There are many spiritual paths, which is the right?

February 18, 2024religion, spiritualityTomáš Hromník

When I experienced my spiritual awakening in 2015, I was confused what’s happening, why I am suddenly much different than others around me, why I have such different worldview, why I see and understand things which others don’t see and don’t understand… it was a shock at first. I felt like an alien. I felt I don’t belong to this society any more.

I started searching through blogs and videos about spiritual awakening and spirituality and I have found many resources, especially from esoteric space. I have found that many people undergo the same experiences of spiritual awakening I did. I have found that I am not alone in this. I have found that it’s normal, but rare. Most of the people did not experience spiritual awakening and they are still in the Matrix following ridiculous rules and unhealthy life style.

Searching for my path

There are many spiritual paths and everyone is attracted to those according to their level of consciousness. It’s enough for some people just to believe in something and consider it to be true. Which is nonsense of course, but they don’t understand it. They think their faith is the truth, which for rational people is unacceptable.

Buddhism is attractive for those who don’t want God in their life. It’s a purifying spiritual path, but for the soul it’s very empty, unsatisfying. Aim of Buddhists is to achieve nothingness, but it’s very impractical in this world, especially in this modern age.

I met a Hare Krishna monk in 2014, it was before my spiritual awakening and meeting with devotees of Lord Krishna triggered my spiritual awakening later. I lived as most of the people in this world – working, drinking alcohol, having casual sex with many girls, eating meat, playing computer games, just enjoying life as they call it.

When I read book books of Srila Prabhupada called “Scientific knowledge of the soul” and “Science of self realisation” I understood how bad eating meat is. I wanted to stop eating meat but I was not able. It took me a month or two to gradually enter into full vegetarian diet. After 6 months of being a vegetarian I experienced my spiritual awakening and my consciousness changed rapidly. I started to see what I didn’t see before – how much people are controlled by the government and false promises of better life and many of them still believe it even there is obviously no improvement of life conditions but only degradation and it’s getting worse and worse. How pharmaceutical industry is not about health but about money. How actually everything is about money and wealth and how everyone is controlled and tied up by it. That’s not attractive for someone who is searching for a deeper meaning of life.

When I started going to a Hare Krishna temple for Sunday programs, I learned more about Krishna consciousness and how beautiful it is not only by hearing, but by seeing how devotees live. They are vegetarian, they don’t hurt animals, they like cows, they have spiritual activities like mantra meditation, kirtan, lectures from Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam every day, not just on Sunday, they serve selflessly in the mission of Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu… I was attracted by this life style very much. The more I learned about devotees and Krishna consciousness, the more I was attracted by it. And when I started practicing Hare Krishna maha-mantra japa meditation every day, my consciousness changed even more. After 1 year of Hare Krishna mantra meditation I stopped drinking alcohol. Not out of compulsion because I can’t but because I lost the taste for alcohol. I didn’t like how alcohol changes my consciousness when I am drunk and I was not happy when I was drunk. Normally people like to drink alcohol and get drunk because they feel more happy, more relaxed, but I was unhappy that it is not my actual state of consciousness and it’s something different that I cannot control. And moreover I had terrible hangover after getting drunk. So I decided to stop drinking and I don’t miss the hangover and changed state of consciousness when someone is drunk. Actually I feel more happier without alcohol! And I felt more unhappy when I was drunk.

When you start doing a genuine spiritual practice, you elevate your consciousness on a different level and you lose taste for something that is of a lower nature like drinking alcohol or taking other drugs, eating meat, having sex etc. Actually a genuine spiritual path is very good tool for curing addictions and solving life problems. It does not work immediately, but it can be cured and solved in a matter of time.

When you are searching for a spiritual path, you will be attracted to those which are very close to your state of your consciousness. That’s why people on different states of consciousness choose different spiritual paths like Christianity, Islam, esotericism, Buddhism, Hare Krishna etc. They are on different levels and they offer different explanations. When we study them in depth, then we can find the right path for us. We will naturally be attracted to our spiritual path but it does not mean that it is the ultimate path. It might be a temporary path for us until our consciousness changes. And when our consciousness changes, then we can understand more and more and we can switch to a different spiritual path which can lead us to the higher levels of consciousness. Or sometimes it happens that we don’t elevate our consciousness and we will fall down into lower consciousness in which we will want to enjoy sense objects and think it’s happiness.

