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Thought of the Day

Instant Noodles Could Hurt Your Heart

It's convenient, cheap and best served hot, but how healthy is it? The instant noodles commonly known as ramen — a staple food for college kids and other young adults, as well as people in certain cultures — may increase people's risk of metabolic changes linked to heart disease and stroke, new research finds.

In the study, women in South Korea who consumed more of the precooked blocks of dried noodles were more likely to have "metabolic syndrome" regardless of what else they ate, or how much they exercised, the researchers found. People with metabolic syndrome may have high blood pressure or high blood sugar levels, and face an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

"Although instant noodle is a convenient and delicious food, there could be an increased risk for metabolic syndrome given [the food's] high sodium, unhealthy saturated fat and glycemic loads," said study co-author Hyun Shin, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. 

Shin and his colleagues at Baylor University and Harvard analyzed the health and diet of nearly 11,000 adults in South Korea between ages 19 to 64. The participants reported what they ate, and the researchers categorized each participant's diet as centered on either traditional healthy food or fast food, as well as how many times weekly they ate instant noodles.

Women who ate instant noodles twice a week or more had a higher risk of metabolic syndrome than those who ate ramen less, or not at all, regardless of whether their diet style fell into the traditional or fast-food category. The researchers found the association even among young women who were leaner and reported doing more physical activity.

As for men, Shin and his colleagues guessed that biological differences between the genders, like the effect of sex hormones and metabolism, might account for the lack of an apparent association among males between eating instant noodles and developing metabolic syndrome.

The study was conducted in South Korea, an area known to have the largest ramen consumption group in the world, where people consumed 3.4 billion packages of instant noodles in 2010.

But the findings could apply to people in North American too, said Lisa Young, a nutritionist and professor at New York University who was not involved in the study. "We [in the States] don't eat it as much, but the ramen noodles are being sold, so this could apply to anywhere they're sold, and they're sold almost everywhere."

So what's so bad about instant noodles?

"Instant noodles are high in fat, high in salt, high in calories and they're processed — all those factors could contribute to some of the health problems [the researchers] addressed," Young said. "That doesn't mean that every single person is going to respond the same way, but the piece to keep in mind is that it's not a healthy product, and it is a processed food."

Processed foods generally contain high amounts of sugar and salt, primarily because they are designed to have long shelf lives.

But Young said there might be ways to dampen the dangers of eating instant noodles without swearing off of them altogether. "Number one, don't eat it every day," Young told Live Science. "Number two, portion control," she said, and recommended that people eat a small amount of instant noodles and mix them with vegetables and other healthier, nonprocessed foods.

Above all, however, Young said a little bit of preparation could help people avoid processed instant noodles altogether. "You can easily make noodles, homemade pasta, ground-rice pasta and veggies" at home, with a little bit of planning, she said.

The study was published Aug. 1 in the Journal of Nutrition. 

The Lost World of Buddhist Gandhara

An Ancient Buddhist Kingdom of the Middle East

In 2001 the world mourned the senseless destruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the Buddhas of Bamiyan are only a small part of a great heritage of Buddhist art that is being destroyed by war and fanaticism. This is the heritage of Buddhist Gandhara.

The ancient kingdom of Gandhara stretched across parts of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was a vital commercial center of the Middle East many centuries before the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.

For a time, Gandhara also was a jewel of Buddhist civilization. Scholars of Gandhara traveled east to India and China and were influential in the development of early Mahayana Buddhism. The art of Gandhara included the earliest oil paintings known in human history and the first -- and some of the most beautiful -- depictions of bodhisattvas and the Buddha in human form.

However, the artifacts and archaeological remains of Gandhara still are being systematically destroyed by the Taliban. The loss of the Bamiyan Buddhas gained the world's attention because of their size, but many other rare and ancient pieces of art have been lost since.

In November 2007 the Taliban attacked a seven-meter tall, 7th century stone Buddha in the Jihanabad area of Swat, severely damaging its head. In 2008 a bomb was planted in a museum of Gandharan art in Pakistan. The explosion damaged more than 150 artifacts.

The Significance of Gandharan Art

Nearly 2,000 years ago, artists of Gandhara began to sculpt and paint the Buddha in ways that have influenced Buddhist art ever since. Earlier Buddhist art did not depict the Buddha. Instead, he was represented by a symbol or an empty space. But Gandharan artists pictured the Buddha as a human being.

In a style influenced by Greek and Roman art, Gandharan artists sculpted and painted the Buddha in realistic detail. His face was serene. His hands were posed in symbolic gestures. His hair was short, curled and knotted at the top. His robe was gracefully draped and folded. These conventions spread throughout Asia and are found in depictions of the Buddha to this day.

In spite of its importance to Buddhism, much of the history of Gandhara was lost for centuries. Modern archaeologists and historians have pieced together some of the story of Gandhara, and fortunately much of its wonderful art is safe in the world's museums, away from war zones.

Where Was Gandhara?

The Kingdom of Gandhara existed, in one form or another, for more than 15 centuries. It began as a province of the Persian Empire in 530 BCE and ended in 1021 CE, when its last king was assassinated by his own troops. During those centuries it expanded and shrank, and its borders changed many times.

You can find the general area of Gandhara on this map of present-day Afghanistan and part of Pakistan. The old kingdom included what is now Kabul, Afghanistan and Islamabad, Pakistan. Find Bamiyan (spelled Bamian) west and slightly north of Kabul. The area marked "Hindu Kush" also was part of Gandhara. This map of Pakistan shows the location of the historic city of Peshawar. The Swat Valley, not marked, is just west of Peshawar and is important to the history of Gandhara.

How Buddhism Came to Gandhara

Although this part of the Middle East has supported human civilization for at least 6,000 years, our story begins in 530 BCE. That year the Persian Emperor Darius I conquered Gandhara and made it part of his empire. Then in 333 BCE Alexander the Great defeated the armies of Darius III and gained control of Persia, and by 327 BCE Alexander controlled Gandhara also.

One of Alexander's successors, Seleucus, became ruler of Persia and Mesopotamia. However, Seleucus made the mistake of challenging his neighbor to the east, the Emperor Chandragupta Maurya of India. The confrontation did not go well for Seleucus, who ceded much territory, including Gandhara, to Chandragupta.

Chandragupta left the Mauryan Empire, which included the territory of Gandhara, to his son, Bindusara. When Bindusara died, probably in 272 BCE, he left the empire to his son, Ashoka.

