Solar Energy

Nowadays, many people talk about the environmental issues caused by the use of fossil fuels, and position themselves in favor of the renewable energy technologies. Solar power is a prime technology in this sense. When I say solar power, specifically solar electric power is what I mean. However, if you dig deeper, other forms of renewable energies are solar energy, too. Take wind energy for example. Without the heating of the atmosphere due to the light from the sun, there would be no winds, hence no wind power. Geothermal? Well, geothermal energy is the “once upon a time” version of solar energy. It is like our family album to remind the old days when we are one with the sun as a family. If you are still not impressed by the omnipresence of solar power, now, prepare yourself for a secret.

All of these forms of energy, renewable or fossil, can be traced to sun somehow, but this entire story is actually a veil to hide another form of solar energy that is exclusively used by a secret group of people. As everybody else is busy dealing with harvesting and consuming other forms of energy, these people, away from all attention, store this unknown power and use it in their daily lives. They don’t have unions as other civic organizations have. They don’t get together even for once in their lives. But, they all live and work for a common goal, and this is what makes them secret and a group at the same time. Do you wonder who they are and what energy I am talking about?

Well, it actually started with the humanities quest for making sense of their presence in this life. At first, this energy was more available and, so, more people were affected by it, but unconsciously. With the emergence of complex cultural and intellectual heritage from generation to generation, people known as scholars or artists deliberately used it, although other people who were neither of those were still affected by that energy according to their involvement with love. It doesn’t make sense, right? Being in love or being a scholar or artist, and utilizing a form of solar energy! But wait. All of these are the behavioral structure to expose yourself to that energy. How?

Look at the etymology of “solar energy”, and hidden is there the secret to this unknown form of energy. The word solar means, in the appearance, something coming or originating from the sun. however, there is another way to look at it: sole-ar energy. Since you cannot have two vowels, the e at the end of sole drops, and you have solar energy; an energy that you only receive if you are alone with the sun. That is, if you are in love or want to contemplate or get inspiration, and if distance yourself from people to watch the sunrise or the sunset, that is when you receive this kind of solar energy. Not everybody is aware of this, and even if they happen to learn about it, they shun it. That implies that this energy is not intended for everyone; only an exclusive group of people can taste from it.

This precious energy is first digested by those who receive it, just like the plants absorb the light and heat from the sun. Then, by time, these people grow and come to fruition, again just like the plants. That is when this secret energy is shared with everybody, but in a hidden form, and that is the basis of the goal of these people. They want to awake everybody to the existence of “sole-ar energy”, since most people are sleeping in a life-long night. A night formed by the growing crowds just like thick clouds before the sun.

Journeys to Evilless World

Do you love the kind of students who come to you out of the class and get into philosophical discussions? I do!  Whenever we get into such talks, as in all philosophical endeavors, sooner or later, the talk evolves into hypothetical situations, and you end up using words like “what if…”, “but, don’t you think it should be like…”. And unless you take the necessary precautions, many times you conclude with grandiose generalizations that either blame or stigmatize “people”. Nevertheless, sometimes topics that are very relevant to life and its meaning come up, and you find yourself speechless in the face of brute reality; waiting for an enlightenment!

The existence of evil in this world has intrigued many minds, and perhaps all minds, that ever took a step on the face of this planet. It is indeed a very fundamental question that relates to the meaning of what we are going through in our daily lives. The burden of evil sometimes pushes people to suggest extra gods as the source of evil, and still others deny the existence of god at all on the grounds that god would not let such things happen!

I went into discussion on this topic many times with many of my students; and sometimes, with the same students at different occasions. Not that I knew all the answers to all possible questions, but the students preferred me, mainly because I allowed them to voice their conflicts in mind. Each time, I find myself zoomed into a different story, like “Alice in Wonderland”. And my memories from that evilless land are what I want to share with you.

So, once I was approached by a student from physics major. His claim was that if God existed, He should have interfered with the occurrence of evil, and that’s how people would recognize God as having power over everything. Apparently, in his thinking, good or bad, things happened on their own, and if God wanted us to believe in Him, this student was suggesting that God should make Himself visible through His actions, such as inhibiting evil.

I stared at the student, and then out of the window. Out of nowhere, my all-time-favorite scenario popped up in my mind: an airplane hijacker getting a heart attack and dying. So, I suggested this to my student, and asked: “would you consider this as an intervention from God?” At first, he said yes. Then I went on asking what he would think if the same thing happened every time somebody wanted to hijack an airplane. He paused for a second, and then started sputtering alternative reasons for such an occurrence: “perhaps it is an interaction between the high adrenalin and the lack of oxygen in the plane leading to a shock… maybe it is because people who are genetically vulnerable to heart attacks are also vulnerable to brainwashing… maybe the airplanes are equipped with a specialized system for inducing heart attacks by focusing magnetic field on a target…”

I replied, “so, God should interfere with such a case only once so that we know that it was Him”! He nodded. I promptly took again: “Well, maybe He did it already, and you just don’t know?” My last sentence threw him into confusion:

“I don’t know, maybe He should do it all the time.”

“Then in what mechanism do you think He should do it so that it will be clear that it is Him doing it, and not some other physical entity?”

Then he started talking about the concept of “God of gaps”. So, he was expecting to see a gap that was to be filled by not anything else but only God. That was what I was expecting as a cue:

“But anything that repeats itself under the same conditions is defined as a natural law. That’s how all the body of science has come to be. Maybe God is already doing what He considers appropriate, and we are not seeing, simply because we pull the veil of nature before our eyes!”

My student started smiling, and turned his head towards the door. “I understand! You want to go” I suggested. “Professor”, he said, and gave in to an even more irresistible smile. I was smiling, too.

Then, on another occasion, a student from counseling and guidance came to me with a similar question: why is God not preventing evil? Of course, evil things are countless, and it is possible that there are different answers for different categories of evil. So, I thought about going in the direction of this student’s field.