One way or another, everyone will eventually find his path, but we should be very careful whether it’s a genuine path or not so genuine. Genuine spiritual path leads to a deeper understanding of oneself, God and our relationship with Him. It leads to compassion, love, understanding, tolerance and other godly traits which Krishna describes in the Bhagavad-Gita 16.1-3:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Fearlessness; purification of one’s existence; cultivation of spiritual knowledge; charity; self-control; performance of sacrifice; study of the Vedas; austerity; simplicity; nonviolence; truthfulness; freedom from anger; renunciation; tranquillity; aversion to faultfinding; compassion for all living entities; freedom from covetousness; gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigor; forgiveness; fortitude; cleanliness; and freedom from envy and from the passion for honor – these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature.

If our spiritual path does not lead to those divine qualities, we are on a wrong path for sure, which will not end up well eventually.

And another aspect of a genuine spiritual path is that it helps us to overcome material attachments and enlarges the urge for spiritual life.

So we can see if we are becoming a better person and if we have less and weaker material desires. Then we can see if we are on a right genuine spiritual path or on a wrong path.

Why do you think Hinduism is the best?

January 17, 2024religionTomáš Hromník

I got a question “Why do I think Hinduism is the right religion“. There are so many gods, someone worships Ganesh, Lakshmi, others worship Lord Shiva or Vishnu, Hindus cremate bodies which pollutes environment, they cut trees for that etc. Such arguments against Hinduism. But are they justified?

First of all, cremation is not only in Hinduism. It’s in modern age also and in many other cultures in the world. It’s very practical, maybe more practical than to dig 2 metres grave for each body and store it under earth and occupy space. Once you burn the body, it’s gone. It does not occupy space, you do not need big cemeteries which will fall into oblivion after hundreds of years.

Understand what is Hinduism

Most of the people think that Hinduism is a religion. It’s a common understanding. But in fact Hinduism is not a religion itself, it’s a mix of different religions in India. When Britishers came to India, they saw so many different religions and spiritual teachings, they were so confused so they called it all “Hinduism”. There is no mention of word “Hinduism” in the vedic scriptures which are the base for all different religions in India.

https://www.quora.com/Was-Hinduism-created-by-the-British

So do I think Hinduism is the best? No, there are so many teachings and religions in Hinduism, some of them just worship demigods for a temporary material benefit, some of them want to achieve liberation by yogic spiritual practice and some of them teach love of God and how to enter kingdom of God by devotional service. So many different teachings.

Vedic literature is composed in such a way that everyone can take what he wants from it. Do you want temporary material benefit? – Worship demigods. Do you want to achieve mystic powers? – Practice yoga and tapasya – renunciation. Do you want to love God? – Practice bhakti yoga – yoga of love.

Bhagavad Gita – The song of God

Gita means song. Bhagavan means God – The Supreme. Bhagavad Gita is song of The Supreme – Krishna. There are people who consider Bhagavad Gita to be just a fictional book, not even religious. If it is so, why so many people become devotees of Lord Krishna and dedicate their lives to devotional service and it changes their lives very drastically?

If you study the Bhagavad Gita under the guidance of devotees who live and understand Bhagavad Gita, it will change your life. People who study and practice teachings of the Bhagavad Gita stop drinking alcohol, stop smoking, stop supporting killing animals for meat, give up bad habits and their character and life changes for the better. Which fictional book can do this?!

Fight of religions

Followers of different religions often fight which religion is the best and which is true. I say the best religion is the one which changes one’s heart. People fight over philosophy and dogma which is true and which is false. What is the use of that if it does not change the heart for the better?

If a religion or spiritual teaching does not transform your heart, it’s useless. If the result of following a religion is pride and arrogance and putting others down, it does not help anyone and moreover it creates more havoc in the world.

People should see which religion is true through how it can change people’s heart. If we consider this criteria, Bhagavad Gita wins because the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita really change people’s heart and life. Even the biggest sinners can become big devotees thanks to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Many people have the experience themselves or they know others who have the experience.

Searching for the truth

We can fight which holy book is true, which is philosophically and historically more correct, it is important for finding the truth, but if the teachings of the holy book does not transform your heart, all the effort is useless.

Christianity

I was searching for the truth. Which holy book is really true and which religion is the best. Is it Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or what? When I see christians how they live, how they behave, when I read the Bible, it is not an inspiration for me. Something important is missing. Christianity has become something very different from what Jesus taught.

