Order, Chaos and Control (continued...)

Order, Chaos and Control (continued...)


The two points of views are drastically different……so different are they that a mere inception (a deep conscious and subconscious acceptance as the truth, the obvious reality) of the second organic view point has the capacity to drastically alter the life perceptions instantaneously.

It is quite (the second organic view point) contrary to our routine belief which is mostly agnostic (inability to interpret sensations and hence to recognize things) and somnolent (sleep of intelligible mind) in regards to clearly identifying “Us”.
The quintessential “who am I?”, “what is the purpose and nature of this universe?” are viewed plainly as futile psychological abstractions in the face of more pressing realities of earning the daily bread and paying the monthly bill.
But for what? if only one may pause for a moment and ask himself.

For what am I earning the daily bread and paying the monthly bill?

To continue doing the same for another month, year or a lifetime (till death comes and presses the stop button of this mundane drag that we call life) ?

The infinitely brilliant orchestration of unimaginable number of events that took place from the big bang (13.8 billion years ago) forwards till this date to bring this Me into being in this here and now was for this?? (earning the daily bread and paying the monthly bill)???

It seems like a crazy universe that after so much deliberation in creation has ended up creating a creature that spends his early years preparing, for earning a bread (so called schooling and higher education), then is spent during his most productive years running from pillar to post actually earning the bread only to be finally awaiting his turn to part from this planet still worrying about the bread as long as he is alive.

(The bread here signifies not just food or basic necessities but also the insatiable list of desires that continuously haunt our being)
Or is it that the creature has got it all mixed up and wrong??

Could it be that the human being is missing the obvious amidst the deafening clamor of the so called necessity??

Could it be that the obvious is hidden from the plain site because of its being so blatantly obvious??

There is nothing wrong with driving a Ferrari at 20 kmph in busy traffic conditions but it certainly is madness to believe that the Ferrari can do only 20kmph because you have been driving it at that speed only (maybe because of the traffic conditions you are subjecting it to)

Similarly there is nothing wrong with earning the daily bread and paying the monthly bill but it is nothing short of insanity to believe that it is the finality of life.

So what exactly is the finality of life??

Though a good question it does not have a singular answer.

And Abraham Maslow explains it quite well as to why is it so



Maslow stratifies human beings depending upon their principal needs and desires i.e. from plain physiological and biological to more moral and spiritual. A persons chief or most pressing or most important need or desire puts him in a certain strata of Maslow's pyramid as follows.

1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, freedom from fear.

3. Social Needs - belongingness, affection and love, - from work group, family, friends, romantic relationships.

4. Esteem needs - achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, self-respect, respect from others.

5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

So the answer to this question (of the finality of life) varies from person to person depending upon where exactly is he located in the Maslow’s pyramid.
To each according to his own capacity, moving into the next strata of the pyramid seems like the finality.

Maslow states “One must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization.”

And he defines self actualization as “realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.”

And this is where we begin, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

Our questioning of the finality in (of) life arises from the pinnacle of Maslow’s pyramid and takes us beyond. Metaphorically it frees us from the geometric confines of name and form identities of the limited mind (like the confines of the Maslow’s pyramid) and expands us in the domain of nameless and formless infinity.

Order, Chaos and Control

Order, Chaos and Control

The universe it seems loves contrasts and very tightly intertwines polarities be it an atom with electrons, protons and neutrons or be it galaxies, stars and the planetary systems within them, tightly strung (to perfection like guitar strings) by the opposing forces of gravity and centrifugal force. On one hand chemistry via its laws of thermodynamics observes that "the second law of thermodynamics says that entropy always increases with time".
Entropy being defined as “often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system”.

