Memes

So, did you catch the latest meme? The last popular thing going around your social circles spreading like wildfire across the world? Yeah you did. Because you're up to date, follow what's happening.

But the idea of memes as originated by Richard Dawkins, implied so much more than cute cats and magical proposals. The problem with the idea of memes is that it seems like an almost useless idea. '

The idea was that people transfer ideas and that these ideas can be though of as form of idea-gene for a culture. So, a meme, insted of a gene. The idea being that culture as we know it is based on a very large set of memes that interact. Like the meme of capitalism. Or the idea of communism. The idea of rock, of musicals, of hammering a nail, screwing a screw,  adding numbers or even the very idea of numbers.'

The problem with "memes" is that they are so hard to define, since most everything is a meme. Any thing that you can think of, is a meme. Now, if it's a good meme, you should be able to transfer that meme to someone else. To be a good meme, it has to be contagious. Like gangnam style. More than one billion people saw that video. Now, that's a succesful meme.

Last night I got this great idea of how to optimize the workflow at work.So, I presented the idea to my boss, but he just turned it down. Now, was it a bad idea?  Or was it a bad meme?Baybe the idea was great, but the meme I wrapped it into, wasn't very succesful in propagating.

So, is my idea dead? Maybe. But, even if my idea is bad, could I wrap it into a succesful meme anyway?

Sadly, I probably could. A good meme doesn't have to be a good idea. Back up 20.000 years and back then, the pressure was different and a good meme had to have some real value. Like the meme of how you best kill a large animal. That meme will help you survive.

I have no idea what the value of the "Gangnam Style"-meme is or how it progress our culture and way of light. I have no problem seeing the value of the "this is how you make fire"-meme. But the "Gangnam Style"-meme?

Anyway, I'm writing this to try to propogate another meme. But it's a sublte one.So subtle that I seem to be needing a lot of words to describe it.

There are simple memes, like the meme of "2+2=4". It's simple. And it spreads. Or the meme of "sweet is good". But there are more complex ideas. Like the idea of phenomenology. That is a more complex idea, a much more complex meme. To understand that meme, you would have to understand other memes first.

And the meme I want to share with you, is very complex. I need to explain a few concepts before I can even come close to explaining the meme I want to transfer to you. 
So, I'm asking for you to indulge me. And in return, I will give you a meme.

Wanna Meme?

A rare magician

Most magicians are so good that some of us sometimes wonder if magic is real. All the while fully aware that it isn't. If you put your mind to it, you can often get a rather good idea of how the magic trick was done. But for the most part we keep our brains lazy and enjoy the wonder of seeing reality broken.
Today, I will break magic, thanks to a video of a magic Norwegian on youtube. Go ahead and catch this short video or watch it below (about one and a half minute) and then come back and read how he did it. Better yet, try to figure it our for yourself and then come back here and see if we agree.

Welcome back. So, the magic is that he knocks these paper balls through the table from below. Of course that's not what happens. Why? Because that just can't be done - don't waste time speculating about him actually getting the paper balls through the table.
That leaves us with the question: How does he get the paper balls under the plates? Well, he cheats. Take a closer look at 0:47 in the video when he is laying down the first plate. We believe that he leaves a paper ball below it, but he doesn't. Look at his left hand as he removes it from the plate. You can just see something white between his fingers on the outside of his palms. Yes, that's the paper ball, no longer under the plate but between his fingers.
And when he puts down the second plate, he slips the first paper ball below it - now there are two paper balls below the second plate.
Then he takes one of the free paper balls and takes it below the table, and apparantly knocks it through the table up under the plate. But wait - there are already two balls of paper below that plate, so when we see the two paper balls under the plate, he still has a paper ball in his hand.
Before he puts the plate down, his left hand comes out from under the table, and he slips this paper ball under the plate as well. So, now we have three balls under one plate (but the casual observer believes there are only two balls under it).
He repeats the stunt, taking his left hand below the table and seemingly knocking it through the table up under the plate and shows us the three paper balls we already know are there. And then he uses his left hand again, to slip the fourth ball below the plate, all the while a person is holding down the first plate - which is merely a stunt, since he removed the ball from under that plate at the beginning.
And repeat: left hand under table - this time without any paper balls, and then the reveal: There are now four paper balls under the plate. But it's not magic, just sleight of hand. As you probably already suspected, but now you KNOW.

Oh, and by the way - the two tricks to learn if you want to do magic like this are:

1. the way he picks up the first paper ball, between the fingers on the outside of his palm. (0:47 to 0:48)
2. the way he uses his left hand to put down the plates. Remember, he has a paper ball in the left hand and he always brings the left hand up to put down the plate - thats when he slips in the paper ball. It happens at 0:48, 1:01 and at 1:13

A little practise, and your ready to do your own magic.

Media, the new Buddha-teacher

Back in the days of the Buddha, enlightenment was almost impossible to attain. Today enlightenment is much easier to attain. Not because we're nobler beings, not because we've grown. But simply because we have access to a much, much larger  amount of data about living. We see other peoples lives, fictional and otherwise, play out in cinemas, on tv, on facebook, in games. People are everywhere, and their lives are described in minute details in the public.

