Progress in it’s essence is a change. However nowdays we have different understanding of what progress is and we’ve moved away from what it should be. Today, to claim we’ve progressed, all we do is create a change that seems beneficial, even for a short time or a small group of people. Typical example is what’s going on with the economy, the fiscal cliff, the problems with many countries here in Europe, etc., that are all results of such shortly lived beneficial progress.
Then there is the sustainable progress. As I said earlier progress is change, a change in the relations formed between all things, so that those relations can become more productive. As anything else in this world, it’s not a perfect system, therefore it could change for the better. To put it simple, as any enterprise should produce more profits than losses to sustain itself, so should we, as individuals, participate in this life and our relations with all things, in a way in which we can give more than we consume.
And finally there is this idealistic concept of progress, one that harms nobody and takes nothing away. That might seems like a great type of progres, but the problem with it would be that it`s not quite possible. So for all of you who think they create a change that harms nobody, think again. Thinking what you are doing harms nobody is naive and is recipe for disasters.
Finding ourselfs only acting without thinking of the consequences surely is not the way to go, although that’s where we are at currently. Thinking about the consequences so much that we refuse to take any actions because they would harm something or someone, I also find not proper. Instead we should be brave enough to act but also wise enough to realize the consequences of our actions. We should acknowledge the fact, that with any change we make, we take something away and destroy something and the only way to justify that would be if we give more and create more back. To think any action we take could be perfect is the result of arrogant thinking. It`s much easier to try focus on creating positive inflow, rather than trying to be perfect.
Dec
05
The three types of progress
Oct
06
Dec
19
Does bad really exist ?
As I have written before, good can easily turn to bad without you knowing it. Whether that good, you are doing, will have positive result is a matter of change. The force of change is part of a duality that covers all aspects of life. To better understand it I can quote Yakuza, which are one of the biggest mafia syndicates in the world:
“The Yakuza is like pollution from exhaust fumes. Automobiles need gasoline to move. But if you use that gasoline and make the car move, exhaust fumes will come out. Anyplace you go, you will find this cycle.”
So in order for our society to move forward we create “pollution”. That pollution is part of a process and can’t be separated, thus crime will exist along with the progress of a society. That is due to the force of change. Since we all take different places along that process, we are different parts of that car Yakuza talked about. Some of us consume the gasoline where others create the pollution. If we say the ones that create the pollution in the society are bad is to show that we do not understand the whole process. Not to say those creating pollution never see any of that gasoline. What matters is that everyone has their function in the process. It’s neither good nor bad. I do hope the whole metaphor was clear enough.
Yakuza states that life is not about good or bad but rather what you do from the position you were given in it, a thought that originates from Buddhism. Even the mafia can have code of honor and not hurt civilians, for example, like Yakuza.
It is much easier for the richest man on Earth, who just inherits all his fortune, to also be the most generous one. Even after he becomes the most generous he’ll still have enough money that he won’t be able to spend until the rest of his life. A poor man might die because of his generosity and won’t even be noticed.
Good is relative term as most often a short term good causes negative result in a long term and a short term bad creates positive results in long term. In the end there is still good and bad in the world, as they are part of a process. The function of that process is not to change the life into a place with only good or bad but to change the person interacting with it, by providing him with experience and awareness.
Oct
27
Environment shapes who we are
Many people see things as black or white. Reality, on the other hand, shows that things are connected so well, with each other, that we can barely call them separate. The more one realizes those connections, the less he sees the world as black and white.
One of the clearest examples of how well things are connected is what we call environment. As I’ve written before, who we are is determined by the environment we’ve grown in and all experiences we’ve had. An extremely aggressive person could be a result of quite reasonable instinct for survival of someone growing in dangerous or aggressive environment. Should we put such a person in peaceful environment, he would most likely lose his synchronization with it. The result of such change is most often negative, in that case for both that person and environment. Thus should we try to understand someone better we should always think about the environment he has grown in.