Islam

Then here is Islam – the second biggest religion in the world. Is it true? We can see how it changed people’s heart. Many people changed for the better when they started following Islam. But is it enough? Do they still have material desires? Do they become saints? Do they have love for every living being including animals? Most of the Moslims still eat meat and support animal killing. They call it halal but it is still killing and hurting animals. Moreover most of the meat which is presented as halal is not even halal.

Exposing the CORRUPTION in the Halal Industry (Full Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ6nmjlqyus

Devotion to Lord Krishna

Devotees of Lord Krishna does not eat meat, they do not support animal killing. They try to develop love for everyone, including animals and therefore killing animals is not an act of loving compassionate persons.

Devotion to Lord Krishna transforms our heart in such a way that we do not want to support killing animals, we do not want to make our consciousness dirty by eating animal flesh. We can experience the shift in consciousness after we stop eating meat. That’s one shift.

Another shift of consciousness is when we start chanting Hare Krishna maha mantra regularly, every day:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Ráma Hare Ráma
Ráma Ráma Hare Hare

it will change our consciousness and we do not have to believe something. We can experience shift in our consciousness – a shift towards more calm, compassionate and loving being.

The difference between Krishna consciousness and other religions based on faith is that Krishna consciousness is not based on faith – you have to believe this and that to be a Krishna devotee. No. First of all you have to practice Krishna consciousness and experience shift in your consciousness. Then you become a devotee, then you can understand Bhagavad Gita.

Searching for the truth

If we want to know the truth, we have to experience it. We cannot believe something as truth without knowing it is true. We can see food. How does it taste? Do we know? We can believe someone who claims that he tasted the food, but did he really taste it? How do we know? If we want to know the truth, it is not cheap that we just believe something as truth.

How to run Laravel in production mode

August 22, 2023Laravel, programmingTomáš Hromník

Just run following command in your project folder in terminal:

APP_ENV=production php artisan serve

You can also specify your host & port:

APP_ENV=production php artisan serve --host=192.168.0.178 --port=5172

Laravel HTTPS assets (CSS, JS,…)

August 22, 2023Laravel, programmingTomáš Hromník

You should put in your app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php:

public function boot(): void
{
    if (env('APP_ENV') !== 'local') {
        URL::forceScheme('https');
    }
}

And include URL class

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\URL;

Whole AppServiceProvider:

<?php

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\URL;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Register any application services.
     */
    public function register(): void
    {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Bootstrap any application services.
     */
    public function boot(): void
    {
        if (env('APP_ENV') !== 'local') {
            URL::forceScheme('https');
        }
    }
}

How companies miss great developers

October 9, 2019programmingTomáš Hromník

I know many developers who like to work from home and do not like to go to the office. Or they cannot afford to move to another place for work. Many of them are very good senior developers.

I know many companies that do not allow developers to work from home. Some companies allow some degree of home office, usually a few days a week. Some companies are based fully on remote collaboration.

I think that it’s a shame that in 21st century companies do not allow developers to work remotely. They miss many great developers this way. If work can be done from any place in the world with internet connection, why do not allow employees to work like that? Do you worry about their productivity? Do you want to watch them work? Or why?

From my experience, for some kind of people it’s much better to work remotely. It’s just their nature not to limit to one place, they like freedom. They like to work whenever they want wherever they want. And many of them are really great in what they do. So if you do not allow remote work, you miss many many great people.

There is usually no problem with remote collaboration. Everything works just fine. Things are getting done and boss is happy. The only problem is with people’s mindset: “Oh, you have to come to the office. We have to meet at least once a week personally, or at least once a month…” Why? Why we cannot just meet online? We do not have to waste precious time travelling tens and hundreds of kilometers. We can just open the computer, connect to the internet and have a call, we can share screen, we can see and hear each other, what’s the problem? How is it different from personal meeting? There is very little difference. Most of the work can be done online if not everything. If you know proper tools…

I know whole teams and companies working remotely and it works! Why to bother going to the office every day or once a week or even once a month? It’s 21st century where we can do almost everything online from any place in the world and any time!

So think about it… why do not allow remote work? Is there a serious problem with it? Or is it just a problem in a mindset?

Just think about it… or try it and you will see if it works.

From my experience it works perfectly!

Why I don’t eat meat

May 8, 2016food, LifeTomáš Hromník

There are many reasons why I do not eat meat. These reasons are my personal reasons and I do not force anyone stop eating meat. We all have free will and we can decide what to do and what not to do. You can freely decide stop eating meat as I did.

