1) Set Clear Goals and Priorities:
The first step in effective time management is to set clear goals and priorities. Take some time to define your short-term and long-term objectives, both in your personal and professional life. Once you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, prioritize your tasks based on their importance and urgency. This will help you focus your time and energy on the most essential activities.

2) Plan and Organize:
A well-structured plan is the backbone of efficient time management. Start each day or week by creating a to-do list, outlining the tasks you need to accomplish. Break down bigger tasks into smaller, more manageable sub-tasks, making them less overwhelming. Use calendars, planners, or digital tools to schedule your activities and allocate specific time slots for each task. This will provide structure to your day and prevent time wastage.

3) Eliminate Time Wasters:
Identify and eliminate activities that consume your time without adding value. This includes excessive social media use, aimless web browsing, or spending excessive time on unproductive tasks. Be mindful of the time you spend on these activities and consider setting specific time limits or implementing self-imposed restrictions to avoid falling into the trap of time-wasting habits.

4) Learn to Delegate:
Recognize that you can’t do everything on your own. Delegating tasks to others not only frees up your time but also allows you to focus on high-priority responsibilities. Evaluate your workload and identify tasks that can be effectively delegated to capable individuals. Delegation not only reduces your burden but also helps develop the skills and abilities of others, fostering a more efficient and collaborative work environment.

5) Prioritize Self-Care:
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for long-term success and well-being. It is crucial to prioritize self-care activities such as exercise, proper sleep, and relaxation. Taking care of your physical and mental health ensures that you have the energy and focus needed to manage your time effectively. Remember that downtime and self-care activities are investments in your overall productivity and happiness.

6) Practice the 80/20 Rule:
The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Identify the tasks or activities that yield the most significant results and focus your time and energy on them. By prioritizing and dedicating more resources to high-impact tasks, you can optimize your productivity and achieve more with less effort.

7) Embrace Time Blocking:
Time blocking is a technique that involves setting aside specific blocks of time for different tasks or activities. It helps create a sense of structure and discipline in your schedule, ensuring that you allocate sufficient time for each task. Dedicate uninterrupted periods for focused work, allowing you to enter a state of flow and accomplish tasks more efficiently.

Conclusion:
Mastering time management is a lifelong skill that can significantly enhance your productivity and overall quality of life. By setting clear goals, planning effectively, eliminating time-wasting activities, delegating tasks, prioritizing self-care, and embracing strategies like the 80/20 rule and time blocking, you can take control of your time and make the most of every day. Remember, time is a finite resource, and how you manage it ultimately determines your success and fulfillment in both personal and professional endeavors.

Setting up a marketplace, arranging the chairs, and making everything look neat and tidy, they set to work. Their business? Selling.

Zeus said: “Hermes, you can declare the salesroom open, and a welcome to all comers. — For Sale! A varied assortment of Live Creeds. Tenets of every description. — Cash on delivery; or credit allowed on suitable security.”

Hermes, the messenger of the gods, all giddy with excitement: “Here they come!”

Zeus agreed: “Let’s not keep them waiting.”

All the buyers swarmed in. The sale began.

Hermes turned to the supreme god himself, and asked: “What are we to put up first?”

Zeus replied without hesitation: “The Ionic fellow, with the long hair. He seems a showy piece of goods.”

Hermes: “Step up, Pythagoreanism, and show yourself.”

Thus began one of the most curious tales written in Antiquity, Philosophies for Sale. Penned by Hellenized Syrian satirist Lucian of Samosata, it’s a tongue-in-cheek take on what was happening at the time.

Different philosophies were competing for adherents, each one promising the answers to life’s problems. Some went as far as affirming to reveal the mysteries of the universe.

While Lucian lived in the 2nd century AD, at the time of the so-called Five Good Emperors in Rome, his ideas are as pertinent as ever. For they poke at one of the most basic needs of people.

The need to understand how the world works, and how to tackle its challenges. People are perennially searching for answers. Now, as they were thousands of years ago.

Who am I?

Where am I going?

What should I do?

How should I live?

What is the greater meaning in life and the universe?

All these are questions you have probably pondered about at least once in your life. Whenever there is a need, or a demand for something, there is always a supply.

To answer these types of questions, and in order to guide people through life, a wide variety of answers arose. Many of these became arranged into neat little packages, called philosophies.

These philosophies are a collection of answers to pressing questions, approaches, and guides to life. Some more complete than others. Some strict, while others rather loose.

All waiting to be adopted by the knowledge-hungry, and worried soul.

Take a leap of faith or stay on the ground?

All these philosophies address one thing: a need for meaning. In the more primitive animal forms, this need doesn’t really exist. A lizard or a cat has three primary drives — to eat, to survive, and to reproduce. That’s it.

However, as the brain grew larger through evolution, a sort of sense of wonder arose. Some researchers have found it among our closest cousins, the primates. While curiosity is inherent in all kinds of animals, primate wonder is different.

Jane Goodall, who dedicated her life to observing chimpanzees in the wild, noticed this. When the apes she was following got close to waterfalls, their behavior suddenly changed.

As she described it:

“I can’t help feeling that this waterfall display, or dance, is perhaps triggered by feelings of awe and wonder. The chimpanzee brain is similar to ours. They have emotions that are clearly similar to those that we call happiness and sadness and fear and despair and so forth. So why wouldn’t they also have feelings of some kind at spirituality? Which is, really, being amazed at things outside yourself.”

Perhaps this is how religion began.

For much of early history of humanity, the supernatural was the explanation for how the world works. Religion played a huge part in explaining the universe, and gave guidance on how to behave.

However, in the 8th century BC, we see a first break from this type of view. Dubbed the Axial Age, it’s when some individuals turned their gaze inwards, and started to give normal, worldly explanations to how things work. In ancient Greece, India, and China.

And here we come to the first division of systems. Taking a leap of faith, or staying on the ground.

• Taking a leap of faith
• Staying on the ground

Taking a leap of faith usually involves the supernatural. People who choose to go this path adopt some sort of a religious system to guide them. Religions have a very developed set of answers to various problems you might encounter in life.

It’s easy. That’s why people often go for this.

On the other hand, staying on the ground is a bit more complicated. It usually involves accepting a little bit of what 20th-century French philosopher Albert Camus called absurdity.

If you are like me, and like to rely on evidence, religious explanations based on faith and belief don’t satisfy. That’s why I prefer more secular accounts of the world, and philosophies based on this.

Know yourself

In ancient Greece, carved into stone at the Temple of Delphi, you had a series of maxims. The first one is legendary: Know thyself.

It’s not a surprise this piece of advice was at the top of the list. It’s the key to anything you do in life. You need to know yourself. A basic understanding of your background, your motivations, and your drives is a prerequisite for drawing up a plan of action.

Not all paths will fit you. Not all explanations will satisfy you. Some are better than others for your particular circumstances and makeup.

What you need to do is to have a basic reflection on yourself. This should consist of two parts: how you are now, and how you want to be. It’s about examining your current self, and juxtaposing it to your ideal self.

Be honest about yourself. Only by having an accurate assessment will you be able to draw up the right path. Don’t give into illusions, but rather try to see things as they really are.

This is where the second basic division of deciding what systems to adopt comes into play.

• Adopt a system as a whole
• Pick and choose between different parts of different systems

Which style you pick depends entirely on your personality. One analogy often used here is that of a cook and a chef.

A cook is someone who takes a recipe, and then follows it to the letter. A chef is someone who would rather learn about the ingredients, and then pick and choose which ones to use in their own dish.

If you are a cook-type of personality, then picking a certain philosophy and adopting it outright might fit you best. However, if you are more like a chef, then going on a learning journey and picking different things from different philosophies and combining them into your own personal whole might be the best option.

I am more of a chef. I like to learn, and then pick things which make sense to me. I then combine them into my own personal philosophy.

What types of philosophies exist?

Philosophy is a widespread term encompassing a variety of subjects. It deals with the nature of the world, but also with practical ways of how to live in it.