Implying that with time disorderliness should increase within any system unless acted upon by an external agent
but the contrary is true for our universe which seems to be becoming more and more organized with time. From the chaotic soup of nebulous gases to stars, galaxies and planets and then from chemicals to life forms (the seemingly dead chemicals aggregating themselves in remarkably calculated proportions with a rather unimaginable synchronicity to become alive) single cellular, to multi cellular, to amphibians, to reptiles, birds, mammals and finally the one who is reading this on his/her computer screen. A long journey of continuous refinement is before us. The inability to see the activity of an immense rather infinite intelligence to change the gaseous nebulae and star dust into us requires tremendous depth of agnosia (inability to interpret sensations and hence to recognize things) and somnolence (sleep of intelligible mind).
This infinite intelligence that has brought us forth to being from the intangible big bang has constantly used opposing forces to shape this universe as it is.
And it would do us good to see ourselves NOT in the universe but as the extensions of universe itself (as that is the only case anyways). How can we be “in the universe”???
Are we like live fishes dropped into a dead and unintelligent aquarium of universe from outside ?? (and if so how?, who did it?)
Or
Are we like the fruit that emerges from the slow, extremely orchestrated and a highly organized growth process of a seed(again paradoxically containing the seed within)
The two points of views are drastically different……so different are they that a mere inception (a deep conscious and subconscious acceptance as the truth, the obvious reality) of the second organic view point has the capacity to drastically alter the life perceptions instantaneously.
To be continued.....

Work Life Balance Continued

Work Life Balance
Continued

In the comments section my friend expresses his concern about the ongoing topic of discussion that is “work life balance”. Of the many words he uses I have singled out a line that is of deep significance …..
“The lower n middle level management guys can only dream of a day when they actually get to live a day without some part of their mind constantly engrossed in work related thoughts.”

This is deeply significant ……the words highlighted as bold appear exactly in the middle of the paragraph and these lines are almost a watershed gate between two distinct thought patterns arising within the paragraph.

The first half comprises of denial (that it is impossible to achieve the balance at his current position, maybe at too junior or too senior a position but not exactly where he is)

The second half comprises of justification as to why it is so. The justification arrives immediately after the “their mind constantly engrossed in work related thoughts.” Line, with evidence being bolstered up from outside world reality.
This whole paragraph shows 2 things

1> That at some deep and subconscious level my friend is aware of the fact that most of what we call and perceive as reality is nothing but a thought process in our head (evidenced by those highlighted lines)

2> But this awareness of the power of his own mind to alter the perceptions of reality is buried out of reach under denial and forcibly locked away out of reach by the lock of justifications.

So the question arises “what can be done about it?”

And at this juncture it would be prudent to differentiate the approach or point of view towards life between the “linear – algorithmic” version and the “The urban ascetic version”.

The “linear – algorithmic” version is more chemical (chemistry intended/implied), the “The urban ascetic version” is Alchemical.
The “linear – algorithmic” version attempts to react with the surroundings, preserve itself as it is and alter the other (people, conditions, environment, and situations) it continuously perceives threat from the environment and remains skeptical and rueful about it.

“The urban ascetic version” on the other hand perceives people, conditions, environment, and situations as agents of self-transformation. It responds to all these external agents with respect and inner gratitude for they show him his own deficiencies and hence his own possibilities (post transformation).
So it is with the current topic of work life balance. When one has turned his attention inwards so much so that now no person, no condition, no environment, and no situation is deemed too overpowering or held as an object of blame he is ready for the new point of view.
And it is quite simple …….. comprising of “Mental (non) exercise”, “psychological dieting” and “Mental Hygiene”…….

“Mental Hygiene” is very analogous to the shoe rack at home i.e. we have footwear parked upon it to be worn when we go outside the house and when we come in we put that outside footwear on it and put on the home footwear. Similarly the term “Mental Hygiene” implies the shoe rack of alertness that reminds you that when at home there is no necessity to keep wearing the office thoughts and when leaving for office leave the home thought footwear at home to be picked up upon return.
Of course one would argue about the necessity of ruminating work related thoughts all through the day bolstering evidences from various situations, but if you see it clearly it would be obvious that this necessity arises from a background emotion of fear and hence attempt to control the events.
So herein comes the concept of “psychological dieting”………. Being choosy and frugal about what one thinks. No more junk thinking anything and everything that’s on the news or is happening on the planet restrain yourself to things that actually affect you and are in your control and capacity to bring about a change (your opinion about the war in crimea does not change the situation there nor are the Russians and Ukrainians bothered about it), no more binge of repetitive thought patterns. Just like the dieting with food this is an alert commitment to keeping the number of thoughts to the lowest calorie count possible. Approaching any situation with minimal, simple and effective number of thoughts.

