These days, what I've really been thinking about is purpose: namely, the reasons we have behind what we do and who we are. By reasons, I do not mean external circumstances that make something happen. Take the question "why does it rain?". I do not mean to tell you that it is raining because of the condensation of water vapor and gravity. That describes the process substances undergo to produce what we know as 'rain'. The correct question to that answer would be "how does it rain?" and the proper field for it would be science. But, why does it rain? You might say that rain is needed to physically sustain life, but that's not it, either. That is still answering to an external circumstance and explaining a pragmatic utility for rain. Rain existed far before life, and it's purpose accordingly transcends it. I have no answers. What I am referring to is very internal. It is a void located at the center of all thought that seems to defy any explanation.
The field of metaphysics, which can be broadly defined as the study of being, is very rich in answers to these questions. Or should I say questions to these answers? A powerful insight regarding purpose is provided by the author Robert M. Pirsig, who, with his 1974 cultural phenomena novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, popularized the concept of 'Quality', a term which he believes to be fundamentally undefinable. Quality, or what is considered good, should come before anything else. In the sequel Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals, he provides a complete metaphysical breakdown of this idea. I realize that the word 'metaphysical' can be daunting to many people, so to say it in English, Lila takes a general purpose, and applies it to life as we know it. That raises an important point: it is strange that it takes a while to come to this idea when it is so universal. Very few people are aware of this issue and its implications. I am not saying the others are stupid at all, but I am saying that the way the world is currently set up usually makes it so that one has to go through substance first to have any purpose, when it really should be the other way around. It is also strange that metaphysicians are generally thought of as crazy and out of touch with reality, when all they are trying to do is learn about reality and how it works. To think about these ideas and be socially accepted, you have to become a certain kind of person. No one has ever fully reversed the order. It is a contradiction I am still trying to explain.
I recently read in a book called The Search For Meaning by Dennis Ford that many metaphysicians believe in a 'hierarchy of being'. That is, they believe that some things are in a higher state of existence than others. To illustrate that concept, take the letter m. The property m denotes any chemical substance. Everything in physical existence has attained the level of m, from minerals, to a cup of water, to a corpse. Basically, if you are made of chemicals, you have achieved m, but you're not quite invincible yet. You still have several levels to get through, the first being x, or the property of life. x is what separates plants from the soil they eat. We still have a long way to go before we know what designates "life", scientifically or otherwise. In fact, the progressions between levels and how they work remain quite mysterious. But for now, I'll say that x represents life. The next level of being y, is consciousness. It is what makes animals different from plants. Spruce trees, though living, and composed of substance, are not able to think about what's for dinner, while cats are able to. Humans, though technically animals, have really come as far as they have because they are on another higher level of being, according to some metaphysicians. This level, z, is the ability to realize that you are thinking, or to be self-aware. The only reason I can tell you about any of this, and the only reason you can read it, is because we have both attained z. We are thinking about thinking. Moreover, we have not forsaken the other levels, and we have all of those too. All these levels gave us our positions in life and made us these strange complex amalgams of chemicals. It is now possible for me to write this post, and for you to read it and make something out of it. Many have detected another higher level, and this is what I call 'purpose'. It seems to be the center of everything, and I am reluctant to assign a letter to it, so let's call it infinity. For you visual learners, here is a diagram of the entire concept:
Look at it closely. What I am concerned with is the center, how it behaves, and what it means for all rest of the circle.
For those of you who need a break from metaphysics, I'll tell you about a YouTube video I watched Monday evening. It was easily the greatest motivational speech I've ever watched, and I highly recommend you watch the entire fifteen minutes if you haven't already. It could change your life, literally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTFnmsCnr6g. I don't tell it nearly as good as he does, but for those of you who can't watch the video, in it, the speaker Eric Thomas tells the story of a young man who asked a guru for the secret to success. The guru told him to meet him out at the beach at four in the morning. Though the man was surprised, he listened to the guru and showed up. The guru told him to swim out into the water. He took him in further and further. And further. Suddenly, without warning, the guru pushed the man's head underwater and held him there. The man was kicking and pushing, but the guru was strong, and continued to hold him underwater. Once he was about to pass out, the guru raised him up and said, "when you were under there, what did you want the most?" The man said, "To breathe." The guru then said to him, "Once you want success as much as you want to breathe, then, you will be successful." What we have here is a reversal of priorities. The purpose comes before eating, sleeping, or even breathing. Would you look at that? Purpose! It works!
If you don't believe me, try waking up at four am and doing something productive. Anything. Write a story, do some homework, exercise: whatever you want. I know that sounds awful, but just try it, once. Convention tells you to keep sleeping, because conventionally, sleep is placed before any meaningful thought or productive work. And of course it will be hard at first, for those of you who have never done it before. It takes a good deal of willpower to get out of bed. But I promise, it gets easier as you go on. Three hours later, you are already way ahead of everyone else, and it isn't even breakfast. Imagine what will happen if you do it every day!
