The Seeker’s Mind
The Seeker’s Mind Often people want to learn and be creative, but they can’t focus for long periods of time and have no creative calling. This is common in our world today because we are so distracted. A mind constantly distracted will only seek more distraction because it is used to overstimulation. A distracted mind is like the ocean waters during a hurricane. On the other hand, a tranquil mind is like a pristine lake on a bright and sunny day. A motionless lake is transparent and reflective; you can see right down into its ultimate depth. Our attraction to entertainment is destroying our innate ability to learn and be creative. Constant entertainment pacifies our mind. As a result intelligence is undervalued in our world, and creativity is thought of as something isolated to artists. The truth is eclipsed when we overfeed our mind with entertainment and poor food, forget to exercise, and just allow our thoughts and emotions to run amok. We become desensitized to the world around us and even ourselves, as we vicariously watch the whole world implode into unconsciousness. Becoming more conscious of our inner and outer landscape allows us to learn and create at an optimal level. However, developing expert skill and reaching peak performance also depends on having the discipline and dedication for cultivating more intelligence and creativity, which will enhance your overall life. The irony is that many people who just go through life with no discipline and allow life to push them around are often arrogant about what they “think” they know and are incapable of learning as a result. They have not been humbled by life, so they continue to fight and be jaded. We are unable to learn when we are rendered unconscious by overstimulation of body and mind. Cultivating Intelligence Cultivating intelligence requires us to finally admit that we don’t really know anything. This is not a desirable position to be in in our world. We always want to save face by appearing to be intelligent. We often speak about topics and current affairs that we really don’t know anything about because we are paranoid that not knowing about something opens us up for criticism. But it is highly unintelligent to speak on matters we don’t really know about. Even current affairs are issues we shouldn’t speak about. Just because the news broadcast or newspaper gives us information on certain matters doesn’t mean we actually know what’s really going on. It’s unintelligent to formulate opinions on such scarce information without diving deep into the subject. By nourishing the little things in our life we realize that we actually don’t know much, but on the flip side we are eager to learn. As a result we are not afraid to admit that we don’t know because that is the most honest and intelligent position to be in. We learn to be truly humble and not at all worried about not knowing, and as a result we approach life as explorers rather than know-it-alls. We embrace the seeker’s mind, meaning we remain a student of life. Having a seeker’s mind cultivates intelligence, which allows us to grow psychologically. Our minds become more articulate and clear, which becomes evident in our speech and emotional conduct. If we pretend we know, we cannot learn. And if we cannot learn, we cannot grow. Learning is the fertilizer for growing our intelligence. Learning is just like nature because it is nourishing, moving, and growing—it’s alive! Learning itself grows our mind, and if we are growing, then we are fully alive. Our habit to try to be a know-it-all cuts us off from the feeling of growing and being alive. Once we think we know something categorically we stagnate and disconnect from our mind’s natural growth. Our all-knowing habit makes us come across as an authority on certain matters, but we forget that information always changes and knowledge deepens as our mind grows. By remaining a student and continuing to learn throughout our lives, we understand more and continue to grow. Even when we think we aren’t learning, life is teaching us, as philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti explains: “There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born till the moment you die is a process of learning. Learning has no end and that is the timeless quality of learning.” There should be no end to learning. If you are humble enough to remain a student your growth will be continual, and as a result your mind will cultivate a keen intelligence that has a deep understanding of self, others, and life. This process should continue to the day we die, as Mahatma Gandhi said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Learning nourishes this deep intelligence, making us more aware with a profound sense of understanding. Deep intelligence is something we all can have if we are willing to do the work. We are losing contact with intelligence because of the toxic habits that keep us distracted. Instead of diving headfirst into distractions, we need to go old school with simple habits that have become background noise in our modern world. Reading as a Discipline Reading books is essential for learning. Books are a super fuel for cultivating intelligence. But in our modern world books have taken a backseat to the toxic habit of watching screens. We watch television and watch on our smartphones and computers. It’s a constant observation of everybody else’s lives but our own. When we watch whatever it may be, including mindlessly surfing the internet and scrolling the social media feeds, we zone out in a stupefied zombie state. As a result, watching too much stuff on screens makes us stupid. Watching screens doesn’t require a lot of our attention. The more we partake in watching activities the less our mind can concentrate and think clearly. When people have these types of habits it is hard for them to complain about their lives. How can any of us complain if we are not making our lives conscious? We need to take our power back. Instead
Digital Addiction and Smartphone-Related Youth Suicide | Book Excerpt
Digital Addiction and Smartphone-Related Youth Suicide | Book Excerpt To understand the widespread disease of digital addiction, we have to differentiate between behavioral and substance addictions. A substance addiction to alcohol or drugs (or any substance with psychoactive compounds) can directly change your brain chemistry, leading to a vicious dependency on a substance. Substance addiction was the only form of addiction considered until recent studies suggested otherwise. Appearing in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse was an important survey paper in 2010 that concludes, “growing evidence suggests that behavioral addictions resemble substance addictions in many domains.” We have to, as a result of such research, reframe our understanding of addiction to include both behavioral and substance addiction. Psychologists give us a clearer representation of how addictions should be understood: Addiction is a condition in which a person engages in use of a substance or in a behavior for which the rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeatedly pursue the behavior despite detrimental consequences. Yet to be clear, behavioral addictions are extremely moderate