Meat industry and moral reasons

If you knew how meat industry works, you would probably stop eating meat. Or you would be at least terrified. Maybe you will stop eating meat later when you fully realize what meat really is.

Billions of animals are artificially breed and then unmercifully killed just to satisfy appetites of people. This is not just about meat industry but also about egg and dairy industry.

Please don’t take this as a propagation of veganism. I just want to show you why I do not eat meat and also eggs if possible. You should know what eat.

You can simply ignore how meat industry works and you can eat meat if you like it. It’s up to you. It’s your personal decision. You can continue supporting meat industry and suffering of animals. Or you can at least reduce consumption of meat and maybe you will realize that you do not need to eat meat at all as I did.

Realizing what meat really is

The meat you can see in supermarkets does not grow on trees. What you call meat was a living being like you and me. Plants are also living beings but they are different from us. We can see emotions of animals, but we cannot see emotions of plants. We can see suffering of animals, but we cannot see suffering of plants. Animals are too close to us on evolutionary scale that we can see they are similar to us. Especially mammals. Plants are too far away on evolutionary scale from us and they are totally different from us.

Give a child an apple and a live chicken and see what the child will eat and what will be his friend.

If you knew that the meat you eat is your friend, would you eat it? Would it be tasty? When I ate my last meat, I fully realized what it really is. I knew that the animal had to die to satisfy my appetite. My last meat was not tasty at all because I fully realized what I eat. When you realize that the meat you eat was a living being like you and it had to die to fill your stomach, you will rather eat vegetables, fruits, grains and nuts. Once you fully realize what meat really is, it will not be tasty any more. You will find a lot of tasty foods without meat.

More energy

When I stopped eating meat, I noticed that I have more energy. When you eat meat, the body needs much energy for digesting process. When you eat vegetables or fruits, your body can digest it faster and it consumes less energy for digesting process. That’s why many carnivores feel tired after eating meat and they often need to rest.

Life without anger

When I ate meat I was quite aggressive and angry. I thought it’s my nature. But when I stopped eating meat, aggression and anger disappeared.

Other reasons

There are other reasons why people don’t eat meat. For example health reasons. But my health was quite good when I ate meat so it’s not my case.

Will you eat meat?

This question is for you. Ask yourself if you want to support killing animals and their suffering. Ask yourself if the taste of meat is worth it.

If you decide to go vegetarian or vegan, you can find a lot of tasty recipes on the internet.

Have a beautiful day!

Conscious life

March 8, 2016Self improvementTomáš Hromník

After publishing my article “Why I quit programming” I got this message:

Hi my name is Michael I’m 25 and from Scotland.

Your article has really spoken to me this morning. As I’ve battled frustration and anger my whole life. Blaming other people for my own actions and issues inside my head and causing a lot of hurt for family and myself. Trying to as you said, change others and not my own perception.

Right now the main reason why I’m so frustrated and angry once again is I’m in a lot of debt which I am deciding whether to go bankrupt and start again. To get this chain around my neck taken away and relieve all stress, I had taken out a loan to go traveling around Asia with my girlfriend as My ex partner who I have a son to stopped me seeing him for 3 months so I went away for two months to try and find myself.

It was good but I still don’t think I used my time there to the absolute best I still felt the same trapped emotions about money and being away from my son etc. So I had to come home. I’ve been home almost a year now and it’s just the same again if not worse as I got into a lot more debt etc. and repeating the same mistakes.

I have a 4 & a 1/2 year old boy to a previous partner and I can see similarities in him from when I was a child, and what I felt from my angry father, and I really want to break the cycle as he is very intelligent but I can see the anger will let him down in life as it did me.

I’m just now getting some answers and I’ve often thought about meditation but really I am unsure on how to go about starting. Do you have any tips or any help I could maybe download to begin with?

Thank you for you time,

Michael

My answer

Hello Michael,

thank you for your story. It’s very interesting and I think many people come through similar issues. Existential problems, fear, blaming, anger, depression… You at least know that something is wrong and you want to change it. That’s the first important step for a change.

You can learn about meditation and try to meditate. It can push your consciousness forward. There are many types of meditation – mantra meditation, sound meditation, guided meditation, breath meditation,… and also many types of yoga – karma yoga, hatha yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, raja yoga,… so many ways to change your perception of life. You have to study a lot and then try to pick some tool (meditation, yoga) which you like the most and try it. Each person has a different path and each person likes different tools. Some people can’t even meditate. They just can’t sit and calm their mind, meditation is not for all.

