Journal 2021-01-23

A successful society unlocks all people’s potential for kindness, fulfilment and happiness.

Causality

Science fiction presents some baffling themes around causality; for example, the future is the past because events are synchronous in all places at the same time. The current everyday understanding of causality is equally bizarre, however, since a causal chain of events cannot lead back forever, without having a prime initiating point that is outside these rules.

Completeness

A fear of loneliness leads to desperate actions initiating pain. Enjoying the peace of solitude is breaking free from this chronic condition; and provides the realisation that if you are already complete in yourself then there is more love in you to share.

The Machine

Slot-in, copy and repeat, replace yourself, wear-out, then die.

Look down on someone to be a success.

Or change the program.

Perspective

The first stage of learning is being unconsciously incompetent: you don’t know what you’re not good at because you don’t know what you don’t know. Well-being skills can be learnt. One typical motif is that how you look at anything changes your experience; for example: anxiety can feel like pleasurable excitement, as the body in both mental modes vibrates in a similar state of high energy; or a difficult situation is your challenge to evolve and an opportunity for personal discovery; or peace of mind is your inner state of being, not the possession of external conditions. And so on, all empirically true but under-practiced.

Journal 2020-11-29

A background script to run

Triggered on recognition event()

Action.Pause

Script exit

Notice…..

Kindness.

Journal 2020-11-28

The verbal attacker desires to assert their ego over the other.

Social Status

If you behave outside of current norms, people will often interpret this as either the high status of trendsetting and being above what is usually expected, or low status not fitting in.

Status sensitivity is social madness because every single person is in fact unusual.

Capital

A satisfying aspect of being a monarch would have been to have resources instantly directed to your ideas whenever you wanted. Unfortunately it seems in all societies all around the world, these ideas were focused on who they were going to invade next.

Anger

Anger. What a silly thing.

Is it of any use? Nope, it unbalances you.

The orcs in the Lord of the Rings are driven by fury and are utterly useless at combat.

Energy from anger is polluted, destructive, counter-productive.

It can be used to instil fear, to incite others and to self-aggrandise - which is why it has been the emotion of choice by demagogues and sociopaths.

It is often learned as the default response to any frustration.

There is often anger at other people for not behaving as it is believed they should.

The reality however is that you have no real idea what has and is happening in the other person’s life you are judging.

The fact is you only ever see a tiny aspect of all the parts in motion.

Difficulty Level

Challenges are opportunities for insight - the harder the situation the higher the view.

Talkerism

In the world of work, a meeting without creating an output of value is a drain on energy and time. Incessant thinking is the perpetual meeting in the head; and if it is just going over and over the same issues without providing constructive insight, then it is pointless at best, destructive at worst. Outside this room of perpetual thinking is the freedom to notice and enjoy what is happening, instead of what you are imagining.

Journal 2020-11-13

If you are truly happy, it is impossible to be petty, self-absorbed or unkind. Happiness lives in a much better place.

Journal 2020-11-09

If you choose to share in the happiness of others, rather than compulsively dwelling on negatives, then you have happiness for free.

Journal 2020-11-08

I seem to get satisfaction out of pushing myself physically – maybe because in my mind I am subscribing to the motto “no pain, no gain”. A variation on the theme is that anything initially perceived as negative can be viewed as part of a greater improvement process.

Off and On

The old line with IT is that if you want a problem fixed “turn it off then on again”. The reason is that resetting can untangle mixed-up memory and processes.

The mind if not switched off will often relentlessly loop on the same set of thoughts, gradually wearing you down, sometimes with its own errors and fictions.

There are exercises that help you apply the IT solution, and they’ve worked for thousands of years.

The Compassion Override

In history there are countless examples where twisted interpretations of beliefs lead to the justification, or even glorification, of murderous and sadistic tendencies. Such beliefs give a person an identity in opposition to and superiority over other people, who can be condemned and abused from a position of personal righteousness.

True compassion serves as a natural safety valve to corrupted belief, for the overriding question is always: am I alleviating suffering or causing it?

Journal 2020-10-30

Original thinkers, artists and spiritual figures often had some of their best insights in the wilderness, in periods of solitude, outside of bustling society. Distance from the current melees gives a person a better perspective of the whole picture. More generally, insiders of the throng who are unaware of their predicament are condemned to behave as they think they are supposed to, blind to anything more than the current array of behaviours, even in extreme cases where it is insane.

Journal 2020-10-29

All human beings are unique.

Uniqueness doesn’t have a category.

Categories confine a life to a label stamped on the head.

Categories are boxed, ordered and under control.

Categories deny humanity.

Journal 2020-10-28

Demanding how other people think is a type of violent control, asserting oneself over them; seeing the multifaceted world, with endless possibilities, through just one dimension.