Ashoka the Great

Ashoka (ca. 304–232 BCE; sometimes spelled Asoka) originally was a warrior prince known for his ruthlessness and cruelty. According to legend he was first exposed to Buddhist teaching when monks cared for his wounds after a battle. However, his brutality continued until the day he walked into a city he had just conquered and saw the devastation. "What have I done?" he cried, and vowed to observe the Buddhist path for himself and for his kingdom.

Ashoka's empire included almost all of present-day India and Bangladesh as well as most of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was his patronage of Buddhism that left the greater mark on world history, however. Ashoka was instrumental in making Buddhism one of the most prominent religions of Asia. He built monasteries, erected stupas, and supported the work of Buddhist missionaries, who took the dharma into Gandhara and Gandhara's western neighbor, Bactria.

King Menander

The Mauryan Empire declined after Ashoka's death. The Greek-Bactrian King Demetrius I conquered Gandhara about 185 BCE, but subsequent wars made Gandhara an Indo-Greek kingdom independent of Bactria.

One of the most prominent of the Indo-Greek kings of Gandhara was Menander, also called Melinda, who ruled from about 160 to 130 BCE. Menander is said to have been a devout Buddhist. The Pali Canon contains a dialogue, called The Milindapañha, alleged to be between King Menander and a Buddhist scholar named Nagasena.

After Menander's death Gandhara was invaded again, first by Scythians and then Parthians. The invasions wiped out the Indo-Greek kingdom.

The Kushans

The Kushans (also called the Yuezhi) were an Indo-European people who came to Bactria -- now northwestern Afghanistan -- about 135 BCE. In the 1st century BCE the Kushans united under the leadership of Kujula Kadphises and took control of Gandhara away from the Scytho-Parthians. Kujula Kadphises established a capital near what is now Kabul, Afghanistan.

Eventually the Kushans extended their territory to include part of present-day Uzbekistan as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan. The kingdom extended into northern India as far east as Benares. Eventually the sprawling empire would require two capitals --Peshawar, near the Khyber Pass, and Mathura in northern India. The Kushans controlled a strategic part of the Silk Road and a busy port on the Arab Sea near what is now Karachi, Pakistan. They became wealthy, and their wealth supported a flourishing civilization.

Kushan Buddhist Culture

Kushan Gandhara was a multiethnic blend of many cultures and religions, including Buddhism. Gandhara's location and dynamic history brought together Greek, Persian, Indian, and many other influences. The mercantile wealth supported scholarship and the fine arts.

It was under Kushan rule that Gandharan art developed and flourished. The earliest Kushan art mostly reflects Greek and Roman mythology, but as time went on Buddhist figures became dominant. The first depictions of the Buddha in human form were made by artists of Kushan Gandhara, as were the first depictions of bodhisattvas.

The Kushan King Kanishka I (127–147) in particular is remembered as a great patron of Buddhism. He is said to have convened a Buddhist council in Kashmir. He did build a greatstupa in Peshawar. Archeologists discovered and measured its base about a century ago and determined the stupa had a diameter of 286 feet. Accounts of pilgrims suggest it may have been as tall as 690 feet (210 meters) and was covered with jewels.

Beginning in the 2nd century, Buddhist monks from Gandhara actively engaged in transmitting Buddhism into China and other parts of north Asia. A 2nd century Kushan monk named Lokaksema was among the first translators of Mahayana Buddhist scriptures into Chinese.

King Kanishka's reign marked the peak of the Kushan era of Gandhara. In the 3rd century the territory ruled by Kushan kings began to shrink. Kushan rule ended altogether in 450, when what was left of Kushan Gandhara was overrun by Huns. Some Buddhist monks gathered as much Kushan art as they could carry and took it to what is now the Swat Valley of Pakistan, where Buddhism would survive for a few more centuries.

Bamiyan

In western Gandhara and Bactria, Buddhist monasteries and communities established during the Kushan era also continued to grow and flourish for the next few centuries. Among these was Bamiyan.

By the 4th century Bamiyan was home to one of the largest monastic communities in all Central Asia. The two great Buddhas of Bamiyan -- one nearly 175 feet tall, the other 120 feet tall -- may have been carved as early as the 3rd century or as late as the 7th century.

The Bamiyan Buddhas represented another development in Buddhist art. While earlier Kushan art had depicted the Buddha as a human being, the carvers of Bamiyan were reaching for something more transcendent. The larger Bamiyan Buddha is the transcendent BuddhaVairocana. Vairocana represents the dharmakaya, beyond time and space, in which all beings and phenomena abide, unmanifested. Thus, Vairocana contains the universe, and thus, Vairocana was carved on a colossal scale.

Bamiyan art also developed a unique style distinctive from the art of Kushan Gandhara. Bamiyan art was less Hellenic and more of a fusion of Persian and Indian style.

One of the greatest achievements of Bamiyan art has only recently been appreciated -- unfortunately, after most of it was defaced by the Taliban. Dozens of small caves were dug out of the cliffs in back of the great buddhas, and many of these were decorated with painted murals. In 2008 scientists analyzed the murals and realized that some of them had been painted with oil-based paint -- the earliest use of oil painting yet to be discovered. Before, art historians had placed the beginning of oil painting in 15th century Europe.

The Swat Valley: Birthplace of Tibetan Vajrayana?

Now we go back to the Swat Valley in north central Pakistan and pick up the story there. As stated earlier. Buddhism in the Swat Valley survived the Hun invasion of 450. It was said that at its peak of Buddhist influence, the Swat Valley was filled with fourteen hundred stupas and monasteries.

According to Tibetan tradition the great 8th century mystic Padmasambhava was from Uddiyana, which is thought to have been the Swat Valley. Padmasambhava brought Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet and built the first Buddhist monastery there.

The Emergence of Islam and the End of Gandhara

In the 6th century CE the Sassanian dynasty of Persia took control of Gandhara, but after the Sassanians suffered a military defeat in 644 Gandhara was ruled by the Turki Shahis, a Turkic people related to the Kushans. In the 9th century control of Gandhara reverted to Hindu rulers, called the Hindu Shahis.

Islam reached Gandhara in the 7th century. For the next few centuries Buddhists and Muslims lived together in mutual peace and respect. Buddhist communities and monasteries that came under Muslim rule were, with a few exceptions, left alone.