It is especially ancient philosophy that is more practical. As the tenets set down by the old philosophical schools were meant to be applied in practice. This is opposed to much of modern philosophy, which is reserved for specialists.

French historian of philosophy Pierre Hadot summarized this division best:

“Ancient philosophy proposed to mankind an art of living. By contrast, modern philosophy appears above all as the construction of a technical jargon reserved for specialists.” — Pierre Hadot

In his study of philosophy, Hadot tried especially to take out the practical aspects as they apply to everyday life. He thought of philosophy as originally being a method of training people to wade through the pitfall of normal existence, rather than the theoretical construct it is now regarded to be.

“Philosophy then appears in its original aspect: not as a theoretical construct, but as a method for training people to live and to look at the world in a new way.” — Pierre Hadot

When studying philosophy, he boiled down the individual “spiritual exercises” that were at the core of each philosophical school. In his definition, spiritual exercises were “practices intended to effect a modification and a transformation in the subjects who practice them.”

Looking into the practical aspects of philosophy, we can identify several philosophical schools which are most useful for a person trying to get guidance on how to live life.

Some are more practical. While others more spiritual. Some are originally religions, but in modern times have been stripped down to philosophy. These are the most well-known ones:

Stoicism:

Famous ancient practitioner: Marcus Aurelius
Famous modern practitioner: Ryan Holiday

Epicureanism:

Famous ancient practitioner: Diogenes of Oinoanda
Famous modern practitioner: Thomas Jefferson

Skepticism:

Famous ancient practitioner: Cicero
Famous modern practitioner: Michael Shermer

Buddhism:

Famous ancient practitioner: Ashoka
Famous modern practitioner: Dalai Lama

Taoism:

Famous ancient practitioner: Lao Tzu
Famous modern practitioner: Bruce Lee

Existentialism:

Famous modern practitioner: Albert Camus

How to choose?

Life is about choices. Your choices are what makes you.

When choosing a life philosophy to follow, you need to take into account what you have learnt about yourself. What are your values? What are your goals? What are your weak points?

All these can play a factor in selecting the right approach to life. Sometimes you might want to emphasize your strengths. Often, you will want to work on your weaknesses. Different philosophical schools have different ways of solving problems, and one might fit you better than the other.

Some philosophies actually help you to know yourself better. They have techniques for that. For example Buddhist meditation is a great way to learn about what your mind is capable of.

Always keep in mind one thing:

• Some things you can change about yourself
• Some you can’t

This mantra has become associated with Stoicism, but overall it is a good maxim to always remind yourself of. That’s just how the world works, and no law of attraction will ever change that.

The world is a tough place. Often, it seems random. Cruel. Unsatisfying.

That’s why since time immemorial, people have been searching for answers. And providing them. In the words of Cicero, philosophy has often been life’s guide.

“O philosophy, life’s guide! O searcher-out of virtue and expeller of vices! What could we and every age of men have been without you?” — Cicero

In Lucian’s tale, the sale of Pythagoras and by extension Pythagoreanism, was followed up by Diogenes and Cynicism, Aristippus and Cyrenaic hedonism, as well as Chrysippus and Stoicism, or even Aristotle himself. All these, and more are still available on today’s wisdom market.

So which guide will you choose? Stoicism? Buddhism? Existentialism? Or will you go back and do a leap of faith? Or maybe, you will just pick and choose from whatever you think is best?

Are you someone who values discipline? Then Stoicism could be for you. Would you rather focus on avoiding pain? Then Epicureanism could work. Are you baffled by the absurdities of life? Existentialism could be what you are looking for.

All these paths are valid. They will lead you to a better place. With caveats though. Don’t be too rigid in your application. Keep an open mind. And try and try again.

You don’t have to decide now. It’s OK to keep on searching. And at different points of your life, you might need different answers. So it’s OK to switch as well.

Remember, the journey is what counts.

An earlier version of this article was originally published on “Medium” here.
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“THIS WAS THE CRAZIEST THING WE HAVE EVER DONE LOL” is what you find written under one ominous Youtube video. Posted on 22 November 2018, it has garnered over 167 million views.

Let that sink in. Since it was put online, this single video has been watched more times than the number of people who watched the Apollo moon landing. Or any of the Super Bowls.

Granted, some of these views were made by people who watched it multiple times, but still. Millions of people have seen it.

In the video, a slightly chubby guy calling himself Mr. Beast fills up a pool with Orbeez. Three million Orbeez to be exact. That’s not all. He trashes the rest of his friend’s backyard with 97 million more of them.

Mr. Beast is one of the most popular “creators” on Youtube. He is followed by over a hundred million subscribers. That’s more than the entire population of Egypt. Or Turkey. Or Germany.

We are living in a hyperreality

In his book “Simulation and Simulacra”, French post-modernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard compares the current age to a desert. Only the last vestiges of actual reality persist here or there.

Rather, it’s as if the world were stuck in a simulation, with actual facts, logic, or reason being left out of it. We have gotten so out of whack with reality that there is no longer any reference point we can hold onto. Baudrillard calls this state of affairs a “hyperreality”.

“Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or substance. It is a generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.” — Jean Baudrillard

The real world has died, to be replaced by images, noise, and likes. Whereas in the old days, most people would spend their time outdoors, now they are stuck all day staring at a screen.

Think about it. What does your everyday life look like? What is your reality? Are you more likely to pass by a bunch of advertisement boards on the street, or go into the forest? Are you more likely to go out and talk to strangers, or do you rather spend your time watching “Love Island” on TV? Living? Or watching influencers on Youtube?

Media, or rather “media”, is all around us. It surrounds us, and penetrates us, and binds everything together. Sounds a bit like the description of the Force that Obi Wan Kenobi gave to Luke Skywalker back in the original “Star Wars”, doesn’t it?

The triumph of stupid shit

Mr. Beast is the epitome of this hyperreality. What he does is utterly pointless. It’s wasteful. And stupid.

Yet, it’s what people watch. This watching is what people do. Rather than playing or running, they sit, and watch. And then they talk about it. When they do actually get together, the topic of discussion is usually not the natural world, or stuff pertaining to it. Rather, it’s actors, movies, or the latest Mr. Beast Youtube video.

Your average person can recite the entire biography of Justin Bieber to the tiniest of details, or memorize the shoe size of Cristiano Ronaldo, but not be able to locate their neighboring country on a map, or actually have kicked a soccer ball around. The notion of what is important has shifted.

Even when people do decide to go back to reality, and actually work on themselves, this hyperreality influences their actions. How many times have you tried to do the latest superhero workout, or Bella Hadid’s super-butt routine?

Exactly.

This fake world has invaded our real world. In your day to day life, references to images or memes coming out of this hyperreality pervade what you do. In your daily life, at play, and at work.

During the Donald Trump impeachment hearing, US congressman Hakeem Jeffries ended his long speech by a quote coming not out of law or politics, but the rap world.

“And if you don’t know, now you know.” — Christopher Wallace, the Notorious B.I.G.

The fact that most people have no clue what he actually talked about, but do remember this little bit, is quite telling. Music, movies, or the internet, which are meant to be simulations, have become so pervasive that people can’t tell what is real and what isn’t. Fake has become “real”.

The emotional impact of all this on the soul

Perhaps Jean Baudrillard put it best when he summarized the current human condition:

“People no longer look at each other, but there are institutes for that. They no longer touch each other, but there is contactotherapy.” — Jean Baudrillard

Tinder, Instagram, Youtube. Life is now an experience that passes through numerous filters. No touching. Fast. Easy. Meaningless.

People don’t want to do. That’s too painful. They want to be entertained. If shit is boring, then they click to the next channel. Boring of course is defined here as something which doesn’t produce an instant hit of dopamine.

Yet, this type of a mindset is quite damaging in the long-term. It kills your soul. Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman observed that society has shifted from being comprised of producers, to one made up of consumers. This in his view is one of the principal signs of “post-modernity”.

