My Guru - Swami Sivananda (Rishikesh, India) - often advises us, "Learn the lessons from Nature". Even the silence in Nature, small sounds made by birds or animals - if we tune ourselves - can be quite inspiring. It occurred to me today to take a collective feedback from Research-Gate friends, and as a by-process, we may all get benefited.
To start the discussion, I like to share a link that teaches "Top 10 things we can learn from Nature" ( Bhavana Narayan, March 17, 2014). Some Excerpts:
10. There are some things we can’t control
"We must accept life as it comes and not worry about the things we cannot control or change. Nature best exemplifies this. During heavy torrential rains or a cyclone, everything is shattered. But later, nature restores itself as though nothing happened!"
9. To be flexible- survival of the fittest!
"The phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ was coined during Darwin’s famous study of evolution. During those days, many genetic mutations took place and eventually, only the species that were fit, survived! Nature teaches us to be flexible and to be fit. It teaches to be adaptable. A very important lesson, if you want to succeed in life. We will not be on a smooth terrain all the time! We must learn to swim in any water, known or unknown, shallow or deep! Thousands of species succeed in surviving in extreme as well as in favourable conditions. They teach us not to give up, under any given circumstance."
8. Even small things are important!
"The ecological cycle is truly amazing! All the species depend on one another. There is not a single species which is futile or insignificant. Each of them forms an integral part of the ecology, however miniscule! They are all interdependent, forming a closely linked chain. The survival of one is dependent on another and hence, everything needs to be in place.
This is true of human life as well! We are all interdependent on each other. No one is inferior or of no worth. All of us live in a close network. Also, the tiny things in life are equally important, just as the big ones. Attention to detail is an important aspect."
7. To be self-offering and uninhibited
"We see trees in full bloom and trees offering fruits. What does it imply? Have you thought of it? Are they not offering us with what they have, that too, voluntarily? Nature is a very selfless, benevolent giver. Nature is very generous and abundant. There is absolutely no dearth of anything. What we can learn from this is, giving and offering are great qualities! We can always offer to help someone. It spreads happiness and warmth.
Nature is generally uninhibited. Whatever it is, it’s always in its best form, unless it is tampered with. It does not shy away. The bold colours speak for themselves, don’t they? Similarly, we ought to be bold and uninhibited, for it brings out the best in us!"
6. Versatility
"Nature is very versatile. It has so many facets to it. Just look all around you. You will see a bewildering mix of things! Countless number of species form the rich biodiversity. From Siberia to the Thar Desert, from the Amazon rainforests to the grasslands of Australia, there’s so much of variety!
Our lives are a mix of many things too. We play so many roles in our lives: a student, a parent, a child, a friend etc. We have to manage each relationship well. The journey of life has so many twists and turns, all of which make it one big, beautiful thing."
5. To keep growing
"From the time the seed is sown, it does not stop growing till it reaches its zenith! It reaches out to the sky, with its spirit soaring. Nothing deters it. It grows everyday, little by little, steadily. Nature achieves everything she wants, at her pace. This is how we should approach our aims in life. With steadiness and poise. And we should never stop growing! Positive growth should always be there. Nothing should hamper our motivation to grow and develop."
4. Beauty in simplicity
"It is rightly said that simplicity is beauty. There is an inexplicable aura about subtlety, grace and poise. Nature is the best example for this. God’s creation is such, it speaks volumes, even though it is not extravagant! It is not gaudy. It is just as it should be. We ought to be simple and modest too. Arrogance and pomp and show will not fetch us anything. We should be rooted and down to earth! Pun intended here!"
3. Peace and harmony
"Every tiny part of nature harmoniously co-exists with every other part. There is unity in harmony. It is magical, like music! Nature taught us music. We need harmony in our lives too. The frequency has got to be rhythmic and harmonious, to take proper shape.
Peace! There is peace all around, in nature. In the stillness of the lakes, atop the lofty mountains and deep within the sea. There is great power in peace and inner calm. Peace is wanted, on our part. Haste and violence is futile!"
2. To spring back from sorrow
"The quote by Percy B Shelley, “If spring comes, can winter be far behind?” is legendary! It has so much truth in it. It very closely relates nature and human life and brings out the close lines of parallelism. After sorrow comes happiness. Everything is a rhythmic cycle. Nothing stays forever. It will all pass. What goes around, eventually comes around. After autumn comes spring, and this oscillates back and forth. Life follows a pattern too. Momentary sorrow and regret should not bog us down. Good things will happen, in due course of time."
1. Love- the language of nature
"Love is the most powerful force! It is a magical feeling and it feels like heaven! Without love, everything is a waste. Love, warmth and compassion make life what it is, beautiful! It is responsible for bringing people together and the bonding that lasts a lifetime. Love is the language of nature. How the species love their offspring, how the chrysanthemum looks romantic, the rains, the swans in the lake etc., all show that love is universal and Omni present. It transcends all barriers. Love is a very important part of life. It gives meaning to life. Without love, life is not life!"
http://listdose.com/top-10-things-we-can-learn-from-nature/
This is a good question, which resonates well with many other related RG questions. And, yet, this question focuses on nature itself that is new and refreshing.
