Our tradition urges us to convince, but to convince means to settle to the other’s conditioning.

Instead, Challenge!

Challenge your own thought until there seems to be no answer! After doing so, then challenge others.

They might give you an answer or you might leave them thinking, but at least you have dared to go into your limits. The only way to progress when it seems a dead end is to put forth things that are not commonly combined.

For example, why does a person who loves to measure and believes in the reality of science ignore the reality of the present moment? Get the contradiction?

This is the point:

Measurement is in the present moment, and although some might want to argue that measurement requires the past in order to create a present. At the end, the measurements have to be written down and recorded in a way that is not simply inside the mind. Therefore, measurement has to be touched in a certain point only in the present moment as a collective experience in order to state it is true.

However, if the present moment is so fundamental for the process of measurement. Why are those who believe in measurement lost in the past? Why does a philosopher of science use the mind as a source of truth ignoring the fact that science is not based in mental abstractions at the end of the process?

I know there are many “possibilities” that might fire back at me such as the reality of math, but let us remember that math can be a theory unless proved real by physics, computation, etc. Although, I am crossing fine lines of perspective here…

My main point is:

Why does the measure-lover type of person use the past as a devotional source of truth? What about the present moment? Why ignore it so categorically? Why do they so blatantly reject the notion of the “sublime” if it is an actual experience in the present moment which could be measured through science?

A counter example, what happens with a person that does not care about the reality of our collective truths such as science? How can you ignore the reality that can be measured and bring actual results? Is it because it is easier to escape, and say it is all a weird dream? What about the pain and suffering of those who cannot ignore this “reality”?

Why ignore the reality of science and the fact that one can actually measure in the brain the way the so called “sublime” modifies a physical aspect of ourselves? Why can they become so self-absorbed, but still use any device that exists due to such measurable reality?

In my perspective, both, the non-measurement person believer and the measurement person believer, are right and wrong. Instead of working together, they keep fighting over particulars that might serve a purpose.

Yet, that is not enough to reach a better understanding of the truth:

We need to work together, not against each other, through a challenge type of approach.

What do I mean?

01 Learn to use the other’s own words against him/her. This requires a certain type of knowledge in order to twist him own belief against him, and a little bit of mental agility. If you actually challenge a person through their own beliefs, then one might actually see our own limits and move on to something more challenging.

02 Use the exact opposite argument that the other person is expecting to have. If you are debating with a measurement type, argue in favor of non-measurement and vise-versa. Do it with intelligence, not as a childish debate.

Be careful! If a person is stubborn because they base in their beliefs a certain type of inner security stop doing it. You will get nowhere and it will wear you down.

03Be flexible, and learn to observe how the flux of ideas are not a static build but a fluid notion that constantly changes. The idea of a static truth is so pervasive that we end up again always fighting for a never-agreement. I am not being absolute here, but if the debate is stuck in a walked path called “the truth” by a traditional current of thought that bases their inner security in a belief, then were are we walking toward?

Now, how do you bridge these two? How can you convince them that there acutally is a double position (measurement and non-measurement) or even broader position we might not be aware of?

An empirical multidisciplinary person can do such a gigantic task, but it requires self discipline. Just as one learns to play an instrument although one could have the paradigm of being inept in music, and at the end ends up mastering it. If one hates math, then by trying to understand something, not to marry to it, but to understand it, then an inner paradigm is released, and so forth.

With empirical I mean a person who does not base his inner security in a belief, that changes his belief when he sees that he is wrong, and is capable of recognizing openly their mistake.

Then, one can actually begin to learn how to explain to others something that might seem totally counter-wise as something coherent and with a certain truth. Truths are tricky, but if they are tricky then how can one convince others?

Ha! Not convincing! Of course… Is it? Maybe not?

For example, if I know that brain science can measure the sublime in Zen, why reject the notion of such reality? What if the the unmeasurable can be measured, not by the observer, but by the observing?

Note: Not the observed, but the observing. The observer within the sublime will not feel measurement, but the observing will. A single shift in perspective can cause a new way to challenge our tradition, and thus create a better society that actually cares about ourselves, not only solving the problem of truth.

