have determined it."
So, we have a powerful daytrading methodology in these two market generalizations. But JL added, "But in actual practice a man has to guard against many things, and most of all against himself - that is, against human nature."
Rings a bell? Maybe we should all print this post and have it by the trading desk.
"For example, if you are a daytrader, open up a position and either take a small loss or get out at the end of the day. When you do that, you are not tied to the market all day, and you may find that you take small losses and get huge profits. Simplify your entry technique and concentrate on exits"
Now, lets cross this with Jesse Livermore remarks on the speculative line of least resistance:
"It sounds very easy to say that all you have to do is to watch the tape, establish your resistance points and be ready to trade along the line of least resistance as soon as you have determined it."
So, we have a powerful daytrading methodology in these two market generalizations. But JL added, "But in actual practice a man has to guard against many things, and most of all against himself - that is, against human nature."
Rings a bell? Maybe we should all print this post and have it by the trading desk.
Do we need to hear 1.000 opinions about our health?
I know a man who has seen a thousand doctors. Let us call him Thomas. He is 80 years old but even so, a thousand is a huge number. In a year, he would have seen 12 new doctors on the average. A thousand different doctors means perhaps 20,000 consultations. Sometimes Thomas sees three different doctors in one afternoon.
Some of Thomas’s friends are doctors. Some of his doctors become his friends. His doctors range from the junior to the senior, from those in government hospitals to those in private practice, from generalists to specialists. Men, women, foreigners, graduates from local universities; he has seen them all. Sometimes he sees them just to measure his blood pressure.
Sometimes it is for a more serious matter like an unexplained chest pain. He has spent about $230,000 in his lifetime on doctor visits, blood tests, medications, X-rays, scans and minor surgeries.
He has no regrets. Others may splurge on flashy cars or the services of a sommelier, but for Thomas it is doctors, doctors and more doctors. Sadly, Thomas was diagnosed with lung cancer recently and was referred to me. I wonder how many more oncologists he has seen or will be seeing.
Thomas came across as a well adjusted gentleman. He did not exhibit any verbal or physical tic. He spoke well. He gave his medical history clearly and answered most of my questions willingly and appropriately. Having gained his trust, I decided to explore his need to see so many doctors. He was forthright about it. He is afraid to die.
So many of us, with or without cancer, are not willing to admit to our fear of death. We couch our fear like this: “Doctor, I am not afraid to die but I fear the process of dying.” Others of a more poetic bent will say, “Oh, death, where is thy sting?” It is a badge of honor we proudly wear on our sleeves.
Thomas was afraid of death, and he was not afraid to admit it. That’s courage. He was going to do his best to postpone it. Of course, seeing a thousand doctors does not help. It may even be harmful. Conflicting opinions lead to confusion and anxiety. Excessive and unnecessary X-rays and CT scans increase the chance of radiation- induced cancer.
Apart from his fear of death, Thomas also disclosed a distrust of doctors. He was seeking as many opinions as possible before deciding on treatment. He had his doubts. Now you know why I gave Thomas his moniker.
Is Thomas suffering from hypochondriasis? The condition is characterised by fears that minor bodily symptoms may indicate a serious illness. The hypochondriac constantly examines himself; self-diagnosis becomes a preoccupation. He expresses doubt and disbelief in the doctor’s diagnosis. Thomas has some traits of a hypochondriac but that is too easy a label to stick on him. Thomas had a CT scan of his chest two years ago that disclosed a shadow in his lung. He was treated for pneumonia. The possibility of cancer was excluded when most of the shadow disappeared with a course of antibiotics. The doctors should have gone the extra mile to exclude cancer with a PET/CT scan and a biopsy.
Some may diagnose Thomas with thanatophobia — an undue obsession with death (especially one’s own) to the extent that it becomes psychologically crippling. Again, this would be too convenient a label. Thomas is a successful entrepreneur and is socially adept.
I really don’t know. We tend to medicalise every little symptom and discomfort. From an infant’s excessive crying to teenage angst to a wage earner’s blues. There is a pill for everything: insomnia, erectile dysfunction and the sadness of bereavement. Perhaps Thomas has the time and money to see many doctors and he feels good doing this. It is therapeutic for him, if you can forgive my use of the word. It may be no different from some others I know who spend as much as Thomas does on audiovisual systems or eating unmentionable parts of endangered animals.
I shall help Thomas fight his cancer. I will dissuade him from unnecessary blood tests and scans. I will not judge him. Most of all, I will not medicalize his fear of death. It is about being human. There is no pill for it.
Some of Thomas’s friends are doctors. Some of his doctors become his friends. His doctors range from the junior to the senior, from those in government hospitals to those in private practice, from generalists to specialists. Men, women, foreigners, graduates from local universities; he has seen them all. Sometimes he sees them just to measure his blood pressure.
Sometimes it is for a more serious matter like an unexplained chest pain. He has spent about $230,000 in his lifetime on doctor visits, blood tests, medications, X-rays, scans and minor surgeries.
He has no regrets. Others may splurge on flashy cars or the services of a sommelier, but for Thomas it is doctors, doctors and more doctors. Sadly, Thomas was diagnosed with lung cancer recently and was referred to me. I wonder how many more oncologists he has seen or will be seeing.
Thomas came across as a well adjusted gentleman. He did not exhibit any verbal or physical tic. He spoke well. He gave his medical history clearly and answered most of my questions willingly and appropriately. Having gained his trust, I decided to explore his need to see so many doctors. He was forthright about it. He is afraid to die.
So many of us, with or without cancer, are not willing to admit to our fear of death. We couch our fear like this: “Doctor, I am not afraid to die but I fear the process of dying.” Others of a more poetic bent will say, “Oh, death, where is thy sting?” It is a badge of honor we proudly wear on our sleeves.
Thomas was afraid of death, and he was not afraid to admit it. That’s courage. He was going to do his best to postpone it. Of course, seeing a thousand doctors does not help. It may even be harmful. Conflicting opinions lead to confusion and anxiety. Excessive and unnecessary X-rays and CT scans increase the chance of radiation- induced cancer.
Apart from his fear of death, Thomas also disclosed a distrust of doctors. He was seeking as many opinions as possible before deciding on treatment. He had his doubts. Now you know why I gave Thomas his moniker.
Is Thomas suffering from hypochondriasis? The condition is characterised by fears that minor bodily symptoms may indicate a serious illness. The hypochondriac constantly examines himself; self-diagnosis becomes a preoccupation. He expresses doubt and disbelief in the doctor’s diagnosis. Thomas has some traits of a hypochondriac but that is too easy a label to stick on him. Thomas had a CT scan of his chest two years ago that disclosed a shadow in his lung. He was treated for pneumonia. The possibility of cancer was excluded when most of the shadow disappeared with a course of antibiotics. The doctors should have gone the extra mile to exclude cancer with a PET/CT scan and a biopsy.
Some may diagnose Thomas with thanatophobia — an undue obsession with death (especially one’s own) to the extent that it becomes psychologically crippling. Again, this would be too convenient a label. Thomas is a successful entrepreneur and is socially adept.
I really don’t know. We tend to medicalise every little symptom and discomfort. From an infant’s excessive crying to teenage angst to a wage earner’s blues. There is a pill for everything: insomnia, erectile dysfunction and the sadness of bereavement. Perhaps Thomas has the time and money to see many doctors and he feels good doing this. It is therapeutic for him, if you can forgive my use of the word. It may be no different from some others I know who spend as much as Thomas does on audiovisual systems or eating unmentionable parts of endangered animals.
I shall help Thomas fight his cancer. I will dissuade him from unnecessary blood tests and scans. I will not judge him. Most of all, I will not medicalize his fear of death. It is about being human. There is no pill for it.
Friday, November 13, 2009
JP Morgan CEO reply to a chick who wanted to 'marry a rich guy'
Friday, July 3 2009
JP Morgan CEO reply to a chick who wanted to 'marry a rich guy'. WIN!
Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?
I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here. I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York. My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York CityGarden(?), $250k annual income is not enough.
I’m here humbly to ask a few questions:
1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls who doesn’t have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys
4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)
Ms. Pretty
Awesome reply:
Dear Ms. Pretty,
I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here. From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you.. The answer is very simple, so let me explain.
Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of ‘beauty’ and ‘money’: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.
By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a ‘trading position’. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term - same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or ‘leased’. Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.
Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in ‘leasing’ services, do contact me…
signed,
CEO
J.P. Morgan :)
JP Morgan CEO reply to a chick who wanted to 'marry a rich guy'. WIN!
Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?
I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here. I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York. My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York CityGarden(?), $250k annual income is not enough.
I’m here humbly to ask a few questions:
1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls who doesn’t have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys
4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)
Ms. Pretty
Awesome reply:
Dear Ms. Pretty,
I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here. From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you.. The answer is very simple, so let me explain.
Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of ‘beauty’ and ‘money’: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.
By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a ‘trading position’. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term - same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or ‘leased’. Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.
Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in ‘leasing’ services, do contact me…
signed,
CEO
J.P. Morgan :)
Sunday, October 18, 2009
A report on money scam by Spam e-mail : What happens when you reply?
Anybody who has ever received the notorious Nigerian Money Scam will probably have asked themselves the same question - what would happen if I replied?
For those of you unfamiliar with this email scam, the basic idea is simple. Somebody purporting to be a Nigerian banker contacts you, offering a chance to earn some serious money. Often his bank will be looking after the considerable fortune of a deceased millionaire - from shipping magnate to former president. He says he needs a foreign bank account through which to launder the money - and in return for sending him your bank details for this purpose, he will give you a share of the spoils.
Of course those who fall for this scam never see these promised millions. Instead their bank accounts are often cleaned out once they have handed over all their details - which include bank account numbers, copies of their passport and drivers licence and phone and fax numbers - it is a simple identity theft, dressed up with a tempting lure for the gullible.
Over the years silicon.com has received hundreds of these emails. What follows is the transcript of a conversation with one such scammer which began on 20 January 2003.
We received an email from somebody calling himself Mr Madu Frank, promising us 30 per cent of a large unclaimed fund, valued in the region of around $20m. Typically these people will send emails to multiple recipients - hoping somebody will take the bait. Often it is claimed the recipient was recommended to them by 'a friend' or taken from some kind of international directory.
Having received the initial email, silicon.com's Will Sturgeon set up a Hotmail account under an assumed identity, and replied.
Dear Madu Frank, Thank you very much for contacting me with this wonderful offer, it sounds almost too good to be true. It's amazing, only this morning I was saying how I could do with having a bit more money - I must be a very lucky man.
Of course I would be interested in helping, but would also be very interested to hear who recommended me, as you say you have been told that I am a "reliable" and "trustworthy" person. I assure you I am, but would like to know who I have to thank for this wonderful opportunity.
Just to clarify, you say I stand to get 30 per cent of the total money transferred - this is £6.75m, right? Wow!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Overnight a reply from Mr Madu arrived.
Thank you very much for finding time to reply to my mail. We have to begin this transaction fast, so that the fund will be in your account in about 14 banking days. First of all, you have to transcribe the letter below in to your letter headed paper, or plain paper, and send it back to me so that I will submit it to the INTERNATIONAL REMITANCE DEPARTMENT of the bank...
...I will require you to also send me your private telephone and fax numbers, I will submit this also to the bank, and they will contact you directly. When they contact you, I want you to act as the real beneficiary of the fund in question. Do not be intimidated by anybody. I will also want you to send me the front and back photocopy of your international passport or driver's licence, so that I will know who I am having a deal with. For further enquires on what you should do, call me immediately you receive this mail on my telephone number... I will be expecting your call.
He then included the text of the letter he wanted me to transcribe, including helpful blank spaces where I could fill in my name, address and, most importantly, bank details. Of course I didn't oblige... but that didn't mean I was finished with Mr Madu (wasn't he a partially sighted cartoon character?). I still wanted him to answer my question about who recommended me.
So I replied:
Thank you for getting back to me. I am still wondering if you could tell me who recommended me to you, as I asked in my last email.
I do not have a problem with all this, but you said in your original email that you had been told I was a reliable person - I was just wondering if you could elaborate? I am interested in finding this out - as that person may want to share in my good fortune. I should be aware of who has done me this big favour.
I look forward to hearing from you.
So I've posed Mr Madu a challenge here. We know the truth, but surely he won't admit to sending out random emails to all and sundry in the hope that some poor sucker will take the bait. No, instead he comes up with one of the most improbable - yet inventive - lies ever.
