I am dreading this week. Family is visiting, and the forced bonding is already spiking my cortisol. They are completely wrapped up in their own echo chamber—their lineage, their lifestyle, and their Guru are the "absolute best," and they constantly try to convert me or "pray for my suffering." 🕊️🌼[...]

It’s stifling, and pretending to keep the peace is exhausting. I’ve run out of empathy and feel like a hypocrite just exchanging pleasantries. I need to take this with a massive dose of humor: I only have to pretend to be their relation, not actually absorb their reality. I’ll just be grateful for the things that keep them busy so I can focus on protecting my own peace.

I can fully understand all these old world ways of life that often feel so stifling. But the more one tries to reason it out, the more the resistance grows, creating needless disharmony. It is best to practice inner detachment and equanimity. And yes, it always helps to keep good humour and move on in one’s journey quietly.

Affectionately,

Alok da

You had said in the previous mail that all modes of nature tamas, sattwa and rajas are useful. But I am unable to understand how tamas is useful for a human being. 🌿⚖️🔥

November 1, 2026

Tamas pulls back the Rajas when it goes overboard. It is what induces in creation the urge for rest and sleep without which there would be, for most human beings, a breakdown due to the overrunning and over excitement of the system. After all the entire animal world is maintained by the balance between the force of rajas and ..

I had a dark, unsettling dream where I was traveling through dense woods, attacked by a hostile woman, and surrounded by stampeding, giant beast-like creatures. Amid this ominous gloom—broken only by a brief glimpse of the rising morning star heralding dawn—I found myself fiercely shielding an innocent young boy from these crude, predatory giants who had shapeshifted into ordinary men. 🌙🛡️⭐[…]

November 1, 2026

The dream is once again indicative of certain inner movements. The child is your soul and the dense forest is the lower vital regions strongly under the influence of dark subconscious forces. The horse is your life energy, the vital being struggling to rescue the child. Meeting these giants in human forms is again the deceptive forces of …

In corporate, I meet some people who are Cunning and envious. They smile in front of you, but you know they are jealous of you and are internally plotting to go over you. They are so ingenuine and fake, no matter how much you are honestly have goodwill for them. 🏢🧘🪷[…]

November 1, 2026

The first thing to do is to ignore all that does not concern us and the work. One should be completely indifferent to what people are or do, let alone what they may be thinking and feeling. By letting our mind enter into thoughts about what they are or might be thinking, we get unwittingly identified with them. For there is in us …

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You had said in the previous mail that all modes of nature tamas, sattwa and rajas are useful. But I am unable to understand how tamas is useful for a human being. 🌿⚖️🔥

In corporate, I meet some people who are Cunning and envious. They smile in front of you, but you know they are jealous of you and are internally plotting to go over you. They are so ingenuine and fake, no matter how much you are honestly have goodwill for them. 🏢🧘🪷[…]