Nice suggestion, but I am a “thought junkie” addicted to this habit of constant and excessive thinking …….

Hence finally the concept of “Mental (non) exercise” unlike the previous two concepts which were almost analogous to their physical counterparts this is almost opposite. This exercise is a sort of non exercise,it requires of you to get off your treadmill of thoughts. It requires one to willingly and with alertness shift his attention from abstractions of thoughts to the more real and organic reality of his breath or heart beat. No need to be hung up in the head all the time there are other body parts too. Be focused upon the beats of your heart, the coming and going of breaths, the tingling aliveness in your palms and feet one at a time.
As it is with the weight reduction and dieting programs to begin with everybody wants a magic pill or a onetime surgery that solves all the problems once and for all without changing our own behavior patterns and dietary habits…….but sooner or later when the determination for change dawns it becomes obvious that all the things that are worthwhile in life are a process requiring a change at the most fundamental level and that is oneself.
“The Urban ascetic” point of view towards things is fundamental too and hence it attempts its alchemy at you rather than reacting with the situation you present.

Work Life Balance

Work Life Balance

The first suggestion received to be subjected to “The Urban Ascetic” view point is from a friend. Let’s discuss “work life balance” (the exact text that he sent). Obvious in these 3 lines is the underlying premise of the questioning or the core belief from which this question has arisen…………
And that is ……..work and life are two different things. So different and in opposition to each other that a balance needs to be struck. Else work may take over life or vice versa life may take over work…….
Life may take over work…….wait a minute …what does that mean?......

The subtle nuances of the mind and the various undercurrents that make it up become obvious only when a word by word dissection of a sentence is done along with the understanding of the underlying implication of each one of those words.
The seemingly innocuous “work life balance” actually implies something very deep operating within each of us i.e. the ego based construct of reality.

Ego implies resistance. Resistance to what is …..Is ego. Of course none of us were born with it. It was gradually implanted within us because of the interplay of two factors.

1> We were very naïve then (as children) and never crosschecked or introspected whatever thought and believes were being dumped upon us. We just assumed them to be the finality because most of them were given to us by people in position of authority in our lives.

2> People in position of authority in our live (and the entire society in general so to say) are/were themselves a part of ego based construct of reality so they themselves did not have anything better to offer.

And once created this ego has stayed with us only because of a singular reason
1 > our unwillingness to check its validity/reality.

And in essence that is exactly what we are attempting to do here. Just checking and trying to ascertain if our current view point of life serves us well or can we try something new ??.

A child is asked to resist failure or poor ranks (inspired to get better grades and leave the rest behind), he is expected to resist his natural inclinations towards play and experimentation (and conform to the prescribed syllabus and time table), he is repeatedly reminded that he as himself is not enough its only when he gets this degree or that job ,that pay check or position (via both subtle and overt programming) he would amount to something……
And it is via these and many many more implanted ideologies of resistance to what is and a sense of not being enough and hence continuously attempting to beautify and glorify the abstract ideological superstructure imposed upon him that the ego is born.
The life blood of ego are two things

1> Resistance to what is (it is an insurance into having a constant and permanent enemy)

2> A constant feeling of “not enough-ness” the need to do something about “what is” to fix it, to make it better because egos premise is that “what is” is never enough it needs to be beautified and glorified with something else, some effort to make it better.

The simple and innocuous 3 liner of “work life balance” has both its egoic components.