I have seen your mail, and understand the surprise that you are still passing through. I got your address from the Hotmail email directory for successful men and women. Please we have to leave out surprises at this point, and deal with the issue that we have at hand right now. Call me as I instructed you for more detail about what this transaction will look like.
Expecting your reply soonest.
I wasn't about to let that one go...
Mr Madu, I didn't know there was a "Hotmail email directory for successful men and women". You live and learn! How do they know I'm successful (I am - but I only set this Hotmail account up on Monday - and they didn't ask me then whether I am successful. Where can I see this directory?)
I hope you can understand my trepidation - I'd hate to blunder into some kind of scam (not that I would ever question your integrity or the genuine nature of this offer).
I suppose, as I said in my earlier email this just sounds too good to be true - are you sure it is all above board?
I am still very keen to help you out, and am really looking forward to getting the money - I just need to be sure it's the right thing to do.
All the best,
My conversational style fell on deaf ears, Mr Madu clearly wasn't keen to hang around chewing the fat...
Please send the transcribed letter, to my fax number... or send it as an attachment to my email box. I will be expecting to hear from you soon.
But, if he can lie, then what is there to stop me?
Mr Madu, OK - I have sent that fax. It should be there now. Let me know once you've got it.
I hadn't. At this point we played a little bit of email tennis. Three times I sent an email saying I'd faxed through the form - three times, on three consecutive days, he replied to tell me it hadn't arrived (that's because I'd not sent it Mr Madu) - each time urging me instead to email it to his inbox. I blamed confusion over the international codes.
My Dear Friend, I have not seen your fax yet... You do not have to add any other code. But I prefer that you send me the letter this time around, through email as an attachment, since you have tried to send it three times through fax.
I will be expecting you to send it through my email box now, so that I can submit it to the international remittance department of the bank, before the close of work today.
In the end I changed tack - suggesting it might be quicker to fax the bank directly - suggesting I might even look up the bank on the internet. I thought this might catch Mr Madu off guard, but it hardly threw him at all. He quickly replied, giving me the "direct telephone number of Dr George Ade, the Director of the international remittance department." He also gave me the department's fax number and implored me to contact them immediately.
Yet, still I resisted... Saturday, Sunday passed and still I hadn't faxed anything. Mr Madu was starting to grow impatient...
Have you faxed the letter to the international remittance department of the Eco Bank? (No) Have you called the director as I instructed you to? (No again I'm afraid Mr Madu) Please you know we have to be fast about this transaction, so I want you to act fast.
I will also require your private telephone number, so that I can communicate with you on phone. I will be expecting your mail immediately.
What's it going to take before this man gives up on me? Surely if he hasn't cottoned on to the fact that I'm winding him up, he must at least think I'm incredibly ungrateful, and more than a little disorganised.
But that's his problem, not mine... This time I replied, telling him I had gone ahead and looked up the proper numbers for the EcoBank in Lagos Nigeria on the internet - and told him that I'd sent my form straight there... Surely this will annoy him - after all, if he really believes that I fell for his scam, then surely he must believe what I've just gone and done is completely idiotic. All along he has stressed the need for secrecy and great caution. Involving the real EcoBank will surely throw a spanner in the works and annoy the long-suffering Mr Madu... and indeed it did.
He wrote:
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? I sent you numbers that you can use to reach particular people because of the confidentiality of this transaction, and you are contacting another number! Well I must inform you at this point, that since you refused to follow my instructions, you have 0 per cent chance of collecting any money from the bank. You have just shown how unconfidential you can be.
I also hope that you did not mention my name in the fax you sent to them, because I don't want to lose my job over a fund that has not been released. The best thing I have to do now is to look for someone more confidential than you are! GOOD DAY!
And so it ended... ...or did it?
Mr Madu, I can't believe I'm going to miss out on this money - but these things happen - and I can see that it was all my fault... but what a shame!!!
Your good - but slightly disappointed - friend.
In truth I expected that to be the last of my dealings with Mr Madu. But he wasn't done yet. He just wanted me to understand the foolishness of what he had done, and clearly rued flying off the handle they way he had.
This transaction is very confidential even in the bank. So all I want you to do at this point, is to contact the telephone number that I gave to you right away. It is the direct line of the Director of international remittance. He knows about this transaction. His name is Dr George Ade...
Do this without delay.
Mr Madu Frank, I thought you'd given up on me.
It is not all over! Please just follow up the instructions that I gave you, and everything will be alright. I want to receive a mail from you tomorrow morning that you have done it. BE POSITIVE!!!
He's changed his tune! He obviously believes there is still a chance I will hand over my passport, bank account detail, phone number and driver's licence.
I wonder how he'll react when I start losing my patience with him - will he spot the irony? I pretend I have made the phone call which he implored me to make...
Mr Madu, What's going on? Dr George Ade is not answering his phone... what time is it there? Why do you tell me to ring him when he's not around to answer his phone?
This is a waste of my time... I want to help you but I will soon lose patience. I do not need the money that badly - $6.75m would have been nice, but I can live without it and will do so if you do not raise your game very soon.
Are you even serious about wanting to transfer this money?
I'm getting frustrated. I expect to hear from you soon.
Me Madu wasn't impressed.
I will not be a party to any kind of funny jokes because I have a very important schedule myself.
I have called Dr George immediately I received your mail, just to find out if he had any missed call, he said no. Please I know that you are getting frustrated, but we have to keep trying. He will definitely pick up your call when you contact him.
It is too early to start giving up.
Mr Madu, You say "I will not be a party to any kind of funny jokes because I have very important schedule myself" - well excuse me, but I'm the one who gets the distinct feeling this all a bit of a botched operation.
Are you suggesting that I'm lying about ringing Dr George Ade. I do not appreciate being called a liar. I called the number you sent me - there was no answer. Why would I waste my time and yours lying about it?
I don't think I want to do business with you any more.
That told him. Within a week we've gone from him cutting me off to me cutting him off. By this stage I was confident that he would still come back for more, almost regardless of whatever I said. Sure enough, Mr Madu replied, this time - giving me the email addresses for Dr George Ade and his department within the bank. Interestingly, like Mr Madu, both used Yahoo.com webmail addresses. Not very professional for a bank, I thought. (Rest assured all addresses being used have been reported to Yahoo!).
So I contacted Dr George Ade. Could this be Mr Madu by another name?
Dr George, I have been in contact with an associate of yours Mr Madu Frank - I'm sure he has told you about our conversation. He has asked me to contact you to move this transaction on.
Tell me please - why does the bank have a Yahoo! email address? It doesn't sound very official - I need to be assured that this is a serious and official operation - not just people setting up Yahoo! mail addresses - which anybody could do. Please send assurances that I am dealing with honest and official people.
I hope you understand my concern.
Let's see what 'Dr George Ade' has to say for himself.
Dear Sir, I wish to acknowledge the receipt of your mail addressed personally to me, Dr George Ade, on this 3rd day of February 2003. I will start by explaining to you, that this bank does not have only one branch, therefore we do not have just one website or just a particular email address. All departments of the bank are allowed to set up contact points, which will be best to access the banking procedures.
So let's get this straight. Dr Ade is telling me that companies can only set up a specific web address when they are based in just one location. This goes against everything the web stands for. What's starting to annoy me at this point is that these people obviously think I'm an idiot. That said... I did reply to the original email, so as far as they're concerned it's probably a fair assumption.
But who would deal with an international bank that uses Yahoo! mail addresses?
At this point it really hits me how foolish the people are who have been duped by these scammers.
Thanks George, Before we go on - I really don't think you are making the most of the opportunities the internet presents you.
You say "this bank does not have only one branch therefore we do not have just one website or just a particular email address".
The internet is supposed to remove such 'location-based' thinking. You sound like a good man, and I trust you, but I really think an international bank would sound far more impressive if it wasn't using free internet mail addresses. You should look into it.
I'm more than happy with Mr Madu's arrangement - but I imagine there are people out there who would be unwilling to hand out important information, such as bank details, to a Yahoo! account.
Anyway, that's just my opinion,
All the best
I included Mr Madu on my reply. I imagine by now there is at least one very frustrated man in Nigeria. Surely after three weeks he's getting fed up of this. After all, he originally said the transaction must be completed in 14 days... we're well over that already, and sure enough Mr Madu is not happy.
Why are you making a joke of this transaction? I have the certificate of deposit of the fund in question, and the Lodgement receipt with me, and can fax it to you if you can give me a fax number. I am not joking, I mean what I am saying.
So send me your fax number, so that I can send you these documents of proof immediately.
Oh dear. I appear to have annoyed him.
I waited a few days before sending my next email. By this stage we're well into the fourth week - Mr Madu wanted this done within 14 days. I thought it best to make my apologies and also make up an excuse for the delay.
Sorry Mr Madu, I wasn't making a joke of this transaction intentionally. Apologies also for the delay, but I have been away on business. As such I didn't want to leave a fax number before I went away as I didn't want this form arriving in my absence as I wanted to keep this transaction quiet - I'm sure you understand.
Anyway, I'm back from my travels now and if you could let me have the certificate of deposit and the Lodgement receipt that would be excellent - why not send them as attachments to this email address.
With the ball back in Mr Madu's court I'm kept waiting for a couple of days, until I next hear from him.
It's nice receiving your mail once again. It was a public holiday for the past two days here in Nigeria, so I will send you the documents through mail, tomorrow morning or on Saturday morning.
But they didn't turn up. Has Mr Madu finally given up the chase? Saturday and Sunday pass, with no forms arriving. For five days there is silence from Mr Madu, I start to suspect he's lost interest but I've one last trick up my sleeves to elicit a reaction.
Since starting this email conversation we've received dozens more of these Nigerian emails. Perhaps it's time to introduce Mr Madu to some of his peers.
Mr Madu, Have you shared my details with colleagues of yours. Just this past weekend I received two emails:
First up is Dr Godfrey Ugo who is offering me a share in the fortune of "a foreign customer who died along with his entire family in a Concord plane crash in the year 2000 in Paris".
Secondly I heard from Sunday Ikechukwu who says he works for the Foreign Remittance Department of the Zenith Bank. He is offering me a share of money held in "an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in November 1997 in a plane crash."
What's going on?
This stirred Mr Madu back into action, though he was hardly phased at all by the revelations in my email. In fact he offered this incredible response.
This is just exactly what I told you about delay in anything you do. I investigated the mails that you sent to me, and found out that the mails where sent to you by some fraudulent officials of my bank, who know about this transaction, but want to send the money through another bank.
Please, let us be fast about this transaction before somebody else will come and claim the fund.
Please do not contact any of those people, because you may end up not even getting anything at the end of the day.
So there it is - in so many words my Nigerian scammer has admitted that these emails are a fraud. The final line of his last email is probably the only truthful thing he's said all along. He has instructed me not to contact these people because he would rather he got the chance to clean out my bank account than one of his peers.
The End
For those of you unfamiliar with this email scam, the basic idea is simple. Somebody purporting to be a Nigerian banker contacts you, offering a chance to earn some serious money. Often his bank will be looking after the considerable fortune of a deceased millionaire - from shipping magnate to former president. He says he needs a foreign bank account through which to launder the money - and in return for sending him your bank details for this purpose, he will give you a share of the spoils.
Of course those who fall for this scam never see these promised millions. Instead their bank accounts are often cleaned out once they have handed over all their details - which include bank account numbers, copies of their passport and drivers licence and phone and fax numbers - it is a simple identity theft, dressed up with a tempting lure for the gullible.
Over the years silicon.com has received hundreds of these emails. What follows is the transcript of a conversation with one such scammer which began on 20 January 2003.
We received an email from somebody calling himself Mr Madu Frank, promising us 30 per cent of a large unclaimed fund, valued in the region of around $20m. Typically these people will send emails to multiple recipients - hoping somebody will take the bait. Often it is claimed the recipient was recommended to them by 'a friend' or taken from some kind of international directory.
Having received the initial email, silicon.com's Will Sturgeon set up a Hotmail account under an assumed identity, and replied.
Dear Madu Frank, Thank you very much for contacting me with this wonderful offer, it sounds almost too good to be true. It's amazing, only this morning I was saying how I could do with having a bit more money - I must be a very lucky man.
Of course I would be interested in helping, but would also be very interested to hear who recommended me, as you say you have been told that I am a "reliable" and "trustworthy" person. I assure you I am, but would like to know who I have to thank for this wonderful opportunity.
Just to clarify, you say I stand to get 30 per cent of the total money transferred - this is £6.75m, right? Wow!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Overnight a reply from Mr Madu arrived.
