First understand this: Life has no opposite. That
which is considered death is a miscalculation in one’s
understanding of life. The consideration one has of
death is a superficial perspective of what life truly
is. The notion that when one ‘leaves’ his body he is
dead is an unsophisticated, immature understanding of
the life processes.
Life has no end, no opposite. When an individual
identifies himself by his physical body he ensures
many problems for himself. This type of self
identification leads one to think in terms of ‘life
and death.’ When one identifies himself on the simple
plane of physical existence then he may properly be
considered ‘dead.’ Even so this ‘death’ is still life.
The physical body of man is similar to a blank
Microsoft Word document· The document has the
potential to be animated by focused thought. It may be
used as a template to vector ALL manor of ideas.
The Word document has no life of it’s own. It is the
ideas which animate the page that is the force of
life. To the effect one animates the page is
indication of the gradient of life force of the said
person OR energy.
Not all of us are people! If we identify each other by
the the physical body of man we may say, “Yes that is
a human. There are two Legs, two arms and a head.”
No… that is just the template. In-fact that may NOT
be a person. It may be any number of universal
energies simply using the physical body as a template
to vector an idea.
When this is clearly understood it becomes clear that
MAN is God. He is also the Devil. In-fact he is All.
When born to the planet he has the potential to exist
as Anything.
To come full circle… there is no such thing as death
as it has been commonly understood. The only death is
not knowing what you are, and what you can be. Also
getting caught up in something you are not.
This is one of the most simplest and most fundamental
truths which all children know intrinsically. If this
idea is not nurtured, then soon after being born to
this planet they loose the reality of this truth and
succumb to an inferior ’shape’ of what they
potentially would of became if the idea WAS properly
nurtured.
Children are the best part because they are most
tightly connected to Everything. The only way to be a
well ‘Tuned-In’ adult is to maintain the metaphysical
nervous system of a child.
Certain individuals in this world are mutants — people who, through their ideas, actions, and behaviors — bring about a change in the consciousness of others. People who recognize the imbalances and seek to bring about a balance, a reduction of the lies, deception, pollution, politicizing, what have you.
Understanding the various games of society is essential to understanding what’s really going on — figuring it all out and deciding if you’d like to stay in and play or pack up the pieces and start your own game. In this discussion I answer the following questions of:
What if someone is really passionate about making money — isn’t that okay?
How do you balance yourself knowing that you have to be a part of the system in order to get things done?
What about the parents, professors, and priests who are really passionate and care about you — are they still wrong?
To me, the answer to that is simple. The highest point of human evolution is when one totally frees or is on the journey of freeing their mind from the grips of the society. When they, metaphorically, are able to climb to the peak of the hill and see beyond, far beyond, the illusory clouds manifested by the storms of a society that is only interested in controlling, conquering, and prescribing their imperatives of order in a world that is naturally in total disorder.
The man on top of that hill, I speak literally now, is perhaps that man who is at the highest point of human evolution. The man (or woman, of course) who saw beyond maya (illusion) and checked out the game to go deeper into himself. And who went deeper not only for himself, but for the society that so aggressively dismissed him.
Those who truly see their potential now, not later, soon, or in a few decades. Those who can see that they are not marginalized in any way, as society would like you to think that you are. Those who realize that exploring the consciousness, perhaps through art or anything that you truly dig, is what this is all really about. Those who have no problem stepping out of the line — the herd pack, and pecking order — in order to free yourself from the prescriptivism that is used to universalize moral judgment and fear into the minds of all.
I believe, the highest point of human evolution is not reached through our mere physiological advances, but through the ability to heat our minds to a point where our energy is capable of passing the societal thresholds, transitioning to the next dimension of consciousness.
A few nights ago while flowing into the psychophysical practice of yoga my teacher told the class to “fold into yourself.” And those words have lead to some deep contemplation over the past few days, some of which I’d like to share with you very succinctly here.
“Folding into yourself.” Wow. I’m totally digging that in a very profound way. To me, folding into yourself means initiating a collapsing of your mind, your ego, all of your thoughts and perceptions, and going inward into a state of contemplative silence where you are able to see with your eyes closed, hear without your ears, and sense without using your five sense (actually 6, but that’s another discussion).
A place where you surrender to yourself and you see that you were never in total control whatsoever. A place where endless possibilities cross your mental landscape as clouds gently coaxed across the sky — clinging to nothing, just observing.
Folding into yourself is shutting the door of the car before you drive off. But instead of the atomic heap of metal, the car, your mode of transportation is yourself — your spirit. Setting off on a journey that will seemingly feel like you’re traveling great distances and traversing vast plains, but none of that is so. For you are only traveling deeper and deeper into your Self — to the point where you are folding yourself inside out. And once you’re out — once you’ve inverted your consciousness from the hypnotized state that has been imposed upon you, separating yourself from the world, to a state of oneness where your barriers have been dissolved, you are there. You’re there, but the journey isn’t over — it continues folding and collapsing into the infinite abyss of the conscious.
I often speak of mind evolution and expanding one’s consciousness — both of which are of paramount importance in my life and perhaps in yours. However, I’d like to note that one needn’t bombard their mind, or overwhelm it, with any particular tool or method for such an expansion or evolution to manifest. It’s often very easy to fall into a state of mental bombardment when one adheres to the philosophy of “more is better.”
Tools such as meditation, the use of psychedelic plants, yoga, mantras, dancing, tantra, singing, et al. are all fine lubricants that will aid you on your journey, no doubt. For thousands of years such practices have been used to extricate the mind from itself and, more contemporary, checkout from the suffocating societal imperatives that are so aggressively forced down our throats.
But don’t be too quick to pack your bag with all of these tools at once. Surely, these tools will help, but if your bag is too heavy you won’t be going anywhere. Think of it like this: in a factory where shoes are being made there may be an infinite amount of tools, methods, tweaks, and adjustments that can be implemented to increase the efficiency and output of the shoes being produced; however, if the factory was to experiment with ALL of these ideas simultaneously, it would lead not only to a decrease in output, but to its utter demise.
And in the same way, don’t shoot for a quantum leap of the mind, but, instead, for cosmic steps toward the dissolution between YOU and everything else. Travel light and take only what you need at the particular moment in time.
My brother was telling me about this girl that he knows. Every time he walks into her house, there are mirrors everywhere. Mirrors in the bedrooms. The bathrooms. The living rooms. Every corner of the house. He asked her why she had so many, and her response was to the effect that she liked looking at herself. As my brother told me this experience, we began to talk about mirrors and how someone can really see themselves. Below are thoughts from our brainstorm — from what we like to call our “build.” Since we are building our minds when talking on this sort of frequency.
How Can You See Yourself?
Who do you see when you look in the mirror? Is it skin and bones? Is it everything that’s going on in your head? Is it your smeared lipstick? Is it your unbrushed hair? Is it your pretty face? Is it someone that completely disgusts you? Is it someone you no longer know? What is it that you see? Is it YOU?
Where is Your Reflection?
I don’t think that any of the above reflections are really YOU. I think what you are seeing is an illusion. What you see in the mirror doesn’t represent what you are / who you are. What you see, perhaps, is your ego. What you see is merely skimming the surface of the deep ocean of what’s really going on. You don’t see your mind in the mirror. You don’t see your energy in the mirror. You don’t see your potential in the mirror. In fact, you see nothing. You see your bio-suit of skin and bones that hold you together.
Okay, Do You Really Want to See Yourself? — You Ready?
