How to make mistakes - Overcoming the fear of it

In the face of uncertainty it is crucial to make mistakes. I was obsessed with being on the "right" path when there really is no such thing. Uncertainty has shown me that no matter how prepared you think you are, you're not. It teaches how one must learn to be when a storm circles you, how to be centered in the midst of chaos. You do this by making mistakes. You take action not because it is the safest thing to do, but because it is the scariest thing to do.

A huge portion of society dread the idea of making mistakes because they fear the consequences of their actions. This idea is imprinted onto us very early in our life when our parents, from a good place, try to teach us by punishing us when we do something that displeases them. It is an embedding of the idea that actions we take, that are outside the approved box, is a marker for punishment, and no one wants to be punished so we become afraid of taking any action that inspire something new at all. Making mistakes is about being free from the idea of punishment... it's about falling and getting up not falling and being trampled over again which is what we feel like when we are punished, instead of being praised for discovering a path that does not serve us, we are deemed bad, stupid, unworthy, not up to standard, and a bunch of other self esteem destructing words. But more importantly mistakes are about discovering uncharted waters and discovering something beautiful that you would not if you hadn't made that mistake.

A good question one might ask is why would anyone want to make mistakes?  The answer to this question can be realized in its clearest form by making them. But let me try to give you an idea why. Mistakes are points of growth in your life. When you make a mistake, you think to yourself and say "oh, this is how i can take a different direction that's in more alignment". In fact, one of the most fundamental problem solving methods that is used very often in scientific discoveries is the process of trial and error. Not the kind where you try out of hopelessness but the kind where every action you take has a purpose and if it turns out to be unwanted, you are closer to knowing what is wanted. In the same way, you can use trial and error as a form of guide to find what satisfies you the most in life. Every mistake you make is one step closer to clairvoyance, quite the opposite of following suit.

A problem arises when we regret our mistakes. Regret has a very lingering feeling to it, as if you will never ever forget that event. We feel regret because we believe we have done something bad. But is the definition of bad really our own or has it been fed to us by what society? It is the latter. which brings me to the next problem. Fearing the judgement that is associated with our mistakes. This is dangerous because immediately we crawl back into our caves. What i would like to point out is that when society judges us for our mistakes, it is the people who are stuck their own caves, afraid to make any mistakes and so by judging us, they have the power to drag us back with them. The only way to overcome this is courage. The courage to be walk out of the safety caves and ignore the callbacks. To go and experience the beauty and darkness of the forest, one may say.

In my experience, making mistakes and taking that scary step in life has shown me who I really am. Especially when dealing with all the chaos that comes along with it, your old self  that depends on external commands will die and a rebirth occurs where your golden character shows up and takes center stage. Then it's game on...

The power of not knowing

Knowledge is power, people say... and that is very true. Knowledge can be liberating and allows you to make informed choices but at times knowledge or knowing is a confine to what is or what can be because knowledge is limited, and that makes knowledge or knowing a burden. Let me explain.

Why do i say that knowledge is limited when there is so much information to know out there that you can't even know all of it. This is because we, the human race, our scientists and philosophers and chefs and so on... find new knowledge every second of our perceiving lives.

You see, when you assume that you know, you will stop inquiring into new knowledge thus you will stop inquiring into new possibilities and this makes your mind a limited mind. Limited to what you know. When in actuality, no matter what you do, absolute knowledge is unlimited, unfathomable, and therefore you can't know! How can you know? The only possible solution then, is "I don't know". Ironic isn't it?

When you say i don't know. It is very powerful. Very powerful in the sense that it will open the door for you to find out. To delude yourself with knowledge is hell of a burden as you will be circling around a pond that doesn't go elsewhere. When you're not knowing, you're in an ocean, vast and unlimited! That's the beauty of not knowing.

In our society, people shame each other for not knowing any better. It's absolutely hilarious to me because the ones who shame others can't ever know themselves! And what they do by shaming other people, is shutting the door for other people to know as well. It's selfish, unacceptable and shameful.

