Struggling with Meaninglessness

An Encounter With Three Black Devils

It was 12.05 AM in the midnight. I was walking home alone on the street after a long day. The night was cool and breezy, a perfect time for myself to do some mental masturbation. “What should I write on my blog this week?”Evolution? Psychology? Rationalism? Male supremacy to stroke my own ego again?”

Out of nowhere, I suddenly felt a strong force behind my back. I turned my head slightly. I saw from the corner of my eyes three tall figures shrouded with dark aura, tailing behind me.  I can’t see their face properly. Their face was black dark almost faceless. I call them the Three Black Devils and I don’t feel good about them.

Upon sensing potential danger, I paced myself trying to distance away from them. But these are no ordinary Devils. In an instant, they were right behind my back without me noticing it. Their dark aura was so intense. I heard plenty of stories of how innocent people was mugged and stripped to naked by these Devils. They spare nothing of the victim’s possession including their underwear. Royally doomed is me.

Immediately, I thought of the ‘precious’ item I was carrying in my bag – My laptop. Actually, I was willing to surrender my laptop to these Devils. What’s so big deal when you can find laptop everywhere ? But there were something I just can’t give away … – My 200GB of XXX VIDEOS in my laptop. I mean …after all the years of companionship and joy with my XXX videos, how could I let them go just like that? Some of these XXX videos were downloaded when I was 15.. and that’s … that’s like .. almost 10 years ago?? So much sweet memories. Furthermore, if Time = Gold, then the Time to download XXX movies = crazy amount of Gold. As a guy with Chinese ancestry, my genes always punish me with agonizing emotions if I ever waste Gold. So, no, I will not allow years of my hard work and effort to go in vain.

I’ve made up my mind – no way I’m surrendering my XXX videos to these rascals. I will protect my precious XXX videos at all cost even if it means breaking my bones. What am I gonna do for the rest of my life without my XXX videos? What will be the meaning of life then? How can I practice compassion if I can’t spread the joy of my XXX videos with the world via Bittorrent? I’m sure even Buddha would be unhappy if the world loss such a devoted follower in me who love spreading happiness to the world, right? right?

The Three Black Devils surrounded me in circle, giving me no room to run. Grinning and gazing me with an intimidating look, one of Devils finally broke the tense silence. He said in broken Malay …

Black Devil : Mari, ikut saya, kalau tak, saya hentam lu punya ah. (Come and follow me, or else I will smash you)

The Black Devils have spoken of their true intention. Not like I was surprised. It is a lie if I say I wasn’t even a little bit afraid. But I resolved, instead of dwelling in negative emotions worrying and panicking, it was better off to channel my mind to scheme of an escape plan. For the sake of my future happiness with XXX videos, I have no choice but to pull off a Houdini and I was pretty sure I would prevail. You know why? Because I read Sun Tzu Art of War, and they don’t. 

The Black Devil then grabbed my arm, and led me to a dark lane. My imagination ran wild. This is not an ordinary dark lane – It is Hell, a realm of no return where Satan awaits. I could imagine all my innocent XXX videos, kilobytes by kilobytes get sucked in to the bottomless pit, never to return to the face of the earth again. How cruel. My XXX videos do not deserve such eternal condemnation.

I feigned weakness and complied while quietly searching for solutions in my head. I took the first step. My brain was empty. I took the second step. Still empty. Third step. Still empty. After walking eight steps, my head was still empty, without solutions. Suddenly, there was an urgency in me. I knew I need to get out of here before it is too late.

What do you do if you can’t solve problems with brain? Common sense, you use brawn instead.

So, it looked like I have little choice but to fight them 1 v 3 , Ip Man style. I was fully pumped up, ready to rumble with the Devils. After years of reading Sun Tzu and mimicking Bruce Lee, finally the day has arrived to unleash my power. My arm’s muscles were as elated as myself as they could now fulfill their true purpose of existence. I told myself this will be the day I bring justice to humanity. Once and for all, I will banish these Devils to dust and bringing light to common people. Nothing will stop me in my quest to bring more happiness to the world. I vowed to be a saviour greater than Jesus Christ. I can’t wait any longer to unleash my Buddha Palm, Shadowless Kick, and Iron Fist I learned from watching Wong Fei Hung movies when I was a kid. These bad guys must be punished!

Just when I was about to unleash my Buddha Palm laden with Qigong, suddenly I saw light, literally – A car oblivious of what was going on headed our way. In sheer moment, something unexpected happened. My unconscious mind made a decision to fully seize control of my body without informing my conscious mind! Like a fascist and military junta, my unconscious mind gave me no liberty and emancipation – I have no say in the actions taken. Under the command of the unconscious, my arm shrugged off the grasp of the Black Devil, and then … my legs started to run away!