In his book “Consuming Life”, he notes how this current post-modern life can lead to perpetual unhappiness.

“If the privilege of ‘never being bored’ is the measure of a successful life, of happiness and even of human decency, and if intense consumer activity is the prime, royal road to victory over boredom, then the lid has been taken off human desires; no amount of gratifying acquisitions and enticing sensations is likely ever to bring satisfaction.” — Zygmunt Bauman

His analysis on the shift from a society of producers to one of consumers gives clues to where the roots of this general depression lie. In this world you are defined less by what you do. Rather, it’s what you want that matters.

And here lies the problem.

This type of a shift has a huge impact on the moral values one holds. It’s the superficial things that count. Your face. How you make me feel. Right now. Fast. Easy. Stupid.

It’s everything the ancient sages warned us against.

The ultimate lessons here is that the pursuit of superficiality, materialism, and easy pleasure has real world consequences on your well-being. It makes you feel like shit.

Why is that?

Psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl noticed that finding meaning is what allowed people to survive through the most difficult of circumstances, including those of the concentration camps. This he posited as one of the ultimate drives of human existence.

And this is where post-modernity fails. People search for meaning, but there is no meaning in a pool full of Orbeez. It’s just stupid.

How do you derive meaning? One way is by doing and making things. Working hard for things gives you a sense of pride and satisfaction. In our current world, you rarely do that anymore.

Researchers have shown that even the simple act of assembling IKEA furniture can make you happier than just buying it off the rack. How do you think you feel when you don’t make anything yourself, but rather watch others do stuff on your screen?

Yup. That’s right. Not very good.

And this is the essence of why post-modernity is messing you up.

And if you didn’t know. Now you know.

An earlier version of this article was originally published on “Medium” here.
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“The wisest of all, in my opinion, is he who can, if only once a month, call himself a fool.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Wisdom is about the ability to call yourself a fool. Thus spoke Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist whose works explored the human condition. His writing style peeked into his characters inner lives, penetrating deep into the darkness of the soul.

Humanity for him was a mystery. One that he spent his entire life studying. Why? Because he wanted to be human.

“To study the meaning of man and of life — I am making significant progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In a way, Dostoyevsky’s work reflected the principles coming down from Socrates of ancient Greece. Know thyself. The wisest man is the one who knows he knows nothing.

The Russian novelist took it a step further. He asked one fundamental question. Why are people so dark?

This is as pertinent as ever. The recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has reminded us of the evil that lurks in human nature. It is as present now as it was in the 19th century when Dostoyevsky was writing. Sometimes it goes into hiding, only for it to awaken with full fury in the worst of times.

The traditional view of evil gets it backwards. The darkness in humanity is not a reflection of the Devil. Rather, the Devil is a reflection of humanity. In one of his works, Dostoyevsky commented that humans created him in their own image.

“I think the devil doesn’t exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Society is corrupt, and always will be

The defining moment in Dostoyevsky’s life came right at the instant his life was about to be extinguished. As a young man, the writer got mixed up with a group of political radicals. Scooped up by the tsarist police, he was sentenced to die by firing squad.

Lined up, the countdown to his death already started, salvation for Dostoyevsky arrived at the last second. The tsar decided to commute his sentence. Instead of death, he was sent to a prison camp in Siberia. For four years he labored there in harsh conditions.

Yet, he constantly kept the lesson from his near death experience at the back of his mind. It would later inform the plot of one of his novels, The Idiot. This aptly titled work, describes one interesting aspect of the human experience. If you are a genuinely good person, you are usually taken to be an idiot by other people.

Prince Myshkin, the hero of the story, possesses all the positive traits and qualities an ideal man should have. He is kind. He is generous. He thinks of others before himself. This beautiful soul shines all around. And this is not an act. It’s all real and genuine.

Unfortunately, society chews him up and spits him out raw. He has no chance. The first sentence of the novel describing a train approaching St. Petersburg at full speed foreshadows that Myshkin’s life will be a train wreck.

Due to his goodness, everyone else views him as an idiot. It’s the classic example of the nice guys finish last trope. He doesn’t get the girl (who instead goes to an assholish nobody). He gets treated like shit. And his life ends up in ruins.

This character perfectly symbolizes how things work in this world. There’s no justice. No karma. No nothing. Goodness doesn’t get rewarded. Evil doesn’t always get punished. Life goes on. Or it doesn’t.

The End of History is a fata morgana

The biggest lesson of history is that there is no end of history. Human nature always strikes back.

The idealistic view some people have of truth and love prevailing is a fata morgana. Just like thirsty people stuck in the hot desert see images of oases in the distance, some people have visions of a perfect society in their head.

The problem is that when the wanderer approaches the supposed oasis, he finds out it was just a figment of his own imagination. It’s the same with society. When you think you know how to achieve a more just way of doing things, it all disappears in a puff of smoke.

Greed, envy, the lust for power are perennial artifacts of human nature. The average person has delusions of grandeur. Some bigger than others.

Dostoyevsky explores this in probably his most famous novel, Crime and Punishment. The protagonist there, Rodion Raskolnikov, is an ordinary guy down on his luck.

Finding himself living in harsh circumstances, he tries to conceive of ways to get out of poverty. He knows about an elderly woman pawn-broker living in a flat. She is rich, spineless, and Raskolnikov feels a deep revulsion towards her.

The idea of killing her pops into his head. Imagining how much better off the world would be without her, and how all that money she has could be used to save many poor people, he keeps mulling the idea around in his mind.

In a telling passage, Dostoyevsky has Raskolnikov justify his plan to kill:

“Kill her, take her money and with the help of it devote oneself to the service of humanity and the good of all. What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds? For one life thousands would be saved from corruption and decay. One death, and a hundred lives in exchange — it’s simple arithmetic! Besides, what value has the life of that sickly, stupid, ill-natured old woman in the balance of existence! No more than the life of a louse, of a black-beetle, less in fact because the old woman is doing harm.”

It’s a utilitarian argument that is popular even today. Kill the rich. Save the world.

Raskolnikov thinks of himself as an extraordinary person. The man he admires and styles himself after is Napoleon. In a later passage, he quips that all men in Russia think of themselves as the former French emperor.

This has a deeper meaning, pointing at how we as people view ourselves. We all think we are special. Extraordinary. The world revolves around us.

Studies show that 93% of drivers think they are above average. Nobody is average. At least in their mind. Everyone thinks they are Napoleon.

Raskolnikov on the small-scale, guys like Trump or Putin on the large-scale. And this is where history comes in. If people believe they are above the rest, then they think common rules don’t apply to them. Guys like Raskolnikov start breaking the small rules. Trump and Putin the big ones.

In the novel, Dostoyevsky has Raskolnikov publish a paper discussing this idea. In the heads of “great” individuals, the ends justify the means. Bloodshed is often the final result.

“Legislators and leaders of men, such as Lycurgus, Solon, Mahomet, Napoleon, and so on, were all without exception criminals, from the very fact that, making a new law, they transgressed the ancient one, handed down from their ancestors and held sacred by the people, and they did not stop short at bloodshed either, if that bloodshed — often of innocent persons fighting bravely in defense of ancient law — were of use to their cause.’’

In another novel, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky goes even further in describing how darkness can envelop a person’s mind. It starts off with lying to yourself, and believing those lies. This poisons your psyche, and dehumanizes other people in your thoughts. A slippery slope is the result.

“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.”

If you want to find something akin to laws of history, that’s where you should look. This tendency of human nature explains why events often appear cyclical. It’s as if history keeps on repeating itself. It never ends, just recycles.

Self-help Dostoyevsky style

There is one common theme about people running all throughout the different Dostoyevsky novels. People will always find something to be unhappy about.

It’s as if unhappiness just ends up climbing the ladder of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. First you are unhappy you don’t have food, water, or sex. Then once you have that, you are unhappy about not having a house. Then you cry about not finding love. Then self-esteem issues make an appearance.

