The Consciousness Illusion

 

             

   

For a while now I have been concerned with how our world and values as modern humans are changing. We are way more fragile and entitled. While we think we are conscious and aware. Sometimes even worse, people are conscious but not necessarily aware, conscious but not healing, and conscious but not grounded. Modern life, technology and the recent psychedelic wave have provided us with unearned wisdom. I see many of us possess the knowledge but unable or unwilling to implement it within ourselves. Or there are those – the dangerous type - who are trying to use this social transcendence to change the world to attend to their fragility and entitlement.

True consciousness is aware, humble and resilient. It is being wise without arrogance, being gentle without weakness, and being determined without stubbornness. Real person to themselves they don’t care about labels or titles. They know what they have inside and they know that is all it matters. They have strong convictions for themselves but tolerant of the world. It is the sure-footedness that comes from having proved that we can meet life. Consciousness doesn’t advertise itself in social media, it doesn’t present itself only through meditation, psychedelic or even psychotherapy. It is a state of mind created through extensive experiences, through making mistakes and learning from them, which allows us to see inside us clearly, while a medium is just a tool.

The thing is, our modern life taught us immediate gratification. We require instant results through minimum effort, and we feel entitled to it. That doesn’t work when it comes to consciousness. No matter how old we are, we developed complicated psychological systems that took years to build up. Therefore, it is only fair to expect to spend equal time to understand them, decode them and then proceed with our consciousness journey. Similarly, we have to understand that consciousness is not the same as awareness, and awareness not the same as wisdom. To develop wisdom takes time; we start by being conscious, then aware and throughout the years of self-awareness and experiences we reach wisdom a little bit at a time. Being intelligent or smart doesn’t qualify a person to be self-aware or wise either, it could help in some cases – although usually, it complicates the process -  but it doesn’t mean it does give anyone an edge over the rest of people.

As Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Because when we are aware of what is within we can’t help but be aware of what is outside because we are part of one. Genuine self-awareness is essential because it teaches us how to be comfortable with our humanness, with our temporariness and our finiteness. If we think about it, that's exactly what is life all about. The integration of ourselves as part of the oneness of the universe, no shortcuts to that and no pretend. 

Daddy's Girl

 

                

We come to this life without a choice, we don’t choose our family, genetics nor our destiny. It feels like a lottery and that lottery have the power to influence our whole existence. Every March of every year I think of this. The last week of March is when I was born and the second week of March is when my winning lottery ticket was taken away from me. On the 12^th of March,  my friend, my role model, my hero and my backbone departed this world early by a sudden stroke. I can say it was the hardest moment of my life, seeing the strongest man I ever knew laying down on the floor motionless. When I saw the pride and glory that always defined his strong features fade; that was the moment I knew he was gone forever.

I avoided remembering that memory for years, I lived like he was still there. Imagining his voice telling me what to do and how to survive while he is away. Day by day the voice faded until eventually I was left alone completely. I had to decide either to grief or celebrate forever the memory of the best thing that has ever happened to me. Since I am my daddy’s girl I chose the celebration. I might grief the fact I had too short of a time with him but he left nothing for me but to celebrate. I am a proud daughter of a wonderful father, a great military general, a wise knowledgeable professor and the kindest & most helpful person I met. I am not saying that because he was my father, anyone who knew him will tell the same story. He was very tough, stubborn as hell but underneath that shield, he was the person you can trust his judgment and ask for help and know for a fact that if he said he will be there; he will.

He was my lottery ticket because for me every success I achieved, every battle I won because of him genetically but as well habitually. He taught me strength when my world asked me to be weak, he trusted me when I didn’t trust myself and he was there for me every time I needed him. He taught me mental and physical toughness. He showed me that knowledge and wisdom are the only way to rounded life. My dad over the years showed me how to raise my voice in a patriarchy world and develop pragmatic thinking in an arbitrary society. He wasn’t an angel for sure but he was all I needed a father to be and more. I think the only thing I can blame him for is the expectation he set for what a man should be. He was an old fashion gentleman, beautiful, strong and extremely intelligent. I grew up drawing my expectations of men watching him, which is not fair to anyone. I know he was my king because he was my dad but still the bar was set too high. I have been treated my whole life as a princess, no matter what happens I still feel the pride, bravery and entitlement of a princess!