compared to strong chemical dependences people have for substances such as alcohol or drugs. Addictions to digital technology and substances are different. For example, if someone quits social media, they won’t suffer the same withdrawal symptoms as someone with a strong chemical dependency. Nevertheless, behavioral addictions are quite detrimental to your health and well-being. Someone with a behavioral addiction will feel helpless when checking your social media is only a tap of the screen away. It’s just too hard to resist for most people. We are like a rabbit with a carrot dangling in front of it, we just can’t resist the urge to try and get it. As I mentioned, positive reinforcement and social approval are evolutionary behaviors that are hard to kick. So, checking how many likes you got on a Facebook post is like getting a hit from a drug, however, it’s not a substance we’re addicted to but rather a behavioral pattern. We constantly check social media to see how we are faring in our “apparent” worth to others (most of whom you likely don’t know). We want to stay relevant and feel like we are needed by others. This seems to be a cup that is never full, it’s never capable of satisfying you completely. But we constantly post and then anxiously monitor our social media accounts awaiting likes and retweets, and sometimes they never come. As a result, social media is more about vanity metrics than anything else, as we lean into those behavioral tendencies of positive reinforcement and social approval which the social media networks are exploiting. We are addicted to this feedback loop. We are gambling every time we post, but we aren’t spending our money as we do with a slot machine, but instead our precious time and attention. The constancy of this feedback loop is dangerous for our health and sanity. It causes a lot of psychological problems that can threaten our life. The Debt is Suicide Suicide rates in general have increased a lot in recent years, where an estimated one million people worldwide die by suicide every year (in the last 45 years suicide rates have increased 60%). Especially with our youth. The main cause of suicide is mental illness, very commonly depression. And it’s no surprise that rates in depression and self-harm are all up and it seems that it is hard to categorically point to one reason. But we might be a little too kind in our assessment. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt believes the main culprit is social media. Haidt explained on Joe Rogan’s podcast that there is evidence of this with the exponential growth in major depressive episodes, psychological disorders, and nonfatal self-harm for young boys and girls, especially girls. The increase in rates are alarming. Haidt explains (for young people in America, Canada, and the UK) that the rates of depression and anxiety on average were fairly stable throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Haidt explains, “The percentage of kids aged 12 to 17 in America who met the criteria for having a major depressive episode… the rate for boys is around 5% and then around 2011 it starts going up and now it’s around 7%.” This is a substantial increase since the graph (Figure 7.1) Haidt was explaining only goes up to 2016, so 2% in five years is worrisome. But this is nothing compared to the increase with girls. Haidt explains, “The line for girls starts off higher because girls have more mood disorders, more anxiety and depression. Boys have more antisocial behavior, alcoholism, crime and violence… Girls basically make themselves miserable, boys make other people miserable.” He continues, “The girls’ rate is higher but it was stable from 2005 through 2010 and then right around 2011 and 2012 it starts going up, and it goes way up to the point where it goes up from about 12% to now about 20% of American teenage girls have had a major depressive episode in the last year, 1 in 5 [girls].” Figure 7.1 Data from Higher Education Research Institute (Figure 7.2) asked college men and women, do you have a psychological disorder (depression, etc.)? For the people who answered yes, the rates from 2010 to 2012 were low when it was millennials (Gen Y/ Generation Y): college men were on average 2-3%, while college women were about 5-6%. But then as iGen (Gen Z/Generation Z born in 1995 and after) began arriving at college in 2013, the rates began to skyrocket. From 2012 to 2016 men went from 2-3% to 6% and women went from 5-6% to a staggering 15% in a space of only four years. By 2016, college is almost all iGen’ers. This is extremely concerning considering the future of our world. Figure 7.2 But there is another alarming and
Honoring Thich Nhat Hanh: The Buddha of the Modern World
Honoring Thich Nhat Hanh: The Buddha of the Modern World I knew this day was coming, but I never wanted it to come. For the sheer selfish reason that a world with Thich Nhat Hanh in it is a lot better than one without him in it. In 2014, when I heard the news of his brain hemorrhage, I was deeply saddened and I couldn’t digest the thought of his eventual passing at that time. But when I heard the news of Thich Nhat Hanh’s passing, I was sad, but then my sadness quickly transformed into joy. My joy stemmed from having the opportunity to live in a world where a Buddha like Thay (an affectionate name for Thich Nhat Hanh, meaning master) lived and for what he has left behind for humanity. When the great Advaita Vedanta sage of the 20th century, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi was dying, one disciple was grief stricken with the idea of his passing. But Bhagavan said, “Where can I go?” This sentiment is the crux of nondual philosophy. There is no birth or death, but instead, as Thay taught, birth and death are just a revolving doorway of beginning-less time. Just like Bhagavan, considering Advaita Vedanta and Zen Buddhism are both nondual philosophies, Thay addressed his inevitable death in his book At Home in the World: This body of mine will disintegrate, but my actions will continue me… If you think I am only this body, then you have not truly seen me. When you look at my friends, you see my continuation. When you see someone walking with mindfulness and compassion, you know he is my continuation. I don’t see why we have to say “I will die,” because I can already see myself in you, in other people, and in future generations. Even when the cloud is not there, it continues as snow or rain. It is impossible for the cloud to die. It can become rain or ice, but it cannot become nothing. The cloud does not need to have a soul in order to continue. There’s no beginning and no end. I will never die. There will be a dissolution of this body, but that does not mean my death. I will continue, always. This nondual knowledge of the intrinsic oneness of the world Thay lived by until his last breath. Zen Buddhism is built on such knowledge and this informed Nhat Hanh’s steadfast practice of mindfulness, inspiring millions around the world to engage themselves in meditation. What could be more important than meditation in a world that constantly divides itself into artificial camps of opposition? With his help, the hypnosis of separation was revealed as nothing more than a dream to those who