In addition to what has already been observed about nature, there the resilience of nature, its ability to spring back after harsh winters year after year. Everyone has probably noticed the first tree buds and tiny bits of green springing from the ground in the springtime and how the buds form leaves and the bits of green eventually become wild flowers.
The other side of coin is that local planet Earth nature puts itself to sleep each autumn. It protects itself from the onslaught of winter by a miraculous form cryogenics, curling up and sleeping until winter has its say and springtime weather starts the beginning of new growth cycle.
Eminent friends - After posting this query, I also recalled a classic movie (1982) titled as "Koyaanisqatsi" (translation - Life out of balance), which is very relevant to this discussion. This movie or renowned documentary reveals how humanity has grown apart from nature. I got interested in this movie because the soundtrack was composed by a famous American Composer, Philip Glass.
Dear Roland Iosif Moraru :
These are my logical deductions from your reply.
There are more deductions I could make, but they are trivialities. Good day!
We can conclude six lessons from nature on living a peaceful, fulfilling life:
1. Determination
Nature is pretty hard to stop. Weeds and grass grow with dogged determination (much to the frustration of the lazy or time-pressed gardener). Many baby birds and other young offspring grow up against a huge number of odds; they are determined to survive.
With determination, it doesn’t matter how fast (or slowly) you move through life. If you are determined, if you have a goal and a plan to reach that goal, you’re already a long way toward it.
2. Strength in adversity
Have you ever pruned or cut back a plant only to wonder whether you ever actually did, because now the greenery has exploded into an amazing array? I used to be reluctant to cut any plants back until someone told me that they actually ‘like’ it. I suppose it’s nature’s fight for survival; you cut it so it puts even greater energy into growing more.
Nature could decide to give in and plants could just shrivel up and die. But they don’t. In life, when things seem tough, we usually have two choices: give in or give more. Choose to mirror nature and decide to face problems rather than run from them.
3. Adaptability
Nature can be incredibly adaptable. Just think about the four seasons. Animals and plants alike adjust to cope with the changes in climate and meteorological factors.
Humans are no different. We put on an extra sweater or two in the winter but can be less adept at managing with changing circumstances. Since change is one of the only certain things in life, try to accept this and see it as a positive thing as far as possible. You might not be able to control life events, but what you can control is how you respond to them.
4. Storing inner strength
When autumn arrives, nature seemingly goes into shut down. But actually, wonderful things are going on, ready for when the plant and animal kingdom come into full swing once more. Take a leaf out of nature’s book and nurture inner strength when times seem sunny so that when the clouds appear, you don’t give in.
5. Collaboration
One thing nature does really well is working together. Bees and flowers are just one of the many examples of this. Bees collect nectar from flowers to make their honey while the flowers get a good deal out of it by their pollen being spread by their furry winged companions. You might be a real people person or perhaps you prefer your own space. Either way, the world is one huge partnership of human beings.
6. Consistency
With the exception of an extreme weather occurrence, nature is pretty darn consistent. Want to be a super fit runner? Jogging every three months isn’t going to get you there; try to stick to a once weekly routine.
It doesn’t matter if the day or time has to change as long as you hit that road/treadmill/country lane once a week. Maybe you want your garden to look pristine and something to be proud of. Again, get out there regularly rather than spend five hours slogging away once a month.
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/6-lessons-nature-living-peaceful-fulfilling-life/
Observation of nature allows us to come to the understanding that all life consists of cycles of change and stability. We learn to believe that changes and mysteries that are present in nature are present in our life as well. They are an integral part of the development and renewal.
http://www.learning-mind.com/3-life-lessons-from-nature/
Dear Sundarapandian,
The lesson that we can learn from the nature is to take care of the nature.
One very important thing we can learn from the nature is the patience. It is very trivial to witness that every natural process is continuous, and nothing happens or occurs suddenly. There is an evolutionary time time associated with every process.
In India, there are many IT companies located in IT parks (or techno-parks or info-parks) in big cities and there are also many Universities. A striking difference is - Universities have a lot of greenery (trees, departments in many blocks etc) while IT companies are located in rented space in IT parks, and working there (in all mercury light only - without any exposure to Sun) may be different. I am sure that the University of Prof. Mahfuz will have lots of trees! Just walking around the campus can be a learning experience for academics.
The most of our knowledge comes from nature. Behind, we must respect nature! Nature responses are sometimes very bad as it is an answer based on bad human behaviour ( forest fires,huge floods,...), Nature phenomena are inspiring for researchers! Beauty of nature - life lessons follow!
http://listcrown.com/10-beautiful-life-lessons-can-learn-nature/
Nature is our second mother and we learn a lot from the nature. Starting from the silence and beauty of nature, the list of things we learn from nature goes on........
The nature can be called a laboratory and we can observe a lot of reactions happening in nature every time if we have that type of sense organs in our body.
Last but not the least, we can learn the everlasting bonding between the nature and all living organisms from intimate observation into the natural processes. All organisms in this nature are intimately interlinked with each other with the help of a string we can't see and if any part of the string get loosened, we will vanish for ever!!!