“Why do you think a lot of accidents happen to babies?”

“Because they don’t know the consequences of their actions!”

“So, they are learning by experiencing. What if God prevented every single act that would end up in substantial damage to health or wealth?”

The student looked at me with empty eyes. So, I continued:

“Take a person who is thrown down from the top of a tall building. If similar occurrences are prevented, we would not have a caution in our minds about those actions. So, when you say – do not walk off a building, you can die! – it doesn’t make sense, because nobody has observed such an occurrence.  But, when we try to drop a pebble from a height, it would fall, and we wouldn’t make sense of it! Why can I not jump off a building but a pebble can fall? How would you know that I would die if I jumped off a building? And as a result of these questionings, we would have a resentment towards God, since He would be preventing us from executing our free will! What do you think of a situation where you have a talent, but you are forbidden to use it?”

The student followed up after a second of thought: “A prison! Where you have free will, but you are not allowed to use it.”

Hearing this comment made me think further into this matter, although I did not share those thought with my student. For example, in such a world, humans would develop cold feelings towards God, since He would be a block in front of them. They would try to come up with ways to commit the things they cannot! And of course, since they would not know the result of those actions, they would not know why God is preventing them. Even if they were told the results in the revealed holy books, believing in them would be even more difficult than believing in life after death for us. Then, concepts such as “relying on God, asking for help from God” would become meaningless, since we wouldn’t be experiencing the events leading us to such feelings. On the contrary, giving the free will and not allowing humans to use it would make the Creator a tormentor, which is contrary to the way He describes us himself.

And another time, I had a student from law. The starting point of discussion was whether the intention to do evil should be punished. But, as we went on discussing, we found ourselves in the same good-old topic: if God prevented all evil from happening, then would there be punishment for the intention to do evil? From the experience, we wouldn’t be happy about being retributed for something we haven’t done. But if we are judged according to our intentions, that’s exactly what would happen!  Another aspect of this issue was that sometimes, the same action in the appearance could lead to evil or good based on the intention of the actor. But as humans, since we cannot know what one has in their hearts, we would not know why some “good” actions are prevented and some other are not! What’s more, we would be utterly upset if we were to get punished due to this “good” action of ours.

Although I was inspired with the answers to the questions from my students, I developed my own questions. For example, there were things that were considered inappropriate or evil long time ago, but not anymore! There were things that are considered evil in one country and good in others. So, what is God supposed to do in this situation? How am I going to explain that fact that I cannot somethings in one country and not in my home country? This would make God look like a discriminating between people. On the other hand, some situations were good not at the outset but by result. In that case, God would look like interfering with the freedoms of people.

Finally, I want to share my memory with a student from Psychology. But, I should warn you, if you don’t like philosophy, skip to the last paragraph. Anyways, she was a senior student who had completed her summer training at a correctional facility. Her question was “why evil”. After a second, my answer was “why not”. She was startled, of course, to hear this.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean how do you know that evil is evil? Our perception of evil is based on values that we have learned. Something may be evil in one culture but may not be in another one, or the same could be valid for different times in history. If you get used to something that it causing pain, you don’t feel it as painful anymore. Or, your loss of something is the gain of something else. And, we tend to concentrate on the losses instead of what we have, which is a lot compared countless others who have much less than us. In fact, in many philosophies of the world, anything that gives pain or causes loss of wealth, etc., is not necessarily considered evil. For example, when you are investing money, it is not evil, although you are losing money in the short run. So, not knowing the end of chain of events may hinder us from perceiving the good in everything.”

“But losses and damages are not just about temporary discomforts. There are murders, violent acts, etc.”

“Same thing. We cannot see into the future. Especially into the life after death. If you could see the end, you would not complain about the evils coming onto you. But perhaps, the evil-doer would complain about themselves for committing it, since they would realize where it leads.”

“So, if I don’t believe in a life after death, I can readily claim that there is evil, but the belief in the judgment day and the afterlife eliminates that. But it doesn’t remove the pain!”

“No it doesn’t. But it gives you power to survive. And that power becomes a sustainable power for your soul unlike the limited resources of the material world.”

“How so?”

“Because you plug your heart to an unseen source of power, and that helps you realize that what take as a matter of belief is real, and that becomes a further motivation for connecting to that power.”

“I see…”

After the student left my room, I sat back, and thought. Although I made sense of the existence of evil, I still didn’t want it to happen to me or anybody else for that matter. Perhaps, this attachment is what makes evil evil, and those who tame their attachment to their well-being are those whose spirits can penetrate into the good inherent in everything. But if we didn’t have the attachment, would we see the discoveries and innovations that make life easier?... On the other hand, if the discomfort and fear of loss did not exist, again we would not see them. Perhaps, there is good in evil!

Why good people fall sick?

Once upon a time, in a world not far from that of the humans, there were tiny creatures. These creatures took pride in their obedience to their Creator. If they were told to migrate, they would start the migration immediately, alone or in groups. If they were ordered to die, they wouldn’t hesitate a second. If they were commanded to form families and communities, they wouldn’t complain about who is in their company, and they would reproduce abundantly.

As a reward for their unconditional obedience, they were given homes virtually everywhere on the planet. Waters and winds of the earth were given to their service. Even the sun would serve them as a cook. Despite all of these great means, they had a trouble that they couldn’t solve.

Whenever the evil-doers were to be punished, the charge was given to them. So, in a sense, their life was like a vacation filled in with visits to evil-doers. At first, this task was acceptable, and was a means of honor. But later, as they witnessed all those good-doers, they wanted to visit them, too. If these tiny creatures visited the good-doers, even if, only once in their lives, they would rejoice unboundedly, and they could still continue doing their regular job in the remaining time. But this was not granted to them.

The tiny creatures discussed the situation among themselves, and one of them said: “we must keep praying. If we want this so bad, and if we need it really, then we have to stay firm on our prayers. Our Lord is merciful. Eventually He is going to answer us. If we are not getting it now, that is because, perhaps, the time hasn’t come yet.” With this advice, the tiny creatures with their countless members committed themselves to praying for a life time opportunity of meeting a good-doer.