Thank you very much for finding time to reply to my mail. We have to begin this transaction fast, so that the fund will be in your account in about 14 banking days. First of all, you have to transcribe the letter below in to your letter headed paper, or plain paper, and send it back to me so that I will submit it to the INTERNATIONAL REMITANCE DEPARTMENT of the bank...
...I will require you to also send me your private telephone and fax numbers, I will submit this also to the bank, and they will contact you directly. When they contact you, I want you to act as the real beneficiary of the fund in question. Do not be intimidated by anybody. I will also want you to send me the front and back photocopy of your international passport or driver's licence, so that I will know who I am having a deal with. For further enquires on what you should do, call me immediately you receive this mail on my telephone number... I will be expecting your call.
He then included the text of the letter he wanted me to transcribe, including helpful blank spaces where I could fill in my name, address and, most importantly, bank details. Of course I didn't oblige... but that didn't mean I was finished with Mr Madu (wasn't he a partially sighted cartoon character?). I still wanted him to answer my question about who recommended me.
So I replied:
Thank you for getting back to me. I am still wondering if you could tell me who recommended me to you, as I asked in my last email.
I do not have a problem with all this, but you said in your original email that you had been told I was a reliable person - I was just wondering if you could elaborate? I am interested in finding this out - as that person may want to share in my good fortune. I should be aware of who has done me this big favour.
I look forward to hearing from you.
So I've posed Mr Madu a challenge here. We know the truth, but surely he won't admit to sending out random emails to all and sundry in the hope that some poor sucker will take the bait. No, instead he comes up with one of the most improbable - yet inventive - lies ever.
I have seen your mail, and understand the surprise that you are still passing through. I got your address from the Hotmail email directory for successful men and women. Please we have to leave out surprises at this point, and deal with the issue that we have at hand right now. Call me as I instructed you for more detail about what this transaction will look like.
Expecting your reply soonest.
I wasn't about to let that one go...
Mr Madu, I didn't know there was a "Hotmail email directory for successful men and women". You live and learn! How do they know I'm successful (I am - but I only set this Hotmail account up on Monday - and they didn't ask me then whether I am successful. Where can I see this directory?)
I hope you can understand my trepidation - I'd hate to blunder into some kind of scam (not that I would ever question your integrity or the genuine nature of this offer).
I suppose, as I said in my earlier email this just sounds too good to be true - are you sure it is all above board?
I am still very keen to help you out, and am really looking forward to getting the money - I just need to be sure it's the right thing to do.
All the best,
My conversational style fell on deaf ears, Mr Madu clearly wasn't keen to hang around chewing the fat...
Please send the transcribed letter, to my fax number... or send it as an attachment to my email box. I will be expecting to hear from you soon.
But, if he can lie, then what is there to stop me?
Mr Madu, OK - I have sent that fax. It should be there now. Let me know once you've got it.
I hadn't. At this point we played a little bit of email tennis. Three times I sent an email saying I'd faxed through the form - three times, on three consecutive days, he replied to tell me it hadn't arrived (that's because I'd not sent it Mr Madu) - each time urging me instead to email it to his inbox. I blamed confusion over the international codes.
My Dear Friend, I have not seen your fax yet... You do not have to add any other code. But I prefer that you send me the letter this time around, through email as an attachment, since you have tried to send it three times through fax.
I will be expecting you to send it through my email box now, so that I can submit it to the international remittance department of the bank, before the close of work today.
In the end I changed tack - suggesting it might be quicker to fax the bank directly - suggesting I might even look up the bank on the internet. I thought this might catch Mr Madu off guard, but it hardly threw him at all. He quickly replied, giving me the "direct telephone number of Dr George Ade, the Director of the international remittance department." He also gave me the department's fax number and implored me to contact them immediately.
Yet, still I resisted... Saturday, Sunday passed and still I hadn't faxed anything. Mr Madu was starting to grow impatient...
Have you faxed the letter to the international remittance department of the Eco Bank? (No) Have you called the director as I instructed you to? (No again I'm afraid Mr Madu) Please you know we have to be fast about this transaction, so I want you to act fast.
I will also require your private telephone number, so that I can communicate with you on phone. I will be expecting your mail immediately.
What's it going to take before this man gives up on me? Surely if he hasn't cottoned on to the fact that I'm winding him up, he must at least think I'm incredibly ungrateful, and more than a little disorganised.
But that's his problem, not mine... This time I replied, telling him I had gone ahead and looked up the proper numbers for the EcoBank in Lagos Nigeria on the internet - and told him that I'd sent my form straight there... Surely this will annoy him - after all, if he really believes that I fell for his scam, then surely he must believe what I've just gone and done is completely idiotic. All along he has stressed the need for secrecy and great caution. Involving the real EcoBank will surely throw a spanner in the works and annoy the long-suffering Mr Madu... and indeed it did.
He wrote:
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? I sent you numbers that you can use to reach particular people because of the confidentiality of this transaction, and you are contacting another number! Well I must inform you at this point, that since you refused to follow my instructions, you have 0 per cent chance of collecting any money from the bank. You have just shown how unconfidential you can be.
I also hope that you did not mention my name in the fax you sent to them, because I don't want to lose my job over a fund that has not been released. The best thing I have to do now is to look for someone more confidential than you are! GOOD DAY!
And so it ended... ...or did it?
Mr Madu, I can't believe I'm going to miss out on this money - but these things happen - and I can see that it was all my fault... but what a shame!!!
Your good - but slightly disappointed - friend.
In truth I expected that to be the last of my dealings with Mr Madu. But he wasn't done yet. He just wanted me to understand the foolishness of what he had done, and clearly rued flying off the handle they way he had.
This transaction is very confidential even in the bank. So all I want you to do at this point, is to contact the telephone number that I gave to you right away. It is the direct line of the Director of international remittance. He knows about this transaction. His name is Dr George Ade...
Do this without delay.
Mr Madu Frank, I thought you'd given up on me.
It is not all over! Please just follow up the instructions that I gave you, and everything will be alright. I want to receive a mail from you tomorrow morning that you have done it. BE POSITIVE!!!
He's changed his tune! He obviously believes there is still a chance I will hand over my passport, bank account detail, phone number and driver's licence.
I wonder how he'll react when I start losing my patience with him - will he spot the irony? I pretend I have made the phone call which he implored me to make...
Mr Madu, What's going on? Dr George Ade is not answering his phone... what time is it there? Why do you tell me to ring him when he's not around to answer his phone?
This is a waste of my time... I want to help you but I will soon lose patience. I do not need the money that badly - $6.75m would have been nice, but I can live without it and will do so if you do not raise your game very soon.
Are you even serious about wanting to transfer this money?
I'm getting frustrated. I expect to hear from you soon.
Me Madu wasn't impressed.
I will not be a party to any kind of funny jokes because I have a very important schedule myself.
I have called Dr George immediately I received your mail, just to find out if he had any missed call, he said no. Please I know that you are getting frustrated, but we have to keep trying. He will definitely pick up your call when you contact him.
It is too early to start giving up.
Mr Madu, You say "I will not be a party to any kind of funny jokes because I have very important schedule myself" - well excuse me, but I'm the one who gets the distinct feeling this all a bit of a botched operation.
Are you suggesting that I'm lying about ringing Dr George Ade. I do not appreciate being called a liar. I called the number you sent me - there was no answer. Why would I waste my time and yours lying about it?
I don't think I want to do business with you any more.
That told him. Within a week we've gone from him cutting me off to me cutting him off. By this stage I was confident that he would still come back for more, almost regardless of whatever I said. Sure enough, Mr Madu replied, this time - giving me the email addresses for Dr George Ade and his department within the bank. Interestingly, like Mr Madu, both used Yahoo.com webmail addresses. Not very professional for a bank, I thought. (Rest assured all addresses being used have been reported to Yahoo!).
So I contacted Dr George Ade. Could this be Mr Madu by another name?
Dr George, I have been in contact with an associate of yours Mr Madu Frank - I'm sure he has told you about our conversation. He has asked me to contact you to move this transaction on.
Tell me please - why does the bank have a Yahoo! email address? It doesn't sound very official - I need to be assured that this is a serious and official operation - not just people setting up Yahoo! mail addresses - which anybody could do. Please send assurances that I am dealing with honest and official people.
I hope you understand my concern.
Let's see what 'Dr George Ade' has to say for himself.
Dear Sir, I wish to acknowledge the receipt of your mail addressed personally to me, Dr George Ade, on this 3rd day of February 2003. I will start by explaining to you, that this bank does not have only one branch, therefore we do not have just one website or just a particular email address. All departments of the bank are allowed to set up contact points, which will be best to access the banking procedures.
So let's get this straight. Dr Ade is telling me that companies can only set up a specific web address when they are based in just one location. This goes against everything the web stands for. What's starting to annoy me at this point is that these people obviously think I'm an idiot. That said... I did reply to the original email, so as far as they're concerned it's probably a fair assumption.
But who would deal with an international bank that uses Yahoo! mail addresses?
At this point it really hits me how foolish the people are who have been duped by these scammers.
Thanks George, Before we go on - I really don't think you are making the most of the opportunities the internet presents you.
You say "this bank does not have only one branch therefore we do not have just one website or just a particular email address".
The internet is supposed to remove such 'location-based' thinking. You sound like a good man, and I trust you, but I really think an international bank would sound far more impressive if it wasn't using free internet mail addresses. You should look into it.
I'm more than happy with Mr Madu's arrangement - but I imagine there are people out there who would be unwilling to hand out important information, such as bank details, to a Yahoo! account.
Anyway, that's just my opinion,
All the best
I included Mr Madu on my reply. I imagine by now there is at least one very frustrated man in Nigeria. Surely after three weeks he's getting fed up of this. After all, he originally said the transaction must be completed in 14 days... we're well over that already, and sure enough Mr Madu is not happy.
Why are you making a joke of this transaction? I have the certificate of deposit of the fund in question, and the Lodgement receipt with me, and can fax it to you if you can give me a fax number. I am not joking, I mean what I am saying.
So send me your fax number, so that I can send you these documents of proof immediately.
Oh dear. I appear to have annoyed him.
I waited a few days before sending my next email. By this stage we're well into the fourth week - Mr Madu wanted this done within 14 days. I thought it best to make my apologies and also make up an excuse for the delay.
Sorry Mr Madu, I wasn't making a joke of this transaction intentionally. Apologies also for the delay, but I have been away on business. As such I didn't want to leave a fax number before I went away as I didn't want this form arriving in my absence as I wanted to keep this transaction quiet - I'm sure you understand.
Anyway, I'm back from my travels now and if you could let me have the certificate of deposit and the Lodgement receipt that would be excellent - why not send them as attachments to this email address.
With the ball back in Mr Madu's court I'm kept waiting for a couple of days, until I next hear from him.
It's nice receiving your mail once again. It was a public holiday for the past two days here in Nigeria, so I will send you the documents through mail, tomorrow morning or on Saturday morning.
But they didn't turn up. Has Mr Madu finally given up the chase? Saturday and Sunday pass, with no forms arriving. For five days there is silence from Mr Madu, I start to suspect he's lost interest but I've one last trick up my sleeves to elicit a reaction.
Since starting this email conversation we've received dozens more of these Nigerian emails. Perhaps it's time to introduce Mr Madu to some of his peers.
Mr Madu, Have you shared my details with colleagues of yours. Just this past weekend I received two emails:
First up is Dr Godfrey Ugo who is offering me a share in the fortune of "a foreign customer who died along with his entire family in a Concord plane crash in the year 2000 in Paris".
Secondly I heard from Sunday Ikechukwu who says he works for the Foreign Remittance Department of the Zenith Bank. He is offering me a share of money held in "an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in November 1997 in a plane crash."
What's going on?
This stirred Mr Madu back into action, though he was hardly phased at all by the revelations in my email. In fact he offered this incredible response.
This is just exactly what I told you about delay in anything you do. I investigated the mails that you sent to me, and found out that the mails where sent to you by some fraudulent officials of my bank, who know about this transaction, but want to send the money through another bank.
Please, let us be fast about this transaction before somebody else will come and claim the fund.
Please do not contact any of those people, because you may end up not even getting anything at the end of the day.
So there it is - in so many words my Nigerian scammer has admitted that these emails are a fraud. The final line of his last email is probably the only truthful thing he's said all along. He has instructed me not to contact these people because he would rather he got the chance to clean out my bank account than one of his peers.