We now more about the pitfalls of being human than ever before. We know about sins we do not commit ourselves. We learn about the challenges of other people all the time. And the brain dissects all that data and it compares them to you and your life.

And you only need to do one thing to make all that knowledge help you on the way to enlightenment. You just need to be aware of what is going on in your mind.

Today most people experience enlightenment in some form or other. Extreme sports is the pursuit of that golden moment of enlightenment where the acts you do makes you forget yourself and enjoy the pure joy and fright of the moment. That is enlightenment. That is freedom.

Bored people experience enlightenment when they find that special moment where somehow it all makes sense. Busy people feel enlightenment when suddenly there's no more to do on the todo-list.

Buddha didn't have all that data, but he sat him self by the road and watched life roll by, he saw people passing by, and he gathered data about life. Day after day. Until suddenly his brain reached the tipping point and enlightenment was unavoidable.

Today, Buddha, would sit still in front of the tv for a month, and he would be enlightened. He would play games for weeks, driving himself to exhaustion, and he would reach enlightenment. Or he would dive into the worldly pleasures until they were no longer pleasures and he would become enlightened.

Today, Buddha is you. Just watch, be aware and let life go on, and you will get there. Enlightenment is for everyone.

Buddha was right, but now he's wrong.

The middle way that the Buddha found is no longer applicable. Not really. His insight is no less stunning today than it was way back then, but all of those Buddhis practices are relics from a different age.

You don't have to live in seclusion to find enlightenment. You don't have to say no to the world to let go of the world. You don't have to live healthy to find the way. In fact, all you have to do to find the way, is to wake up.

And for most of us, the awakening is not sudden. Enlightenment doesn't hit you like a brick wall and changes everything. For most of us it takes years to wake fully from that worldly dream we call reality. And still, we are more awake today than we were yesterday, and we will be more awake and aware tomorrow than we are today.

And setbacks are ok. It's quite ok to relax if you've worked to hard. It's ok to step back to humanity and enjoy the comforts of good company, Jack Daniels, Viagra, cigarettes or Joints, or what ever kind of stimulant you prefer. You can dive into a hedonistic lifestyle for a while, just to ease the pressure.

AND IT WILL NOT STOP YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT.

As soon as you've taken that first step, there is nothing to stop you from being more aware. Nothing will stop you from waking up. As soon as that first step is taken, enlightenment is coming to you. All the wordly pleasures that you might take refuge in as reality is being taken apart, will serve as pitstops. You can stay there for some time, but sooner or later, you will, by your self, want to move on.

So don't worry about you faults. Don't worry about your addictions. Don't fight them. Notice them. Notice how you enjoy it and why you enjoy it. You don't have to fight it or even do anything about it. Actually, fighting it, is the worst thing you can do. AA is not a cure for alcoholism, it's just a sustained fight against the acts of alcoholism. No wonder AA-people still call them selves alcoholics: The fight against it, maintains the AA inside.

Now, just to be quite clear: You can lose your way. You can become such an addict that you will always fight enlightenment. You can become consumed in the fight for the next fix. But still, notice it. Don't fight it. Just notice what you do, why you do it and how you like doing it.

Just take a few minutes right now. Look out. This is the world. Forget the pressure of work or the IRS. Forget about your lover, your child, your family. For just a second, just be you. If you find yourself thinking about things, just acknowledge the thought, and then try to let it go.

What you will see is a world that just is. The people over there? They have no intentions, they have no hidden agendas. They just ARE. As are you. There is just existence. THere's just this moment. And in that moment the world may exist, but all the mental projections of hope, love, hate, fear, joy, sadness are gone. They do not exist until you let them exist. There is no hate in the world. There is no sadness in the world. There is no Joy, no fear, no hope, pain.. there is only the physical world around you. All else is you. Forget about you, and it will be like letting go of a 100 pound backpack. It will set you free.

Just for a moment.

And next year, that momemt will be twice as long. And the year after, you might be able to remove yourself from the equation at will. And if you get that far, enlightenment is just around the corner.

Forget about the Buddha. Forget about scripture. Forget about gurus or holy men. Only remember that all you see in the world is created by you, and just start to be aware.

Go get it Tiger, enlightenment is so cool !!!

Meditation doesn't have to be 'spiritual'

Although meditation is very often, if not always, associated with some spiritual practice, it doesn't have to be. There are very good rational reasons to meditate, and don't worry; you don't have to visualize Lotus-gardens or Buddhas to get the benefits.

Meditation is just one thing: being aware of what's going on inside of you. Most of the time most people look out upon the world and most of the time most people think about all the stuff out there. Meditation is to be aware of what is going on in your mind.

You can meditate anywhere and anytime. You don't have to sit down, you don't have to be isolated, you don't have to be calm.

In short: Forget all the stuff you've heard about meditation. You only have to do one thing to get started: Notice your self.

Now, some people do this without even thinking about it. It's just a way of life. I do it all the time. I notice as much as I can.

But why should you even bother? Because it pays. You will learn things faster. You will be calmer, most of the time. And when you lose your calm, you will regain it faster. As you start meditation, you will gain more and more control over your life. When something happens, you'll be better at handling it. When everything goes wrong, you'll find a way out faster.