One day, as the tiny creatures were watching one of those good-doers in envy and admiration, they saw an evil-doer approaching. Although the tiny creatures did not understand what happened, some violent event took place between them. The good-doer was the winner, which gave a comfort to the tiny creatures. But the evil-doer was crying, and murmuring things they did not grasp well. They did not know what to feel. An evil-doer crying was not a common occurrence.

As they were in this bewilderment, they received orders they had been praying for. They were ordered to visit the good-doer. They did not know how to express their gratitude for this opportunity. They embarked their vehicles, the water and air, of course, and they just found themselves flocking towards to good-doer. Before they knew it, they were all together: the tiny creatures and the good-doer.

Everybody was happy beyond description, but one person, the good-doer. The good-doer was not smiling for their arrival, and was not chanting for their friendship. Something was wrong, but the tiny creatures did not want to bother their host, so they kept celebrating their union. Nevertheless, this did not continue for so long, because the good-doer was becoming more and more fragile as the creatures’ celebration continued. So the celebrations ceased, and the tiny creatures started to feel embarrassed. Perhaps, they should not have come to this place. Still, they had to stay until they were given the permission to leave.

As they were waiting in agony, they realized that the good-doer had gone to the house of the evil-doer. Again some talk took place between them, but without violence. In the end, they both smiled and hugged each other. Seeing this moment of joy, the tiny creatures smiled all together hugged each other. And that’s when they received the orders for departure…

Delta Life

Once upon a time, there was a little stone. In fact, it was not alone in being small! There were countless others like it. This one was called Mineral. Mineral was first born in a star. As Mineral grew to its adolescence, the mother star came abruptly to the end of its life. This was an extremely shocking event for Mineral. The mother star was not only a mother but also a home for Mineral. Like many other little stones, Mineral, too, questioned what happened to their mother, and why. Some of the little Stones talked about an afterlife, and said that their mother was invisible to them but it was, actually, in a different life. Mineral wanted to believe in this suggestion, because it loved the mother star so much that it could not imagine a life without her. Still, his belief in an invisible level of life did not enable a communication with the mom.

After this shocking event, Mineral grew to become an attractive grown up. Not only Mineral itself but also everyone around it appreciated this beauty. Soon, Mineral married to another stone. Together, they made such a nice couple that they were called The Crystalls. As a home, The Crystalls chose a planet that was called Earth. There, they joined a community of minerals. Their journey on Earth took them through numerous ups and downs of life. They had joyful moments at times and, at others, they had to undergo heavy burdens. They experienced the extreme cold and extreme hot… But they were always together. They witnessed all the beauties together, and faced the hardships together. After a long life, they started thinking about what is going to happen to them eventually. They remembered the mother star. Would they, too, just disappear without a return, or would their life journey carry a meaning beyond what they could see with their eyes? Was there a life for them after death? They could not accept that all the beauties and bonds they sipped throughout their lives did not have a continuity! All the heat of love and pressure of life they had experienced until then had to have a meaning!

The Crystalls pondered over how everything had started from a single particle. Wondering what was before that particle directed them to the story of that first particle in a life that is other than the current one. The tricky aspect of that story was that not a second mineral had experienced and returned from such a level of life. And yet, there were a lot of others who were unstoppably sliding towards the same end that is certain to come but that is uncertain in character. Did heat and pressure mean anything after death, did bonds with the loved ones warrant an eternal continuity? Or were they alone in this journey of existence without anyone hearing their cries for eternity? The last years of The Crystalls passed with such quests of a life beyond death. Eventually, they died with their questions. The pain of death engulfed their being as they separated from the rock they had inhabited for eons. Slowly, their bodies fell apart… They were washed by the tears shed from heavens, and were buried in the roots of a plant.

As The Crystalls’ fellow minerals were stressed by the grief of losing them, the fellows realized that this stress brought them one step closer to the same, unavoidable end. So, the fellow minerals started asking the same questions as The Crystalls did. They wished that their friends had found their answers and could share those with them! What the fellow minerals didn’t know was that the rock was actually swimming in an ocean of such answers; an ocean that was recognized by The Crystalls only after death.

After recovering from their initial shock of separation from the life they were used to, The Crystalls found themselves in a river of life along with other minerals who had died. As they all traveled in that river, they were washed out of their bodies and for the first time in their lives, they witnessed their real existence in awe. Wow! How big were they! How beautiful were they! And yes, the heat of love they had experienced in their first life did carry a meaning, because now they could experience heat in its pure and original form: light. The pressure of life they had endured before did transform to an incomparable beauty: flower. And the bonds with the loved ones did warrant a continuity, because what they had originally considered as the hands of death were nothing but the roots of plants and the rains from the sky inviting for reunion.

Write Me!

“I am not going to write about you!” said the author definitively. The sharpness in her voice was reflective of her fear of the consequences of wars that had doomed her homeland for a decade. No! She would never ever tell the story of an evil that could burgeon out of pure good. But the main character of her story was not giving up:

“You are blaming me for something I haven’t committed. In fact, you are punishing me solely based on your prejudices. How do you know that I am going to commit them? What if I don’t? I never thought you could be such a cruel author! Just let me live through my experiences. Why did you think of me anyway, if you are not going to write about me?”

At first she thought “I conceived you in my mind, and your destiny is in my hands! I am the author! That’s how I know what you are going to do.” But she remembered her philosophy of creative writing: “If you already know all the details of your story and especially the end of it, there is no creative act in that writing. You are no more than a printer, in such a case. True creative writing is a journey into unknown realms, into unknown lives. You discover what’s there as you write. You discover who is friend and who is foe as you meet and interact with your characters.”