This is ridiculous. My dream of becoming a hero was dashed by the unconscious mind. I could hear Jesus Christ mocking me from the heavens and Sun Tzu sighed in disappointment. Unacceptable! What’s the use of my testosterone if I’m not gonna fight the baddies? Produce more redundant sperms? Feeling disgruntled, I summon an audience with Alter Ego to demand for an explanation.

Ronn : Hey, why the hell are we running away? Stop running. I order you to turn back and fight them like a man. Real man solve problems with fist, not legs!

Alter Ego: Permission refused. There is a 3.43% chances we will get trashed into pieces despite our superior Sun Tzu and Kung Fu knowledge. As a saying goes – Shit happens. More importantly, there’s a 52.94% chance our delicate skin will be bruised if we engage in fist battle. And I can’t allow that to happen since we still need to look for a girlfriend. Having a scar on our face is …. fugly.

Ronn: How shameful! How are we supposed to explain this to our cavemen ancestors who fought tigers with bare arms? Wouldn’t our ancestors belittle us for the shrinking size of our balls? Worse, what if there are girls around watching this whole ordeal? Our male ego, pride and manliness will all be flushed down the drain … No girls will look up to me anymore =(

Alter Ego: No worries buddy, I’ve scanned around, no girls. Nobody will know we are running away like a pussy *wink wink*. After calculating all the probabilities and chances, I conclude that running away is the best way to minimize risks. If we run, we will escape without getting our skin AND ego bruised. It is like farting once to choke two Devils.

Ronn : Oh really?? Dammit, you’re a genius alter ego! I will write a proper thank you note to you on my blog once I reach home, Ok? Thank You Alter Ego 2!

Alter Ego: Yes, Mr. Obvious, I know I’m a genius. Please tell me something I don’t know. 

Sun Tzu once said “Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise”. Just as within my Alter Ego’s calculation, my sudden escape totally caught the Devils off guard. The devils were stranded and shocked as they were distracted by the incoming car. They couldn’t believe I escaped under their nose. Ha, that’s the price to pay for overconfidence! The method of escaping was so simple, yet effective. What a gem, Sun Tzu! The Surprise factor not only works on conquering girls but even baddies Devils fell for it too. Don’t mess with Sun Tzu’s philosophy, yo! Now that I have done a Houdini, what are you gonna do now brown cows? Chase me in the middle of the road with other people around?

Speaking of the devil, the angry Three Black Devils really gave me a chasing! I almost forgot they were called Devils for a reason! Damn you Sun Tzu, you never told me anything about brainless angry devils. Oh my mother father granduncle, these dudes got the balls as big as Jupiter. Making loud roars, the angry Devils were chasing me with long chain in their hand like a hungry barbarian with a club eager to smash the rabbit’s head into pieces. Does my head really smell like rabbit? I saw the driver in the car amused of what was going on. He thought I was having some running competition with the Devils and cheered for me to run faster!

HELP ME DAMMIT! Typical dumb Malaysian!

With the rate of how things was going, my future looked bleak. I have little choice but to summon Alter Ego again.

Ronn: Hey, those crazy Devils are behind our ass! What should we do now, genius?

Alter Ego : Shit, I didn’t expect them to give chase in the middle of the road. These Devils are fearless! I didn’t factor that to my calculation, damn! Epic failed.

Ronn: I need a solution now, not ranting!!

Alter Ego : I blame Sun Tzu for what has happened. Not my fault.

Ronn: You better friggin’ get us out of this shit, or else I will go home and do a hardcore meditation to kill you off from my brain.

Alter Ego: No! Ah Ah! I got a super idea here! Hear me, this is what we need to do- Why don’t we … just keep running forward? And run as fast as we can!

Ronn: ……………

YES! You’re right! Why reinvent the wheel when the current method is already working so well? Good thinking, mate!

Alter Ego: Yes, that’s why Buddha was wrong. The ‘Architect’ still need the ‘House’.

After all, alter ego was right. Running is actually my forte, a secret weapon of mine. I turn on my turbo ala Usain Bolt style and accelerated. It was a pity I wasn’t holding a stopwatch to record down the new 100M sprint world record. Carrying a 5KG bag with my laptop inside did not even slow me down by a bit. Probably because of the power of my Nike snickers which I was wearing. The number one reason why I ran faster than the Devils, apart from my strong thighs was simple – I was wearing Nike shoes and the Devils didn’t and I ran 23.544634% percent faster. It showed that Nike is powerful. Nike is great. Nike is unbelievable. (Nike, if you are reading this and need more advertising from me, please don’t hesitate to E-mail me, OK?) .

Suddenly, things seemed peaceful. I looked back and saw the defeated Devils gave up, panting. Realizing that I’ve beaten the Black Devils, I went down on my knees, chins up, stuck both of my middle finger up in the air declaring to the world and heavens – VICTORY! A celebration of justice. A sign of triumph over evil. A gesture condemning the Devils to eternal embarrassment.

