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?

Note 1 : To keep the writing original, vulgarity is unavoidable.

Note 2  : 90% of the content below is fiction and doesn’t exactly represent me in any way =P

It is 10.24PM at night. I am stoning in front of my desktop, staring at the monitor like an immovable statue. Life is mundane, life seemingly have no purpose at all and I can’t help but to wonder if the stones in my aquarium are having happier time than myself. However, I am glad there are things which still reminds me that I’m a human after all – my bottomless stomach.

“Mum, I’m bloody hungry. Bring me a horse!”

Life is good because I have a ‘sorcerer’ mum who could always provide me with whatever I demand.

While feasting on some horse meat like an ogre, I logon to Facebook, a social networking tool which people love to use because it gives us reasons not to meet up with our friends face to face. As an introverted anti-social guy, Facebook give me the security of avoiding people yet looking sociable at the same time. Yay, Facebook for the WIN.

Feeling bored, I browse my Facebook, and I come across a Facebook application quiz in the latest feeds – “How Well Do You Know Mr. S?” And this instantly bring me back memories. I got to know Mr. S since I was 10 years old and we grew up together with other Section 17 buddies playing StarCraft and Counter-Strike at Cybercafe. We are not as close as we were last time, but still, an old friend is still an old friend.

Out of boredom, I click on his quiz and try to answer it. It is basically an 8 questions quiz about Mr. S. Well I didn’t keep in touch with him as frequently as I should, but scoring 50% shouldn’t be difficult. Should I have problems with the questions, I can always rely on my psychology superpowers to get me out of jail.

Speaking of this, there’s is something I find it hard to understand. You know, most psychology students often make a point that they can’t read minds. And I think that’s bloody retarded.

I mean, what are they supposed to learn in university if they are not gonna read minds? Study why men think of sex every 7 seconds? Why guys salivate when a big-breast girl running around in sports bra? Elementary, my dear psychologist-wannabes. I can get all the answers by just spending $10 on a XXX DVD.

Unlike all these ineffectual psychology students who wasted all their parent’s money to study rubbish in university and college, I CAN READ MINDS. Who needs to go to psychology classes anyway?

Enough of bragging. Let’s do the quiz. Mind Reading Superpower Mode : ON!

*click click*

*click click*

*click click*

Results……

*Deafening silence*

Urm, OK, the results are out. I do not know why, but I think it was a stroke of bad luck and things turned out to be a little, just a little, depressing. I mean really, I was really bad luck. Ok, ok … I admit I failed the quiz, scoring 25% and only got 2 out of 8 questions right. You know, urm, I didn’t know what happened, but you know, sometimes shit happens … you know. Urm ya, well, it was really unfortunate isn’t it to not score well in my friend’s quiz. Urm. I hope I will do better next time. =)

=)

=|

=\

=(

Screw this shit. I’m sick with all this pretense. You know what. I had enough. The matter of fact is I was utterly pissed. Super duper whooper pissed! I hate the results I got. I hate being embarrassed by failing this stupid quiz. Now the whole damn Facebook world know I’m a bloody failure. Bloody hell.

My dignity which was once supernova-bright is crestfallen, turning so dim like fireflies lighting up an abandoned graveyard. The shame is so unbearable I almost fell flat on my face. Might as well I just bury my head under the ground like an ostrich. Oh damn, the floor is made of tiles. Even the floor hate me now. The whole world hate me. Where do you want me to hide my face now, world?

Mum, where is the paper bag? I demand you to give me a paper bag now, or else your son will have no choice but to flush his own head down the toilet. What? No more paper bag? Um, shit. How about your Gucci bag?  Rubbish bin? Condom??  What? You can be a superwoman and catch me a horse but you can’t get me something as simple as a condom? What? You’re shy to get it from 7-11? Oh, come on …

Goodness gracious me… give me a hand and help me to pull the toilet handle then.

HOLD! HOLD!

