Struggling with Meaninglessness

• Why do people help each other? What is the motivation behind the act of helping?
• For people who understand evolutionary psychology, the answer is apparent – we help each other for selfish purposes. We inherently seek reciprocation with other human beings.
• Reciprocation is an essential behaviour in human and the primates. It is a very sophisticated method of teamwork to ensure our own survival. I help you and you help me. I scratch your back and you scratch my back.
• People often delude themselves into thinking that they are helping other people out of their own own kindness – They believe they are compassionate, sympathetic and well, good people, and that’s why they help the others.
• FALSE! If only human being is such simple creature.
• Every time we help someone, there’s always an underlying motivation lurking behind. When we help someone, there’s always this ‘expectation’ that this person will help us back in the future when we need it.
• Hence, this is the reason why we dislike people taking our help for granted. We love to be appreciated when we offer our help to the others. We expect the other side to give back when we need it.
• What I want to point out here is simple – our intention to help others is not as ‘Pure’ as we thought.
• However, there is a group of people who, most of them, practice unconditional love. They are parents.
• Parents are one of the few groups of people in this world where they could just give, give, give and give without expecting any returns.
• Thinking very objectively, this phenomenon is rather amazing. Why do most parents care more for their own children than the neighbor’s children? Why do parents love their own children more than the neighbor’s children? Aren’t all of them children?
• Hence, in some ways, although parents practice unconditional love to children, it is actually a very ‘selective’ unconditional love. They only love and prioritize their own children. Period.
• Again, this intention of love, is selfish and not 100% pure.
• I have a theory that every single action and intention of ours when interacting with other people, to some extent, are motivated by an underlying selfish desire. Well, I know this is not a new theory since Dawkins have already been talking about it in the book “The Selfish Genes”.
• What are the three amazing lessons I learned from this observation?
  • How amazingly human are hardwired to value reciprocation, a more sophisticated level of cooperation for survival purposes. Some group of animals practice cooperation such as lions, bees, oxen, hyena, etc but none of them are as sophisticated as the behaviour of reciprocation practiced in human being.
  • How amazing human is programmed and hardwired to dislike people who do not value our help/love or people who took our help/love for granted. How we are motivated to help. How we always expect people to return the favour. How all these programmed mind-set work since birth without being thought by anyone.
  • Parents, who have the capacity to provide unconditional love, only limit their love towards their own family but could not extend this boundless love to other children and people.
• A two cent question – Will human mind ever evolve, get enlightened and break this non-purity barrier? What if everyone does not have this love barrier? Wouldn’t it be a better world? Can human develop a pure mind as comparable to Buddha and love everyone without boundary and barrier? 
• I believe we can only call our intention pure when it comes to a day when we help and love other people out of joy, compassion and kindness without expecting any returns of favour. The intention of helping others because we want to be happy. Purity.

PS: Writing a full blown 1000-2000 words essay is mega tiring and time consuming. With this point form method, blogging will be fun again. From today onwards, I’m going to start using this point form method to write. Till then.

It has been 5 years since the day I started studying Buddhism philosophy. Buddha is not a divine being. Like you and me, Buddha is just a human being, a mere mortal.

Buddha became enlightened after many years of searching for the meaning of life. Buddha knew the in and out of how human mind and the environment work. In Buddha’s world, there’s no magic, no miracle, no divine power but all can be explained by using logic, common sense and wisdom.

Even after 2,500 years, his wisdom is still applicable in many area of our life. Buddha’s words always make sense to me. It might sound audacious, but I strongly believe Buddhism philosophy played and will continue to play a huge part to advance and evolve our mind.

For this little meaningless anniversary, I dedicate this essay, on how Buddhism philosophy can be applied to something we do everyday – Making Decisions.

The Meaning of Choices

“Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” ~Buddha

Have you ever wished that sometimes, you do not want to make a choice? That if only things will fall and fit into places perfectly well without yourself putting much effort? As if an invisible hand helping you along, sort of like a miracle? 

The truth is, this world is not as rosy as we would love to imagine. Buddha made a point that this world is a struggle. The reality is harsh, rough and severe. You have to raise yourself up to a level where you have to take on challenges instead of letting challenges taking on you.

The world we are living in is a world where we constantly have constraint with resources. In other words, the world does not offer and give you what you want all the time.

To get something, you need to put in effort. If you keep hoping for things to happen miraculously then you are doing nothing but dreaming. The world will not give a damn about you, if you do not give a damn about putting effort. This is an eternal rule of cause and effect. If you do not love yourself, the world will not love you. If you do not put in effort on yourself, the world will not reward you.

Therefore, we have to make decisions and choices all the time.

In between choices, there will always be something to gain and there will always be something to lose. This is the law of equilibrium. The common sense is, if there’s all to gain but nothing to lose, then it is no longer called a choice – It will only merely be selection.

“Should I spend XXX amount of money to get a new handphone or a gaming gadget? Should I start my own business or should I not?” If everyone has plenty of resources and has plenty of money, then there’s no longer  a need to make a choices – they could get anything they want and all these are merely up for selection. But the truth is, 99.99% of the people in this world probably do not have this privilege of without needing to make a choice.

Choice is something we have to go through on a daily basis. It is inevitable. Therefore, I will go through each of the important elements when making choices and coming up with a decision.

Effort vs Luck

"The unwise wait for a lucky day but every day is a lucky day for a diligent man." ~Buddha

Some people choose to ignore choices and actions but instead, hoping for LUCK to shine on them. They wish for things to fall right in front of their feet, expecting life would be easy. Essentially, this does very little to help because they are only relying on FATE and LUCK for things to happen. Relying on fate and luck is a bad idea because luck is always beyond our control. Fate and luck may happen right now, or it may never ever happen. You never know. If living in uncertainty makes you happy, by all means, submit yourself to fate and luck.

If uncertainty is not the way of your life, then you will need to create our own luck by putting in Effort. Make things happen with your own hands. Do your best. Never give up.

Remember, the world will not give a damn about you, if you do not give a damn about putting in effort. If you do not give a damn about making choices but only hoping for the best to happen by chances, then that’s also how life will treat you – by giving you random fate and luck to your life and you have no choice but to live in it.

This is all part of the Karma system – The cause and effect.

Fantasy vs Logic

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment ~Buddha

One inherent habit in every man is to perpetually dream about the future. Not a bad thing considering dreams move the world forward and push human mind to evolve. However, it is equally important to understand the danger of ‘over-dreaming’.

Human often love to think ahead. This indirectly create a bad habit – we love to fantasize of the possible outcome  while making choices. And the bad part ? We often struck down by fear when fantasizing the outcome of the choices.