Go look at the image on the wall that you painted. Take out the photos that you snapped of your family, you girlfriend, the birds in the trees. Open up some old notebooks and read some of your essays / notes. Observe the smile on your younger brother’s face when he opens to present you just gave him. Think about the warmth of your lover’s hand when walking alongside the shore on the sunny morning. Listen to the bird signing you awake outside your window. Play with the wind that’s gently swaying you side-to-side as you stroll through the park — lean into that wind and play back. Feel the rain roll down your face and trickle off your eyelids back onto your cheek. Say no to someone who tries to put you on the wrong path in life. Wake up and do something totally unexpected. Pay attention to these things. Notice them. Play with them.
This is the Reflection
All of these things. They are your reflection. This is where you can see yourself. Though they still aren’t YOU, this is where to go to see your reflection. Save your fair, because you won’t need to travel anywhere. All you need to do is go inside of yourself and you’ll soon see the pristine, brilliantly clear, sharp reflection of your being. Understand that you are no different from what’s outside of you than what’s inside of you. What you saw in the mirror, that bio-suit of skin — that was only a necessary boundary — nothing more. An outline in the fabric of the cosmos.
How many activities involve balls? We play various games such as: volleyball, soccer, tennis, bowling, lacrosse, marbles, dodge-ball, hand-ball, etc.. And we have fun with these spherical objects, right? At a club, there’s a disco-ball that lights up the room and projects fun and random shapes of light across the floor. When someone goes out, we tell them to “have a ball.” Meaning, to have a good time and enjoy yourself. Rappers say: “I’m balling yo!” and “that’s dude is balling!” Meaning, “I’m awesome” and “that person is very wealthy and is having a great time.” We say “let’s roll.” Meaning, let’s go! The earth is a ball. Our eyes see little balls called photons which our brains interpret as images — what we see. We are made up of balls, molecules. Maybe everything is a ball. Balls are fun because they are round and they roll, they move. They are smooth and flow. Squares, on the other hand, don’t roll around. They like to stay fixed and motionless. Maybe we can think in balls and squares as well. If we think in terms of spheres, maybe our thoughts will have curves and they can roll and flow just as the basketball does — not attached to anything in particular and always moving. Maybe we can think in squares as well — cementing our thoughts and placing them into little storage boxes in our minds — never freeing them to move and grow and mostly importantly, to have fun. Or perhaps neither balls or squares really exist and instead, everything is a wave. And when you think, you’re waving at me. When you act, you’re waving at the universe. And everything is waving right back at you. Maybe that’s all anyone or anything is ever, fundamentally, doing — waving.
Samadhi is a non-dualistic consciousness where the experiencing subject becomes one with the experiencing object. Meaning, you become ONE with anything that you are doing, i.e., riding a bike, playing a game, playing an instrument, whatever it may be. You fall into a trance where you are totally aware, yet not thinking of anything. Totally concentrated, but not trying to control the situation at all. In this discussion, I relate samadhi to personal experiences and observations that I have made. Please enjoy and may you be inspired.
I find myself studying all sorts of things: photography, biology, physics, tea, yoga, Buddhism, writing, publishing, Hinduism, food, natural remedies, psychology, neurology, animals, plants, words, meditation, and the list goes on and grows every single day. There is SO much to learn and experience. This is truly the spice of life, learning and basking in new things, all the time.
Pluged In: Surfing on the Cosmic Current
And this is perfectly okay; in fact, it’s our nature to do so. It�s our nature to study everything that life has to offer. Note, I use the word �study� in the most playful and casual manner, meaning to �play� with and �have fun� with something that you are getting into. Something that you dig. Something that fascinates you and awakens your inner joy.
Better, it�s more of a �plugging-in� to the universe. Think of the universe as one large electrical socket with infinite amounts of energy. And every time you have a new experience, learn something, and open your mind up to more ways of thinking, you are totally plugged into this cosmic current of information.
You are having a blast, charging up and surfing this cosmic wave. You aren�t tied down to anything and you continue to coast through all sorts of people, books, experiences, events, talks, parks, beaches, all sort of places that totally electrocutes your mind to the world and all the beauties it has to offer. What an amazing ride when you�re plugged in. Such a charge never ends � you�re just powered up and surfing away, full speed ahead.
The Battery Charged Automaton
Or maybe you�re an automaton that isn�t plugged-in at all. And you energy is supplied by a few double AA batteries that were inserted into the back of your neck when you popped out of your parents. Yup, that day in the hospital your giddy daddy was so excited to pop those batteries in and flip the ON switch. And there you were, a perfect robot that looked and functioned just like a human.
This is what I�ll call the �Battery Charged Person.� Let�s see how it differs from the aforementioned �Plugged-In Person.�
When you�re running on batteries, you aren�t surfing the cosmic current at all. No sir. Instead, you are carrying out a specific set of parameters and functions that have been programmed and installed into your brain from childhood. You go to school like everyone else, graduate, and then your software randomly chooses one of the preset professions that have been programmed into you (doctor, lawyer, accountant, programmer, whatever it may be… doesn’t matter) � and there you go! You are now an engineer and that�s all you do because, as far as you know, your batteries will run out one day so you need to dedicate your life to one thing and one thing only.
And what do robots do…?
Since you�re essentially a robot, your software tells you that focusing on one thing is the most efficient route to happiness and success (to best use your battery supply). So life passes you by. You stake out a profession and stick with it forever. And 40 years later, there you are, battery weakened, body malfunctioning, and your retirement program now kicks in. You�re 65 years old and have a few select memories of two or three things that you experience in your lifetime � school, college, work, retirement. And in a few years, that�s it, your batteries will run out and you�ll be discarded in the scrap metal box.
I use these purposefully dramatic examples to underscore these two very different mindsets, yet very ubiquitous mindsets. On one hand, the minority, we have those that are plugged-in this world. In fact, they�ve always been plugged-in and they know that. They surf through life with such a vigor and moxie, learning new things, meeting new people, and going on all sorts of adventures. For them, it�s all about the journey � never about the start or end. Those things really don�t matter to those plugged-in.
Then we have the robots who treat life as a drag. Trudging along waiting for their battery pack to expire. They want to adhere to protocol (the status quo, parents, peers, society perhaps) and have no desire to get involved in all sorts of things such as nature, science, philosophy. Why? Because as far as they are concerned, it�s not a part of their software. Not something that they are �supposed to do.�
But what are you supposed to do, exactly?
�Supposed to do.� That is exactly the fundamental difference between the two mindsets. Those plugged-in realize that they aren�t �supposed� to do anything at all. They aren�t supposed to be anyone. Aren�t supposed to go anywhere. Aren�t supposed to claim a certain stake. They just do what they do and that�s it. The automatons feel that they are supposed to do such and such and only such and such. Such as a program is supposed to carry out a specific set of functions and that�s it.
We need to examine what’s outside in order to see what’s inside
Sadly, the robot can never truly understand who he/she really is because they have nothing to compare themselves to � nothing to cross-reference. And that�s precisely how we grow, by examining others. In the same way that we pinpoint two other locations to define ours � triangulation � we are able to discover ourselves by immersing ourselves in other cultures, books, societies, sciences, nature� heck, even technologies. You can discover yourself from (better, “in”) ANYTHING. Even the ant walking across the floor.
A rather cursory example would be that of the psychiatrist whose job is to diagnose, examine, and study various conditions of the mind. Now what if the doctor only had one patient ever, and he diagnoses him with bipolar disease? Well this wouldn�t be possible at all. Because wouldn�t the doctor need to know what bipolar was �not� in order to understand what it �was.� He would need more information � need more minds to study in order to validate and truly know what bipolar was.