actively engage in mindfulness and remain in the ever-present eternal moment that is the heart of Zen. However, Zen is much more than mindfulness and remaining in the here and now. Thay was a prolific author, writing more than 100 books, which have been translated into 35 languages. As an author myself, I know writing over 100 books is something not many individuals could achieve. This was the unspoken genius of Nhat Hanh. The teachings of Zen just flowed through him, bringing more peace to the world with every word written. His books range from simple teachings on mindfulness to scholarly works on Zen practice and the deeper wisdom of the tradition. One of my personal favorites is a lesser-known book called Silence. This book helped my own practice and reinforced the importance of silence in a world full of noise. Thay really taught me the art of peace in a world completely distracted from the nature of reality. Many of us find ourselves in the same predicament as Shakespeare’s Hamlet; we live in a world devoid of moral values but we still have personal integrity, and it is up to us to never lose those principles. Thay is the perfect embodiment of Hamlet. All that he had to deal with in his life, from being exiled by his home country of Vietnam to the ongoing injustice that plagues the soul of humanity, Thay remained peaceful with a smile on his face. The confused and often violent world did not infect his soul. He continued to be a beacon of light in a world that easily succumbs to darkness. The great news is he will remain a beacon of light for humanity, even though his body has died. A core teaching shared by all schools of Buddhism is Pratītyasamutpāda, commonly translated as dependent origination or dependent arising. Pratītyasamutpāda is the understanding that nothing spontaneously exists all on its own. Everything in the phenomenal world, including both physical and mental, has many contributing factors and conditions of causation. The basic principle, then, is that all things arise in dependence upon other things, which is an interdependent co-arising or inter-being, a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh. This should bring great warmth to our hearts because in the interconnectivity of life, we all live on through the hearts and minds of those we leave behind. Though, in reality, we haven’t really gone anywhere; only the body has returned to the Earth. The soul continues on and is woven into the fabric of life. Thay, then, is still here. His body died, but his presence remains. You can feel it in the movement of the clouds, the falling leaves on a beautiful autumn day, a smiling face, and so on. I can feel his presence here. Can you? This is why my sadness quickly turned to joy and I could never have had that realization or understanding without the life and teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. I remember when Thay was explaining his love for Buddhism. It is not a complex story, but rather a very simple one. He was walking one day and saw an
Political Correctness is Unnatural
Political Correctness is Unnatural We are developing an over-the-top political correctness in the world which we all know deep down is not natural. It has a certain stench about it. The stench of political correctness infects our mind, producing individuals who have disconnected from their intrinsic nature and beauty. These individuals we all know too well. They are the over-the-top social justice warriors and righteous people in general, who brandish their own personal agendas on the world. They will lynch anybody’s character for the slightest error in their eyes with zero forgiveness. This ignorant PC attitude has given rise to cancel culture online, which is undoubtably the dumbest way to behave. How you can apparently cancel someone is absurd and also impossible (unless these immature people actually want people to die). That our hate is so fervent that we would want to cancel someone (whatever that means) is an example of what a world would look like with no forgiveness or empathy (not to mention intelligence) for our brothers and sisters of the world. A stinky culture plagued by political correctness is under the misguided belief that there is a specific way that everybody should live their life and an artificial language (political correctness) of maintaining this way of life. This is the attitude of the Alt-Left extreme liberals and their woke ideology is considered the “right” way of life. This has gotten to the point that it has become a religion and if you’re not on board then you’re in their crosshairs. If we are not politically correct then “they” will savage you. To counter such a savage attack, it is in our best interest to be vegan, use gender neutral pronouns, believe in equality of outcome, ride a bicycle or drive a Tesla, and learn to hunt in packs as they do (again, my sarcasm is noted). I’m not saying that any of those views are wrong because they are all subjective opinions and viewpoints. But what is wrong is to impose your own personal beliefs and agendas on anyone else as if your view of the world is the truth. Our bible-thumping habits obviously die hard. If we don’t fall in line with this politically correct attitude then we will be condemned, humiliated, and ostracized. This is the world a tasteless culture produces. This is a politically correct hell. And hell is when we divorce from our intrinsic nature and instead employ a robotic behavior. But this doesn’t mean the political right are right. Both political ideologies have their own flaws and extreme attitudes. Both are built on their own subjective beliefs and opinions which is the actual heart of the problem (a whole other conversation about the illusion of identity which has no place in this book). There is no one person with a universal temperament of being either liberal or conservative. We are truly a mix of both, and until we reach that level of maturity, we cannot have the adult conversation we need to have to understand each other deeply. Personally, politics gives me a headache and I’m astonished at how many people are interested in it. There is a lot more to life than to listen to a bunch of people wield their subjective opinions. I am neither left nor right. Call me ambidextrous, or better yet, call me human. Trying to be politically correct all the time is robotic, leading to a very mechanically geared analytical state of mind. This creates lifeless people who are more concerned about making a mistake than actually living naturally. This robotic politically correct mentality is hindering real social progress because we are developing a terrible tendency of individually policing one another with a woke version of censorship. This misinformed attitude blocks the free flow of ideas that invariably help us evolve as a species. My wife has been affected by this in the workplace. She feels alone in her work at times because what she is interested in conflicts with her employees. For example, she once thought about discussing the negative impact of social media with her colleagues, but she knew she would be shut down and ostracized because her colleagues defend their smartphones as if they are their children. It is an evolutionary strategy to stay quiet on