Just then, the unwritten character pick up again, because he was determined to devastate his author’s cognitive defenses that were standing between him and his existence in the real world: “You think that you are doing this in the name of good! But you are committing an injustice by the very same act. I did not do anything, yet you are sentencing me to death for ever. Then, how come you consider yourself as good? If I am an imagined evil, you are a real one. By not writing about me, you are committing theft. You are stealing my most fundamental right: my right to life.”

On one side, the author was surprised at what her fictitious character could come up with. But on the other side, the words of her character had pierced through her mind, and her brain was bleeding into her heart. She was leaning towards writing the story of this male character whose actions of good were to nest the most evil acts; a seemingly innocent character who turns out to be the origin of series of conflicts.

Who was he? He was a lucky, business genius whose investments returned much gain, which he kept investing in different areas. This cycle of investment and gain followed by the enlargement of investment areas continued for about a decade. Throughout these years, he tremendously expanded his social network not just through business but also through extensive volunteer service and donations. In his personal life, he did not seem to have much material glory, but his presence in the business world and among the NGO network was invaluable.

He used to travel a lot. Some of these travels included business trips to cities like Paris, Rome, New York, Beijing, Delhi, Mecca, Cairo, Jerusalem, Istanbul… At other times, he had trips for leisure to various countries: Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Algeria, Kazakhstan, and others... At first sight, this could look like a snobbish waste of resources. But he always used these trips to investigate new opportunities for volunteer work and humanitarian aid. As a principle, he wanted to take place in the non-profit activities first-hand. Accordingly, he used to decline the donation opportunities that did not involve first-hand contact with those in need. For this, he would say: “I don’t want to grow arrogant by distancing myself from others using my wealth.” These visits gave him an influence beyond imagination.

This influence, combined with his financial means and social network, made him a global power on his own. With every passing day, he enlarged his circle of friends and business contacts, bought lands that were attractive for various branches of business, established factories for export, and started large international commerce companies. He was investing every penny he gained for the growth of his presence at the local and global arena in business and humanitarian enterprises. Therefore, politicians naturally followed him, although he did not go after them. Not subscribing to a particular political sect, everybody was eager to support the causes and businesses he was involved with. Clocks were ticking as he had planned…

Where was he headed with this power? The author did not seem to have an answer to this question, and furthermore, she was not any more concerned with her worries at the beginning. Pages were flowing with the legend of an imaginary man of good. And this state of submission from his author was exactly what he needed. In a world that was full of selfish acts, everybody was thirsty for selfless ones. Therefore, nobody was immune to the acts of a self that was void enough to swallow the world. A black hole in psychological terms… Nobody could escape the attraction of his lofty qualities. Even the youngsters were raised with stories of him as a role-model.

But, a black hole is invisible. That was exactly how he started the awful conflicts that led to global wars. That is, he did not do anything in the appearance, but he became so precious for each and every stake holder in the global arena that nobody wanted to lose him or be on the side opposing him. But, as a human, he had limits, and could only have enough time for limited number of people. So, people started arguing with each other in order to secure a time with him. These arguments sparked minor fights at times.

Pretending to be incognizant of the situation, he insisted on not using any intermediaries for his interactions, hence no secretaries or representatives. In order to avoid getting caught by his author’s mental immune system, he promoted the principle that he wanted to have one-on-one quality time with people, which was a precious commodity in the modern world. Also, he told his author that many people who have been seduced by wealth and power are the ones who give up personal contact with people from the lower classes of the society or those who are only encircled by the like-minded, hence the need for first-hand contact with the representatives of other cultures, etc.

Thus the author continued writing the story of this ultimate good character who was working for the good of everybody around the world. At first, she was the ultimate authority for the realization of anything in the novel. But now, she was the most exuberant servant of the character she had conceived in her mind. With every page, with every good-intentioned action, she only paved the ways for the brewing of the perfect global storm. She was thinking “if only people could understand him!” Clocks were still ticking as the character had planned…

As time went by, the competition between small groups to secure a time with this great man-of-good evolved into the formation of two opposing, global alliances. At first, trade routes were rearranged according to the alliance memberships. Later, energy technologies and energy resources were exclusively shared among the alliance members. Finally, natural resources such as fresh water and fresh food were outrageously priced for out-of-alliance transactions. With the increase of population and growth of hunger and unemployment, mutual accusations started among the alliances. When mass deaths started due to lack of water and food, the suffering countries counted the situation as an act of mass murder, and they retaliated by organizing terrorist attacks to the civilians of the other alliance. And, the war erupted much like an auto-ignition.

Of course throughout all these, the author could not understand what happened and why. The very character that was intended for the establishing of global peace had done every bit of action in his hands, yet the world had fallen into jeopardy. The author was sorry for him; and he was sarcastically sorry for her. At times, he would brag about himself: “Who is writing whom?” But he had forgotten a fact: the author was still the author, and she was very creative at that.

Despite the evil intentions of the character, his image in the author’s mind was a benevolent, rich and influential person globally. A person who had strong contacts with both sides of the war. Most importantly, a human being who had a mother and a father.

His parents were both charitable people. His father was a businessman investing every penny of his gains back to people. Thus, he had not accrued much of a wealth, but had funded the establishment of many schools both in and out of the country. His mom was the CEO of a sizeable charity organization, which facilitated the ways for this couple to do charity much more effectively. Unfortunately, for reasons unbeknownst to their child, the parents had divorced. Soon after that event, his mom had disappeared in pursuit of a career involving humanitarian aid at a global level. So the child had stayed with his father, who later found a new partner. But the child had developed terrible reactions against this new comer. So, he was given to his aunt as foster child.

During the current conflicts around the world, his mom had gone through difficult times in the country she had gone to, since this country was deprived of sufficient clean water and food. As part of longevity plans, she was deported by the officials since she was not a citizen of that country and, worse, she was a citizen of a country from the other alliance. When she returned to her home country, she thought about going to her sister’s, from whom she learned that her ex-husband’s wife was killed in a terrorist attack. Quickly, she arranged a meeting with him, and before long, they were reunited. And they both had one concern in mind: their son.