The title of this blog post is adopted from the thesis of a TED talk recorded in September of 2009 called, "how great leaders inspire action" by author Simon Sinek, who is best known for his theory of "the golden circle". I watched this video for the first time in my US History class on December 5th of last year. He says that as a leader, in order to inspire, you must start with 'why', expand it to 'how', and finally, the 'what' will follow. To demonstrate this, he explains many things, including why Apple is so successful in selling phones, why no one has heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley and his quest to invent the plane, and why so many people came to see Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have A Dream' speech. In all cases, the innovators in question began with heart, and the rest is history. Even Sinek himself is a prime example of the validity of the Golden Circle: the sound quality of his talk was mediocre, and he even switched microphones in the middle of it. But because of his message, the talk is now the third most viewed on the entire website. Here is the Golden Circle. Look familiar? I'll bet it does.
Sometimes, in these posts, I try to guess what you as a reader are thinking, and right now, it is possible that some of you are thinking, "I did not come here to read about metaphysics or the secret to success. I came here to hear about your experiences with helping Bangladeshi schoolchildren in the slums." Well, hang on, I'm getting to it. I know what I am talking about seems unrelated, but I am doing exactly what I'm talking about: I am starting with an idea.
Last entry, I wrote about selfish and selfless intentions, or purposes. The reason I believe that it is better to strive for altruism in community service is definitely connected to what I've just written here. If you're only in it for the recognition or the money, forget it. Look at the title of this post for a second. External factors are fleeting, no matter what it may look like right now. You won't truly go anywhere unless you actually want to help people. This principle is where all those little meaningful moments come from. It is why you can see the schoolchildren giving out high-fives, and smiling out of pure joy. A life often changes greatly because of incidents which many would judge as "small", based on time duration, or space volume. But what those people are doing is taking something that comes from the center of that circle I drew, and judging its value based on the standards established by the outside of the circle, which, most of the time, you simply can't do and expect to be right. Haven't you guys noticed that it only takes the splitting of just one atom to blow up an entire city and kill millions of people? On a happier note, a few words can also inspire someone to take action. A few words can change someone's life. They can change the world. We all have something that comes from the center of that circle. And it is your choice what to do with yours.
I had some difficulty deciding whether to post this, because it seemed very hard to communicate. I do have a fear that I can't truly reach you from this position, but I'll try anyway. What's the harm? I've learned a lot in writing this post. It was hard at first, but I'm really glad I did it. Now, it's up to you to apply it to yourself.
On that note, I think I'll close. I hope you get something from this.
Peace be with you,
Ahsem Kabir
Images From:
http://someordinarygamers.wikia.com/wiki/File:Void.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance
Microsoft Word 2008
http://life-engineering.com/how-great-leaders-inspire-action-the-golden-circle/
The field of metaphysics, which can be broadly defined as the study of being, is very rich in answers to these questions. Or should I say questions to these answers? A powerful insight regarding purpose is provided by the author Robert M. Pirsig, who, with his 1974 cultural phenomena novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, popularized the concept of 'Quality', a term which he believes to be fundamentally undefinable. Quality, or what is considered good, should come before anything else. In the sequel Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals, he provides a complete metaphysical breakdown of this idea. I realize that the word 'metaphysical' can be daunting to many people, so to say it in English, Lila takes a general purpose, and applies it to life as we know it. That raises an important point: it is strange that it takes a while to come to this idea when it is so universal. Very few people are aware of this issue and its implications. I am not saying the others are stupid at all, but I am saying that the way the world is currently set up usually makes it so that one has to go through substance first to have any purpose, when it really should be the other way around. It is also strange that metaphysicians are generally thought of as crazy and out of touch with reality, when all they are trying to do is learn about reality and how it works. To think about these ideas and be socially accepted, you have to become a certain kind of person. No one has ever fully reversed the order. It is a contradiction I am still trying to explain. I recently read in a book called The Search For Meaning by Dennis Ford that many metaphysicians believe in a 'hierarchy of being'. That is, they believe that some things are in a higher state of existence than others. To illustrate that concept, take the letter m. The property m denotes any chemical substance. Everything in physical existence has attained the level of m, from minerals, to a cup of water, to a corpse. Basically, if you are made of chemicals, you have achieved m, but you're not quite invincible yet. You still have several levels to get through, the first being x, or the property of life. x is what separates plants from the soil they eat. We still have a long way to go before we know what designates "life", scientifically or otherwise. In fact, the progressions between levels and how they work remain quite mysterious. But for now, I'll say that x represents life. The next level of being y, is consciousness. It is what makes animals different from plants. Spruce trees, though living, and composed of substance, are not able to think about what's for dinner, while cats are able to. Humans, though technically animals, have really come as far as they have because they are on another higher level of being, according to some metaphysicians. This level, z, is the ability to realize that you are thinking, or to be self-aware. The only reason I can tell you about any of this, and the only reason you can read it, is because we have both attained z. We are thinking about thinking. Moreover, we have not forsaken the other levels, and we have all of those too. All these levels gave us our positions in life and made us these strange complex amalgams of chemicals. It is now possible for me to write this post, and for you to read it and make something out of it. Many have detected another higher level, and this is what I call 'purpose'. It seems to be the center of everything, and I am reluctant to assign a letter to it, so let's call it infinity. For you visual learners, here is a diagram of the entire concept:
 |
| hierarchy of being |
For those of you who need a break from metaphysics, I'll tell you about a YouTube video I watched Monday evening. It was easily the greatest motivational speech I've ever watched, and I highly recommend you watch the entire fifteen minutes if you haven't already. It could change your life, literally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTFnmsCnr6g. I don't tell it nearly as good as he does, but for those of you who can't watch the video, in it, the speaker Eric Thomas tells the story of a young man who asked a guru for the secret to success. The guru told him to meet him out at the beach at four in the morning. Though the man was surprised, he listened to the guru and showed up. The guru told him to swim out into the water. He took him in further and further. And further. Suddenly, without warning, the guru pushed the man's head underwater and held him there. The man was kicking and pushing, but the guru was strong, and continued to hold him underwater. Once he was about to pass out, the guru raised him up and said, "when you were under there, what did you want the most?" The man said, "To breathe." The guru then said to him, "Once you want success as much as you want to breathe, then, you will be successful." What we have here is a reversal of priorities. The purpose comes before eating, sleeping, or even breathing. Would you look at that? Purpose! It works!