But Gandhara was long past its prime, and conquest by Mahmud of Ghazna (ruled 998–1030) effectively put an end to it. Mahmud defeated the Hindu Gandharan King Jayapala, who committed suicide. Jayapala's son Trilocanpala was assassinated by his own troops in 1012, an act that marked the official end of Gandhara.

Mahmud left the Buddhist communities and monasteries under his rule alone, as had most Muslim rulers. Even so, after the 11th century Buddhism in the region gradually withered away. It is difficult to pin down exactly when the last Buddhist monasteries in Afghanistan and Pakistan were abandoned. However, for many centuries the Buddhist cultural heritage of Gandhara was preserved by the Muslim descendants of the Gandharans.

10 Simple Things You Can Do Today That Will Make You Happier

Happiness is so interesting, because we all have different ideas about what it is and how to get it. It’s also no surprise that it’s the Nr.1 value for Buffer’s culture.
I would love to be happier, as I’m sure most people would, so I thought it would be interesting to find some ways to become a happier person that are actually backed up by science. Here are ten of the best ones I found.

1. Exercise more – 7 minutes might be enough

You might have seen some talk recently about the scientific 7 minute workout mentioned in The New York Times. So if you thought exercise was something you didn’t have time for, maybe you can fit it in after all.
Exercise has such a profound effect on our happiness and well-being that it’s actually been proven to be an effective strategy for overcoming depression. In a study cited in Shawn Achor’s book, The Happiness Advantage, three groups of patients treated their depression with either medication, exercise, or a combination of the two. The results of this study really surprised me. Although all three groups experienced similar improvements in their happiness levels to begin with, the follow up assessments proved to be radically different:

The groups were then tested six months later to assess their relapse rate. Of those who had taken the medication alone, 38 percent had slipped back into depression. Those in the combination group were doing only slightly better, with a 31 percent relapse rate. The biggest shock, though, came from the exercise group: Their relapse rate was only 9 percent!

You don’t have to be depressed to gain benefit from exercise, though. It can help you to relax, increase your brain power and even improve your body image, even if you don’t lose any weight.
A study in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who exercised felt better about their bodies, even when they saw no physical changes:

Body weight, shape and body image were assessed in 16 males and 18 females before and after both 6 × 40 mins exercise and 6 × 40 mins reading. Over both conditions, body weight and shape did not change. Various aspects of body image, however, improved after exercise compared to before.

We’ve explored exercise in depth before, and looked at what it does to our brains, such as releasing proteins and endorphins that make us feel happier, as you can see in the image below.

2. Sleep more – you’ll be less sensitive to negative emotions

We know that sleep helps our bodies to recover from the day and repair themselves, and that it helps us focus and be more productive. It turns out, it’s also important for our happiness.
In NutureShock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explain how sleep affects our positivity:

Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories gets processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories, yet recall gloomy memories just fine.
In one experiment by Walker, sleep-deprived college students tried to memorize a list of words. They could remember 81% of the words with a negative connotation, like “cancer.” But they could remember only 31% of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like “sunshine” or “basket.”

The BPS Research Digest explores another study that proves sleep affects our sensitivity to negative emotions. Using a facial recognition task over the course of a day, the researchers studied how sensitive participants were to positive and negative emotions. Those who worked through the afternoon without taking a nap became more sensitive late in the day to negative emotions like fear and anger.

Using a face recognition task, here we demonstrate an amplified reactivity to anger and fear emotions across the day, without sleep. However, an intervening nap blocked and even reversed this negative emotional reactivity to anger and fear while conversely enhancing ratings of positive (happy) expressions.

Of course, how well (and how long) you sleep will probably affect how you feel when you wake up, which can make a difference to your whole day. Especially this graph showing how your brain activity decreases is a great insight about how important enough sleep is for productivity and happiness:

Another study tested how employees’ moods when they started work in the morning affected their work day.

Researchers found that employees’ moods when they clocked in tended to affect how they felt the rest of the day. Early mood was linked to their perceptions of customers and to how they reacted to customers’ moods.
And most importantly to managers, employee mood had a clear impact on performance, including both how much work employees did and how well they did it.

Sleep is another topic we’ve looked into before, exploring how much sleep we really need to be productive.

3. Move closer to work – a short commute is worth more than a big house

Our commute to the office can have a surprisingly powerful impact on our happiness. The fact that we tend to do this twice a day, five days a week, makes it unsurprising that its effect would build up over time and make us less and less happy.
According to The Art of Manliness, having a long commute is something we often fail to realize will affect us so dramatically:

… while many voluntary conditions don’t affect our happiness in the long term because we acclimate to them, people never get accustomed to their daily slog to work because sometimes the traffic is awful and sometimes it’s not. Or as Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert put it, “Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day.”

We tend to try to compensate for this by having a bigger house or a better job, but these compensations just don’t work:

Two Swiss economists who studied the effect of commuting on happiness found that such factors could not make up for the misery created by a long commute.

4. Spend time with friends and family – don’t regret it on your deathbed

Staying in touch with friends and family is one of the top five regrets of the dying. If you want more evidence that it’s beneficial for you, I’ve found some research that proves it can make you happier right now.
Social time is highly valuable when it comes to improving our happiness, even for introverts. Several studies have found that time spent with friends and family makes a big difference to how happy we feel, generally.
I love the way Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert explains it:

We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.

George Vaillant is the director of a 72-year study of the lives of 268 men.

In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

He shared insights of the study with Joshua Wolf Shenk at The Atlantic on how the men’s social connections made a difference to their overall happiness:

The men’s relationships at age 47, he found, predicted late-life adjustment better than any other variable, except defenses. Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93 percent of the men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister when younger.

In fact, a study published in the Journal of Socio-Economics states than your relationships are worth more than $100,000:

Using the British Household Panel Survey, I find that an increase in the level of social involvements is worth up to an extra £85,000 a year in terms of life satisfaction. Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness.

I think that last line is especially fascinating: Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness. So we could increase our annual income by hundreds of thousands of dollars and still not be as happy as if we increased the strength of our social relationships.
The Terman study, which is covered in The Longevity Project, found that relationships and how we help others were important factors in living long, happy lives:

We figured that if a Terman participant sincerely felt that he or she had friends and relatives to count on when having a hard time then that person would be healthier. Those who felt very loved and cared for, we predicted, would live the longest.
Surprise: our prediction was wrong… Beyond social network size, the clearest benefit of social relationships came from helping others. Those who helped their friends and neighbors, advising and caring for others, tended to live to old age.