1> Choose either work or any other area of life the ego has already created a polarity and will resist whatever it is you do. It has created its constant enemies i.e. if you work it will say you are neglecting your life you are letting the beauty of love and relations be lost in the daily grind of the mundane (it will become a philosopher then). And if you choose to take it easy and be a little laid back the ego will admonish you saying that you are lazy, incompetent, a coward who is hiding behind the family excuse because he is not capable enough to keep up with the competition (it becomes your boss cum pseudo-motivator then).

2> A constant feeling of “not enough-ness” has easily been accomplished now. Since, if you work you will be reminded of loses of precious time and memories at family front and if you take it easy you shall be reminded of how far you could you could have gone and how much more you could have accomplished just like the others (who of course are dumber than you, already have)

It is egos catch 22…………

Who is he?

The Urban Ascetic

Who is he?

He sits beside you , works with you, laughs with you, faces similar trials and tribulations, applauses and allegations, and shares the same physical time-space-reality as yours but a gaze into his eyes would let you know he is in a universe apart………….
His own mind is the jungle, his commitment to himself to finding his own depth, his own self is his sanyas (renunciation), he bears through the emotional weather changes and storms(within him) undeterred, he is continuously attempting to scale and go beyond the mountains of limitations and comfort zones to discover his ever expanding greater self, his refuge is the cave of his belief in himself, his interactions with people give them a glimpse of their own power and capacity, his response to situations illumines the circumstances with love and bliss, he is the self-full ,so merged with the self that the others who perceive him call him selfless.

What is it about?

What is it about?

Like the colors of the rainbow as violet cannot be termed to be more correct than blue and as orange cannot be deemed more optimal than red “The urban ascetic” is one of the multitudes of rainbow color point of views of life.
Yes one can have a preference or affinity for one color greater than the other colors but that does not make the other colors wrong or incorrect or inferior etc they just are……..
And so it is with point of view it just is. If you like it use it, if you don’t then just forget about it and move on.
In our current times there is this tendency towards a linear approach to life where almost everything can be fit into an “if-then-else” kind of an algorithm. Without any negativity pertaining to it or an intention of correcting it (because your love for color blue does not imply your desire to eliminate or “correct” all the other colors it’s just a personal preference) what is being done here Is a gentle proposition of a different point of view towards self and life as a whole.
A more organic perspective of life with a much much lesser emphasis on knowing and more so upon feeling and experiencing.
Knowledge is like a seed it requires the right soil and a multitude of correct conditions to take hold to germinate. Feelings and emotions on the other hand are like saplings and plants (may be even trees depending entirely upon their depth and intensity) within us. They already have a foot hold in our being and are more real to us than any word or statement or assertion.

The urban ascetic’s point of view is multidimensional instead of being linear ……….it’s kind of hard to make sense of as it does not comply with the sensibility of the current simplistic and effective linear “if-then-else” algorithmic point of view.
But is worth looking into as it is not a generic “one size fits all” point of view but a very specific “tailor made to your measurement” point of view. ……….

And herein lays its boon as well as its bane. The boon it offers is a more congenial, a more pleasant, friendly and enjoyable psychological milieu to the individual within himself. A sort of portable “emotional-psychological resort cum retreat” goes with you where ever you go……. A personal portable heaven.

But its bane is its specificity itself …….its “tailor made to your measurement” nature implies your active participation and we have become so used to the “ready to use” , “ the instantaneous”, “the immediate” that the concept of slow organic growth out of which we all and all that is has emerged has become alien to us.
This point of view begins at you, proceeds with you until it has become you.
And so it begins where you are (no matter what that place is)……..by asking you “what is it that you want?” and immediately supplements it with a “why?” i.e. “why do you want whatever it is that you want?”

Answer by answer, thing by thing, person by person, place by place, position by position, situation by situation, layer by layer with your honest and untiring participation it relentlessly keeps asking you “but why do you want it?” until it has cornered you to make you understand, feel and clearly see the point in its next question that is

“What is it that you want to feel in the having of that particular person, position, thing, situation etc …?”

