War

During the Cuban missile crisis the White House received 2 conflicting cables from Moscow. One was a softer message and the other a hard line message. The former US ambassador to Moscow correctly identified to JFK which was the one that Nikita Khruschev actually intended to send, and it was this:

"You and we ought not to pull on two ends of a rope, on which is tied the knot of war. If we were to pull on that rope, it would grow so tight as to necessitate cutting, and it is not for me to explain to you what that would mean...War would not end until it had sown destruction in our villages and our towns and our cities. For such is the logic of war..."

Khruschev did not want mutually assured destruction. He wanted to be known as the savior of the Cuban people, as the man who looked the US in the eye and had the wisdom to say no. Castro on the other hand, in conversation with Robert McNamara decades later, said he was mentally prepared and agreeable to war, even though it would mean the assured annihilation of Cuba.

What is the lesson of this? Men who have empire and have had their fill will seek to avoid war. But men who are lords of a small pond will sometimes pursue immortality in memory by any means. Such is human nature. The more important point is that if Castro were in Khrushchev's position with Khrushchev's life experience, Castro may well have made a decision similar to Khrushchev. In the end, we are all slaves to our nature until we can get to our higher nature as habit. Some people have to forced to that, but the best of us are the ones who come to it of their own volition. Not because it will advance them, but because it is a worthy goal in and of itself.

Purpose

We are all flawed and finite beings, but we are capable of extraordinary things when we are doing what we believe is aligned with our sense of purpose. This is what makes awareness, real awareness, of one's purpose so very powerful.

Dreams and Purpose

Everyone has dreams; but that is never enough. The question is how feverishly your dream has taken hold of your self. How uncontrollably it swirls and shakes within your frame and threatens to burst from under your skin.

When one finds others who are so possessed, it should be the human obligation to aid that dreamer's journey and joyous struggle from fantasy to reality.

For what we have become is what the world expected of us, but what we seek to become, is what our sense of purpose expects from us.

And no one knows who gives us our sense of purpose. May be it was God stamping it on us as we were born, maybe it was the Universe, may be its just a roulette wheel in the sky; but purpose is undeniably and powerfully present, and as men driven to purpose, we cannot ignore it.

I do not purport to understand the world or people, both are too complicated for a single mind to comprehend with any measure of real understanding. God, on the other hand, I find decidedly simpler. Give Him all of you, the whole illusion bundled up, and you will receive all of eternity and God in return. 

Vision

This is the thing about vision. It does not, like greatness, diminsh with sharing. It only grows, infects and becomes larger than the person it comes from. Vision coupled with humility coupled with guts and the unwavering dint to make your vision a reality provides the fuel needed to work your ass off, and then some. Without vision and the guts and willingness to make effort we are nothing. And without humility there can be no wisdom.

Apathy

Apathy: there is a great danger in becoming so apathetic that you start feeling like the voice in your own head is one to be treated with apathy. Do not ever tread too far down this slippery slope, it will ruin you like a temptress that seduces you before devouring you.

'Let not your heart be faint, but like the sea be broad and deep...the world, not knowing you cannot contain you, but you knowing the world, can contain it.' Thus spoke Mirdad and thus wrote Naimy

Jealousy

Jealousy is the worst form of self-pity; and self-pity, in its best form does nothing but degrade the mind and burden the spirit.

Ego is the surest way of ensuring shallowness of being

There are significant parts of commerce and law that owe their existence to man's capacity for evil, and thus to the believability of such evil terrifyingly fructifying. Thus do we, working in such parts of the commerce and legal industries, owe our livlihood - so ironically, to the capacity for evil inherent in ourselves and our fellow men and women.

If you are comfortable being complacent, you're better off dead.

All the knowledge and expertise in the world will do you no good unless you are willing and able to execute decisively.

The material manifestation of the soul or spirit is life. If the soul is what animates life, one should be open to saying that the soul too, is a form of energy, but energy driven by an imperceived force, and not some man made force.

One may then say that life exists in various states throughout its state of existence. That is to say 'exists' apart from the actual force that actually determined the state in which it exists from time to time, be it termed 'God', the 'Divine', the 'Ultimate Force' or what have you.

Then assume that the two extremes of a life's state of existence are true order and true chaos. 'True' is used to denote the extreme states, rather than words such as 'complete', 'perfect' or 'utter', because the intention is simply to communicate that the two extreme states of existence are exact opposites of one another.