The End
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
how a sofa bring bankruptcy?
if you want to teach a lesson to your friend who cheated you then give him a very expensive half gift (which he can not sell) and thus see his bankruptcy, like this:
I know a gentleman of fortune who says, that when he first began to
prosper, his wife would have a new and elegant sofa. "That sofa," he
says, "cost me thirty thousand dollars!" When the sofa reached the
house, it was found necessary to get chairs to match; then side-boards,
carpets and tables "to correspond" with them, and so on through the
entire stock of furniture; when at last it was found that the house
itself was quite too small and old-fashioned for the furniture, and a
new one was built to correspond with the new purchases; "thus," added my
friend, "summing up an outlay of thirty thousand dollars, caused by that
single sofa, and saddling on me, in the shape of servants, equipage, and
the necessary expenses attendant upon keeping up a fine 'establishment,'
a yearly outlay of eleven thousand dollars, and a tight pinch at that:
whereas, ten years ago, we lived with much more real comfort, because
with much less care, on as many hundreds. The truth is," he continued,
"that sofa would have brought me to inevitable bankruptcy, had not a
most unexampled title to prosperity kept me above it, and had I not
checked the natural desire to 'cut a dash'."
I know a gentleman of fortune who says, that when he first began to
prosper, his wife would have a new and elegant sofa. "That sofa," he
says, "cost me thirty thousand dollars!" When the sofa reached the
house, it was found necessary to get chairs to match; then side-boards,
carpets and tables "to correspond" with them, and so on through the
entire stock of furniture; when at last it was found that the house
itself was quite too small and old-fashioned for the furniture, and a
new one was built to correspond with the new purchases; "thus," added my
friend, "summing up an outlay of thirty thousand dollars, caused by that
single sofa, and saddling on me, in the shape of servants, equipage, and
the necessary expenses attendant upon keeping up a fine 'establishment,'
a yearly outlay of eleven thousand dollars, and a tight pinch at that:
whereas, ten years ago, we lived with much more real comfort, because
with much less care, on as many hundreds. The truth is," he continued,
"that sofa would have brought me to inevitable bankruptcy, had not a
most unexampled title to prosperity kept me above it, and had I not
checked the natural desire to 'cut a dash'."
Friday, October 9, 2009
दुनिया का हर चौथा व्यक्ति मुस्लिम
दुनिया में मुस्लिमों की जनसंख्या 1.57 अरब है और हर चार व्यक्तियों में से एक मुस्लिम है। यह खुलासा एक अध्ययन में हुआ है। अध्ययन के मुताबिक, मुस्लिम आबादी वाला भारत तीसरा सबसे बड़ा देश है।
प्यू फोरम ऑन रिलीजन एंड पब्लिक लाइफ की ओर से 200 से अधिक देशों में कराए गए अध्ययन में पता चला है कि दुनिया की अनुमानित कुल जनसंख्या 6.8 अरब का 23 प्रतिशत मुस्लिम हैं। अध्ययन में कहा गया है, ‘विश्व के आबादी वाले पांचों महाद्वीपों में मुस्लिम पाए जाते हैं और इनकी 60 प्रतिशत से अधिक आबादी एशिया में रहती है। वहीं, 20 प्रतिशत मुस्लिम मध्य-पूर्व और उत्तरी अफ्रीका में रहते हैं।’
मध्य-पूर्व और उत्तरी अफ्रीका में मुस्लिम बहुल देशों की संख्या सबसे अधिक है। इस क्षेत्र के 20 देशों में आधे से अधिक ऐसे हैं, जिनकी जनसंख्या में 95 प्रतिशत या इससे अधिक मुसलमान हैं। अध्ययन के मुताबिक, 30 करोड़ से अधिक मुसलमान ऐसे देशों में रहते हैं, जहां इस्लाम बहुमत वाला धर्म नहीं है। चीन में जहां सीरिया से अधिक मुसलमान रहते हैं, वहीं रूस की मुस्लिम आबादी जॉर्डन और लीबिया की संयुक्त जनसंख्या से भी अधिक है।
मुसलमानों की कुल जनसंख्या का 10 से 13 प्रतिशत शिया हैं और 87 से 90 प्रतिशत सुन्नी हैं। अधिकांश शिया आबादी भारत, पाक, ईरान, इराक में है।
प्यू फोरम ऑन रिलीजन एंड पब्लिक लाइफ की ओर से 200 से अधिक देशों में कराए गए अध्ययन में पता चला है कि दुनिया की अनुमानित कुल जनसंख्या 6.8 अरब का 23 प्रतिशत मुस्लिम हैं। अध्ययन में कहा गया है, ‘विश्व के आबादी वाले पांचों महाद्वीपों में मुस्लिम पाए जाते हैं और इनकी 60 प्रतिशत से अधिक आबादी एशिया में रहती है। वहीं, 20 प्रतिशत मुस्लिम मध्य-पूर्व और उत्तरी अफ्रीका में रहते हैं।’
मध्य-पूर्व और उत्तरी अफ्रीका में मुस्लिम बहुल देशों की संख्या सबसे अधिक है। इस क्षेत्र के 20 देशों में आधे से अधिक ऐसे हैं, जिनकी जनसंख्या में 95 प्रतिशत या इससे अधिक मुसलमान हैं। अध्ययन के मुताबिक, 30 करोड़ से अधिक मुसलमान ऐसे देशों में रहते हैं, जहां इस्लाम बहुमत वाला धर्म नहीं है। चीन में जहां सीरिया से अधिक मुसलमान रहते हैं, वहीं रूस की मुस्लिम आबादी जॉर्डन और लीबिया की संयुक्त जनसंख्या से भी अधिक है।
मुसलमानों की कुल जनसंख्या का 10 से 13 प्रतिशत शिया हैं और 87 से 90 प्रतिशत सुन्नी हैं। अधिकांश शिया आबादी भारत, पाक, ईरान, इराक में है।
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
बेखयाली
हम अक्सर लपक कर
जा रहे होते हैं
उनकी ओर जिन्हें हम चाहते हैं
पर जहाँ हम अंततः पहुँचते हैं
वहां वे नहीं होते,
सिर्फ़ उनकी छायाएँ होती हैं ।
यह काफ़ी दुखद स्थिति होती है
पर इससे भी ज़्यादा दुखद वह होता है
जो इस सारी प्रक्रिया में
अनजाने घटित होता रहता है ।
यानी जब हम लपक कर
बढ रहे होते हैं
उनकी ओर जिन्हें हम प्यार करते हैं
उसी समय --- ठीक उसी समय
बेरहमी से नहीं, सिर्फ़ बेख़याली में
हम रौंद रहे होते हैं
उनको जो हमें प्यार करते हैं ।
वैसे यह बेख़याली बेरहमी से
कम तो नहीं होती !
जा रहे होते हैं
उनकी ओर जिन्हें हम चाहते हैं
पर जहाँ हम अंततः पहुँचते हैं
वहां वे नहीं होते,
सिर्फ़ उनकी छायाएँ होती हैं ।
यह काफ़ी दुखद स्थिति होती है
पर इससे भी ज़्यादा दुखद वह होता है
जो इस सारी प्रक्रिया में
अनजाने घटित होता रहता है ।
यानी जब हम लपक कर
बढ रहे होते हैं
उनकी ओर जिन्हें हम प्यार करते हैं
उसी समय --- ठीक उसी समय
बेरहमी से नहीं, सिर्फ़ बेख़याली में
हम रौंद रहे होते हैं
उनको जो हमें प्यार करते हैं ।
वैसे यह बेख़याली बेरहमी से
कम तो नहीं होती !
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
डॉक्टर की देह मेडिकल कॉलिज को दान
भोपाल।। मध्यप्रदेश के एक डॉक्टर ने अपनी वसीयत में मौत के बाद अपनी देह को मेडिकल कॉलिज को सौंपने की इच्छा जताई थी और उस डॉक्टर की अंतिम इच्छा को परिवार ने पूरा करते हुए देह को गांधी मेडिकल कॉलिज के सुपुर्द कर दिया है।
चिकित्सा अधिकारी रहे डॉ. राकेश श्रीवास्तव की इच्छा थी कि मौत के बाद उनके शरीर को मेडिकल कॉलिज को सौप दिया जाए, ताकि मेडिकल एजुकेशन अर्जित करने आने वाले छात्रों को मृत देह (डेड बॉडी) की कमी के चलते ज्ञान अर्जन में आने वाली परेशानी से बचाया जा सके। डॉ. श्रीवास्तव ने इसके लिए वसीयत भी लिखी थी।
डॉ. श्रीवास्तव का शनिवार को निधन हो गया था। उनकी अंतिम इच्छा के अनुरुप उनकी पत्नी लता श्रीवास्तव अपने अन्य परिजनों के साथ सोमवार को उनकी देह लेकर गांधी मेडिकल कॉलिज पहुंची। परिवार के लोगों ने श्रीवास्तव की देह पर श्रद्घा सुमन अर्पित कर उसे कॉलिज को सौंप दिया।
prashan yeh uthta hai ki baki doctor aisa kyun nahin sochte aur aisa kyun nahin karte?
चिकित्सा अधिकारी रहे डॉ. राकेश श्रीवास्तव की इच्छा थी कि मौत के बाद उनके शरीर को मेडिकल कॉलिज को सौप दिया जाए, ताकि मेडिकल एजुकेशन अर्जित करने आने वाले छात्रों को मृत देह (डेड बॉडी) की कमी के चलते ज्ञान अर्जन में आने वाली परेशानी से बचाया जा सके। डॉ. श्रीवास्तव ने इसके लिए वसीयत भी लिखी थी।
डॉ. श्रीवास्तव का शनिवार को निधन हो गया था। उनकी अंतिम इच्छा के अनुरुप उनकी पत्नी लता श्रीवास्तव अपने अन्य परिजनों के साथ सोमवार को उनकी देह लेकर गांधी मेडिकल कॉलिज पहुंची। परिवार के लोगों ने श्रीवास्तव की देह पर श्रद्घा सुमन अर्पित कर उसे कॉलिज को सौंप दिया।
prashan yeh uthta hai ki baki doctor aisa kyun nahin sochte aur aisa kyun nahin karte?
Monday, August 31, 2009
Stockholm Syndrome
Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological disorder in which a captive comes over time to feel entirely dependant on, and even affectionate towards, his or her captor.
It is named after a bank robbery in Stockholm in 1972 in which the bank workers became emotionally attached to the criminals over a six-day hostage ordeal.
The most notorious case is probably that of Patty Hearst, granddaughter of the publishing magnate, William Randolph Hearst, who became a member of the outlawed Symbionese Liberation Army having been abducted by them.
It is named after a bank robbery in Stockholm in 1972 in which the bank workers became emotionally attached to the criminals over a six-day hostage ordeal.
The most notorious case is probably that of Patty Hearst, granddaughter of the publishing magnate, William Randolph Hearst, who became a member of the outlawed Symbionese Liberation Army having been abducted by them.
We can locate the location of printing just by analysing the xerox print(Forensic identification)
Similar to forensic identification of typewriters, computer printers and copiers can be traced by imperfections in their output. The mechanical tolerances of the toner and paper feed mechanisms cause banding, which can reveal information about the individual device's mechanical properties. It is often possible to identify the manufacturer and brand, and, in some cases, the individual printer can be identified from a set of known printers by comparing their outputs.
Some high-quality color printers and copiers steganographically embed their identification code into the printed pages, as fine and almost invisible patterns of yellow dots. Some sources identify Xerox and Canon as companies doing this. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has investigated this issue and documented how the Xerox DocuColor printer's serial number, as well as the date and time of the printout, are encoded in a repeating 8×15 dot pattern in the yellow channel. EFF is working to reverse engineer additional printers. The US government has been reported to have asked these companies to implement such a tracking scheme, so that counterfeiting can be traced.
Printer steganography is a type of steganography produced by color printers, including HP, Xerox and Epson brand color laser printers, where tiny yellow dots are added to each page. The dots are barely visible and contain encoded printer serial numbers, as well as date and time stamps.
Color laser printers appear to be the type mostly involved, the measure being brought in during the 1990s by companies such as Xerox seeking to reassure governments that their printers would not be used for the purposes of forgery. The identification is by means of a watermark, often using yellow-on-white, embedded in the printout of each page, and in conjunction with other information can be used to identify the printer which was used to print any document originally produced on a wide range of popular printers. It may be actual text, or a repeated pattern of dots throughout the page, more easily visible under blue light or with a magnifying glass, and is intended to be very difficult to notice with the naked eye.
