Is Minimalism a Relief or a Religion?

by Braden Talbot · 0 comments

in Mindfulness, Religion

Old Room by winnond

Old Room by winnond

There is a popular movement gaining momentum on the web called minimalism (simple living).

First, I am not here to bash it as an idea, nor am I here to praise or even recommend it. I do think it can be a useful idea to get rid of a bunch of crap you don’t even need or want, which I like to do.

My main concern is it is an “ism”. Reading a few comments on some minimalist blogs make it sound like they’ve turned it into a religion. This isn’t necessarily new. It’s not that uncommon to come across a yogi or self-proclaimed guru who really thinks very highly of themselves for having renounced all but a few possessions.

And I do pay attention to and enjoy a few “isms”: anarchism, libertarianism, Taoism, Buddhism, even some mysticism (I think) and a few others, I’m sure. But I don’t get swept by them or even identify with them. I just think there are some good ideas and useful information.

My Experience

I’ve paid some attention to this idea after becoming somewhat addicted to getting rid of some of my crap and freeing space on my bookshelf. I’ve reclaimed a few hundred dollars in DVD and book resells and got rid of a lot of old music equipment and military uniforms.

Then I noticed the popular blog, The Minimalists, and started reading a few of their posts. These guys do have some informative and useful posts and ideas and seem like all around nice guys. I do have a few minor quibbles with the ideas of minimalism, or better put, the motives behind minimalism which really depends on the individual and not necessarily on the idea. These are almost always based on the individual’s perception and purpose for minimalism:

Maintaining Minimalism

If you pay enough attention to some minimalist blogs and ideas, you’ll notice it can take a considerable amount of work just to maintain any kind of minimalist standard (there really isn’t necessarily a standard as far as I know other than some minimalists seem to brag about how few items they actually own and have their possessions pinned to a specific number).

To be sure, having few possessions can relieve huge mind-burdens and could simply be a part of someone’s “way”. But like almost anything, it can turn into a mindless religion.

I read one comment in which someone accused one of the writers of not being a “true minimalist”, to which many commenters replied with confusion and even laughter. I’m not sure what a true minimalist is or why that’s necessarily desirable, but I do know that that “untrue minimalist” is what the commenter is and what I am: a person—we are, at the core, the same.

So the minimalist can use minimalism as something divisive, which, so far as I can tell in what I’ve read, is not what The Minimalists are about. This divisiveness is not necessarily inherent in minimalism or any other religion or idea, but merely a tool for someone to separate themselves from others.

However, for others, minimalism can be a new way, and I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying it out if that’s what they feel compelled to do. Just don’t expect a superficial external change to change your mind.

Think of minimalism as an effect—you get rid of shit because shit no longer satisfies you—it no longer fulfills you. This includes removing mental garbage which has been clouding your perception.

Goallessness

This one is the most curious of all minimalist ideas to me.

I am all about narrowing goals and limiting the number of goals for simplicity’s sake, but getting rid of goals in this world sounds not just silly, but nearly impossible. The idea of living without goals is a goal in itself. If you say “I am going to stop setting goals” you have just set a goal. Sometimes this is based on a spiritual idea of living in the present moment, a joyous thing indeed. But there isn’t some rule that says you can’t presently plan and presently set goals. I wake up to a goal almost every morning after drinking too much water the night before—get to the bathroom before I wet the bed.

I’m wondering how some goalless minimalists manage to maintain good blog upkeep (and they do) and write books (they do that too).

Guilt in Goals

In a recent post on the Minimalists, I read a comment in which a young woman felt guilty and torn for wanting things and accomplishments since it didn’t fit in line with living without goals. This is no different than feeling guilty for sexual desire, or any other desire. It stems from some kind of religious belief that you shouldn’t have goals. So some authority told you goals are bad or a burden so you feel guilty for setting them. Then you set the goal for no goals and mindfuck yourself for desiring things and accomplishments.

Set goals. Don’t expect that they will make you happy, but neither is the idea of not setting goals. It is possible to set a goal without bloodthirsty attachment to that goal. It is possible to maintain even a busy schedule without being sucked into the future.