And once one can develop the patience, persistence and stamina to reach up to this question to an extent that this question becomes as pertinent to him/her as the person, position, thing, situation etc that incited this process in the first place he/she has become ready to begin the journey.

The journey of life as “The Urban Ascetic”

THE URBAN ASCETIC SERIES

THE URBAN ASCETIC SERIES

A Happy Birth Day

A Happy Birth Day

At times in life we get so caught up with the specifics of our life situation that the perspective of life itself starts to slip away from our sight. It’s almost like driving in the rush hour…..we get “zombiefied” ….. totally forgetting “why we got in the car?” , “where are we actually headed?” etc we get so consumed by the thought of overtaking this car right in front of us and drifting into the relatively faster moving lane of traffic that the drive becomes an anxiety filled cumbersome drag.
…………….And so we got into the car of life NOT to reach the destination of death cursing the drivers (fellow human beings) along the way, cribbing over situations and circumstances that surround us, dreaming and hallucinating about a utopian future that is just around the corner but never actually comes…….
We got into the car of life for the fun of the ride …..yeah fun of the ride and nothing else…..

What else could it be???

Located in a 13.8 billion year old universe with roughly 200 billion galaxies in the visible universe with each galaxy containing roughly upwards of 400 billion stars. Out in such vastness of the visible universe amidst this colossal numeric aggregation of galaxies is the one we choose to name the Milky Way and contained within its insignificance amidst 400 billion other stars is the one we choose to call the Sun ,orbited by 8 other planets one of which is 4.54 Billion year old Earth. Earth …..home to approximately 5 million (estimated) different flora and fauna species (1.9million exactly identified) of which human beings are just one. And human beings too are roughly 7 billion in number currently, in this sea of exasperating numbers there is this individual you and me and this and that.

Do I really matter …..????

Well maybe not much in this colossal framework but certainly so in my world of much much much limited time, facts, figures and numbers. So the question is “from what perspective am I living my life?”. Is it my own personal perspective or a one I have been indoctrinated into by my socio-cultural environment? Does it feel good to me or am I just carrying it around because that is what was handed unto me and I never bothered to investigate it any further?
And I got an answer to it today…….
Today is my birthday and as the sun rose across the horizon one after the other calls, messages and posts began surrounding me more and more, it made me feel better and better each passing moment until finally an overwhelming sense of gratitude engulfed me. So many people gave their time, love and wishes to me and none of it was my doing ……..it was all freely and willfully given just like this life , air, water etc …..that life had happened to me and was lovingly taking care of me and that I had become absent to this miracle.
That I had become “Zombiefied” in the pursuit of delusive tomorrows even as the grains of now and today slipped past my fingers…….
I had forgotten that I was here for the fun of the ride…….not to be, do or have anything at the cost of my feeling good.
Of course an argumentative mind can illustrate and elaborate the brilliance of effort and hard work etc and belittle the need to just feel good as wishy – washy nonsense but the abstractions of argument do not stand anywhere against the reality of feelings and emotions, nothing is more real and personal to an individual than his feelings and emotions…….logical arguments on the other hand most if not all are borrowed ideas from the collective socio-cultural conditioning. So “on the real barometric scale of emotions how do I measure up?” that is the perspective I am talking about ……..
Living a life of feeling good and doing Then whatever needs to be done instead of wasting the life in doing this or that, achieving that and more and continuously postponing the “feeling good” feeling until after this one thing and that one more accomplishment.
I got my perspective today and it is “I just want to feel good (like I did today) because feeling good feels so good”
Indeed it’s a very happy birth day ……a new perspective is a new person, a new me, a new you.

Anchored in this broad point of view of transience and ephemeral nature of things, conscious of the blessings bestowed by this infinite intelligence in the form of life and more, driven only by a sense of further expansion, feeling light, feeling blissful……. I shall glide across life moment to moment…..