As have been studied in Pyschology field, the mind has a strong self-defense mechanism for self-preservation purposes. The mind persistently give out negative thoughts so that we will not do anything risky which will potentially harm ourselves mentally and physically. The mind often tell you – “What if I do this and fail? What if this does not turn out to be as expected? What if I lose money doing this? What if people laugh at me? I will be embarrassed!

Recognize that these thoughts are nothing but just pure fantasy. Why do I say fantasy?

You are in the present, and the future is yet to come. Your mind creates some fantasy about the future, and you believe in your fantasy without any hesitant. You religiously believe in your “prediction”, thus, conveniently stop yourself from taking actions with all these negative thoughts. Nonsense! You don’t predict the future … you create the future!

Hence, Buddha’s advice ‘Focus on the Present moment’.

But does it really mean you should not think ahead about the future? It is true Buddha did say ‘do not dream of the future’, but in a deeper implication, what Buddha meant was – Do not get obsessed with your fantasy but think what is remain do be done RIGHT NOW to bring yourself forward.

As Buddha said, “Your thoughts today creates your tomorrow.” Why should you be over-concern about tomorrow? What really matter is doing something meaningful today, RIGHT NOW, so that you will have a better tomorrow.

To Do vs Not To Do and Happiness

“"You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind." ~Buddha

When one uses Logic to make a decision on whether to do something or not, then the choices are pretty clear – it is either Yes or No – Do It or Don’t Do It. Period. There’s no need to over-think.

How do you know whether should you say Yes or No? To do or not to do? Simple. Go back to the Buddha’s basic rule of life – to be happy. You got to make a decision which you will not have any regrets at all in the future. If deep down inside, you know you will be saying, “Damn, if only I did/didn’t do it”, then that’s a bad decision. It is a form of suffering because you leave yourself hanging in uncertainty and regrets.

“Should I take on entrepreneur path and make million of dollars?” If you are perfectly content not living a luxurious life, think money is just an illusion, that money can’t buy you some things you want in life, then by all means the answer NO is your good answer.

However, when there are doubts and something inside is bugging you when you say NO, that you think you are deceiving and lying to yourself, then NO is not a good answer. It is an answer which will make you suffer from remorse for the rest of your life. Hence, in this way, the only answer which will potentially bring you more happiness is the answer YES.

This is how reasonably simple to use logic to make a GOOD decision.

You might think, “What if I do/didn’t do, and it proves that I’m wrong? What if my decision is a failure? Should this a enough reason not to do it?”

1. Read Fantasy vs Logic again

2. Read Attainment vs Failure below

Attainment vs Failure

“What Comes To You, Comes From You” ~Buddha~

Remember when you craved for something so badly but once you got it, you don’t feel the same craving anymore? Because in the mind, the feeling of Craving is always stronger than Attaining.

Every time we crave for something and try to reach our hand to grab it to our side, whether it is wealth, achievement, love, or gadgets, there is always a universal law governing this act of attainment. What this universal law says is simple – if you try to get anything which is not yours to your side, there’s a chance you will fail and not getting it.

If you do not have wealth, and you try to move wealth to your side, you might succeed in gaining but there’s a chance you may not make it in the first few attempts or ever. If you try to grab a girl’s heart to your side, you might succeed but you may also fail.

Failure is inevitable in life simply because we have to make so many choices all the time. Remember the universal law – the universe does not give you everything you want. And more, the universe does not give a damn if we are not happy about it because the world does not have emotions. The world is neutral.

This fear of failure itself is what hinders people from taking actions. And fear is wrong. You can only get this much of the things that you want by not taking actions, hoping for things to fall perfectly well. However if you take actions, the chances of you getting what you want will naturally double, triple or perhaps quintuple.

The emotion of fear should not exist in human mind. It’s destructive. Instead, the right way to think – To embrace reality and embrace failure. Accept the reality that if you are trying to get something which is not yours to your side, you may gain … but you may also fail. This is just the way how reality works – Yin and Yang. To have success, is to have failure. 

If you try, at least you have a tiny chance to succeed. If you do not try, then failure is absolutely 101%

Conclusion

One quote to sum it all ……

"Cast off pretense and self-deception and see yourself as you really are." ~Buddha

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

One evening in my college library, around 5 years ago, I was reading Harvard Business Review and came across a very interesting case study of how Dell’s management information system work. Although it is now a conventional wisdom in the business world, back then the whole concept was pretty revolutionary.

This case study was about the process of what happen from the start – when the customer place an order, to the finish line, when Dell deliver the items, step by step. The case study kept emphasizing on one very important factor. Just one – and that’s Efficiency. There are many advantages to an organization which put emphasis on efficiency. Among the list :

• Reduce operating cost
• Prevent excessive spending
• Fast speed product/service delivery
• Customer satisfaction
• Lean management of resources

Once I was done reading the case study, I spent 30 minutes to chew on this ‘revelation’ of the impeding new business world.  Every organization would want to utilize computer system to create efficiency in every part of their business department from productions to administration.

Efficiency is simply the new God of business. If you do not embrace efficiency, inefficiency will curse and condemn your business. Like a devoted worshipper, every business must give praise to Efficiency.

So, I started to think of how I could apply Efficiency to other areas of life. I forgot how I came about this, but I wickedly started to imagine how I could apply efficiency to robbery.

I imagined, if I want to rob someone, what will be the most efficient way to rob my victim? What is the surefire method of 101% success?

And I figured out the answer – It’s slash-n-rob. Use a knife or machete and slash the victim first, making him or her bleed and injured and then take the time to grab the belongings away. And then run away – 101% success.

The more I thought of it, the more I realized how dumb most robbers in Malaysia was for sticking to conventional methods of threatening victims.

OK, let’s imagine that you are a robber and you found a victim. When you take the knife, and approach the victim, point the knife to the victim’s neck and ask the infamous question – “Money or Life?”, you are actually taking a chance. Perhaps a better word would be risk.

The universal law says that if you are taking a chance, you are actually leaving things to fate. And that’s dumb. What if the guy knows Kung Fu? What if the girl is hiding a pepper spray somewhere? You are actually giving yourself room to be completely doomed by the victim. A highly motivated and successful robber will never rely on fate and chance to succeed. You have to take charge of your own fate! (Oh yeah, I sound like a personal development guru for robbers).

Hence, I concluded that any robber who understand the value of innovation will eventually embrace efficiency – Slash-n-Rob. Slash first, and slowly rob the victim. What’s the advantage of this method? Plenty.

1. Immobilize the victim. A slash on victim’s arm will make him/her to unable to fight back. A slash on the leg will make him/her unable to run.

