Hi friends,
These days I have been watching a lot of YouTube (think Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, The Office, etc..) and I came to a realization.
You see, there are two ways in which I watch YouTube - I would either watch it from my laptop's Chrome browser, or my iPad's DuckDuckGo browser. It's just a matter of which one's more physically accessible for me (e.g. iPad's nicer when I watch as I lay on my bed, slacking off.. hehe).
Now, I don't know if you are familiar with DuckDuckGo, but it is a cookie-free privacy-oriented browser, compared to Google Chrome which keeps track of which videos I have searched for. And indeed, at one point while using the iPad I lamented to myself that the video recommendations aren't as good as when I use my laptop - it would be pretty much random. The recommendations through my laptop will be on-point: the next episode of Stephen Colbert, another clip of The Office I haven't seen, or another new minisode from my favorite game-streamer, DangerouslyFunny.
Well, of course, you say. Every single search that I offer on YouTube through Chrome informs the great algorithm of YouTube of what my preferences are, and as the system tries to keep me engaged, it offers me similar videos, and most importantly, videos that it thinks I would be most likely to watch and enjoy. And as I click on these recommended videos, the algorithm gets more and more reinforced and finds more and more videos to my liking.
Isn't this how our minds work, as well? It offers thoughts to us much like YouTube offers videos to us. Except that this is 24/7 without a pause button (well, unless you get into the bliss field when you meditate, get into a coma, or a blackout sleep). But I've recently discovered that by being circumspect about what I write in the search bar of my mind, I increasingly more and more enjoy the resulting thought-videos that are offered to me. My mind learns of my preferences, and gives me more of the same. And then someone said that your thoughts become things, that your inner world determine your outer world, that what you feel and vibrate is what you attract. And friends, the science behind that is known as the Reticular Activating System (RAS).
I hope you are loving what your channel is playing for you.
Saturday, 23 November 2019
Saturday, 9 November 2019
som nee ya
Hello hello,
It has been a while. I have been *neglecting* this part of my life, where I think and reflect and ponder upon my life. But now I am back at it as I am sitting in a cafe called Broken Coconut in Bleeker Street, watching a man on a Rumble jacket stringing along his dog while shaking his ass to some classy music.
This is really night and day from my experience in Jakarta (yes, I just got back from a longish vacation back home and Bali, granting myself the necessary time to catch up with my family). As usual, time back home was typically slower (though not necessarily more or less stressful or eventful) hence it offered me a space to reflect and internalize new thoughts and discarding or reintegrating old systems and beliefs.
Alright, instead of writing stories about back home, please indulge me as I try to clarify - largely for my own benefit - the ideas/concepts/mental models that I am experimenting with.
First, according to Emily Fletcher (my current meditation guru), per the Vedas there are always three circles - circles of creation, maintenance, and destruction. If my memory serves me right, this flows with the Hindu gods of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The essence of the teaching is as follows: the Universe is expanding, and therefore it supports the endeavor of creation. Maintenance is squarely followed by destruction, and therefore the universe doesn't like it when we just stay stagnating. Now, she also offered that instead of judging something as positive or negative, she invites us to see if that thing (or that aspect of our lives) is in the phase of creation, maintenance, or destruction. All of us have multiple facets to our lives and it's definitely alright for an aspect, say, this blog (hehehe) be on the destruction (or neglect) phase as I focus on creating on the other aspects of my life, be it my physical health (through WildFit!) or my spirituality (through Ziva!).
This really squares nicely into the next idea- what was coined a Barbell method by Nasim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile. Essentially, having two extremes as a way to achieve a balance is a much better way to go than having everything in middling or in moderation. Eric Edmeades from WildFit also said that everything in moderation includes your health- thus the Barbell method to health would probably be intermittent fasting (periods of noneating followed by overeating), and the idea that having five glasses of wine in one day is healthier than having one glass of wine everyday for five days (not that I encourage binge drinking, but hey it's a free country). So now, in line with my spiritual advisor's encouragement (Mbak Mary Susaktiani), I intend to apply the barbell concept to my other areas of life as well, especially in terms of socializing, trying something new, and moving out of my comfort zone. If all organics are antifragile, i.e. benefits from randomness, shocks, and variability, surely something new every so often would rejuvenate and strengthen my being. Perhaps it shall give me the spice of life that I am after.
