On 27th
October 2023 in twitter
Tim
Ferriss, “In my first interview with Arnold
Schwarzenegger. I brought up a photo of him at age 19, just before he won his
first big competition, Junior Mr. Europe. I asked, “Your face was so confident
compared to every other competitor. Where did that confidence come from?”
He replied: “My confidence came from my vision. . . . I am a big believer that
if you have a very clear vision of where you want to go, then the rest of it is
much easier. Because you always know why you are training 5 hours a day, you
always know why you are pushing and going through the pain barrier, and why you
have to eat more, and why you have to struggle more, and why you have to be
more disciplined… I felt that I could win it, and that was what I was there
for. I wasn’t there to compete. I was there to win.”
On 28th October 2023 in
Times of India
“If you accept yourself as you
are, and begin to release your strong attachments and expectations, then stress
too should lessen its stifling grip. If you can be flexible, you allow room for
wonderful things to happen.” Gyalwang Drukpa
These two
led me to another incidence, i.e, recollecting what
during ThinkEdu16 conference in concluding session Sri Sri Ravishankar answered
spontaneously very well to VC of a university in very simple terms how to avoid
irrational depressions due to high expectations and corresponding
disappointment.
He used just three very effective words. He said
you need 'Passion' to perform effectively but 'Dispassion' to
carry on with shortcomings and failures. He said when you succeed in
Passion you enjoy, when you have this 'Dispassion' then you do not 'hate
yourself' between these two if you have 'Compassion' then you do not hate or
blame others. So, he said you need Passion, Dispassion and
Compassion -all the three.
I think this simple mantra can contribute enough
moderation and sense of balance which is the ultimate test of a matured person.
Why do we need compassion? How can it be nurtured?
It is necessary because our individual life [
however great and good it may be], is
merely part of totality of LIFE, besides, we perceive life only in parts.
"We live in succession, in division, in parts, in
particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole: the wise
silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally
related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose
beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in
every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the
spectacle, the subject, and the object, are one. We see the world piece
by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which
these are shining parts, is the soul. "Excerpt from The Over-Soul, by
Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841
No one starts, may or must not start or cannot
start all aspects of life in moderation.
Aggression, passion, influence, impact, intensity
are the things that spice up the adventure of life but then everyone must grow
out of these experiences into a matured balanced person acting with modicum moderation
and deft diplomacy.
But it is also high time that all individuals and
institutions which feel responsible for youth, future generations, and
posterity of humanity must emphasis and consciously promote virtues of
moderation, tolerance, forgiveness, compassion, accepting facts, happiness,
contextual relevance of whatever is done etc as most important tenets of
emancipated human beings practicing a universal religion.
Compassion must be inculcated consciously so that
it acts as a spontaneous base in
subconscious with a caveat for exceptions.
William James, “In the
end nothing less than the whole of everything can be the truth of anything at
all”.
“Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions
behind your assumptions.” -Idries Shah.
Human life, after all,
is a very short journey in the ocean of totality of LIFE.
Identities of all hues
while they enable creating social groups at the same time enfeeble options for
universal acceptance.
Writers, when they slide
on the side of reason are 360 degree stroke makers, they are able to seek and to see numerous
possibilities that exist between, beneath and beyond ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ which
ordinary mortals may not that easily
grab and give a name or label and in addition writers are not averse to
churn by throwing those possibilities in the cauldron which may contain from
several sources all sorts of thoughts, information
and /or knowledge of /in various domains, imaginations, dreams, fantasies,
intellect, conscious awareness, perception, tools of perception, logic, reason,
evaluations, purpose of evaluations, tools of evaluations, understanding and
application of understanding, social values, social interactions, individual
and/or collective emotions/feelings, psychology, cultural contexts, ideological
identities which influence those very thought processes, imaginations, dreams,
fantasies, scientifically established facts, intelligent questioning,
attitudes, willingness and ability to understand and solve problems,
bio-chemical components of human beings and /or some other species as
well, application of highest physical laws etc.
Writers realize at
least, partially that reality
is that shifting priorities, drifting value systems, jilting relationships,
wilting spirits seek only befitting systems and swift solutions and not
suffocating taboos and traditions, rituals devoid of rational, sermons of
socio-morals of ancient times which may enthuse automatic cognitive operations
through appealing nicely worded and socially applauded hyper philosophizing
thoughts and opinions[passing of as collective wisdom] but will get exposed
at the altar of existential anxieties which may expose how far removed they are
from any contextual relevance.
Growing up and growing
out of certain things are natural process of evolutionary metamorphosis both
biologically and psychologically.
Life is functionally a
dynamic energy; visually a multi-faceted splendour; a marvellous mystery which
unfolds itself through each one of us at every moment. Therefore, life cannot
be either generalized in any manner or simplified into any predefined
categories.
Life continues to
evolve in its dynamic energy every moment and constantly throws up challenges
in varying degrees and intensities, in different dimensions and at unexpected
intervals.
Wisdom is to live in
the present context and to practice certain time-tested values which have
relevance in present context but with global perspective to bequeath a liveable
planet, a lovable society with lovely ecosystems and improved living conditions.
Scott Atran, a respected Anthropologist called Religion as “belief
in hope beyond reason”.