Finally, you start taking drugs, because you are bored. That’s how humans are. They always find something to complain about.

And this is where you can take lessons from Dostoyevsky. While there are no final answers, his writing did outline certain paths. Accept that human life is suffering. You can’t escape it. It will always be there.

“Accept suffering and achieve atonement through it — that is what you must do.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky in “Crime and Punishment”

According to Dostoyevsky, people actually secretly yearn for suffering. It’s a counter-intuitive idea, but if you think about it, it’s true. Sometimes people prefer feeling sorry for themselves, over actually achieving their goal. Self-pity is a powerful emotion, one that reinforces your sense of victimhood.

However, that is another form of escapism. The point is not to yearn for pain, but instead to accept the reality of the world as it is. Dostoyevsky had much in common with existentialist philosophers. His ideas in fact influenced guys like Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre in their own thinking.

In Man’s Search For Meaning, Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl recalled an idea from Dostoyevsky that helped him pull through. Be worthy of your suffering. In this, he discovered a sense of purpose.

In your life you will face many absurd situations. While you might not be able to control what happens to you, you can affect the things you think and feel. Albert Camus had his Sisyphus smile in defiance while doing a repetitive task, while Viktor Frankl found meaning in the evil he was subjected to.

It has even been argued that Fyodor Dostoyevsky saw value in suffering. However, he didn’t mean the self-pity type of suffering. Rather, it is the existential suffering that proves transformative for an individual.

In Part I Chapter 5 of The Idiot, Dostoyevsky uses his own near death experience at the hands of a firing squad to teach a lesson. Through the words of the main character, he recounts the things a man about to die was thinking.

“What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge and count up every minute of it, so as to waste not a single instant!”

It’s only in being faced with his life ending, did the man discover how to live. With acceptance of suffering comes another element of living life according to your own terms. Gratitude.

Now, that’s the problem with humanity. People don’t take into account the good things they have in their life, until they lose them. That’s due to the negativity bias that’s ingrained in the human brain. It’s hard to bypass, but if you don’t want to spend your entire life being unhappy, go around it you must.

“People only count their misfortunes; their good luck they take no account of. But if they were to take everything into account, as they should, they’d find that they had their fair share of it.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky in “Notes from the Underground”

How to apply Dostoyevsky’s insights into your life

First of all, let’s get one thing out of the way. Most people won’t apply any of this. That is in keeping with Dostoyevsky’s appraisal of humanity. Humans are imperfect creatures, and they often don’t do the things they should do. That’s because people are mentally weak.

Even the man saved from being executed at the last minute ended up not applying his own advice. Faced with death, he had finally discovered what he must do to lead a good life. In The Idiot, Dostoyevsky has his main character mentally revisit this man.

What he finds out is quite in line with how humans often behave. The guy ended up wasting his life anyways.

“He said that he had not lived a bit as he had intended, and had wasted many, and many a minute.”

There is one grand truth about humanity. People don’t learn from their mistakes. Through exploring the human experience, Fyodor Dostoyevsky came up with a simple definition of a person:

“The best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky in “Notes from the Underground”

With these imperfections in mind, what can you actually do? Toughen up. Accept suffering as inevitable. Use it as a source of your strength.

“Man is not born for happiness. Man earns his happiness, and always by suffering.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

An earlier version of this article was originally published on “Medium” here.
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“Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful.” — Vincent van Gogh

Legend has it that the island of Nisyros was formed during a fight between Poseidon and the giant Polybotes. Apparently the sea-god cut off a part of the nearby island of Kos and threw it at his rival, trapping him underneath the boulder. Thus this rock in the middle of the sea was born.

Wanting to explore this mythical playground of the gods, I put the island on my itinerary while vacationing in Greece two years ago. Villages made up of iconic blue and white houses dot the landscape, but its most prominent feature is an active volcano.

From the main port, we took a small bus to reach the mountain of fire. After much huffing and puffing along the curvy island roads, this metallic veteran finally brought us to the edge of the abyss. Descending into the caldera of the Nisyros volcano, a mix of yellowish, brownish, and greyish colors gave the entire scene an otherworldly look.

With fumes coming out of holes in the ground, you sensed yourself in the presence of the mighty gods underneath. I decided to share the experience with a girl I was chatting with over social media. I snapped a pic, and sent it to her. Despite being far away, thanks to the magic of modern technology she received the photo instantly.

“It’s ugly. I know so many more beautiful places in the Greek islands,” came back her response.

I was shocked. Still surrounded by the volcanic rocks, and smelling the sulfur, my reply was curt.

“How can you say that? It’s nature. Everything in nature is beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

She was probably thinking about the other island in the Aegean known for its volcano, Santorini. Renowned far and wide for its stunning views, many tourists trek there for romantic getaways. Yet, her statement boggled my mind.

A caldera is created when magma explodes, collapsing the ground above. This leaves a huge depression surrounded by a circular ring of volcanic rock. For me, what I was witnessing was beautiful in its own way. It showed the power of nature, with unknown forces bubbling deep under my feet.

The volcano I was exploring was still active. Having last erupted over a century ago, it was due for a repeat at any moment. Nicknamed the “sleeping giant”, a powerful explosion in the near future is almost a given. All this added to a sense of wonder and awe.

Being in the presence of such power, and hidden danger, you are reminded of the forces that shape our planet and the universe. Contemplating the marvels of nature, you realize that beauty isn’t just on the surface. It is often churning just below.

Perhaps ancient philosopher Plotinus was onto something when he defined an unknowable first principle of reality. Finding this essence requires you step outside your usual way of looking at the world. In his work “On the Beautiful”, the founder of the Neo-Platonic school of philosophy stated that beauty is often of a higher order, invisible to the naked eye.

“We must enter deep into ourselves, and, leaving behind the objects of corporeal sight, no longer look back after any of the accustomed spectacles of sense.” — Plotinus

Find things beautiful as much as you can

In 1874, Vincent van Gogh found himself in London. After leaving home, he started to write letters to his younger brother, Theo. This long-distance conversation would last until his death in 1890.

Long before he became an artist, Vincent was drawn towards the art world. While working in the back-office of an art dealership in the English capital, he came in contact with the works of the most prominent painters of his era. Inspired by the emotions that their paintings stirred in him, the young apprentice sent his brother an insightful piece of advice.

“Find things beautiful as much as you can.” — Vincent van Gogh

The future genius artist was a man who wore his heart on his sleeve. In any language, uttering the word beautiful incites powerful feelings. In writing this little snippet to Theo, he revealed the ultimate secret to living life.

“Most people find too little beautiful,” added Vincent. By blocking yourself from seeing the beauty in ordinary things, you are surviving on half-empty. Years before he decided to become an artist, the elder van Gogh brother knew how to live it on full.

This perhaps was the secret to his infinite inspiration. His artist journey led him on untrodden paths, allowing him to see things differently. Long before van Gogh found beauty in colors, he discovered it in common, downtrodden people.

Ugliness can be beautiful

Perhaps it sometimes helps to turn the definition of beauty down on its head. After all, as Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Ecco noticed, beauty can be boring.

“Beauty is, in some ways, boring. Even if its concept changes through the ages, nevertheless a beautiful object must always follow certain rules. Ugliness is unpredictable and offers an infinite range of possibilities. Beauty is finite. Ugliness is infinite, like God.” — Umberto Ecco

Ever since the dawn of civilization, people have tried to measure beauty. Pythagoras found it in order. It is manifested in the harmony of things, and can be described using mathematical formulas such as the golden ratio. According to the measurers, beauty has its laws, just like nature does.

Taking this as his premise, mathematician George Birkhoff tried to quantify it. He came up with a simple equation defining what is beautiful. Beauty equals pleasure which is derived from two variables: order and complexity.

Whereas the majority have taken up this view of beauty, it is not universal. This rebellion against equating beauty with order dates back almost two thousand years to the likes of Plotinus. The great philosopher of Late Antiquity found beauty in simplicity, arguing that simple things like light or earth are beautiful in themselves.