Last is the idea that we are all one, we are extensions of the Universe in which we are acting as its tool in which we experience and enjoy life. This also means that we are not at the driver seat of our buses, but at the same time there is the Universe who focuses squarely and positively at you and holds you onto its loving attention (per Abraham Hicks) and who has got your back and gives you what you need and maybe not quite what you want (per Srikumar Rao). What follows is then loosely gripped but clear desires, surrender, using feeling, clarity, and intuition as a guide, and then treating others as how you would want to treat yourself- all the while rejoicing, growing, creating, and having tons of fun because the only time we have is now, from the beginning of time through the eternity. Something that I am grappling with personally is therefore that as people have their stories (and co-create in them) and allotted fortunes (rejeki), they would have allotted emotions and feelings. I have been taught that the way to do anything and everything is to first accept it, acknowledge it, and surrender to it. After we follow them to their natural course and conclusion, as we become clearer and clearer on what we want, we are then free to manifest change. We have the power to make the Universe even more perfect, but before doing so we must recognize that it has already been perfect and always will be.
And now I understand- I resolve to take it easy and to enjoy and to take risks and be adventurous, to follow my gut, to be open to all kinds of experiences, to be soft-spoken and gracious and grateful but to have a firm will and a solid understanding that everything has been, is, and will be alright (this is bliss, vs happiness) and to have very clear and strong desires and intentions and responsibility, integrity, and self-respect but to have them loosely held.
And thus, I march forward.
It has been a while. I have been *neglecting* this part of my life, where I think and reflect and ponder upon my life. But now I am back at it as I am sitting in a cafe called Broken Coconut in Bleeker Street, watching a man on a Rumble jacket stringing along his dog while shaking his ass to some classy music.
This is really night and day from my experience in Jakarta (yes, I just got back from a longish vacation back home and Bali, granting myself the necessary time to catch up with my family). As usual, time back home was typically slower (though not necessarily more or less stressful or eventful) hence it offered me a space to reflect and internalize new thoughts and discarding or reintegrating old systems and beliefs.
Alright, instead of writing stories about back home, please indulge me as I try to clarify - largely for my own benefit - the ideas/concepts/mental models that I am experimenting with.
First, according to Emily Fletcher (my current meditation guru), per the Vedas there are always three circles - circles of creation, maintenance, and destruction. If my memory serves me right, this flows with the Hindu gods of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The essence of the teaching is as follows: the Universe is expanding, and therefore it supports the endeavor of creation. Maintenance is squarely followed by destruction, and therefore the universe doesn't like it when we just stay stagnating. Now, she also offered that instead of judging something as positive or negative, she invites us to see if that thing (or that aspect of our lives) is in the phase of creation, maintenance, or destruction. All of us have multiple facets to our lives and it's definitely alright for an aspect, say, this blog (hehehe) be on the destruction (or neglect) phase as I focus on creating on the other aspects of my life, be it my physical health (through WildFit!) or my spirituality (through Ziva!).
This really squares nicely into the next idea- what was coined a Barbell method by Nasim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile. Essentially, having two extremes as a way to achieve a balance is a much better way to go than having everything in middling or in moderation. Eric Edmeades from WildFit also said that everything in moderation includes your health- thus the Barbell method to health would probably be intermittent fasting (periods of noneating followed by overeating), and the idea that having five glasses of wine in one day is healthier than having one glass of wine everyday for five days (not that I encourage binge drinking, but hey it's a free country). So now, in line with my spiritual advisor's encouragement (Mbak Mary Susaktiani), I intend to apply the barbell concept to my other areas of life as well, especially in terms of socializing, trying something new, and moving out of my comfort zone. If all organics are antifragile, i.e. benefits from randomness, shocks, and variability, surely something new every so often would rejuvenate and strengthen my being. Perhaps it shall give me the spice of life that I am after.
Last is the idea that we are all one, we are extensions of the Universe in which we are acting as its tool in which we experience and enjoy life. This also means that we are not at the driver seat of our buses, but at the same time there is the Universe who focuses squarely and positively at you and holds you onto its loving attention (per Abraham Hicks) and who has got your back and gives you what you need and maybe not quite what you want (per Srikumar Rao). What follows is then loosely gripped but clear desires, surrender, using feeling, clarity, and intuition as a guide, and then treating others as how you would want to treat yourself- all the while rejoicing, growing, creating, and having tons of fun because the only time we have is now, from the beginning of time through the eternity. Something that I am grappling with personally is therefore that as people have their stories (and co-create in them) and allotted fortunes (rejeki), they would have allotted emotions and feelings. I have been taught that the way to do anything and everything is to first accept it, acknowledge it, and surrender to it. After we follow them to their natural course and conclusion, as we become clearer and clearer on what we want, we are then free to manifest change. We have the power to make the Universe even more perfect, but before doing so we must recognize that it has already been perfect and always will be.
And now I understand- I resolve to take it easy and to enjoy and to take risks and be adventurous, to follow my gut, to be open to all kinds of experiences, to be soft-spoken and gracious and grateful but to have a firm will and a solid understanding that everything has been, is, and will be alright (this is bliss, vs happiness) and to have very clear and strong desires and intentions and responsibility, integrity, and self-respect but to have them loosely held.
And thus, I march forward.
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