In evolutionary biology we find that all creations have shed the
unnecessary parts or shrunk them for better survival; in evolutionary sociology
too human race has shed too many models of social groups and narrowed down on a
few that would be easier for global interaction; in languages too, from a few
thousands languages that existed humanity has reduced the number to just a few
hundred languages for easy communication leading to at least better verbal
understanding.
Life is never fulfilled with unfulfilled relationships within the family, with others in the
society, with the environment, with the many sciences, subjects, systems that
we come across which are useful to us, used by us or we are used by them and so
on. So, the quality of life is the manifestation of the quality of the
inter play of these various relationships.
Everything
has its relevance and appeal to different souls at various levels. That's why
we cannot deny or defy the importance of anything or anyone. So, oversimplifications or sweeping
generalizations must be avoided.
“Across
planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things
can be simultaneously true.” ― Ram Dass.
We
must also know that everything has its own inherent attributes, intrinsic
values, internal mechanism, and logic for its existence besides, beyond,
exclusive of and unmindful of human intellectual justifications, acceptance,
acknowledgement, social approvals, political support and therefore , it
is purely absurd to extrapolate anything with specific ideological
fixations.
A
whole gamut of things and factors that go on to develop an intellect, many more
to define one and a lot to acquire that label which enable to deliver the real
universal wisdom.
Human knowledge even
with all the advantages of technological advancements enabled accessibility and
availability hubris, still navigates in the orbit of finiteness.
Whatever they be and
however well packaged they are be they surveys, statistics, spread
sheets all are meaningful abstractions and presentations of multiple facets and
factors like randomness, measurable patterns, easily understandable classifications,
blue prints or outlines or guide lines projecting or superimposing the
trajectory of trends etc of real events, activities, actionable remedial
measures of PEOPLE who are involved or impacted by or responsible for
such events or activities and circumstances which went on to create those
factors or facets.
“Scientists use
whichever methods help them understand the world: drudge like
tabulation of data, experimental derring-do, flights of theoretical fancy,
elegant mathematical modelling, kludgy computer simulation, and
sweeping verbal narrative" -karl popper.
"All the methods are pressed into
the service of two ideals, and it is these ideals that advocates of science
want to export to the rest of intellectual life. The first is that the world is
'Intelligible'. The phenomena we experience may be explained by the principles
that are deeper than the phenomena themselves." “The second
ideal is that we must allow the world to tell us whether our ideas about
it are correct, i.e., consistency with empirical evidence".
Vulnerabilities are
unavoidable but leaving them unobserved, unattended, and unaddressed is bad.
"I was at the age when one felt like one needed to read everything,
which prevented one from making contemplative stops"- Taleb.
This happens to most of
us. In a way it is good initially, more the merrier.
Then we end up getting
lost with excess of fuzziness than real assimilation.
The INSTINCT/IMPULSE to
filter and be selective come with prejudices and biases to NARROWING DOWN on
only a few things.
However, the ABILITY to
do so come with enhanced matured way to choose and decide and end up
CONSOLIDATING our radius of receptivity.
Sometimes, many other
factors like time constraints and lack of resources limit our options. I cannot resist quoting
my favourite author here.
“The ability to choose
an action that best satisfies conflicting goals is not an add-on to
intelligence that engineers might slap themselves in the forehead for
forgetting to install! It IS intelligence"- Steven Pinker .
“Understanding does not obey Moore's Law:
knowledge is acquired by formulating explanations and testing them against
reality, not by running an algorithm faster and faster. Devouring the
information in the Internet will not confer omniscience either: big data is
still finite data, and the universe of knowledge is infinite" - Steven
Pinker.
He also writes, “if
narratives without statistics are blind, statistics without narratives are
empty".
Summing up the whole
thing I would like to add that life is injected into the spread sheets only
when one SYNERGIZES them with underlying HUMANITARIAN WELFARE and long-term
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT based on RATIONAL OUTLOOK and SCIENTIFIC
APPROACH with CONTEXTUAL RELEVANCE and ensuring not to hurt the SENTIMENTS and
VALUE THE SOCIO-CULTURAL SENSITIVITIES of the people involved.
Surveys,
statistics, spread sheets are meaningful abstractions and presentations
of multiple facets and factors like randomness, measurable patterns, trajectory
of trends and so on of real events, activities, actionable remedial measures of
people who are involved or impacted by or responsible for such events or
activities and circumstances which went on to create those factors or
facets.
Life is injected into
the spread sheets only when one synergizes with underlying human and
environmental factors.
“Everything changes as
you move through three stages of awareness: first, that beliefs are the result
of conditions; second, that beliefs are the cause of conditions; and third,
that beliefs are themselves conditions.”― Eric Micha'el Leventhal.
“All of us have our own
inner fears, beliefs, opinions. These inner assumptions rule and govern our
lives. A suggestion has no power in and of itself. Its power arises from the
fact that you accept it mentally.”― Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious
Mind.
“We must realize that the subconscious mind is the law of action and
always expresses what the conscious mind has impressed on it. What we regularly
entertain in our mind creates a conception of self. What we conceive ourselves
to be, we become.” Grace Speare.