After reading this, it might be a little bit wobbly and you might have doubts, as i also did in the beginning. I really recommend J. Krishnamurti's Freedom from the known. It will open your mind in a way that has never been opened. You won't know what open means anymore! haha! Cheers, and have a fantastic time.


 

Now?

three simple letters n, o, w put together to make a word that has what seems to be a concrete meaning but that meaning has an idea behind it, these ideas blur out the experiential reality of it, deforming it of its true meaning at all which then takes us back all over again to where we started. Now. What now?

According to Oxford Dictionary, the word "now" means:
at the present time or moment.
 ie;
where are you living now?it’s the most popular style of jazz right nowthey should be back by now

You see, according to Oxford "now" is a part of time or a segment of time which means it is something that's a consequence of the past and something that will cause the future. This is an idea. When in experience, or in reality, all that there has ever been is right now, and it's a continuous stream of nows... without segments... without parts to differ one moment to another.

Now most people today, live in an idea of time, a fantasy really where events occurring continuously are separated from one another and so the only outcome possible in their experience is something that has no new outcome... they're not living in real-time or what we call now or this moment, which brings about new possibilities to what you perceive as reality. As you're reading this, i'd like you to come into awareness of this moment, don't cling on to this moment, let this moment or the stream of moments go by and look at it as a part of what we call now...

If you have completed this exercise correctly, you will find that you have liberated yourself in some way, you feel less chained to past events, less confined to what has happened before and more open to what is happening right now and so you don't have an idea anymore of what will happen in the future, you are free into the now.

The reason there is so much focus put on being able to experience the present moment is because it the root of so many forms of suffering, especially in terms of pattern... patterned suffering.

Well just to play devil's advocate let's say someone says to me "well how can you say that all there is is now when just yesterday i went to the groceries store, that was the past wasn't it? So the past does exist."
To this advocate i say, "show me. Show me now that you went to the groceries store yesterday."
and he or she would reply, "I can't. How can i? it happened yesterday"
And then i'd say... "so how does it exist?"

just from writing this post i realize, It's very hard to write about the present moment because it can't be captured in one frame of time because it's continuous not discrete, and it can't be intellectualized which is such a bummer because now i realize this post is pointless... So look for the present moment yourself
Hint: it's right under your nose

i guess all i want to say is... Hey!! Snap out of your illusion of time!! the time is now!!!

Benefits of meditation. What is meditation?

Before i go on about how meditation has improved the quality of my life immensely, i'd like to characterize what meditation is.

Meditation is a method to which you transcend a form or state of consciousness. Meditation does not only consist of sitting down quietly with self in one place, it can be any activity at all that brings about this transcended state of consciousness. Whether it be, listening to music, dancing, painting, anything that brings about inner peace in your daily life can be considered a meditative process.

I started meditating a year ago, in this case i do mean sitting quietly with self in one place. When i first started, it was very hard for me to sit still and completely listen to myself without any form of judgement or labeling. I could barely even keep my eyes closed for a long enough period. And so these were signs that i am not at peace. These "tasks" are so simple yet i can not perform them without feeling irritated.

This here is the first step toward a library of realizations. I realized i was not at peace with the environment around me and the environment in me. As i went on practicing meditation and learning to "ride the surf board", i got better at it and i gained the ability to keep a still mind. So for any beginners out there, who have just started meditation. Please know that it is a process, step by step process, so if you've done it once and find no result, it is only because you've made a very small step or small change. an Unnoticeable one. So really follow through the process, and you will not only find ultimate truths about yourself, you will begin to perceive differently, with more serenity.