Is in the present moment the only “place” to find out the “truth”? Do you see the point? There is a lot of depth here, but I will not spill the beans! Think by yourself, and find it out!

Yes, of course, if we have a common truth we might believe peace shall arrive, but why wait for that moment? Why not find peace within ourselves first? What if what we have been taught is “the truth” is actually a belief?

Photo Credits: Howard Dickins

However, to some people this answer might seem counter-wise their own set of established beliefs. The reason is that we are traditionally taught that you have always teacher: at first it is your parents, then school teachers, even new type teachers might be needed after school, etc. So, let’s get this straight.

Yes, there might be teachers that explain stuff to make it easier to understand, but my question is: Who can teach me the truth?

What is the truth? Well, some might say science is the truth. Is this true? Well… In a way it is, but in another way it is not. Science can be proven to be false, and we change the truth to state the new truth. For example, we at first thought that the earth was flat. We now know it is not. It took many years to find out it was not flat. The reason it took so many years is that it was counter-wise their established set of traditional beliefs. Science is regarded as the truth because it changes as we admit and prove new ways of perceiving and interpreting reality in a group.

However, let’s go beyond the boundary of science. Let’s go into the individual… This terrain is tricky. There are many theories in philosophical books, and I won’t go there. You can search them if you are curious. I might not even be aware of the greatness you find there. So, what am I doing here?

I put forward a concept to you from a “fresh” perspective. Perhaps, you might agree with me, but I do not want to be agreed upon. I want to make you think. I want you to challenge me, but truly listen and grasp what I am saying.

Then, you are free to crush me politely.

Yes, the only real truth is here. It is in this exact moment as you read this. It is not an abstraction that you can elaborate in the past or in the future. Many of us spend enormous time trying to grasp the fundamentals of the universe, but we are doing it this way:

We use the reality of the present moment to create another reality within our own heads. The concept of the truth is stored in our brain, and we use that concept as if it were actually true, not realizing that the only truth is the present moment.

Of course, the present moment can include any concept because you have defined them and you use them to alter your reality as you think and act upon those thoughts. However, to believe that these concepts are the whole reality, and these can translate into truth and pure facts is a lie, a lie nurtured by tradition.

The belief that all can be explained through thoughts, verbs, etc. is an arrogant presumption.

However, the belief that the truth can be grasped in an abstraction is totally counter-wise in a practical sense because:

The truth must be real. What is real? The only real thing is here and now. The past is not real anymore, and the future is not here. This instant of perpetual infinity is the only truth. If you wake up this instant, and realize this was all a dream. Then, your new reality “the non-dream state” is the truth, not the past or the present, but that now.

So, how can someone else teach you the truth? How can someone teach you something that is not teachable? You have to observe it and become aware of it individually. How is this done?

There are many theories, but I will not spill the beans. You have to find it by yourself. You have to teach yourself the truth. You have to wake up to the fact that authority does not have the answer.

Please, at least let’s accept this situation. There is no agreement regarding the truth. Why don’t we at least accept it as a society, and move on?

Why don’t we accept differences, instead of projecting our fears in others’ beliefs? Why don’t we promote creative thinking, instead of tying to create equal molds of being?

We are ingrained with the belief that we must follow an authority figure. Do you know why this happens?

It happens because we feel security in believing that someone else knows the truth. If someone else knows the truth, then I might feel an illusion of safeness because although I do not know, others know, and I will someday know.

Stop! Think about this by yourself! Stop searching for a tomorrow that will reveal the truth. Stop searching for a teacher. You are the teacher and the student. You are the only one that can actually through your own experience live the truth. Stop nurturing the guru with ego. Stop praising the one who says he or she knows.

Better, yet… Also doubt what I am saying, and do what you want.

You can walk the path of the teacher until you are tired of following the authority that doesn’t lead you anywhere and you realize you have been walking in circles with such figure.

Just have this in mind: The relationship teacher-student is a power relation. There is a very fine line that can be crossed, and the student might fall into the trap of following without questioning.

Why? The teacher might lie. The teacher might not know. The teacher might have an enormous ego that the student is feeding. A teacher that needs a student is trapped within the desires of the student. The teacher is also trapped in the expectations of the student.