I gave myself a pat on my back. I have done Sun Tzu proud. Well done.

The Incident

OK, back to serious mode. Few weeks ago, I came across this at my apartment’s notice board.

Having being published in newspaper as one of the highest robbery areas (snatch thieves, mugging, shop robbery, house break ins) in Petaling Jaya, I was surprised people in my area only started to take notice now.

The story of the Three Black Devils may seem exaggerated but generally the core of the story was true.

• It happened almost 4 months ago
• I was almost mugged by 3 men
• It did crossed my mind to attack them
• I escaped when suddenly a car drove past us. Till today, I’m still amazed how easy it was to escaped having being surrounded by them.
• I was chased by them in the middle of the road. They were holding chain
• Being a typical Malaysian, I didn’t bother to report it to police.
• I did not told anyone about this. The only one I shared with was a friend of mine who also stayed around my area who was literally chased by a man with butcher knife
• And lastly my laptop doesn’t have XXX videos, ok! It is .. at somewhere else … safe =D

What do I do for self defense?

It didn’t left me any trauma or any sort of bad memories simply because I have expected this day would come since I do plenty of walking around my area. When you have expected the worse,  naturally you would be mentally prepared for it and nothing worse could happen.

• Practice my kicks and punches. Image training fighting with the bad guys. Learning martial arts from youtube!
• Since I do not drive, I usually do not go out at night if I’m not alert or tired unless fetched by friends. It takes plenty of energy to constantly scan the surrounding.
• Wear sports shoes if I know I’m going home late. (Nike! Nike! Nike!)
• Avoid suspicious group of people while walking alone. Constantly changing walking directions.

I clicked on my blog category – Atheism and realized I have not written anything about Atheism in this blog for the past 6 months. And yes, that was exactly the day I vowed not to write about Atheism anymore in my post Thank You Alter Ego and I can’t believe I actually kept my words.

The reason why I stopped writing about atheism, was not because I thought I was wrong. In fact two of my most logically constructed essays were about the improbability of God’s existence.

• http://ronnyeo.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/on-the-concept-of-infinity-and-irrationality/
• http://ronnyeo.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/applying-multi-dimensional-thinking-to-atheism/

I, objectively and subjectively, believe atheism is the truth. However, I do not want to go to the extend of being obsessed by the beliefs and that’s why, I have stopped writing about atheism.

How do I see religion?

I see religion‘s existence as something inevitable to human civilization. Borrowing an idea from Sigmund Freud, religion plays a pivotal role in human’s growth, civilization, culture and mental development. Without it, we would not have became civilized as there will be nothing to ‘control’ the masses and to move us to a common direction. Sure, our history wasn’t pretty as plenty of people has been sacrificed in the name of religion. But more importantly, we are here today because of the things which human have gone through in the history.

Therefore, this thought was exactly why I gained certain acceptance towards religion’s existence which I once opposed fervently. Religion has to happen along the process. Just like to have a gun, bow need to exist first. Or to have a car, we first need wheels to exist. To have light bulb, we first need to know how to manipulate fire. It is all in the long chain of causes and effects. For a baby to grow up, he needs to learn how to walk first. A baby walker is a fine tool to help the baby to learn walking. But as we know, once the child fully learns how to walk, the baby walker will eventually become obsolete. The baby walker is part of the process to help a child grow.

With this realization, I stop being obsessed with atheism.

The danger of being obsessed.

The reason why I brought up atheism again in this post is to highlight one very important point here – Obsession is dangerous. The day I realized I’m obsessed with atheism, I know I must kick it away.

I owe this mini-enlightenment of mine to a theory I conceived – I call this little discovery of mine – The Flake Theory.

I find it hard to summarize properly in words the idea of this in simple short sentence due to my limited vocabulary. So, I will try my best to explain the process instead.

Let’s look at the picture above. First we see an entity which have many branches spanning all over the places – I will call it mind-network. In the centre of the mind-network, we have the Core. Core is the point of origin – the state where the ‘energy’ will rest when in idle/emptiness. This ‘energy’ is basically like a drone which function to carry information. When we request the mind to start thinking, the energy will begin to explore various paths. When we need to think deeper, the energy will go on and dig deeper down the rabbit hole. The energy will relentlessly explore the mind-network to search for ideas/solutions/answers. This energy could disperse to different places simultaneously. We can explore the left side of the mind-network, the right side, top and bottom at the same time. When we are done with our thinking, the energy will return back to the Core. This is when we stop doing hard thinking.

However, there are other times when we decide to linger too long and stay in one particular region of the mind-network maze . When the energy resides in certain part of the mind-network for a long period, the energy will begin to have the habit of residing there and reluctant to return back to the Core. Slowly, this energy will recall other dispersed energy and gradually the energy will converge and remain in one particular area. Our mind always focus on where the energy is strongest, hence, when there is a strong energy trapped in one region, so will our mind trapping along with it. And that’s why some people are obsessed with beliefs -They were mentally trapped.

