Thrishantha

  Wave after wave, the Ocean wrestles with a rock Revealing its shades under the setting sun The froth, the mist, and the cocktail of colours, never the same Oh, see how similar my own mind’s ocean is   Splashing on random encounters life presents The mind’s waves roll with no fatigue Look, the froth and the shades that never repeat Shining under the ever present, the unborn   Love, accomplishment, despair, joy, sorrow, and all other shades Rise like mist on the rocks, then fall and mix with the froth Recede, turn dark blue, then swing back, and turn something else What remains, what is mine, I do not know   Being tough, I wonder Is to be the rock, or the wrestling water? Or even to be the unborn that is aware? The best it appears to be the least tired among all  

I thought of writing this after a long conversation with my daughter about various social media pressures on girls about looks. While the society nurtues and supports us in many ways, certain habits of judging can cause unimaginable harm to a lot of us. It is us, the members of the society who can change things for the welbeing of all of us. Often, women are subject to all sorts of pressures about looks that often kill their productivity, mental health, and creativity to present themselves as who they are. At the end we all lose by living in a superficial world playing to the tunes not natural to many of us. My mother was a role model for me in many ways. She was born in a remote village in Sri Lanka. She went to a village school, but had a dream to be a professional. Going to a university was just a dream for her peers. But she promised herself to secure a bachelors degree. She finally accomplished it after I was born, the fifth child in the family. With a degree in economics, she...

Dew drenched morning leaves rustle in the Ribble Valley breeze Birds chirp at dancing ripe berries A sheep call echoes in the distant meadow Ribble valley smiles at me, her new fellow from afar Look, the taste of silence! But where is it? Amidst the burble of the stream? Or in the mesmerised heart? Lo, just feel the equanimity when it is! Windermere lake is magical when it is mirror calm It can unite a teenage son and a dad yearning for a conversation Row the kayak, but let it go wherever it wants For the conversation is what matters, not where we drift You never know what rhymes in a daughter’s heart Let her adventures settle in the way she wants Courageous, set sail thee the love of my life Dare, assured of my shoulders whenever you want I will write nothing Because it is written Seth, read this again When you are the one on the righ t

   The way of Karate The story goes on to say that the roots of Karate started in India and moved its way down to Okinawa with the trail of Buddhism. Karate developed to the present systematized form in the 17th century in Okinawa.  After Okinawa was annexed to Japan and carrying weapons was banned, Okinawan warriors secretly assembled in Buddhist temples to study their own body and mind through meditation and physical exercises. What resulted through a long process of perfection was an art that is now shared by the entire world for its benefits in daily life. To fully understand Karate, one has to understand traditional Japanese culture. In this short blog, I will try to elaborate some karate concepts through some traditional Japanese ways of life based on my 5 year experience as a graduate student. Please take what you like to improve your life just like we took this tradition from Japan and made it part of our lives.   The Okinawan warriors ...

What do we do when we come home from an official function like a wedding? The first thing I do is to take off the suit and get into something comfortable, and then sit down and relax. Home is all about that feeling of being accepted as who you are without having to dress up or to act a role. I have lived in Boston only for 2 years, but that brief stay with colleagues at Harvard and MIT struck something deep inside me to prove that home can be in multiple places and it can get into us faster than we think.  This time, on my way to ICRA2022 in Philadelphia, I stopped over at Boston to see some friends in person after a long time of isolation during the pandemic. Rather than staying at hotels, I chose to stay with friends. This is Maurice Smith, a Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard University. We were together at Johns Hopkins when I was a postdoc and Maurice was a MD/PhD candidate. Then he gave me a visiting position back in 2006 when things in Sri Lanka was not going well for m...

  වෙසක් දවස හොදය් අරගලය ගැන පුලුල්ව හිතන්න. මා මෙතෙක් කල් අත්දුටු නිවන් මග වැටි වැටි නැගිට නැගිට යන ගමනක්. කවදාවත් කෙලින් පාරෙ පල්ලම් නෑ. ඉතාමත් වැදගත් වනුයේ තමා ඉන්න තැන ගැන අවන්ක සෝදිසියය්.  වෙසක් එකට කූඩු පත්තු කිරීම් වැනි දේ අතිශය ප්‍රියන්කරය. සිත් සැනසීමටද එය ඉවහල් වේ. නමුත් බුදු දහම සැමදා සිතේ තිබිය යුතුය දෙයක්‍. වෙසක් පහන සැමදා සිතේ දැල්විය යුතුය දෙයක්. එය එසේ වනුයේ බුදු සසුනට ඇතුලු වූ සියලු දෙනා උඩින් සරල වුත් සැබෑ වශයෙන් ඉතා ගැබුරු වුත් සිද්ධාන්ත දෙකක් මුලින්ම අවබෝධ කරගැනීමෙනි. පලමු දේනම් මේ වෙලාවේ තමා සහ තමා අත්විදින ලෝකය තම සිතේ මේ මොහොතේ හටගත් මායාකාරී චිත්‍රයක් යය් වැටහීමය (සංයුක්ත නිකාය 12.44, ලෝක සුත්‍ර). දෙවනුව, යම් හේතුන්ගෙන් හටගත් දෙයක් ඇත්ද ඒ සියල්ල හේතු නැතිවීමත් සමග නැතිවේ කියන සිද්ධාන්තයය් (සංයුක්ත නිකාය 12.2, පටිච්ච සමුප්පාද විභංග සුත්‍ර). එනම් තමා සහ තම ලෝකය සමග හටගෙන ඇති වේදනාවන් හටගත් චිත්‍රයේ පරිවර්තන සමග පරිවර්තනය වන බවත්ය.  මෙය මතු පිටින් සරල දෙයක් සේ පෙනී යා හැක. නමුත් ප්‍රායෝගිකව අසහනකාරි අත්දෑකීමක් ආ විට අවබෝදය යම්තාක් ඉවහල් වන නමුදු බොහෝ ව...

  The Celtic Sea hugs the cliffs of Cornwall exposing its secret shades of blue The morning sun flushes Cornwall with a fresh spell of life Poems of ancient miners still rhyme around the chimneys strewn on the gorgeous Cornish hills A lonely seal pup dances in the froth of the playful sea The solitary run to and from the lighthouse invigorates me    Life’s waves are like Cornish hills The crest ahead hides the one behind We climb, rest, and set forth through the mist of the past The next crest’s yawn dwarfs our ego Yet, accomplished, we set forth