Hardwired Optimism

Existence

People change over time. So do we.
I changed and certain books helped me.
'The Tao of Physics' by Fritjof Capra
'Man's Search For Meaning' by Viktor E. Frankl
'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' by Milan Kundera
'Children of the Matrix' by David Icke
.. and many many more.

I'll put bullets to their most efficient use because that makes it very easy to read and digest what we write. The very concept of 'writing' and 'posts' and 'books' exists because we believe in it. We believe that it's one of the most effective ways of communication. For now, I believe too. I believe that bullets are good to put those points down. Bullets, so they go!

What has boosted me to write this post?

- A certain tension between two parts of my mind. This is necessary to motivate, to think, to exist meaningfully. When a certain tension is created, it enables us to travel from point to another. We strive to be somewhere else, to reach somewhere else from the point on which we currently stand.

- Search for meaning. I've increasingly started seeing the bigger picture of every single happening in my life. There is a meaning behind my happiness, behind my suffering and behind all the relations with people around me. This is rather like the justification I'll make to understand the box in which I live but then, I'll touch that point later.

- Strength and Stability, of mind. I write to think and know. I publish to see what individuals around me have to say. That helps me think more and know more. :)

Our Perception of Reality

I love this. I really do. Now tell me, what is real and what is not?
We feel and we see and voila! We hear. All this in the small frequency range that we exist in. We cannot see most of the radiations, we cannot hear most of the sounds and same goes with feeling things.

Go into any random apartment. Make sure that the outermost walls of the apartment reflect radio-waves and the inner walls don't. The inner walls can reflect only those radiations in the visible range. When your eyes 'see' the visible frequencies only, you see the apartment with all its rooms and passageways. Now tune in to the radio frequency. All you can perceive are the outside walls.

Perception of Reality changes with You.
Change the way you see things, everything changes.
Change the way you think and the box widens.

As Dr.Frankl puts it- "Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it." When we detach ourselves from our own lives, its sufferings and its material joys; we can understand what is really going on. It is not being cold, not being distant, it is purely understanding the situation and where it stands. Efforts should be made to form a 'clear and precise picture' of it.

"Nothing would be what it is,
Because everything would be what it isn't.
And contrary-wise; what it is, it wouldn't be.
And what it wouldn't be, it would.
You see?"
(Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)

We change.
We change the world around us.
Because the world is merely a reflection of ourselves.
Our world is our perception of reality.
And it is always going to stay that way.

Search For Meaning All Around You

Well, yeah. Otherwise stay clueless! Whine about stuff! Blame the unknown!
Everything has a meaning. No book claims this, no hidden secret scroll will tell you this. You see? We tend to believe in secret scrolls, ancient wisdom purely because it was written ages ago by supposedly learned men. We don't believe because we understand the meaning behind it. We believe because the population believes. If one points in the other direction, he is beaten down, discouraged.

"A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow."
(Charles Brower)

"Sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia quam rara sunt" (but everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find)"
('Ethics' by Spinoza)

The World Is Flat
Sun revolves Around the Earth
All these were accepted as universal truths at a time.
Can you imagine the courage required to raise a voice against it?

The basic essence of every thought provoking theory is the search for meaning around us. During this search, we ask questions. And then as we get the answers, we understand and we grow.

We don't look for meaning because we have to. There is no such thing as the mankind being brought into this world to fulfill its frigging destiny and stuff. Well rather, we don't know.
But our existence, every existence, simply is. And that brings into the picture, a certain task. Our life is filled with numerous tasks. Some frivolous, some important and some basic. In every task, you get from somewhere to somewhere. A goal, for the time-being.
"I need to empty that coffee mug."
"I need to give that test niiicely."
"I need to give that guy/girl a tight hug."
"I need to beat the crap out of him/her." :P
See?
A goal, for the time-being.
And that goal ends up being the meaning of that momentary existence.
That momentary existence is a fabric.
Stitch the many fabrics together and we have a quilt called 'Life'.

When we live and go through joys and sufferings, and we don't think "Why?", we live in a vacuum. We just go through the river of time like a log and die someday. No questions asked. No eyebrows raised. A zombie life and a zombie death.

As The Verve frontman sings-
"'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die"

Well, it's not! Not when you know why you're doing certain things.
Not when you know the meaning behind your actions.

When we try understand the meaning behind everything, we become positively detached. That enables us to find a solution wisely. That enables us to react in a better way. The suffering suddenly stops being a suffering and becomes just an experience! And we grow as individuals, instead of getting stuck in the rut.

Hardwired Optimism

I had read somewhere that if you hard wire yourself as an optimist or a pessimist, and if you are thrown in any shocking situation; you reel under the shock but ultimately churn out products according to your system. An Optimist will show all symptoms of shock but in the end, simply come out grinning wide. How come? Because he has wired his system that way!
I'll touch Psychosomatic Disorders in some other post.

"Live Free, or Die!"

Let us all live wisely and well.
Let us all realize that our lives are parallel.
Beyond a certain limit, each one of us is free!
Free of emotional ties and social responsibilities.

As Shikhar put it- "Every hurdle is a launchpad."
Easier said than done? Rather- easier done than said.
Simply believe and it is done already.

Suffering has a meaning. Problems exist to be solved.
Accepting problems to be problems is itself a huge problem!
Finding a way around every 'hurdle' is recommended.

We are free. Free to Live.
Hard wire yourself to be Optimistic.
:)