2. Let the fear sink in to their head. Their life is now at the robber’s hands. They will listen to him. They will surrender everything to him without needing any form threatening. Because human being instinctively let fear rule over their head.

3. Disallow the possibility of shit happening. An injured and frightened victim can’t do shit.

How about the disadvantages of slash-n-rob? Well, there are no disadvantages. Robbing is already a sin, so what difference does it make to commit another sin? The robber will just spend slightly more time imprisoned in jail if caught. No big deal.

Now, let’s switch roles and step on different shoes. Close your eyes and imagine you are an ordinary person taking a stroll in a park. Suddenly, a robber slashes you from behind without saying a single word. Terrifying isn’t it? You would have surrendered everything you have to the robber, no? That’s why I called this a surefire method to success because uncertainly and helplessness amplify Fear.

5 years later, today, this method has became a reality in Malaysia. Slash-n-rob method is getting popular and is slowly adopted as the modus operandi for modern robbers. Many slash-n-rob cases were not covered by the media for one simple reason – to avoid public panic and bringing fear to public people.

So, the robbers in Malaysia have evolved. Just like in the law of Evolution, when the predator is getting stronger, the prey must also evolved along or die. And for this reason, I took the first step by getting myself an Air-soft gun. I do not know how useful this is for self-defense against slash-n-rob, but I figured having an Air gun is better than no air gun. True or true?

Don’t believe me in this, but I would want to believe in 20-30 years small robbers in Malaysia will evolve and will be using guns because many ‘prey and victims’ will follow my method of protecting themselves by using air gun. So, the robbers will have to evolve and become even more aggressive. I predict shot-n-rob will be something common in this country in the future.

PS: I’m stuck writing my part 2 swimming pool story. GARHHH

Everything is changeable, everything appears and disappears; there is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death.

— Buddha.

I wouldn’t call myself a movie junkie, but if there’s one movie I really look forward to watch, it would be 2012. Watch the movie trailer below.

Now, I’m not a big advocate of 2012 doomsday although I have been reading about those Mayan stuffs 4-5 years ago. Even this website – http://www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org has presented some really compelling arguments and video graphics of the inevitable disasters, quote “with 94% certainty” that something really huge will happen to Earth 3 years from now.

Again, I’m not a strong believer of 2012 nor the Planet X (aka Niburu) conspiracy theory. However, I do believe it’s a pretty solid fact that humanity will not live forever. It will come to a day where all human being will perish. And I will tell you why.

Over the past 500 million years of life history, the Earth has witnessed five big mass extinction events, better known as the Big Five. Each of this event wiped out almost all life form and then gradually replaced by a new generation of life form. For instance – the reptilian dinosaurs replaced the vast marine life lost in The Great Dying 250 million years ago and the extinct dinosaurs replaced by mammals and birds since 65 million years ago.

Hence, based on this little observed Earth’s life cycle, it is safe to say that another major extinction is pretty much inevitable in the coming future.

But why do I think the movie 2012 is so interesting? The first reason would be the tag line – How Would The Governments Of Our Planet Prepare Six Billion People For The End Of The World? – They Wouldn’t.

Really, they wouldn’t. Why would the government induce public panic unnecessarily for an unstoppable disaster? We would die anyway, so it doesn’t make much differences. The government also wouldn’t tell if we barely escape a close call disaster.

Case in point, almost three months ago in March, a huge comet came within approximately 64,000KM of Earth’s atmosphere which was powerful enough to destroy a whole major city should it hit the earth. 64,000KM may seem to be reasonably far, but considering the moon is 384,000KM away from Earth, it means the distance between Earth and the comet was 1/6 of the distance between earth and moon. From astronomical standpoint, 64,000 KM is actually crazily close.

The government perhaps knew the Earth would be safe from any collision. However, there will always be some quarter of skeptics who will never cease to be a paranoid… just like ignorant people who criticized the Large Hadrons Collider without any depth of knowledge. These people fear uncertainty, thus creating more ruckus to mislead the uninformed people which eventually lead to more panic.

So, whether it is a near miss or sure-hit disaster, rest assured, the government will never inform the citizens of any incoming potential disasters. And I’m deadly curious how will people react when the end of the world is right in front of their eyes, without expecting it.

The second reason why I think the movie 2012 is interesting – the image of the end of the world.

Our Earth is actually much much more fragile than we can ever imagine.

• One huge solar flare which shoot the Earth directly will mess up Earth’s magnetic field and all technology which uses electricity will shut down. When the Earth’s magnetic field is instable, catastrophe will take place. Fortunately, Earth was rarely shot directly by solar flare. (Solar flare happens once in every 11 years)
• One magnetic pole reversal to turn our Earth upside down, thus creating instability in Earth resulting in massive earthquakes, tsunami, worldwide flood and resulting Ice Age. (Magnetic pole reversal happens once every 11,500 years and the last Ice age apparently took place 11,000+ years ago. Hence, some  scientists believed the cycle is almost due.)
• One supernova, an explosion of nearby giant star will result a surge of cosmic radiation transmission. Huge amount of radiation would destroy all life form nearby the star.
• One huge asteroid or meteor escaped from The Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter could destroy the whole earth if it is big enough.

I always have this little habit of imagining a meteor hitting the earth. And it’s quite terrifying, perhaps for the fact that there’s nothing we can do to handle such huge force. Again, I’m not a strong believer of 2012, but sometimes, I just can’t help to think, what if Earth has really only 3 years left?

This is my desktop table. I have no shame to self-proclaim this engineering masterpiece of mine as the 8th Wonder of the World. You know, the greatest construction since Hanging Garden of Babylon. And who knows, Hanging Garden of Babylon might just be another man-made myth for the sake of glorifying the Babylonian civilization. But my months of painstaking engineering effort is 100% provable REAL and proudly made in Malaysia. Period. So, am I not significantly more credible than .. um .. Nebuczaza… Nebunezar? Damn, who was the joker who gave him such mocking name. Hold on, let me Google up his name. *Tap tap tap tap tap tap. Click. Click. Copy paste.* That’s right, Nebuchadnezzar. So, am I not significantly more credible than Nebuchadnezzar II who may have built nothing? Am I not a more credible engineer compared to him??

Black-chrome-with-glowing-blue-light gadgets is my biggest turn-ons, beaten only by my Japanese XXX videos. But there are times I just can’t help to wonder – where did the joy came from? What’s the rationale behind my obsession towards black chrome objects and designs? Why do I think the glowing blue light is beautiful?