If you don't believe me, try waking up at four am and doing something productive. Anything. Write a story, do some homework, exercise: whatever you want. I know that sounds awful, but just try it, once. Convention tells you to keep sleeping, because conventionally, sleep is placed before any meaningful thought or productive work. And of course it will be hard at first, for those of you who have never done it before. It takes a good deal of willpower to get out of bed. But I promise, it gets easier as you go on. Three hours later, you are already way ahead of everyone else, and it isn't even breakfast. Imagine what will happen if you do it every day!
The title of this blog post is adopted from the thesis of a TED talk recorded in September of 2009 called, "how great leaders inspire action" by author Simon Sinek, who is best known for his theory of "the golden circle". I watched this video for the first time in my US History class on December 5th of last year. He says that as a leader, in order to inspire, you must start with 'why', expand it to 'how', and finally, the 'what' will follow. To demonstrate this, he explains many things, including why Apple is so successful in selling phones, why no one has heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley and his quest to invent the plane, and why so many people came to see Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have A Dream' speech. In all cases, the innovators in question began with heart, and the rest is history. Even Sinek himself is a prime example of the validity of the Golden Circle: the sound quality of his talk was mediocre, and he even switched microphones in the middle of it. But because of his message, the talk is now the third most viewed on the entire website. Here is the Golden Circle. Look familiar? I'll bet it does.
 |
| The Golden Circle |
Sometimes, in these posts, I try to guess what you as a reader are thinking, and right now, it is possible that some of you are thinking, "I did not come here to read about metaphysics or the secret to success. I came here to hear about your experiences with helping Bangladeshi schoolchildren in the slums." Well, hang on, I'm getting to it. I know what I am talking about seems unrelated, but I am doing exactly what I'm talking about: I am starting with an idea.
Last entry, I wrote about selfish and selfless intentions, or purposes. The reason I believe that it is better to strive for altruism in community service is definitely connected to what I've just written here. If you're only in it for the recognition or the money, forget it. Look at the title of this post for a second. External factors are fleeting, no matter what it may look like right now. You won't truly go anywhere unless you actually want to help people. This principle is where all those little meaningful moments come from. It is why you can see the schoolchildren giving out high-fives, and smiling out of pure joy. A life often changes greatly because of incidents which many would judge as "small", based on time duration, or space volume. But what those people are doing is taking something that comes from the center of that circle I drew, and judging its value based on the standards established by the outside of the circle, which, most of the time, you simply can't do and expect to be right. Haven't you guys noticed that it only takes the splitting of just one atom to blow up an entire city and kill millions of people? On a happier note, a few words can also inspire someone to take action. A few words can change someone's life. They can change the world. We all have something that comes from the center of that circle. And it is your choice what to do with yours.
I had some difficulty deciding whether to post this, because it seemed very hard to communicate. I do have a fear that I can't truly reach you from this position, but I'll try anyway. What's the harm? I've learned a lot in writing this post. It was hard at first, but I'm really glad I did it. Now, it's up to you to apply it to yourself.
On that note, I think I'll close. I hope you get something from this.
Peace be with you,
Ahsem Kabir
Images From:
http://someordinarygamers.wikia.com/wiki/File:Void.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance
Microsoft Word 2008
http://life-engineering.com/how-great-leaders-inspire-action-the-golden-circle/
How did you know I was thinking about the "purpose" of your writing in relation to your immersion experience? Thinking about thinking, like remember to remember.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably the crux, or the central idea of the blog.
ReplyDelete