The goalless and the overachiever can both be mindlessly attached to their ideas. The minimalist and the hoarder can both be attached to their things or lack thereof (its more like a status).

Why?

So what’s my standard for looking at all this and coming to a conclusion, if any conclusion?

It boils down to purpose.

Why minimalism? Why do I “need” or want this thing? Why set the goal? Why relinquish goals?

Paying attention to why you are doing anything (its purpose) is the important part. It is the source, the cause of the effect (minimalism or having things).

Minimalism isn’t necessarily a mind changer, although giving it a try might show you a more enjoyable, less stressful way of living. But recognize that decorating the appearance of your life or removing those decorations is not a cause. Purpose is.

What’s your experience with minimalism? More important, why?

How Long Does It Take To Become Enlightened?

by Braden Talbot · 2 comments

in Religion, Spiritual

It Doesn't Take Time to Become a Buddha

It Doesn't Take Time to Become a Buddha

About 9 years ago, while in Okinawa, Japan, I bought a CD-course on learning the art of absolute pitch (also called perfect pitch). The The course was supposed to teach you distinguish between the different tones of the chromatic scale (there are 12). It’s incredibly difficult for anyone who doesn’t understand or possess it, especially since almost all who have it, acquire it by the age of 5.

There are also a lot of critics who still believe this skill cannot be acquired past a certain age. However, I am proof they are wrong, but that’s not the point. It is possible to learn, but I am here to emphasize how fast you can learn it an tell you what the that has to do with spiritual awakening.

In the course, the teacher points out that it can take mere weeks or many long months to learn perfect pitch based on his system, and when you do learn it, there are different degrees of pitch discrimination—from hearing subtle differences based on comparison, to pitch discrimination between all 12 tones, to the musician-envied “Mozart Pitch.” You can learn some of these little differences in a matter of minutes, but acquiring a decent pitch discrimination took me months and I am still nowhere near Mozart Pitch (I don’t even practice anymore).

The teacher pointed out that a girl with no pitch recognition learned his techniques and within 2 weeks had an excellent perception of absolute pitch, though this is quite rare.

So what’s my point?

This perfect pitch program is a lot like spiritual awakening—we can stumble through the world with judgments and false ideas and distortions for decades, then all it takes is a sudden silence of the mind, or a recognition of our own images and strange ideals, and we have an abrupt awakening.

Of course, many go through this process gradually, with a few abrupt moments of inspiration and clarity—a few moments of feeling catapulted toward freedom—but the process is still relatively long. But it doesn’t have to be.

No one is in a place to judge anyone’s progress or time—the time in which it takes anyone to realize and remove their own judgments and blocks to freedom.

Any individual who is so deep in their own images, ideals, and judgments can, at any moment, wake up and see the devastation and havoc they’ve wreaked on their own mind and immediately choose another way.

So the crazy man yelling at the news or the gossip at work can immediately choose the switch directions and see a new thought system that includes no judgment and no images.

For many of us, this can take a long time, not because of necessity, but because we are unwilling to challenge our own assumptions. We are unwilling to even look at them—which is to challenge them.

And that is all it takes.

I am a 5-minute walk  from a Buddhist church. I’ve lived in this area for about a year and a half and have never visited this church, but one afternoon I looked it up.

Do they have a newsletter? Do they have an ideology? Are they completely open?

I searched and found an online newsletter, the latest of which was titled “How Not to Become a Buddha in 5 Weeks.” The article poked fun at an Italian psychotherapist who had a book titled How to Become a Buddha in 5 Weeks. I haven’t read the book so I am not going to review it. For all I know, the man could have been jolted with a wave of enlightenment in that very short period. And the writer of the article even mentioned that it’s not at all impossible for such fast realization, though it’s probably quite rare.

However, my one quibble with the writer is the comparisons with other “spiritual masters” who have been studying some form of meditation, spiritual ideas, or religious discipline and superimposing that image onto the author’s book. I don’t understand the audacity of claiming anyone can “become Buddha in 5 weeks” but just because a great many spiritual practitioners have been engaged in their form of practice for decades and the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) took over 30 years to reach his own enlightenment doesn’t mean we place that time-limitation on anyone else—which is likely a form of jealousy or a desperate need to hold someone back.