But everyone can learn to live consciously instead of unconsciously. Many people live unconsciously and they are driven by their emotions. It’s a problem when people are driven by fear, anger and hate. To live consciously means to be aware of your emotions and work with them. If you are angry, ask yourself: “Why am I angry? Do I really have to be angry? Where does the anger comes from?“. I got angry quite often and I created a mess around me. The anger in me was not a good feeling and I realized it. I didn’t want to be angry so I started working with anger consciously and asked the questions above. I was able to find the reason why I was angry and then I could work with it. If you have a problem, you can try to solve consequences but if you don’t solve the root of the problem, you will have to solve consequences again and again. Once you solve the root of the problem, the problem will disappear.

So once you get angry, ask yourself why you are angry and try to find the root of the anger. Be sure that it’s really the root. Go as deep as you can. Once you find the root, you can work with it and you can stop being angry. You have to realize that anger is not a profitable emotion neither for you nor for others.

It takes some time to learn to live consciously but if you can do it, your life will change. You will be no more ruled by your emotions.

Conscious life includes more than just working with your emotions. Conscious life means to be aware of every action you do and its consequences. Ask yourself: “Why do I do this and that…“. For example if you eat, you should ask: “What do I actually eat? Where does the food comes from? Is the food healthy? When I eat this food, do I support something that I don’t want to support?“. People do unconscious actions, they don’t realize what they cause by their actions. That’s why we can see the world as it is now. Air pollution, water pollution, global warming, food waste, meat industry, milk & egg industry, excessive use of palm oil and ruining rainforests, poverty, debts, wars, violence, murders… this and even more is the result of unconscious living. To stop this madness we all should live more consciously and realize what are consequences of our actions.

Good luck with your conscious life!

What programming really is

March 3, 2016programmingTomáš Hromník

There was a stereotype that a programmer is a weirdo that is sitting all day in the basement with his computer.

It was true a long time ago. Programmers are not like that nowadays. At least not all.

If you are a programmer

There is a lack of good quality programmers. If you are a good programmer, you can choose who you want to work for. For example Google, Facebook or Apple. If you are good enough, you will probably get a job. And if not, you can try to get a job in any other IT company because almost every IT company is continuously looking for programmers.

If you are a skilled programmer and you have online portfolio, you will get new well paid job offer each week. You can choose where you want to work. You can get any programming job you want if you are good enough.

The advantages of programming

There are many benefits for programmers.

Many programmers do not have to go to work. They can work from home or from any place in the world. This is quite a big advantage for many people.

Programming jobs belong to the best paid jobs in the world. As a programmer you can earn per hour more than regular people earn in regular jobs in factories per day. That’s crazy.

Being a programmer sounds like a dream job, but it’s not that bright.

The dark side of programming

Programming can be fun and it can also be a pain in the ass. It depends…

Learn to code is not a problem at all. Everyone can learn to code. As Martin Fowler says:

“Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand”

So programming is an art. Programmers are artists who write nice readable code. The problem is that any fool can write code that a computer can understand and call himself a “programmer”. There is a lot of unexperienced programmers that write ugly code. It takes a few years to learn to write nicer code that is readable also for humans. The main challenge of programming is not to write functional code, but to write code that other programmers can read and understand quickly. The minor challenge is to write functional code, to make a computer do what a programmer wants to do.

It’s not a problem to write code. The main challenge is to maintain code. There are many challenges for programmers.

Programming features

Features like registration, login, uploading files, processing forms and others need to be programmed. There are usually hundreds or even thousands of ways how to program a feature. The more complex feature the more ways exists. Each programmer would program the same feature in a different way. The same functionality, but the different code. It’s like you would tell people to draw a person. 10 persons would draw 10 different persons.

It gets complicated if the feature is complicated. There are many ways how to approach a single algorithm. One application usually contains thousands of lines of code. If you are a programmer and you start working for a company, you will usually work on a project that has thousands lines of code. You will probably be confused how the code works. Especially if the feature is complicated. You will have to study that code for a few days to understand it so you can make changes to it and extend the feature.

Complicated features contain many algorithms that needs to be written properly. If there is just one mistake, the program might not work.

Fixing bugs

With programmed features there comes bugs. If a feature does not work as expected it is called a bug. The more features, the more bugs exist. The more complicated features, the more complicated code and the more tricky bugs.