We are not only being shaped by our environment, but we are environment ourselves and we help shape others into who they will be. As family is one of the most important parts in each person`s environment, we should try realize how adequate is our lessons to the kids we are raising. The more adequate those lessons are the less time they’ll take to adapt to the reality and thus more time they will have to change and shape the world into a better place.
Realizing the deep connection we are having with our environment and thus with everyone else, really makes it easier for one to see the world as a whole. Guilt and punishment should turn into desire to synchronize and tools to do so. That is also why a true morality is so important for everyone’s progress.
We remain blind for all things we are not capable of understanding. If we focus on expanding our own mind and thinking we are going to see so much more.
Aug
28
Emotions
All of our emotions are delusions created by our own body. They are being used by it so we can focus our attention upon certain problem. Having emotions as a guide for your actions is not such a bad thing, but mostly they are helpful on very basic level and we should instead rely on our mind, rationality and will. A very good example is how the early mans reacted on treats from predators, by instead of running in fear, being capable of complex thinking and communication with each other, the early mans fought off the predator together by running towards him and thus triggering his instinct of fear.
Many of the people nowadays let themselves to be controlled by emotions without realizing those emotions are delusions, in typically materialistic manner. You can see that around you everyday. Some destroy themselves with drugs, in a desire for happiness and joy. Some, being controlled by the emotions of fear and anger, fail to synchronize and bond with everyone else. Others slowly decay, because of their laziness and lack of will.
We tend to get attached to an object as soon as we recognize it as pleasant. Should we recognize an object as unpleasant we start feeling aversion and hatred. Needless to say such types of reactions cause suffering and unhappiness.
To put it simple, in a typically materialistic society, when one likes something he immediately feels he needs to have that thing. Should he manage to fool himself he has it, he receives a delusional reward. Should he fail to obtain that object of his desires, he suffers.
Buddhism provides very good teaching that helps one escapes and realizes those delusions. By giving more power to your mind, rationality and will you can avoid the unnecessary suffering deriving from your delusions.
Jul
12
Religion
What religion truly does is moral teaching and those teachings are quite common among all religions. All the holy books are the tools those religion had, back in time, to spread those teachings. All the stories those books contained were to help illustrate better particular ideas and spark one’s mind to think over the moral aspects of life. When you are reading those books you should also realize they were written at times of extreme violence and poor civilization development. Naturally ones those moral teachings are eventually well enough understood, by the majority of people, all the religions are going to become obsolete.
You’ll be amazed how simple, the ideas those book carry, actually are. Neither The Holy Inquisition nor the huge temples or complex hierarchy of the church (Vatican’s for example) has anything to do with them. You won’t find any conflicts between the religions either, for what they do is they simply try to make us better persons and help us interact with each other in more productive way.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Jesus
Think of this in the sense of the Holy Inquisition for example.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” Buddha
Or that, in the sense of all religious doctrines and how absurd is, after reading that sentence, to wait for Vatican interpretation over certain question (like abortion or whatever).
In the end all the morality comes to understanding and realizing your actions, others and yourself, thus the theme of compassion (for compassion is understanding) is so commonly found in all religions.
“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Jesus
It’s really not about whether you will do something or not (i.e. commit murder), but realizing your actions and what they cause. Putting yourself in the position of others (mostly the one suffering most) is the easiest way.
Next time you are reading any religious book, don’t hate it for the bad name few arrogant institutions make of it. Think about the quotation of Buddha (which is common in all religions i.e. God telling Abraham to kill his son – Bible ) and try to find the things that rely to your own life and understandings , seek that simple ideas which can enchant your thinking and will make you more rational, for yourself and for all others.
Jun
04
The idea behind flower of life symbol
In geometry a point is considered 0 dimensional object. It doesn’t have volume, area, length or other higher dimensional analogue. Then we have a line, again it’s consisting of infinite points. And a square which we can say consist of infinite lines and cube which exist of infinite squares. The cube has volume, area, length and so on.
Now it turns out that we`ve created something of value out of nothing, mathematically. And math says if you take no matter how infinite number and multiply it by 0 , that would equal 0 still.