I do disagree with telling anyone they will attain some form of enlightenment in 5 weeks (sounds like an excellent, but fallacious marketing tool).

So I am not necessarily disagreeing with the author of that article. It makes many great points. No person can tell you where you are on your path, what path you are necessarily on (at least not in form), or the time in which you might attain your goal. But it doesn’t have to be projected decades into the future. This very image of enlightenment—some far off future event in which we have some kind of way of looking at the world, a way of which we aren’t quite sure—is a hindrance in itself to our own realization and requires its own inspection and clarification.

It sounds like a contradiction, but while you might understand that it is going to take a great amount of inspection and time to break free of the limitations and images we impose on ourselves, don’t accept such strange time-frames into your learning. It is only an attempt to put such realization far off into the future.

Focus on seeing what barriers are stifling your happiness and peace now. Now is when you can do something about it. Now is when you see it for what it is.

10 years, 30 years, or 30 lifetimes isn’t the time to project your happiness. Sure, your aware that you aren’t totally at peace now. But now is when you realize it. Now is when you see it. Now is when you do something about it.

Don’t become the Buddha in 2041. Be as you are now.

Practicing the Tao: Chapter 14—The Unmanifested

by Braden Talbot · 0 comments

in Religion, Spiritual

Sunset in Maui

Sunset in Maui (Paradise) - Only Because It's Beautiful

Over the last several years I have read a lot of books, many of which say the same thing—the same damned thing.

I have listened to a lot of talks that do that same.

However, this is not like reading the same novel over and over. These weren’t books copying each other verbatim or speeches read from the same script. They were a unique spin and the same underlying content and ideas.

As a matter of fact, I could point to a dozen excellent books that have pointed in the same direction, but with drastically different words and styles. Chapter 14 of the Tao Te Ching is like one of those many books, speeches, and teleseminars: it points in the same direction as many other passages in the Tao Te Ching, but in its own inspiring way.

Chapter 14 contains hints of Chapter 1. It tells us the essence is right before our eyes. You can’t see it. You can’t hear it. You can’t touch it. But it is there. Always there. Waiting. Patient.

In fact, waiting doesn’t quite describe it. Waiting implies time.

But when you cease to look and find it where it is not (with the eyes, ears, and hands), it reveals itself as the content beyond all the things through which we seek to find it.

Chapter 14 is quite lovely and poetic. I can’t help but relax and “stop looking” when reading it, as it’s a gentle reminder that you wont find reality or peace or happiness through any of these externals.

However, the mind might quickly pounce in against the fear of its loss of individuality. The dreadful fear of non-thinking and loss of identity this open-minded space contains rushes in in the form of a silly thought or even boredom.

Don’t fight the boredom, but enjoy these blissful moments when they come.

Don’t seek that old moment again, either—the old moment of nirvana. You didn’t find it in the past before and you aren’t going to find it in the past this time.

Return to Chapter 14 if necessary, maybe as a little pep talk, but know that it wasn’t a word or moment that took you to that place. It was a sudden realization through the hint those words could give—only a hint. They can’t take you much further.

I’ve included the James Legge Taoist translation.

Enjoy.

We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it ‘the Equable.’
We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it ‘the Inaudible.’
We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it ‘the Subtle.’
With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description;
Hence we blend them together and obtain The One.
Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure.
Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing.
This is called the Form of the Formless, and the Semblance of the Invisible;
This is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable.
We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see its Back.
When we can lay hold of the Dao of old to direct the things of the present day,
And are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning,
This is called unwinding the clue of Dao.

A Surefire Way to Kill Inspiration

by Braden Talbot · 0 comments

in Creativity, Inspiration

My Uninspired "Workspace"

My Uninspired "Workspace." Notice the yerba maté and how the system is primed for gaming.

A few years ago, when I was in a band, I enjoyed watching music documentaries and even reading biographies on musicians. I watched all the Metallica documentaries, Dave Matthews Band Tours, and read books on Mozart and ear training.

I did this for 2 reasons.

First, I enjoyed it and I still do enjoy it as I enjoy reading success stories and watching biographies of major producers, entrepreneurs, and famous figures.