So, they made a surprise appearance at a dinner at his aunt’s house. Although one meeting did not end the “ice age” between them, reunion of his parents had triggered an earthquake in his heart. And he disappeared for an extended period, so long that people who had appointments with him started doubting his life. But in fact, he had taken an escape to one of those unfortunate countries as in his custom for humanitarian help. Using his own wealth and influence, he arranged for immense food donations, and invested money in the water supply system. This was not unusual of him as known to the people of both alliances. This very act became an icebreaker, and many other business people and organizations followed him, each becoming an independent actor of good. When the food and water problems were solved, fatal clashes receded. Soon, the world was again one place, and people were one family.

The book about the most evil person had failed! The very same acts that had prepared the grounds for a global war had also brought the end of it. But of course nobody doubted that the spark for this war was made possible by the “good will” of a “good person”. In their eyes, good was good and evil was evil; and they only wished that those evil acts be stopped.

Stone Paradox

Once upon a time, a chicken had five eggs; or, so she thought. This was her first lay. If she knew it would accelerate the incubation, she would roll the eggs faster under her belly. She would even roll the earth, if she could, so that the days would pass faster.

She was even planning ahead for her little ones, and was anxious to see them grow. Aside from the usual tasks, what could she do to see their flourishing in life? Perhaps, she should bring the earth closer to the sun so that the seasons would pass quicker, and her chicks would grow sooner to become grown-ups.

But unfortunately, the reality was that she had to wait; and then? Wait again!... One more day... One more... One more...

“Did you hear that?” asked the mother chicken, one day, curiously to her friend sitting beside her. 

“Hear what?” her friend replied reluctantly, and added “You are going to become nuts! Just calm down! They are going to come whenever time is mature for them.” These words were coming from an experienced chicken who had sat for incubation several times, and who had the wisdom of ages. The mother chicken had no choice but to keep sitting.

Her curiosity and her excitement, however, could not sit. Her heart was beating strong, as if knocking on the eggs, and trying to hear a response. She was singing, at times, loudly, in an urge to perform an ultrasound on her eggs; but this was not going on for too long, since she was disturbing the others around.

One day, her old friend told: “When you have this much anticipation, an unusually long waiting time puts you in frustration. You lose your hopes quickly, and give up on your eggs. You need to do other things to distract yourself. Otherwise, you are going to destruct yourself.”

In fact, that was exactly what was going on in her heart those days. She was starting to think that her chicks were not coming, given the unusually long waiting time she had to endure. Was her friend just being optimistic, or was she talking the reality? Was it going to be worth the waiting for that long, if the eggs turn out to be dead? “Don’t you think that they should have already come out?” she asked desperately, one day.

“Why should they? They are in their cozy eggs. No toil for food or water, no worries about predators. Would you come out, if you were them?”

“I am not joking! This is serious!”

“Look honey! You are going to laugh at yourself when they come. You just need to wait until they decide to come. You are not the first one to have chicks.”

After a few days of further waiting, the mother chicken felt an unexpected knock under her belly. Then it felt like someone was pinching her from below. The next moment, she was fully airborne, flipping her wings in joy. “They are coming, they are coming,” she exclaimed. When she came to her senses, she was a mother of four. Four?

“What’s up with the fifth one?” she asked, half engulfed in hope and half in fear of a loss. “Honey, you must wait for it. It is too early to think otherwise,” her friend consoled. But deep inside, the mother knew it: it was a hopeless wait.

The next few days, as she watched her four chicks start to run around, her worries about the fifth one increased. There was no sign of life coming from it. At last, there was a consensus among the ladies that it was a loss. The next thing to do was to find a suitable spot to bury the egg.

The grown-ups lost in their thoughts about the unlucky little one, what could be a better opportunity for an egg-hungry raven? The black predator had been waiting around for the past few minutes to see if she would have a chance of getting that egg. Before anyone heard the whiz of her wings, she was already soaring towards the white globe.

The raven threw a peg, but it gave her a shock. She could not punch a hole. She tried once more stronger. This time, a thin shell chipped off. But, to the raven’s surprise, inside did not look like an egg. It was all white inside. It was a stone! The raven quickly flew off.

As the chickens returned, they saw the lonely egg and the raven flying away. They did not want to complete the rest of the story in their minds. They just rushed towards the egg to see what was left of it. To their surprise, the egg was intact. Just a few cracks and a chip off. Through that small opening, they could see what was beneath the shell: another shell. It was not an egg. It was an egg-shaped stone! With her frustration, the mother chicken gave the stone a good kick, with which it rolled out of the nest and started to accelerate downhill. As the chickens looked behind the rolling stone and as the little four chicks ran after it, one of the chickens said “I had already felt something strange about it, but I didn’t tell; you know”, upon which the mother chicken gave another kick to the owner of these words. The wise chicken threw her spear-gazes around to suppress any reaction. After all, this was a sensitive moment.

“How did it come there”, the mother chicken wondered.

“I don’t know honey.”

“An object that looks like an egg, that weighs like an egg, and that arrives with the other eggs... I don’t see all of these happening at once coincidentally.”

Upon the puzzlement of her friend, the wise chicken said: “Life itself is a puzzle, honey. Look at us. Who would guess that a soft creature with hundreds of feathers is growing in a single-piece, rigid body? Who would say that a brown object with flesh and bone would come out of a white ball? We see the same puzzle over and over before our eyes, and we think that we solved it by naming it.”

Meaningful as it was, the wise chicken’s explanation did not remove the mother chicken’s confusion. Instead of wasting more time on this issue, she wanted to make up for what she could not do in past few days as a mother.

The mother chicken decided to take a walk with her little ones, and so, she stepped towards where her four chicks had gone. Down the hill, she saw them playing with the remains of that stone, which had at last broken into pieces hitting fast onto a rock. As she approached them, she saw better what was inside the stone: her fifth one!