certain sensitive topics so that one doesn’t incur any harm. I sympathize with my wife because I too have engaged in such discussions only to be laughed out of the room by a bunch of people hypnotized by their phones. As I mentioned, the big problem is that when many of us, especially those of you who are intelligent, remain silent because the politically correct crowd are monitoring your thoughts with their own ideology, then this will handicap true social progress until this whole childish game is over. We essentially become a prisoner to other so-called “progressive” crowds’ misguided beliefs. This is a form of censorship we are individually imposing on other people, which wouldn’t look out of place in Communist China. An extreme example of this is how the woke liberal leftist media negatively portrays Hindus in India, keep in mind the majority of people in India are Hindu. Hinduphobia is not new. Throughout history Hindus have had to deal with invasion after invasion, but they have always persisted and actually absorbed other cultures into the fabric of Indian culture, and this is a credit to their inclusive Hindu spiritual beliefs. But this inclusive Hindu nature is not highlighted by foreign news media. Usually the Western temperament is to sympathize with those who have been on the wrong end of injustice, but that is not the case for Hindus. Leftist media, especially, condemn Hindus and judge them according to their own beliefs which are foreign to Hindu thought. This leftist attitude is classically known as “intellectual imperialism.” As if it wasn’t enough that Hindus had to deal with physical imperialism, now
An Artificial Problem in a Natural World | Book Excerpt
An Artificial Problem in a Natural World | Book Excerpt We currently live in a culture where we believe we should know “everything,” or at least have access to the possibility of knowing everything. Our culture also ingrains in our mind that we should be “popular” and “relevant.” This mix implies that we should be a popular version of Einstein, maybe close to Neil deGrasse Tyson, but even cooler, more popular, and smarter. Think of a hip version of Iron Man. Our modern culture of popularity teaches us to stick out in front of the crowd for no apparent reason at all. We should be popular even though we don’t know why. As a result, we are building a culture where we project an artificial persona into social media platforms as if this is a surefire way to popularity and being loved by the world. But this behavior exposes our psychological flaws and fears because our craving for attention is subtly an attempt to try and establish that we are worthy. We incorrectly believe we are worthless if we are not popular and respected by others. These sorts of deep-seated psychological issues that the digital world exposes are only the tip of the iceberg (I will go into these problems and many others throughout the book). If we are fidgety with our phones and trying to be popular to feel worthy and accepted, then isn’t this anxious use of digital devices questioning our sanity? What is wrong with just sitting still and breathing calmly while listening to the natural sounds of the world? Why don’t we understand that we are worthy no matter what and that it is actually socialization that makes us feel worthless? Oh, that’s right, we have built a culture that can’t sit still for five seconds because we are trying to always distract our mind from the brutal reality we call our lives. We are addicted to busyness and so we identify with what we do rather than who we are. Well, it’s time to grow up and understand ourselves more intimately and reconnect with life itself. Until that time comes, we need to realize that we live in a culture not mature enough to use technology wisely for the benefit of humanity. Well, not yet anyway. Are We Headed in the Right Direction? Or is the Digital World a Dead End? Since we exhibit a level of immaturity with the use of digital technology, is it wise to go full steam ahead in that direction? If we keep falling down the rabbit hole of the digital world, who knows where we will end up and how a human being will be (if we will be human at all. More on this later in the book). If we keep pursuing this artificial life there is a trade-off. The trade-off is we will lose all contact and sensitivity to the natural world and also our own individual naturalness. When was the last time you went into nature and just listened to her while observing your own natural breathing? Sounds like an odd question doesn’t it. But that’s what life itself is and we are trading it off for a world that is not real. A sad fact of reality is many people find the digital world much more interesting than the real world. But when we compare man-made technology to the natural world there is no comparison, because the mystery and complexity of nature is spellbinding. You have direct access to the most sophisticated technology in the known universe, and I don’t mean your smartphone. I’m talking about the human organism. You are the most sophisticated piece of technology in the known universe and most of us sadly don’t know anything about it. But, on the other hand, we can teach someone to turn on the television and channel surf. Sadly, we hardly know anything about our body and mind. We’re so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the world that we’ve forgotten we even have a body and mind. We forget about consciousness itself. We are like fish who aren’t aware of the water. We invest so much time and effort in everything else but ourselves. And I don’t mean investing in your business, home, career, social media presence, and so on. I mean invest in your actual life, your health and sanity. How can we have a healthy and sane world if we don’t invest in health and sanity on an individual level? It’s not possible. We strive for favorable circumstances externally, but often neglect our inner world. We don’t consider how the digital world is affecting our mind. Having a sense of equanimity and harmony in our life is sadly not our concern in the digital age. We have built a world on comparison and competition, and those competitive juices are being directed into the digital world. Our natural survival instincts are alerting us to keep up with everyone else by taking advantage of the digital revolution. We better invest our time and energy into our projected self-image of who we think we should be on our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts or people will know our lives are truly empty and boring (my sarcasm is noted). We spend so much time and energy trying to keep up with everyone else on social media that we totally forget about the real social aspect of life. We lock our eyes onto our digital screens every waking moment. We clutch our smartphone to the very last minute as we lay down in bed and fire off that last tweet as if it couldn’t wait until tomorrow. We’ll wait for a bus and instead of making eye contact with someone else, we stare blankly into our glowing screens. Life is going by and you don’t even know it. All you know is what the Facebook feed tells you to believe, as we vicariously
Why the World is Always in Conflict