And in the same way, we should (but needn�t if you are playing the battery charged game) examine all sorts of things in life. That�s right! Get into everything you can. Learn new things, talk to new people, and have a blast. Seriously, go �nuts� and study all those things that you�ve always wanted to. That “wanting” is your true nature. The only time is NOW.
Click! Snap! Click! Snap! I’m clicking the lego pieces together and building something — connecting the pieces one by one. The lego pieces stick together like glue, immovable and solid. Fixed and inanimate.
You see, for many of us playing The Game of Legos was one of our first games that we learned in pre-school. And we still play it today. But I would like to propose, through an analogy of “Playing the Game of Legos” that we are still snap/clicking the pieces together. But we have become the pieces to the game and the world has become our playground where the lego pieces take shape.
Let us first consider the implications of the “groups” that our teachers broke us into starting from youngsters in school. We are broken up into groups of five or so and told to go off into a corner to play with those certain kids over there. Of course we don’t question our teachers and we merrily go off and play.
Now, this is the first time that we are exposed to “groups,” or what we’ll now call “clicks.” Why, because we “clicked” into them. Now that the group mentality has be imbued into our psyches, we learn and accept that clicking into groups is natural and okay. So it begins — the group mentality. Also known as the herd mentality.
The Game of Legos
Now in high school the Game of Legos continues on as we click into one of the following: jocks, nerds, drama-freaks, chess club kids, popular kids, etc… And you better click in or you’ll be left out! If you’re lucky you may be able to click into the popular herd! Hurry up! Try your hardest! You can do it!
So you spend your high school years desperately clicked into your selected group and you remain a loyal member to the herd of your choice.
Then in college, oh man, the pressure to click in is even greater. Especially those crucial first few weeks of freshman year. Hurry up…!! Click into a fraternity. Click into a sorority. Click into the Spanish Club. Click into the Asian Club. Click into the Stoners Club. Click in before you get clicked out!
Now you’ve graduated and it’s time to start clicking again. Geezz… aren’t you getting tired of this game already? No, I guess not. Okay, so it’s time to click into that “Dream Job.” You know, the job that’s going to pay you the 100K+ a year. Forget about if it’s something that you really love doing or not, right? Who cares if the job sucks, it’s a dream job! Click away baby! Keep playing that game. Whooo… Hoo..!! And you better keep on clicking up that latter. Kiss ass. Cheat. Lie. Who cares, do whatever you have to do to keep on playing The Game of Legos.
The Game of Skipping
Now let me propose something else. What if, perhaps…. just hear me out…. What if, we skipped instead of clicked. When we click into things our whole lives — jobs, fancy titles, certain ways of living — we become as the lego pieces — fixed, locked in, and glued together. But what happens when we skip? When we skip we get to experience so much more.
When we allow ourselves to skip — to borrow a line from Big Papa Jesus — we become “as children,” and skip into all sorts of things in life. We merrily skip into ALL groups of people. We skip into ALL sorts of fun and adventurous jobs and projects. And we’re never locked down, always skipping along life’s paths and having a blast.
No titles. No pigeonholing ourselves into fixed categories. No glue. No jailing ourselves into this or that group. Just skipping and flowing — accepting the reality that everything is always moving and changing.
Now I’m not saying to give of playing The Legos Game (you can…if you choose to). Absolutely not. If that’s your game, then please play it. The game can be fun, no doubt. Just make sure that you take apart the pieces and pack them away when you’re done. Then get out there and skippedy skip skip.
How does one describe that which cannot be described? When Alan Watts calls words “clumsy,” that is to say that words will never suffice to describe anything in life — to really describe.
Words are merely clever tools that we have nearly arranged to help us communicate “things.” I draw attention to “things,” because it denotes a separation or distinction between me and the world (but we’ll use it for now). Words are really — here it comes… — inert. Funny that I should say that, being a writer n’ all (but I, too, can play this game).
All in all, words don’t measure up and are poor means of brining forth true understanding. What do we say when we meet a new girl/boy that we’re totally diggin’? Perhaps someone we met over a cup of tea and later on that day embraced, followed with steamy, wet, and enchanting kiss.
What is it that you feel, now walking back to your car… grinning ear to ear? Some would say, “I have butterflies in my stomach.” But what are these butterflies in your stomach? What does this really mean? Others would describe it as “a buzzing sensation throughout the body producing side-effects of uncontrollable smiling, increased heart-rate, sweating, and an insatiable desire to think about said person over and over. But what is this buzzing sensation, I ask?
For that matter, what is the meaning of life? Why are we here? How are we growing? Amusing questions, no doubt. Such questions have lead to endless debates and grueling discussions of “I’m right and you’re wrong!” Discussions that go on ad infinitum, ad absurdum.
It’s amusing because no matter how hard we try, words will never be able to satisfy these questions. The plant IS life. The blastocyst in the mother’s uterus IS growth. Your purpose for being here is absolutely — and beautifully — purposelessness.
Words just won’t do, only “That” will suffice. That is to say, when you are “That” which you are attempting to describe, you suddenly realize that you no longer need to wage this futile war with words. Because you have become (or better, figured out that you are), That which danced on the tip of your tongue but just couldn’t seem to roll off.
There is no need to verbally express the inexpressible, because when you are That your mere existence IS the expression. And, to contradict myself, every word that comes out of your mouth, every touch, sight, and thought, is now that expression as well.
In this realm duality ceases to exist and logic is useless. No words from others can ever break your resolve. You are One. And One is not exclusive, it’s all-inclusive.
A few days ago I was speaking to myself, going over some notes that I’ve been preparing for an upcoming discussion. I was having fun laughing and discussing various sections of my discussion with myself. And it was great, because I came to the realization that I should never be serious when speaking to anyone. Giving a “speech” and “presentation” is a totally different experience than simply having a “discussion.” When one is serious, you become “concentrated” (in the bad sense of the word). Meaning that you become tight and overly concerned with every little thing, leading to a collapse in creativity and Beingness with the environment. But when you aren’t serious, you are truly concentrated. And real concentration is the ability to let go and become totally involved without even trying to think about it — it’s just happening.
Go For a Ride, Stop Resisting
You just allow yourself to float away. And when one allows for this “floating away,” you can truly see the artistry in everything that you do. For me, when I was going over my notes and speaking out sections of my discussion, I became a painter. Painting stories, experiences, and thoughts onto the infinite canvass of the universe. If I had been serious about what I was doing, there would have been no painting. I would have been a one of those scrupulous sketch artist hacking away with my eraser every 2 seconds trying to correct every little touch outside of the line — producing drab and mundane work. Even the serious surgeon is bound to make a mistake if he isn’t letting go (as paradoxical as that may sound). Being serious about anything in life is tantamount to walking around with a blindfold. You’ll never really see the beauty in anything.
Be Sincere instead of Serious
When you are open and relaxed, sincere (re: seeing the truth in all that you do), and not serious, you allow the universe to blow you away as it does with the autumn leaf. When you are the leaf, you are allowing the universe to take you on a journey. Think of it as a universal roller-coaster. It’ll take you to new heights. Sometimes there will be sharp turns. Seemingly abrupt stops. And scary maneuvering….but don’t tense up. Don’t hold on tight. Just trust in the ride and let go. Fly away. Soar. You are the bird soaring above the mountains. A bee buzzing above the rose. The trout allowing the current to effortlessly coax it downstream. Just let it happen. This is the nature of sincerity, never seriousness.