It is a power relationship, and one will always be trapped within a framework of belief unless you decide to stop the situation.

In a power relationship, if you have the lower status: It is almost impossible to win. The process of belief, how belief creates psychological safety, and the role it plays within those structures impede your ability to convince.

However, the student does have power over the “teacher” because it is a power relationship.

For example, if the teacher does not convince as he expects to do or the student decides not to be taught anymore, then a certain kind of hostility might occur. Although, it might seem at a first glance that in a teacher-student relationship the one who always loses is the student… It goes both ways.

The teacher is gaining something by teaching, if not: Why do it? Could it be total non-self interest? It might be. It is not my position to judge.

However, keep in mind I am not being specific. You might have a great teacher… So, this might not apply to you, right? Great! Stop reading then, unless you really want to challenge your framework of beliefs established by those important figures in your life.

Ready? Want to continue? This is the thing:

The truth cannot be shown. If your teacher is wonderful as you might desire to believe, then ask him: Can you show me the truth?

If he or she is wise, the answer will be: No. I cannot show you the truth.

Why? Why would a wise teacher be unable to show to the truth? A truth must be shown in order to believe, isn’t it? However, seeing is not believing because we use abstractions to reach a conclusion that is concrete.

If the teacher can’t see that you are the only one who can see the truth, then what are you learning: Languages? Science? Philosophy?

Remember, perspective plays a role here. Don’t expect a person who lives within a framework of language to point out something that is not within that context.

Why do we tend to treat something that is an abstraction as a concrete fact through language? Why do we choose security through belief, than challenging ourselves to the unknown? Could it be fear? Why do we feel fear? How does fear work? Could we be afraid to acknowledge that the truth cannot be taught?

The idea here is: The truth cannot be taught if the truth is in the present moment.

What does this mean? It means that if you are searching for the holy grail in your mind, instead of opening your hands to the reality in front of you. How will you find something that is there, but you prefer to be blind due to your own set of established beliefs that cause you to feel fear if ever threatened?

You might be wondering… Well, why do you ask questions? It is very easy to ask questions. You are no different from the so called “teachers”.

In fact, you are quite right. I am no different those so called “teachers”, but my point here is to make you think. I do not care if you believe me or not. I am challenging through those questions you might love to hear answered, and yes it might be easier to just ask the question.

But at the end, I might be wrong.

However, could it be more difficult to express a question in a precise order, so you can follow the concept without giving you an answer? Perhaps… Who knows?

My purpose: I would like you to realize that you are the only one that can actually answer some questions through your experience within the context of finding the truth.

Is this a sort of a teaching? Yes, but you still have the option to say: I don’t agree with you. Wonderful, I applaud your conviction. Keep asking questions! Keep arguing against me! Observe and listen deeply with great attention, and find the truth.

Could I rephrase this by telling you: “Be the truth.”? How would that change the game? Why would it change it? Could that be related with what I wrote before about the truth is in the present moment?

Photo Credits: First image By takomabibelot Second By brian glanz

Peace only exists if it is individual, so it is a personal responsibility to find peace within ourselves for the sake of others and oneself.

This is actual, a repetitive aspect of each person because that is the way we produce judgments based on memories and experience. Each vision has a certain truth and falsity in it, why? The further you are from a certain vision, the less you are likely to agree with it. It is as is if the agreement with a position depends on your understanding of what the other’s perspective is, and the more compare and ask questions that deepens the perspective, then you are likely to disagree with it.

Why is this important? Why should we recognize the truth in others vision? Well, because their vision if written or if the person is alive creates action, an activity that comes directly from a vision. It is easier to say… Well, he is wrong. I do not care…

Instead of actually understanding why he says what he says. What do I mean to understand what he says?

I mean to actually SEE through his EYES. This is real compassion, not a sense of pity, but love. The greatest love is the one that cares about the other’s perspective, instead of violently rejecting it. To see the past within that perspective, the experiences, and their “logic”, so there is no violence when you decide to set apart from this perspective/beliefs.

