take care

a koan. i don't remember exact wording, so excuse my memory.
a student came to a master and asked to tell him about enlightenment.
- have you eaten your meal? - asked the master.
- i have.
- go wash your bowl!
student was enlightened.

it was one of the first koans i've come across. i did not get it then. and lengthy explanation got thing even more messy. :)

it's simple though. if we don't wash dish after meal we get mess in kitchen. similarly, if we don't study and take care of our mind, we get mess in our lives. we all know simple things like meditation. we eat and wash dishes, have shower, brush teeth and meditation is something unnecessary. nobody tells about it on TV like they do about health so that medical industry had their profits, they tell about foods, gadgets and another war. we hear and believe. we do as they say. then, suddenly, we are unhappy. seeing the sun, we do not smile. seeing the rain, we do not smile. to know how weak we are and to take care of our weaknesses is something we can do tomorrow. this way we never learn to be happy.

nosce te ipsum - know yourself. then take care. if not you, no one will.

good luck.
mickael

helping another

helping another without naming the person is of little use since every human is unique, thus has to be the approach. so, here are few basic guidelines my experiments found to be useful in most cases.

• confidence. one has to study the matter well before considering helping. i can not help another to do something that i can not do.
  
• compassion. it's not that we need to feel for another person. we need to be another person. with fears and desires of that person. with joy and pain of that person. trick in doing so is to have the self be silent.
• peace. likely many of you know the feeling, that when you discover truth of some teaching, it is delighting, and there comes the wish to share this wisdom with others. stop. do not. whenever you are not at peace, be it joy or unease, do not try to help another for in this case we pass our illusions onto them.
• focus. earlier i discussed that human mind is a wonder even the fastest supercomputer would have trouble processing. this wonder needs complete focus when working with another wonder like it is. every sight, breath and word matter. how exactly this my thought is helping that person before me?
• know. the better you know the person you're trying to help the more likely it is to see the results. helping a stranger does not give visible results almost at all times. silly me - what am i doing then? :)

good luck.
mickael

attachment

earlier i discussed the base function of human mind - learning to give certain output on certain input. every thought we repeat forms certain output on certain input, i.e. forms a habit.

is it possible to have no thought thus no habit? likely. however, to have existing habits fade one has to have no thoughts for months at least. plus it would efficiently deny most of the communication and analytic functions. to cease thought is an exercise, not a goal. thus, forsaking habits is not the goal. while we think, we have habits and we have to think to communicate with other humans.

is it possible to have habits and still be at peace? certainly. what is attachment then? evidently, a habit that brings discomfort. from most trivial like feel depressed or angry if someone insults us and feel anxious if we don't get something to which we are used to; to those more tricky to notice like "he wrote a good thing", "i did well", "i won't be like that".

in a nutshell habit is simple, yet, as complex our mind is, habits aggregate: base habits dictate directions, those of a higher level dictate trends, higher level dictate flows and top level are most evident and easiest to fade, though many find them not easy at all. :) aggregate habits stand together, otherwise they would not have aggregate. and they dictate limitations, to which we adhere. those limitations bring discomfort.

so, how do we break free of attachment? it is to imagine for one moment that there are no limitations. literally. then repeat that thought. then again. and again. and again. and again. then figure most base of attachments and have them fade, i.e. not repeat them. quite simple. quite difficult. :)

and remember: do not believe anything i say. use critical approach and test things out on your own. it is only known way for a human to learn.

good luck.
mickael

joy & sorrow

i discussed this matter earlier, yet this one deserves to be repeated like a mantra, as people to whom i communicate do not tire to remind me of this with lack of smiles on their mind.

there are things we fear. there are deep secrets we do not share with anyone. they are but guidelines to what is holding us. these are great symptoms of attachments, habits we've built up so far.

so, what to do about them? in my experience shock gives best results and almost in all cases guaranteed results. how? start telling truth. always. i did that late winter night in 2004. one of the things that helped me most. it is very difficult in the beginning. it is painful. now it's natural and peaceful.

what do you fear most? confront it. face to face. have control over it. teach your mind to have no fear. if it's harmful in reality, this can be done with imagination. results in this case are not so dramatic, yet fine in place in most cases.


to deal with the self we have to cut the strongest of its roots. enough reading. go practice.

good luck.
mickael

smile!

if we'd recall recognised teachers of the present or images of teachers of the past, absolute most of them, if not all, wear a smile most time. why? this is a reflection of their mind, an exercise to keep the mind that way and an invitation to all who need help.

the mind will not learn to be peaceful and smiling if not trained that way this very moment. thus, smile every moment and let that smile be sincere. :)

good luck.
mickael

AI

artificial intelligence, namely neuron network systems, is one of areas of my professional expertise. what's a neuron network? roughly, it's a mathematical model of a brain. if someone is interested in the technical side of the question, please ask me for directions. what matters for today post is that neuron network, or a brain for that matter, is a determined mathematical function of certain complexity. the complexity is such, that if we take human brain, even the fastest supercomputer will have trouble processing the function.

so, what's about it? function of a neuron network is not self awareness, depression, blue sky and green grass, etc. the only function of a neuron network is approximation, i.e. learning to give certain output on certain input. any output can be taught on any input. self awareness for example is not required at all in approximation; moreover, it eats up damn lot of calculation power giving more obstacles in approximation than benefits. yet, self awareness is what we are taught from birth.

so, what are we supposed to learn from that? two things at least:
1. we merely are a learning function. if we take control of the input and the output, we can literally reach any results.
2. we are what we teach ourselves or let ourselves be taught.


sorry for all the boring technical stuff today. :)

good luck.
mickael