Now if the two extremes of existence are order and chaos, then mathematically one might say that order is a function of chaos, and that chaos is a function of order. In saying so one is simply saying that order and chaos are linked, in that order can be expressed in terms of chaos, and chaos can be expressed in terms of order.

The above can be notationally written as: Order = f(Chaos), and that Chaos = f(Order).

However, the above itself quite clearly does not imply that Order = Chaos. Yet, if we are to believe, through faith, whether in religeon or in science, that the total amount of energy in the universe is held in a balanced manifestation of order and chaos at different times by some unifying, ordering force; then perhaps we can also believe that that unifying force must somehow also be explicable. It appears that that is the quest of all science. To be able to explain everything - to be able to bridge Order = f(Chaos) with Chaos = f(Order), such that Order = Chaos then holds true to the mind.

That such a transformative condition exists may be accepted simply by believing in the notion that there is indeed some unifying force in Nature that binds all things, the energy of all things, inextricably, elegantly and harmoniously together. But perhaps the explanation , the look, the conception, the comprehension of this force, this ultimate energy, is something not destined for the mind - simply because it transcends and is greater than the spectrum the mind may witness and comprehend, and hence understand; and so because the spectrum the mind may take cognizance of is encompassed within the larger spectrum of this ultimate unifying energy.

So the question is: What can we to do, what are we to do; what must we do, to witness and understand that force, that energy, that animates all life and binds it harmoniously, incongrously, together?

There are many banes of humanity - greed, lust, anger, and the others. But the greatest one of all, the one that can, depending on the response to it, lay waste or inspire wonder, is boredom.

In managing, always seek to keep those you manage constructively engaged.

What on earth are passions, feelings and emotions for but to make us ever more perceptive of ourselves? Of these perhaps the greatest friend and foe is passion. It is entirely capable of being both the vehicle of our aspiration and the tool that sets our hand to actually fructify all that makes mankind good, and the beast that offers safe harbour to all that may be and is blackened in our hearts.

Passsion can elevate man to be the master of all good things, and it can subjugate him into servitude to its dark desires.

What then can man do to enable himself to become a vessel capable of harbouring and harnessing passions that elevate, and fortify himself against those that subjucate?

The answer lies within man. For eternity it has and will lay within him, placed there by the one who is the answer.

iRONY: That it is the passions of man that are at once his greatest strengths and weaknesses. Underlying the capacity for passion in each one of us is the capacity to beleive ferverently in a particular goal, and it is the nature of the goal that determines how productive or destructive our passions may be toward us.

Now that we are in the information age, the maxim 'knowledge is power' holds true more than ever. However, it may be pertinent to add the following to it: "Though knowledge is power, it is a necessary precondition to partake in experiencing its truth, that one understands what knowledge can or does lead to what power. If we do not take the time to do so, we would (as some do) blindly seek power without understanding the import of what we are seeking, and what the effect of such blind seeking may have upon our spirit and upon the spirit of those around us, especially the ones we love and truly care about.

There is nothing that unites people with solidarity more than the threat of being smitten by a common foe. But what if the foe were imperceptible? Invisible not only to the eyes, but to the mind? Visible only to the spirit of man, and then too only through the pain felt in the spirit upon that foe's infections paining us and robbing us of peace within us. What then?

The governments of this world seek to protect their contries and terrotory by investing in defensive technology. They believe that having the best hardware and practising the best tactics, and most importantly, being forever in a state of battle readiness, is the best way to defend against any foe. To defend what? Their way of life, their beleifs, their values, and ultimately, the hapiness that adherance to such things brings to them and their people. In doing that we are all in agreement with the mystic way.

For mystics will also tell you that we are all the victims of a common foe; and that we all must also practice the best tactics, and forever be in state of constant battle readiness, if we are to succeed against that common foe: our own selfish desires.

Is not the quality of the peace within you more important than the quality of the stimulation that your senses receive?

In life, our objective and purpose should be to wholistically sharpen our minds and intellects, side by side with the bettering of our health and bodies, so that we can become holistically intelligent beings in able bodies. The purpose of such is the pursuit of mental clarity. A sharpened and keen mind is one that questions and seeks to understand the nature of things, that asks what is it that allows such and such to function, and then questions and seeks to understand how somehting may be improved, or bettered. Always, its objective is to understand purpose.

