nikhilmg

How do you know it is Bad Luck

In my previous blog post I wrote about the blunder I made in the year 2006 and how I am still suffering from it. Link to that article is below: But every cloud has a silver lining. I started yesterday to think of all the factors that make up the silver lining. Basically this method […]

The Buddha and the Poisoned Arrow

I will start with a famous Buddhist parable. The following story is one of the original teachings of the Buddha: The sutta begins at Jetavana where the monk Malunkyaputta is troubled by Gautama Buddha’s silence on the fourteen unanswerable questions, which include queries about the nature of the cosmos and life after the death of […]

How to Think Clearly when you are Upset

I was walking down the street a few days ago and a man whom I did not recognise gave me a hostile glare as he walked past. This is something that I am used and have been experiencing for a long time so I should be used to it. And I am used to it. […]

Solitude and being a Genius

I have had the experience of being called a genius and I may very well have been one. It was many years ago, you understand. Not now when I am a 57 year old having lost the intellect, the curiosity and the desire to read that I had for decades. So what led to my […]

Lessons regarding Wealth from Gibbon

This article contains two extracts from Gibbon that might serve as a guide to nations and individual persons. I will not presume to suggest what policy changes governments might make but it offers food for thought. Regarding nations: Background: The Arabs (post the death of the prophet) had invaded Europe and made great advances. This […]

An aid to prevent Communal violence

I came across the following anecdote in my reading of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. It may help the police and the government more generally speaking to maintain communal harmony whenever the Muslim community is offended because of insults to their faith and to the prophet. The anecdote involves not […]

Commodus and the Sri Lankan crisis

I picked up my copy of Gibbon to research material for an article on Islam that I want to write. Going through the Table of Contents however I was intrigued by the chapter on the life and death of Emperor Commodus. Commodus was the villain in the movie in the blockbuster action movie Gladiator starring […]

Role of the Military in the Roman Empire

I had thought of reading Gibbon and writing a series of articles based on his Decline and Fall. But the book speaks for itself much better than I can ever do so. Less is more and I can do no better than to recommend anybody who is reading this article (and who is connected with […]

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

I have had my copy of the abridged version of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon for many years now. But it is only now that I have started to read it. I read just the Foreword, Introduction, Preface and the first chapter and was blown away by the insights […]