The poor chick was trying to wake up from her turbulent journey downhill as the siblings removed the debris around her. The mother chicken cackled as loudly as never before. Soon, everybody was piled around them, first in silence, then in a growing whisper: “is that a shell or a wall?”, “I wouldn’t like to have come in it.”, “no wonder the raven gave up on her”, “I’ve never seen or heard anything like it”. The wise chicken uttered the words that silenced everyone:

“Life is a puzzle. Is it that the shell was so thick because it was going to be attacked by a raven, or is it that the raven attacked this egg since the chick was not strong enough to break its shell?”

Last and Best Creature

Once upon a time, in a distant corner of the universe, there was a planet overflowing with different kinds of creatures. From tall ones to short ones, from colorful ones to single colored ones, there was nothing that you could imagine but could not find there. These plants and animals lived there since unknown times in an order, and not a single one of them tried to dominate over the entire planet. Rather, each kind chose a king among themselves, and those kings did not see themselves superior to another creature or another king. One day, though, with the arrival of the last creature, things changed never to be the same ever again!

The last creature carried properties of various species. So, it could not really belong to a single kind. This meant that they were not within the bounds that protected the other creatures. This also meant that they were free to act. At first, the last creature increased in number slowly and they preferred to stay as secret as possible. During this time of hiding, they discovered that they could learn from other creatures. Thus, the last creature came out to day light in forms that were similar to but distinguishable from other creatures. They also developed tools to meet their needs. All these were just watched in curiosity by the other creatures until one day!

The ability to learn from other creatures and the talent to devise new tools could be interesting; but when they were practiced in total freedom, which was the case with the last creature, they threatened the well-being of the entire ecosystem. Of course, this threat was not welcomed by the rest of the planet that had lived there under an order for so long. Little by little, clashes sparked between members of the last species and others. Most of such clashed were, though, hostilities that were initiated by the other species who were scared of what the last creatures were doing. It was their fear of the unknown at work. However, those other creatures were not alone in having the sense of fear!

The last creatures had fear, too. So, they continuously developed better ways to imitate other creatures and more ingenious tools to defend themselves. What they came up with was unseen ever before. What the other creatures felt in the face of such miracles was awe! Some of them fearfully felt awe, and others were simply attracted by that awe.

One day, when a member of one species was going to become prey in the hands of another species, instead of taking refuge near their king, it was helped by a member of the last creatures. This unexpected help involved the use of those fascinating tools, of course. The story of this event spread around in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, other creatures started to think again about their prejudices about the last creatures. Maybe they were not as evil as they thought! Maybe all of the creatures could live happily on the planet!

But what about the order? Would these last creatures go under a common order like the one that was present outside them? Or would they try to establish a system that would make them the prime owner and ruler of the planet? Looking at the events of the past, the answer was not clear cut. So, the kings of the other species decided to talk with the last creatures.

The problem was that the last creatures did not have a single king. The freedom and the ability to imitate had led to the formation of several groups, imitating the presence of many species outside the last creatures; and so, each of those groups had a king. The kings of the other species were perplexed at which one to talk to first. So, they decided to send envoys to the kings of the last creatures and invite them all for a talk.

The gathering of all of the kings was initiated by the talk of the oldest member in the group. It simply gave a summary of the life and order before the coming of the last creatures; and then, voiced their concerns and wishes about the last creatures:

We wish to have a happy life all together in a common order that binds us all. We want to be assured that not any one among us is going to try to dominate over the entire planet.

The talk of the oldest member of the group was welcomed by all of the kings except the kings of the last creatures. There was a divide between them. Some of them did not want to go under an order, and insisted that freedom is essential to their existence. They said:

We are the best and most superior creatures of all. We have the finest qualities to develop things unseen ever before. This innovative spirit lives on freedom. Any restriction to that freedom is an act of murder in our view.

The other part of the last creatures suggested a willful abstinence from practicing unbounded freedom in order not to destroy the very ground, on which everybody subsisted:

We agree that we can potentially be the best of the creatures, but this superiority requires a price to come real. That price is that we must choose a self-restricted but permanent freedom over an unbounded but temporary freedom.

Having heard these comments, kings of the other creatures were bewildered by the last creatures’ supposition of being the “best creature”. Why would they be the best creature if they are enslaving the rest of the creatures for the sake of their selfish dominion over the planet? Why would they be the most superior creature if their progress meant the recession of diversity in life? Nevertheless, they were happy that at least there was a group of the last creatures who wanted to share a happy life without necessarily dominating the planet.

The gathering of the kings ended without a clear agreement. The only success was that everybody had a chance to learn about each other first-hand. Could this tiny step be enough to start an avalanche for attaining a planet-wise peace? On that, the creatures were divided. Some were totally pessimistic about these arrogant last creatures who thought they were the ultimate ones, and they said: “How can you trust a creature that imagines an innate and unconditional superiority?” Others were optimistic, thinking that the seeds of peace would sprout sooner or later. The times that followed this meeting witnessed cues that would confirm both sides.

The last creatures who supported the “self-restricted but permanent freedom” studied the order among the other creatures, and took into consideration the basic rights of every creature by virtue of being part of the life on the planet. These last creatures wanted to spread the message of peaceful coexistence to everybody. They naively thought that understanding this message is essential to establishing peace.

However, the unbounded freedom group did not like the actions of the others. They considered the spreading of “so-called peace message” as a Trojan horse, because it meant the theft of their innate freedom. Such insidious crime had to be stopped. Thus started the assaults of one group of last creatures onto the other. Victims of these assaults were not only the members of the last creatures but also other creatures who just happened to be at the spot. Bloodshed in the name of superiority and freedom brought an age of darkness to a planet that once used to shine with life.

The number and kinds of other creatures decreased. For them, witnessing the murder of their fellows was painful but not unforeseen. The order would take care of that sooner or later. However, the magnitude of destructions was so immense that the order itself was in danger, they thought! Though, other creatures had thought that it was the order that had fostered the immergence of the last creatures, and so, the order would encompass the last creatures, too! But then why! Why were all these happening? Were the last creatures even stronger than the order?