Perhaps an example will give more clarity to what I’m trying to say. 

Let’s say I start a cult, spreading the belief that water on earth is actually dragon’s spit. According to the ‘prophecy’, if we don’t worship the dragon, It will become angry and will stop spitting at us, hence bringing draught seasons to our puny world. This illusion of fear, thus will attract a group of curious people. They weren’t really convinced at first, the energy in their mind is still well dispersed between believing and being skeptical. But as they become more superstitious, the energy in the believing region will start to attract all the energy from the skeptic region. Gradually, the energy will accumulate and converge in believing region. Hence, the process from a skeptic to confused to a believer.

As these believers become more and more convinced, the energy will focus more and more in the particular region, thus reinforce and align itself with the belief of dragon’s existence. The energy finds its comfort zone within the region. For instance, the energy will gradually reside permanently in the red circle region in the graphic above and refuse, or couldn’t, return to the Core. These believers now have become obsessed with the beliefs.

Every morning, the moment they wake up from sleep, the mind will automatically focus on the energy’s position. Therefore, the first thing which always come to the mind of these believers the moment they are awake is the image of the divine dragon. When they let their mind wander while taking a shower, the mind will automatically and unconsciously focus on the energy in that region, again. When they surf the internet, the energy will push them to find evidence to support the idea [ water = dragon spit ] to reinforce their beliefs. Whenever they talk to their friends, they try to convince their friends that water was created by dragon’s spit. To these believers, people who reject dragon’s existence is an idiot. The dragon is the Truth.

From a simple 3 or 4 branches of paths, over time the region will keep expand and expand, thus becoming a more complex network as these believers devote enormous amount of time focusing the energy in the region. Believers start to create more and more complex stories, theories, speculations about the dragon. They dedicate their life to the illusion of dragon – They are officially and royally trapped in the network region of their mind. They no longer could understand other counter-perspectives because the energy refuse to explore other parts of the mind – It just want to stay in the comfort zone. 

Analogy and Meditation

I observed there are two kind of dog owners who exhibit different behaviours when taking their dogs for an evening walk. The first one is a strict owner. He will determine the route of where he will want to go and the dog will have to obey him. Another kind of dog owner is the one who usually gives ‘liberty’ to the dog. He will let the dog decides where to move and he will just follow along.

You see, if owners do not strictly control the dog,  these dogs always like to move around at its own direction with little concern to its owner. To have an obedient dog, owner need to be strict, or else the dog will want to go its way. Similarly, I believe the energy in our mind is rebellious. It always want to move around, keep exploring the mind, keep asking questions, keep reminding you of things and keep bugging you. Or worse, force you to succumb  and get obsessed to certain beliefs because the energy found a comfort zone in certain part of the mind.

This is the same reason why we can’t shut down our inner voice/chatterbox. And I believe this is exactly one of the function of meditation – to control this rebellious energy and keep it at the Core. We will control where the energy move, not where the energy want to move us. It is dangerous to be slave to our own mind.

More application of Flake Theory

Beliefs do not just limit to religion. We can apply Flake Theory to any topic which have the element of beliefs, such as politics, movements or association. Below are some examples …

• I personally have a slight doubt of the validity of global warming. A typical environmentalist upon hearing my opinion will be quick to condemn me, calling me a ‘Denier’. But really, are those environmentalist 100% sure that Earth’s temperature do not fluctuate throughout the history? Is it true that Earth’s temperature is suppose to be linear throughout its lifetime only to be ‘interrupted’ by massive amount of carbon dioxide manufactured by human today?

Or are these environmentalist already trapped in their mind? (Because environmentalist will lose a big cause to champion if global warming is not real)

• Flake Theory is also applicable to emotions. Often, we come across people who seemed to be emotionally trapped – Someone who seems to be eternally struggling with depression, angst, anxiety, and frustrations especially among teenagers.
• Some people are dreamers who kept dreaming and dreaming without taking actions. They are stuck in one region of the brain and kept thinking about the future, way ahead of their time and refuse to face the current reality. They are trapped in their fantasy.

Note: Actually, I wrote Flake Theory from a more philosophical perspective rather than neuroscience/psychological. So, I won’t dare to say this is the exact way how our mind works. But I will just say I got this idea while I was half-asleep.

Note: I pondered for some time before publishing this post because I think it is a little biased towards feminism in general. But I think it is worth reading at the same time. So, a little disclaimer here, when I mention feminist, I’m actually referring to radical or extreme feminist.

