Happiness and Simplicity

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Louie Clearheart of The Love That I Am

Many of us have heard the saying, “live simply, simply live.” This is a key to happiness. It is when we make things too complex, or entertain too much drama in our lives (or more frequently our thoughts), that pain comes, suffering comes, and unhappiness comes.

Surprisingly, many of us are addicted to drama. We identify with it: all of the thoughts around excuses, reasons, judgments and justifications, or the endless “what if…?” scenarios we may play in our minds. Without all that, “who would we be?” we think.

Actually, a better question is, “what would we be?”

And the answer?

Happy.

In Defense of Harry Potter – The Tao of Self Analysis

Throughout the largest portion of my adult life, I have maintained what can best be described as an air of pseudo-intellectualism. My view of the world can sometimes be characterized by elitist attitudes towards films, books and entire groups of people. I have set myself on a pedestal which has in fact prevented any real growth from occurring within me. One way this attitude manifested itself was through my utter distaste and contempt for the Harry Potter series. I had come to associate Harry Potter with popular culture and had imposed upon that popular culture a value judgement of inferiority. Quite simply, I considered the books beneath me; inherently inferior because of their popularity. I had not read them, disregarding completely the old warning against judging a book by its cover.

This idea of popular culture being inferior is not new to cultural studies. There are many definitions of popular culture itself, but one way it can be defined would be to come to the conclusion that popular culture is all that is left after high culture is removed. The exclusivity and elite nature of this high culture means that the remnants are condemned to the ‘lesser’ category of popular culture. Practices, people, art, texts, and film (and any number of other things) which do not meet the strict standards required will fall into this category, rendering them by definition inferior. The trick about all of this is that all of the criteria involved are merely value judgements which support distinctions in social and economic class as well as an essentially myth-based concept of quality. The problem comes with the additional definitions of popular culture. Obviously one definition is that it is popular. Things which fall under the category of popular culture tend to be favored or regarded by many people. The simple fact is that the popular outnumbers the high by far, and the only barrier to the popular being legitimized is in fact the small minority which is attached to the interests of high culture.

Why I ended up associating myself with high culture, I do not know. An inflated ego, a need to feel that my opinions were more important than those of others – the truth is that it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that as a result of my interest in Taoism, my ideas began to shift. Through a process of self reflection, I realized how out of control my ego was. While I’m always going to have opinions and I’m always going to value some things over others, I realized how silly it sounds to judge something without really knowing anything about it. I can hear a song and dislike it, but I can’t honestly judge an entire work of fiction by a news clip or a movie trailer. I decided to give Harry Potter a chance.

First of all, the Harry Potter series is obviously intended for an audience of kids, so it is important to bear that in mind when reading it. I tried to think about it in the same way I would have been thinking about the Chronicles of Narnia series as I read it during my childhood. It is also important to think about the film franchise in this way as well. If there has been a huge Hollywood film for every Narnia book as a grew up, there is no doubt in my mind that my heart would have ached to see them. I don’t think that anything which gets kids reading can possibly be a bad thing. How could I think that, when the Narnia books gave me so much joy and eventually lead me down a path to become an aspiring writer?

Since my childhood, I have ready more fantasy novels than most people I know. While this could be considered good or bad by any number of people, it also leaves me in a position to understand the genre, at least to a certain extent. The Harry Potter series is neither the worst or the best I have read. The characters aren’t always extremely well fleshed out, but the use of setting is very good and the plot in the last couple of books is tied up in a very sophisticated way. I enjoyed the series, and isn’t that what matters? Rather than thinking so much about what other people will think of us, whether or not something is up to specific standards and all manners of in-depth analysis, shouldn’t we just live each moment for its individual and unique joy? When approached this way, as a child would approach them, these books have value. Whether that value is above or below you is up to you, but ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are ultimately a projection of the self. Taoism is concerned with the natural balance of things. In the creation of a concept of beauty, one creates the concept of ugliness by its lack, and vice versa. So does this apply to the idea of good and bad in the ordinary things of the world. It is an invention, a product of our own minds. There is no good. There is no bad. There only IS.

Zen and the Art of Zeno

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by ‘Zeno’

If you followed the article on The Evolution of Spirituality it will help understand this article on the Art of Zeno.