Wait a minute……… Why should I flush myself when it is clearly not my fault at all? It is them, the society. I blame them. They humiliated me by trapping me to fail in their Facebook quizzes. They are the evil culprits. They framed me. They enjoy seeing me fail. Them, them, them and them! Despicable!

With this enlightening realization, I transformed my emotions from guilt to anger. I have no more reasons to be guilty. I must be ANGRY! I clench and shake my fist, gesturing to my Samsung monitor and start hitting it with my half-eaten horse drumstick, raged by all the injustice the society has thrown at me. I can’t let go the bitterness which has been engulfing me for the last billions of nanoseconds ago. Then I know … vengeance is absolutely necessary.

The master plan – creating the toughest Facebook quiz in the world about myself to fail everyone, thus redeeming my ego. That’s right, a world domination plan to make everyone feel miserable. A plan to cultivate an angry world, transforming people to backstab and hate each other.

Without wasting any more time, I begin my malicious quest. Every single tap on my keyboard is filled with evil intention. In the internet world, trolls such as myself would be labeled as the ‘Keyboard Warrior’. I grin wickedly like an obsessed psychopath, strive to execute my schemes to perfection. I only have one goal in mind – to turn this reality as miserable as my inner world. I engrossed myself in spreading the 7 Deadly Sins to humanity for I want them to know the feeling of suffering, pain and the misery I have gone through.

Karma is a whore, Emo is a pimp and my tainted soul is the whoremaster. And the result – eternal vicious orgasm. What bitch around, fucks around. I want all of them who do my test to go down on their knees, cry in vain, beg and plead me for mercy. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM. Yes! Yes! The sadder they get, the happier I become. Nothing in the world now beat the pleasure of seeing people miserable.

In a blink of an eye, I have composed 7 questions. One last question left. But I’m not taking this lightly. I intent to make this question the toughest question in the universe, so tough when Buddha reads the question, he will shit bricks. What should I ask? Hmm … hmm… hm … AHA!!. Check. This. Out.

At what age I was the happiest?

Perfecto!

A miserable guy like me has no life. How the hell would I know when I was the happiest? And how the hell would other people know when I was the happiest? My ambition is to be the #1 CEO in the world – Chief Emo Officer and there’s no such word as Happy in my dictionary. I hereby declare that today, 28/04/2009 is the Earth Emo Day. To officiate this opening ceremony, I dedicate this poem to the world.

Tears shall be shed,

Bricks will be shat.

I know what I’m good at,

Time to turn this world mad,

Eat that, Shakespeare! You know what, you should just change your name to Shakesbooty – Maybe you will have better chance to find a living in gay porn industry.

I enthusiastically put down the answer-option to the unanswerable question. It doesn’t matter what the answer is anyway, it is up to me to randomly choose an answer. I can put 100 years old as my happiest year and still say it is the correct answer because this is MY QUIZ AND I SET THE RULES! But for the sake of playing the game right, and for the sake of making people to have no choice but accepting their failure, I put some sensible answers to it instead.

23 years old …

21years old  …

19 years old  …

17 yea …

But something unexpected happen – my subconscious mind is acting up on me. Suddenly, I recall the memories of how happy I actually was during my teenage years. Especially when I was 17. I miss the days when I was still young and youthful. I miss the days when I could live in the moment, having fun with friends, without needing to worry about tomorrow. School life was great and every night, I looked forward to each new day in my class with great joy.

But all these are now lost in my adult years. College and work life have consumed my soul. I am now a drone of the society. *Sob* Tears trickling down my cheek, I broke down, and sulked in sorrow.

Who knows, perhaps I will buy water gun next and start playing with my grown up friends to rekindle my sweet childhood memories. And Lego too. I want to build a babywalker with Lego bricks so that I can be a baby all over again. How sweet.

HOLD!

Woah woah woah!! How can I let my plans to backfire me?! I’m supposed to make people emo, not making myself emo! Dammit, what was I doing? How can a Chief Emo Officer failed in his own Emo quest?

I realigned my focus and concentrate my anger to overpower my sorrowful feelings. I need to get the job done.