Do you notice there are certain little things in life which often creates a little joy in you? Like when you see some creamy donuts or when you’re attracted to the sleek Nike shoe design or when the gentle wind blow on your face? It would be understandable if we ask why do we feel joy and salivate when looking at tasty-fresh-from-the-oven chicken meat and hot sexy girls. The reasons for these are simple – For the former, obviously it is our inner motivation urging us to devour the food or else we will starve, literally and the latter, it is also our inner motivation urging us to ‘devour’ the ‘food’ or else we will ‘starve’, metaphorically.

But why chrome design? I don’t intend to bring up the graphics, but I’m not going to make love and copulate with my Razer keyboard, right? So, what’s the reason I like my gadget designs so much? Moreover, why do I like it when it is drizzling? Why do I enjoy listening to House music? Why do I get a sense of satisfaction after completing the jigsaw puzzle?

I have asked plenty of whys and even stopped myself from asking more whys, but the answer remained elusive. Now, I have two choices here. One, I say ‘God did it’ and never bother about finding the answer anymore. Or two, I accept the fact I don’t know, yet.

Like all wise men do, I resigned to the fact that I don’t know. (I have to choose this or else Socrates would be mad at me if I chose the first option instead).

There are some things which I still do not understand well but there are some which I think make logical sense – like why we think beach and forest are beautiful. You see, beach and forest are our natural habitat, just like polar bear will be happy to see ice and camel will be happy to be in the sand. As an omnivorous creature, forest represents a place for food where we can find plenty of fruit, plants and animal meat. Plus as a primate, our ancestors were living and swinging from tree to the tree. Hence, theoretically, we are emotionally triggered to like forest in a way to motivate us to reside and breed in the forest for survival purposes.

(Another interesting thing is – do you all notice that the all the biggest cities in the world are usually situated near the sea? I know the fact that ancient cities is situated near the sea for trading purposes, but I just couldn’t stop wonder if there is a correlation between this and our fondness towards beach?)

I do not have evidence for this, but I have a theory that people would be truly happier if we live in the forest instead of in a city. Or at least in suburb areas where trees are abundant.

I believe anyone who could crack the code of the origin of joy will have a massive upper hand advantage in the marketing industry. One good example is the joy of seeing shiny and glowing objects. For some weird reasons, human have some kind of obsessions towards glowing and shiny objects. And this is the same reason why some metal materials (such as Gold and Silver) and gemstone (Diamond, Sapphire, Jade) are very well sought after. People are willing to pay high price for these objects. But hey, logically thinking, they are just … stones and metal. Why nobody is willing to pay high price for the stones in my goldfish aquarium? That’s right, that’s because my stones did not mutate to glow in dark, hence no value.

Sucks to be you, stone in my aquarium.

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.

[……]

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.

[……]

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.

[……]

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

Some interesting thoughts from Buddha regarding religion and humanity … derived from Tripitaka

1. Religion is necessary for a free society.

2. Religion should relate to facts of life and not about God, Soul, Earth or Heaven.

3. Man and mortality should be the centre of religion.

4.  Real religion lives in the heart and mind of man, not in Shastra (scriptures).

5. The function of religion is to reconstruct the world and to make it a happy place.

6. Everyone has the right to learn. Learning is as essential to human as food.

7. Learning without character is dangerous.

8. Nothing is infallible. Nothing is binding forever. Everything is subject to examination and inquiry.

9. Nothing is final. Nothing is permanent. Everything is subject to change. Being is always Becoming.

10. Everything is subject to the law of causation (cause & effect).

We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.

Preceded by perception are mental states.
For them is perception supreme.
From perception have they sprung.

All mental phenomena are preceded by mind,
Mind is their master,
they are produced by mind

- Buddha

I have not been writing any fresh original essays since 30th December – (The Big Elephant), and it actually kinda frustrates me …  You know, the feeling of the brain being lazy and clogged up and refuse to think for such long period of time. But after a good one week break, I finally feel re-energized and fresh again .. for now.

So, this essay of mine is slightly inspired by the anime/manga Naruto (all time best manga, in my opinion) by Masashi Kishimoto. I have been following this manga for 7 years! (430+ episodes to date and still running). From the outside, it may just look like a typical fiction manga but actually the whole story is pretty much inspired with philosophy of Ninja and some other classical Japanese philosophy.

Obviously, Naruto is the protagonist of the story and the villains are a group of S-Class ninja organization called as Akatsuki. Read the quote below:

Konoha is far from godless. They view their previous generations (ancestors) as heavenly beings and act with the ‘Will of Fire’ as their main ideology… although you could say it’s just another excuse to fight and war.

Religion, ideals, resources, land, grudges, love, pride … any trivial reasons that motivates people to action will eventually breed war. The reason can be thought up after the fact, but war will never cease to exist.… because human nature consistently pursue strife and struggle. What people truly want is to fight.  – Pain, leader of Akatsuki (when responding to Hidan, an Akatsuki ninja who called Konoha people, the village where Naruto came from, as godless infidels.) 

“What people truly want is to fight”.

If the statement above is true and can be applied to our real world, then why has war lessen over the years? Why most people today detest war?  I’ll attempt to tackle this question.

My Theory on why War has lessen.

It is true that people are still dying from local war today especially in the middle east region but on a global scale, war between powerful nations have already ceased since the Vietnam War days in the 60/70s. In other words, we are already in the state of global peace for almost 40 years now. But let’s ask a simple question – What drove people to war in the first place? Why throughout the history of humanity did we get ourselves involved in constant fighting and conflicts?

First of all, I believe it is safe to say that fighting and warring is a male thing. Essentially, this aggressive behaviour is driven to feed one major basic male instinct – Competitiveness. If you branch out this competitiveness instinct, many other typical traits will appear to be obvious such as – territorial (by dominating and occupying others) , recognition (by seeking status, power and fame), ideals, and a whole long list of other behaviours – Hence, our motivation to fight and war.

However, as we could expect from this impermanent world, things evolve. It is pretty obvious the world as we know today is very different from the world we had 40 years ago in terms of culture advancement. And I believe the evolution of world technology and culture has saturated this element of competitiveness which constantly drove humanity to war previously. I do not have rich vocabulary in me, so I will just call this phenomenon as Instinct Saturation.

How Instinct Saturation Works?

I truly believe there are some emotions (depending on individuals) that need to be consistently fed. These emotions are like gluttony-monsters. If not fed well, these ‘hungry’ emotions will rebel against us by giving us the feeling of deprivation, agitation or some kind of withdrawal. Among the emotions that need to be consistently fed, as I could think of, are boredom, love, lust, excitement, emotional-security, and competitiveness.