Western philosophy can simplified symbolically with any paradox much like Buddhist philosophy can be with koans. Zeno’s paradox is “You will never reach point B from point A as you must always get half-way there, and half of the half, and half of that half, and so on.” Basically, the act of observing the universe creates the paradox. It is a result of the imperfections of sensation; The sensation of change in motion, time. Motion is nothing but an illusion. The tools for measuring are just an extension of the body, an extension of the senses. Tools magnify the artificially created paradox. There is no time. The but the real magic happens in the words themselves.

A koan is simple metaphor (Greek for “transfer of”) packaged with information on how to effectively deal with the Ego or Self by remembering the emptiness. Duality, good and evil, is artificially created by the Ego. The metaphors in language are lost in translation, like a koan. They are also lost in definition, like a paradox. The West has been building the road to god by mouth; effective transfer of information between universes. The East shows us how to traverse the path. While Siddartha was studying God of the Inverse, Zeno was doing the same with the Outverse. Koans are the door, paradox the key. Like ants digging to the center of an apple, one going ‘out’ and one ‘in’. The God of Buddha is the God of the Inverse. The God of Zeno is the Outverse. The metaphor we all speak to each other when using ‘God’ is the Universe. West looks at it from the West, East looks at it from the East. Communication between parts of the universe is no simple matter. Thus the natural selection of definitions by discussion; the philosopher’s stone. Argument is a form of competition in the Mental Evolutionary process. There are so many metaphors competing that we forget the simplicity of the process itself. Everyone already gets it, they just get confused with all the noisy metaphors and sometimes stray from the path.

Zen shows us the key to nothing, Zeno shows us the door to infinity. For example, lets consider all parts together; Natural selection of Physical, Mental, Energy, Spirit, Emotion. Combined, things can get really confusing. You may hear words like “rock”; easy enough, it has protons, electrons, atoms and molecules created by the separation of energy; opposites attract, similarities repel, force, Newton’s laws, gravity, the stuff that binds. The separation, the space between, is defined by the opposite of matter. When the natural selection of Physical, Emotional, and Energetical combine to form a “rock” we symbolize it in the West by categorizing it by the energy emitted; waves, light, color, shape, texture. Like Aristotle would. That’s just a rock, what about a combination of all five? Human? Machine? God? I only have one perspective, there are billions. It is a confusing map to paint, but the message is simple. You can see it in any thing, hear it in any sound, feel it in every motion, believe in it at every turn, transfer it with every word. It is God. We are all slowly tuning the frequency dial of Zen enough to get Zeno’s broadcast out to all.

The Evolution of Spirituality

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by ‘Zeno’

First of all, I like to think of Religion as the mimicry spawning from revolutionary, charismatic, spiritual leaders (i.e. Jesus, Mohammad, Moses, Joseph Smith, etc.). The religious institutions are just imitating the teachings of those leaders. So it’s really the evolution of spirituality that we’re talking about here. The religious morals are more like guidelines, similar in the way that courts are institutions acting on the guidelines of law to facilitate the way people interact with each other.

I like to think that all of humanity is trying to reach out to each other through misunderstood, diverse communication. Everyone is the master (God) of their own universe, in that we are all confined to our physical bodies and restricted by our imperfect senses. Everyone has a different interpretation based on their experiences and biology; nature and nurture. With that mindset it becomes just a matter of understanding the underlying message, through symbolism, that is being conveyed through diverse communication (i.e. art, poetry, prose, music, speech). The stories change in style and language and form, but the message remains the same. Another way of looking at it is that all myths are humanities attempt at explaining the unexplainable. Most myths are traditional and ancient symbols used to fill the gap of human knowledge. “God” then is a constantly changing name for the lack of human understanding. Much like evil is the lack of good, like night is the lack of dark. Given that the breadth of human knowledge is always changing with new information (technological and sociological evolution) we need to adapt our myths to the new input. One of the most common stories out there is the Adam and Eve myth. Here is an attempt at symbolic interpretation of the Adam and Eve myth from my perspective.

In the book of Genesis God created Adam from dust and breathed “the breath of life” into his nostrils. From a scientific, Darwinist point of view, this is just a metaphor for natural selection. God created man and woman in his own image; I interpret this as Pantheism, the belief that all is God. God created woman from the rib of Adam; a symbol for human equality and cyclical birth through the male/female dynamic; man gives birth to woman with sperm and woman gives literal birth to man.