If I was born in a tree, high up in the canopy of the forest, would I be scared of heights? If I was born near fire and grew up around open flames, would I now be scared of fire? If I grew up on a mountain top with Buddhist monks that lived a simple life, would I desire riches and flashy material items?
I think not.
If I planted corn seeds in fertile soil and nurtured these seeds, would they grow? If I spread hatred and negativity towards all I met, would people love and respect me? If I poured oil and toxic waste into a pond, would the fish survive?
I think not.
You see, the organism will always define the environment. And equally, the environment will always define the organism. They are One.
We’re Ignoring the Environment of Every Situation
Just as you don’t find ants without dirt as you don’t find dirt without ants. We humans overlook this simple concept as we continue to try and explain, analyze, and calculate situations, events, and happenings without considering the environment invariably encompassing the situation (of the organism). No wonder why we find it so hard to help each other.
Take Joe, for example, who is having a hard time excelling in school. Constantly failing test after test. Joe asks his friend Sarah: “Hey Sarah, I don’t know what to do. I keep on failing. Help me, please! What should I do?” To which Sarah responds: “Okay, relax…all you need to do is concentrate and study harder — just try harder, that’s all.” “Gee, thanks. You’re the best,” Joe responds.
The semester progresses and Joe continues to flunk his exams in every subject. He’s fallen into a state of despondency and deep depression. He’s totally lost.
Our Minds Are Narrower than we Think
Now surely this wasn’t Sarah’s fault, however her advice was entirely narrowed-minded (using the literal sense of the word narrow) and didn’t take into account Joe’s environment whatsoever. Let’s take a deeper look into Joe’s (the organism) Life (re: his surrounding, environment).
Joe wakes up at 4AM every morning to give his sick grandmother her pills and cook her a special diabetic meal. He then takes her on a walk around the neighborhood park to ease her intermittent claudication, a result of her severely blocked arteries in her legs. As soon as he gets back home, he’s already out the door to begin his 40 minute drive to a community college that he’s attending. Upon returning home, he has just enough time to fix his grandmother’s lunch a walk her to bed for a nap, then he’s out the door again to begin his hour long drive to work at the steel factory until 12AM. Upon returning how, now roughly 1AM in the morning, her checks to see if his grandma ate the dinner that he left by her bed. “Yup, she ate it, good…,” says Joe as he slumps over the kitchen table with is head in his hand now thinking about all his exams that he hasn’t even began to study for.
It’s now 1:40AM and Joe is fast asleep on the kitchen table after a futile effort to read a few paragraphs from his American History textbook. You see, Joe’s parent’s died last year during his senior year at high school. He assumed responsibility of his sick grandmother after they passed and he decided not to go away to college. Instead, he enrolled in a local community college and commutes there daily so that he can be at home to take care of his elderly grandmother.
We Become Our Environment
This is now his environment. And everything that happens in Joe’s environment now defines him. He IS his sick grandmother. He IS the late night job at the steel factory that he works to pay for tuition and his grandma’s medical bills. He IS the accumulated stress and anxiety that builds up throughout the day.
Now here comes along Sarah with her myopic, narrow-minded view of Joe. Her fault — or better: ignorance — is that she sees Joe as “Joe.” Not Joe as an organism living in an environment. Just as one would see a flower living in a field. Now what would happen if that entire field received no water? The flower would surely suffer, right? Sarah’s mind can’t see Joe as that flower living in an arid field. And see responds with: “study harder and concentrate” as a solution to his problems.
One Can Love Without Understanding
Sarah’s heart may have been in the right place, but her understanding was off. She did as so many of us do — ignore the environment. The environment defines us. How can we ignore it? Joe isn’t stupid, he’s just under a lot of mental / time pressure which leads to stress and an inability to study for his exams. A better initial response from Sarah would have been: “How are you feeling?” “I’m feeling stressed,” responds Joe. “Really, why is that?” asks Sarah. And so on and so on, leading into the true understanding of Joe’s situation.
If we can grasp this concept of “environment/organism - organism/environment,” we can see the whole of any situation instead of just the half. And although we can never fully comprehend any situation in it’s entirety — because, as Alan Watts says, “to do that is to understand the entire universe” — we’ll be much better prepared to offer sound and intelligent advice to anyone seeking.
This is curious to me. People feel compelled to qualify their responses. “What did you do for New Years Eve?” A fitting question for this time of year. From such an answer you’ll receive one of three typical response:
Response #1:
“I went to a party”
Response #2:
“I actually didn’t do anything, just stayed home because I just wasn’t up to it this year. And I was tired. And I didn’t feel well…” And ad infinitum…
Response #3:
“I went on this awesome cruise to Hawaii and partied hard with 10 super-sexy Playboy models as I drank $500 dollar bottles of Cristal and smoked rare Cuban cigars. And this and that…” And this ad infinitum…
These are, more or less, the generic response categories that one would receive from any question posed. Now let’s examine them.
Responder #1: This is what I would call a simple and sincere response. The person is confident and is not afraid to tell it how it is. They aren’t trying to impress anyone, because that simply makes no sense to them. When someone asks a question, they respond with the simple facts — nothing more, nothing less.
Responder #2: This person feels the need to qualify their responses with a reason and/or explanation. The “action” taken is usually the truth, but the qualifier — the “Because” and “And..” — are usually fiction and created on the fly as a direct result of a lingering fear. This injection of fear is a product of not wanting to step out of the Game. What Game? The Game of remaining in good standings within your social circle; and, to a larger degree, as a member of what you define as your Society. This person uses qualifiers as a free pass to stay “cool.” And those that are “cool,” remain as active members of the club — the Game.
Responder #3: This a the response of a total Fake. Having an immense feeling of insecurity within and under the constant illusion that “I” need to one-up “you” and the rest of the world which “I” live in, this person projects their fantasies as truths to feel complete and whole. Remaining in a total state of falsehood, lies, and deceit; this person is as far removed from reality as an ant beginning a journey from one end of a football field to another.
Our responses to questions, situations, anything in life, will always reflect our current nature — our current flow. If we’re feeling risky, we may take risky actions. If we’re feeling that we’ve been betrayed, we may feel like betraying someone else to feel better. If we’re feeling angry, we may act with malice. These are the masks that we feel the need to put on in order to turn into someone other than ourselves — to suit a need, fulfill a request, or whatever it is. Here are a few:
Business Mask:
“Sure I can get the job done in 2 months, no problem!” [Knowing that it'll take around 4 months] “Sure, it’ll be delivered on Tuesday” [Knowing that it will be delivered on Friday]
Cool Mask:
“Look at my new shoes, they cost me $500 bucks!” [I hope that he thinks I'm cool now] “Look at that fat-ass walking over there” [ Let me see if I can make them laugh at my jokes -- then maybe they'll like me]
Badass Mask:
“I’m going to kick your ass!” [ When I said that, I flexed my biceps. That'll let him know who's boss!] “I got totally wasted that night and punched that dude in the face [ I'm a tough-guy -- aren't I?]
And these masks go on an on… Fueled by our egos, maintained by our fears, and protected by our Society… we’ve amassed piles of makes so high, that our closets are overflowing. But do we need to wear them? Do we need to be someone other than ourselves given a particular situation? Do we need to continue playing this game? Maybe. Maybe not. That’s for you to decide.