In 2005, the Electronic Frontier Foundation cracked the codes for DocuColor printers and published an online guide to their detection.Most printers' codes have not been decoded, although the coding system framework and printer serial number encoding is the same on both DocuColour and the Epson Aculaser C1100/C1100N/A and possibly many more Epson lasers.
An illustration of printer stenography—yellow dots that many color printers produce to encode printing date, type of printer and printer ID.
Some high-quality color printers and copiers steganographically embed their identification code into the printed pages, as fine and almost invisible patterns of yellow dots. Some sources identify Xerox and Canon as companies doing this. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has investigated this issue and documented how the Xerox DocuColor printer's serial number, as well as the date and time of the printout, are encoded in a repeating 8×15 dot pattern in the yellow channel. EFF is working to reverse engineer additional printers. The US government has been reported to have asked these companies to implement such a tracking scheme, so that counterfeiting can be traced.
Printer steganography is a type of steganography produced by color printers, including HP, Xerox and Epson brand color laser printers, where tiny yellow dots are added to each page. The dots are barely visible and contain encoded printer serial numbers, as well as date and time stamps.
Color laser printers appear to be the type mostly involved, the measure being brought in during the 1990s by companies such as Xerox seeking to reassure governments that their printers would not be used for the purposes of forgery. The identification is by means of a watermark, often using yellow-on-white, embedded in the printout of each page, and in conjunction with other information can be used to identify the printer which was used to print any document originally produced on a wide range of popular printers. It may be actual text, or a repeated pattern of dots throughout the page, more easily visible under blue light or with a magnifying glass, and is intended to be very difficult to notice with the naked eye.
In 2005, the Electronic Frontier Foundation cracked the codes for DocuColor printers and published an online guide to their detection.Most printers' codes have not been decoded, although the coding system framework and printer serial number encoding is the same on both DocuColour and the Epson Aculaser C1100/C1100N/A and possibly many more Epson lasers.
An illustration of printer stenography—yellow dots that many color printers produce to encode printing date, type of printer and printer ID.
a Japanese word=Geisha
‘Geisha’ is a Japanese word meaning “a Japanese woman trained to entertain men with conversation and singing and dancing”
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
SPIRITUALITY & THE TAMIL NATION
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The Threads of Union
Divided into Four Chapters
Before beginning any spiritual text
it is customary to clear the mind of all distracting thoughts,
to calm the breath and to purify the heart.
Translation courtesy Bon Giovanni
Contemplation Spiritual Disciplines Divine Powers Realization
Chapter One
Contemplation
1. Now, instruction in Union.
2: Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.
3: Then the seer dwells in his own nature.
4: Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams.
5: The thought-streams are five-fold, painful and not painful.
6: Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory.
7: Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition.
8: Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions.
9: Fancy is following after word-knowledge empty of substance.
10: Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness.
11: Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape.
12: These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment.
13: Practice is the effort to secure steadiness.
14: This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without interruption over a long period of time.
15: Desirelessness towards the seen and the unseen gives the consciousness of mastery.
16: This is signified by an indifference to the three attributes, due to knowledge of the Indweller.
17: Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of 'I am.'
18: There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain.
19: For those beings who are formless and for those beings who are merged in unitive consciousness, the world is the cause.
20: For others, clarity is preceded by faith, energy, memory and equalminded contemplation.
21: Equalminded contemplation is nearest to those whose desire is most ardent.
22: There is further distinction on account of the mild, moderate or intense means employed.
23: Or by surrender to God.
24: God is a particular yet universal indweller, untouched by afflictions, actions, impressions and their results.
25: In God, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed.
26: Not being conditioned by time, God is the teacher of even the ancients.
27: God's voice is Om.
28: The repetition of Om should be made with an understanding of its meaning.
29: From that is gained introspection and also the disappearance of obstacles.
30: Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles.
31: Pain, despair, nervousness, and disordered inspiration and expiration are co-existent with these obstacles.
32: For the prevention of the obstacles, one truth should be practiced constantly.
33: By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure.
34: Optionally, mental equanimity may be gained by the even expulsion and retention of energy.
35: Or activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness.
36: Or the state of sorrowless Light.
37: Or the mind taking as an object of concentration those who are freed of compulsion.
38: Or depending on the knowledge of dreams and sleep.
39: Or by meditation as desired.
40: The mastery of one in Union extends from the finest atomic particle to the greatest infinity.
41: When the agitations of the mind are under control, the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented: knower, act of knowing, or what is known.
42: The argumentative condition is the confused mixing of the word, its right meaning, and knowledge.
43: When the memory is purified and the mind shines forth as the object alone, it is called non-argumentative.
44: In this way the meditative and the ultra-meditative having the subtle for their objects are also described.
45: The province of the subtle terminates with pure matter that has no pattern or distinguishing mark.
46: These constitute seeded contemplations.
47: On attaining the purity of the ultra-meditative state there is the pure flow of spiritual consciousness.
48: Therein is the faculty of supreme wisdom.
49: The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars.
50: The habitual pattern of thought stands in the way of other impressions.
51: With the suppression of even that through the suspension of all modifications of the mind, contemplation without seed is attained.
________________________________________
Chapter Two
Spiritual Disciplines
2:1 Austerity, the study of sacred texts, and the dedication of action to God constitute the discipline of Mystic Union.
2:2 This discipline is practised for the purpose of acquiring fixity of mind on the Lord, free from all impurities and agitations, or on One's Own Reality, and for attenuating the afflictions.
2:3 The five afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life.
2:4 Ignorance is the breeding place for all the others whether they are dormant or attenuated, partially overcome or fully operative
2:5 Ignorance is taking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, evil for good and non-self as self.
2:6 Egoism is the identification of the power that knows with the instruments of knowing.
2:7 Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience.
2:8 Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience.
2:9 Flowing by its own energy, established even in the wise and in the foolish, is the unending desire for life.
2:10 These patterns when subtle may be removed by developing their contraries.
2:11 Their active afflictions are to be destroyed by meditation.
2:12 The impressions of works have their roots in afflictions and arise as experience in the present and the future births.
2:13 When the root exists, its fruition is birth, life and experience.
2:14 They have pleasure or pain as their fruit, according as their cause be virtue or vice.
2:15 All is misery to the wise because of the pains of change, anxiety, and purificatory acts.
2:16 The grief which has not yet come may be avoided.
2:17 The cause of the avoidable is the superimposition of the external world onto the unseen world.
2:18 The experienced world consists of the elements and the senses in play. It is of the nature of cognition, activity and rest, and is for the purpose of experience and realization.
2:19 The stages of the attributes effecting the experienced world are the specialized and the unspecialized, the differentiated and the undifferentiated.
2:20 The indweller is pure consciousness only, which though pure, sees through the mind and is identified by ego as being only the mind.
2:21 The very existence of the seen is for the sake of the seer.
2:22 Although Creation is discerned as not real for the one who has achieved the goal, it is yet real in that Creation remains the common experience to others.
2:23 The association of the seer with Creation is for the distinct recognition of the objective world, as well as for the recognition of the distinct nature of the seer.
2:24 The cause of the association is ignorance.
2:25 Liberation of the seer is the result of the dissassociation of the seer and the seen, with the disappearance of ignorance.
2:26 The continuous practice of discrimination is the means of attaining liberation.
2:27 Steady wisdom manifests in seven stages.
2:28 On the destruction of impurity by the sustained practice of the limbs of Union, the light of knowledge reveals the faculty of discrimination.
2:29 The eight limbs of Union are self-restraint in actions, fixed observance, posture, regulation of energy, mind-control in sense engagements, concentration, meditation, and realization.
2:30 Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts.
2:31 These five willing abstentions are not limited by rank, place, time or circumstance and constitute the Great Vow.
2:32 The fixed observances are cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study and persevering devotion to God.
2:33 When improper thoughts disturb the mind, there should be constant pondering over the opposites.
2:34 Improper thoughts and emotions such as those of violence- whether done, caused to be done, or even approved of- indeed, any thought originating in desire, anger or delusion, whether mild medium or intense- do all result in endless pain and misery. Overcome such distractions by pondering on the opposites.
2:35 When one is confirmed in non-violence, hostility ceases in his presence.
2:36 When one is firmly established in speaking truth, the fruits of action become subservient to him.
2:37 All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty.
2:38 When one is confirmed in celibacy, spiritual vigor is gained.
2:39 When one is confirmed in non-possessiveness, the knowledge of the why and how of existence is attained.
2:40 From purity follows a withdrawal from enchantment over one's own body as well as a cessation of desire for physical contact with others.
2:41 As a result of contentment there is purity of mind, one-pointedness, control of the senses, and fitness for the vision of the self.
2:42 Supreme happiness is gained via contentment.
2:43 Through sanctification and the removal of impurities, there arise special powers in the body and senses.
2:44 By study comes communion with the Lord in the Form most admired.
2:45 Realization is experienced by making the Lord the motive of all actions.
2:46 The posture should be steady and comfortable.
2:47 In effortless relaxation, dwell mentally on the Endless with utter attention. 2:48 From that there is no disturbance from the dualities.
2:49 When that exists, control of incoming and outgoing energies is next.
2:50 It may be external, internal, or midway, regulated by time, place, or number, and of brief or long duration.
2:51 Energy-control which goes beyond the sphere of external and internal is the fourth level- the vital.
2:52 In this way, that which covers the light is destroyed.
2:53 Thus the mind becomes fit for concentration.
2:54 When the mind maintains awareness, yet does not mingle with the senses, nor the senses with sense impressions, then self-awareness blossoms.
2:55 In this way comes mastery over the senses.
________________________________________
Chapter Three
Divine Powers
3:1 One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind.
3:2 Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation.
3:3 That same meditation when there is only consciousness of the object of meditation and not of the mind is realization.
3:4 The three appearing together are self-control.
3:5 By mastery comes wisdom.
3:6 The application of mastery is by stages.
3:7 The three are more efficacious than the restraints.
3:8 Even that is external to the seedless realization.
3:9 The significant aspect is the union of the mind with the moment of absorption, when the outgoing thought disappears and the absorptive experience appears.
3:10 From sublimation of this union comes the peaceful flow of unbroken unitive cognition.
3:11 The contemplative transformation of this is equalmindedness, witnessing the rise and destruction of distraction as well as one-pointedness itself.
3:12 The mind becomes one-pointed when the subsiding and rising thought-waves are exactly similar.
3:13 In this state, it passes beyond the changes of inherent characteristics, properties and the conditional modifications of object or sensory recognition.
3:14 The object is that which preserves the latent characteristic, the rising characteristic or the yet-to-be-named characteristic that establishes one entity as specific.
3:15 The succession of these changes in that entity is the cause of its modification.
3:16 By self-control over these three-fold changes (of property, character and condition), knowledge of the past and the future arises.
3:17 The sound of a word, the idea behind the word, and the object the idea signfies are often taken as being one thing and may be mistaken for one another. By self-control over their distinctions, understanding of all languages of all creatures arises.
3:18 By self-control on the perception of mental impressions, knowledge of previous lives arises.
3:19 By self-control on any mark of a body, the wisdom of the mind activating that body arises.
3:20 By self-control on the form of a body, by suspending perceptibility and separating effulgence therefrom, there arises invisibility and inaudibilty.
3:21 Action is of two kinds, dormant and fruitful. By self-control on such action, one portends the time of death.
3:22 By performing self-control on friendliness, the strength to grant joy arises.
3:23 By self-control over any kind of strength, such as that of the elephant, that very strength arises.
3:24 By self-control on the primal activator comes knowledge of the hidden, the subtle, and the distant.
3:25 By self-control on the Sun comes knowledge of spatial specificities.
3:26 By self-control on the Moon comes knowledge of the heavens.
3:27 By self-control on the Polestar arises knowledge of orbits.
3:28 By self-control on the navel arises knowledge of the constitution of the body.
3:29 By self-control on the pit of the throat one subdues hunger and thirst.
3:30 By self-control on the tube within the chest one acquires absolute steadiness.
3:31 By self-control on the light in the head one envisions perfected beings.
3:32 There is knowledge of everything from intuition.
3:33 Self-control on the heart brings knowledge of the mental entity.
3:34 Experience arises due to the inability of discerning the attributes of vitality from the indweller, even though they are indeed distinct from one another. Self-control brings true knowledge of the indweller by itself.
3:35 This spontaneous enlightenment results in intuitional perception of hearing, touching, seeing and smelling.
3:36 To the outward turned mind, the sensory organs are perfections, but are obstacles to realization.
