The Energy Play

The growth of human civilization is inherently dependent on managing available sources of energy, while discovering new ones. Until the dawn of twentieth century, our growth was very slow due to limited sources of energy. But the advent of oil and electricity accelerated this growth like never before. However, we have made many trade-offs along the way. People switched from ‘wood’ to ‘coal’ to avoid deforestation, but the very coal is now a threat to forests because of acid rain. Also, oil saved the whales as people switched from whale oil to Kerosene. But, now the very oil is a threat to whales due to pollution of sea caused by offshore activities, shipping and plastic dumping. Yesterday’s solution has become today’s problem. Therefore, we need to be extremely cautious on selecting today’s solutions, as some of them could become tomorrow’s problems.

Energy is the insignia of life: “No energy, No life”. The entire universe is pulsating with one or the other form of energy. Quantum physics has also confirmed that only energy exists at sub-atomic level. Our evolution from the stone age has been powered by the discovery of new energy sources and the energy will shape our future generations and prosperity.

According to Michael E. Webber (“Power Trip – The Story of Energy”), there are six demographic trends, three technology trends and one overarching environmental trend that would affect the future energy system.

Demographic trends:

1. Population growth: Each person requires food and water to live. Energy is required to gain access to these resources. World’s population is set to rise from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion by 2050.
2. Industrialization: Industrialization requires energy and makes many more people rich. Developing and underdeveloped countries would continue to increase their industrialization.
3. Economic growth: There are still more than a billion people without access to electricity, piped water, or sanitation. Also, rich people consume more energy than poor people.
4. Urbanization: Rich people move into cities, buy cars, and electrify various activities of their lives.
5. Motorization: Economically developing countries see rapid adoption of automobiles as a status symbol.
6. Electrification: Electricity is the preferred form of energy because of its convenience and cleanliness inside our homes and businesses.

Technology trends:

1. Efficiency: Use of less energy to achieve the same purpose. Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) running on gasoline (fossil fuels) are becoming more fuel-efficient and less polluting. This trend is set to continue with all energy appliances.
2. Information-intensive: Due to rapid deployment of widespread sensors to collect data and continuously decreasing cost of computing, we will have more data, which will change the way we interact with each other, appliances and structures. More data will help in driving energy efficiency. Advances in Digitalization is driving improved operational efficiencies and better returns on investment. Data from IoT devices and AI-assisted analytics will lead to cost reduction, enable predictive maintenance and boost efficiency.
3. Decentralization: Power generation will move from a few large power plants far away to many on-site micro plants (e.g. roof tops), thus cutting on transmission losses and transient outages. Manufacturing will move from far-flung factories to individual consumer sites with 3D printing (mass customization versus mass production). Mass transit systems will be replaced with micro transit giving point-to-point service (e.g. Uber).

Environmental trend:

The UN Environment Program’s (UNEP) own emissions gap report, released just prior to the COP25 in Madrid in Dec 2019, showed the stretch 1.5⁰C goal of the Paris Agreement is “slipping out of reach”. Even if existing climate pledges – countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs – are met, emissions in 2030 will be 38% higher than the required target, the report concluded.

While the six demographic trends will drive the shift in the amount and type of energy we consume, the three technological trends will make our energy systems smarter, faster and cheaper. Combination of these trends will also help us manage the trade-offs between upsides and downsides of different energy systems.

Decarbonization in parallel with increasing energy access is the defining challenge of the 21^st Century. It is now a widely accepted fact that decarbonization is critical to avoid the worst effects of climate change. It is also recognized that we need to increase our access to energy to satisfy the growing needs of increasing population and energy demand.

According to OPEC’s World Oil Outlook 2019 launched in Vienna last year:

• Total primary energy demand is set to expand by a robust 25% between 2018 and 2040.
• All forms of energies will be required in the future to help to meet expanding demand in a sustainable way, balancing the needs of people in relation to their social welfare, the economy and the environment.

The Noble Laurette Dr. Richard Smalley (who gave the world his list of 10 grand challenges) says: We need to do three related things to solve our energy problem:

• Inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers to find new sources of energy
• Develop energy supplies that won’t run out, and
• Solve global climate change.

We need a combination of new production, increased energy access, smarter solutions, and a cultural emphasis on efficiency and conservation. While developing the cleaner forms of energy (e.g. solar, wind, nuclear), we also need to clean-up conventional forms (coal, oil) with carbon capture and scrubbers.