In nature nothing happens “fast.” It just happens on it’s own accord — at its own pace once it has been put in motion. Look at a seedling for a few days and you’ll probably see aggressive growth up until the point it becomes a “mature” plant. But maturity is an illusion. Look at a so called full grown “mature” plant for a couple of weeks and you will probably see little to no growth. But what you can’t see with your naked eyes, that continued internal growth, is still happening.
Growth is still occurring. And, in time, you will be able to recognize this growth if you are patient and let go of your expectations to “see” growth. The same growth process of the tree occurs throughout everything that we do in life — Everything.
The Invisibles of Growth
Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, would call this a “tipping point.” The critical point at which everything falls into place and you can now see the aggressive growth of whatever it is you were creating. But Gladwell forgets to discuss the “invisibles” of growth. The invisibles are the things that are utterly un-trackable and beyond recognition of our senses — but can only be felt intuitively (or via the sixth sense).
Do you think the tree knows that it has grown 5 inches? Absolutely not. It, just is, 5 inches taller. That is now the tree. And, without any effort or consideration, it grows that 5 inches. Of course, within the ideal environment and conditions for such growth. Am I comparing human behavior to the likes of a mere tree? You bet I am. Why not? We’re just as much a part of nature as a tree is. We water ourselves (drink), fertilize ourselves (vitamins and minerals) and absorbs the sun rays — just as the tree does to grow. Yet the tree doesn’t think about it — we seem to. And in everything we do, we expect to see — no, we demand! — to see aggressive burst of growth!
We “Demand” Growth, Never “Allow” Growth
We demand to see profits. We demand to see people reading our articles. We demand for people to fall in love with us. We demand the waitress to serve our food this instance. We demand for people to agree with us, “or else.” We force every situation to feed our desires. We want to “see” everything happening with our two eyes — instead of feeling it happening. Because “feeling” isn’t enough. It’s weird. It’s not tangible. You can’t reach your hand out and grab what you can’t see. And what you can’t see may scare you. You may tell yourself that it’s really not happening if “I can’t see it happening.”
Maturity as an Illusion
When you come back to the “mature” tree in a few years, you will now “see” how much it has grown. Why? Because it never stopped growing and evolving. But when your were trying to force its growth and constantly waiting and watching it, you saw nor felt nothing.
Just as the newborn baby begins its journey to death from the day that he’s born, upon examination of the baby 10 years later, he will not be dead — only older. Visit the baby 100 years later, and he will surely be dead.
And in that same way, our ideas, projects, interactions, and situations always continue to grow and mature, but never reaching “maturity.” When you plant a seed — start a company, kiss a girl, spread your love, or share a smile — don’t monitor its growth and constantly expect to see radical development. Instead, continue to love that seed and nourish it with water of passion, soil of determination, and rays of positivity. These are the ingredients for growth — not forcing, not expecting, not monitoring every minute detail to the point of exasperation.
It’s happening. Forever and always. And seeing beyond the illusion of having to see it happing is essential.
When the swan swims throughout the pond water and comes ashore, it is not soiled by the water. It’s untainted, fresh, and goes about the day — peacefully and gracefully. You, too, can be like the unsoiled swan — never tainted by the water, no matter how murky it may seem at times throughout your life. Totally unaffected, in any serious way, by life’s ups and downs.
As a human being you will invariably run into what one would call “negative” forces, negative situations and experiences. Especially since we all have ideas to share. But ideas or not, negativity will be experienced. This is inescapable.
For now, we’ll take a look at this concept by using the theme of “sharing your ideas” for our context as many of you are entrepreneurial at spirit and speaking about ideas is commonplace. Let’s take, for instance, the occasional “I hate your idea!” statement that we’ve all endured or will endure at one point. What do you do when someone literally comes at you with “hate”? Do you respond with hate? Do you get angry and fire back with all your might, undoubtedly fueled by your ego? Most people do just that: futilely respond with hate. Why? Because they feel they feel that they have been soiled. They have become the swan who turns around and sees (the illusion) of a soiled behind.
The Interdependence of Good and Bad
When we’re faced with negativity we’d do well to remember that without negativity there can be do positivity, no good. Without good, there can be no negativity. They aren’t “opposites” as one may assume. They are “polar opposites.” Each connected and inter-depending on the other.
Think of “good” and “bad” as opposing buds on each end of a branch. Now, if you chop off the “bad” bud, the “good” bud will still blossom because you never really killed the “bad” bud. That was just an illusion. The bad end of the branch, in time, will regenerate a new bad bud which will blossom. The entire branch still goes on living. Just as one can chop off the negative pole of a magnet and the negative poles will still exist, albeit it will be a shorter pole. We can never — ever, ever — get rid of the negative force.
If we can understand and accept that this is all just a trick, an illusion… oh, how clear things would all of a sudden become. When someone “ruins” your day with an awful comment. When that big deal falls through and you lose the client. When you fall down and cut your knee. When society condemns you for being entrepreneurial instead of conforming to the ways of Corporate America. All of these things aren’t “bad,” just as they aren’t “good.”
The only time they become “bad” is when we allow them to soil us. To soil our spirits. But they can never soil us, because the water is always pure and clean. Hence, the illusory nature of our understanding of good and bad.
We Continue Swimming On
So with understanding, we do as the swan does and eventually go back in the water and get back to swimming; because that’s what we do. We continue on. When you are faced with difficulties, soil on your back, understand them for what they really are — mere illusions. And don’t let them hold you back and keep you ashore.
Know that the forces of “good and bad,” “up and down,” “in and out,” etc. are simply natural processes of life and that they need each other. Maintain your grace and peace. Get back swimming in the water of life. With this understanding, you can NEVER be soiled.
The “Real World.” Doesn’t that sound familiar? It has a nice ring to it, right? This ubiquitous phrase — or better yet, realm of existence — has come to define an entire culture; most notably, our culture: Generations X and Y.
The “Real Word” this and that. Most often, we hear college students referring to this “Real Word.” A world that we mysteriously enter upon graduating college. As if we were living in some Unreal World during our four years of college. And maybe they were. It all depends on the student’s way of looking at the world. But it still begs the question: Was the college world any less real than this world? If so, then was it a Fake World?
The Seriousness of the “Real World”
When you graduate and get a job and and enter the workforce, is that when you enter “Real World”? You see, in the “Real World” we have to get a “Real Job.” In the “Real World” you have to dress a certain “Real Way.” In the “Real World” you have grow up and become serious — to take everything seriously.
It’s time to become an adult once and for all and, of course, to stop having fun. To let go of the child within you. To stop embracing the joyous and spontaneous sparks of life. But why, I ponder, can’t we be children anymore? Why must be take everything seriously?
It’s now time to take the WORLD seriously. Take GOD seriously. Take your HEALTH seriously. And if you’re to have FUN, take that seriously as well. Take it all seriously.
But is this “Real World” really that real after all? Is it a world where we are simply pretending that everything is okay? Maybe it’s a Fake World. Maybe it’s a world with a grossly distorted reality. An uneasy reality. A reality that goes counter to our natural playful, happy, and relaxed selves.
The Dream World
Freud says that all dreams, in one way or another, are wish-fulfillments. Meaning: all our dreams revolve around things that we want, that we wish for. Maybe it’s for an event to take place. Or to meet that certain boy / girl. Or maybe to have a certain status in life or become a certain person.
Ever go to bed at night and have an amazing dream of doing something that you’ve always wanted to do in life? Maybe it was to become an astronaut and go to the moon. Maybe it was to become a musician and tour the world. Or maybe to write poetry and novels. These dreams were so lucid that as you awoke you truly thought that you were that musician, astronaut, or that writer.