There was an essay I’ve written over a year ago – The Perceived Value – my little discovery on why comparing and critiquing intelligence between races and genders is such a sensitive issue. If only my English writing was better back then, the essay would have been perfect – it was one of my all time favourite observations I’d made. (I write better these days and I’m still trying to improve on my writing). And I’ve never hide the fact that I dislike radical feminists. A year ago, I mildly dismissed the ideology of feminism. But today, I will take one step harsher and explain in length on why modern radical feminists are bunch of confused people.

I think feminist are exactly the opposite of male chauvinist pig … that’s right … female chauvinist pig. Feminism over the years have evolved away from its noble purpose of creating awareness and defending women rights to creating new ridiculous ‘belief systems’. I feel today feminism has become more like a medium for angry women to vent their hatred and frustration towards man. Few typical examples of feminist irrationality:

• Feminists complain when a TV show make fun/joke about women
• Feminists are upset when a movie portray the actress as weak
• Feminists complain when a research put “He” instead of “She” as example
• Feminists always deny any research which shows men are better in certain things than women

My personal ‘favourite” irrational belief from the feminist is -“Men and Women are innately equal. It is the culture which created different roles in gender.”  Every time I hear this statement, I feel like crying out loud to the lady – “Bullshit”! Well, actually I’ve never done it before and never intended to but you get the picture of how silly the statement is to me. Here’s my take on this issue.

We have to look back at the history to investigate the origin of humanity – The evolutionary root. Many thousands years ago, humanity were living in a hunter-gatherer society – The Men were the Hunters while the Women were the Gatherers. These roles were shaped by natural selection to ensure the survival of human species. You see, human’s survival actually wasn’t really easy back then. Due to the complexity of human being, it takes plenty of effort from a human to develop a child properly (typically need to spend 15-20 years to grow up a child). At the same time, due to our higher intelligence, our brain consumes massive amount of energy, hence our ancestors needed plenty of food. This is how through natural selection, the nature has discover a perfect method for human species to survive properly – distributing roles between male and female. The men will hunt for meat while women will take care of the young and gather food which is easier to get such as fruits. This method worked well, and it is also the same reason why we still exist today. Even our species’ cousin chimpanzees are living in a similar societal structure.

And here, we have feminists who believe that men and women are born blank slate with nothing attached, just like a piece of pure blank white paper. Bam! There goes evolutionary psychology and genetics down the drain. These deluded feminists believe they could overwrite the millions of years of evolutionary history by imposing a fantasy-ideology to people, totally in disregard with our biological history.

There’s a reason why men could develop muscle easier compared to women. You see, our genes do not understand what is a fast food restaurant. Our genes today is still similar with our cavemen ancestor who have to wrestle and carry animal meat back home. That’s why muscular men still exist today. But thinking logically, we do not need so much muscle today as compared to thousand years ago. Why didn’t the culture make big muscle extinct? See, by just substituting intelligence with muscle, we could already clearly see how ridiculous the statement by the feminist! Is there really a difference between brain power and muscle power when both are the subject of Evolution? If brain power between gender are equal, why is muscle power not equal? Again, it all boils down to my early observation of The Perceived Value. Of course, I’m sure we will gradually evolve away from our ancestor, but the majority of our basic instinct is still pretty primitive as of today…just like most ladies still enjoy chivalry from the gentlemen, no?

Let’s look at another example of irrationality from feminism. Look at prostitutions, one of feminist’s favourite topic. Feminism consistently urge to abolish prostitution as they like to call it a sex ‘exploitation’ by men on women. But think about it, on the flip side, men actually paid women for sex and this is a fact often conveniently ignored and disregarded by the feminist – So, the million dollar question here – Who is Exploiting Who? Just as men and exploited women for sex, could it also mean that women are exploiting men for money? Is this not a fair trade in accordance to the law of Supply and Demand?

Perhaps, I sound like a MCP who is desperate to put women down. But I totally respect women. Having grown up living in a single parent family, I do not need anyone to tell me how capable a woman is. And I totally believe in equal rights and equal opportunities should be given to all genders. But the truth is still truth. Men and Women are biologically not the same. Men play a bigger role in leading and shaping the world while women supported and complemented men. In any case, just check the history if you have doubts. That’s why I call feminist confused – they are confused between the differences of equality and sameness.

I do not believe in extremes not matter what the circumstances are. I believe extremism distort our view in perceiving the reality. I believe when feminism first started out, their intention was noble and right. But slowly, feminists got obsessed with it and turn it into a political power. And they got even more obsessed with it and start creating delusional reality to fit it into their belief systems. Feminism has now generally become the blame-the-men movement, taking a holier than thou stance as if all women are victims and there are no evil and malicious females out there.

I’m pretty glad that feminism is not a big thing in Asian countries. To see women as ‘same’ with men is a big mistake because I believe it will only condition genders to compete with each and to see each other as a ‘threat’- Just like US and China aggressively competing with each other because they believe they are the ‘same’ when it comes to power. Men and women are not supposed to compete with each other – We should work together. To work together harmoniously, there need to be an acceptance in our innate abilities and nature and to know who we are and what we can do.