Co-existence of different forms of energy is the reality of the foreseeable future.

We also need a paradigm shift in our cultural understanding of the energy consumption, if we want to succeed in our endeavors. Michael E. Webber (“Power Trip”) suggests paradigm shift in the following areas:

Economic sense:  More expensive, efficient, cleaner items usually reduce operating costs (Total Cost of Ownership). On the other hand, use of cheap and dirty options cause pollution that makes people sick impacting their productivity and costing them medical expenses – thus inhibiting economic growth.

My Backyard: We often don’t think beyond our own home’s backyard and try to keep it safe and clean. In reality, we should consider the entire earth as our backyard. Pollution caused in one corner of the earth has potential to pollute the entire earth. Every occupant of the earth is a stakeholder of this challenge.

Nature (ecosystem) doesn’t need us; we need the nature for our survival. Nature is also forgiving up to a point. Beyond this point, we must pay a heavy price for our follies. Nature is inherently designed to correct itself through unexpected storms, earthquakes, tsunamis etc. If we exploit the nature for our greed, nature will ruin us to restore its balance.

Emerging IR4.0 technologies will take away many jobs currently performed by humans. Our day-to-day activities will be performed by various gadgets. We will have a lot of free time to do whatever we want. The question, then, is: “What would we want to do in the future? Would we allow the technology to steal our free time through unproductive distractions?”

The famous historian and philosopher Dr. Will Durant, along with his wife Ariel Durant, said in their best-known work (The Story of Civilization): “World has progressed in terms of ‘means’ not in terms of ‘ends’. Human’s basic desires are still the same, while the means to fulfil them have progressed.”

We should strive to rise above this state of mere fulfilling basic desires. We should find new ‘ends’ to our living. We can start using nature’s resources, including energy, responsibly. Energy saved is energy produced. So much energy can be saved by simply focusing on our essential needs. We can choose the freely available muscle energy in preference to energy-hungry gadgets to perform many routine activities that will also keep us in good health and save medical bills (e.g. cycling short distances rather than using cars, climbing stairs rather than using elevators, walking to colleague’s desk in the office rather than using phones). We should use a gadget or an appliance only to achieve a meaningful objective or goal. Most of all, we should spend more time in the nature contemplating on life’s meanings. Let’s step into the future with a resolve to work in harmony with the nature. The bounty of nature is waiting for us.

Being in the Moment

The biggest barrier to our ‘being in the moment’ is our ‘thinking mind’, which carries memories, concepts, fears, expectations and innumerable biases. Our mind likes to take our attention away from the present moment into the past or the future. Consequently, we are hardly present in the present moment, as we strongly identify with our mind. We are where our mind is. Even when we are interacting with any person or object in the present moment, our mind keeps spinning out stories based on insufficient and inaccurate information. The mind filled with such stories inhibit our experiencing the life ‘as it is’ in the present moment. We identify ourselves with these stories so much that any attack on their authenticity provokes strong reactions – often unpleasant. It is a habit developed over a long period of time. We need to learn a new habit of ‘being in the moment’.

Eckhart Tolle, the author of famous book “The Power of Now”, provides an interesting analogy to explain who we are ‘in essence’. Imagine yourself to be a room with walls, floor, ceiling and filled with various stuff, including people. If you were to ask the room, “Who are you?”, the answer most probably would be in terms of its size, shape or its contents. But this answer does not tell what the room ‘in essence’ is. Its shape, size and contents are not constant – they change over time. However, the space occupied by the room is constant and all changes occur in this space. The space is never affected by the stuff inside it. It always remains pure and unbroken. Hence, the room should say, “I am essentially the space”.

Similarly, each one of us is essentially the ever-present consciousness or awareness within which everything else exist and go through changes, including our body, mind and intellect. Animals and plants don’t carry mind and intellect like humans. They are incapable of spinning out speculative stories. But they are alive and do carry their essence in form of consciousness, just like humans. This is why it is easier to relate with a dog or a flower than with another human. Animal’s / plant’s response to our interaction is spontaneous and pure. Even an infant child displays such purity through her eyes as the thinking mind has not yet risen in her. Inanimate objects are devoid of life. However, even they exist in the medium of cosmic consciousness. Consciousness, therefore, is the common ground on which everything in the universe is born, exists and dissolves.