5. Go outside – happiness is maximized at 13.9°C

In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor recommends spending time in the fresh air to improve your happiness:

Making time to go outside on a nice day also delivers a huge advantage; one study found that spending 20 minutes outside in good weather not only boosted positive mood, but broadened thinking and improved working memory…

This is pretty good news for those of us who are worried about fitting new habits into our already-busy schedules. Twenty minutes is a short enough time to spend outside that you could fit it into your commute or even your lunch break.
A UK study from the University of Sussex also found that being outdoors made people happier:

Being outdoors, near the sea, on a warm, sunny weekend afternoon is the perfect spot for most. In fact, participants were found to be substantially happier outdoors in all natural environments than they were in urban environments.

The American Meteorological Society published research in 2011 that found current temperature has a bigger effect on our happiness than variables like wind speed and humidity, or even the average temperature over the course of a day. It also found that happiness is maximized at 13.9°C, so keep an eye on the weather forecast before heading outside for your 20 minutes of fresh air.
The connection between productivity and temperature is another topic we’ve talked about more here. It’s fascinating what a small change in temperature can do.

6. Help others – 100 hours a year is the magical number

One of the most counterintuitive pieces of advice I found is that to make yourself feel happier, you should help others. In fact, 100 hours per year (or two hours per week) is the optimal time we should dedicate to helping others in order to enrich our lives.
If we go back to Shawn Achor’s book again, he says this about helping others:

…when researchers interviewed more than 150 people about their recent purchases, they found that money spent on activities—such as concerts and group dinners out—brought far more pleasure than material purchases like shoes, televisions, or expensive watches. Spending money on other people, called “prosocial spending,” also boosts happiness.

The Journal of Happiness Studies published a study that explored this very topic:

Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness. Afterward, participants chose whether to spend a monetary windfall on themselves or someone else. Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the near future.

So spending money on other people makes us happier than buying stuff for ourselves. What about spending our time on other people? A study of volunteering in Germany explored how volunteers were affected when their opportunities to help others were taken away:

 Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before the German reunion, the first wave of data of the GSOEP was collected in East Germany. Volunteering was still widespread. Due to the shock of the reunion, a large portion of the infrastructure of volunteering (e.g. sports clubs associated with firms) collapsed and people randomly lost their opportunities for volunteering. Based on a comparison of the change in subjective well-being of these people and of people from the control group who had no change in their volunteer status, the hypothesis is supported that volunteering is rewarding in terms of higher life satisfaction.

In his book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman explains that helping others can improve our own lives:

…we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.

7. Practice smiling – it can alleviate pain

Smiling itself can make us feel better, but it’s more effective when we back it up with positive thoughts, according to this study:

A new study led by a Michigan State University business scholar suggests customer-service workers who fake smile throughout the day worsen their mood and withdraw from work, affecting productivity. But workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts – such as a tropical vacation or a child’s recital – improve their mood and withdraw less.

Of course it’s important to practice “real smiles” where you use your eye sockets. It’s very easy to spot the difference:

 

According to PsyBlog, smiling can improve our attention and help us perform better on cognitive tasks:

Smiling makes us feel good which also increases our attentional flexibility and our ability to think holistically. When this idea was tested by Johnson et al. (2010), the results showed that participants who smiled performed better on attentional tasks which required seeing the whole forest rather than just the trees.

A smile is also a good way to alleviate some of the pain we feel in troubling circumstances:

Smiling is one way to reduce the distress caused by an upsetting situation. Psychologists call this the facial feedback hypothesis. Even forcing a smile when we don’t feel like it is enough to lift our mood slightly (this is one example of embodied cognition).

One of our previous posts goes into even more detail about the science of smiling.

8. Plan a trip – but don’t take one

As opposed to actually taking a holiday, it seems that planning a vacation or just a break from work can improve our happiness. A study published in the journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life showed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning stage of a vacation as employees enjoyed the sense of anticipation:

In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.
After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.

Shawn Achor has some info for us on this point, as well:

One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent.
If you can’t take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar—even if it’s a month or a year down the road. Then whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.

9. Meditate – rewire your brain for happiness

Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus, clarity and attention span, as well as helping to keep you calm. It turns out it’s also useful for improving your happiness:

In one study, a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. The study, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuro imaging, concluded that after completing the course, parts of the participants’ brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank.

Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down, it’s been often proven to be the single most effective way to live a happier life. I believe that this graphic explains it the best:

According to Shawn Achor, meditation can actually make you happier long-term:

Studies show that in the minutes right after meditating, we experience feelings of calm and contentment, as well as heightened awareness and empathy. And, research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness.

The fact that we can actually alter our brain structure through mediation is most surprising to me and somewhat reassuring that however we feel and think today isn’t permanent.
We’ve explored the topic of meditation and it’s effects on the brain in-depth before. It’s definitely mind-blowing what this can do to us.

10. Practice gratitude – increase both happiness and life satisfaction

This is a seemingly simple strategy, but I’ve personally found it to make a huge difference to my outlook. There are lots of ways to practice gratitude, from keeping a journal of things you’re grateful for, sharing three good things that happen each day with a friend or your partner, and going out of your way to show gratitude when others help you.
In an experiment where some participants took note of things they were grateful for each day, their moods were improved just from this simple practice:

The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the 3 studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits.

The Journal of Happiness studies published a study that used letters of gratitude to test how being grateful can affect our levels of happiness:

Participants included 219 men and women who wrote three letters of gratitude over a 3 week period.
Results indicated that writing letters of gratitude increased participants’ happiness and life satisfaction, while decreasing depressive symptoms.

Quick last fact: Getting older will make yourself happier

As a final point, it’s interesting to note that as we get older, particularly past middle age, we tend to grow happier naturally. There’s still some debate over why this happens, but scientists have got a few ideas:

Researchers, including the authors, have found that older people shown pictures of faces or situations tend to focus on and remember the happier ones more and the negative ones less.
Other studies have discovered that as people age, they seek out situations that will lift their moods — for instance, pruning social circles of friends or acquaintances who might bring them down. Still other work finds that older adults learn to let go of loss and disappointment over unachieved goals, and hew their goals toward greater wellbeing.

So if you thought being old would make you miserable, rest assured that it’s likely you’ll develop a more positive outlook than you probably have now.