So, in the olden days, how do people feed this emotion of competitiveness? Yes, as I’ve said earlier, we fight and war to feed this emotion. This is also partly due to the emotion being directly tied to the environmental condition during the old days when people lived in the state of poverty or semi-poverty where most common people do not get to eat and live comfortably. Therefore, once the common people was psyched up by the country leader’s propaganda (usually emphasizing on Injustice and Evilness inflicted by enemy to psychologically push people’s hot button), common people will go to the battlefield and fight, preparing to risk their life to win the war in exchanging the opportunity for better life (that’s why military leaders always inspire people to fight for future generations). That’s how people unleash their competitiveness. It might not seem rational or logical, but hey this is how emotion works. Just like what Pain said – “The reason can be thought up after the fact”

But that was 40 years back and beyond, back to thousands years ago. Back then, life was tough. Today, life has become much easier due to the rise of standard of living. Most people get to eat and live comfortably well today. Therefore, there’s not much to gain from going to war but instead there are plenty to lose.

But more importantly today, we have more modern alternatives to feed our competitive desires and saturate our strong competitive instinct. For instance, we have PC games and console games where we could unleash our competiveness by attempting to win game challenges. Then we have satellite, where sports are broadcasted live all around the world and allow fans to support their favourite sports teams or person (piggybacking on the sport team’s success to fulfill our competitive desire). Also our competitiveness has already been saturated by business corporations where we have now shifted our competitiveness into our work and organizational role. And we have many other social activities which could also very well saturate the instinct.

In others words, our competitive aggressive behaviour which was like a hot orb previously, ready to pounce on any opportunity to fight and war once psyched up, is already saturated and dispersed by many form of ‘distractions’.

Today, as humanity evolved, the hot orb in us begin to saturate, and we became a little bit ‘Buddha’ (peaceful). We start to realized how stupid war is once we stop attaching ourselves to that intense emotion and see the big picture a little. However, I’m sure the people in the past will thought war was the right thing to do. I will give an analogy – think back on the dumbest or silliest thing you did when you were a teenager. Now that you think back, you may wonder why did you made such action which clearly embarrassed you. But back then in that heat of the moment, you most probably think what you did was the right decision.

So What?

Personally, I’m a huge fan of Rafael Nadal and I would never miss his games whenever he plays with a top player. Then on a random day, while watching Nadal’s game, I asked myself a question – What do I gain by spending hours of watching Nadal and tennis in general? Apart from the satisfaction of watching Nadal winning, what else do I gain? Absolutely nothing. I will not become a great tennis player by just watching him. He will not share with me his prize money if he wins the tournament. My kung-fu will not improve after watching his game. I will not become famous by supporting Rafa – I’m just one of the million fans. So what is exactly the rationale of me becoming a fan of Rafa? Think properly – None. Only some temporary satisfaction.

Then I realized there are many things that we do everyday which is also pretty much meaningless. Why do people watch TV series? Why do people play computer games or console games? Why do we play sports with friends? Why do people eat snacks? Why do people go to shopping centers and aimlessly walk around? Alcohol? Cigarettes?  Why do I like reading manga and Naruto?

Are there any rationale in the sense it will gives us very clear tangible benefits in indulging these activities?

Alas, I realized all these trivial things that we do everyday is meant to saturate our core instinct.

I swear I have never thought of this question before until my friend asked me about this recently – he asked – “How do you describe your own philosophical belief system?”

“I’m not sure”, I replied. “I guess I go freestyle when it comes to my thinking.” I hope he was not confused by my response.

Sure, I have read some books on philosophy and came across many different school of thoughts. But I never really bothered about them because I do not have the habit of discriminating knowledge and categorize things that I’d learned into groups and classes. You know, I do not have the habit like .. “oh this guy supports rationalism, let’s hear what he has to say.” “Oh that guy supports empiricism, since I support it, whatever he says must be right.” “Oh, that guy talks about absolutism, he must be an idiot.”

This is what I call as knowledge discrimination, something which I do not practice, and that’s why I was never bothered with the standpoints of various school of thoughts. I never like the idea of ‘supporting’ and ‘against’ like – Rationalism vs Empiricism. Which one do you think is better?

There are many philosophy school of thoughts around. Among them, as I know are – Rationalism, Empiricism, Absolutism, Relativism, Existentialism, Utilitarianism, Nominalism, Idealism, Pragmatism, Skepticism and many more. So, for the sake of this post, I whipped out the dictionary and checked out the definitions of every theories above … and then to check, theoretically, on which category I belong to.

Although my style of thinking actually encompasses almost all of the school of thoughts above, I believe I’m more inclined to two school of thoughts – Rationalism and Freethought. Why Rationalism? Simply because I believe the toughest philosophical and scientific questions always need to be reverse-engineered. I believe we have to reason and deduce of how certain things work first before we could find evidence for it. Case in point -Einstein discovered General Theory of Relativity using mathematics first before conducting astronomical observations to prove his theory (on how light is bent by gravity). Apparently, empiricism is the other way round – evidence first before reasoning, which is the most common method of hypothesis in the scientific world today especially in education.

Freethought is pretty much misunderstood as it is often associated with atheism. But the true definition of Freethought is “Freethought holds that individuals should neither accept nor reject ideas proposed as truth without recourse to knowledge and reason.”  This school of thought is actually much broader than what it is thought to be.

Having described my belief system, I will never go around proudly proclaiming to the world that “I’m a Rationalist!” or “I’m a Freethinker!” boasting it as if I’m in a cool category. I believe people who always proudly categorize themselves in a belief system are missing a point … a very huge point. And I will tell you why.

If you want the Truth to stand clear before you, never be ‘for’ or ‘against’. The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is mind’s worst disease. - Jianzhi Sengcan, the third patriarch of Zen Buddhism in China.

Before I begin, I want to share a metaphor, probably the strongest metaphor I’ve ever came across in my life so far – The Blind Men And An Elephant. The origin of this metaphor was actually from Buddha’s parables in some sutras illustrating that different people will have different point of views depending on the angle of perception that we use to observe the reality. So, the parable is about several blind men touching the elephant’s body and each of them is certain about the ‘truth’ on what they are touching. Hence, it creates a disagreement between the blind men on what they are experiencing.

But I think there’s a stronger message in Buddha’s words. He didn’t say it directly, but at least this what I think the deep, underlying message is – The ignorance of being obsessed with the small picture and ignoring the bigger picture. For instance, read the comic strip below from XKCD.