So, how do you do it? Simple. Just notice what happened. What did you think? What did you do? What happened? Every time you notice yourself you store data about your self. And when your brain has enough data, it will tell you something you never noticed about your self. Oh, the reason people get pissed off at me is that I actually sound pretty arrogant sometimes. Oh, the reason he pisses me off, isn't that he's just annoying, but that he's existence reminds me how fragile I am sometimes.

And every insight, banal and simple as it may seem, will slowly transform your life and you'll suddenly find yourself master of your own mind. What that means is that you'll be able to optimize YOU in any situation. Nervous when talking to people? Start meditating and sooner or later you'll be able to NOT be nervous.

And again, it's soooo easy: Just notice your self. Make your mind linger, just for at second, and reflect on what just happened. When you get more used to meditating, you'll be able to reflect on things as they are happening.

Trust me, it's worth it.

The things we aren't but think we are

What are you really? It seems to me finding out what you really are, is the hardest thing in life. It's difficult to figure out, and it's often very hard to face the illusions we have created through a lifetime.

You are not an illusion. You really are in this world, you really exist. But what are you?

I cut off your arm, and you're still you, right? You get older, but you are still you, right? Sure, the person you were a year ago, did not contain all the stuff that you contain now. You have new memories, maybe you've changed your attitude somewhat, you may know more things and more people. But I bet you still think you are the same person.

Most of us think like that. This is our life, and the experiences we've had through life is something we've experience.

A few years back I realized that the only thing that is really me, is the thing in me that doesn't change. I can not be the person who like sports, cause a few years ago I didn't like sports. So, the I in me, must be the one who can change my attitude. I am not my attitude, I am the one who experiences my attitudes, even when they change.

I'm not the lover, the fighter, the sleeper, the thinker, the debater, the writer... I'm none of those things. I am the person who can be all those things. Like I am a person with an arm, I am a person who writes.

It's so obvious really. We even say it, but we rarely get it.

And we don't even have to get all spiritual about it. I don't know if we have souls. I don't know if we are spiritual beings. And I don't care.

What I do care about is finding ways to empower my self. And when I feel that I am something, I do not empower myself: I limit myself. Saying you are one thing, stops you from being something else. That is a limitation.

And the way out? Stop defining yourself. You can be good, you can be mean. You are not good. Neither are you mean. You are something that can be both. At different times, you have been both. You might even have been both good and mean at the same time.

Stop confusing what you can do, with what you are. Stop thinking in specifics about yourself. It limits you, and oh, by the way, it sets the world ablaze with conflict and war.

You are. And so, you can be a lot of things. But none of those things are you. They are only things that you can be. Even movie stars are not really moviestars. They are something else, that has the capacity to do what they do. Al Pacino is not the actor Al Pacino. Justin Bieber is not the singer Justin Bieber. They are, they exist, but they aren't anything. They are not even their names.

They are. Period.

The power of 'so'

There is one word that is so powerful that it can change your world. That word is 'so'. The reason that it's so powerful is that it frees your mind and soul from things that are messing with your mind.

Someone just said something hurtful to you? Best response is "so?". Cause what does it really matter what others say about you? The only place this matters is in your mind. And you have the power to release yourself from that burden. Just say "so?"

Its either all Magical or not all

What would you choose: knowing how magic works and not being able to use it? Or not knowing but being able to know it?

living outside the mind

Odds are you're like most other westerner: you live by the mind, you experience life through your mind and if your mind is not in it, it doesn't exist.
But what would life seem like, if you didn't evaluate everything with your mind? Is it even possible?

Yes it is. You can experience life directly without any evaluation or judgement. The surprising thing is actually that you find it hard. We are flesh and biology before we are mind. But by now, in this time and age, we're all, everyone of os, minds. We don't experience our bodies, we don't really live our feelings. Instead we are navigating meme-structures that we've been maintaining since the first trick hit us the first time.

But, you are NOT your mind. You are either the entirety of your being, or nothing at all.

Have you thought about it? Really thought about it? If you really have thought about it, then your missing the point, because thinking about a life without thinking, is really not a possibility. Either you try to let go of the mind and experience. Or you hold on to you mind and devaluate any experience you have.

There is no inbetween. Get it?

If you THINK about life, your result will be more thoughts. And those thoughts will never be true. They are like shadows that seem real, until you reallyfocus and realise that they are like the clothes of the emperor: They are not really there.

And likewise with your thoughts. They are but shadows of reality, and if we believe the shadows, we will never see the reality behind them.

Obvious, isn't it ;) ?

How the first trick is messing with you

The first trick is not that mysterious. It's not even magical. It's something that happens to you everyday. Are you immune to it or are you just another loyal slave not really knowing why you do the stuff you do?

Find out in our riddle test. If you can't solve it, you've been had by the first trick. And chances are you're being had 20 times a day every day. Can you live with that?

If you can, don't take our test, but just leave this blog and go about the business that you think is your business (but really its someone else's business and you don't really realize it).

If you are at all interested in being in control of your life, take our test.