The only book I have read from Dalai Lama so far was “The Universe In A Single Atom”. To be honest, I didn’t finish reading the book because I thought the book is kinda boring. It is basically about Dalai Lama meeting up with prominent scientists, learning science from them and then apply scientific lessons to Buddhism. Not really interesting I would say. Perhaps it is too ‘laymen’. Or perhaps the writing style/translation .. I don’t know.

Three hours ago, I came across his script during the 1989 Nobel Peace Award from a book. After spending 15-20 minutes reading it, I was totally impressed by his thoughts and wisdom… especially his metaphors, they are just beautiful … and contagious. I was really inspired by the way how he perceive the world.

As with most insightful Buddhism philosophy, it doesn’t talk much about religion dogma but only philosophy of being a human. And that’s what I enjoy reading … and practicing. So, i typed this out word by word because I think his speech is really worth reading – something which really concern humanity.

His speech may seem not coherent and all over the places, but if you understand his words, the insight he gave is actually really, really deep. Every single sentence of words he said bring meaning, though it doesn’t seem important if glanced quickly. Typically just like Zen Buddhism’s koans…

[……] = means certain passage are skipped

The Nobel Evening Address, Oslo, Norway.

Dalai Lama,The Nobel Peace Prize 1989.

Brothers and sisters,

It is a great honour to come to this place and to share some of my thoughts with you. Although I have written a speech, it has already been circulated. You know, some of my friends told me it is better to speak in Tibetan and have it translated into English. Some say it is better to read my English statement, and some say it is better to speak directly with my broken English. I don’t know. Yesterday I tried my best to be formal but today, I feel more free, so I will speak informally.

[……]

What is the purpose of life for a human being? I believe that happiness is the purpose of life. Whether or not there is a purpose to the existence of universe or galaxies, I don’t know. In any case, the fact is that we are here on this planet with other human beings. Then, since every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering, it is clear that this desire does not come from training or some ideology. It is something natural. Therefore, I consider the attainment of happiness, peace, and joy, is the purpose of life. Therefore, it is very important to investigate what are happiness and satisfactions and what are their causes.

[……]

What is compassion? The basic meaning of compassion is not just a feeling of closeness, or just a feeling of pity. Rather, I think that with genuine compassion we not only feel the pain and suffering of others but we also have a determination to overcome suffering. One aspect of compassion is some kind of determination and responsibility. Therefore, compassion brings us tranquility and also inner strength. Inner strength is the ultimate source of success. 

When we face problem. a lot depends on the personal attitude towards that problem or tragedy. In some cases, when once faces the difficulty, one loses one’s hope and becomes discouraged and the ends up depressed. On the other hand, if one has a certain mental attitude, then tragedy and suffering bring one more energy, more determination.

Usually, I tell our generation we are born during the darkest period in our long history. There is a big challenge. it is very unfortunate. But if there is a challenge then there is an opportunity to face it, an opportunity to demonstrate our will and our determination. So from that viewpoint I think that our generation is fortunate. These things depend on inner qualities, inner strength. Compassion is gentle, very peaceful, and soft in nature, not harsh. You cannot destroy it easily as it is very powerful. Therefore, compassion is very important and useful.

Then again, if we look at human being, love and compassion are the foundation of human existence. According to some scientists, the fetus has feeling in the mother’s womb and is affected by the mother’s mental state. Then the few weeks after birth are crucial for the enlarging of the brain of the child. During that period, the mother’s physical touch is the greatest factor for the healthy development of the brain. This shows that the physical needs some affection to develop properly.

When we are born, our first action is sucking milk from mother. Of course, the child may not know about compassion and love, but the natural feeling is one of the closeness toward the object that gives milk. If the mother is angry or has ill feelings, the milk may not come fully. This shows that from our first day as human beings the effect of compassion is crucial.

If unpleasant things happen in our daily life, we immediately pay attention to them but do not notice other pleasant things. We experience these as normal or usual. This shows that compassion and affection are part of human nature.

[……]

Compassion and love are not man-made. Ideology is man-made but these things are produced by nature. It is important to recognize natural qualities, especially when we face a problem and fail to find a solution. For example, I feel that the Chinese leaders face a problem which is in part due to their own ideology, their own system. But when they try to solve that problem through their own ideology then they fail to tackle that problem. In religious business, sometimes even due to religion, we create problem. If we try to solve that problem using religious method, it is quite certain that we will not succeed. So I feel that when we face those kind of problems, it is important to return to our basic human quality. Then I think we will find that solution come easier. Therefore, I usually say that the best way to solve human problems is with human understanding.