Why the World is Always in Conflict There is so much hatred in the world. So many people banding together based on group identification. Our fear of one another is so heightened that we lack the awareness to listen to one another and ultimately understand one another. Our personal view of life, based on our own beliefs and agendas, is the only perspective of life. Our personal narrative is the narrative. But it has always been this way. Our hatred and fear towards each other are nothing new. It’s an old game that we are all duped into playing. And the game is based on a lie, a lack of understanding about who we truly are and what the world really is. The truth is our perception of the world is clouded and unable to see the world as it truly is. Division and conflict are the result of a world literally going blind to the truth. The fabric of society is built on the foundation that separation is true. But is separation really true? Or is separation the heart of a tired old game that is the root cause of all the problems in the world? If our mentality of separation is true, then why does it only cause conflict? These are the questions that we need to be asking. This is the adult conversation we need to have. To explore these questions deeper we need to understand what fuels division and group identification. And that which fuels both is personal identity. An inquiry into the nature of identity is not new though. It is the core philosophy of the three main spiritual traditions of the East, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. It was also the focus of such philosophers as Jiddu Krishnamurti who dedicated his life to understanding the human condition similar to the quest of the Buddha. This Eastern view of exploring the validity of the individual is in stark contrast to the focus on individualism in the West which has slowly but surely become the focus of the entire world. But have we traveled in the wrong direction? This is such a vast topic that needs an entire volume to explore. But I will focus on a few specific areas that will illustrate how the problems in the world are not an external problem, but rather an inherent problem in the human condition that has never been dealt with outside of those curious souls interested in Eastern philosophical thinking. Our Identity is Limited To consider that identity is the cause of all the world’s problems, we must first understand that knowledge itself, the knowledge we all think we possess, is limited. Knowledge is limited because we are all perceiving the world subjectively, influenced from birth by our culture, religion, race, gender, nation, family, etc. Each group is training us on an individual level to identify with the group as if it defines who you truly are, which are in the end superficial identifications. The group wants you to see as they see and think as they think. Identifying with a group doesn’t allow the possibility of you knowing who you truly are because you’re a bundle of external conditioning based on group beliefs. This conditioning trains us to perceive the world with certain biases which eclipses how the world truly is. Thinking itself, as a result, becomes divisive because our thinking cuts the world up to suit our conditioned identity. Conflict can only ensue from such limited views. The limitation of knowledge creates conflict, not because we’ve identified with a group, that is only the effect, but instead because the cause of conflict is our tendency to seek security. But our perspective of security is warped and the seed of all conflict in the world. When will we learn this lesson? This wisdom has been with us for thousands of years, but we feel more comfortable in the “apparent” security we’ve built for ourselves individually, which gives us an illusory feeling of security within group mentality. But ironically this is far from security and actually is the cause of conflict. How much violence, hatred, and bloodshed will it take for us to understand that superficial boundaries don’t exist, never have and never will. The Game of Identification As the human species evolved, we were naturally part of certain groups due to the nature of biological evolution. As we started to develop culture, it was a safe bet to identify with a group to ensure our individual survival, which was then eventually superimposed onto the survival of our beliefs and the beliefs we have about ourselves and the groups we feel we belong. But this tendency towards survival no longer serves a lot of the world where our basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter are taken care of. Yet this yearning for security is the seed of conflict and basically holds us back from seeing the total picture. It is a limited view of the world. The common belief is we will find security in the family, tribe, nation, race, gender, etc. So we believe security is in division. If we identify with a certain group then this will ensure our safety and propagate our limited knowledge. Do you see the inherent flaw in this common perspective? The division itself creates insecurity. Our identification with a group creates insecurity. All battles are waged based on this illusory belief that division ensures security. We’ve drawn a line in the sand, “this is who I am and what I believe.” But the division itself is limited. Anything that is limited must inevitably create conflict. This cuts to the heart of the individual. For example, if I say “I am an individual,” it is limited. I’m only concerned with myself, which is limited. I am only concerned about the way I see the world according to my beliefs and conditioning which
Lao-tzu’s Wisdom on Artificial and Natural Desires
Lao-tzu’s Wisdom on Artificial and Natural Desires In the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu makes a distinction between “the desires of the eye” and “the desires of the belly.” He recommends that we revert back to one over the other. In chapter 12 of the Tao Te Ching Lao-tzu explains: The five colors blind our eyes. The five notes deafen our ears. The five flavors deaden our palates. The chase and the hunt madden our hearts. Precious goods impede our activities. This is why sages are for the belly and not for the eye; And so they cast off one and take up the other. The word “five” as it appears in this chapter can be replaced with extravagant or fancy, because five refers to our tendency to focus on sensual pleasures rather than moderation. The sage’s advice is to go back to the desires of the belly over the desires of the eye. But what are the desires of the belly and eye that Lao-tzu mentions? First of all, what are the desires of the eye that Lao-tzu warns us against? The Desires of the Eye and Modern Culture The desires of the eye are the things that you can see far away but you don’t possess. The desires of the eye are the artificial needs created by society, which keep us chasing and hunting a life that is not ours and this in turn “maddens our hearts,” to use Lao-tzu’s words. These desires are insatiable and practically infinite. We know these desires all too well because our modern culture promotes the desires of the eye as the template of a successful life. Think of how important Madison Avenue and the advertising industry are supposedly to modern culture. Modern advertising