Second, and more elusive and counterproductive, I read it to “get inspired.”

Whenever I didn’t want to sit in front of a keyboard and play to a new song or write a new piece, I’d escape to another movie or YouTube video on perfect pitch or the history of classical music. I thought I needed inspiration—inspiration from outside.

Long story short, I was being intellectually lazy. I’ve never been that motivated to do anything—at least not after the initial startup high. Going to the gym, playing music, learning something beyond the novice level: I hit Seth Godin’s 99%,  it’s about 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.

This idea has even worked for me with meditations. If i just sit a while and let the thought bombardment settle, I can reach of peaceful place of bliss and clarity.

I can’t wait to be inspired to meditate. Or work. Or workout. If I did, I would be a fat, lazy head-case.

Some exercises might help inspire or give you fresh ideas, like writing anything when you have to write something even if the paper wont stop being blank (this is usually called automatic writing). Just do like Nike and just do it.

Don’t wait for inspiration. It’s not a salesman with a free gift pounding on your door. You have to dig for it.

How do you charge head-on into inspiration?

Are You Making This Critical Meditation Mistake?

by Braden Talbot · 0 comments

in Meditation

Quintessential Meditation Pose

Quintessential Meditation Pose. Image Stolen from Meditationquotes.com

About 4 years ago, I started meditating—mostly because I was told to. I wasn’t super-hyped about it. I wasn’t 100% sure of the goal. I just started practicing the Workbook of A Course in Miracles and did what it said.

Then it got a little weird. Before I stepped out the door for work, I had to do my meditation. If I didn’t get in my meditation, I would get mad—mad at my alarm, mad at whatever kept me up last night, and worse, mad at myself for not waking early enough to get it done.

I had already forgotten the point of my meditations in the first place.

What could have possibly come between me and the peace and happiness I was trying to find in my meditations? Why do it all in the first place? I lost the forest for the trees. Meditation had become a senseless ritual instead of a simple practice to a peaceful goal.

Why couldn’t I immediately choose the peace and happiness meditation was supposed to offer? What was supposedly stopping my right in my tracks while walking out the door to my place of work?

Me. It was me.

Here’s a huge tip in meditation success: it’s not the meditation’s fault. It’s not missing-your-meditation’s fault. Meditation (or a lack thereof) is not responsible for your happiness. There’s no reason you can’t choose happiness for one moment before running into your day.

So what’s the point of meditation?

If meditation is a method to peace, the goal is to make all day, every day a meditation. It becomes something we consistently and, eventually, constantly choose.

Is it easy? No, at least not at first. Is it simple? Yes, at least in theory. So try it for yourself. Take a moment, if that’s all you have, before rushing out the door tomorrow morning and breath. Breath, pause, and be still for just a moment. That’s all it takes.

A moment is all it takes.

Are you making this critical mistake? Are you losing the forest for the trees—losing the peace for the ritual?

Practical Tao Te Ching—Chapter 13: Your Ladder of Success

by Braden Talbot · 0 comments

in Religion, Spiritual

Lao Tzu from informationliberation

Lao Tzu from informationliberation

Some translations of Chapter 13 can seem quite strange at first. “Accept humiliation?” “Value great misfortune?” Why would I accept such an embarrassing idea? The kicker is in the end.

Note: I do prefer Stephen Mitchell’s interpretation of this chapter. It presentation is quite clear.

The entire chapter hints at oneness. You can interpret parts in different ways, and you might benefit from a small tweak, but the best practice is to read the chapter as a whole and see what it’s trying to tell you. It seems to detest climbing for success, but that is not the real issue. Look at yourself when you want success. Is it really success you want? Or is it a comparison to someone else. I’m not telling you what you want. Look for yourself. This is very important.

Beyond the Body

If you really want to get deep with chapter 13, read the second half of John C.H. Wu’s translation: “If we have no bodies, what calamities can we have?” Note: Don’t pretend not to have a body. You will only look like an idiot and you aren’t helping yourself or anyone else. But what can we do with this? Is not the body the very tool we use for judgment and comparison? Isn’t it the means by which we use most of our communication, most of our judgments, and most, if not all, of our perceptions? Don’t fight this. Recognize it. See it for what it is and you will see everyone for who they are and not just a shabby body to which we can compare (or not compare).

