"Experience is the name we give our mistakes."- Oscar Wilde
P.S. You've all seen that classic picture of Oscar Wilde (which is momentarily elusive on the Internet for me to include, darn it) with him draped over a chair sloppily. One of my favorite historical quotes is from one of his friends who saw the photo and said 'Anyone who sits like that could only have gone to private school.'
Having not traveled for the better part of a month, and not having had to find $1k (yet) as self-induced punishment for air travel, it is amazing what staying in one place and nesting can do for recharging the creative batteries.
I believe there is a clear correlation to catching up on to-do items, back emails, sleep, the ever-growing to-be-read stack of books, exercise, meditation, good diet, time with the family (not in that order) and overall balance. Balance for me breeds inner peace and clarity of thought, which in turn helps be separate the immediate un-important tasks from the important non-urgent tasks. Many who read this blog may have been recently surprised by a proactive call or email from me, as I stop and pull back and realize how much important activity was put on hold while I was busy frantically running from trip to trip.
Like enlightenment, balance is a journey and not a destination. Please do me a favor and whack me upside the head if you see me getting out of balance.
"There is much profit from seeing new lands and new houses, in seeing beautiful gardens and fields, in seeing different faces and coming across different languages and colors, and in witnessing the wonders of different countries.....The traveler befriends all those whom he loves for Allah's sake and he has no reason to flatter or be artificial."
Ramhumuzi, The Noble Scholar of Hadeeth
(Thanks to P. Christopher Earley of the National University of Singapore Business School for showing me the quotation)
Sitting on the stage was a gentleman from a watch manufacturer.
Question from the audience...."What about the new generation that uses their mobile phones as their timepiece? Doesn't that foretell the end of watches as a stand-alone object?".
Response..."Oh, watches are more than timepieces, they are jewelry! There will always be watches."
Christian starts to feel smug and self-righteous that he saw this one coming. 'He actually said always. Here is a textbook example of someone stuck in their own paradigm and unwilling to see the rest of the world around them!'
Moderator points out that this extends to the MIT One-Laptop-Per-Child (aka $100 laptop) program as well. There are more mobile phones in the rest of the world, per person, than there are computers per person. Only in the US and Canada are there such high rates of computers-per-person. The rest of the world uses powerful and smart cell-phone services instead of bulky laptops. What folly that the US thinks they can export their bourgeois computer-laptop-centric-paradigm to poverty-stricken Africa and India. The sheer hubris.
Christian promptly deflates.
(By the way, it is always an early sign of delusion and self importance when people refer to themselves in the third person. Think of Caesar and the torture that his Gallic War memoirs, written entirely in the third person, has inflicted upon generations of Latin teachers. Likewise when elected officials refer to their office instead of just saying "I", as in "The President need not be held to the same standard of review." Danger. Danger.)
"There are many smart people in the first world, the rich world, that are solving problems and creating products for rich people. The problem is, rich people don't really have problems!"- Sam Pitroda- Chairman, WorldTel (India)
Around 1976, my parents rode the trendy Transcendental Meditation fad all the way to a converted home somewhere in Des Moines, where they received their first mantras. A few weeks later, they brought the entire family along when my siblings and I chose to receive our mantras, with the caveat that mine was a temporary mantra and needed to be updated when I hit a certain age. Someday, I'll have to go back and upgrade to 'Mantra 2.0', but in the intervening 30 years or so, I've worn the heck out of my mantra regularly in meditation, while running, walking, and sitting in lotus.
Meditating is the only 'spiritual' exercise that I have practiced regularly for most of my life, and I receive great clearness of mind and action as a result. I cannot recommend it enough.
In front of my makeshift meditation area, next to my incense, is a large copy of the Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path. For those of you who read my blog that were not at my wedding (where we included Bible readings as well as the Noble Eightfold Path without a rip in the time/space continuum), the Eightfold path can be considered a Buddhist Ten Commandments, minus two. They are much more like personal commitments than admonitions from on-high, which is why they resonate so much with me.
Here is the first:
Right Understanding- (or Right View) is the ability to understand the nature of things exactly as they are, without delusion or distortion. If we hold wrong views, misunderstanding the nature of reality, then our thoughts, speech, actions, and plans come forth from this misunderstanding, bringing unhappiness and suffering. If we cultivate the Right View of reality, our thoughts, speech, actions and plans come forth from this Right Understanding, bringing happiness and freedom from suffering. Imposing our self-centered desires, needs, expectations, or fears onto life- being satisfied and happy when things go our way, and upset if they do not- is wrong understanding. With Right Understanding, we correctly perceive the interdependent, impermanent, ever-changing nature of life. We realize lasting happiness and satisfaction do not come from anything external. In addition, we understand the wholesome, life-affirming, actions that bring benefit to all beings, as well as the unwholesome, negative actions which bring suffering. Right Understanding requires our full comprehension of the Four Noble Truths, which explain the nature of reality. Through Right Understanding we cultivate wisdom, an essential aspect of the Path.
I know I am guilty as charged for distorting reality based on my own perspective, biases, perceived slights, and chemical imbalances. A good amount of recent science indicates that your brain is like any other muscle, and will work based on the inputs/feedback that you give it. If you are going to exercise your brain with Right Understanding, so it rains down benevolent peptides versus self-defeating, angry, and accusing peptides, you're going to need to constantly practice that mindful state and monitor yourself for backsliding.
I'll cover more of the Eightfold Path in future posts.
On a related note, it appears that all this green tea that I have been drinking for years, because I enjoy it, is actually really good for you. Check this out.
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." - Thomas Jefferson
Scant consolation to the widows and children of the 3,750,160 Americans who have died or been wounded in American wars since Jefferson. And it is no consolation to me that the U.S. debt is growing at $1.66 Billion dollars per day, now tracking at more than $8.5 Trillion dollars.
What kind of world will our children have to live in to pay off our debts?
"Nine Tenths of everything is tax. Everything you buy has a complicated history of robbery: land, raw materials, energy, tools, buildings, transport, storage, sales, profits. Don't forget the share you contribute toward the personal income tax of every worker who has anything to do with the process.
Inflation by taxation: there are a hundred taxes on a load of bread. What kind of living standard would we enjoy if everything cost a tenth of what it does? What kind of world? Think of your home, your car, your TV, your shoes, your supper- all at 90% discount!
Government can't fight poverty- poverty is its proudest achievement." Mary Ross-Byrd
I'm not cranky lately, really! I have just been finding a plethora of topically-relevant quotes to share. Today's quote? From no less than James Madison:
"A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
On a related note, the federal government is now 185 times as big in real terms as it was a century ago.
"The Process of Creative Destruction (in innovation) is the essential fact about capitalism"
- Joseph Schumpeter
and in retort
“Innovation makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old regime, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new.”
- Niccolo Machiavelli
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