The same questions were mirrored among the last creatures. The unbounded-freedom group was thinking that the order was simply what they, themselves, wanted to execute. The self-restricted freedom group was suggesting that the subtleness of the order was not something to be tested, because once disturbed, the consequences could be grave for everyone on the planet. Despite these discussions, the assaults of the unbounded-freedom group increased in number and magnitude, affecting many of the last and other creatures.

The other creatures and the humble group of the last creatures gathered to discuss what to do. They consulted the books of wisdom to figure out what to think and how to take action in such times of trouble. The recommendation was simple: “survive”. From that day on, the suggestions of creatures to each other was to survive, because it was the greatest weapon that had come to this planet. As simple as it sounded, how to survive was a completely other job! But it did not take too much time to understand.

Survival was not a fight against the committers of the crimes, because if you did so, you would prove yourself to be the same as the criminals. Starting with this same initial premise, the creatures took different paths. For the other creatures, survival was not something you did. It just happened. If you survived, that is because you could not be killed. If you survived, that is because you had strengths that are chosen to be passed onto the coming generations.

The message of survival was grasped slightly differently by the self-restricted freedom group of the last creatures. For them, survival did not just happen! Being the creatures that are capable changing, they could imitate the properties of those who survived. So they actively performed an analysis of the survivors, and recommended each other to embrace them.

This subtle point was, nevertheless, could not be grasped by the unbounded-freedom group of the last creatures. They thought that it was them who decided the survivors. But in fact, by doing so, they contributed to the raising of the perfect selection of creatures that are strong enough not to be killed that easily and powerful enough to defeat the destroyers of the order.

With the happiness of the victory and peace among creatures, it did not take long for the planet to shine again with life. Everybody, including the last creatures, learned well that the order gave respite but did not neglect; and the order was all-encompassing.

Birth of Physical Principles of Educational Philosophy

I remember a renowned author saying "I don't talk about the articles I want to write; because when I do so, I fail to write them." I also remember a anonymous person shouting at people, "if you have a good idea, keep it to yourself; otherwise you will not realize it," Interesting, isn't it? 

I experience these feelings all the time. That's why I am a bad teacher, I suppose. I talk a lot about good things, and then I fail to practice these good things. It is embarrassing to be among people when you have so many flaws in your life, despite the many gazes focused on you. But this horrible state is exactly the same state that led to the discovery of my famous theory of education.

It all started on a sunny, July morning at school. I was lost in my own thoughts, and suddenly the director dropped in to instruct me on how to be a good teacher. For every single suggestion of his, I had my own objections, and in the end, I convinced him that I was doing the right thing but that the students had something wrong with them. Of course after he left, I mumbled to myself, "I know I am the one doing something wrong! But, do you have to teach me about my wrongs this way?" 

This was the moment things started to precipitate in my mind.

The word "mindset" does not imply a static state. Rather, it refers to a set of behaviors with a certain goal. Therefore, it is like a steady motion. Changing a mindset means a change in behavior, hence the first law of education: 

"A mind is set unless a teaching is exerted on it. This is called mental inertia."

This law was first treated with a little bit of hostility, because it was counter-intuitive. Think about how children learn for a moment: you must tell them the same thing over and over, in the hopes that they will do it as instructed. If you don't tell them every single time, they won't do it, even if it is required – e.g. brushing their teeth, having a bath, turning off the lights, putting away their clothes, etc. 

These examples imply that an action must be taught every time. But the first law I put forward says that if a person is doing something, they are going to keep doing it unless they are acted on by another person to teach them otherwise. In other words, if you tell your children to brush their teeth before going to bed, they should be doing it thereafter. 

This was a major obstacle I had to overcome. If the children were not continuing the action they were once told to, they must have been acted upon by another teacher; one who was preaching they go in the opposite direction. And, if it is not the parents doing that teaching, then who is it?

After a long depressive and contemplative period, I was struck once again by the same notion. Just like a mindset is not a static concept, a mind is not static, either. It is dynamic, and it interacts with its surroundings. As a result, the mind forgets. Therefore, the more dynamic a mind is, the higher is its tendency to forget. This explained it all! In natural settings, a learned force is always opposed by a forgetting force. This is why the effect of the teaching fades away after a certain time. 

From this, it follows that if you could isolate a mind and prevent its interaction with other things, it should exhibit the behavior outlined in the first law. In fact, it is exactly what has been observed in history among those who seclude themselves in a cave or monastery in the hopes of attaining certain spiritual aspects. It is also the same phenomenon observed at boarding schools.

With the first law firmly in place, I felt the need to express the thoughts I went through in a separate statement. Real life settings were all about the co-presence of various teachings, and a person would exhibit a mindset according to the net effect from all of them. But, what was strange was the fact that people who shared the same conditions – i.e. received the same teachings – were affected at varying levels. Some would both gain and lose a behavior very quickly, whereas others would gain the same behavior very slowly, but after learning, would not lose it very easily. This property was part of their character, and remained constant throughout their lives. I summarized these findings as the second law of education: 

"A mind changes according to the sum of all teachings exerted on it. The ratio of the sum of the teachings to the net change is called the stiffness of that mind."

Due to my success with the first law, the first half of the second law was accepted. But I cannot say the same for the second half. It implied that a person who exhibits less change after a lesson has a stiffer mind, whereas a person who exhibits more change after the same lesson has a less stiff mind. Of course, people did not welcome this thought – because it was true! 

How do I know? Hah! I just read it. People's minds were stiff towards my first law already; why should they not be stiff towards the second? After all, this is their inherent property. I told them this fact as bluntly as I am telling you. They did not accept it. 

Later on, when assessing this situation on my own, I was once again faced with my "bad teacher" memories. Why was it that every time I tried to teach something, it was received with a negative reaction? And why, when I am talking about a fact of the mind, am I the first one to ignore it? 