Source : www.thebuddhistvision.com

කය දුවවා වැඩක්‌ වේද සිත නතර කරනු බැරිනම්

"අතහැරිම" 3 කොටස

ලොව්තුරු බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ දේශනා කරනවා කරුණු හතරක්‌ නොදැනීම අවිද්‍යාවය කියලා. මේ කරුණු හතර තමයි දුක, දුක ඇතිවීමට හේතුව, දුක නැතිකිරීම, දුක නැතිකිරීමේ මාර්ගය. මෙන්න මේ චතුරාර්ය සත්‍යය නොදැනීම නිසා සත්වයා ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණවලට අයත් මේ කය නිරෝගීභාවයට පත්කිරීම උදෙසා අප්‍රමාණ වෙහෙසක්‌ ගන්නවා. රටපුරා තිබෙන ක්‍රීඩාංගණ, කායවර්ධන මධ්‍යස්‌ථාන, ජනමාධ්‍යවල, ක්‍රීඩාගාර, මහපාරේ දෙපස ඇති තණතීරුවල පිංවත් නෝනා මහත්වරුන් දුවනවා, ඇවිදිනවා, ව්‍යායාම කරනවා ඔබ දකිනවා ඇති. කුමක්‌ සඳහාද?

ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ වලක්‌වාගන්න. ලෝකයේ වේගයෙන්ම දුවන සතා තමයි චීටා. මේ සතුනුත් ළමා කාලයේදී මියයනවා, තරුණ කාලයේදී මියයනවා, මධ්‍යම වයසේදිත් මියයනවා. ජාති ජරා ව්‍යාධි මරණ වලට නිරතුරුවම පත්වෙනවා. ලෝකයේ වැඩිම ව්‍යයාම කරන සතා තමයි වඳුරා. එයා හැම නිමේශයකම අත්තෙන් අත්තට, ගහෙන් ගහට පනිමින් මහා ව්‍යායාමයක යෙදෙනවා. ඒ වඳුරොත් ළමා කාලයේදී, තරුණ කාලයේදී, මධ්‍යම වයසෙදි මැරෙනවා. නිරතුරුවම ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ වලට ලක්‌වෙනවා. මේ නිසා දිවීම තුළින්වත්, ව්‍යායාම තුළින්වත් ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ වලක්‌වාගන්න බැහැ නේද? අපේ මේ දිවීම නතරකළ දවසටයි අපි ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ වලින් අත්මිදෙන්නේ. කාගේ දිවීමද? රූපයට තන්හාවෙන් දුවන සිත, උපාදානයෙන් අල්ලාගන්නා සිත දිවීමෙන් නතරකළහොත් එතැනයි දුකේ කෙළවර.

මේ දිවීම තුළ, ව්‍යයාම තුළ කුමක්‌ද සැඟවිලා තියෙන්නේ. අවිද්‍යාවේ වේගයයි. ඔබ මේ දුවන්නේ තව තවත් අවිද්‍යාව දෙසටයි. ලෝකය දෙසටයි. දුක දෙසටයි. ඔබ මේ නිරෝගි කරන්න හදන්නේ ලෙඩට උරුම කයක්‌. ඔබ ඔය මස්‌පිඩු වලින් පුරවන්න හදන්නේ ලෙඩට උරුම රැළිවැටෙන කයක්‌. දිවීමෙන්, ව්‍යායාමය මඟින් ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ වලින් මේ කය මුදාගත්ත ලෝකයේ යමෙක්‌ සිටියාද? සිටිනවාද? නැහැමයි. මේ කය ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ වලට තෝතැන්නක්‌මයි කියලා දැකලා, රූපයට ඇති ඡන්දරාගයෙන් මිදුන තැනැත්තන්මයි දුකෙන් අත්මිදුණේ. නමුත් පෘතග්ජන සත්වයා රූපයේ ආදිනවය, ආදීනවයක්‌ හැටියට නොදකින නිසා ඔහු ජාති, ජාරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ හමුවේ කම්පා වෙනවා. සලිත වෙනවා. බිය වෙනවා. මට ලස්‌සන අහිමිවෙයි, මගේ ලස්‌සන නැතිවෙයි, මගේ නිරෝගීකම නැතිවෙයි කියලා. ශරීරය කෙට්‌ටු කෙනා, ශරීරය මහත්කරගෙන සතුටු වෙනවා. ශරීරය මහතකෙනා ශරීරය කෙට්‌ටු කරගෙන සතුටු වෙනවා. ශරීරයේ මේදය වැඩි කෙනා, මේදය අඩුකරගෙන සතුටු වෙන්න හදනවා. විටමින් ඌනතාව හෙවත් ඒවා අඩුකෙනා විටමින් පාවිච්චි කරලා සතුටු වෙන්න හදනවා. මේ සියල්ල තුළ තිබෙන්නේ කුමක්‌ද? 

වැඩිදෙය අඩුකර ගන්නවා. අඩුදෙය වැඩිකර ගන්නවා. කෙනෙක්‌ අඩුදෙය උපාදාන කරනකොට, තව කෙනෙක්‌ වැඩිදෙය උපාදානය කරගන්නවා. කොතැනද මෙහි සීමාව, කවුද මේ සීමාව තීරණය කරන්නේ. තීරකයා තමයි පෘතග්ජන සිත. අඩුවැඩි කරගනිමින් මරණය කියන සීමා ඉරට අපි සේන්දුවෙලා, අපි ඒ සීමා ඉර පසුකරන්නේ අතෘප්තියෙන්. මොකද ඉහත ස්‌වභාවයන්ට අප පත්වන්නේ මැරෙයි කියලා හිතලා නොවෙයි. මා තුළ නිරෝගීබව තිබෙනවාය, නිරෝගීබව තුළ මා ඉන්නවාය කියලා ඇති කරගත් උපාදානය නිසා, ඒ උපාදානය කරගත් දෙය බිඳවැටීමෙන් ඇතිවන අතෘප්තිය, මරණ භය, ගැටීම.....