In Business

There are businesspersons, employees, and, God help us, bureaucrats, who live in a world in which success means pushing another down, an effect of the belief in separation and giving meaning to comparison. There is an easier, more peaceful way to look at success. You can be incredibly successful when you lift others up. No really, it is possible. The problem is not in striving for success, but in our fearful, guilty reasons reasons for doing so.

There’s an old saying, I don’t recall its author and I have to paraphrase: “you can’t get out of the ditch while you’re holding another in it.” If you think you fear of lack has anything to do with anyone else, and you will probably project this lack onto another, then pushing them down appears like a wonderful option. Make no mistake, this is the way a lot of people operate in the world. It is our task to recognize it for what it is and recognize everyone for who they are so we can stop this battle.

Remember, you success is everyone else’s, just as everyone else’s success is yours. This is not a football game. You hold back no gift from anyone when you see them as they are. You take nothing from no one when, even in the world and of worldly things, you work to build something.

Questions

So when striving for success, do you see yourself as climbing “up the ladder or down it” as Stephen Mitchell says? This is only one simple and even simplistic interpretation or use of this dynamic chapter. If you have any thoughts or ideas, please share.

29 Things I’ve Learned in 28 and 1/3 Years

by Braden Talbot · 0 comments

in Random

My New Big Family (And That's Just Her Side)

My New Big Family (And That's Just Her Side)

I’ve read at least 2 posts like this in the last few weeks, so I am going to steal this brilliant idea and show you a few things I’ve learned after nearly 3 short decades since escaping my mother’s womb (ew).

  1. I was much smarter 20 years ago.
  2. If I knew then what I know now, I’d probably still wish I knew then what I know now (heh, get it?).
  3. Bumper sticker slogans evidently pass for intellectual arguments in the United States. Just watch the news.
  4. Reading 7 books at a time ensures you might recall almost 2 of them.
  5. Babysitting screaming kids sounds like a good form of birth control, but that lesson goes out the window when you are in the middle of sex.
  6. There is little difference between the man barking and yelling about his favorite football team and zealous, nationalistic patriotism. Both ignite war.
  7. A few books and a few embarrassing fuck ups and a few good books are a much faster and less expensive education than a 5-figure university.
  8. An economist who only uses numbers and statistics and doesn’t understand economics or humans.
  9. Politics is the least effective way to make a difference and the most effective way to steal.
  10. War over religion is easily replaced by war over [insert anything you feel strongly about here].
  11. There is really nothing bad or naughty about poo poo and pee pee parts.
  12. If you’re telling someone they “suck” because their life doesn’t suck as much as yours, then that’s the reason your life sucks.
  13. Asking me who my favorite president is is like asking me what my favorite flesh-eating bacteria is.
  14. No economy was ever saved via war—ever (including WWII).
  15. You can become a 100% better writer instantly right now forever for real if you stop trying to sound smart in your writing.
  16. Playing off scale writes the best songs.
  17. Never tell anyone why their upset. It’s ignorant and arrogant and probably why you think you get upset.
  18. Nothing provokes more gun grime and drug abuse like gun control and a drug war.
  19. Your favorite team losing isn’t the end of the world (MJ still pushed off in 1998). Studies show indicate a 99.999% chance the sun will rise again tomorrow.
  20. Speed-reading has helped me remember a quarter of the stuff in half the time.
  21. I don’t think I’ve ever actually been informed by any mainstream news, just bullied and feared.
  22. Although yelling at the idiot pundits who know not what they speak on opinionated news is 0% effective, we still yell at them.
  23. If I’m still doing number 22, I really haven’t learned anything.
  24. Religion is not evil. People just believe in funny things.
  25. Pictures of your current fashion statement will probably be embarrassing in 10 to 15 years.
  26. Excitement almost always ends in disappointment. An empty mind without expectation almost always leads to surprise and spontaneity.
  27. Self-help is never really accomplished alone.
  28. When your TV dies, you have only lost a TV and gained life.
  29. When the internet dies, however, shit has officially hit the fan.