If you think about it, while the universe demonstrates order, more than not it is full of disorder. In fact, as the second law of thermodynamics states, the entropy in an isolated system will tend to increase over time. Entropy is just a fancy word for disorder and chaos.

For the above reason, it is hard to justify equating beauty only with order and harmony. Instead, a kind of chaos inherent in the cosmos can be considered beautiful too. Indeed paradoxically, ugliness can be beautiful.

Beauty is an emotion

The power of art is that it stirs a viewer’s emotions. An intense feeling can arise not just from the perfect proportions and perspective of Renaissance masters like Raphael, but also from the utter madness of a Jason Pollock.

Nature contains both. That’s why it has had such a powerful effect on creatives throughout the millennia. As Vincent van Gogh remarked, nature teaches you to see.

“Always continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that’s the real way to learn to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love it, and teach us to see.” — Vincent van Gogh

Our world is full of beauty. You just have to look around to notice it. Yuri Gagarin, the first person to orbit our planet is said to have remarked:

“Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!” — Yuri Gagarin

What some people find ugly can be a source of inspiration for you. Even the volcano of Nisyros has been a fountain of creativity for some. Greek film director Eleni Alexandrakis returns to the island almost religiously ever since she discovered it for the first time 30 years ago.

Yet beauty is not just a factor of the material world. It exists also on a person to person plane. We can even find beauty in the relationship between two brothers.

It is due to Theo’s support of his vagabond brother, both moral and financial, that we can bear witness to Vincent’s genius. Without his younger sibling’s aid, the elder van Gogh would never have been able to focus on his path to achieve mastery.

What can be more beautiful than that?

Don’t close your eyes to the different forms that beauty can take. Expand your horizons. Indeed, it is important to find your own source of strength and beauty. Don’t let others define it for you. Make it a personal choice.

Appreciating beauty, whether classic or more unconventional, will open up a passage to higher forms of being and connection. For as ancient theologian Augustine of Hippo wrote, beauty is linked to love.

“Inasmuch as love grows in you, in so much beauty grows; for love is itself the beauty of the soul.” — Augustine of Hippo

Find things beautiful.

An earlier version of this article was originally published on “Medium” here.

Arthur Schopenhauer’s recipe for life in a tough world.

—

“Life is a business that does not cover the costs.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

The world is full of suffering. Wars, pestilence, and other humans make the planet a horrible place to live.

Happiness is an illusion, a mere fleeting instant in a life of despair. This is the premise behind the thought of Arthur Schopenhauer, history’s most pessimistic philosopher.

Yet, amid this doom and gloom description of the current state of affairs, Schopenhauer does leave a glimmer of hope. There is a way to live that can minimize pain and render a life satisfactory. However, to attain this wisdom, you need to understand the primary drivers of your own existence.

—

You are driven by a will to live

Schopenhauer posited that human existence, the existence of all living things actually, is driven by a will to live. This manifests itself in an impulsive instinctive striving of the individual.

This idea greatly influenced Charles Darwin, who quoted the German philosopher’s words in his book “The Descent of Man”. The British naturalist based his theory of evolution on one sweeping premise.

He proposed that the basic drive of all living things is to survive, at least long enough to reproduce. This mechanism that spurs the action of all living things is the will. It stems from the profound internal desire to exist, but manifests itself in many different ways.

This will to live lies deep in the subconscious, and from there shapes human behavior. Schopenhauer’s ideas influenced Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the will to power, by which he meant humanity’s need to control and to overcome.

—

Striving means you are never satisfied

While for Nietzsche the concept had a positive sense, for Schopenhauer the will to live was a negative force. It was behind all the bad things that humans did in the world.

It was also the cause of the fact that a person is never satisfied. They are always striving for something, and when they achieve it, that momentary moment of bliss is replaced by more painful striving.

No amount of striving or even achievement can satisfy a person’s insatiable will. That is why, according to Schopenhauer, happiness can never be permanent. It can only happen in very fleeting moments, interspersing long periods of dissatisfaction.

This fundamental nature of the world was what made Arthur Schopenhauer a pessimist.

—

Life swings between pain and boredom

“The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer is famous for his quip that life is like a pendulum, permanently swinging between two states: pain and boredom. This constant back and forth is what characterizes human existence.

With this definition, he doesn’t leave too much room for a positive happiness to exist. Instead, Schopenhauer argues for a negative happiness. Influenced by the ancient Greeks, for him happiness was just an absence of pain.

The idea behind this is quite simple. For example, take the happiness that a person feels when they get a new job. Schopenhauer would argue that it is not the joy of getting a job that you feel.

Instead, it is a sense of relief of not having to worry about how you are going to put food on the table. It is also the fact of being freed from the stressful process of looking for a job in the first place.

However, according to Schopenhauer, escaping from pain often leads you to experience the other side, boredom. In this way, your life ping pongs between two bad states, never arriving in a constant happy state.

“Needy surroundings and poverty produce pain; while, if a man is more than well off, he is bored. Accordingly, while the lower classes are engaged in a ceaseless struggle with need, in other words, with pain, the upper carry on a constant and often desperate battle with boredom.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

This is consistent with the negativity bias that humans are wired for. Schopenhauer saw that humans tend to focus on the parts where they have problems, instead of the whole context.

“We do not feel the health of our entire body but only the small place where the shoe pinches.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

—

There is a way to arrive at a satisfactory state of existence

“For our improvement we need a mirror.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer was greatly influenced by Hindu and Buddhist thought, reading the “Upanishads” and various Buddhist works available to him. He was inspired by the way of life of Indian ascetics, and believed that this was the best way to escape the diktat of the will.

However, this manner of living was not for most people. The great German pessimist described several other routes to escape from suffering, and live a life that is satisfactory.

For Schopenhauer, knowing the true nature of the world was a required prerequisite for being able to at least derive some satisfaction. An understanding of how the world works, with all its suffering, was what he tried to achieve in his first major work “The World as Will and Representation”.

His other major work titled “Parerga and Paralipmena” was a sort of self-help book showing how to live in such a world. Arranged in 31 short chapters, this publication was what made the philosopher known to a wider audience.

For Schopenhauer one way to at least temporarily escape from the negativity bias inherent in human nature is to turn things around and practice gratitude.

“Our cognition of satisfaction and pleasure is only indirect, when we remember the sufferings and privations that preceded them and ceased when they appeared.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

Remember, the world owes us nothing. Suffering is the natural state of the universe. Zero-sum games, like the eternal struggles between zebras and lions on the plains of the Serengeti, are part of the basic structure of the world.

That is why you always have to feel grateful for the good things that you have in your life. Often, you only realize the positive things in your life when you lose them.

Schopenhauer was a believer in minimalism. Wanting what you do not have is at the basis of the mental suffering that you have in life. The way to diminish this anguish is to want less.

If you minimize your desires and concentrate on things that you can control, you also lessen the pain you feel. This allows you to experience more moments of this negative happiness that Schopenhauer believed was all humans could get.

—

Contemplate beauty to experience joy

For Schopenhauer, the key to living in a horrible world was to live in the moment. While as a pessimist, he didn’t see the possibility of too many occasions for experiencing pure joy, there were some.

The few times you will experience real unfiltered joy is when you unhook from the powers of the will. This can happen when you contemplate a work of art, the beauty of nature, or learn about the world.

In those instants, your brain goes beyond its basic instincts, and blends with its surroundings. This is when you are no longer bound as a slave to your master, the will, but are truly free.

“What might otherwise be called the finer part of life, its purest joy, just because it lifts us out of real existence and transforms us into disinterested spectators of it, is pure knowledge which remains foreign to all willing, pleasure in the beautiful, genuine delight in art.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

There have been a few moments in my life that I have been able to experience what Schopenhauer describes. Catching these rare, life transforming episodes is one of the reasons why I started climbing mountains.