Anything that detracts from such an objective should be avoided. But to say so is to preach a path wiothout cognizance of the human condition; of temptation, and more importantly, of the need for balance. One cannot rigidly avoid all things that do not sharpen the mind or better the body; for that is to beleive that we do not require deliverance from temptation. It is far better, more realistic, and ultimately more prudent, to actively seek to balance the pursuit of a sound and keen intellect and body, with the pursuit of pleasure that gives expression to the lower senses and desires of mankind. It is only when the former is acheived in a balanced fashion that the spirit of us is nurtured in a beneficial way, such that its nourishment leads us to desire that which elevates the intellect and perceptive quality of our senses, far more than the sensual pleasures that allow expression to our lower senses and carnal desires.

Ultimately, it is the outweighing of the desire for the indescripable pleasure one gains from perceiving life with clarity, that will annihilate the desire for descripable pleasure.

There will always be times during the earthly sojourn when your spirit will feel as thought it has been at ebb for far too long to even know the glint of promise that opportunity brings, such that you would know that this is what will provide you satisfaction for the spirit. At such times you must not give in to the temptation to indulging in self pity, for self pity, even at the worst of times, is a sin. It is a sin because it debases in your mind's eye the worth of your true self, your spirit. Each and every one's spirit is worth more than they imagine, and it is unbecoming of us as human beings to allow ourselves to believe that we are not worthy of holding ourselves in high esteem. Never fear failure and never fear not being good enough. Have faith in yourself and take the time to realise what it is that moves you, and work towards bringing about a situation in life whereby you are able to do that which moves you.

What you will find is that regardless of what it is you decide moves you, it will always involve some measure of concentration in order to bring about accomplishment. Be it videogaming or be it being a trial lawyer. Concentration is key to mastery.

That brings us to the next point, when we are desperate for money, we will seek to do anything, and we will concentrate very well upon it for the duration that we are desperate. But outside that realm, if the task we have engaged in soes not move us, we will grow weary and ill of it, and seek satisfaction elsewhere for creative expression. Hence, the ideal work for us is that which allows us to concentrate effortlessly. Effortless concentration is the best kind of concentration.

Effortless concentration cannot be had unless you have reached the stage of effortless concentration by engaging in persuaded concentration, i.e. concentration where you have persuaded the mind to focus. The only time the mind does not want to focus willingly is when there lies a hurdle, or problem before it. It is only in such cases that we are loathe to walk on, and in such cases that, if we feel that the effort required to surpass the hurdle is outweighed by the benefit of the goal beyond the hurdle, that we walk on. It is this walking on that entails persuading the mind to concentrate, and that is something nearly all of us must have done.

Once we have done that and dedicated ourselves to a worthy goal, by and by we find that concentrated effort is what brings us hapiness. It is the effort and not so much the acheivement of the goal that brings us hapiness; certainly that is the case in so far as our day to day hapiness and contentment are concerned.

Creativity, in its rawest and purest forms comes in times when we are engaged in the creative process to the extent of being unaware of our selves. That expresses an interesting fact about the manner in which human beings create: Creativity is something that we, no matter how much we believe ourselves capable, are utterly incapable of commanding at will. Anyone who ever felt the need for a muse, for inspiration, would know. The other thing about creativity is that its companion is emotion. Our greatest moments of creativity and expression often take us by surprise, because they often come to us at times when we have entered into a state of heightened emotion, and are as such, are not really contemplating or thinking about 'being creative', just feeling the emotion. Therein lies point number three: The worth of creative expression, be it art, music, writing, or even just the verbal communication of an idea, always comes down to the ability of that expression to evoke an emotional response, a feeling, in both the creator and the one witnessing/listening/reading the expression.

Creative expression, even if it be only a mental formation of an idea or vision, is not a futile expression if it acheives feeling in any measure for either the creator or the person who perceives and cognitively processes that expression. This is because creativity is something that comes to us, it is not something we call up. To be creative is the opposite of being destructive. And if you agree with that, then you may also agree that to be creative, by virtue of being the opposite of being destructive, implies being good, and not evil.

This is not to say that if you are good you will be creative, in the same way that while a square is a rectangle, a rectangle is not a square. Goodness is the foundation of creativity. And that much is enough to actually render every human being a creative entity, in so far as we are all capable of appreciating that which moves us. So be happy in knowing that you are capable of smelling the flowers, thinking of a song to sing to your woman, and making her breakfast. That, my friend, is creative, and more so if you mean it. For creativity loves no emotion more than love. When love renders us ecstatic, creativity is there to aid our expression, as it is when we are pained by love.