creates these new artificial desires through marketing. They promote the desires of the eye and this in turn creates inauthentic people, which is why Lao-tzu believes these desires are dangerous. A growing swell of people, especially among the youth, will stop at nothing to be famous or have social success. But both fame and success are artificial needs planted in our mind. Striving after such artificial desires suppresses our true nature. As a result, we become a soundbite generation with no depth, where we always swim in the shallows. Being famous, then, becomes more important than integrity, arrogance is mistaken for humility, and marketing is more important than knowledge and wisdom. We only have to see what nonfiction books are bestsellers and what films are the highest grossing to realize that we’ve built an empty culture with no depth. Granted, some few worthy books and films can get moderate exposure and reach a wider audience, but this is very rare. And last but not least, wealth is mistakenly associated with success. The symbol of success, then, is wealth, which either consciously or unconsciously motivates many people to do what they do in life. This is just the nature of a shallow culture. As a result, we’ve got this new phenomenon of people striving to be entrepreneurs for the sake of being one. So, an entrepreneur then is someone who is just a motivation speaker for other people to become motivational speakers. This empty striving just to be noticed is not natural entrepreneurship. True entrepreneurship just happens naturally resulting from hard work, a brilliant idea, and perfect timing. Think of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and so on. None of these people set out to become an entrepreneur or have wealth and fame. All three acted on a brilliant idea that they believed in and now they reap the rewards. In a culture driven by the desires of the eye, we get in the bad habit of trying to mimic someone else’s achievements as if this is a sure-fire path to success. We are always comparing our lives to others and this breeds inauthentic people. We try to emulate other people we believe are on a pedestal. On top of this, we also try to live up to social norms which, in the end, inculcate within us a fake sincerity enacted by our role in the world and this is not who we truly are beneath our social and cultural conditioning. This is why we feel a certain stench about some people’s sincerity and their over the top attitude towards being politically correct. German philosopher Martin Heidegger explained that when we are enacting a certain role with fake sincerity then we are driven by “they,” meaning the expectations of other people and culture. As a result, we are not operating from our original nature, which is our deep-down raw self, minus its egotistical conditioning. Most people never encounter this raw deep egoless nature because people are too busy trying to be somebody important and trying to acquire wealth. We are always trying to keep up with the Joneses or get ahead of them, and this attitude eclipses our true nature. As a result, we have a world that is predominately hypnotized by consumerist thinking. Modern culture, and specifically advertising, sell us this idea of how our lives should be, such as the American dream, which fuels our consumerist habits. Marketing ramps up what we think we need, but in truth we don’t need any of what they’re selling. We are fooled into believing that we need the latest smartphone, car, clothes, haircut, computer, television, and whatever else is deemed trendy by advertising. We also think we need to be famous or known and respected in some sort of way, even if in truth we’ve accomplished nothing to gain such notoriety. All of these artificial desires are built on the lie that we actually need all this rubbish. The fact of the matter is you don’t need any of it. And I’m going to let you in on a little secret that all these great motivational speakers won’t tell you, not everybody can have financial success or fame, and not all
Why the East Avoid Debate and Why You Should too
Why the East Avoid Debate and Why You Should too Avoiding debate is a hallmark of Eastern thought, especially in countries such as Japan. This mentality is hard for a lot of Westerners to comprehend. In the West, we are encouraged to debate so that we can come to a conclusion on a matter. This Western way of thinking is incorrectly believed to be universal. Many Westerners believe the way they think is the same for everyone in the world. This way of thinking is a clumsy way of viewing the world. Both East and West cognitively evolved differently, influencing their social structures, philosophies, religions, language, and basic world view. In the West debate was a natural byproduct of analytical thinking and individualism. While in the East, avoiding debate was a natural byproduct of holistic thinking and collectivism. Avoiding debate in far East Asia can partly be attributed to Confucianism and Taoism, because people have a respect for their elders even when the older person might be obviously wrong or their statements unfounded. For example, we see this attitude in the scientific field, where a lot of support is often funneled to the mediocre older scientists instead of the more talented younger ones. But this resistance to debate is not only an ideological or social one. This resistance extends to the nature of communication and rhetoric. We know rhetoric in the West provides an underlying structure for everything from solving problems, exploring evidence, and other arguments and refutations, so we can come to a conclusion or recommendation. But this linear rhetoric model is uncommon in the East. For example, it’s usually the last thing an Easterner learns on the road to becoming a scientist. This is surely strange to Western academia, but this is how most Easterners have cognitively evolved, even though there is a growing trend in the East to become expert debaters. But is it right for Easterners to fall in line with Western thinking? Or is there something in the art of no debate that the West could learn? And yes, there are a lot the West can learn from the East about many things, including their resistance to debate. To learn about such mentality in the East, we need to explore why they avoid debate in the first place. Japan is usually the best example because they have stuck more to this cognitive trait than other Eastern nations. When we examine decision-making processes in Japanese board rooms and executive councils, they are designed to avoid conflict and dissonance at all costs. These sorts of meetings are often a ratification of consensus achieved by the leader of the meeting beforehand. If someone has a conflict or disagree with the decision being made, they will usually avoid the situation to keep harmony and good relationships with their co-workers. From a Western perspective, this way of going about business would be considered stupid. But it is in this Eastern attitude that the kernel of truth resides, which we can all learn from. The holistic view of the East is built on the foundation of relationships. This means first and foremost friendships are number one no matter what your individual opinion