Like every year, I am writing these words to send my gratitude to the soul of my beloved father. Usually, I try not to be ostentatious but when it comes to my father I want the world to know what a wonderful soul he was and how lucky I feel that he was my father and my role model. He is the light in my heart, the strength in my mind and the love that goes through my veins to the whole world. 

I love you beyond love itself  <3 Until I see you again.

Non-attachment Philosophy

Sometimes life seems like a continuous cycle of suffering. One heartbreak follows another, we try to see the light but the darkness prevails eventually. I can't remember how many times I have been asked "would life always suck like this?" my answer usually is "probably." I am not totally an absurdist, but I do believe our animal brain default program is suffering. We don't remember the light because it is safe but we always remember the darkness because it is a threat. Meaning that although bad and good events in life probably occur similarly, we feel and remember them differently. Our brain tends to remember bad for a longer period for survival purposes. The question is, how we can skip this? How can we see life as it is not as a continuous cycle of suffering? For me, I found my answer in Buddhism; Buddhism as a philosophy of life. I found a lot of answers that resonate with me and made me not only more rational but way more human than I have ever been.

The Buddha in his first sermon declared the four noble truths which are considered the essence of Buddhism. Why this is important? because the four noble truths address suffering. Buddha's diagnosis of suffering linked to the human attachment to permanence for a temporary life. The first three noble truths addressed the existence and cause of suffering then the cessation of suffering through the fourth noble truth of the eight-fold path. Because human nature is programmed for survival and survival thrives on the idea of permanence. Therefore, the Buddha teachings are reprogramming to our animalistic nature and reforming it to reach enlightenment, not through the religious practice of the Buddha teaching but embracing its wisdom.

Our animalistic nature that seeks permanence in everything needs to be reformed to be able to understand the philosophy beyond our physical and emotional cravings. It is methodical in its approach to suffering and seeks the underlying causes of human suffering which provides psychological depth to the argument. I don’t believe that Buddha's teaching or Buddhism is a set of instructions that guarantee a life of happiness. Rather my personal belief that Buddhism is a break from organized religions which provided salvation through the submission to a set of rules. Buddhism at its core is a life philosophy that provides guidance to achieve level minded approach to life which can get us closer to enlightenment. Therefore, my understanding of the Buddha diagnosis for suffering is not constructed set of actions to break away from suffering rather a philosophy to embrace suffering as a part of the whole life. The Buddhist value of non-attachment doesn’t seek austerity for itself, rather the discipline which comes from it and the emotional regulation associated with it. 

Many argue that Buddha might ignored the human nature that is by default built on cravings (food-sex-curiosity …etc) however, my understanding of the Buddha wisdom is not to suppress the need but eliminate the excess. And if we embrace the truth of impermanence even then we can deeply understand that impermanence as it affects the positive side of our life it affects the negative and our temporary inability to suppress the excess is just a momentary mishap if we don’t get fixated on their happening. Simply put, Buddhism doesn't ask us to be inhuman. Rather embrace our humanness, our shortcomings, our victories, our happiness, and our misery because all of it no matter how strong it is, it will pass. The only permanent truth of this life is impermanence. The moment we understand that contradiction we will find our nirvana. And by the way, nirvana is not bliss or ecstasy. The literal translation of nirvana is blowing out as "liberation" liberation from all attachments and looking at life as the passer-by we are. Peacefully observing life knowing deeply that the cycle of life continues no matter how we feel about it.