A point in my view, should be that closest thing to nothing. No matter how much you zoom it, it still remains just as small (which doesn’t make it nothing). An atom is mostly empty space but let’s not forget we all are atoms.
The problem I see is that nowadays science is still too deterministic, in their approach to explain the world. Instead I think we should be looking at patterns to explain the world. Whether they would be the duality/balance force, the flower of life, Fibonacci numbers and so on. As things in life repeat themselves throughout different scales(which is another pattern), if we manage to conclude something without an error about ANYTHIGN then we would be able to explain everything else with the same conclusion.
To put it simple if we try to determine things the way science does still to today, no matter how technologically advanced we are , no matter how small things we can notice (quarks) or how far into the universe we can see, how far back in time we can calculate how things were or how they would be after billions of years ahead, we would still hit dead end. That is because the approach is wrong, we are not looking for simple patterns that would provide us with simple and yet ultimate answers for the universe. We are far beyond the technological level required to be in order to test those patterns on different scales, in different time, locations and so on.
It’s not a coincidence Einstein had problems at school with the deterministic approach of science. Unlike the science community I can’t accept the “fact” that the universe is expanding before I find what is collapsing to allow this expansion. In buddhist perspectives you can find and understand the whole life in a flower, that is because it contains the same patterns that exist in the rest of the universe, that’s why the flower of life symbol is a simple pattern. You don`t need complexity to explain the world but simplicity. The most genius ideas in the world are simple, just like the falling apple Newton observed, it doesn’t take complex calculations and equipment to figure out gravity, but a proper approach.
May
18
Morality, Justice and Delusions
In my opinion morality is how well one makes distinguish, between right and wrong, in the human society. It is that collective optimal good for the whole society. Morality is the very fabric of our civilization. There are many examples of how important it is for the progress of a society, the Germans or the Japanese, after the Second World War, are two of the most obvious examples. It is natural to think that a group of people that understands what’s truly good for them (collectively) can also easily progress or withstand great catastrophes.
We are shaped by our society. Who we are is result of the environment in which we’ve grown. Huge inequality in society creates violence and crime for example. What the judicial system does, in that sense, is to falsely create an illusion that we, as a society, are not responsible for the horrible deeds of a specific person. You do see, I hope, how this is like treating the symptoms of a disease, rather than the roots of it. So we can say that the judicial system does the opposite of what’s moral, it fails to recognize what’s good for the society. If that system is really to create a higher moral value, it wouldn’t try to judge individuals for their actions but rather investigate what’s the causes of such and try to fix them so further such deeds wouldn’t occur. So it’s more rational for one that needs to face court, to rather tell his story so a moral could be taken out of it, than to face a punishment for it.
That repeats itself in individual scale as well. We very often hate others, for they show us those bad sides we also share. Instead of admitting we have such, many of us would rather hate others for reminding them, of those bad sides, because those others have them themselves. We create that delusion so we can feel more comfortable with ourselves. For example we would rather think that if someone killed someone else, that’s not the result of our human nature (which occur under specific environment, that we create as a society), but rather because of that person being insane, which is wrong. People are not insane, they are just adaptive to the environment that they inhabit.
The denial we are facing in both large and individual scale, needs to be overcomed. Just like we need to admit we have a problem, in order to fix it, as a society we need to admit we haven’t created a good environment for everyone, in order for us to improve it.
I am going to finish by quoting Carl Sagan
“For me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”
Apr
27
The window story
Two men, both seriously sick, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the outside world.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake, the man said. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm amid flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band, he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Unexpectedly, an alien thought entered his head:
Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never get to see anything ?
It didn’t seem fair. As the thought fermented the man felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights, his envy eroded into resentment and soon turned him sour. He began to brood and he found himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window – that thought now controlled his life.
Late one night as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the window began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The other man watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the window groped for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have brought the nurse running. In less than five minutes the coughing and choking stopped, along with the sound of breathing. Now there was only silence, deathly silence.
The following morning the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths. When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take it away — no works, no fuss. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.
It faced a blank wall.