Then, as quickly as these wishes were fulfilled, they melted away and vanished into thin air. You were back in the “Real World” as Joe Smoe. You were back in that “Real World” that society demanded that you be a part of, even at the expense of your dreams, aspirations, and outright enjoying life.
What’s the Answer to this World Dilemma?
So what do you do? Do you say “screw it!” and proclaim that “I’m going to do whatever I want to do in My World?”
Well, first we need to consider the possibility that the world you were born out of is, in fact, “A Real World.” And that through arduously trying to live up to the expectations of society, you got lost in a world that suddenly didn’t seem so real after all. And you come to the alarming conclusion that you’ve been living in a “Fake World” where you aren’t happy. Where you are constantly struggling to remain a part of — climbing that social ladder. Aggressively ingratiating yourself in the eyes of that all mighty society.
You’re now looking at everything under the lens of a dream because, in your mind, everything that you REALLY want in this world is unattainable in the the “Real World.”
No wonder why you go to bed at night and wake up in a world with all your dreams fulfilled — a world where you are living your desires. Wouldn’t it be nice to stay in this Dream World? Most of us are living in a delusional world of thinking that we must be unhappy in order to maintain our standings in this “Real World.”
Because — oh no! — if we were really doing the things that we really wanted to be doing… we’d be looked at like children…ambition-less….as lunatics! So, let’s get this right: In the “Real World” we can’t do “REAL” things that “REALLY” make us happy. Ha, to go back to the college student who loathes at the notion of entering the “Real World.” Well, I’d loathe such a world as well. And, actually, knowing what the “Real World” is really comprised of, partying all day and having a blast at college seems like much more fun to me. But, in reality, we don’t stay in college forever and we must continue on in life.
The World of Losing Control
We say “Grow Up.” “Stop acting like a child.” “When are you going to be an adult?” Maybe growing up isn’t all that we make it out to be. Maybe, just maybe, holding onto your curious, playful, and carefree child-disposition is really a good thing. Maybe this so called “Real World” makes us rigid and stiff. Maybe we’re stuck in a world where we have absolutely lost control over our own lives. So brilliantly stuck that we don’t even know that we’re stuck and, seemingly, we think that we’re in control .
But the “Real” control and power has been forfeited by you a long…long… time ago when your world split in two: the “Real World” and “The World.” This splitting resulted in a radical power shift: on one end, society, taking the lion’s share and on the other side, you, usurped from the throne of your life… becoming a mere bystander.
Heading Down “Real World Way” — Buckle UP!
Society hijacked your position behind the steering wheel of life and shoved you over to the passenger’s seat to go along for the ride down “Real World Way.” And on this road you drove through endless lectures of people telling you how to look, behave, and present yourself to the world. You drove through a college that was picked out by your parents 10 years before you were born, when you were just a naughty glimmer in your father’s eyes. You drove through jobs and positions that your professors and elders meticulously placed you in, like ornaments on Christmas trees. You drove down Fashion Lane that told you what to wear to make you “cool” and what was in vogue or not. You drove down Hollywood Ave that taught you that you had to have millions in order to fit in and be accepted. You drove through libraries where “Authority Figures” shoved books down your throat and taught you that your curiosity and desire to come up with your own ideas/answers weren’t needed. And you stopped off at the church where you learned of a man who was almighty — the Master and Commander — who watches your every move and can condemn you to eternal damnation if you don’t adhere to his doctrine.
What Direction Are You Heading In?
You see “Real World Way” is a road that most people don’t even know that they are on, simply because they were never in the driver’s seat. Their entire lives they just coasted in cruise control and let society (i.e., bosses, peers, friends, parents, professors, and the media) do all the driving. And “Real World Way” is a one-way street. However, those who realized — who woke up after being awaken from all the speed bumps in the road — that they were going in the wrong direction decided to take drastic measures to turn around. And on “Real World Way” there is only one way to get off. And it’s dangerous. Those who dared to get off had to take back control, kick Society out of the driver’s seat (throw him on the street) and pull a complete 180 degree turn in the opposite direction, against traffic!! Will you be so bold? Will you dare to take control back and go down Your Way?
What’s the mission? What’s your end-goal? When will you see success in what you do? What’s your plan for the future of so and so? These are the typical questions that we ask each other in order to find out the “end” of whatever it is that we are doing in our lives. Our projects, passions, ideas, what have you.
But why does there have to be an end? And end result for everything. Why can’t it just “be”? Why can’t there be success at every level?
People often ask me: “What’s your plan for Mind Petals? What’s the future of Mind Petals? Where are you going with Mind Petals? When will you find success in what you do?”
But these questions have no real answers, you see. At least no adequate answers. There is no past of Mind Petals just as there is no future of Mind Petals. Mind Petals is now. Here. This very moment. There are no levels (this isn’t a video game) of success and end-goals.
You reading my very words right now is the answer in its entirety. Your mind swirling around and neurons firing right now is the answer. As your mind currently evolves or devolves right now is the answer.
We’re so gung-ho about placing an end on everything. And this is ever-strengthening due to the ubiquitous business mentality that we guard and protect. The “pay-me-for-my-passion” mentality. The business plans. The projections. The timelines. The “X” that we have to meet in order to achieve success.
They’re all illusions. Ghosts. Clouds obscuring reality. Think about it: everyone is always telling you to follow your passions in life. “Get out there and follow your passions no matter what! Just do it! Now!”
And why? Why are we supposed to follow our passions? Simple. Because our passions are supposed to be the things that bring us the most joy in life. The things that we’re super-enthusiastic about. Right?
Oh, no, but that’s not enough. We want MORE. Give me. Give me. Give me. Mere happiness from our passions isn’t enough. So what do we do? We put “ends” on our passions.
Take, for instance, the young girl who has a passion to write. Writing brings her endless joy. She writes simply for the love of writing. It’s her heart. Her world. Her everything. And as this girl grew up she learned that joy was no longer enough. Her mom said: “Dear, happiness and joy aren’t going to pay the bills. So wake-up!”
Society taught this girl that she had to strive for more than happiness in life. And such an ideology forced her to reevaluate her passions — what made her happy. Forced to adjust her passions to suit a society that demanded more. And that adjustment came in the form of an “end.” An end-goal.
So the young girl who was once as happy as could be just to write simply for the joy of it, has become the woman who needs to sell 10,000 books in order to be happy. Who needs to become a best selling author in order to be happy. She’s totally numb to the experience of enjoying something without any ends to it. That “end” is now her cocaine. Her fix. Her “give it to me.” Her passion has now become and ends to a means of finding happiness again. You see, the model of happiness totally inverted.
Her passion is now a job. Constantly at work trying to produce happiness. And where is she when all this is going on? She is now the slave to her passion. Instead of her passion being something that naturally produces joy in her life, it has become sort of a train that’s dragging her around and around. And it’s now her job to pump it up with fuel so it can keep on trying to reach that end.
That mansion! That million bucks! That fancy car! Chooo!!!! Chooo!!!! That image of perfection! The glory! The Success! Choo!!!! Choooo!!!! Chooo!!!! The top of the charts! The front page of the paper! The fame! Chhoooo!!!! ChoooO!!!!
Forget joy and happiness, because with all these things who needs it, right? The party is never over, right?
Do you see the illusion? You see the gap between the time when she was “naturally” happy to the time when happiness had to be attained? She thought that she was walking on water. On top of the world! But wait… something just wasn’t right. Something was missing? All the glory wasn’t sustaining her.