3:37 When the bonds of the mind caused by action have been loosened, one may enter the body of another by knowledge of how the nerve-currents function.
3:38 By self-control of the nerve-currents utilising the lifebreath, one may levitate, walk on water, swamps, thorns, or the like.
3:39 By self-control over the maintenance of breath, one may radiate light.
3:40 By self-control on the relation of the ear to the ether one gains distant hearing.
3:41 By self-control over the relation of the body to the ether, and maintaining at the same time the thought of the lightness of cotton, one is able to pass through space.
3:42 By self-control on the mind when it is separated from the body- the state known as the Great Transcorporeal- all coverings are removed from the Light.
3:43 Mastery over the elements arises when their gross and subtle forms,as well as their essential characteristics, and the inherent attributes and experiences they produce, is examined in self-control.
3:44 Thereby one may become as tiny as an atom as well as having many other abilities, such as perfection of the body, and non-resistence to duty.
3:45 Perfection of the body consists in beauty, grace, strength and adamantine hardness.
3:46 By self-control on the changes that the sense-organs endure when contacting objects, and on the power of the sense of identity, and of the influence of the attributes, and the experience all these produce- one masters the senses.
3:47 From that come swiftness of mind, independence of perception, and mastery over primoridal matter.
3:48 To one who recognizes the distinctive relation between vitality and indweller comes omnipotence and omniscience.
3:49 Even for the destruction of the seed of bondage by desirelessness there comes absolute independence.
3:50 When invited by invisible beings one should be neither flattered nor satisfied, for there is yet a possibility of ignorance rising up.
3:51 By self-control over single moments and their succession there is wisdom born of discrimination.
3:52 From that there is recognition of two similars when that difference cannot be distinguished by class, characteristic or position.
3:53 Intuition, which is the entire discriminative knowledge, relates to all objects at all times, and is without succession.
3:54 Liberation is attained when there is equal purity between vitality and the indweller.
________________________________________
Chapter Four
Realization
4:1 Psychic powers arise by birth, drugs, incantations, purificatory acts or concentrated insight.
4:2 Transformation into another state is by the directed flow of creative nature.
4:3 Creative nature is not moved into action by any incidental cause, but by the removal of obstacles, as in the case of a farmer clearing his field of stones for irrigation.
4:4 Created minds arise from egoism alone.
4:5 There being difference of interest, one mind is the director of many minds.
4:6 Of these, the mind born of concentrated insight is free from the impressions.
4:7 The impressions of unitive cognition are neither good nor bad. In the case of the others, there are three kinds of impressions.
4:8 From them proceed the development of the tendencies which bring about the fruition of actions.
4:9 Because of the magnetic qualities of habitual mental patterns and memory, a relationship of cause and effect clings even though there may be a change of embodiment by class, space and time.
4:10 The desire to live is eternal, and the thought-clusters prompting a sense of identity are beginningless.
4:11 Being held together by cause and effect, substratum and object- the tendencies themselves disappear on the dissolution of these bases.
4:12 The past and the future exist in the object itself as form and expression, there being difference in the conditions of the properties.
4:13 Whether manifested or unmanifested they are of the nature of the attributes.
4:14 Things assume reality because of the unity maintained within that modification.
4:15 Even though the external object is the same, there is a difference of cognition in regard to the object because of the difference in mentality.
4:16 And if an object known only to a single mind were not cognized by that mind, would it then exist?
4:17 An object is known or not known by the mind, depending on whether or not the mind is colored by the object.
4:18 The mutations of awareness are always known on account of the changelessness of its Lord, the indweller.
4:19 Nor is the mind self-luminous, as it can be known.
4:20 It is not possible for the mind to be both the perceived and the perceiver simultaneously.
4:21 In the case of cognition of one mind by another, we would have to assume cognition of cognition, and there would be confusion of memories.
4:22 Consciousness appears to the mind itself as intellect when in that form in which it does not pass from place to place.
4:23 The mind is said to perceive when it reflects both the indweller (the knower) and the objects of perception (the known).
4:24 Though variegated by innumerable tendencies, the mind acts not for itself but for another, for the mind is of compound substance.
4:25 For one who sees the distinction, there is no further confusing of the mind with the self.
4:26 Then the awareness begins to discriminate, and gravitates towards liberation.
4:27 Distractions arise from habitual thought patterns when practice is intermittent.
4:28 The removal of the habitual thought patterns is similar to that of the afflictions already described.
4:29 To one who remains undistracted in even the highest intellection there comes the equalminded realization known as The Cloud of Virtue. This is a result of discriminative discernment.
4:30 From this there follows freedom from cause and effect and afflictions.
4:31 The infinity of knowledge available to such a mind freed of all obscuration and property makes the universe of sensory perception seem small.
4:32 Then the sequence of change in the three attributes comes to an end, for they have fulfilled their function.
4:33 The sequence of mutation occurs in every second, yet is comprehensible only at the end of a series.
4:34 When the attributes cease mutative association with awarenessness, they resolve into dormancy in Nature, and the indweller shines forth as pure consciousness. This is absolute freedom.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The Threads of Union
Divided into Four Chapters
Before beginning any spiritual text
it is customary to clear the mind of all distracting thoughts,
to calm the breath and to purify the heart.
Translation courtesy Bon Giovanni
Contemplation Spiritual Disciplines Divine Powers Realization
Chapter One
Contemplation
1. Now, instruction in Union.
2: Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.
3: Then the seer dwells in his own nature.
4: Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams.
5: The thought-streams are five-fold, painful and not painful.
6: Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory.
7: Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition.
8: Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions.
9: Fancy is following after word-knowledge empty of substance.
10: Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness.
11: Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape.
12: These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment.
13: Practice is the effort to secure steadiness.
14: This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without interruption over a long period of time.
15: Desirelessness towards the seen and the unseen gives the consciousness of mastery.
16: This is signified by an indifference to the three attributes, due to knowledge of the Indweller.
17: Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of 'I am.'
18: There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain.
19: For those beings who are formless and for those beings who are merged in unitive consciousness, the world is the cause.
20: For others, clarity is preceded by faith, energy, memory and equalminded contemplation.
21: Equalminded contemplation is nearest to those whose desire is most ardent.
22: There is further distinction on account of the mild, moderate or intense means employed.
23: Or by surrender to God.
24: God is a particular yet universal indweller, untouched by afflictions, actions, impressions and their results.
25: In God, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed.
26: Not being conditioned by time, God is the teacher of even the ancients.
27: God's voice is Om.
28: The repetition of Om should be made with an understanding of its meaning.
29: From that is gained introspection and also the disappearance of obstacles.
30: Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles.
31: Pain, despair, nervousness, and disordered inspiration and expiration are co-existent with these obstacles.
32: For the prevention of the obstacles, one truth should be practiced constantly.
33: By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure.
34: Optionally, mental equanimity may be gained by the even expulsion and retention of energy.
35: Or activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness.
36: Or the state of sorrowless Light.
37: Or the mind taking as an object of concentration those who are freed of compulsion.
38: Or depending on the knowledge of dreams and sleep.
39: Or by meditation as desired.
40: The mastery of one in Union extends from the finest atomic particle to the greatest infinity.
41: When the agitations of the mind are under control, the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented: knower, act of knowing, or what is known.
42: The argumentative condition is the confused mixing of the word, its right meaning, and knowledge.
43: When the memory is purified and the mind shines forth as the object alone, it is called non-argumentative.
44: In this way the meditative and the ultra-meditative having the subtle for their objects are also described.
45: The province of the subtle terminates with pure matter that has no pattern or distinguishing mark.
46: These constitute seeded contemplations.
47: On attaining the purity of the ultra-meditative state there is the pure flow of spiritual consciousness.
48: Therein is the faculty of supreme wisdom.
49: The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars.
50: The habitual pattern of thought stands in the way of other impressions.
51: With the suppression of even that through the suspension of all modifications of the mind, contemplation without seed is attained.
________________________________________
Chapter Two
Spiritual Disciplines
2:1 Austerity, the study of sacred texts, and the dedication of action to God constitute the discipline of Mystic Union.
2:2 This discipline is practised for the purpose of acquiring fixity of mind on the Lord, free from all impurities and agitations, or on One's Own Reality, and for attenuating the afflictions.
2:3 The five afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life.
2:4 Ignorance is the breeding place for all the others whether they are dormant or attenuated, partially overcome or fully operative
2:5 Ignorance is taking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, evil for good and non-self as self.
2:6 Egoism is the identification of the power that knows with the instruments of knowing.
2:7 Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience.
2:8 Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience.
2:9 Flowing by its own energy, established even in the wise and in the foolish, is the unending desire for life.
2:10 These patterns when subtle may be removed by developing their contraries.
2:11 Their active afflictions are to be destroyed by meditation.
2:12 The impressions of works have their roots in afflictions and arise as experience in the present and the future births.
2:13 When the root exists, its fruition is birth, life and experience.
2:14 They have pleasure or pain as their fruit, according as their cause be virtue or vice.
2:15 All is misery to the wise because of the pains of change, anxiety, and purificatory acts.
2:16 The grief which has not yet come may be avoided.
2:17 The cause of the avoidable is the superimposition of the external world onto the unseen world.
2:18 The experienced world consists of the elements and the senses in play. It is of the nature of cognition, activity and rest, and is for the purpose of experience and realization.
2:19 The stages of the attributes effecting the experienced world are the specialized and the unspecialized, the differentiated and the undifferentiated.
2:20 The indweller is pure consciousness only, which though pure, sees through the mind and is identified by ego as being only the mind.
2:21 The very existence of the seen is for the sake of the seer.
2:22 Although Creation is discerned as not real for the one who has achieved the goal, it is yet real in that Creation remains the common experience to others.
2:23 The association of the seer with Creation is for the distinct recognition of the objective world, as well as for the recognition of the distinct nature of the seer.
2:24 The cause of the association is ignorance.
2:25 Liberation of the seer is the result of the dissassociation of the seer and the seen, with the disappearance of ignorance.
2:26 The continuous practice of discrimination is the means of attaining liberation.
2:27 Steady wisdom manifests in seven stages.
2:28 On the destruction of impurity by the sustained practice of the limbs of Union, the light of knowledge reveals the faculty of discrimination.
2:29 The eight limbs of Union are self-restraint in actions, fixed observance, posture, regulation of energy, mind-control in sense engagements, concentration, meditation, and realization.
2:30 Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts.
2:31 These five willing abstentions are not limited by rank, place, time or circumstance and constitute the Great Vow.
2:32 The fixed observances are cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study and persevering devotion to God.
2:33 When improper thoughts disturb the mind, there should be constant pondering over the opposites.
2:34 Improper thoughts and emotions such as those of violence- whether done, caused to be done, or even approved of- indeed, any thought originating in desire, anger or delusion, whether mild medium or intense- do all result in endless pain and misery. Overcome such distractions by pondering on the opposites.
2:35 When one is confirmed in non-violence, hostility ceases in his presence.
2:36 When one is firmly established in speaking truth, the fruits of action become subservient to him.
2:37 All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty.
2:38 When one is confirmed in celibacy, spiritual vigor is gained.
2:39 When one is confirmed in non-possessiveness, the knowledge of the why and how of existence is attained.
2:40 From purity follows a withdrawal from enchantment over one's own body as well as a cessation of desire for physical contact with others.
2:41 As a result of contentment there is purity of mind, one-pointedness, control of the senses, and fitness for the vision of the self.
2:42 Supreme happiness is gained via contentment.
2:43 Through sanctification and the removal of impurities, there arise special powers in the body and senses.
2:44 By study comes communion with the Lord in the Form most admired.
2:45 Realization is experienced by making the Lord the motive of all actions.
2:46 The posture should be steady and comfortable.
2:47 In effortless relaxation, dwell mentally on the Endless with utter attention. 2:48 From that there is no disturbance from the dualities.
2:49 When that exists, control of incoming and outgoing energies is next.
2:50 It may be external, internal, or midway, regulated by time, place, or number, and of brief or long duration.
2:51 Energy-control which goes beyond the sphere of external and internal is the fourth level- the vital.
2:52 In this way, that which covers the light is destroyed.
2:53 Thus the mind becomes fit for concentration.
2:54 When the mind maintains awareness, yet does not mingle with the senses, nor the senses with sense impressions, then self-awareness blossoms.
2:55 In this way comes mastery over the senses.
________________________________________
Chapter Three
Divine Powers
3:1 One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind.