[……]

Next, let us talk about the human being as social animal. Even if we do not like other people, we have to live together. Natural law is such that even bees and other animals have to live together in cooperation. I am attracted to bees because I like honey – it is really delicious! Their product is something that we cannot produce, very beautiful isn’t it? I exploit them too much, I think. Even these insects have certain responsibilities, they work together very nicely. They have no constitutions, no law, no police, nothing. But they work together effectively. This is because of nature. Similarly, each part of a flower is not arranged by human but by nature.The force of nature is something remarkable. We human beings, we have constitutions, we have law, we have police, we have religion, we have many things. But in actual practice, I think we are behind those small insects.

Sometimes civilization brings good progress, but we become too involved with this progress and neglect or forget about our basic nature. Every development in human society should take place on the basis of the foundation of the human nature. If we lost that basic foundation, there is no point in such development taking place.

The modern economy has no national boundaries. When we talk about ecology, the environment, when we are concerned about the ozone layer, one individual, one society, one country cannot solve these problems. We must work together. Humanity needs more genuine cooperation. The foundation for the development of good relations with another is altruism, compassion, and forgiveness. For small arguments to remain limited, in the human circle the best method is forgiveness. Altruism and forgiveness are the basis for bringing humanity together. Then no conflict, no matter how serious, will go beyond the bounds of what is truly human.

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Now, on the question of violence and non-violence. There are many different levels of violence and non-violence. On the basis of external action, it is difficult to distinguish whether an action is violent or non-violent. Basically, it depends on the motivation behind the action. If the motivation is negative, even though the external appearance may be smooth and gentle, in a deeper sense the action is very violent. On the contrary, harsh actions and words done with a sincere, positive motivation are essentially non-violent. In other words, violence is a destructive power. Non-violence is constructive.

When the day become longer and there is more sunshine, the grass becomes fresh and consequently, we feel very happy. On the other hand, in autumn, one leaf falls down and another leaf falls down. These beautiful plants become as if dead and we do not feel happy. Why? I think it is because deep down our human nature like construction  and does not like destruction. Naturally, every action which is destructive is against human nature. Constructiveness is the human way. Therefore, I think that in terms of basic human feeling, violence is not good. Non-violence is the only way.

Practically speaking, through violence we may achieve something, but at the expense of someone’s else welfare. That way although we may solve one problem, we simultaneously seed a new problem. The best way to solve problems is through human and understanding, mutual respect. On one side make some concessions, on the other side take serious consideration about the problem. There may not be complete satisfaction, but something happens. Non violence is very safe.

Again, if there are sound reasons or bases for the points you demand, then there is no need to use violence. On the other hand, when there is no sound reason that concessions should be made to you but mainly your own desire, then reason cannot work and you have to rely on force. Thus, using force is not a sign of strength but rather a sign of weakness. Even in daily human contact, if we talk seriously, using reasons, there is no need to feel anger. We can argue the points. When we fail to prove with reason, then anger comes. When reason ends, then anger begins. Therefore, anger is a sign of weakness.

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Buddhism does not accept a theory of God, or a creator. According to Buddhism, one’s own actions are the creator, ultimately.  Some people say that from a certain angle, Buddhism is not religion but rather a science of mind. Religion has too much involvement in faith. Buddhism can be a bridge between these two sides. Therefore, with this conviction I try to have closer ties with scientists, mainly in the fields of cosmology, psychology, neurobiology, physics. In these fields there are insights to share, and to a certain extent we can work together.

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We are passing through a most difficult period. I am very encouraged by your warm expression and by the Nobel Peace Prize. I thank you from the depth of my heart.

This is a tribute essay to Charles Darwin, who was born exactly 200 years ago… minus 3 weeks … (yes, I left this essay in my draft for 3 weeks)

The Role of Evolution

What is the role of Evolution? Putting it simply, Evolution is a natural system organized by the nature to keep life going and survive in this ever changing environment. In other words, we will not exist without Evolution’s presence.

For instance, billion years ago, there was an ice age where the earth was literally freezing cold. Hence, every animal lived during that period must have resistant against cold or else they will die of freezing and frostbite. However, over time , the earth became warmer and species have to adapt to survive the warmer environment or else they will die of heat.

Hence, a simple formula – (The ever-changing environment on Earth) * X = (Continuity in Life)

And X is Evolution.

What will happen if Evolution do not exist? Simple, continuity in life will not happen. The Earth’s environment is dynamic – it keeps on changing and fluctuates up and down. So, for a species to survive, they need to cope with this ups and downs over generations. And this is exactly the role of Evolution and genetics – a game of trial and error to ensure the survival of life – A system where it makes life automatically adapt to the environment.  A system which bring the existence of new species and the extinction of weak species (in terms of adaptability).

If we bother to look around the nature, we will see Evolution is everywhere. Why do we find camels in the desert but not horse when they are both mammals? Because only animals which can withstand a long period without water can survive in the desert. Why is there no crocodiles in the urban area but plenty of house lizards around? Because only domestic animals which can cope with human activities can survive in the urban area.