In the scientific world there’s a hint of ‘hierarchy’ or superiority between different branch of science, just like how the scientist describe above on how they feel about the ‘purity’ of science over one and another. But what these scientists are missing is the idea of ‘unity’ or the big picture of science. When you piece all different branches and fields together, that will give you the big picture of science. In other words, sociology is science. Biology is science. Physics is science. Psychology is science. If science is the big picture, why do the physicist & mathematician feel proud that they are at the top of the field? Why are they so obsessed with the small picture?

And this is exactly what I am talking about knowledge discrimination earlier.

Why do human separate and categorize things?

It is no secret that human’s mind is limited. Our mind was not tuned by Evolution to solve scientific mysteries or world problems rather, our mind is meant for survival. A hunter-gather kind of lifestyle. Hence, it is a rare gift for any person to see the big picture and could see all the links and connections underlying it because not all of us are born with the ability to be genius scientist.

To compensate this weakness of human being, we categorize and break down the big picture into smaller parts. For example Science is break down to physics, biology, psychology, astronomy, etc. and then small picture is broke down into even more smaller picture, eg. psychology is further break down to psychoanalysis, cognitive science, behaviorism, and etc.

Breaking down the big picture is perfectly fine, until when people start to become obsessed with the small picture, just as hinted in the comic strip above. And the fact is people DO get obsessed with small picture because this is how the majority of people’s mind is wired – our mind is too limited and energy-consuming to to think big. And this explains why the majority of people in the world are religious, for if they could see the big picture, they would have immediately doubt God’s existence. It is no coincidence that most modern top scientists and thinkers are atheist or agnostic for one simple reason – they could see what many ordinary people cannot see. (there’s a huge difference between the mindset of a rational-thinker atheist and militant atheist, but I will leave it to the other day)

So, back to the original topic, I believe when it comes to philosophical school of thoughts, individual categories like rationalism, empiricism, nominalism, pragmatism, idealism,etc are just basically the small picture. Calling the small picture as the ‘Truth’ is just like a blind man obsessesily clinging to a part of elephant’s body and proclaiming that he knows the ‘Truth’.

I believe when someone is curious and want to learn about the elephant, he/she got to study it without any discrimination or prejudice. Learn about the trunk … learn about the tusk .. the leg, the tail, the skin, the body. Everything. And that’s how we could effectively understand the elephant. It is a delusion to just hold the tail and proclaim that you have understood the elephant because you can feel the ‘truth’ or ‘prophecy’ in it. That’s just a subjective experience. Objectively, it tells you nothing about the elephant. If I religiously cling to Rationalism and Freethought, I would be in a delusion that I’m learning.

That’s why, whenever I hear someone enthusiastically labeling or affiliating themselves with a belief system, I always believe that they are missing the point… the big elephant.

PS: Another friend of mine asked me which philosopher influenced me the most. My answer is Buddhism. I could not imagine that my thought process is half as good as I am now if I have never read Buddhism philosophy.

I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Most often two of these qualities come together. The officers who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Those who are stupid and lazy make up around 90% of every army in the world, and they can be used for routine work. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately! – General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord

Apparently, this quote came from The German Art of War. Interesting.

A little read on Hammerstein-Equord’s profile says he is an ardent opponent of Adolf Hitler. Interesting.

And I was wondering if this quote has any use in designing business organizations. Interesting.

So I spent 5 minutes reflecting on this quote on why stupid and industrious people is a menace and must be removed immediately. It was pretty counter-intuitive at first, but finally I understand his point. The reasoning is simple – think about it, if this person is already stupid, but yet he still works hard and determined to implement stupid ideas and executing stupid actions, think of all the damage that could be done compared to non-action from stupid and lazy people instead. Stupid and Hardworking people are the kind of people who would most likely drain all the resources and deviate people from efficiency.

How about from societal point of view? Think of stupid organizations who are hardcore in promoting stupid beliefs .. like extreme feminist movements, saving-the-planet-Earth movements (well according to G. Carlin that is), ideology of corrupted politicians, etc. But arguably the most damaging stupid beliefs of all – Creationists who believe God created everything on Earth by magic and miracle… and believing million years old dinosaurs co-existed with human being at one point during history. And the fact that this ignorant belief is spread to hundred of millions people in the world is beyond absurdity. That’s because behind every popular stupid beliefs, there will be a group of people who are super hardcore in promoting it.  Stupid and lazy people who make up 90% of the population would be easily swayed by stupid but convincing beliefs.

Stupid ideas attract stupid minds.

Thanks, Hammerstein-Equord for the little insight.

Thanks Elizier, for pointing the quote.

It was 8.30 PM and while I was waiting for the bus to take me home from my workplace, I saw a huge cockroach on the wall near the bus stop. And then, I saw a lizard moved near the bug and just stared at the gigantic cockroach not doing anything as if knowing the cockroach is too huge to be taken down. Then another lizard did the same – just stared and moved around the cockroach and left. The cockroach is obviously too huge for both of the lizards.

Hence, I was wondering – Why didn’t both of the lizards cooperate and work together to take down the cockroach?

Immediately I imagined, what would lions do if there is a big fat bull standing right in front of them? The lions would have gangbanged and take down the bull together. What would chimpanzees do when they spot a threat? Either they would run away together or would attack the threat together. What would human being do when we face a global crisis? All nations would come together to create a solution for the problem. And this element of cooperation is obviously missing in lizards, and generally reptiles. Why? Why can’t lizards understand the idea of working together?

Because they are not evolved enough … eureka ~

Therefore, this brought me a realization that Evolution works by having a sort of hierarchy in Life, which the rule of thumb is – Life Evolve from Simplicity to Complexity

Origin of Life

I believe Life is a natural force, as natural as the force of gravity and electromagnetism which happens all around the universe. In other words, life is everywhere, governed by the force of Evolution, just like how gravity and light are governed by the law of physics. The degree of how complex life can be is heavily depending on how conducive the environment is. For instance, we can only find microorganism in Mars, perhaps some fishes/sea creatures in Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons (though just a hypothesis) and human being on Earth.

The more essential elements available in a planet such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon (and others that can be found in periodic table), the more conducive the environment will be. The more conducive the environment is, the more capacity it allows life to evolve. And Earth seems like a nice little place for complex life to flourish.