මෙන්න මේ ගැටීමේදී ඔබේ පිහිටට ඔය ව්‍යායාමවත්, ශරීර ශක්‌තියවත්, විටමින් සිරප්වත් ඔබේ පිහිටට එන්නේ නැහැ. ඉහත සියල්ල ඔබට උරුමකර දුන්නේ දුකක්‌මයි. නමුත් ඔබ ජීවිත කාලය තුළදී පුqරුදු පුහුණු කළේ කාය ශක්‌තියේ, ව්‍යායාමයේ, නිත්‍යභාවය නම් ඔබේ මරණ මොහොතේදී එම සංඥාවන් ඔබට ඇතිවුනොත්, අවසාන කැමැත්ත - උපාදානය ඉහත ස්‌වභාවයන්ට ඇලීගියා නම්, ඔබේ මීළඟ උපත චීටාවෙකුගේ හෝ වැඳිරියකගේ කුසේ වීමටද පුළුවන්. මන්ද ඔබේ කැමැත්ත පරිදිම, ඔබ උපාදානය කරගත් පරිදිම සුවසේ දිවීමටත්, සුවසේ ව්‍යායාම කිරීමටත් ඔබට ලැබෙන නිසාය. 

භික්‍ෂුවක්‌ සමාධියෙන් පසුවන එක්‌තරා අවස්‌ථාවකදී මෙන්න මෙහෙම දර්ශනයක්‌ දැක්‌කා. ආකාශය තුළ, ඒ කියන්නේ මහපොළොවේ සිට මීටර 200 ක්‌ පමණ ඉහළ විසි දෙනෙකුගේ පමණ කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌, වැල්පාලම් ඔන්චිල්ලා වැනි උපකරණ මත ජිම්නාස්‌ටික්‌ වැනි ක්‍රීඩාවක නිරතවෙනවා. මේ අය කිසිම බියක්‌ නොමැතිව මීටර 200 ක්‌ පමණ ඉහළ සිට බොහොම රිද්මයානුකූලව බීමට පතිත වෙනවා. නැවත ඉහළට යනවා. මහා අන්තරාකාරී ක්‍රීඩාවක්‌ ඉතාමත් සුවසේ නොබියව කරනවා. ආකාශයේ දැමූ ලණු පාලමක්‌ වැනි දෙයක්‌ මත පිනුම්, කරණම් ගසනවා. මේ අය ප්‍රේත ලෝකයට සම්බන්ධ පිරිසක්‌ නොවේ. මනුෂ්‍ය ස්‌වභාවයේ හොඳ අඟ පසඟ සහිත සුදු පැහැති දිග සහ කොට කලිසම් වගේම ටී-ෂර්ට වලින් සැරසී සිටි පිරිසක්‌. භික්‍ෂුව හඳුනාගත්තේ මේ අය දේව ස්‌වභාවයේ පිරිසක්‌ හැටියටයි. ඒ අය පෙර මනුෂ්‍ය ජීවිතයේදී උපාදානය කරගත් ක්‍රීඩාව, ව්‍යායාමය මෙතැනදිත් උපාදානය කරගෙන. ඒවාට කැමති පිරිස ඒකරාශි වෙලා. හැබැයි මේ අය සශ්‍රික දේව පිරිසක්‌ නොවෙයි. ප්‍රේත ලෝකයට වඩා ටිකක්‌ ඉහළ ස්‌වභාවයේ දේව කොට්‌ඨාශයක්‌. මේ අය තුළ ආලෝකමත් බව, ප්‍රභාශ්වර බව තිබුණේ නැහැ. ගුප්ත ස්‌වභාවය ඒ අයගේ ස්‌වරූපයේ තිබුණා. ඔබ යමක්‌ උපාදාන කරගතතොත් එය මතුභවයටත් ඔබ අරගෙන යන හැටි පැහැදිලියි නේද? හේතුඵල ධර්මයන්ට අනුව විග්‍රහ කිරීමක්‌ පමණයි භික්‍ෂුව මෙහි සඳහන් කළේ. ඔබ වෙනදා වගේම දුවන්න, ව්‍යායාම කරන්න මගේ කය, මගේ ශක්‌තිය, මගේ නිරෝගීකම මගේ ලස්‌සන, පෞරුශත්වය, හැඩය නිත්‍යයි කියන දෘශ්ටීන්ට යට නොවී. ඉහත සියල්ල ඔබේ වසඟයේ පත්වාගැනීමට නොහැකිය යන අවබෝධය තුළ සිටිමින්...

නමුත් මෙය කරන්න ලේසි නැහැ. ඔබේ ඔය මාර සිත නිරතුරුවම මේවායේ නිත්‍යභාවය පැත්තටම ඔබව රැගෙන යනවා. අතීතයේ තිබූ මිත්‍යාදෘශ්ටික ශීල වෘතයන්ගෙන් එකක්‌ තමයි ශරීරයට දුක්‌ දීමෙන් සැප ලබාගැනීම කියන දෘශ්ටිය. නිගන්ඨයන් වැනි පිරිස්‌ ආසන ප්‍රතික්‍ෂෙප කොට, උල් සහිත ස්‌ථානවල ඇවිදිමින්, නිදාගනිමින් ශරීරයට දුක්‌ දුන්නා. කුමක්‌ උදෙසාද? සැප උදෙසා. අතීත කර්ම ගෙවීම උදෙසා. වර්තමානයේ ඔය දුවන ව්‍යායාම කරන අය දෙස බලපුවහම කෙනෙකුට සිතෙන්න පුළුවන් අතීතයේ නිගන්ඨ දෘශ්ටියේ නව ප්‍රවේශයක්‌ද මේ කියලත්. මොකද මේ අයත් අනාගත සැප උදෙසායි මේ දුක්‌ විඳින්නේ. ඔබ මේ දෙතිස්‌ කුණපය කුමන සංඥාවකින් නිත්‍යභාවයෙන් අල්ලාගත්තද ඒ තුළින් ඔබ විඳින්නේ දුකක්‌මය. ඔබ කොතරම් මහන්සිවී ශරීරයේ මස්‌පිඩු, පෙනුම ලස්‌සන කරගත්තද ඔබට සෙම්ප්‍රතිශ්‍යාවක්‌, උණක්‌, අසනීපයක්‌ හැදුනහොත් සතියක්‌ ව්‍යයාමයෙන් තොරවූ විට ශරීරය නැවතත් 'ජොල් වීමට' පටන් ගනී. හැඩය වෙනස්‌වී යයි. මොනතරම් දුවලා, ව්‍යායාම කරලා, නිරෝගීව තබාගත්තද හදිසියේ මඟුල් ගෙදරකට, උත්සවයකට, උත්සව කාලය පැමිණියහම ඔන්න නැවතත් සීනි, පිෂ්ඨය, මේදය වැඩිවෙලාය. ඔබ ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ මොන පැත්තෙන් යටගැහුවද ඒවා දිය යට ඇති රබර් බෝලයක්‌ මෙන් ග්‍රහණයෙන් මිදුණු සැනින් නැවත මතුවී එයි.