What is the objective? To recreate his ‘ambience’ to actually see why he or she is so stubborn with a certain position, then to ask what is the ‘truth’ he so desperately lingers on, so you can see the “why”. If you are able to see his perspective from its core, then the way you disagree with him will not be violent. It is an awareness of the other, not a categorical rejection due to the fact that his “beliefs” will produce actual action that affects you.  Thus, this awareness will not threaten your ‘ideas’ that provide you a ‘false’ sense of security.

What do I mean with a false sense of security? Beliefs give psychological security, not actual security. You can believe you have a home, but that is not an actual reality unless in that moment are at your home. There is a lot of depth here, but will not explore it due to the topic. The way beliefs work within a conceptual framework, not an actual experience unless you are being aware of the belief of your belief as an experience…

Therefore, you now can be comfortable with the fact that you can be right and wrong depending the perspective, and in that moment peace is given a real chance because there is understanding of the other and yourself.

Why yourself? To understand others is to understand yourself, and viceversa because the other influences your position and the understanding of his position will make you understand better your position (right, wrong or/and both), understanding does not judge because it adds to your comparison, but doubting does divide when comparing because it separates you from the observed. Doubt me, but after understanding me? Maybe… Can we actually understand others? Could be? Think about it!

We act as if peace was an exterior result, but in actuality it is an interior thing that produces consequences that can be seen as peace. However, if countries are peaceful, but people are violent… peace is an illusion.

So, we need peace as an interior result; so we can understand others’positions instead of being intolerant to what others have to say.

Yes, people might be wrong, right or right and wrong, but to find and live peace it is not about who is wrong and who is right, but how much do I understand others, so I don’t take their beliefs as a threat to my beliefs.

There are two important aspects here:

01The capacity to listen what you don’t want to listen because it threatens your stubborn beliefs.

02The capacity to understand the other’s perspective until you make the other’s perspective yours.

I am not saying that by doing this you will be convinced with his opinion or you that should believe the other’s opinion, instead within this act of love you are able to see through his eyes, and then see the big picture, what he is not able to see, and walk away.

However, you will be different because you have just discovered a new perspective you didn’t want to hear, the fact that you were able to be the other will change you, and then to see the limits of his vision as you lived his vision will transform you as you love deeply.

You will not see your own limits, unless you dare to go within the perspectives you most reject.

If the person who you just understood would see your vision, would he change his perspective? Maybe… Will you change your perspective a little after seeing through his eyes? Yes, you might not think/believe as the perspective you absorbed, but you will see things you weren’t able to see before.

This includes trying to see my perspective, and at the same time doubting my position, both acts are important… But most important is: Peace. Is it? Why?

Photo Credit: Hamid Najafi

To be self confident you need to believe in yourself. You must be aware you may make mistakes. However, you must also be aware that those errors will make you become a better person. After each mistake, you must embrace change with happiness because you have been given the opportunity to overcome something and grow internally.

We cannot continue this path of thought where libertinism means to be free. It is a path of self destruction. You can only be free within yourself, and in fact the less your freedom depends on others, the freer you will actually be. Why? It does not depend on your ability to perceive, but in the actual freedom, the truth behind your conceptions.

Yet, you’ve got to understand why by yourself. Although it may sound contradictory, we cannot force others comply with our points of view because that means there is no freedom, but we cannot live as if freedom means to do whatever you want with no consequences.

We cannot leave everything in hands of our government and its policies because as stated above… It will all depend on points of view that will only lead you into a ‘political’ trap: communism, marxism, socialism, capitalism or whatever ‘ism’ is not the ‘ideal way’. There is no such thing as an ideal or perfect way. We can only learn and try to find your ‘middle way’: the path of love or at least your happiness and peace.

How to do it? It is really difficult to deal with short thinking, blinded, and stubborn people who think their ‘truth’ is the only one. Yet, we must be aware of something: Nothing is forever. No one lives forever. They can live all their lives like that, let them be…

Our job is not to make them understand what is “right” for them because if you try to impose them what you think is “right” for them, then there will be no difference between them and you.

However, we can open the minds of our new generations, so they may walk the ‘unforeseen’ path and reach that world of progress, respect, love, and peace we all should linger for until it becomes our reality.