Tests

Fortunately, a programmer can write tests for his code to test it and see if it works as expected. Unfortunately, approximately 80% of programmers do not write tests. Some of them would like to write tests but they don’t know how to do it or they are busy with programming features so there is no time for writing tests. Many of them think that writing tests is a waste of time. In fact, waste of time is to write code that is not covered by tests. There is a much higher chance to cause a bug in code without tests than in code with tests. There is a much higher chance to find a bug in code with tests more quickly than in code without tests.

If you do a change in code without tests, there is quite a high chance that you will break something and you never know whether you break something unless you see something wrong in you application. There might be hidden bugs that you might not see. For example you don’t immediately see a bug in a form unless you send the form and see that something is wrong. If you don’t have tests in your code, you have to test everything manually. Once you program a feature, you test it if it works as expected and if yes, you mark the feature as done. Sooner or later there will be a need to change that feature and you will have to test it again. If it’s a big feature, it will take a lot of time to test everything. If you don’t test it properly, there is a high chance that you caused a bug and you don’t know about it. It might be a critical bug. For example some data are not processed correctly or not at all. Your users will not be happy.

So the moral of the story is to write tests to avoid unexpected problems. Tests can save your ass. If you cause a bug in your code and you have it covered by tests, you can see the problem immediately and you can fix it.

The problem with tests is that you have to learn how to write them and how to write testable code. It takes some time, but if you learn it, you will become a better programmer. If you are able to write tests for your code, you can save a lot of trouble in the future. Writing tests can take some time from the start, but it will definitely save time later. I know it’s a big temptation to write code without tests, it might seem that you are saving time when you don’t write tests, but it’s a devilish practice. You will pay a high price for not writing tests. If there are no tests in your code, your code will become a big mess that no one wants to touch.

If you have a big project and you hire a new programmer, he does not know all the dark sides of the code. If you don’t have tests and he touches something, he can break a lot of things without knowing it. He will cause a lot of bugs. Features that worked before suddenly do not work now. What happened? He changed just a small thing in the code. That’s the dark side of the code that is not covered by tests. If you don’t know the code, you can break something very easily without knowing it. It happened to me many times. I was desperate. Then I learned to test my code and I was desperate when I got a project without tests. It was a pain in the ass.

So if you want to have happy programming career, write tests and avoid projects without tests.

Why I quit programming

March 3, 2016Life, programmingTomáš Hromník

Career of a programmer is interesting. Sitting on a chair at least 8 hours a day watching a computer screen and typing some commands that computer can understand and do what a programmer wants to do. Sometimes. Sometimes computer just says “Error” and do nothing.

How/Why I started coding

I write about it in this article: “How programming changed my life“.

What programming really is

I write about it in this article: “What programming really is“.

Coding career

My coding career was great. I started my career after I quit college in 2012 and I ended my career in 2015. I learnt a lot. I started working in a small web development company and after a year I was able to work on my own as a freelancer. I have a portfolio on hromnik.com. I have built a lot of web pages and applications. But unfortunately a lot of applications do not exist any more. They were not successful. The most successful and useful application I built is CoderMania – an e-learning platform for learning to code interactively. Unfortunately, I stopped developing it because I changed my priorities in my life. I started teaching people to code but I realized that there is something more important than coding and teaching people to code.

Changed priorities

I started meditating in April 2015 and I realized in September that teaching people to code is not something that the world needs right now. I realized that the world needs something else. Something more important. The world is full of suffering. There are wars, fear, hate, violence, poverty and a lot of other terrible things. I realized that people can live without these terrible things. I want people to live in harmony, love, happiness and abundance as I do thanks to meditation.

Meditation as a highway to a happier life

Meditation is not something alien to us. It’s a natural activity for humans to gain and retain the state of unconditional love and happiness. There are wars, fear, hate, violence, poverty and other terrible things because people don’t meditate. Many people live unconsciously instead of consciously. They don’t live their lives at their full potential. Many people live in fear or even hate. Quite a lot of people are able to hurt other people and other living beings. It’s not necessary. People can live in harmony if they start living consciously instead of unconsciously.

Once people get a certain level of consciousness they will not be able to hurt any living being if not necessary. They will live in love and happiness instead of fear and hate. They will understand that helping each other is important. Selfishness will go away. Trust me. I was selfish, fearful and angry. I could get mad about any small things. I started meditating and my life changed dramatically. I realized a lot. I can see things that other people don’t see. It’s interesting to see that people create all their trouble in their minds. I can see that people can live in harmony, love, happiness and abundance. I don’t live in a wonderland. I live in the same world as you. I see what’s happening. I see a lot of terrible things. But I also see that it’s not necessary.