All life started out being equal … first we have several microorganism around, then over a short period of time, microorganism multiply exponentially. And keep on multiply and multiply. Since resources are scarce, microorganism will thrive on evolving to gain upper hand advantage when competing with other microorganism. Therefore, Evolution is basically a natural way of the nature in maintaining a balance world where resources are scarce. Over time, some microorganism will evolve to be bigger, hence giving itself advantage over other microorganism which did not evolve and remain small. And this struggle will go on and on where microorganism will keep evolving to gain advantage over one another. When the Evolution reaches a complex stage, the microorganism will evolve to have legs. When organism have legs and could walk around, it will create an upper hand advantage over other life form which could not move. Hence, that’s what we categorize as Insect today. Basically, the hierarchy as I see it:

Microorganism –> Insect –> Fish –> Reptiles/Amphibians –> Mammal –> Humanity –> A.I. (Singularity)

To acquire certain trait, a creature need to climb the Evolution ladder, which is totally out of their control because Evolution is a game of probability. It’s a fate. It is out of the creatures hand. In other words, human being is not special. Individuals are not unique. We are all just a bunch of creatures trapped in the game of Evolution ruled by the law of probabilities. In the realm of probabilities, luck and chances play a prominent role in our life. Which means – Life is never Fair. You cannot argue how the cockroach lurking in my room, which will eventually be exterminated by my mum is born luckier than I do. You cannot argue how people born in rural Africa, a place of poverty-stricken, starvation and plagued by disease are luckier than people who are born in the western country where they get to eat hamburgers everyday. You cannot argue how a person with retarded mind living in the mental hospital all life long is luckier than Albert Einstein who is acknowledged as a genius and will be remembered forever by history for his mental ability.

I believe there is a reason why Nature allow imbalance to exist. I have not give much thought on this yet but I think perhaps it is something like the concept of man and woman – Both genders are very different from each other, yet bringing balance to the nature at the same time.

Is Imbalance important to bring balance to the nature?

Psychology of the Creatures

Let’s use back the cockroach vs. lizards as example. Let’s examine the differences between these two creatures’ psychology in the way how they react to potential danger. When I was young, I have this thought that cockroach is afraid of people because it seems that whenever I chase a cockroach, it will run away frantically just like how birds and cats do. Only recently I realized that cockroach actually do not react to human being rather, they react to movements and light. (I was sitting still on the chair and saw a cockroach moving towards me, oblivious of my existence. When I flashed a bright light, it ran away and hid at a dark spot.)

Hence, it brought me a realization that insects do not have the emotion of fear – just like a mosquito biting me without having the awareness that I have the capability to kill it by just a single move. So, it is pretty obvious that insects were evolved and programmed in the mind with simple instructions to explore the environment and survive based on their own inert function without having any emotions.

How about lizards on the other hand? I would say they have emotions because lizards react to people. They run away and hide when human is nearby. Lizards recognize human as threat.  Unlike insects, lizards (and reptiles) have bones and organs which is essential in having a higher level of mind and body. Therefore, lizards is one notch higher than insect. Yes, just one notch because apparently mammals are more complex than reptiles.

Reptile are solitary animals who live and hunt alone. Once reptiles lay the eggs, they leave them alone. Compared that to mammals which generally take care of their youngs and live in groups. A group of zebra staying and running together to confuse the tiger. A pack of dogs using wind and body odor to hunt for prey. Birds using flocking technique to be more efficient in foraging. Monkeys living in a social lifestyle where reciprocity plays a huge role in the relationship between the ‘tribe’. Living in group or socially definitely has an upper hand over solitary lifestyle.

But above all these, we have human being, which is on top of the pyramid, taking charge of the world. This imbalance which I mentioned earlier is what creates diversity. And this diversity is what creates the ecology and food chain. True, it is so much more miserable to be born as a cockroach but it will serve the purpose from ecology point of view – get eaten by bigger animals.

By analyzing the pattern of animal’s behaviours, I hypothesized there’s a correlation between traits of animal behaviours and the level of how evolved the creature is. The more evolved the creature is, the more complex it becomes. The more complex it becomes, the more sophisticated survival techniques it will deploy. And this variety of survival techniques is what created the existing diversity of life that we can find on Earth.

Future of Humanity

At the moment, the pinnacle of Evolution would certainly be human being as we are the only species which have deep consciousness and intelligence. But if you think human being has reach the very peak, then you’re wrong – human’s mind is still rapidly evolving. I truly believe there will come a day when humanity will evolve out of our tribal instincts in the future and become more cohesive in our thoughts and ideas. Among the list:

1. Extreme thoughts such as sectarianism, fundamentalism, and racism will slowly fade away from humanity. (The acceptance of Barack Obama as president)

2. Global scale war among nations will cease. (It has been 65 years since a major war erupted). Human being is starting to value peace more.

3. Humanity will become more and more secular and will slowly disassociate ourselves with God, religion and irrational beliefs. (The rise of secular and free thinking movements)

4. This is a controversial belief of mine – Backward nations, like countries in Africa, will become more and more of a laggard because generally, the mind of the people there is slightly less evolved (in micro scale) compared to people in advanced countries. (The stagnancy of Africa countries)

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By the way, I got this from my all time favourite philosophical movie – The Matrix. Pretty insightful.

I like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species (human being) and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammals on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease. A cancer of this planet. You are a plague. And we … are the cure – Agent Smith to Morpheus.

I like the thoughts on natural equilibrium. How did human being destroy the equilibrium? Deforestation, overhunting of animals to extinction, garbage, constructions and development which pollute the world, wastage of resources, etc.

Penang Jazz Festival

I went to Penang (320 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur) during the weekend for a Jazz Festival. Overall, it was a good Jazz Festival. I’ve told myself that if this festival is 70% as good as Kenny G’s concert I attended last April, then I will be satisfied. Well, I would say it pretty much hit the mark. Kenny G’s performance is still the best live Jazz performance I’ve watched to date, so it’s normal I would want to benchmark against it every time I go to a Jazz concert/festival.

Out of 12 performers, I was really impressed with 3 groups – Jaume Vilaseca Quartet (Spain), Jeon Young Se Trio (Korea) and Ray Harris with Fusion Experience (UK).

I bought Jeon Young Se Trio’s CD and managed to get their autograph! Woo Waa! But the best performance over the 2 days was from Ray Harris. It blew me off .. totally. However, their music weren’t consistently great. Only 2 out of 5 was brilliant. Jeon Young Se Trio on the other hand, is consistently great throughout.

I will certainly want to attend the festival again if they are going to hold it next year.

A Journey to Complication

When it comes to food, my friends dislike going to popular tourist areas to eat (eg. Gurney Drive) because those hawkers often overcharge the prices. (But hey! We ARE tourists too! =P ) Hence, we often search for authentic local food places to eat every time. Well, being a guy who has no opinion when it comes to food, I let my friends to decide all the time.

On the second day, we’d decided to visit a really famous place in Penang for lunch, well known as the best ‘Asam Laksa’ in the country. However, we weren’t sure of the directions to the place, so we just relied on the signboards to guide us. We went around on and on, stuck in the traffic jam, took the wrong turn, then stuck in more traffic jam again. After 2 hours of searching, I mildly suggested – “Should we give up the plan and eat somewhere else since we are in the town anyway?”