That something was her baby. Her passion when it was pure. When it was a seed effortlessly growing towards the sun before she was forced to pump it with steroids and fertilizer to make it grow as fast as possible — to push and push it towards that end. That success point.
But you see, she missed the point altogether. Because the success was the very seed itself. Success never had to be attained. It just was. Just being. Just growing on its own with ease. No striving. No forcing. No setting endless goals. Just right there in front of her. Being.
That is to say, your passion needs no end. No plans. No projections. No explanations. (save those silly things for your job). Your passion just “is.” Because if it isn’t, then its working. And you’re working for it.
The follow-up of the “Never Settle on ‘The Authority’” (part 1) talk, going into certain individuals in history who simply weren’t happy settling for the answers they were receiving — they just weren’t having it. So they went out to answer their own questions.
Never settle for something to be true, right, and correct simply because an “Authority” figure has deemed it so. Always venture within and ask yourself as well. You know more than you think.
There are various relationships that define how your projects, companies, creative pursuits can grow and influence others. Among them, Monarchical, Concentric, and Organic relationships are three fundamental relationships that most of us would fall under and categorize our creative pursuits as. No one relationship is better than the other and in many ways, they are all connected and interwoven. I hope this discussion will help bring light to the particular relationship that you are working with and maybe, by understanding it more, you can make adjustments if needed… or, simply, come to terms with how your projects are affecting the lives of those around you. Maybe you’re affecting them in a negative way. Maybe in a positive way. It’ll be up to you to find out. Maybe in a way that you have yet to understand. Let’s discuss them, shall we.
Monarchical Relationship
You’re the boss! In this relationship between your project and those who are within the scope of your project or are a part of your circle of influence, you reign supreme. This is a one way line of communication. What you say goes. You have final say, word, decision, everything. You don’t want respect, you “demand” it because your authority depends on it. You love your Ego. It’s your everything. You don’t need feedback, because you’ve already made up your mind and it’s set. No flexibility. No elasticity. If you’re not in charge, calling all the shots, then nothing would be worth it for you. You are GOD, in the Christian sense of the word. Meaning, all shall bow down to you and honor you. This is your mindset and your nature. You’ve skillfully crafted your creative outlet in such a way that all your members, constituents, users, what have you, have come to depend on you and only you. This was the design from the beginning.
Concentric Relationship
You and your members all share the same center. There is no authority figure reigning supreme. Everyone is connected at the base and each person revolves around that base. No levels. No hierarchy. This is a collective whole with direct feedback between each member. Though every member is working independently in their own creative respects, a omnipresent ideal is shared and relied upon at the center of everything. The only thing that is in control, is the concept at the core — never any individual. Growth expands from the outside of the center, but the center is never lost. And though one person may have been responsible for creating that center, that person has no greater influence than anyone else. The ideal, the philosophy, the center energy is now dictating the direction of the creative process. Everyone is GOD in this relationship.
Organism-based Relationship
Everyone and everything is growing together, from the inside out. Whatever action any person takes has absolutely no difference than that of any other person, because the end result is always the same — growth. This relationship is self-sustaining and needs no dictation or direction. What needs to be done is already known, intuitively, within each contributor. No communication is expressed nor needed, because everything is in perfect harmony. Everything is already implicit within each contributor. It’s like looking at your mom, and based upon her face, you already know what she has to say to you…no words are ever needed.
Consider the Implications of each Relationship
Think about these various relationships and see if your project, organization, company, or whatever creative outlet that you have, falls into alignment with any of these structures, these particular ways of communicating and relating to those who are a part of your creative processes. Simply being aware of what relationship you are working with, in and of itself, can unlock an immense understanding of your power, your influence, and the energy / nature of your creativity.
Creativity is often spoken of as if it were some kind of supernatural force—something as mysterious as fate or karma or public opinion. Here, creativity blesses a bitter, alcoholic painter. There, it’s a lazy, aristocratic mathematician with bad breath. Over there, it’s a hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone banker who writes poetry in her spare time. It seems that you can never know when or for whom that obscure realm beyond the everyday, the realm of genius, will be opened.
But, consider this: around 1770, a Prussian academic named Immanuel Kant set to work on a disturbing problem that had arisen in the field of philosophy. Kant was a strange man who lived a life so rigorously self-controlled that there are actual accounts of his neighbors literally setting their clocks by his regular walks through town. Up to that point, his career had been remarkable only for its failure to produce anything even remotely remarkable.
What set this odd, mediocre little man to work was an old problem cast in a new and troubling light by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. In 1739, Hume wrote a little-read but influential work that argued—convincingly—that knowledge of the world is impossible, and that what we often think we know is, at best, nothing more than a guess based on past experiences.
The majority of philosophers, like the majority of the rest of us, don’t like to think that people don’t actually know things: It makes them nervous. And Kant was no different, so he set out to disprove Hume’s paradox.
But when he started thinking about the problem of knowledge, he could find no way into it. There was no path through the dense thicket of logic it presented. Other philosophers had tried and failed what Kant was attempting.
But Hume couldn’t just be right, Kant thought. If he was, then science became a delusion; philosophy became impossible; even morality and religion, in Kant’s mind, were meaningless. The difficulty of the task was great, but Kant was determined to unlock the door to genius.
The process was long, laborious. Kant struggled, doubted himself, and then struggled on. After having published 23 texts in the previous 20 years, this prolific writer’s output simply stopped. For eleven years—a period that became known as his “silent decade”—Kant didn’t publish a single new philosophical work.
But saying nothing should never be confused with having nothing to say. Kant had had a breakthrough, but it was crucial that he follow it through to its logical end. So, he gave up all other intellectual pursuits to focus exclusively on the task at hand, following a rigorous, self-imposed schedule of study, thought, and writing. When he broke his silence in 1781, he published The Critique of Pure Reason—his 800-page masterpiece—an intellectual achievement so original and revolutionary that it continues to have a profound influence on the way we understand the world even today.
In that work, Kant realized that the problem with Hume’s paradox was not with its logic. The argument itself was irrefutable. Instead, the problem was with its concepts. When philosophers talk about concepts, they aren’t just talking about words. Words, in a way, just point to something. Concepts, however, are like little bundles of meaning.
“Death” (for a somber example) is just a word signifying the end of a life. The concept of death, on the other hand, is a pretty complicated thing. If I’m an atheist physicist, my concept of death is very different from that of a deeply devout Presbyterian.
What Kant realized was that certain of Hume’s concepts—like “mind,” “world,” and “experience”—were inherently problematic. No matter how you looked at them, they always led to the same dead end for knowledge. Making such a claim was no small feat. Hume wasn’t just misusing normal concepts. He was using the same concepts in the very same ways as thinkers for hundreds of years before him; he was using the same concepts in the very same ways as normal people on the street. What was at issue was what we all mean when we say some of the most commonplace things about reality. This was a radical solution that required a complete revision of our normal understanding of how things work. Kant called this breakthrough his “Copernican Revolution.”
When the great astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus began to study the heavens, the accepted wisdom was that the earth was the center of the universe. But with this model, all kinds of inconsistencies in data arose. No matter how you crunched the numbers, things kept coming out wrong. So, Copernicus simply flipped the model, put the sun at the center, and noticed that things started to make sense. Suddenly, he could make highly reliable mathematical predictions of the movements of stars, planets, comets. Everything just started coming out right.