*Concentration*

*More Concentration*

DONE! THE LINK OF DEATH :

http://apps.facebook.com/quizdoyouknowme/quiz.jsp?q=419696

I spam and spread the link of death mercilessly to anyone and everyone I come across. I spread it to my good friends, hi-bye friends, enemies, strangers, cats, dogs and the bacteria in my nostrils. I’ll do whatever it takes to make them do the quiz even if it involves physical tickling .

One by one I can see it in their face – Their disappointment, despair and hopelessness of failing my majestic quiz. 50+ of them did my quiz and NON of them got more than 3 answer right out of 8 questions. All of them. LOVE IT. I LOVE IT.

All of the victims is either clouded by guilt or angered by my quiz.  They react defensively and angrily when I make fun of them failing my quiz. Yes, that’s the right reaction, this is all in my plan, suckers. Now, who is my latest victim? Oh, Dane just took my test. And he failed too. 3/8 questions = 37%. MUAHAHAHA. WOOHOOO! Time to make fun this little scum!

Ronn : HAHA, you failed in my quiz, Noobtard!

Dane : That’s OK. =)

Ronn : That’s NOT OK, you noobtard. You’re supposed to be sad, embarrassed and angry. Then, you are supposed to spread and influence the anger to another 1000 people. Have you not read the book Tribes by Seth Godin?

Dane : =)

Ronn : Stop smiling like a retard.

Dane  : Oh, minion, anger is illusory. It is nothing but a bubble. If we keep spreading anger to other people, when will it ever end? Come follow me, I will show you the light. I will show you the Truth.

Ronn : FAR QUEUE! I’m not a minion, you biatch!

Dane : Oh, minion, there’s no Queue to Truth and it is certainly not Far.

Ronn : *facepalm*

Dane : Come, follow me. I will bring you to go swimming this weekend.

Ronn : Swimming … ?

Dane : Yes, swimming. The swimming pool will lead you the truth.

<To Be Continued Next Week………>

PS : Part 2 will see the transformation of Ronn, becoming a much wiser person. So, part 2 will be less funny and more philosophical.

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.

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

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

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

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

How do I see religion?

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

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

With this realization, I stop being obsessed with atheism.

The danger of being obsessed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Analogy and Meditation

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

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

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

More application of Flake Theory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[……] = means certain passage are skipped

The Nobel Evening Address, Oslo, Norway.

Dalai Lama,The Nobel Peace Prize 1989.

Brothers and sisters,

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

[……]

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

[……]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[……]

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

[……]

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

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

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

[……]

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

(Some philosophy from Pain I wrote few weeks ago : Instinct Saturation)

Pain after single-handedly destroyed Konoha village and defeated Naruto said …

PAIN : My goal is something not even master Jiraiya could achieve. I told you before …Through justice, I will bring peace to the world!

NARUTO : Peace? Justice? You’ve gotta be kidding me .. You’ve gotta be freaking kidding me!

PAIN : Then what do you think?

NARUTO : I want to defeat you and that’s the true meaning of bringing peace to the Ninja world!

PAIN : I see .. that’s wonderful … that’s justice. But my family, my friends  … my village.. were all destroyed too. Do you really think the Ninja of the Konoha are the only ones who allowed to talk about peace and justice?

NARUTO : … What do you mean?

PAIN : The land of Konoha have grown too big.

You see, countries have war either to protect their own interest or to gain something over other countries. But the war battleground always took place on small village and small land. And each time, our small country was laid waste and the people left impoverished. After many wars, country with big land stabilized. And our small country was left to bear the wounds and damage of the war. 

NARUTO : …

PAIN : We both want the same thing. We both want the peace master Jiraiya spoke of. You and I are no different. We’re both working on our own justice. The justice I meted out against Konoha , is exactly the same justice you are trying to mete out against me. Everyone feels the pain of loss. We know both the feeling of pain.

You are working for your own justice, and I for my own. We are just ordinary people driven to revenge in the name of justice. But if revenge is called justice, then justice breed even more revenge. And eventually this became a chain of hatred.