Or perhaps we could ask something more detailed – why is our teeth not 100% symmetrical but rather few of them are shorter or longer than the rest of the teeth? If indeed human were designed by a perfect divine power, shouldn’t our teeth also be perfectly even? How about our hand and legs? As a person who play football and wear tight boots often, I notice that my left foot is slightly bigger than my right. Why such variation exist?

When it comes to variations, some of them do not matter. Like the imbalance length between my teeth. Or the difference of length between my left index finger and my right index finger. Or the difference of my brain size with the smartest guy in the world. All these variations, caused by Evolution, make little difference to our survival because in our environment, we do not depend on this variations to survive. But there are some animals which need these variations to survive.

One good example was the discovery by Charles Darwin when he came across finches with different shape of beak when he was on voyage around the world to study plants and animals.

Darwin discovered that the same species of finches actually had different shape of beak, depending on the environment where they live in. Finches which live in an environment with the primary source of food consist of nuts, will have a broad beak function to crack the nut. Finches which live in an environment with plenty of fruits will have a sharp beak to pierce the fruit.

Finches which have the wrong beak in the wrong environment will simply die because of difficulty in getting food. Hence, finches with the right beak in the right environment will keep multiply as the resources are abundant.

Hence, allow me to present the four truths of Evolution -

Evolution’s Four Noble of Truths

1. Evolution is natural.  We treat gravity as something natural through our everyday experience. Same goes for melting ice. And water droplets falling from the sky.  And the ‘small box’ invented by human being to communicate with each other wirelessly across the world. These are no miracles. They are just some natural law.

If all these phenomena which obey the law of nature and science are natural, why not Evolution? Just like the law of physics and the law of chemistry, biology also has a natural law and every life spawned in the face of earth will have to obey it. That’s the same reason why there’s no human being with 10 pairs of eyes – it is impossible to evolve to such extent because Evolution works by having small amount of incremental steps.

2. Evolution is not intelligent. Perhaps it sounds outrageous to even mildly suggest Evolution is stupid. But really, Evolution is not something ‘Intelligent’ at all. Evolution can’t ‘design’ organisms out. Evolution is just a game of probability. A game of trial and error. Like a dumb version of Thomas Edison who have to use billion of years to come out with a mildly intelligent being called human. Yes, it is ‘billion’ of years. Isn’t it great that human being took only like ten thousand of years and became civilized from living in the cave to having Internet? Human mind is much more capable in designing things than Evolution, apparently.

At the end, the environment will be the benchmark. Evolve well and the species survive. Evolve wrongly and it will extinct.

3. Evolution is unfair. There’s a form of unfairness in Evolution due to the element of randomness … just like babies who were born to a poverty-stricken family or a soul born to a cockroach which will have a high chance to be exterminated by human.

Evolution is also cruel in the sense only the fittest will survive. As I have said many times, Evolution is a game of trial and error – A game of genetics calculation and probability.

If let’s say for some weird reason, bamboo mysteriously vanish from the face of the earth tomorrow, then it also means the end for the pandas.

Too bad, that’s life, Panda. Evolve or vanish.

4. Evolution works. Yes, it works. That’s what allows me to type these out.

The Wisdom

All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. – Buddha

When you throw something up, it will eventually come down – this is the law of gravity, the law of physics. The law of sciences are neutral – it simply lay down the rules to turn cause into effect. I pour water to the fire – that’s the cause. The fire is put down and that’s the effect – The law of chemistry has made this event possible.

Just like other law of science, Evolution is also neutral. No love, no hate, no mercy, no sympathy, no reward, no punishment. What it does is just to lay down the rules and laws and let the cause and effect to take place.

Hence, once we grasp this idea in our head, we will start to see the link and realize human being is kinda selfish when it comes to things like which is apparently noble … like saving endangered species.

Just observe the type of endangered animals which human are spending heavily on saving … they are all mammals! What about the endangered insects? What about some endangered frogs? The bees? Will human being splash million of dollars just to save some endangered insects? No, we only  save ‘cute’ mammals, or animals which could interact with us. That’s how, unconsciously, selfish human being is. We are playing ‘God’ here.

So, why not just let the endangered species go since they are having hard time adapting?

I won’t elaborate much on this but will just let a video to do the talking. I have, literally, watched this video hundreds of times.  This is one of the few videos out there with really deep insight and wisdom about the nature  I would say George Carlin is more evolved than most people out there because he see things from universal point of view instead from Earth’s point of view. He is ‘conscious’.

I have said this quite frequently – human being’s existence is insignificant. Only the emotion of self-importance make us think we are. Life will continue even without human’s existence.

Emptiness is impermanence, it is change.
We should not complain about impermanence,
because without impermanence, nothing is possible.

Zen Buddhism Master, Thich Nhat Hanh