The “Nothing” Blog
Questioning the mind, challenging thinking, questioning existence.
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How can you be free from self-centered activity? Whether a parent, a book, a religious figure-head or otherwise tells you to be unselfish, this is an illusion. . .
I have no wish to leave behind any legacy, although one may inevitably follow, it matters not. . .
For a brief moment every morning, you are nothing. Just a body, lying helplessly in a bed (or futon or floor - depends on your situation). . .
Education seems to be designed for two things:
1/ Desensitize the human to prepare them for war
2/ Teach them skills to sustain the system
I question whether habits are necessary at all to be “well” - both mentally and physically. Whilst these things can help to ‘navigate’ life, better time would be spend trying to understand why one is stressed in the first place . . .
A mind that does not move in a ‘direction’ at all - could this be the silence you seek? Why do you seek it? . . .
“Thought gives birth to the entity that thinks. Thought’s battery is time. Time keeps that entity alive. Just as when a car’s battery is flat, You can't practice your way to "Nothing". No meditation will help you experience "silence".
“Thought gives birth to the entity that thinks. Thought’s battery is time. Time keeps that entity alive. Just as when a car’s battery is flat, the car sits idle - without purpose. . .
All “spiritual practices” are like any practice - they enforce through repetition. . .
“When I talk to you, I want to talk in a space where we are both honored.”
“What would that place be?” . . .
Audience: Oh but when I am in flow, I feel I am connected to the universal energy - the cosmos!
GC: How do you… now let’s be careful… how do you “know” if there is some connection or alignment with something “greater”? . . .
I have no need to serve others.
If I do then there is intent…
You can try whatever practices you like. You can read thousands of books. You can watch thousands of videos…
“There is nothing really here. Nothing to plan for. Nothing to work for. Nothing to pray for. Nothing to change. Nothing to kill or die for…
Knowledge of any kind cannot reach the understanding of what is spiritual. The moment it becomes knowledge, is the moment it is gone. An idea, a picture we worship, a practice, all comes from knowledge. And the more you seek it, the more barriers you will encounter.
GC: First, do you ask this question because I have challenged something within you that you feel so strongly about? Secondly, am I really putting it “down” or am I sharing something about meditation which contradicts what millions of people, gurus, experts, book are telling you it is? That in itself, is worth asking (when the masses follow the same patterns).
Why do we insist on following others?
The moment we “follow” others, we become copy-paste human beings. In one life-time, whether it be 10 or 50 years, we are a summation of systems, beliefs, traditions that we have inherited from others whom have inherited from previous generations, and so on. Your mind is the result of thousands of years of conditioning.
Can we perceive is such a way that our daily problems of life don’t even arise?
Recently, I have heard the word, ‘duality’ as often as I have heard ‘non-duality’. “We live in a world of duality”. What does this even mean? I don’t personally know anything about Advaita Vedanta, or certain Zen philosophies, books by Alan Watts or Krishnamurti, or even speculative science. Sure, I’ve explored some of these works but I’ve immediately discarded them for the reason that I felt they were all taking me away from something sacred. And also because I found them quite boring! Hope I’m not offending anyone.
The night that changed my life - what the “self” did not want me to publish
My “self” has held-back this conversation for 2 years. I’ve told only a few close friends about this, but since questions are starting to arise, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get this out in the open, even just this once.
When people purchase a book, or read something that’s laughably interesting from this writer on platforms such as LinkedIn, their minds begin asking questions. Who is this? What does he know about this! He’s not a philosopher. How did all of this come about? Is it really true. This is not love, blah blah. So in sharing this, I’d like to request the reader to please not paint any images of the writer. And if you already have one, delete it. If it’s difficult, perhaps you can observe your own mind as things arise and delete the images that might be coming up.
Good.
Now please go on to read…
It must be one of the most quoted words in the history of humankind. One of the most over used, over emphasized words in motivational language:
"Courage".
I'm going to question the necessity of this at all because it seems to be something humans have to carry in their "toolbelt of life".
In a recent talk, I unraveled the topic of human relationships and asked if we have a relationship at all? Here is an excerpt of the 60 minute conversation printed with permission.
[This is from Dialogue 1: Relationships - book here]
GC: The experts and famous psychologist are going to disagree with me here. That’s okay. Now you come to me, show me all these wonderful training programs and statistics of how you’ve created empathy at work. Now I turn around and tell you, if empathy and compassion truly existed, you wouldn’t be working in a company.
Audience: [Silence]
Forgiveness. It’s something many of us are taught when we are young as something “good to do”. You ask for forgiveness when you have caused harm to another person. You ask an authority or religious figure for forgiveness when you have broken a “sacred rule”. You ask for forgiveness when you couldn’t keep a promise or broken something valuable, and so forth. But seriously, what are you forgiving?
One day, you come to a stage where you realize that what you thought was "life" is nothing but a circulation of dead leaves. And whether this realization happens during your sleep or during the day, the important thing is that it happens.
You also realize that living is not possible without death. Thoughts can never define what life is. And thoughts certainly can't define death either, for if it knew the truth, death would not be seen as something tragic, sad, or awful, but a reincarnation in every now. Without this understanding, one knows not life, but dead leaves.
Dear friends, it is pointless to waver your energies to one side or another at a time of war. Instead, you carry the energy of love and light which shines for every single living being in the world. This is all and everything we need to put an end to violence in the world. There are no enemies in the world. There are ideologies and systems that live in the shadows lurking for prey that have been part of human condition for centuries. Unfortunately our innocent brothers and sisters all around the world are coerced into living life in the shadows with the false promises of security, peace, and righteousness at the cost of human lives. Nothing can be further from the truth.
. . .
Everyone talks about changing the world for the "better".
As always, skepticism comes to me.
There are a few challenges with this:
1: Are we using the same instrument that got us into this mess to move to "better". Can you really trust the salesperson that sold you a lemon telling you the next car is "better"?
. . .
A dialogue on Unconditional Love - Silent Leadership Institute, Tsukuba Japan, October 2023.
Whatever difficulty you are facing, whatever challenges you may have, love can transform your entire consciousness. But not the love that you know.
Participants: What do you mean, “not the love that you know”? I don't understand what you are referring to. I know that love can transform everything, but this is nothing new. I haven't seen love change the world in any compelling way - it’s always only in pieces, parts, here and there, now and then.
GC: Indeed, you are right. Can it be love if it’s in pieces?
What if one day you woke up, and forgot the meanings to certain words. In fact, certain words no longer even appear in the dictionary. In fact, the whole world forgot their meanings.
Words such as frustration, anger, sadness, worry, stress, hurt...
There's lots of focus on AI, so I'd like to also dedicate a post to it. Maybe this post will get so much attention it will start an AI pandemic! BUT...
No, not the AI you call Artificial Intelligence.
I'm going to borrow some Japanese here. In Japanese, AI as in "ai" means:
Yes folks, this is how I coached leaders to build their leadership skills outside of work. More importantly, this is how I learned most of my leadership skills:
Gain leadership skills at home by doing the following:
Helping kids with their homework . . .
We must understand that barbaric acts in this world are in our shared consciousness. We all have a relationship with what is happening in this world. It's easy to point the finger at everyone else. It's easy to criticize this country and that country. It's easy to analyze what is going on, read into it, etc. etc. It's easy to read or watch the news, say it's terrible, and then get on with our own daily lives.
But, unless we ourselves see that we are barbaric, how can it ever be transcended? Start with that fact.