When I read the parts by Schopenhauer about purest joy, my mind immediately raced back to the times I stood on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Blanc, and other peaks. Even on less strenuous hikes, looking at the valleys and the nature below, these self-transcending emotions come into existence.

This is something hard to describe in words. It is a thing you have to experience for yourself in order to understand. In those instants, I really did feel like I escaped the world and its problems. I was finally one with my surroundings.

—

How to apply

You don’t have to fully subscribe to Schopenhauer’s worldview in order to benefit from his insights. While the world might be a place full of suffering, even as a pessimist, you can achieve a life that is satisfactory.
The way to do that is to want less.

“We must set limits to our wishes, curb our desires, moderate our anger.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

Remember to feel gratitude for what you have. Above all, try to learn about the world, and maximize your moments of appreciation of aesthetic beauty. In order to do this, visit a museum with works of art, go hiking in nature, or do things which will help you wonder.

When you experience pure beauty, you also get to feel moments of pure joy. It is for these small moments that we live for.

“Pleasure in the beautiful consists, to a large extent in the fact that, when we enter the state of pure contemplation, we are raised for the moment above all willing, above all desires and cares; we are, so to speak, rid of ourselves.“ - Arthur Schopenhauer

This story was originally published on “Medium” here.

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Laszlo Polgar is an unassuming man. In his old age, his white beard and round face make him look like a green-eyed Fidel Castro, but otherwise if you crossed him on the street, you would probably not take a second look.

What distinguishes Laszlo from other people is his methodological drive. As a young man, he had read the biographies of 400 extra-ordinary people in order to find out what made them special.

His conclusion was that the secret ingredient was starting very young and studying hard.

“When I looked at the life stories of geniuses, I found the same thing. They all started at a very young age and studied intensively.”
— Laszlo Polgar

He had identified a common theme among all these stories of supposedly “gifted” people, an early specialization and intensive training in one particular subject.

He became a big proponent of nurture over nature as the way to create a genius.

“A genius is not born, but is educated and trained. When a child is born healthy, it is a potential genius.”
— Laszlo Polgar

Being the methodological man that he is, Polgar decided to put his theory to the test.

After he married his wife Klara, and his first daughter was born, Laszlo started his experiment.

His daughter Susan was going to become a chess champion. Her parents made up a plan and dedicated their life towards this goal.

Susan’s life, and later also the lives of her two sisters, Sofia and Judit, were spent studying, practicing, and playing chess. Their entire day was organized around this one activity.

It turns out, Laszlo was right. All three of his daughters became chess champions, with Judit and Susan being the top two ranked female chess players in the world for many years running.

It is all about the 10 thousand hour rule

 
In the book “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the work of psychologist Anders Ericsson on the nature of expertise.

In his research, Ericsson found that there was a pattern among the various world-class people in different disciplines.

They had all engaged in long hours of deliberate practice, meaning very focused practice beyond one’s comfort zone.

On average, the amount of deliberate practice needed to get to the top of a discipline was 10 thousand hours, hence the 10 thousand hour rule.

This required hard work, and a very structured program intended to make progress.

“So here we have purposeful practice in a nutshell: Get outside your comfort zone but do it in a focused way, with clear goals, a plan for reaching those goals, and a way to monitor your progress. Oh, and figure out a way to maintain your motivation.”
— Anders Ericsson

In order for this to get results, the quality of the practice counts as much if not more as the quantity of the practice. This means a good plan, and dedication are required if you want to be world-class in your discipline.

What if you are too late to apply the 10 thousand hour rule?

 
The problem is that the results of the social experiment of Laszlo Polgar, or the findings of Anders Ericsson, are a bit too late for most people reading this article.

Unless you have been specializing in your discipline for a long time now, you have probably already missed your window for deliberate practice as the road to the top.

What should you do now?

Here, we can apply some of the insights that the great primatologist Jane Goodall found a few years into her study of chimpanzees in Africa.

When Goodall arrived in Gombe to study the local chimpanzee community, the alpha, or leader of the troop was Goliath.

He was a huge ape, who had probably spent his entire life working on his strength, and ruled his community because of this specialization.

At the edge of the community lived another chimp who was named Mike by the researchers. He was lowly in status, smaller than most of the other males, and looked quite scared at times.

However, at one point he found several empty canisters left over by humans. By playing with them, he discovered that they made noise and could be used to frighten other chimps.

He used this to his advantage, and within 4 months, he had displaced Goliath at the top of the hierarchy.

What made Mike have the ability to overcome his initial bad position?

The reason, according to Martin Jones in his book “Feast”, was a combination of skills and traits that he had.

“He seems to have risen through the ranks from a quite lowly position by a combination of guts, intelligence, and threatening use of the empty kerosene cans he found.”

While Goliath was actually decent at making tools, and despite the name no dumb brute, Mike’s ability to bring together several things won out the day.

Mike’s competence at combining different skills was able to overcome his rival’s initial advantage in size and strength.

While other chimps from time to time played with the cans, it was Mike who figured out how to use them just a bit more effectively.

This got him to the top.

However, even after the researchers took away his canisters, Mike was able to maintain his leadership position.

Subsequent research across different chimpanzee communities found that while large males specializing in strength rose to the top position much more easily, the individuals who could combine different skills stayed at the alpha position for a longer time.

What separated Mike from the rest was his ability to stack his different skills.

He didn’t have to apply the 10 000 hour rule, but instead used a different strategy. Because of a combination of skills, he was able to overcome his initial disadvantage.

Apply skills stacking

 
While humans in modern times live in a much more complex society, where the hierarchy is not always so clear cut, and where we are members of several different groups at the same time, similar dynamics apply as in the jungle.

Just like chimps who have the ability to combine different skills in order to overcome their initial disadvantage in size can become leaders, humans too can rise up in status through their ability to mix and match expertise from different domains.

The advantage of this type of approach is that you don’t have to be a world-class expert in any of the domains, but just being better than average in several of them can be a huge asset.

Scott Adams, the man behind the “Dilbert” cartoon explained how he applied this to get to where he is now:

“Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort.”
— Scott Adams

He stated how he could draw better than most people, but would hardly qualify as an artist. He would never make it as a stand-up comedian, but he is funnier than most people.

For him, it was the combination of these different skills that made him so rare.

“The magic is that few people can draw well, and write jokes. It’s the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it.“
— Scott Adams

Just by being in the top 25% in these various disciplines, Adams was able to create a unique niche for himself, and become a world champion in that niche.

The great thing about this is that with this type of approach you can rise to the top quite easily, because you are the one creating your niche, which automatically makes you the champion of that niche!

Skills stacking has allowed me to quadruple my salary

 
Skills stacking has been my strategy to the top. I am not the best in the world in anything, but I am in the top few percentiles in a lot of things.

This has often served to my advantage.

Straight out of university, I was stuck at a lowly job, but I decided to work on developing skills in some areas that I was weak at.

While I had studied humanities and economics at university, I started programming and developed a deeper knowledge of IT.

While, I am not the world’s greatest economist, or the most efficient project manager, and my programming skills are quite mediocre, the ability to combine these skills, as well as some others (semantics and data models anyone?), has allowed me to form my own niche.

In that niche, I am world-class.

This has helped me to basically create my own position and at one point to get a job which instantaneously quadrupled my salary.

The expert generalist is your path to the top

 
While yes being a world-class specialist can get you a lot of recognition, it also requires a lot of hard work and lots of time.

For most people, this route is already out of bounds.

However, by stacking your skills and becoming a Renaissance Man, you can have an advantage over your peers.

The way to get there is to determine what skills you already have that are above average, and figure out which skills you still need to complete the package.

Once you have picked the skills that you want to work on, you should come up with a plan of self-improvement. The great thing is that it doesn’t take that much effort to become above average in any one discipline.

Sure, you will never become world-class in any specialization, but by stacking the different skills that you have, you can create your own discipline.

There, you will be world-class… automatically!
 

 
Read More:
Return of the Renaissance Man: The future belongs to expert generalists.