Living in the present, aware of the past, predicting the future, this is what it means to know history. Through history, we cannot help but to know that people can never understand and care for each other. The world of Ninjas is ruled by hatred. So, how would you build peace in the face of this hatred? Let me hear your answer ..

Naruto : I … don’t know …

PAIN : I created Akatsuki in order to break this chain of hatred.  I will build a powerful weapon that is able to to destroy an entire land in an instant. The world will know the true pain, and the fear of pain will put an end to war. It will lead the world to stability and peace. 

NARUTO : That’s not real peace. It is nothing but a lie!

PAIN : Human are stupid. If I don’t do this, there will be no peace at all. Eventually, time will pass and the pain will heal. The dictator’s power will weaken and people will begin fighting again. This time, they will use the weapon themselves and once more know the true pain.

And for a short time, peace will come again. It will give birth to short periods of peace within this endless chain of hatred.

That Is My Wish…… Now, I Can See Peace …

NARUTO

————-

In Japanese manga/anime, it is pretty common that a villain is philosophical and the line between Good and Evil is often blurred (just like Death Note and Monster anime). Sort of a paradox of morality. I’ve written something similar about the paradox of morality here more than a year ago – Pessimism : Dark Side (I reread the post and realized the English is kinda bad, lol).

To summarize the conversation above, Pain knew that the world operates by ‘the chain of hatred’ where people will keep on fighting each other in the name of justice. And he knew that justice is something very subjective – everybody thinks they are at the good side fighting for a cause. By looking at the history, Pain understood that there was a never a period of peace in the Ninja world because people never bother to care and understand for each other. People always want to fight for their own self-interest or group-interest. By creating a huge weapon which has strong destruction ability, only then it would stop people from fighting and bring peace to the world.

And why did he destructed Konoha village? For 2 reasons:

1. Konoho is one of the biggest village in the world and he believed there always the tendency for big and powerful land to ‘bully’ or assault the smaller and weaker country. He believes the balance is essential to prevent this ‘bullying’ to take place.

2. Instilling fear and pain. With fear and pain, people will be reluctant to war because they know warring and fighting each other only will bring more misery.

Pain believes the chain of hatred will never be broken because people will eventually forget about the history after several generations. People can’t feel the fear and pain their grandparents experienced and will become oblivious of the feelings. Hence, Pain wants to create something which will periodically bring a period of peace in every cycle of this endless chain of hatred. And that was his wish.

Oh well , in some ways, Pain kinda reminds me of Qin Shi Huangdi …

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 feel dumb spending many hours writing this note down as a preparation for a workshop I’m going tomorrow. Do I really call this a ‘note’? It’s more like a science journal. And I’m just half way through writing it but I think I will just leave them hanging. Maybe I will complete the hanging part once I’m free.

Don’t think this will have much use for tomorrow ideation and marketing session, so I will just dump it here.

 Intelligence Growth model

First, we have to know that our brain does not stop developing until around late-20s. Basically, that’s the age where our maturity and intelligence will peak. However, puberty during teenage years is a condition which tell the body that we are now already in adult phase, hence creating a conflict – The body tells the brain that it is already an adult body and fully matured but the brain is still half-way developing! And this is the ultimate reason why teenagers are rebellious by nature and parenting is the most difficult at this period – it’s like an adult trapped in a teenagers’ mind.