Being in the moment means being fully conscious of the moment. For this to happen, we must recognize our essence as consciousness or awareness, just like the room recognizing its essence as the space, not its contents. We shine our awareness like a flashlight on everything. Through our consciousness, we are aware of things and beings in the world. Through the same consciousness, we are also aware of our own body, feelings, thoughts and understanding – collectively called our personality. We are essentially separate from all that we are aware of.

We should slow down our thinking and allow as many still moments in our life as possible. Whenever facing an issue, ask: “Where am I? Am I caught up by a story fabricated by the mind?” If yes, disengage immediately and step into your consciousness – deeper than the thinking mind. If you are able to step out of your thinking mind even for a moment, you will find relief similar to waking up from a nightmarish dream. This simple step would further bring clarity to your vision. While waiting for your turn in a queue, stuck in the traffic, waiting for the flight, waiting for the elevator and in all such situations, direct your awareness to the breathing process – closely following the flow of air through nose, throat, lungs and abdomen as you inhale and exhale. You will be naturally forced to be present in the present moment while doing this exercise. The more you do this simple practice, the more easily you will be able to shift yourself out of your thinking mind and into your consciousness. Separated from the mind, you can now use the mind more effectively just as you use any gadget for a task. Or, you may choose to keep the mind in the silent mode when you don’t need it. You will develop more alertness in your life and such alertness will also protect you from unwarranted incidents and accidents in life as well as at work. Your actions will be more effective and error-free.

We should also spend more time with the nature observing objects, flowers, birds, sunrise, etc. Observations, devoid of any thinking, would allow us to connect with the essence of things and beings in the nature. Once we have perfected this habit of recognizing the underlying essence in the nature, we can apply the same approach with fellow humans. When we interact with people from the standpoint of our essence (consciousness) and not our thinking mind, we start recognizing their essence and not get carried away by their personalities and stories. Thus, we create a powerful field of positive energy which can bring amazing transformations in the people around us. We should accept the present moment as if chosen by us and embrace whatever it brings. We don't have any other option anyway. Not accepting whatever the present moment brings will take us back into our thinking mind. In the present moment, we are open to all possibilities, ideas, intuitions and inspirations that may transform our own lives with rewarding experiences. The present moment can become a gateway to our happiness.

Understanding Ego

Much has been written and talked about the ego. Some appreciate it; others condemn it. Some want to raise it; others want to destroy it. Some love it; others hate it. So, what is this ego so much in discussion?

Ego is a thought that arises in the mind after every event with a flag “I”. The event could be anything such as: an action; a feeling; an understanding; an achievement; a condition etc. After any event, you say “I did it or I am hungry or I understand or I made it, etc.” Let’s now analyse these statements deeper. When you say, “I am hungry”, isn’t it the body that needs food? Wouldn’t the correct statement be “My body is hungry”? Similarly, shouldn’t I say, “My mind feels this emotion, or my intellect understands this concept, or my body walked to this place and did this work”?

If you examine closely, you would realise that everything is being carried out by various equipments of your personality – physical (Body), emotional (Mind) or intellectual (Intellect) – all in your presence. Body, Mind and Intellect are your possessions, not You. Thus, you are no more than a witness of all events. Ego is a mere function of the mind appropriating everything to itself. Your identification with this function of the mind creates the much talked about ‘Ego’.

Ego, as a function of the mind, is required for living and transacting in the world. But there is no need to identify yourself with the ego or with your body, mind and intellect. You are ever free; you are the boss. These are your possessions working as per their designs. You can simply enjoy watching them work. You can live in the state of eternal peace.

Art of Decision Making

Often, we think that decision making is saying “Yes” to an option. In reality, it is just the opposite. The root Latin of the word decision literally means, “to cut off.” Making a decision is about “cutting off” choices – cutting you off from some other course of action. It is first saying “No” to those options that would not lead us to success and then saying “Yes” to the remaining one that has highest probability of resulting in success.

In day-to-day living, we are taking decisions all the time. However, our decision making mostly happens unconsciously. We are driving and phone rings. Hands automatically go for the phone. We sit down to eat, and hands automatically go for the TV remote. It is as if we are living on an auto-pilot mode. The problem with such living is that we are unable to say “No” to all those things that distract us from the path of growth, success and happiness in life.