The genius about the Buddha's philosophy and the hardest part is, it is a contradiction by itself. For so many years I opposed it because I thought it was irrational, how we can ask humans to be less human. But what I finally understood that it actually asks humans to be more human. When it promotes non-attachment, it doesn't mean to not feel at all. Rather feel it with humility, and let go because when we let go we earn our liberation, our freedom from suffering, from control. To embrace bravely the impermanence, and our inability to control life.  And that is nirvana: a release for samsara.

"The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last—that they don't disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security."

Science is Not an Opinion

If I am going to put a title for 2020 it would be “The Year of Ignorance”. We encountered an unprecedented rise of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience. The scientific community was severely undermined by defending its integrity against unfounded doubts! I have always had so much respect for science, and despite my spiritual and rebellious nature, I would not allow myself to doubt the scientific community without a reasonable cause. It bothers me to see the world reaching this stage of servility to please the fools and provide them with the platforms to spread ignorance. Luckily, ignorance can never defeat the truth or change the facts. And opinion will remain a mere point of view and scientific facts will remain the only truths we know until it is proved otherwise.

According to Cambridge dictionary; “Science is the careful study of the structure and behavior of the physical world, by watching, measuring, experimenting, and the development of theories to describe the results of these activities” in a process called “the scientific method”. While Science aims to falsification; opinions on the other hand aim to confirmation. This means that a test can show a scientific claim to be false, but no conceivable test could show an opinion to be false. Science is testable, opinions not really. Another important difference is that scientific claims are regularly evaluated by the scientific community which is a process designed to assess the validity, quality, and originality of the scientific work. Its ultimate purpose is to maintain the integrity of science by filtering out invalid or poor quality work. However, opinions are a personal judgment formed not necessarily based on facts nor evidence.

Understanding the difference between those two is crucial to elevate the discussion in a modern world where everyone is “entitled to their opinion”. Many discussions around conspiracy theories and pseudoscience these days cannot differentiate between scientific facts, scientific hypotheses, and opinions. Since the whole scientific process is built on trial and failure, and usually the scientific method made up of mistakes because that’s the only way to truth. These trial, failures, and mistakes are used by the simple minds to refute science, not understanding how actually science work.  It is fair to say that science is a very complicated topic and trying to simplify it does more harm than good. Scientists many times cannot comprehend science from different fields which completely rational and understandable. We don’t expect a neurosurgeon to be able to perform a cardiovascular surgery, and certainly, we do not accept the opinion of a regular Joe on a medical procedure. The same goes with all other fields of science; reading scientific papers and news does not give anyone enough knowledge to unfoundedly doubt the scientific community no matter how intelligent the person might be.

Usually I am a strong supporter of the individual liberty to debate and question everything, however, we should have a common understanding of what is reasonable to debate and what is not. I have always encouraged polymathic abilities but that doesn’t go against our need as a civilization for specialization. Specialization gives us an in-depth understanding of the world and allows us to advance rapidly. We can always debate, question, and discuss our ideas and doubts but the final opinion always belongs to the scientists/specialists no matter how we feel about it. Those specialists/scientists spent their whole lives cautiously and carefully studying, researching, and conducting experiments which took a lot of knowledge and experience. If a person finds themselves eager to debunk a fact they should possess equivalent knowledge and experience otherwise it is just foolishness. Sciences and the scientific method evolved during so many years through a slow process, and still evolving as long as we live. The moment we comprehend that is the moment we can have an intelligent discussion about science and the world.

“The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure Nature hasn't misled you into thinking you know something you don't actually know. There's not a scientist alive who hasn't suffered from that one so much that he's not instinctively on guard. That's the main reason why so much scientific information sounds so dull and so cautious. If you get careless or go romanticizing scientific information, give it a flourish here and there, Nature will soon make a complete fool out of you. It does it often enough anyway even when you don't give it opportunities. One must be extremely careful and rigidly logical when dealing with Nature: one logical slip and an entire scientific edifice comes tumbling down. One false deduction about the science and you can get hung up indefinitely”. Robert M. Pirsig