Today morning - I started a query - "How to handle failure in research?"
I think taking a break in a nature (some nice tourist place) will help amend things.
Nature and meditation help us a lot.
I hoped that Roland will comment on the two predictions I made about him.
Reading Sherlock Holmes stories from school days has made a lasting impact on me!
"The game is afoot!"
"Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind". - Amit Ray
Nature is the beauty of the world.
Nature is life, dynamic and renewal and is wonderful of observing. Many lessons can be taken, but one main should be always present: we are nothing, we come from the dust and for the dust we will go. We just have to enjoy this journey the best we can and promote solidarity, justice and tolerance with all our brothers (and, if necessary forgiving 70x7 times). Everything in nature tends to equilibrium and all the biological species tend also to reach its own equilibrium.
Dear Krishnan - In my research field - Control theory - many evolutionary algorithms have been developed which are inspired by nature like:
etc.
Evolutionary algorithms are based on natural selection and genetics. @Sundar has given three powerful evolutionary algorithms! Furthermore, I will attach some good papers about the issue, as well as a thread about! Evolutionary computation: a natural answer to artificial questions is the first one.
http://heaven.eee.metu.edu.tr/~vision/books/alife/ch5.html
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5602742&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D5602742
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_still_meaningful_to_develop_new_evolutionary_algorithms_What_are_the_promising_directions_of_EAs
Dear Ljubomir Jacić - In the control conferences, where I chair sessions, many researchers give some talks based on evolutionary algorithms. For the PID control of second order control systems, some tuning is done for getting best optimal values of the gain constants, and it is common to use evolutionary algorithms like GA, PSO, ACO, BCO, etc. This is one of the applications of nature-based algorithms.
Muchas Gracias !
In Mother Nature’s natural cycles of weather and seasons, there is an all-important flow – the bitter cold of winter is followed by the blossoming beauty of spring. Then follows the warmth and light of summer, followed by the colorful changes of autumn.
For everything there is a season and a reason. If we did not have cold winter, the wheat would not be able to grow strong. The seeds planted beneath the soil lie waiting to flourish. New birth occurs in spring in the flora and fauna around us
Humility
Nature teaches us to be humble.There is a quiet strength in humility. It is not a passive quality. Humility is needed in our everyday lives in many encounters we have with others.
Self-offering
In your own life, the quality of self-offering is most important. When you look at a mature tree, it stands straight and erect, with its countless leaves providing shelter for anyone who pauses beneath its branches – whether the homeless beggar or children playing. Then when the divine timing is right and the tree becomes laden with fruit, the branches bend down to offer this fruit to all. A tree embodies the quality of self-offering. It provides homes and shelter for animals, birds and insects, as well as offering shade and fruit to us humans.
http://www.jewelsofhappiness.com/5-life-lessons-we-can-learn-from-nature/
Dear sir,
The best of the lot is patience, which can be learned by the time required for each process to evolve. The examples can be found every where, such as, blossoming of a flower, change from day to night and vice versa.
Another important trait is consistency. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, daily, without any break, and there are thousands of examples if we look in to the nature.
"In the past decade, techniques have been rapidly developed to produce ‘smart’ multifunctional nanomaterials by applying lessons learned from nature, materials termed ‘bio-inspired nanostructures’. This approach has naturally led to the development of bio-inspired multifunctional nanomaterials for use in various applications. For example, several researchers have described lotus-leaf-inspired self-cleaning surfaces, plant- and insect-inspired anisotropic superhydrophobic surfaces, fly-eye-inspired anti-fogging coatings, insect-inspired antireflection coatings, rose-petal- and gecko-foot-inspired highly adhesive surfaces, cactus-inspired fog-collecting surfaces and butterfly-wing-inspired optical materials...
Herein, we describe the design of fish-scale bio-inspired multifunctional ZnO nanostructures that have similar surface structures to the cycloid scales of the Asian Arowana. The Asian Arowana (Scleropages), a member of Osteoglossidae and of the earliest fish to appear (~340 Myr ago during the Carboniferous period) continues to exist today..."
http://www.nature.com/am/journal/v7/n12/full/am2015133a.html
What a great pleasure & happiness for me that you have received a blessing & grace from the Param Pujya Sivanandaji . Nature is beauty of nature always appeal to entire human beings & it is up to the human beings to enjoy the beauty & the grace from the nature .
Nature has beautified the entire universe with the 5 main elements for creating a happiness joy & welfare for the mankind . Fortunately all this 5 elements of nature , the creator has also passed on to entire human beings for the happiness & welfare.
5 elements which nature has provided to the entire world .Nature is bountiful ,beautified the earth with River,Ocean , Mountains,& Surrounding with the rosy fragrance of Flowers. It is now with human element which mode they wish to use the the atmosphere of the nature with the Mind & Brain with the inner urge & divinity for the working environment & their action of their life to make the surrounding happy & joy .
This is my personal opinion
Replies above clear and interesting, I agree with the answers and explanations above.
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