3:2 Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation.
3:3 That same meditation when there is only consciousness of the object of meditation and not of the mind is realization.
3:4 The three appearing together are self-control.
3:5 By mastery comes wisdom.
3:6 The application of mastery is by stages.
3:7 The three are more efficacious than the restraints.
3:8 Even that is external to the seedless realization.
3:9 The significant aspect is the union of the mind with the moment of absorption, when the outgoing thought disappears and the absorptive experience appears.
3:10 From sublimation of this union comes the peaceful flow of unbroken unitive cognition.
3:11 The contemplative transformation of this is equalmindedness, witnessing the rise and destruction of distraction as well as one-pointedness itself.
3:12 The mind becomes one-pointed when the subsiding and rising thought-waves are exactly similar.
3:13 In this state, it passes beyond the changes of inherent characteristics, properties and the conditional modifications of object or sensory recognition.
3:14 The object is that which preserves the latent characteristic, the rising characteristic or the yet-to-be-named characteristic that establishes one entity as specific.
3:15 The succession of these changes in that entity is the cause of its modification.
3:16 By self-control over these three-fold changes (of property, character and condition), knowledge of the past and the future arises.
3:17 The sound of a word, the idea behind the word, and the object the idea signfies are often taken as being one thing and may be mistaken for one another. By self-control over their distinctions, understanding of all languages of all creatures arises.
3:18 By self-control on the perception of mental impressions, knowledge of previous lives arises.
3:19 By self-control on any mark of a body, the wisdom of the mind activating that body arises.
3:20 By self-control on the form of a body, by suspending perceptibility and separating effulgence therefrom, there arises invisibility and inaudibilty.
3:21 Action is of two kinds, dormant and fruitful. By self-control on such action, one portends the time of death.
3:22 By performing self-control on friendliness, the strength to grant joy arises.
3:23 By self-control over any kind of strength, such as that of the elephant, that very strength arises.
3:24 By self-control on the primal activator comes knowledge of the hidden, the subtle, and the distant.
3:25 By self-control on the Sun comes knowledge of spatial specificities.
3:26 By self-control on the Moon comes knowledge of the heavens.
3:27 By self-control on the Polestar arises knowledge of orbits.
3:28 By self-control on the navel arises knowledge of the constitution of the body.
3:29 By self-control on the pit of the throat one subdues hunger and thirst.
3:30 By self-control on the tube within the chest one acquires absolute steadiness.
3:31 By self-control on the light in the head one envisions perfected beings.
3:32 There is knowledge of everything from intuition.
3:33 Self-control on the heart brings knowledge of the mental entity.
3:34 Experience arises due to the inability of discerning the attributes of vitality from the indweller, even though they are indeed distinct from one another. Self-control brings true knowledge of the indweller by itself.
3:35 This spontaneous enlightenment results in intuitional perception of hearing, touching, seeing and smelling.
3:36 To the outward turned mind, the sensory organs are perfections, but are obstacles to realization.
3:37 When the bonds of the mind caused by action have been loosened, one may enter the body of another by knowledge of how the nerve-currents function.
3:38 By self-control of the nerve-currents utilising the lifebreath, one may levitate, walk on water, swamps, thorns, or the like.
3:39 By self-control over the maintenance of breath, one may radiate light.
3:40 By self-control on the relation of the ear to the ether one gains distant hearing.
3:41 By self-control over the relation of the body to the ether, and maintaining at the same time the thought of the lightness of cotton, one is able to pass through space.
3:42 By self-control on the mind when it is separated from the body- the state known as the Great Transcorporeal- all coverings are removed from the Light.
3:43 Mastery over the elements arises when their gross and subtle forms,as well as their essential characteristics, and the inherent attributes and experiences they produce, is examined in self-control.
3:44 Thereby one may become as tiny as an atom as well as having many other abilities, such as perfection of the body, and non-resistence to duty.
3:45 Perfection of the body consists in beauty, grace, strength and adamantine hardness.
3:46 By self-control on the changes that the sense-organs endure when contacting objects, and on the power of the sense of identity, and of the influence of the attributes, and the experience all these produce- one masters the senses.
3:47 From that come swiftness of mind, independence of perception, and mastery over primoridal matter.
3:48 To one who recognizes the distinctive relation between vitality and indweller comes omnipotence and omniscience.
3:49 Even for the destruction of the seed of bondage by desirelessness there comes absolute independence.
3:50 When invited by invisible beings one should be neither flattered nor satisfied, for there is yet a possibility of ignorance rising up.
3:51 By self-control over single moments and their succession there is wisdom born of discrimination.
3:52 From that there is recognition of two similars when that difference cannot be distinguished by class, characteristic or position.
3:53 Intuition, which is the entire discriminative knowledge, relates to all objects at all times, and is without succession.
3:54 Liberation is attained when there is equal purity between vitality and the indweller.
________________________________________
Chapter Four
Realization
4:1 Psychic powers arise by birth, drugs, incantations, purificatory acts or concentrated insight.
4:2 Transformation into another state is by the directed flow of creative nature.
4:3 Creative nature is not moved into action by any incidental cause, but by the removal of obstacles, as in the case of a farmer clearing his field of stones for irrigation.
4:4 Created minds arise from egoism alone.
4:5 There being difference of interest, one mind is the director of many minds.
4:6 Of these, the mind born of concentrated insight is free from the impressions.
4:7 The impressions of unitive cognition are neither good nor bad. In the case of the others, there are three kinds of impressions.
4:8 From them proceed the development of the tendencies which bring about the fruition of actions.
4:9 Because of the magnetic qualities of habitual mental patterns and memory, a relationship of cause and effect clings even though there may be a change of embodiment by class, space and time.
4:10 The desire to live is eternal, and the thought-clusters prompting a sense of identity are beginningless.
4:11 Being held together by cause and effect, substratum and object- the tendencies themselves disappear on the dissolution of these bases.
4:12 The past and the future exist in the object itself as form and expression, there being difference in the conditions of the properties.
4:13 Whether manifested or unmanifested they are of the nature of the attributes.
4:14 Things assume reality because of the unity maintained within that modification.
4:15 Even though the external object is the same, there is a difference of cognition in regard to the object because of the difference in mentality.
4:16 And if an object known only to a single mind were not cognized by that mind, would it then exist?
4:17 An object is known or not known by the mind, depending on whether or not the mind is colored by the object.
4:18 The mutations of awareness are always known on account of the changelessness of its Lord, the indweller.
4:19 Nor is the mind self-luminous, as it can be known.
4:20 It is not possible for the mind to be both the perceived and the perceiver simultaneously.
4:21 In the case of cognition of one mind by another, we would have to assume cognition of cognition, and there would be confusion of memories.
4:22 Consciousness appears to the mind itself as intellect when in that form in which it does not pass from place to place.
4:23 The mind is said to perceive when it reflects both the indweller (the knower) and the objects of perception (the known).
4:24 Though variegated by innumerable tendencies, the mind acts not for itself but for another, for the mind is of compound substance.
4:25 For one who sees the distinction, there is no further confusing of the mind with the self.
4:26 Then the awareness begins to discriminate, and gravitates towards liberation.
4:27 Distractions arise from habitual thought patterns when practice is intermittent.
4:28 The removal of the habitual thought patterns is similar to that of the afflictions already described.
4:29 To one who remains undistracted in even the highest intellection there comes the equalminded realization known as The Cloud of Virtue. This is a result of discriminative discernment.
4:30 From this there follows freedom from cause and effect and afflictions.
4:31 The infinity of knowledge available to such a mind freed of all obscuration and property makes the universe of sensory perception seem small.
4:32 Then the sequence of change in the three attributes comes to an end, for they have fulfilled their function.
4:33 The sequence of mutation occurs in every second, yet is comprehensible only at the end of a series.
4:34 When the attributes cease mutative association with awarenessness, they resolve into dormancy in Nature, and the indweller shines forth as pure consciousness. This is absolute freedom.
business quotes
Business is a combination of war and sport.
By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.
An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15 percent commission.
All lasting business is built on friendship.
Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.
Mental attitude is more important than mental capacity.
Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.
By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.
An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15 percent commission.
All lasting business is built on friendship.
Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.
Mental attitude is more important than mental capacity.
Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.
ten reasons why startups fail
Following are the ten reasons why startups fail:
1) They run out of money. They are too optimistic about when their product is going to be accepted by the market
2) Founders don’t have complete faith in each other. They fight instead of delegating, trusting and verifying.
3) CEO hires weak team members. Strong CEOs sometimes try to carry everyone with them.
4) They want to do too much. A successful startup finds a narrow niche that they can dominate and then expands.
5) They go after too small a market.
6) They don’t charge enough from their customers to survive. They often think their mentors/investors are their customers, and think that a nice sale is all they need.
7) They hire too many people up front.
8) They get unlucky. Competitors, new technologies, et al.
9) They don’t work hard enough or fast enough or smart enough. All those little decisions add up to an outcome.
10) They don’t take enough risks. Some startups think they should operate like big firms. They can never beat MS or Google at their own game. They should get creative and do things differently, even at the risk of embarrassment.
1) They run out of money. They are too optimistic about when their product is going to be accepted by the market
2) Founders don’t have complete faith in each other. They fight instead of delegating, trusting and verifying.
3) CEO hires weak team members. Strong CEOs sometimes try to carry everyone with them.
4) They want to do too much. A successful startup finds a narrow niche that they can dominate and then expands.
5) They go after too small a market.
6) They don’t charge enough from their customers to survive. They often think their mentors/investors are their customers, and think that a nice sale is all they need.
7) They hire too many people up front.
8) They get unlucky. Competitors, new technologies, et al.
9) They don’t work hard enough or fast enough or smart enough. All those little decisions add up to an outcome.
10) They don’t take enough risks. Some startups think they should operate like big firms. They can never beat MS or Google at their own game. They should get creative and do things differently, even at the risk of embarrassment.
quotes
It takes your enemy and your friend, working together to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you.
For many persons, law appears to be black magic--an obscure domain that can be fathomed only by the professional initiated into the mysteries.
Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honor, generosity, and beauty as conspicuously as the want of it represents illness, weakness, disgrace, meanness, and ugliness.
Praise is the hire of virtue.
Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to a person's nature by discovering the reasons for his or her imperviousness to certain impressions.
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.
He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become at sixty as wise as he thought himself at twenty.
It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own.
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
Memory is the mother of all wisdom.
Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.
Wisdom begins at the end.
Wisdom begins in wonder.
To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Turn your wounds into wisdom.
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.
Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.
Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
Every generation has to earn its own FREEDOM.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it.
The more you say, the less people remember.
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind has achieved the second.
For many persons, law appears to be black magic--an obscure domain that can be fathomed only by the professional initiated into the mysteries.
Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honor, generosity, and beauty as conspicuously as the want of it represents illness, weakness, disgrace, meanness, and ugliness.
Praise is the hire of virtue.
Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to a person's nature by discovering the reasons for his or her imperviousness to certain impressions.
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.
He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become at sixty as wise as he thought himself at twenty.
It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own.
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
Memory is the mother of all wisdom.
Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.
Wisdom begins at the end.
Wisdom begins in wonder.
To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Turn your wounds into wisdom.
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.
Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.
Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
Every generation has to earn its own FREEDOM.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it.
The more you say, the less people remember.
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind has achieved the second.
silence
THE real ultimate teaching is silence. The real teaching is simply silence. It is not to utter words. Words and speech constitute a human phenomenon. Human nature and all its movements are finite and limited. They are necessarily conditioned by time and space. They are also, by their very nature of human perception, cognisance and knowing, confined within the framework of name and form.
All human speech and words are conditioned. How can you expect to express the unconditioned through a conditioned medium? Nevertheless, because speech is expected, words are spoken. Out of necessity they are spoken. Evidently it is a necessity, otherwise how to account for the voluminous scriptures of all the world’s religions? All these scriptures constitute words and language, which is a phenomenon limited by time and space, name and form. It means that words have been a necessity and evidently that necessity still continues, for new spiritual literature is being produced every day.
Innumerable are the questions that ask for a reply. Therefore language seems to have become necessary. But, it is still true that the ultimate and only teaching is silence. There can be no teaching greater than silence and that alone is able to express the truth about the ultimate Reality.
All speech implies a duality, and the ultimate Reality is supremely non-dual, absolute, one without a second. Speech being a communication between two, and thus necessarily implying duality, how can it be the ultimate and best teaching?