God created animals so that man would not be alone. This is where the original sin and loss of innocence starts. One of the animals created is the serpent; a symbol often used for Satan. Satan is the name given to evil in the world, but I believe evil is just a name given to the lack of good. God’s qualities include omnipotence and omniscience, both of which are qualities of omnibenevolence. The loss of innocence through the knowledge is a metaphor for the struggle of humanity in nature. Another way of saying it is that the loss of childhood freedom through fear and anger results from a lack of faith. God created the animals to cope with loneliness; this is just another way of symbolizing how human beings attempt to control and label the outside, and inside, world through the Ego. Notice after the “fall” Adam and Eve start realizing their “nakedness” and developing fears and misconceptions of the true God (Pantheism; all is God, all is omnibenevolent, all is good). This is why Buddhist sacrifices for humanity remind our lost inner child how to free itself from the chains of egoistic control. Lose the notion of Self. This is the path to “heaven” or enlightenment. I think maybe the problem is that people get stuck in the literal meaning of the myth and it prevents them from getting the message. That and there is a lot of noise adding to the confusion in modern times (i.e. movies, games, internet, sex, conflict, etc.). If we are able to come to terms with our lack of self, we can see that it is only the Ego that creates notions of good and evil, God and Satan through judgments of the outside reality. Thus, all is. Faith becomes a flexible form of entertainment and a way of coping with our human condition.

Thus, given new information spirituality is in a constant state of evolution, much like technology and society. Where and what it is evolving toward is yet to be seen. I think the new scientific advances in Artificial Intelligence, Genetics, Space Exploration, and Nanotechnology make for some interesting possibilities. It is through diversity of human experiences that we can synthesize the eastern and western philosophies into a new spiritual compass.

“If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” ~ Isaac Newton

Life is like Spaghetti

I love spaghetti, but it can be a complicated process to make it. It’s similar to life in that way.

1. There are multiple ingredients, and these ingredients must be balanced in order for the best taste.

Like making spaghetti, life is all about making the ingredients work with one another and to achieve balance. If your life is too heavy on work, you’ll burn out. You need a social life, a sense of meaning in your daily life, perhaps some sort of spirituality, etc. You need your emotional and mental well being in order for your life to be balanced and for you to be a whole person. To top it off, without your physical health, you aren’t going to be around long enough to be able to enjoy the life you’ve created for yourself. Missing out one ingredient can mess up the whole recipe, fouling the taste of the finished dish. Seek to create a balance between your life’s ingredients, recognizing your own deficiencies and taking small sensible steps to remedy the situation.

2. Timing is essential, if you overcook or undercook anything, it ruins the whole dish

Sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to when we want them to. Life is just like that. If we force things too much, we risk making ourselves and others unhappy just as burned garlic will ruin your sauce. And let’s face it – what is spaghetti without a good sauce? Learning to let things flow until the time is right is absolutely essential. Just like watching all of the ingredients cooking is essential, so is knowing what is going on around us in our lives. If you ignore an issue expecting it to take care of itself, you may very well end up regretting it. This also ties in with our ingredients. If we’re always rushing around worrying about what comes next, maybe we forget to do things necessary to our balance. If you don’t add salt and oil to the water, the spaghetti ends up bland and sticking together, does it not?Intelligently applied action is the key here. It should require minimal effort because you’re neither trying to push things through early or shove them in too late. This is similar to the Taoist concept of wu wei, with its emphasis on effortless, struggle-free action. Like water you should flow, perhaps in this case the water which boils the spaghetti. Just keep one eye on all of your cooking pots and the other on your current task, moving forward one step at a time.

3. In the end, it’s all in the eating.

Once the dish is cooked and on your plate, it ceases to be about the trouble you’ve gone through to get there. If our minds are full of the nonsense of action, worry and business, how can we truly enjoy our spaghetti? This is the same in the case of our lives. What is the use of working so hard if we can’t enjoy the things we’ve earned? What is the point of providing for a family we never see? Again this goes back to balance. When you’re at home, be at home. When you’re at work, be at work. Each moment is a single piece of perfection, ephemeral and there for the seizing. Be there to experience rather than shut away in your own head. When you take a bite of spaghetti, make sure you taste it.

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