We should be out there working for a better ourselves, not for a better political system because at the end those systems are a reflection of ourselves. Although, it may be important to give a sense of reality to those who ‘have the power’ we must not be completely focused in that. Politics is a game where there is no loser or winner. It is a game where there is a positive aftermath or a negative aftermath, and we all will receive the consequences, not only the ‘winner or loser’.  Some people love the game, let them. Don’t fight true battles by confronting and killing the opponent directly.

So, let it be a game without forgetting that there are a lot of things more important beyond the ‘game’ like changing humanity by being an example of love and positive self-esteem, and as a consequence there will be a change in politics. You do not need to confront someone to make a change; you can do it quietly through a simple and definite way: BY YOUR EXAMPLE!

For example, Gandhi showed another way, by which he changed indirectly the politicians though the way of non-resistance. This way hides a deeper aspect of letting things go without moving your finger from the point/truth.  Why? The truth cannot be hidden. It is a matter of time for it to shine so bright it will make everyone who is not prepared blind. This way does not mean to go a let yourself be beaten to make your point be understood, actually, it states: Forget about direct confrontation through violence! Use your imagination to make your point be heard.

Gandhi used several techniques though his life, one of those implied beating, another starving to death, yet these times require not to repeat what has been done in the past…

Instead, it is time to use the deep truth beyond those ideas to provoke change and make them shine. How?  Challenge yourself!

• Challenge yourself by questioning your own arguments if you love writing,
• Create a civil society if you are very good with your social skills,
• Write songs or paint to bring consciousness if you are great at the arts,
• Use copy-left licenses, so more people can be affected by your skills,
• Use any other kind of skill you have…
• Challenge the ordinary and make a change!

Feel confident about yourself and what you do. Surely you will make mistakes, we all do, but if there is an honest and unselfish intention behind everything you do, then you will feel great about yourself! Give it a try!  Do it! The sky is not the limit! There is so much more, so unknown to humankind! Remember, this is a very long trip, but the most satisfactory. There will be moments of total despair, but at the end although, I may always be wrong…

The truth will always prevail!

What will we be tomorrow?

If things have changed, they can change again. Pretty convinced things won’t change? Ask those who banned Galileo… They surely will be on your favor.

So, what we now call miracles will some day be explained, and we will be living them constantly because we will be able to repeat them consciously, through the scientific method.

It is miracle if you wish to look at a natural occurrence as a rare one. It is a miracle if your soul admires completely the lived.

“According to many religions, a miracle, derived from the old Latin word miraculum meaning ‘something wonderful’, is a striking interposition of divine intervention by God in the universe by which the ordinary course and operation of Nature is overruled, suspended, or modified.”1

However, miracles are created by the eye of the beholder… Do you believe in the impossible?

Then, it shall occur because that perspective will change the way you look at the world.

Isn’t it a miracle we can have such a developed understanding of our surroundings we can read this on the Internet with a computer?

Les make an example about persepctives:
First concept: Olives.
Concept’s attributes: Bad, slimy, and ugly.
Consequence: I don’t interact with olives.

Why is it important to understand the influence of concepts in our daily lives?

Imagine…

I have been told olives are bad, slimy, and ugly. So, I never eat olives. Or once, as a child I ate a rotten olive. So, I never taste another olive in my life.

For a strange reason, I see my best friend indulge those olives, so I decide to try them again. I love them after that.

Why did a concept (the idea) stop me from enjoying olives? Yes, but concepts can also save us from a bitter experience.

However, how many concepts have been induced, and never really confronted by us? How many concepts do we really know we have? How many concepts have been questioned by you before establishing as a truth?

How many concepts produce fights and many deaths?
How many concepts produce peace and truthful freedom?

Concepts can act in several ways:

• Limiting our forms of communication (If thought is established as the producer of all sorts of communications)
• Establishing a determined pattern by which we can communicate

What type of communication are we talking about? Thought produces or beyond thought produced?

If we analyze the concepts that damage us, and those that help us we can begin to understand the influence of others on us. We can stop being what others say we are, but to analyze who we really are by oneself. That way concepts can become a way to communicate, but not a limit that doesn’t permit communication.

…The Eye of the Beholder can change it all…

Photo Credit: By alicepopkorn