All human speech and words are conditioned. How can you expect to express the unconditioned through a conditioned medium? Nevertheless, because speech is expected, words are spoken. Out of necessity they are spoken. Evidently it is a necessity, otherwise how to account for the voluminous scriptures of all the world’s religions? All these scriptures constitute words and language, which is a phenomenon limited by time and space, name and form. It means that words have been a necessity and evidently that necessity still continues, for new spiritual literature is being produced every day.
Innumerable are the questions that ask for a reply. Therefore language seems to have become necessary. But, it is still true that the ultimate and only teaching is silence. There can be no teaching greater than silence and that alone is able to express the truth about the ultimate Reality.
All speech implies a duality, and the ultimate Reality is supremely non-dual, absolute, one without a second. Speech being a communication between two, and thus necessarily implying duality, how can it be the ultimate and best teaching?
quotes
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted
never confuse motion with action
The supply of good women far exceeds that of the men who deserve them.
One today is worth two tomorrows.
Every one feels the cold according as he is clad.
One cannot be in two places at once.
Life is like a game of tennis; the player who serves well seldom loses.
Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.
The scientific theory I like the best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline baggage.
Marry a mountain girl and you marry the whole mountain.
No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.
Most important for us is a good spiritual relationship between employees and management.
The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination.
Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
To accept a favor is to forfeit liberty.
The best way to beat your enemy is to beat him at politeness.
Truth exists; only lies are invented.
Success is in the details.
A weapon which you don't have in your hand won't kill a snake.
never confuse motion with action
The supply of good women far exceeds that of the men who deserve them.
One today is worth two tomorrows.
Every one feels the cold according as he is clad.
One cannot be in two places at once.
Life is like a game of tennis; the player who serves well seldom loses.
Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.
The scientific theory I like the best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline baggage.
Marry a mountain girl and you marry the whole mountain.
No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.
Most important for us is a good spiritual relationship between employees and management.
The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination.
Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
To accept a favor is to forfeit liberty.
The best way to beat your enemy is to beat him at politeness.
Truth exists; only lies are invented.
Success is in the details.
A weapon which you don't have in your hand won't kill a snake.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Mind blowing analysis of current market situation
FUND MANAGERS CAN BECOME FARMERSEven if you are outright bearish, don’t SHORT THE MARKET. Stocks could touch crazy levels, but they may be in CURRENCIES WHICH ARE WORTHLESS. Indeed, a sovereign default and currency turmoil COULD RATTLE WORLD MARKETS in a year or two. In a chat with ET, global investor JIM ROGERS says cotton, silver and sugar can be hot picks. Read on...At one stage we were inundated with gloomy forecasts, which were further reinforced by the IMF and World Bank. And then suddenly stocks surged — something most were not prepared for. How risky is the market today? Central banks all over the world have printed huge amounts of money, and the real economy is not strong enough for all this money to be absorbed... so, it’s going into stocks and real assets such as commodities. It’s a mistake what they are doing. It’s giving short-term pleasure, but there’s long-term pain as we are going to have much higher inflation, much higher interest rates and a worse economy down the road. The American bond market is already beginning to go down dramatically as people realise that the American government has to sell huge amount of bonds, and secondly, there is going to be inflation, serious inflation, as it was always in the past when you had governments printing huge amounts of money. Stocks are rising even as fiscal deficit is widening. Somewhere it has to snap... It’s going to snap. Later this year, next year, we are going to have currency problems, maybe even a currency crisis. I don’t know with which currency — maybe with the pound sterling, maybe with the US dollar, who knows. It maybe with something none of us have at the moment. When you have a currency crisis, stocks will be affected, many things will be affected. It is not sound, what’s happening out there in the world. In the 1930s, we had a huge stock market bubble which popped. And then politicians started making many mistakes. They became protectionist. They made solvent banks take over insolvent banks and then both banks failed in the end. They are doing many of the same mistakes now. What’s different this time is that we are printing huge amounts of money which they did not print at that time. So, we are going to have inflation this time. What do you do? No politically-elected government can afford so much pain, unemployment and hardships... America could have. America just had an election. The guy was elected in November and he could have come in the beginning of a four-year term and said the guys before me were hopeless idiots. They ruined things. We have to solve this problem. We have to take some pains now. But don’t worry, we will get through this pain, and in two to three years or four years, things would be fine. And he could have been reelected. If the pain comes in 2010, 2011 or 2012, there will be nobody he can blame. Especially, if things go bad later, the opposition will say, wait a minute, 2009 looked good. The next guy is going to say you did it... But you are right. It’s very difficult for an elected government. You have a newlyelected government in India. Whenever you have a new government they can take some of the pain. You recently said that you would invest in China and Sri Lanka but not in India. Aren’t you betting on the new government in India? I was trying to make a point that if anyone wants to invest in this particular part of the world, the best place would be Sri Lanka. Because it looks like the 30-year war is coming to an end. Throughout history, if you go to a place after the war ends you usually find everything very cheap, everyone is demoralised, people are just depressed and there are enormous opportunities if you have energy. In my view, investing in Sri Lanka in May 2009 is probably a better bet than Pakistan, Bangladesh, India or some of the other countries nearby. Let’s hope the new Indian government does something. I have heard wonderful things from Indian politicians for 40 years. And rarely do they produce. It’s not the first time that the Congress party has been in the power. If they mean it, India’s going to be one of the greatest development stories in the next 20 years. But I don’t know if they mean it. What kind of reforms? Why isn’t the currency convertible, why isn’t foreign capital encouraged, why isn’t foreign expertise encouraged, why is it so protectionist? Why are farmers only allowed to own five hectares? India should be the greatest farming nation in the world. You have the soil, the weather, you have everything and yet an Indian farmer can own only five hectares. How can an Indian farmer compete with a guy in Ireland who can own 1,000 hectares or a guy in Brazil who can own 5,000 hectares? Smart people don’t become farmers. Because what’s the future? Whenever prices start going up, Indian politicians ban futures trading, as if futures trading makes prices go up. It’s the craziest and the most absurd thing in the whole world. Prices go up because there is a reason for prices to go up. Last year you were buying only Chinese stocks. Why? The market collapsed in October-November. That’s when I bought more Chinese shares. I have not bought any Chinese shares since then. I have not bought shares anywhere in the world since then. My way of participating in what’s going on now is to buy commodities. In my view, commodities are the only place where fundamentals are improving. Farmers can’t get loans for fertilisers now, even though inventories of food are the lowest in decades. Nobody can get a loan to open a mine. So, you will have supplies of everything continuing to decline. What else are you looking at while investing? There are some industries in India that would do exceedingly well in the next few years, one of which is water. You have a horrible water problem. China also has a horrible water problem. So, I bought water companies in China. There are some great opportunities if America falls off the face of the earth. China is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to solve the agricultural problem. So, I am buying agricultural stocks and water stocks in China. There are other industries in India which have a great future. I am very bullish on Indian tourism. Wherever I go for speeches around the world I tell people, if you have to go to one country in your lifetime, you should go to India. Your government is going to re-build the military, they say. So, there’s going to be great opportunities here. Also, they may build the infrastructure. So, I see many opportunities in India. The possibility of a sovereign default in the developed world could further depress sentiments. You think it’s possible? In 1918, the UK was the richest and the most powerful country in the world. Within one generation it was in shambles, within two-and-a-half generations it defaulted. The UK defaulted in 1970s and had to be bailed out by the IMF. Many of the countries in the developed world are in serious trouble right now. Iceland has already defaulted. I think there could be a currency crisis because of sovereign debt problems later this year, next year or 2011. Developed nations have defaulted before. Remember the Asian crisis. It was a default of one kind or the other. It has happened before and it will happen again. Are you worried about any particular market or region? I am glad that I have no investments in the UK. Neither long, nor short. I am convinced that it’s in trouble. I am worried about the US. I have sold nearly all of my US dollars. I always had some as I am an American citizen. But I see serious problems developing there. Those two of the big developed countries are the ones that I see with the most likely problems. But the problem is that it never works that way. Everybody is sitting here watching the UK and US and it may happen in say Portugal or some place we haven’t thought of and it will come suddenly to surprise us all. If US unemployment touches the 10%-mark, it would further impact retail sales. How bad could this be for Asia? Let’s pick on China for a minute. If you sell to Wal-Mart in the US and if you are a Chinese supplier you know there is a problem. And you are going to be suffering. Any company that deals with the West is going to have problems. On the other hand, companies that are in the water-treatment business in Asia will care less if the West disappears. They are too busy making money, too busy going to work everyday. What kind of commodities will smart money chase? Can money be made in crude? I own gold but think silver is better right now. Natural gas is cheaper than oil right now, but I own them all. If you want to buy crude, you should probably buy cotton. Because all farmers in the US are planting corn to turn into energy. That means they are not going to plant any cotton. The best way to play crude oil is to buy cotton. Right now, there are huge subsidies around the world for farmers to plant corn, maize, for instance, so that they can be converted into energy. If energy prices go higher, there will be even more of that. If everybody plants his fields with soya, corn or palm oil to turn it into oil or energy then no one is going to plant cotton. And you can make a lot more money in cotton than oil. Between oil and gold, buy cotton. Between oil and gold buy silver. The other way to invest in oil is to buy sugar as everybody is converting a lot of sugar into energy. Silver is so much cheaper on a historic basis. And gold is near its all-time high. Silver is 75% below its all-time high. So, I would suspect that silver and cotton are going to do better than gold and oil. Global population is close to its peak and genetically-modified crops will increase productivity. What makes you so bullish on agriculture? It doesn’t matter. The world has been consuming more than it produced. Food inventories are at a multi-decade low. And we haven’t had any bad weather. We had isolated cases of droughts and things. That may never happen again. But if it does, the prices of food would go through the roof. If there is climate change taking place, the best way to participate is through agriculture or through agriculture products. There are many positive things happening. Right now, there is a shortage of everything in agriculture — seeds, fertilisers, tractors, tractor tyres. We have a shortage of farmers because farming has been a horrible business for the past 30 years. What kind of a market are you witnessing now? It’s a bear market rally. I was going to say I don’t think S&P 500 will see new highs. But I have to quickly temper that by saying against the dollar because the S&P 500 could triple from here if they print enough money and the value of the US dollar collapses, then S&P could go to 50,000, Dow Jones can go to 1,00,000. Which is one reason why I am not shorting stocks right now. Because there is a possibility of this sort of a thing. There is a possibility that stocks could go through unheard of levels, but would be in worthless currency. That naturally brings us to the debate on a new international reserve currency Several countries have raised the issue once again. The US dollar is terribly flawed right now. Something has to be done to the US dollar and something will be done just as something was done about the pound sterling. After World War II, people stopped using the pound sterling and converted to the dollar for many reasons. Something’s going to be done about the dollar. We are much closer to be doing something about it or will be forced to do something about it. India was forced to change in 1991 and the world will be forced to change the currency situation in the foreseeable future. There is already an underlying fear that this mountain of cash will chase assets and eventually force central banks to mop up liquidity. How do you think this would play out? I know they all say, ‘Don’t worry, we will reverse gears and take the excess liquidity out in time.’ I don’t believe them for a minute. No one has ever done it that way. When central bankers started trying to, it caused so much pain that they quickly reversed or have got rid of that central banker and put somebody else in. I just don’t think they could do it. That’s why I am worried about the bond market and the inflation. If all central banks do it together, that’s going to lead to higher unemployment, riots in the streets, civil unrests. Your track record as an investor has been more than impressive. But in today’s market can you replicate your performance of the past 20 years? One can. I probably cannot as I am not spending enough time at it. But it can be done. There are going to be people who we will read about in 20 years having made legendary fortunes starting now. In the 1930s there were people who built huge fortunes and laid the foundations like Templeton. He started in the 1930s. He saw opportunities and took advantage. These are people who saw great advantages and opportunities in the 1930s, acted and became fantastic suc cesses. There may be somebody out there now. I don’t know who she is. Maybe she is in Brazil, China or India. What will you tell a confused fund manager who seeks your advice? Become a farmer. The world has tens of thousands of hotshot fund managers right now. If I am correct, the financial communi ty is not going to be a great place to be in for the next 30 years. We have many periods in history when financial people were in charge, we had many periods when people who produced real goods were in charge — miners, farmers, etc. The world, in my view is changing and is shifting away from the fi nancial types to producers of real goods, and this is going to last for several decades as it always has. This may sound strange but it always happens this way. Ten years from now, it may be farmers who will drive the Lamborghinis and the stock brokers will drive tractors or taxis at best. Interviewed by George Smith Alexander & Sugata Ghosh      |
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