You might say: “Ok, but what can I do about it? I can’t change the whole world“. Albert Einstein said: “The world is not a dangerous place to live because of bad people, but because of people who don’t do anything about it“. You don’t have to change the whole world. You can change at least yourself and your surroundings. Once you manage to change yourself, things will happen in a magical way.

Mahatma Gandhi once said:

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

You can change yourself through meditation more quickly than without it. You might say: “Oh thanks, I am content with myself. I’m not the one who should change. Others should change”. That’s what I thought too. But it doesn’t work like that. You cannot change others. You can just change yourself and inspire others to change. Once you can live without fear, anger, hate and judging, others will wonder how you managed it. They will probably want to know how to live happier life. And you will tell them: “I just meditate a few minutes a day. I listen to my inner voice, my heart and do actions according to it. That’s my recipe for happy life“.

And people will probably tell you: “I don’t need to meditate. Meditation is a waste of time“. I know, I had similar thoughts about meditation. But I started to meditate because I was curious what meditation can bring to me. And I was very surprised after a few months, how it purified my consciousness. It’s mind-blowing.

If you want to open a new dimension of life – life full of love, happiness, abundance and harmony, you should practice daily meditation. Yes, daily. It’s not enough to meditate once a week. If you want to feel effects of meditation, you have to meditate every day. If you want muscle, you also have to work out more often than once a week. Meditation is similar to body workout. It needs to be done often and regularly. Start to meditate at least 5 minutes a day and you will feel results after a few months. You will feel much better and you will understand a lot of things about yourself, life and the universe. 5 minutes a day. It’s a minimum for beginners. Everyone can do a 5 minutes meditation. Everyone can change their perception of life in a few months. Everyone can be happier.

Happy people are more important than happy computers

So the main reason why I quit programming is to teach people how they can live without fear, anger, hate, judging and others not so nice thoughts and feelings. People should learn how to live happier life as soon as possible. That’s the most important thing. I have learned a lot and I want to teach others how to live happier life. Once everyone is happy, I can teach coding and maybe even code again.

The second reason why I quit programming is that I want to work with people instead of computers. I want to switch my life from virtual reality to the real one.

Working with computers is nice and comfortable, but I don’t see meaning in it while people live in fear, hate, anger and other miserable feelings. I want to talk to people and show them how they can live happier life.

What will I do?

You may ask: “And what about money?“. This is the most frequent question I get. I know that many people need a lot of money for their living. That’s a trap of The Matrix (this system). I was able to minimize my expenses and I need money for just food, cheap accommodation and travelling (which can also be free – hitchhiking). That’s all. I was able to save enough money to live more than year without a paid job and do what I like – to write articles on my blog, to create videos, to meet great people and this all created and still creates new opportunities for me and others. I haven’t been coding for more than 10 months and I am one of the happiest people in the world. I can work in kids summer camp. I can also work on a farm. I can make and sell food. I can do a lot of things that I love. I don’t need to earn much money. I am happy when I do what I love, when I eat great food, when I am surrounded by great people. I am a new age hippie and I am happy.

Do what you love and be happy too

I don’t like to work 8 hours a day, 160 and more hours per month. This system is not for me and also not for many others who want to disconnect from The Matrix and want to do what they really like no matter how much money they earn. Money is a trap of The Matrix. Humans are the only species who need to pay for living. Many people just can’t stop working and be free. They are slaves of their expenses and money. It’s a terrible life. It’s a modern slavery which produces stress, fear, anxiety, cancer and other diseases. I could talk about the Matrix even more but you probably already know it. You live in it. But you may not know how to get out of it. Just minimize expenses, earn enough money so you can leave your current job and start doing something you like, something more useful and meaningful. Do what you love, be free and be happy. I hope more people will be happy and more people will help each other. We can create true paradise here on Earth. Together.

May the love be with you.

EDIT: Doing something that I love does not mean that I can’t earn a living as many of you may think.

How programming changed my life

January 11, 2016programmingTomáš Hromník

I started programming in 2008. But why and how I started to learn to program? And how it changed my life?