Kant’s move was of the same kind. He argued that knowledge is not something we passively receive from the world; instead, the mind, in a way, picks what it receives. Learning something about the world, then, implies learning something about the mind. The two become inseparable. Like Copernicus, Kant was saying that philosophers had simply been working with the wrong model.
They had understood these fundamental things—the mind, the world, experience, knowledge—in ways that simply had to be wrong. What was needed was a new model, a fundamental and radical shift in the way they thought. Once this was done, once the Copernican Revolution was proposed, suddenly things started to make sense. Knowledge, it seemed, was possible after all, but only if reality was thought of in this wholly new way.
It’s crucial to understand that Kant’s Copernican Revolution was certainly a work of genius. It was a true break with run-of-the-mill thinking, absolutely shattering the normalcy of the everyday. But it is just as crucial to recognize that there is nothing supernatural about Kant’s achievement. He wasn’t struck by lightning; no divine intervention occurred. In the end, three things made it possible:
He fully understood the problem at hand. Kant was deeply committed to his subject. Finding a solution to the problem of knowledge was something Kant felt himself compelled to accomplish. He felt it as a duty, as a necessity, and necessity, as they say, really is the mother of invention.
Kant was aware that to solve a problem one must first be a student of the problem. And being a student of a problem means understanding the range of solutions that have already been attempted as well as fully grasping why those attempts failed. By doing so, Kant was able to see that certain patterns dominated the thinking of his day (and had dominated thinking for hundreds of years). He realized that it wasn’t through any failure of reasoning or imagination that philosophers prior to him hadn’t succeeded in answering Hume’s challenge: They had failed because they were too deeply entrenched in these well-worn paths of thought.
And most importantly, Kant’s solution was made possible by what can best be described as a sort of attitude. He put himself in the mindset of accepting the simple possibility that everyone (Kant included) might be wrong about all kinds of things—that maybe we are all, all of us, wrong about everything. For this to happen, Kant had to be willing, fully and deeply willing, to find out that even his own most deeply held beliefs were mistaken.
“If you want to create something truly new, you must learn to first embrace the possibility that everything that you think you know, is deeply and fundamentally wrong.”
There’s a lesson to be learned here for those of us looking for ways to break new ground in our endeavors. The Copernican Revolution is the ultimate example of innovation, of deeply disruptive thinking. But it was only possible because Kant had already overturned his own everyday thinking. What this means is that the act of sheer creativity that was his solution was not the source of disrupted thinking; it was the product of it.
Those of us who read Kant—like viewers of a truly great new painting or the first consumers of a cutting-edge product—experience this creative newness as a kind of break with our normal world and assume that it comes from a mind that isn’t like ours at all. But this is a mistake.
What the Copernican Revolution shows us is that we can all be innovators. Innovators are commonly described as people who believe nothing is impossible. This is literally true. For any creator to produce the experience of newness, he or she must have already adopted the kind of attitude that says, “All that I think I know may be utterly mistaken.” And anyone can do this.
If you want to create something truly new, you must learn to first embrace the possibility that everything—that is, everything—that you think, whether it’s about the world or about art or about music or your customers or business, is deeply and fundamentally wrong. This is scary; it’s true. Questioning your deepest convictions is a sign of great strength (despite what some politicians might suggest). But, if you are able to make this switch in attitude, great things can happen. As Kant’s Copernican Revolution shows, you become open to true innovation, true problem solving, even true self-knowledge. Only by opening your beliefs up to the most radical revision is deep creativity possible.
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A few nights ago while flowing into the psychophysical practice of yoga my teacher told the class to “fold into yourself.” And those words have lead to some deep contemplation over the past few days, some of which I’d like to share with you very succinctly here. 
I often speak of mind evolution and expanding one’s consciousness — both of which are of paramount importance in my life and perhaps in yours. However, I’d like to note that one needn’t bombard their mind, or overwhelm it, with any particular tool or method for such an expansion or evolution to manifest. It’s often very easy to fall into a state of mental bombardment when one adheres to the philosophy of “more is better.” 
How many activities involve balls? We play various games such as: volleyball, soccer, tennis, bowling, lacrosse, marbles, dodge-ball, hand-ball, etc.. And we have fun with these spherical objects, right? At a club, there’s a disco-ball that lights up the room and projects fun and random shapes of light across the floor. When someone goes out, we tell them to “have a ball.” Meaning, to have a good time and enjoy yourself. Rappers say: “I’m balling yo!” and “that’s dude is balling!” Meaning, “I’m awesome” and “that person is very wealthy and is having a great time.” We say “let’s roll.” Meaning, let’s go! The earth is a ball. Our eyes see little balls called photons which our brains interpret as images — what we see. We are made up of balls, molecules. Maybe everything is a ball. Balls are fun because they are round and they roll, they move. They are smooth and flow. Squares, on the other hand, don’t roll around. They like to stay fixed and motionless. Maybe we can think in balls and squares as well. If we think in terms of spheres, maybe our thoughts will have curves and they can roll and flow just as the basketball does — not attached to anything in particular and always moving. Maybe we can think in squares as well — cementing our thoughts and placing them into little storage boxes in our minds — never freeing them to move and grow and mostly importantly, to have fun. Or perhaps neither balls or squares really exist and instead, everything is a wave. And when you think, you’re waving at me. When you act, you’re waving at the universe. And everything is waving right back at you. Maybe that’s all anyone or anything is ever, fundamentally, doing — waving. 
, would call this a “tipping point.” The critical point at which everything falls into place and you can now see the aggressive growth of whatever it is you were creating. But Gladwell forgets to discuss the “invisibles” of growth. The invisibles are the things that are utterly un-trackable and beyond recognition of our senses — but can only be felt intuitively (or via the sixth sense). 
When the swan swims throughout the pond water and comes ashore, it is not soiled by the water. It’s untainted, fresh, and goes about the day — peacefully and gracefully. You, too, can be like the unsoiled swan — never tainted by the water, no matter how murky it may seem at times throughout your life. Totally unaffected, in any serious way, by life’s ups and downs.
Creativity is often spoken of as if it were some kind of supernatural force—something as mysterious as fate or karma or public opinion. Here, creativity blesses a bitter, alcoholic painter. There, it’s a lazy, aristocratic mathematician with bad breath. Over there, it’s a hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone banker who writes poetry in her spare time. It seems that you can never know when or for whom that obscure realm beyond the everyday, the realm of genius, will be opened.
When the great astronomer 
He fully understood the problem at hand. Kant was deeply committed to his subject. Finding a solution to the problem of knowledge was something Kant felt himself compelled to accomplish. He felt it as a duty, as a necessity, and necessity, as they say, really is the mother of invention. 
Kant was aware that to solve a problem one must first be a student of the problem. And being a student of a problem means understanding the range of solutions that have already been attempted as well as fully grasping why those attempts failed. By doing so, Kant was able to see that certain patterns dominated the thinking of his day (and had dominated thinking for hundreds of years). He realized that it wasn’t through any failure of reasoning or imagination that philosophers prior to him hadn’t succeeded in answering Hume’s challenge: They had failed because they were too deeply entrenched in these well-worn paths of thought. 
And most importantly, Kant’s solution was made possible by what can best be described as a sort of attitude. He put himself in the mindset of accepting the simple possibility that everyone (Kant included) might be wrong about all kinds of things—that maybe we are all, all of us, wrong about everything. For this to happen, Kant had to be willing, fully and deeply willing, to find out that even his own most deeply held beliefs were mistaken. 