But my friends insisted to go on. Naturally, I asked myself why? To me, that’s a really strange decision to spend more time searching for the place considering we have wasted 2 hours. (I wasn’t angry nor agitated, just curious.)

Right away, it reminded me the behaviour of a typical gambler in the casino. We can safely assume that every gambler goes in to the casino with an unshakable belief that he will win, or else why would he wanna go there in the first place? So, imagine the gambler has $10,000 in his hands. He plays roulette and keep betting on the number 18 every round. After losing 10 rounds or so, he is left with $5,000. Some rare gambler may think – “I think I have no luck today, so I better get off now before I lose everything!”  But for hardcore gamblers, they usually think the other way round – “I believe I will eventually win, all I have to do is to keep trying”. Well, unless the gambler is lucky on that day or else, usually this is the typical mindset of gamblers who will lose all their money to the casino.

I realized that when individuals invested a huge amount of resources (money, time, effort, etc) into something deemed important, they will naturally see it as an ‘investment’. For many people, to give up half way the journey is a taboo because it is equivalent of pointlessly throwing all the investment into the sea – There will be a sense of unsatisfactory or a mini-grudge inside us, an unwillingness to give up all the things we have put in to accomplish the journey. I feel this refuse-to-give-up-investment can be applied to a wide range of area especially to our belief system (superstitious belief, ideologies, mindset, etc.), hence, explaining why many people always resist to changes and also resist to contradicting beliefs.

“We have already spent 2 hours looking for the place, why not keep looking for it, so that the 2 hours spent is justified at the end?”. I can feel that’s the voices in my friends’ head.

After another hour, we finally found the place. But the place was packed like hell. We have to wait another 30 minutes before we got a place to sit. And another 15 minutes before the food arrived, 15 minutes of eating and another 30 minutes to get out of the area once we were done. Total damage – 4 hours and 30 minutes spent for several bowl of noodles … and several cups of sugar cane drink.

I was thinking, looking from economics point of view, was the decision efficient? Did the resources spent (cost) justified the benefit we got at the end? I guess for most people, psychologically, it’s hugely rewarding to spend large amount of resources to attain huge satisfaction, just like a guy who will get a huge satisfaction after spending huge amount of resources to chase a girl. But again, was the decision to keep going on after 2 hours really efficiently justifiable? I don’t know, I’m not a person who live to eat, so it’s not fair for me to judge the value of good food.

Again, I wasn’t agitated with the whole scenario. I just find it curiously interesting on how our mind works…

All in all, it was a really fun experience, we had some really really funny moments in the hotel where we laughed till our tummy hurts. I always enjoy all these humorous experience.

Trivia Conversation

A friend of mine shared a very interesting story with me. There was a species of baboon (or was it monkey? I forgot) which already thought be extinct since the early 90s due to overhunting by human being. But recently, it was actually discovered that there are many of them left in one forest. So how did these baboons evaded human radar and stayed in stealth from human eyes all these years?

First they recognized that human was a super threat, so unlike other primates which will make loud noises to alert their tribe of danger, these baboons will remain silent instead. They ‘know’ making loud noise is futile to escape from human (as we use guns). Secondly, they are using a very primitive form of sign language to communicate with their tribe whenever they encounter a human to plan an escape.

Natural selection and Evolution has forced these primates’ psychology to up one notch. I’ve long envisioned that there will come a day when human being may enslave chimpanzees and primates to do labour work for us once these primates intelligence reach certain level.

Back in my college days, there was a guy called Jimmy in my class who seemed to be trapped in his own little world. I often heard frustrations from my classmates that he has major problems in communication with his team members during group meetings and he was practically isolated and has no friends in the class. All along, I suspected he has autism and it explained well his inclination to be really introverted – an introvert of the introverts. And he knows nothing about being politically correct and offended many people all time with his straight-forwardness in his comments.

One day during lunch, one of my friends initiated the conversation on Jimmy and promptly said , “I don’t understand how can he sits in the class alone all the day long without talking to anyone. He is so strange!”

As a person who is mildly introverted myself, I didn’t felt right with the comments on Jimmy although it is pretty obvious that he isolates the world all the time.

Certainly, it looked like my friend had made a valid statement by calling Jimmy strange especially when all her friends agreed, thus reinforcing her point of view. To her and most of the people in my class, it is a rock-solid-hard-fact that Jimmy is Strange with a capital S. It is sort of like an universal rule that if you isolate yourself from the world or do not talk to the people around you, then you are strange.

However, the little truth of realization arrived when I too came across another‘strange’ behaviour among common people which I find mysterious and that was the beginning of my understanding towards the Law of Perception. And this strangeness was – Boredom.

I have many friends who vented all the time that staying at home is boring and going out for activities would be more fun. But I always wonder, what can be more blissful than staying at home and doing nothing? That to me, is the ultimate ‘Nirvana’. I find it strange that people likes to go out finding entertainment by socializing and doing activities together. People seemed to easily get agitated by the emotion of boredom and isolation. For instance, I have no problem celebrating my birthday alone, but to most people, it’s like a major taboo. And that to me is … strange.

But who is right and who is wrong? The girls who called Jimmy strange or myself who called most people strange? Both insights are directly contradicting, so what makes her more right than me, and what make myself more right than her? I realized when it comes to cultural values, it is not what both of us think that matters –  it is how the collective individuals think that matter, the bigger the better. Basically, it‘s what the majority say, not you and me.

When a big group of individuals has decided that this is the way how things should be done, then it will be a societal standard. It is a human nature that we human being group ourselves by affinities and certain shared value. Just look at the organizations and associations around us, we have religions, feminist movements, animal rights, labour union and millions of other small one.

Being sociable and extrovert is not a Truth, nor an Universal Rule – It is only something which the majority of people are used to and comfortable with. This is an artificially-construct cultural-value by the society, just like race, nationalism and religion. If we were to go deeper into this, we will come back to the square-one fundamental question – What Is Morality?

Hence, my point here is, instead of treating what we Subjectively think as the Truth and decide what is strange and what is not, we should open up our mind and embrace the diversity of personality. A kind of acceptance on Objective Truth.

The world we are living at today is consist of 80% extroverts and 20% introverts. But think about it, what if the world has a reversed personality where 20% are extroverts and 80% are introverts instead? Then socializing will be something  really really strange and weird to people because society would have set a culture that living in isolation is the way to go, just like leopard and turtle always do. But human and the world is the way it is as already determined by Evolution.