I don’t want to work for minimum wage

I graduated from high school in 2008 and then I needed to decide what I want to do with my life next. I didn’t know what to do so I took temporary job in a warehouse. I have been working there for 2 months, 5 days a week, 12 hours a day. For minimum wage. That was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I was thinking what I would like to do, what I liked as a kid. I liked computers and computer games. I was fascinated how everything in computer works. I borrowed a programming book and started to learn to program in language C. I wrote my first program “Hello world”, then I wrote “Hello Tomas”. I liked it. Once I learned something more, I was able to write a program that asked for my name and age and wrote it in output: “Hello Tomas, you are 19 years old”. I was amazed. I was able to ask people for information, process the information and provide the information.

I wanted to learn more about programming and computers so I applied to college. I prepared for entrance examination and I was able to pass it.

College life

I was full of enthusiasm. I wanted to learn as much as possible. I learned a lot, even things I will probably never use. But it’s good to know more than you need because you never know when you will need it. College will give you wide knowledge of various topics and technologies.

I was at 3rd degree when I told myself “Enough! I will not try to finish exam of math, if I fail, they will expel me. I don’t understand the math, I don’t want to understand it. I want to learn things that I like. I like when people can see my work online, I like web development.” We didn’t learn web development at college, we learned mostly mature technologies that old companies still use. I wanted to create my own web applications that everyone in the world can use. So I left school and started learning on my own again.

Building my first web application

I already knew HTML and CSS and I created a few web pages in PHP before and I knew that I can also create a web application in PHP. So I started learning PHP properly. I didn’t want to build an application in pure PHP, so I also started learning PHP framework Zend. I was able to build my first web application for online food ordering in 2-3 months. It was a dummy application but it worked and I learned a lot. I wanted to sell it to restaurants but I was not a salesman. I liked creating applications, not communicating with people and trying to convince them that my system is the best for them. I wanted to create another application and learn something new.

I wanted to learn Nette framework which was popular in Czech republic. So I started building new application in Nette called “Share a ride”. It was Facebook application where people could offer seats in their cars from place A to place B. People could also create demand that they need to travel from place A to place B. It was not beautiful app but it worked. A few people used it. It could be used by more people but there was Facebook group “Share a ride” which people liked and they didn’t want to use “Share a ride” app because they were used to use the group. Again, I didn’t want to persuade people to use my app. I built it because I thought it will be better than the group and I wanted to learn Nette. Thanks to this application, I got my first job offer. A friend of my friend saw Share a ride app and asked me if I wanted to work in his company. Why not? So I started working in his company. I was happy.

Working as a freelancer

After a year working in a web development company I learned a lot. I wanted to try to work as a freelancer from home. Working from home was my dream. I was able to find my first job as a freelancer. It was 2 years old project written in Nette. The code was ugly and I was able to work on the project for a half year. Then I told myself and my boss “STOP!” I can’t handle this madness anymore. I was frustrated by the project. So I stopped working on the project and I wanted to work on my projects again.

I had an idea for an app called “Seenist” – app where you can create a list of bands you have seen live. Seenist was online after 2 months of development. I wanted to learn something new again so I built it in Meteor.js. And again, the app was not used by many people. I found out that it is quite useless app for most people. But it was useful for me and a few other people. I run out of ideas and I wanted to start working for a startup.

I found and joined one startup in Brno. We were building the startup from scratch. It was a discount portal similar to Droptilyoushop. After 4 months of development and 2 months waiting for a payment gateway we could finally launch the project. We launched and we failed. We had programmers and salesmen in our team but none of us knew marketing. We highly failed at acquiring customers.

After working for a failed startup, I needed to earn some money. I found a job in Meteor.js. After earning enough money I could start a new project. I had very strong need to teach people to code. I did a few in-person programming courses where I used Jsfiddle for code examples and exercises. Jsfiddle was good but I needed a place where I could see student’s code. So I started working onCoderMania – e-learning platform for learning to code JavaScript and later HTML & CSS. I use it in my courses and most students are able to get through lessons quickly and without my help. I was very surprised when I saw their progress. I think CoderMania helps students to understand code quickly. Building something that have impact on how people learn to code is very exciting and motivating.

Changing the world

As a programmer you have incredible power. You can build something from nothing. You are like God. You can change the world. You can build something that will change the world.

Many people think that learning to program is hard and you must have some special skill set. No, you just need to know basics of math and logic. You can start learning to code today and if you like it, you can build your first project and find properly paid job. Or you can build your project and make money on it.

So, how programming changed my life?

I can do what I like and I get paid very good money for it. As a freelancer I can work any time, from any place in the world, on any project I like. When I get an idea, I can work on it. I live my dream, you should too!