June14th
I love this passage from the Isha Upanishad on the infinite nature of the Self, of mind and consciousness.
The Self is everywhere. Bright is the self,
Indivisible, untouched by sin, wise,
Immanent and transcendent. He it is
Who holds the cosmos together. [Isha, 8]
This is about our non-locality, our pervasiveness throughout the All and our role in the creation of the All. Or, as it has also been written: Tat Tvam Asi.
May15th
I keep thinking that the best ideas will come when we can get past self-interest and get to a baseline of true collaboration. In my own work, I’m fortunate to have a tremendous creative partner that has great ideas and insights that feed well into the way I think and together we’ve been able to create work I’m very proud of as a creative.
However, this isn’t always the rule. My question is why? What do we have to lose by opening up and letting good thinking in regardless of where it comes from? Are we that territorial?
This from Get Back In The Box by Douglas Rushkoff.
Open source is more than a computer-programming ethos. It’s the impetus to an approach toward work and life that makes secrets and protectionism obsolete, and opens the floodgates of innovation on an unprecedented scale. As of yet, however, most people and businesses are still unprepared to confront the challenges to their own sense of competence that go along with it.
In other words, as Rushkoff writes, “Open source may be a new business model but it’s also a well tested, even ancient, approach to innovation.”
Personally, I like the notion of transparency. It’s honest and sincere and in an industry plagued by deception and skepticism, we need a fresh dose of truth. This begins with the ways in which we work and conduct ourselves. Besides, if we haven’t figured this out yet, people don’t want to be sold, they want instead to be inspired by brands that mean something to them, brands that resonate with their value systems and sense of self.
We gotta start somewhere. Why not the creative process?
February16th
There’s a thought in the introductory essay of Eknath Easwaran’s translation of The Dhammapada, which is his commentary on the book, that we see the world not as it is, but rather as we are.
We impose a range of biases and past experiences on our present and future actions. Even with regard to our interactions with people, we don’t see others as they see themselves, but as we see them. Therefore, we experience each other and the world in very selfish ways and how the world is perceived will be different based on the mind and ego of the experiencer.
He retells a story that is relevant for today when he writes of two men who go to foreign lands to experience and report back what they find. One found the people basically good at heart and generous. The other, a bit jealous, found that the people he experienced were selfish, scheming and cruel. In turned out that both we describing the same land.
As Easwaran writes, ‘”We see as we are,’ and our foreign policy follows what we see.” When I apply this idea to my country, the whole concept becomes very troubling.
The ultimate idea here is that if we change ourselves, we change the world around us, even if in subtle ways. Because all change, like revolution, starts within. And true revolution, like true change, is about the heart of the individual.
Or, as Robert Anton Wilson always said, “What the thinker thinks, the prover proves.”