This story was originally published on “Medium” here.

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“Taoism extols the virtue of flexibility. What survives on Earth is what effortlessly adapts to the changing environment and changing circumstances.” — Ernie J. Zelinski

Founded around 500 BC, Taoism is a Chinese philosophy that focuses on living in harmony with the “Tao”, which can be translated as “the way”, “the path”, or “the road”.

In many ways, it is a perfect guide to a person’s journey through life. Taoism is all about floating effortlessly amid the different things happening in the world. It is a mindset that allows you to adapt to your changing environment and your shifting circumstances.

American spiritual teacher Frederick Lenz described Taoism as having no rules:

“It’s a suggestion for perceiving life in its wholeness, without unnecessary categorization, yet enjoying the beauty of categorization.”

Tao is a paradox. It’s about not having categorization but enjoying the beauty of categorization. It’s like Schrodinger’s cat problem of quantum physics, where the cat is both dead and alive inside the box.

For a modern, logic-based mind this is hard to comprehend. However, to physicist Fritjof Capra this paradoxical view is the very essence of nature.

Only now with the advent of quantum physics has science started to analyze the paradoxical nature of the universe.

As Capra states: “Whenever the essential nature of things is analyzed by the intellect, it must seem absurd or paradoxical. This has always been recognized by the mystics, but has become a problem in science only very recently.”

The founding of Taoism is traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, and mystic. He is credited with writing the “Tao Te Ching”, the fundamental text of Taoism.

Lao Tzu is often regarded as an ancient sage, whose wisdom transcended the ages. His sayings have served as a guide for people who wanted to know how to conduct their life.

In many ways, contemplating the teachings of master Lao Tzu will open up your mind, and allow you to gain a new perspective on yourself and the world.

Master Yourself

“Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.” — Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu’s teachings reflect the lessons that many wise sages from around the world have discovered. You are your greatest friend, but also your greatest enemy.

If you want to master others, first you need to master yourself. While knowing others might make you smart, knowing yourself will bring true wisdom.

Self-reflection is what will lead to self-mastery. Engaging in meta-cognition, and being aware of your thoughts and why you think them is a crucial skill to have.

Attaining mastery over yourself is both physical and mental. However, most people make excuses not to do it.

The thing is not to remain complacent. Life isn’t about comfort zones. Don’t tell lies to yourself. Better yourself instead.

“A self-willed man has no other aim than his own growth.” — Bruce Lee

If you go to public parks in China, you will see groups of old people doing exercises. Many of them will be practicing t’ai chi, while others are engaging in some other form of exercise.

They are working on attaining physical and mental mastery over themselves, even in old age. This type of mindset is what gives you true power.

Gain wisdom

“To attain knowledge, add things every day.
To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” — Lao Tzu

Learning about the world happens in paradoxical ways. In order to attain knowledge, you need to add things every day. You have to be constantly reading, writing, and discovering.

However to attain wisdom, you need to remove things every day. At first this might be hard to grasp, but you will get a picture of what this means once you look at some Zen stories.

In one such famous tale, an important man used to being in charge, came to a Zen master wanting to learn what it is all about.

Looking sternly at the master, he said: “I have come today to ask you to teach me about Zen. Open my mind to enlightenment.”

The Zen master just smiled at him and said that they should discuss the matter over a cup of delicious tea.

The master then set a cup in front of the man and started pouring. The tea rose to the rim, but the master kept on pouring.

Soon, the tea was overflowing, spilling all over the table, until it started getting onto the important man’s clothes.

“Stop! Enough! Stop pouring! Can’t you see that the cup is full?” yelled the man.

This instantly brought a smile to the master’s face. He stopped pouring and said: “You are like this tea cup, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty.”

Zen (Chan) Buddhism was greatly influenced by Taoism and reflects many of the key precepts of the Way of the Tao. Several of the things you learn in Zen, also apply for Taoism.

One concept in Zen is the beginner’s mind. You need to let go of your preconceived notions and open up yourself to the world.

Get rid of your anger, biases, and ego.

When you attain wisdom, you will see that you need less, not more. You don’t need to chase after riches or fame. Life is about living simply.

Several more of Lao Tzu’s quotes show what it means to be wise:

* “Wise men don’t need to prove their point. Men who need to prove their point aren’t wise.”
* “The mark of a moderate man is freedom from his own ideas.”
* “The wise man is one who knows, what he does not know.”

Practice without practicing

“Act without act. Work without work.” — Lao Tzu

If you want to go on a journey, you always need to take the first step. As Lao Tzu said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

It is practice that is the important part of your life journey. The destination itself doesn’t matter that much.

However, in practice you need to separate hard work from smart work. Smashing about mindlessly might be hard work, but it is not smart work.

As the first part of Chapter 64 of the “Tao Te Ching” reminds us, you need to solve problems when they are still small. If you want to succeed you have to do the difficult things when they are still easy.

Act without acting, and work without working.

For Taoism, this means going with the flow. Alan Watts, the British author who popularized Eastern religions and philosophy in the West gave the example of boats in water in order to illustrate what going with the flow means.

If you have a rowboat, you need to struggle and use all your power to go against the water. However, if you have a sail, then you don’t need to strain anymore. You have the wind do all the work for you.

This example shows well the concept of “wu wei” or effortless action. It’s about being spontaneous in a free-flowing way, doing action through non-action.

The point is to just do, not try. This kind of sounds like what Yoda said to Luke in the swamps of Dagobah, but in reality it is an old Taoist precept.

Edward Slingerland who wrote the book “Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity” is of the opinion that trying too much can in fact have the opposite effect from what you want to achieve: “Thinking that you are good can make you bad. Talking about positive behavior can encourage negative behavior. Lao Tzu is clearly on to something when he warns us that consciously trying to be righteous will, in fact, turn us into insufferable hypocrites and that anyone striving to attain virtue is destined to fail.”

Life is often unpredictable and can get in your way even in the best of times. You make plans, and then something unexpected happens.

At times like this, it is when the principle of wu wei really shines. Just roll with the punches. You might have wanted to throw a right hook, but your opponent surprised you with a jab.

Duck away from the punch, and continue with your game plan. If the game plan isn’t effective, change it up for another. It’s no big deal.

Don’t think too much about doing things, just do them. Psychologist Jonathan Schooler believes that Lao Tzu had the right idea: “Particularly when one has developed proficiency in an area, it is often better to simply go with the flow. Paralysis through analysis and overthinking are very real pitfalls that the art of wu wei was designed to avoid.”

Paradoxically getting the ability to look like you are not trying, often requires a lot of effort at the beginning. It takes practice to become a master.

In martial arts, the masters of these disciplines often look like they are not engaging in any effort and dispatching their opponents with ease. However, in order to get to that level, they had to undergo years of training.

In many ways, “wu wei” resembles the state of “flow” described by modern psychologists. This is all about being in the zone, immersed in the activity you are doing, and even forgetting the passage of time.

Keep your cool

“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.” — Lao Tzu

As you live in a society of people, and most people are not very enlightened, you are bound to encounter uncomfortable situations.

Many people will treat you in an unintelligent manner, shout at you, or put you down. You have to keep your emotions in check in such situations and respond intelligently.

One way to do that is to “be like water” as Bruce Lee says. The concept of water is very important in Taoism.
According to Frederick Lenz, water is the most used metaphor in the philosophy: “Taoism is the way of water. The most frequent element or symbol referred to in Lao Tzu’s writings is the symbol of water.”

While water may seem soft and weak, in fact it is very powerful. It can fit in any space, and over time, it changes all the nature around it.

For Lao Tzu, water shows how the principle of softness can overcome hardness. “Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.”

The lesson to take from this is to always keep your cool. In practical terms, this can take many forms.

One technique that I like to use is one that I took from improv. It’s called “Yes, and…”

The way it works is easy. If someone insults you, you just confirm the insult, and add another thing to it, seemingly making it even worse. This way you show that you don’t care. In an instant, this disarms your attacker’s power.