is. Keeping good relationships and friendships are always considered before someone emotionally wields their own personal view on a matter. Even when two people disagree in the East, they will come half way for the friendship even if they still disagree, because again, friendship first. This is why before engaging in business with a Chinese businessperson you better get your liver ready because they first want you to drink with them to see if you can be trusted and also to see if they can develop a friendship with you. And when I say drink, I mean legless drunk. It’s their skillful way of disarming your ego to see who is really behind the mask. This approach is more about friendship rather than if the business deal is good or not. Don’t get me wrong, the deal matters, but from the Eastern perspective friendship is more important moving forward. This friendship first mentality actually caused problems when Easterners and Westerners began doing more business together. And this comes down to the way both view contracts. For a Westerner, once a deal is done, it shouldn’t be modified. A deal is a deal. But, on the other hand, to an Easterner a deal is a tentatively agreed upon guide for the future. Both opposing views most notably caused conflict in the past between Japanese and Australian businesspeople over a contract for sugar. Australia refused to renegotiate the contract when the price of sugar dropped radically on the world market. The Australian view was that the Japanese were being purely self-serving and self-interested. But this was not the case. Actually, Japanese suppliers take these sorts of matters into consideration with their own customers. One example of this is the film industry in Tokyo. When it snows in Tokyo, film distributors are more likely to compensate theater owners for their drop-in audience attendance. This type of friendly compensation would be unheard of in the Western business world. So, the misunderstanding between Australia and Japan was due to a lack of understanding of both cognitive styles and cultural perspectives. Actually, if we look at this situation from a Western perspective, it is not cost-effective to have such a friendly attitude. But when viewed from an Eastern perspective their attitude strengthens the relationship between customer and supplier which makes sense in many ways. Though the Eastern view of not debating may seem radical, it is the best for keeping friendships and also for allowing relationships to grow rich. The Eastern view highlights the fact that individual opinion is not the be all and end all. What is more important is collective harmony minus a self-interested ego, which is a common trait among many Eastern philosophies. But this
The Life and Teachings of Ramana Maharshi
The Life and Teachings of Ramana Maharshi Many people have heard the name Ramana Maharshi, but surprisingly most of them don’t know who he was and why he was one of the most important figures of the 20th century. Personally, his teachings thrust me on the path of spirituality at a young age. He was one of the great sages who opened the door of Eastern wisdom for me. I hold Ramana Maharshi in the highest echelon of sages who graced the Earth. I believe he belongs in the honorable company of the Buddha, Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu, Shankara, Patanjali, Bodhidharma, Nagarjuna, and Mahavira. He belongs to this ancient thread of enlightened masters. The teachings Ramana Maharshi expounded belong to one of the greatest teachings on the planet called Advaita Vedanta, which is one of the main schools of thought in Hinduism. But before we dive deep into these teachings and his own wisdom, how did Ramana Maharshi become a great sage? The Life and Death of Venkataraman Iyer Ramana Maharshi’s birth name was Venkataraman Iyer. He was born on December 30, 1879 in the small village of Tiruchuli in the south of India. He had a normal upbringing, just like any other young Indian. Nothing in his early life was out of the ordinary. But everything changed for him at the age of sixteen. One day, he was alone in an upstairs room inside his uncle’s house in Madurai. Suddenly, he had an intense fear of death, where for the next few minutes he went through a simulated death experience. During this experience, he became aware of his true nature for the first time. He realized that his real nature is eternal, and it is unrelated to the body, mind, and personality. According to Vedanta, he had a realization of the Atman, the Self with a capital S, which is the undifferentiated consciousness at the core of our being. The young Venkataraman realized the Atman at the core of his being and his life was instantly transformed. And yet, you’re probably thinking that many people have had this experience. But what makes Ramana Maharshi’s experience unique, is his experience of the Self was permanent and irreversible. This claim didn’t come from the mouth of the man himself, but rather his followers. So, if you are unfamiliar with this type of knowledge you might be skeptical about existing permanently as the Self, beyond the personality. But if you’ve truly experienced the Self, you know that your life has permanently changed and, thus, your life is dedicated to the path of liberation, moksha in Sanskrit. There is no turning back to the mundane concerns of life when you have had a true experience of the Self. I would also like to suggest that all experiences of the Self are permanent and irreversible, but the reason we view Ramana Maharshi’s experience differently is because the sense of an individual person in him had ceased to exist, and it never reared its ugly head again. Not all of us can say that the individual person ceased to exist after realizing the Self, because most of us try to maintain our social life which requires a certain amount of personality to survive. But young Venkataraman, on the other hand, walked completely out of his life to never return. This type of renunciation is revered in India, and according to the great traditions of Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism, Samkhya, and Yoga, this type of worldly renunciation is necessary to establish yourself in your true nature (this sort of knowledge is explained with differing philosophy and terms in the great traditions). So, in 1896, at the young age of sixteen, Venkataraman Iyer walked out on his family. At the time, he never told anyone in his family about his experience. After his realization of the Self, he kept up appearances at his school and with his family for six weeks, but it was difficult for him to pretend to be this person people know as Venkataraman Iyer. He couldn’t play this game too much longer and so he pined for an environment more conducive for spiritual life. He had a deep calling to go to the holy mountain of Arunachala in the small town of Tiruvannamalai. This was not a random urge, because Arunachala is considered by Hindu’s as a manifestation of Shiva. Ramana Maharshi actually said in later years that it was the spiritual power of Arunachala which brought about his enlightenment. And I can tell you that from personally spending a lot of time at the foot of Arunachala, the mountain definitely has a certain power and also an ability to