Practical Tao Te Ching – Chapter 12: Understanding Desire

by Braden Talbot · 0 comments

in Religion, Spiritual

Statue of Lao Tzu of the Tao Te Ching

Statue of Lao Tzu of the Tao Te Ching

In older translations of Chapter 12, the writers give it titles like Avoiding Desire and even The Repressions of the Desires. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to repress or avoid a delicious looking pie or girl (or man if that’s what you’re going for), but the second I am told to avoid or to not want something I want it. So here is your mission, if you choose to accept it:

Don’t think of an apple. That’s it.

How’s that working out for you? Apples are falling on your brain, aren’t they? Telling you not to think of something or to stop wanting something works terribly because repressing desires is worse than useless. It’s detrimental to mindfulness and progress. It ignores common sense. We want something. So what good is it to pretend we don’t want it? Or, if we don’t want something, what good does it do to pretend to want it on the grounds that it sounds nice or noble?

Chapter 12 gives us a fine set of theory with very little practical how-to:

Five colors blind the eye.
Five notes deafen the ear.
Five flavors make the palate go stale.
Too much activity deranges the mind.
Too much wealth causes crime.

I’m going to go a hair deeper into the problem here. It’s not the thing’s fault if you can’t stop paying attention to it (if, in fact you are paying any real attention to it). The thing didn’t do a damned thing so how could it cause a dull, wandering mind? These are merely tools which we use to divert our attention. These are places in space and time on which we focus to avoid our self.

From the Goddard translation:

Therefore the wise man attends to the inner significance of things and does not concern himself with outward appearances.
Therefore he ignores matter and seeks the spirit.

I don’t ignore stuff, but I don’t worship it either. The significance lies in how you look at it, not in the actual thing itself.There are 2 important things to do in going into desire:

  1. First, you have to be willing to look at it. We rarely like to admit some of our deep, dark secrets and desires, but without first looking, they remain hidden, but not gone.
  2. Second, we mustn’t judge them. To judge is to think you know but to not understand and you will never relinquish the suffering that comes with desire while you judge it. If you do judge it, recognize that you are judging it and don’t judge yourself for judging it (lots of judgment here). This is possible, useful, and makes sense. You can step back from the battleground of your own mind and see the effects of you own judgments and decisions. To merely look and not judge makes a world of difference. It will reveal the problem and solution side-by-side and relinquishment, you’ll see, is automatic.

When we lay aside these judgments, we begin to understand how the “colors blind the eye” and “notes deafen the ear.” We still hear the sounds and see the world, but we wont have to take it so damned serious.

Are these ideas resonating? Are there better methods and ideas that have worked for you?

Practical Tao Te Ching – Chapter 11: Form and Emptiness

by Braden Talbot · 0 comments

in Creativity

Lao Tzu of the Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu of the Tao Te Ching

You might give a blank stare to Chapter 11. You might fly to a land of nirvana and peace in its simple, spacious message. That’s essentially the message—space. Not square-footage, but mental, peaceful space.

So what’s the practical use in Chapter 11?

I’ve been reading a lot on creativity lately. What constitutes creativity? Where does it come from? What is its outlet? I’ve also been obsessed with intellectual property (IP) law and its effects on the economy and innovation (it pretty much sucks). The anti-IP side has a solid case that there isn’t a lot of new stuff in the universe. We rearrange words to make a book, notes to write a song, and programming languages to make new games and neat websites. So again, what the hell does this have to do with Chapter 11?

Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that allows the wheel to function.

We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.

We fashion wood for a house,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes it livable.

Long story short, what makes anything useful is not necessarily the thing itself, but that which we can’t see. When I read Chapter 11 and try to make practical use of it (aside from the occasional bliss reading the Tao Te Ching brings), this is what I see: creativity, its conduit, and tools to facilitate the creativity.

What is creativity but an innovative, playful rearrangement of the things we already see and feel? What makes the things fun and useful aren’t the things themselves but the self using the thing. This also means the self doesn’t necessarily need the thing to be happy. This is implicit in some earlier chapters, especially the end of Chapter 2.

So while we work with form—with stuff—the seemingly elusive but always present self is the important part.

We work with the form,
but the emptiness is what we use.

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