My personal realization for today is; that the only way I am ever going to be everything I want to be is simply by: BEING. Everything I want to be.
I realized, it’s all very well to talk about all this philosophical stuff but it is all very esoteric. I want to make a post about something that could really make a simple and practical difference in peoples lives, heart disease.
Heart disease has been biggest killer in the western world, until it was recently surpassed by cancer. Interestingly both heart disease and cancer can be prevented through some of the same natural precautions and remedies.
I don’t want to go into a lot of detail on this subject on my blog as others have done a better job. For thos interested in more information visit: Natural Treatment for Heart Disease, where you will find one of the best ebooks ever written on the subject.
I can’t help but feel that Chaos Theory is poorly named. It should perhaps be called Complexity Theory or some name that does justice to the infinite organizing power of the universe.
For those of you who are not familiar with Chaos Theory it is a mathematical theory that describes a situation where a small event triggers a vastly complex series of events that lead to something huge happening. The classic example of Chaos Theory is the butterfly effect where a butterfly flapping its wings starts a chain reaction that eventually creates a thunder storm.
To me naming this phenomenon name Chaos Theory is synonymous of our societies denial of intelligence in nature. It’s almost like the mathematicians are saying, well it to complex to for us to understand so lets just call it chaotic. Our entire so called “civilization” seems to be an attempt to create an environment that is simple enough for our very limited intellects to understand, this simplicity we ironically call order.
I think initially our societies tendency to create simplicity out of natures enormous diversity was innocently done as a means to ensure survival. Creating simplicity, even if it meant destroying part of natures order, was a necessary stop gap measure. A stop gap measure that should only have been used until natural’s complexity could have been better understood. Instead society has continued to deny natures intelligence and label the simplified environment we live in today as “orderly”. This act of denial is the root cause of many of the environmental problems our culture faces today, and will need to be addressed before we can return to a sustainable way of living.
I am actually a big fan of chaos theory and am particularly happy that it has become as popular as it has. Acceptance of chaos theory is an acceptance of the out of the ordinary, an acceptance that we are can’t understand or predict everything, and an acceptance that life is by it’s very nature improbable.
I personally believe that Chaos Theory type events occur almost all the time. I often sit at a table and think, with enough knowledge, and just by using the simple objects in front of me I could start a chain reaction that would eventually lead to a huge event in the world. Thinking about difficult decisions I have had to make, it seems that logically it’s impossible to absolutely know the right answer to anything, using logic alone, life is just to complex. It’s interesting to compare the complexity of everyday life to the game of chess, chess is relativity simple there are just 64 squares and 32 pieces. Even so, even the worlds best chess players, considered great intellectuals, can not predict every outcome.
Think about how many opportunities we miss whiles just going to the store or taking the dog for a walk. If I say “thank you” to the store owner instead of saying nothing it could make him feel just a litle less stressed, that could prevent him from having an argument with his wife that evening. That wife will then NOT get drunk and NOT drive drunk to buy more whiskey, AND NOT run over a little kid who will then live and grow up to be the next president of the united states. This might seem like an unlikely scenario but when you consider the sheer number of decisions we each make, every hour of every day, then it is very probable that at least a few of those decisions will end up having vast implications.
Although the interlect alone could never possibiliy calculate the possibilties of even our simple everyday actions, I do believe that it is possible to tune into a the greater cosmic intelligence and acting with that guidence be a great asset to humanity.
I would like to pay a special tribute to the Transcendental Meditation Programme which I practice daily and which brings so much light into my life. This tribute includes special thanks to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who brought TM to the western world.
Transcendental Meditation offers a lot of practical benefits, like curing depression, and ADHD. Growing up meditation helped me with ADHD, and now am glad to see many students benifitng in the same way.
See more on meditation for ADHD
But these benefits are not really why I am paying Transcendental Meditation a tribute. My purpose for practicing TM is to experience deeper levels of reality, to have a glimpse of the world beyond this world, the spirit world. …and for this TM has worked.
Thank you Maharishi and…
Jai Guru Dev
The following is a recollection of an experience that I have been thinking about ever since it happened. This experience is probabily the main reason I decided to write this blog.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to spend a few days where I meditated for extended periods of time. I practice Transcendental Meditation, and the TM Sidhi programe and it is something I naturally turn to when I am looking for deeper spiritual experiences.
During my meditation practice I experienced inner calm, peace of mind and greater hapiness. This is pretty much what I expected, and it is why I practice TM. Still, intially there where no experiences so outstanding that they stuck in my memory for more than a few days.
On the evening of the second day of longer meditations I cycled to the store to by some groceries, and that’s when it hit me. I realized how incredibly good I felt. I can still remember thinking, wow this is what it feels like to be truly happy. For a short while I had no anger, no sadness, no worries, and I was completely happy for no particular reason at all. I was just happy to be alive.
The happiness slowly faded back to my normal level, it was so gradual that I don’t really remember when it stopped. Strangely I don’t miss it, somehow its still their in kind of an abstract form. I am excited to try to repeat the experience again, and so I will try , and will keep you posted.
“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been alloted to me?”
B. Pascal, 1623-1662, French philosopher, physic and mathematician
I like this quote because it puts the question “what is the purpose of life?” into perspective. My own thoughts on life are similar I often sit their wondering, I am here now, and I will be, here now, ten years from now, whats the difference and who am I anyway.
Still I think a practical question like “what is the meaning of life?” deserves a practical answer. The best answer I have heard to this question came from Maharishi Mehesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation Program, he said…
“The purpose of life is the expansion of happiness”
Such a beautiful answer to such an important question. Its a simple answer, and a concrete answer, yet, in mind mind not at all inaccurate. Notice that he said “the expansion of happiness” rather than “the expansion of ones happiness”, leaving happiness to expand in a completely non selfish way :-)
I think the only part of this quote that has room for interpretation (perhaps misinterpretation) is ones understanding of what happiness is. I will get into this in my next blog post.
What is this world I experience, why am I here and what does it mean? I experience things but are my perceptions real? What does real even mean, and what does it matter? If I experience something, I experience it, regardless of whether it is real or not.
To ask “what is the meaning of life ” to me is kind of a tricky question, its tricky because it assumes that life is a question, that has some kind of an answer. So if life is not a question, then maybe there is no answer.
Still it seems there must be some purpose to life even if there is no meaning, and if there is a purpose then the next question is how can that purpose be achieved.