Once again, I found myself in that depressive-contemplative mode. As I educated people, I became ignorant of what I just taught! Wasn't it supposed to be that knowledge increases as you share it? Perhaps yes, but there was a catch! More people knowing the same thing did not imply more acceptance and practice. In fact, as I was teaching something, I was consuming the will power that could otherwise be used to practice it; as I was sharing knowledge, my attachment to it decreased... 

But why?

It was discomforting and ironic that, at the same time as I taught people wisdom, they secretly taught me ignorance towards that knowledge. Was this it? Was this mutual teaching what intrigued me all along? Wasn't it that after sharing my ideas, I had to work on my own mind in order to recover from that reciprocal teaching? Maybe I was learning something from people as I taught them, and I had to un-learn it. 

With these thoughts in mind, I formulated the third law of education: 

"When a teaching is exerted on a mind, there is a reaction from the learner to the teacher. This is called the teaching-then-ignoring principle."

When I shared my third law with others, it was simply ignored. And that convinced me of its correctness, because I started to ignore their ignorance. It didn't matter whether others accepted my ideas or not. For me, witnessing their real life confirmation led to a total conviction (i.e., mental inertia), which brought an unparalleled power and comfort. I was like Galileo, who once uttered, "the Earth is orbiting the sun, whether you accept it or not."

Story Fractal

“Dad! Why is there gravity?”

“Because space is a cold place. The molecules get together to keep each other warm, just like people gather around in cold weather.”

“Dad! Is it very hot in the stars?”

“Why do you think so?”

“When there are a lot of people in a room, it gets really hot. So I thought if there are a lot of molecules together, it could be the same…”

“In fact, yes. Stars are extremely hot. They are bakeries of the universe where new particles are cooked.”

“Dad! Do stars smell good?”

“They do! They smell like a mixture of blue, red and yellow. But, exactly what they smell like depends on what is cooking.”

“Dad! What is cooking in stars?”

“Different elements, like helium, carbon, nitrogen… I tasted many of them. The most delicious one is iron!”

“Can I taste them, too?”

“Sure! In fact, you have been tasting them throughout your life.”

“Really? How come?”

“When something is cooked in an oven, you take it out, right? Same thing! When the elements are ready to be eaten, they are taken out of the oven. They are served in trays that we call planets.”

“I see!”

“You see what?”

“You’d said that molecules get together, because it is very cold in space. So when planets separate from the stars, they get colder. And thus, we can eat them. We wouldn’t be able to eat them otherwise.”

“Yeah, you are right.”

“Dad! Do planets have cream on them?”

“Oh yeah! And it is so delicious. It is so delicious that you plunge your nose into it at birth, and don’t take it out all along your life.”

“Dad! God is the best baker, right?”

“Yes He is; and He is the best host, too. He provides comfortable seats for His guests, and plays joyful music for them, and serves refreshing drinks. He ensures the cleanliness of His guest room by putting small but hardworking creatures into work. He even changes the scene of this room continuously so that His guests are not bored.”

“… Dad! Are you going to die?”

“Perhaps, I am going to leave this guest room before you. But eventually, we are all going to meet.”

“Am I going to die?”

“Each of us has a house in the heavens. It is being constructed during our lives here. When the construction is complete, we go there.”

“Is that why mom left us?”

“Yes, dear…”

“Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“The shooting star!”

“No, I missed it.”

“No, you didn’t. Look up there! Can’t you see the moving light?”

“That is a satellite. They keep moving always like that.”

“Why don’t they come down? Don’t they feel cold in space?”

“They do, but they keep running to warm up.”

“Dad! I feel cold. Tell me a story.”

“A story? All right. Once upon a time, when these houses carved into rocks did not exist, nor did the rocks themselves; when these plain areas used to be underwater, and these mountains, the magnificent harbors opening to heavens, used to be minor hills overseeing exquisite beaches; there was a rock in its crawling ages. You know what a baby rock looks like?”

“A small pebble?”

“No! That’s a small rock, not a baby one. A baby rock is molten fluid in the depths of the earth. Just like babies long for walking and talking, the baby rocks long for freedom. That’s why they burst out of the volcanoes, and flow to uncharted territories. So, there once was a baby rock. Its desire for exploration was actually the response to the prayers that would come millions of years later. Of course the baby rock did not know of anything, yet. So, unaware of its future inhabitants, it searched for cracks and holes to escape to infinity. And one day, it did find what it was looking for. The baby rock flowed with an unquenchable thirst. Before long, it realized that it was not a baby rock anymore, but a grown-up hill. And actually, a good looking one. For many years, it beheld its majesty. In the meantime, it further grew to become a magnificent mountain. Sometimes even the skies were so jealous of its glory that they would veil its summit with thick clouds. Of course, the mountain would not like it, but the destiny had twined its fate with that of another explorer: water. The mountain and the water had seen each other many times, but always with an urge to make the other disappear. So, the water would try to form crevices into the mountain or enlarge the existing ones; if possible, it would try to start cracks that could grow to split huge boulders apart from the mountain. The mountain, in return, would try to absorb the water and hide it deep inside so that it would never ever see the day light again. Millions of years passed by like this. Despite everything, the mountain further grew while harboring many valleys and caves. The water never ceased pouring down on the mountain. In short, they were bored of each other, but they couldn’t get rid of each other, either. They were in love. As a present to their union, they were given countless herbs, trees, insects and animals. As the mountain grew older and higher, it enshrouded its head with a white, permanent veil. The irony is that this was what the water had been trying to do in their young age before their union, and now, the mountain was doing it voluntarily. With its tall stature and frozen summit, the mountain felt cold. It wanted to come down and join the young rocks to partake in their warmth. Contrary to this will for descent, new baby rocks under the mountain wanted to explode to the skies. Stressed by these two opposites, the mountain started to bend. And that’s when it witnessed the prayers that initially accompanied its birth from underground. There was a group of young humans gathered in one of its caves seeking the warmth of their Lord’s protection.”