Monday, April 23, 2018

Course correction towards extraordinary

Yesterday, after writing a small blog post after many years, I felt very good. Immediately, I felt the need to be right as well, which I did not realize at that time.  I published my post on Facebook. While on that website, I also posted a whimsical comment on a friend's post as follows:

Being energy is very different from controlling it. Consciousness is an experience of energy not necessarily a tool to control it. We get lost in the effort to control when we can just enjoy the experience. We think having control allows us to somehow improve things. Instead, attempting to control is what leads to all suffering. Control also implies that there is something out there that needs to be controlled. Duality. Us/them; me/them, etc. We are energy is a no-brainer. We just need to be able to enjoy the ordinary rather than fantasizing about "extraordinary" for when we grasp the extraordinary, it becomes ordinary. When we enjoy the ordinary; there is no need for extraordinary.

The gist was that I was arguing against the concept of reaching for extraordinary things instead of enjoying what we already have.   This has been my inner struggle now for years.  I have many metaphors for it.  The path of the warrior versus the path of the yogi.  Being content versus reaching out for more. Satisfaction versus ambition.  You get the point.

As I see it today, the logic around my comment was certainly verbal diarrhea.  It just had to get out of my system. 

Today morning, after another experience, I realized the fallacy of my long-term struggle.   It is not unnatural to seek the extraordinary.  We do enjoy the natural things around us.  We do get bored.  We seek for more.  THAT IS NATURAL.  My resistance towards overreaching comes, perhaps, from looking around and seeing the destructive nature of ambition, greed, and general restlessness.  The solution is not to avoid reaching for the extraordinary but to change the direction in which we seek it.  The restlessness and destruction are a result of reaching out on someone else's vision of extraordinary or just being fooled by capitalism.  

If we can figure out the direction in which we want to expand, I think we will find satisfaction and yet get the continuous motivation to expand.  Expand at a pace that is not neck breaking but at a pace of strength building.  So, I disagree with what I believed yesterday and am ready to push the boundary a little farter today.  

Our ache for the extraordinary stems, I think, from our deep-rooted hope or belief that there is more to this life than what we experience.  And there is only one way to find out!

Sunday, April 22, 2018

What is time?

The first thing to understand is time. "Understand" might be totally wrong. Examine, comprehend, contemplate upon, meditate on time.

If I told someone that they should prepare for a severe storm, the first question they might ask is when is the storm coming? If I tell them "someday", then, their response is "no action". If I tell them, "now", then, there is panic.  Depending on how much time is available, the response changes.

What if I told you that time is an illusion? We cannot really make sense of such an assertion in the example given above.  What if I told that we have infinite time to prepare for a storm even if it is coming "now"? Even as I write these words, I cannot accept them myself logically.  However, I have a strong conviction that this has to make sense if we have to make sense of this whole universe.

The key might be in understanding that our minds are tuned to linear sequences. Our intelligence and logic are grounded in linear terms.  Our perception is linear to most extent.  Can we switch to non-linear modes of thinking? Is this what happens in altered states of consciousness? Even if we change our own perception, that does not imply the rest of the reality will adapt to it.  If a storm is coming "now", I might see it in slow motion, one-thousandth of speed, but the rest of the world may not.

Can one be like the superhero Flash and take charge of the rest of the reality? Maybe. But it does not sound plausible.  Can we collectively become like Flash on demand?  (I keep thinking I should watch the move Arrival again to get my thoughts wrapped around this concept.)   What if we can stretch time infinitely?  What is time?