What we need is to be conscious of what we are doing moment-to-moment. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his book “Flow”, says that human mind cannot process more than 110 bits of information per second. He further says that you need to process 60 bits of information per second to fully understand what someone is saying. Because of this limitation, we cannot understand more than 2 people talking.

We have often been told to pay attention to what we are doing, as if attention is some kind of money which we can be paid. Nature, indeed, empowers us with an attention currency of 110 bits of information every second. The question then is where and how are we spending this currency. When we are on the ‘auto-pilot’ mode of living, this precious currency is squandered by engaging in multiple worthless tasks such as regretting about past actions which cannot be changed or worrying about the future which is not yet born.

Being conscious in a moment means fully attentive – ability to use all of 110 bits of information on a given task in that moment. Mihaly calls this a state of “ecstasy”, when you lose yourself in the moment and you are said to be “in the flow”. All great works of science, art and literature have come out of this ‘flow’. When you are so attentive every moment of your life, you would be able to say “No” to all the worthless thoughts and temptations before they take possession of your mind and drive you towards actions that cannot result in growth, success and happiness in life.

Decide wisely, decide consciously and decide moment-to-moment.

Friend and Foe

I am my friend, I am my foe

Lightly I take any temptation

Allow it to live and grow

Slowly it gains power

And, I let it flow

Gripped by the force of Desire

All cautions I throw

Got to have it

Only thought that flow

Can’t get it

Anger arise and blow

Burning with rage

Ready to tear and torpedo

If I get, I want more

Greed, pride, fear and jealousy dance a tango

Had I paused and questioned the temptation

Are you going to make my heart glow?

Many temptations may quietly leave

And, those passing the test, I endow

Love, Compassion, Charity and Devotion

Flowering my life with gusto

I am my friend, I am my foe

Who I am?

I don’t know who I am

Husband, Brother, Friend and Foe

Change is constant wherever I go

Son I was, Grandpa I am

I don’t know who I am

Infant, Child, Adult and Old

Sometime silver, sometime gold

Tiny born, Tall I am

I don’t know who I am

Success, Failure, Loss and Win

All of them, I have seen

Chasing happiness, Content I am

I don’t know who I am

Greed, Anger, Worry and Hope

Always visiting mental home

My Heart says, Love I am

I don’t know who I am

Born in India, now in Bahrain

I have walked long in rain

Dependent I was, Independent I am

I don’t know who I am

Whatever you call me, I am not

Whatever I am, you know not

I may not know, who I am

But I know, I am

Happiness Formula

Who doesn’t want to be happy? We seek happiness in and through all our activities consciously or unconsciously. However, everyone defines happiness in his/her own way. Martin Seligman, founder of the Positive Psychology, defines happiness through the following formula:

Happiness = Pleasure + Engagement + Meaning

Pleasure is the lowest form of happiness. It is derived from fulfilling base desires mostly connected with the sense objects. You feel pleasure when you eat your desired chocolate. But this pleasure doesn’t last long. Also, it follows the law of diminishing returns. Your pleasure starts reducing as you eat more chocolates. This type of happiness is short-lived and often ends in misery.

Engagement involves others and beyond your own basic desires. It brings greater joy. When you are engaged in a sport or social activity, you feel much happier than simply eating a chocolate. Engagement may start with working for your family’s welfare. But as you enlarge your area of engagement, the happiness also increases. However, even this happiness may wear off with time as you feel exhausted. Ego plays at subtle levels looking for recognition at the least from such engagements.

Meaning is following your own internal calling. Every atom has a place and purpose in the universe. Try to identify what is your innermost calling and then pursue that in and through all your activities. All great people found their respective callings and invested their entire lives following it. Chade-Meng Tan of Google has found meaning in making the whole world happy through his successful in-house course “Search Inside Yourself” within Google (now also available in form of a book).

Many of us fail to find our inner calling. There is an easier way to find it. Start listing what is not your inner calling by putting down a desirous activity and then listening to your heart. That which doesn’t ring a bell in the heart is not your inner calling. This process of elimination will ultimately lead to that which resonates with your heart and in line with your conscience.

Those following their callings see deeper meaning in what they do - much beyond selfish desires and goals. Working with such frame of mind doesn’t drain your energy. On the other hand, you become a dynamo of energy. Happiness arising out of such pursuit is the highest and ever-lasting.