Discovering Jainism – For Business
The first time I consciously remember hearing about Jainism was when I was in the middle of an obsession with sevens and eights. Inspired by Timothy Leary's and Robert Anton…
Don’t believe that you “should” meditate
Meditation or Mindfulness Practice, as the kids are calling it these days to stay more bias free, is becoming popular again. From events like Wisdom 2.0 to internet entrepreneurs like…
Who is “I”?
I seem to be a point of perception that collapses probabilities into actuality by means of observation. The probability fields that surround me seem to be archetypal (e.g. male/female, gravity,…
Meditation can make your life hell
"Man Describes How Meditating Made His Life Hell" - a catchy headline in a world where mindfulness meditation is beginning to get traction from Silicon Valley conferences to boardrooms, to…
In search of meaning…
Since becoming aware of his existence, man has sought to give meaning to it. In his comparatively short life on earth, a whole array of philosophies, cosmologies, ontologies have arisen and have been amply documented. In terms of their stance on the underlying meaning, nearly all of these models of reality fall into one of two categories: materialistic or spiritualistic.
Materialism
Materialistic models focus on matter, on this life, the tangible, sensually experiential, this life span, while spiritualistic concepts focus on spirit, the other life, the non-visible, intangible, the domains of other worlds, the afterlife.
Materialistic philosophy can be traced back at least to the Greek philosophers, who tried to find the “stuff” the world is made of. Some assumed earth, some fire, some water, some air, each providing elaborate systems which could explain why this or that particular element was superior to the others. As man began to grasp the world around him, he tried to find underlying meaning within it. Being in this life, he tried to find explanations within this life for his very existence. As matter was a core element of everyday experience, he sought to thus explain this existence with the building blocks he had available.
What is meaningful?
Most of the time, we do things habitually: We get up, brush our teeth, put on clothes, commute to work, do what we know how to do all day, get ourselves some entertainment, undress, go to bed, sleep. Rinse. Repeat.
Habits are the foundation of existence. Habits of thought, emotion, deed. If we had to rethink how to brush our teeth, how to walk, what we do everyday all the time, we would go insane – and we probably would not be able to function all too well in this reality. Most of the habits we have serve us. Otherwise, we would not have let them become habits in the first place.