Peer Pressure and Peer Influence

• Society often exert some kind of expectations and pressure to youths within the tribe.
  • For instance, if the aunty asks his nephew – “what are you working as right now?” and he answers – “I sell DVD on the roadside”, the impression on the boy would immediately drop. Aunty is not impressed. However if he is a professional worker like a doctor, engineer or lawyer, the aunty will go awe instead because those careers are traditionally perceived as successful. This is exactly the societal expectations and pressures I was referring to.
• Youths are aware of these expectations and pressures because recognition, reputation and acknowledgement are often seek, not only by youths, but as well as adults. It’s a human thing. However, as pointed out at intelligence maturity graph above, most youth are only at the growing stage of mental development. Don’t forget, youths are people with teenage’s mind trapped in adult’s body. Therefore, youths often have some kind of delusion that they have the capability to outdo and create achievements on par with adults. But the fact is, they don’t. A typical youth do not have the mental capacity to be on par with a typical adult because they are both at different mental growth stage. And many youths do not have any awareness of this mental growth stage. This is why youths are rebellious, a state where youths often disagree with their parents’ standpoint, perceiving them as old-fashioned and uncool because their parents often disagree with youth’s point of view. 
• Because youths are pressured to be ‘successful’, ‘contributive’, or ‘archiving’, but yet, not having the mental capacity to do it, youths have systematically adopt a very easy and efficient way to learn about things around them and the environment– Copying and Following. This method is so inherent and convenient that many has also brought it along to adulthood stage. In biological terms, it is called as memetics.
• Due to domino’s effect, youths do not restrict Copying and Following method to just learning and knowing only but also apply it to their lifestyle and preference of choices. Youths will follow the latest trends, hits, style, movements, etc.
• Let’s use the famous example – Barack Obama. We all know the fact that Obama is popular among youths. But do you know that many youths in America couldn’t actually tell difference of standpoint and philosophy between Democrats party and Republican party? They are totally not aware of it. But to youths, Obama is ‘cool’ because many of their peers support and like him. There’s a huge buzz going around him too and they were impressed with his inspiring speeches. And this created a huge number of followers of Obama among Youths even without knowing the policy of the political party he is belong to.  <hanging>

Why Identity is important to Youths?

• Seeking identity does not only apply to youths but actually to everybody.
• However adults can easily create an identity by associating themselves with their career, spouse, children, house, cars, financial power, reputation among business network and workplace, etc.
• Youths on the other hand, possess nothing big which allow them to create an identity for themselves. Hence, youths go for achievable and inexpensive things which could help mold their identity such as – fashion, gadgets, accessories, hangout places, and their preferences.
• Why do people seek identity? Because everyone has idealism in life. A sort of ideal perfection in love, career, financial, status, etc. Youths always have very optimistic fantasy of how life should be and how they are looked up to. But reality as we know is harsh and not as smooth as we expect. Hence when idealism and reality clash – it creates Uncertainty in youths.
• Adults have gone through the uncertainty stage and as they lower down their expectations in idealism as they age, the element of uncertainty slowly fades away. Youths on the other hand, is full of idealism on what they want to be and have. <hanging>

Do youths have their own standpoint?

• If peer influence is such a big thing, then why do youths care to be unique at the same time? It’s almost paradoxical. So, do youths get influenced by majority’s decision or do they want to be unique? The answer to the question is not clear cut, because psychologically, it is a struggle between herd mentality and individual uniqueness.
• The line between togetherness and uniqueness is drawn when it involves youth’s knowledge on certain area. If a youth have to make a snap decision but do not have the necessary knowledge or know-how, instinctively youths will seek the majority’s opinions to make the decisions.
• Example : If an non-techie youth wants to get a MP3 player yet not having the necessary knowledge on which brand and model to purchase, what will he/she do? She will surely ask for recommendations. Chances are, more than half of her friends will recommend her Apple Ipod.
• A metaphor for this scenario – Imagine yourself standing in the middle of the road in a foreign country and there are two restaurants on both sides of you. On the left is a restaurant packed with people. One the right side is an empty restaurant. You know nothing about both restaurants but when you have to make a decision, you will very probably go to the packed restaurant. Why? Rationally thinking, the chances of you choosing the restaurant to go is 50/50. <hanging>
• Another factor where peer influence will play a role in influencing standpoint is when youths are surrounded by friends who <hanging>

How do brands influence youths?

• What brands do today is they align youth’s idealism and motivation with their products and services. It helps youths to create an identity for themselves <hanging>

Youths are Emotional

Think with their heart, not so much with the brain <hanging>