මේවාට ප්‍රතිකාර කියන පිංවත් වෛද්‍යවරුන්, ව්‍යායාම කරවන මහත්වරුන් ඔබතුමන්ලාට වෛද්‍ය උපදෙස්‌, ව්‍යායාම උපදෙස්‌ දේවී. ඒ මහත්වරුන් ඔබලාට උපදෙස්‌ දෙන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේ කයත් ඉහත ස්‌වභාවයේම තිබියදීමය. ඔවුන්ද ඉහත ස්‌වභාවයෙන් මිදී නැත. ඔවුනට අසනීපයක්‌ වුවහොත් ඔවුන්ද තවත් වෛද්‍යවරයකු වෙතට ගොස්‌ ප්‍රතිකාර ගත යුතුය. එහෙත් මේ අසනීපයට හොඳම ප්‍රතිකාරය වදාළ උත්තමයා තමයි ලොව්තුරා බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ. මුලින්ම උන්වහන්සේ අනුනට බෙහෙත් කියන්නට පෙර තමන් ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණ වලින් මිදුනාහ. උන්වහන්සේ තම ශ්‍රාවකයන්ට අනුදැන වදාලේ තුන් සිවුරත්, පාත්‍රයත්, උපරිමය ආහාර වේල් දෙකකින් යෑපීමත්ය. උන්වහන්සේගේ ශ්‍රී මුඛයෙන් නිතරම දේශනාකළ වදනක්‌ වූයේ දිනකට එක්‌ වේලක්‌ පමණක්‌ වැළඳීම ශරීරයට පුදුමාකාර සැහැල්ලුවක්‌ දනවන බවයි. ඔබ දිව සංවර කරගන්න. රසයට ඇති කැමැත්තෙන් මිදෙන්න. ආහාරයේ අශූභය වඩන්න. එවිට ආයාසයකින් තොරවම ඔබේ කය යම් ප්‍රමාණයකට නිරෝගී වේවි. ප්‍රසන්න වේවි. හැඩවේවී. රසයට ඇති ගිජුභාවය ඔබ අතහැරියොත් ඔබට යම් පමණකට රෝගීබව මගහැරේවී. අතහැරීම තුළ ඇති සැහැල්ලු සුවය අත්විඳීමට ඔබට හැකිවේවි.

ප්‍රඥාවන්ත පුද්ගලයා උත්සහගන්න ඕනේ දීර්ඝ කාලයක්‌ ආයුෂ විඳින්න නොවේ. හැකිතාක්‌ ඉක්‌මනින් මේ ජාති, ජරා, ව්‍යාධි, මරණවලින් මිදීමටය. නැවත උපතකින් මිදීමටය. එය අර්ථවත් කරගන්න බැරිනම් සසර කෙටිකර ගැනීමටය. මේ දෙකෙන් කොයික කරගත්තත් මා තුළ නිත්‍යවූ නිරෝගීබව, ලස්‌සන, හැඩය තිබෙනවාය කියන අවිද්‍යාවෙන් මිදෙන්න ඕනේ. 

හැබැයි සමහරු මෙන්න මෙහෙමත් ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා. තමන් ව්‍යායාම කළත් අනිත්‍යය වඩමින් තමයි කරන්නේ කියලා. හැබැයි ඉතින් මේ ධර්මයත් මාර ධර්මයක්‌ම තමයි. හරියට දිව්‍යලෝක, මනුශ්‍ය ලෝක සැප කෙළවර නිවන් ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරන්න කියලා කියන මාර ධර්මය වගේ. දිව්‍ය ලෝක, මනුෂ්‍ය ලෝක සැප කෙළවර නිවන ගැන විශ්වාසයක්‌ තියන්න බෑ. මෙය ස්‌වභාවයන් දෙකක්‌. දිව්‍යලෝක, මනුශ්‍ය ලෝක කියන්නේ අල්ලා ගැනීමක්‌. නිවීම කියන්නේ අතහැරීමක්‌. අල්ලා ගැනීමක්‌ කෙළවර අතහැරීමක්‌ ගැන විශ්වාසය තැබීම නොවිය හැක්‌කක්‌. සංසාරය පුරාවට කල්ප කෝටි ගණනක්‌ අපිව මේ දුර ගමන ඇවිද්දුවේ ඔය මාර වදන් අපි අපේ කරගත් නිසා. 

මේ දෙකෙන් එක ස්‌වභාවයකට අපි එන්න ඕනේ. එක්‌කෝ අල්ලා ගැනීම, එක්‌කෝ අතහැරීම.