How has meditation benefited me? On an experiential level, i find words to be insufficient in what it can really do but here i am giving it a go. Firstly, it has given me a sense of calmness and objectivity which has really helped me in-terms of problem-solving skills. Because when a problem arises, the last thing you want to do is panic and identify yourself with that problem, in order to solve a problem you must rise above it, or objectively look at it like it wasn't really your problem, because there's a solution to it. So it's simply a temporary problem. This applies to ANY problem at all, whether it be financial, relationship, education, personal, etc. A solution exists, therefore be calm and objectively look at the problem

another aspect is, it helped me become more compassionate, and full of energy. It has helped me to look at people with a lot more empathy and understanding for their situation, sometimes even more than they do themselves! This is because when observing self, we notice the unnecessary patterns we fall into which does not benefit our lives in anyway. Whether it's a reaction, a thought process that we're always stuck with, etc.

But enough about me, let's just look at some of the physical benefits that have been studied:





In general, if you can just spend 5-10 minutes of your time sitting with yourself instead of watching TV, or doing any other menial tasks, your whole day will seem fresh with a fresh perspective!

What are thoughts?

Thoughts are something very introspective and diverse to so many different people because there are infinite number of possible thoughts going through the collective population's minds. Thoughts are also polar, meaning there are positive thoughts and negative thoughts.

The problem is, the thoughts themselves are not intrinsically positive or negative. It is us that define what positive and negative is and so we often get caught up in whether or not it is acceptable to think in a certain way or is there a particular way to think, the "right" way? the truth is there is no particular "way".

What this means in terms of thoughts is that, there are no positive thoughts or negative thoughts, they are simply just thoughts. A byproduct of the physical mind(brain). You can either choose to accept or reject those thoughts. When we do this, it is important for us to not be identified with our thoughts because you are not the thought itself but the awareness of that thought. The reason i say this is because thoughts are always all over the place; we can never control the thoughts we think, is it possible to not be in control of something that is supposed to be you?

So right there, you can see the separation between what You Are and what Thoughts are.
Although what Buddha said is true; "what we think, we become" but we must put that into context first. The reason we become what we think is because we are identified with thoughts but really we can choose to become anything we want, it does not have to depend on what we think we should be.

We have the belief that thoughts have patented ownership "these are my thoughts", "these are your thoughts". This is completely devastating to your personal well-being.

This is because Thoughts are also very closely related to emotion. When a thought arises, you experience a relative emotion to that particular thought. Sometimes that particular thought makes you angry, sad, happy, etc. and so thoughts heavily affect your emotional well-being, especially when you are identified with thoughts. At the same time, experiencing an emotion due to an external situation can affect the way you think. So it is a two-way relationship between thought and emotion.

When you are identified with what you think, you will act interms of what you think is you. So you are left with not being your trueself but simply being what you think you should be. There is an identity crisis. Who am I? *soft whisper* you are not your thoughts.

Hemp: A step towards sustainability

Hemp also known as Cannabis Ruderalis is one of the three species of the plant Cannabis, Marijuana, Ganja or whatever you want to call it. However, the absence of a particular compound THC, the psychoactive ingredient in weed, makes it have 40,000+ uses without getting people high.

For example, Hemp can be used to make Hemp concrete aka Hempcrete which is 7X stronger than concrete, resistant to mold, self-insulatable and many more benefits , hemp can be used to make hemp paper and hemp plastic which is 10 times stronger than steel and much lighter, making it a great alternative building material for airplanes. The founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford's first car was out of hemp plastic. In addition, hemp fibres can be used to make hemp fuel, cancer prevention medicine (hemp oil), textiles and clothing, nutritious protein source, and the list goes on... it's pretty much the most multi-functional plant the world has ever known, yet it is illegal, even though hemp can't get people high or intoxicated. Surely, science has not been the foundation for the implementation of this ridiculous law.

To extend this idea, hemp is a superior textile material to cotton from its production cost savings to the material itself.

Easier said than done, for the info image above, but definitely in the realm of possibility no doubt. Only if there is a movement from the people, we live in a democracy and if the science says this but the laws say otherwise. Is it not important to change the laws that align with scientific evidence? I certainly think it is.

VICE: The Future Of Weed (Trailer)