settle the mind which is indescribable. The Birth of a Great Sage Once Ramana Maharshi arrived at Arunachala, he never moved more than two miles away from its base from 1896 until his death in 1950. During those years the birth of the great sage Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi came into the world. Actually, it was one of his earliest followers who renamed him Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. To understand this name, first Bhagavan means Lord or God, Sri is a title of honor in India similar to Sir in England, Ramana is a contraction of his birth name Venkataraman, and Maharshi means “great seer.” From 1899 to 1922, Ramana resided in many caves on the slopes of Arunachala. In his early years there, he spent most of his time in silence. It was through this intense silence that people began to gravitate around him. This silent force he emanated could bring stillness to the minds of those around him. People were naturally more peaceful and their minds were completely still in his presence. This deep silence was his original teaching and this powerful silence is a state of consciousness revered in the great Eastern traditions. In later years, Ramana was more willing to give verbal teachings for people
Go Beyond Everything (Turiya)
Go Beyond Everything (Turiya) In the great Eastern spiritual traditions there is a special importance given to going beyond everything, essentially going beyond the world and even your own mind. This is the spiritual ideal of the great sages and teachings of the East. But this ultimate goal is something that frightens most people because they are not willing to truly give up their sense of “self.” People who become interested in spirituality forget this ideal. Sadly, people often subtly use spirituality to propagate their ego rather than dissolve it. This is especially rife in the West. The individualistic mind of the West has taken the holistic philosophies and practices of the East and turned them into something geared more towards self-interest and vanity rather than the dissolution of self, humility, and simplicity. To counter such widespread cultural appropriation, we need to understand what going beyond everything means and how and why we should really be aiming for those lofty heights previously only experienced by the great sages of antiquity. The Foundation of Consciousness Going beyond everything means you’ve come into resonance with the underlying witness of all life. This witness is the pure awareness at the core of our being that we cover over with worldly experiences, mundane concerns, and individual conditioning. This witness is not overly considered in Western religions, but it is the spiritual ideal of the East. The goal is to firmly re-establish yourself in this pure awareness which is untouched by all experience. So, the focus of this goal is not about the “experience,” but instead the experiencer. The pure witness (experiencer) of all internal and external movement. This witness resides in all experiences, no matter whether the experience is pleasurable or painful. The witness is a permanent feature of consciousness and is actually the foundation of consciousness. The surprising thing is not many people in science or Western religions focused a lot of attention on the witness and this might be an unintentional oversight considering that if you are not a deep explorer of your own consciousness then the experiencer will be overlooked in favor of the actual experience. Undifferentiated Consciousness Thankfully the great Eastern spiritual traditions revealed that the pure awareness of our being is the essence of consciousness. Yet each tradition explained this a little differently. In Vedanta to remain as the Atman, the undifferentiated consciousness, the Self with a capital S, means to abide in that witness state without letting the turbulence of worldly experience shake you. In Samkhya and classical Yoga, the more you reside in pure awareness, Purusha, you will begin to separate from all the movement of energy in the universe and mind, Prakrti. You develop an actual gap, where Purusha can look upon Prakrti without being affected by its gravitational pull. In Buddhism we have Tathata, a word which refers to someone who has arrived at suchness or thusness. This is the Buddha mind that has recognized the utter impermanence of the world and, as a result, their sense of self has thinned away into Sunyata, the voidness of the universe where suchness is revealed. This is the Buddha’s immovable state symbolized in the Bhumisparsha mudra. And lastly, in Taoism there is the Absolute Tao that animates all life through the yin and yang energies of the universe. The great Taoist sages Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu explain how we can absorb our mind in Tao by emptying our mind and allowing life to be as it will without our individual interference. By following this process, you begin to merge with the Tao. Unassociated Bliss So, the common theme among all these great traditions is we should empty our faculties and instead of pursuing experience after experience, we should abide steadfast as the pure witness, the undifferentiated consciousness. And the promise of all the traditions is that abiding in pure awareness is actually the true key to happiness. Actually, they would say it leads to unassociated bliss, Ananda in Sanskrit. We’re often going from one experience to another trying to fill this emptiness we all feel inside, but it never leads to lasting happiness. The irony is ananda is not found in experience, but rather in dissolving the one who continually chases experiences. When we abide as the witness more and more and are not influenced by the activity of our mind, then we are in a state of bliss from not being a “person.” This is the advanced spirituality which is part of the higher religion of the East. This sort of knowledge is what separates Eastern spirituality from Western religions. Too often these days people think there is a radical universalism existing among all religions. What we have to understand is that all religions have their place, but they are not equally efficacious. There are some similarities but they are somewhat loosely connected when we study each tradition. Eastern spirituality is far more transformative and peace bearing because the whole ethos of the Eastern traditions is based on the study of consciousness to discover the nature of mind and the universe. And they’ve done a damn good job at explaining all of that and more. Turning Away from Worldliness Most importantly, they’ve given us the key to true knowledge of our nature. But this knowledge requires us to go beyond everything to experience our innate bliss. We have to turn our back on worldliness. This means we have to turn our back on worldly desires and any ambition we may have of becoming “someone.” This does not mean being apathetic because it is actually our personal agendas and individual conditioning which causes all the trouble in the world, so we seek to dissolve all that subjectivity to see the world from an objective viewpoint. Instead of indulging in the “I”-thought, we need to ask who is the experiencer of thoughts? Does the experiencer feel pain or pleasure? The