පෘතග්ජනයා පුදුමාකාර කෑදරකමකිනුයි තමන් කැමති දෙය උපාදානය කරගන්නේ. මනුශ්‍යයා ජීවිතයේදී මුලින්ම උපාදානය කරගන්නේ මොකක්‌ද? තම මෑනියන්ගේ ගර්භාෂයයි. මව්කුසයේ ගර්භාෂයේ ඇතිවන ප්‍රතිසන්ධි චිත්තය ළදරුවෙක්‌ වශයෙන් කලල රූපය අල්ලාගෙන වැඩීමේදී මේ ළදරුවා ගර්භාෂය මගේය කියලා අල්ලා ගන්නවා. මේ ගර්භාෂය තුළ දරුවා මොනතරම් දුකක්‌ද විඳින්නේ. බැලුම් බෝලයක්‌ වගේ ආවරණයකට මැදිවෙලා, අතපය වකුටු කරගෙන සැරව, රුධිරය, මේදය, අසුචි, මුත්‍රා, බොකු බඩවැල්, වමනය, දිරවූ නොදිරවූ ආහාර.... මොනතරම් ජරා ගොඩක්‌ මැද්දෙද. මෑණියන්ගේ කුස තුළ ක්‍රියාත්මක වන වායෝ ධාතුවට හෙවත් වාතයට, තේජෝ ධාතුවට හෙවත් රස්‌නයට, ආපෝ ධාතුව හෙවත් දියර වර්ගවලින් පීඩනයට ලක්‌වෙමින්. මේ දරුවා වැඩෙන්නේ. මෙවැනි අවිචාරවත් පරිසරයක්‌ මැද මේ දරුවා ගර්භාෂයේ වැඩුණත් ඔහු අකමැත්තෙන් නෙවෙයි ගර්භාෂය තුළ සිටින්නේ. ඔහු දුකක්‌ හැටියට හිතලා නෙමෙයි ගර්භාෂය තූළ සිටින්නේ. මේ දරුවා ගර්භාෂය මගේ කියලා අල්ලාගෙනයි මෙහි පදිංචිවෙලා සිටින්නේ. තන්හාව නිසා හටගත් උපාදානයේ බලවත් බව නිසා බැසගත් තැන මගේ කියලා අල්ලා ගන්නවා. මගේ කරගන්නවා. සැපයක්‌ම හැටියට දකිනවා. මේ විදිහට නව මාසයක්‌ ඇවෑමෙන් මේ දරුවා ලෝකයට බිහිකරන්න මොන තරම් වෙහෙසක්‌ ගන්න වෙනවද? අම්මා, දරුවාව මේ උපාදානයෙන් ගලවාගන්න මොනතරම් අහිංසක වේදනාවක්‌ විඳිනවාද? මොන තරම් තටමන්න ඕනිද? ශක්‌තියක්‌ වැයකරන්න ඕනෙද? ඇයි මේ අම්මා මෙතරම් දුකක්‌ විඳින්නේ? දරුවා තමා උපාදානය කරගත්, මගේ කරගත් ගර්භාෂය අතහැරීමට ඇති අකමැත්ත නිසා. එය මගේ කර අල්ලාගෙන සිටින නිසා. මගේ තැනින් මිදීමට ඇති අකැමැත්ත නිසා. අවසානයේදී මවත් දරුවත් අතර සටනක්‌ තමයි සිද්ධවෙන්නේ. දරුවා ගර්භාෂය අල්ලාගෙන සිටීමට ප්‍රයත්න දරනවා. මව දරුවාව එලියට ගන්න ප්‍රයත්නය දරනවා. දරුවා තුළ ගර්භාෂ කුටියට ඇති උපාදනයත්, මවට දරුවා දැකීමට, අයිතිකර ගැනීමට ඇති උපාදානයත් අතර සටනින් ශක්‌තිය වැඩි මව දිනනවා. මවට මේ ශක්‌තිය නොමැතිනම් වෛද්‍යවරයා සැත්කමකින් බලහත්කාරයෙන් දරුවා එලියට ගන්නවා. දරුවා මව්කුස ගර්භාෂ කුටිය උපාදාන කරගෙන එහි රැඳෙන්නට හදනවා. අම්මා 'මගේ දරුවාය' යන උපාදානයෙන් දරුවාව දෝතට ගන්න අයිති කරගන්න හදනවා. වෛද්‍යවරයා තම වෘත්තිය උපාදාන කරගෙන දරුවා සැත්කමකින් එලියට ගන්නවා. හෙදිය තම වෘත්aතිය උපාදනය කරගෙන දරුවා උපද්‍රව රහිතව ලෝකයට ගන්නට උපකාර කරනවා. මේ සතර දෙනා තුළම ක්‍රියාත්මකවන්නේ උපාදානයමයි. තම තමන් කැමැත්තෙන් අල්ලාගත් දෙය තමයි මේ සැපයක්‌ හැටියට දකින්නේ. 

දරුවා මේ විදිහට ලෝකයට බිහිවෙනකොට බෙරිහන් දීගෙන, හඬාගෙන තමයි බිහිවෙන්නේ. මොකක්‌ද මේ කෑගැසීම, හැŽම. මගේ තැන, නව මාසයක්‌ මා පදිංචිවී සිටි තැන මට අහිමිවුනාය, අහිමි කළාය යන වේදනාවෙන්, බයෙන්, අසරණ භාවයෙන් තමයි ඔය කෑගහන්නේ. තමාගේ අකැමැත්තෙන් අම්මා සහ වෛද්‍යවරයා එකතුවී උදුරාගත් නිසා තමයි ඔය කෑගසන්නේ. විරෝධය දක්‌වන්නේ. මගේ තැන අහිමිවුනාය කියලා දරුවා කෑගහනකොට ඒ හඬ අහලා අම්මාට සතුටුසිනා පහළ වෙනවා. සතුටු කඳුළු සලනවා. මට දරුවා ලැබුණා කියලා.

අහිමිවීම නිසා දුකත්, ලැබීම තුළ සතුටත් තමයි දෙදෙනාම විඳින්නේ. හැබැයි මේ විඳීමේ ස්‌වභාවයන් මොහොතකින් අනිත්‍යභාවයට පත්වෙනවා. මේ දරුවා ගර්භාෂයේ උපාදානයෙන් මිදිලා ලෝකයට බිහිවුනාට පස්‌සේ මොකද වෙන්නේ. අම්මාගේ උණුසුම, අම්මාගේ පියයුරු උපාදානය කරගන්නවා. ඔන්න දැන් හිටපු තැනට වඩා මෙතන සැප හැටියට දරුවා අල්ලා ගන්නවා. මව් උණුසුමත්, පියයුරුත් මගේ තැන හැටියට උපාදානය කරගෙන ඒ දෙක මගේ කියලා ආශ්වාදය කරනවා. ඔන්න දැන් මවගේ උණුසුමෙන්, මවගේ පියයුරුවලින් දරුවා ඉවත් කරන්න හැදුවොත් දරුවා කෑගසනවා. විරෝධය දක්‌වනවා. මෙන්න බලන්න දැන් මව් උණුසුමත්, පියයුරුත් උපාදාන කරගන්න ස්‌වභාවය. ගර්භාෂයේ විඳීම අනිත්‍යභාවයට පත්වුනා. තවත් විඳීමක්‌ අල්ලා ගත්තා. මේ විඳීමේ ස්‌වභාවය අනිත්‍යභාවයට පත්වෙමින් ක්‍රමයෙන් තාත්තාව, තොටිල්ල, ළදරු පාසල, පාසල, විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, රැකියාව, නිවස, බිරිඳ, දරුවා, මුණුපුරා ආදී වශයෙන් එකක්‌ අතහැරෙද්දී තව රූපයක්‌ සැපයි කියලා ක්‍රමානුකූලව මගේ කරගන්නවා.

(මෙහිදී පළවන්නේ මෙම ලිපියේ පළමු අර්ධයයි.)

උපුටා ගැනීම - දිවයින ඉරිදා සංග්‍රහය - ඉන්ද්‍රජිත් සුබසිංහ