This is in fact an ancient technique used by the likes of Stoic master Epictetus.

“If you learn that someone is speaking ill of you, don’t try to defend yourself against the rumors; respond instead with, ‘Yes, and he doesn’t know the half of it, because he could have said more.” — Epictetus

The quote on responding intelligently is from one translation of chapter 63 of the “Tao Te Ching”. In other versions, the part is translated as “respond to resentment using kindness” or “return animosity with virtue.”

However, no matter the translation, the lesson stays the same. Turn the other cheek, and show that you are the better person through your actions.

Stay humble

“Accomplish but do not boast, accomplish without show, accomplish without arrogance, accomplish without grabbing, accomplish without forcing.” — Lao Tzu

If there is one thing to remark about many of the greatest ancient sages is how humble they were. Humility is an important trait that you need to have if you are to live a happy life.

Humility is a key ingredient for wisdom. Lao Tzu, just like Socrates, knew that despite all the learning and thinking that he did, in reality he knew nothing.

In the “Tao Te Ching”, Lao Tzu described how much power staying humble actually gives you. He talks about how all the streams flow to the sea, because it is below them. This is the secret to its power: humility.

A wise ruler doesn’t boast or tries to place himself on top of others. In fact, he follows.

In a striking passage, Lao Tzu reveals the secret of a good ruler. “If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn to follow them.”

You should stay humble, just for the sake of staying humble. However, the paradox is that by doing that, you will accomplish a lot more than by boasting.

Your Take-away

Taoism is full of paradoxes, but paradoxes are the basis of existence. By keeping this in mind, you will have learned one of Lao Tzu’s greatest lessons.

Master yourself
Gain wisdom
Work without working
Keep your cool
Stay humble

Remember to put these insights into practice. For as you know, practice is the key that unlocks life’s treasures. Just do it.

This story was originally published on “Medium” here.

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“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few.” — Shunryu Suzuki

I remember when I was a teenager, I was quite stubborn. In many ways I still am. What makes my current mindset different from that of my old self is the fact that I am actively working on getting rid of this hard headed nature.

I was a basketball player in high school, with delusions of future grandeur. One day the coach tried correcting my shooting stance, yet I ignored the suggestions. I knew better.

The problem was my ego. It prevented me from seeing that I could be wrong. It was only after I started reading books influenced by Taoist and Zen Buddhist thought that I started waking up to all the basic mistakes I was making in my life.

One concept stood out for me. It was “shoshin”, the beginner’s mind. In order to progress you need to get rid of your ego, and start seeing things from the perspective of a beginner. This was a revelation that changed my entire world-view.

One of these life changing, mind blowing books of wisdom is a little book called “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”. This is a collection of talks given by Shunryu Suzuki, a Zen Buddhist master.

Towards the end of his life, Suzuki moved from Japan to the US. His work was instrumental in popularizing Zen Buddhism in the US and around the world.

The book is divided into 3 sections titled:

• Right practice
• Right attitude
• Right understanding

These three phrases correspond to body, feeling, and mind.

Reading the book will help you if you feel your life is chaotic and lacks direction. Modern life is all about being bombarded with emails, pressure at work, and just general nonsense. Now a global pandemic has disturbed life as we know it. This has made many people feel agitated, stressed, and anxious.

The lessons of Zen master Shunryu Suzuki can be life changing. Applying them can show you how to have a calm mind in all the noise happening around you. Who knows, maybe they can even start your journey towards enlightenment.

Empty Your Mind

“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything. It is open to everything.” — Shunryu Suzuki

Zen Buddhists believe that the original state of a person’s mind is non-demanding and pure. However over time it gets corrupted and loses its state of self-sufficiency.

Ego thinking takes over your internal mental states. Your motivations become less pure, more centered on selfishness. This makes it much easier for your mind to transgress and become immoral. This is how stealing, cheating, or other vices enter your behavior.

Shunryu Suzuki mentioned that for most people these ego-centered ideas usually end up taking over their life. This leads to a karmic life, a cycle of actions and reactions which shape your destiny.

In order to get away from karmic life, you need to empty your mind first. An empty mind is ready for anything, and open to anything. The key here is to get back to that pure state where you had no ego, and your only want was to learn.

This type of mindset is found in babies, and beginners. The Japanese term for this is “shoshin”, or beginner’s mind. To truly learn, this is the state you need to be in.

By adopting this type of frame in any situation that you are faced with, you can get away from all the negative things that are holding you down. Instead, you enter a state of true joy and positivity. This is the Zen mind.

If you want to have a Zen mind, you need to keep your beginner’s mind. It’s a mind that is open to different possibilities, one that is ready to doubt, and to accept. In this way it differs from the mind of an expert, which is usually set in its ways and habits.

The key to having a beginner’s mind is not to have self-centered thoughts. Instead take a step back and stop thinking of achievement. It is about having a non-ego attitude.

Shunryu himself could serve as an example of a person with this type of attitude. He was a modest man. In many ways his attitude epitomized Socrates’ statement “All I know is that I know nothing.”

The words “satori” or “kensho” are the Japanese terms linked to enlightenment or Buddha-nature. In the foreword, the editor of the book mentions a joke by Shunryu’s wife about why the Zen master very rarely mentions these terms. It’s probably because he “never attained satori.”

Even as he became a renowned Zen master, Shunryu stayed humble and didn’t let hubris get to him. His ego never entered the equation. Wise as he was, he could see that just like Socrates, all he knew is that he knew nothing.

This is probably the most important lesson to always remember. You need to empty your mind, stay humble, and approach everything with a beginner’s mind. If you get rid of your ego, you will open yourself up to something much greater.

Work On Yourself First

“Usually, without being aware of it, we try to change something other than ourselves. We try to order things outside us. But it is impossible to organize things if you yourself are not in order.” — Shunryu Suzuki

Suzuki’s great insight was that people are control freaks. They try to organize things around them. However, they never realize the fact that you can’t order things, if you yourself are not in order.

That’s why you need to work on yourself first. The purpose of Zen teachers is to open up your mind, to get you to wonder. In this way you start posing questions and answering them, finding your own nature in the process.

In many ways this is very similar to the ancient Greek mantra to “know thyself”. Suzuki mentioned that the purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but instead to study ourselves.

This focus on your inner state reminds you of the fact that the only thing under your control is you. Life is about taking things into your own hands. Don’t expect anything from anyone. It’s up to you how you act in the face of life.

“Before you make your own way, you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.” — Shunryu Suzuki

Unless you help yourself, you will not be able to help anyone. And furthermore, no one will be able to help you.

One thing to realize is that the priorities of most people are wrong. They chase money, fame, or spend their time satisfying their instant gratification.

Working on yourself implies clearing your mind of illusions. It’s not just about having empty values, but also how you approach things. Shunryu reminded his students that a lot of things are outside human control. What you need to do is to just observe.

A big part of Zen practice is meditation. This involves sitting in a lotus position called zazen. While seated like this, you are supposed to breathe and try not to think about anything. Zazen practice requires discipline, but it is a necessary step for mastery over yourself.

For Zen Buddhists, this practice is the path towards enlightenment. Breathing cultivates awareness of the true nature of humanity. And this realization is part of achieving Buddhahood.

You Yourself Make The Waves In Your Mind

“Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind.” — Shunryu Suzuki

Zen Buddhism has many parallels with Stoicism. It is not the events themselves that matter, but your opinion of them. It’s not the outside that causes trouble, instead you yourself are the one who makes waves inside your mind.

The point of Zen is to help you to remain calm in midst of a chaotic world. While things happen around you, the true reality lies inside your thoughts. Zen practitioners make a distinction between a “small mind”, the mind driven by your ego, and the “big mind”, your higher self at peace.

It’s about being above it all. The big mind is a calm mind. Thoughts inside your mind are just like waves in the ocean. You can’t stop them from coming, but you can lessen their impact. This you learn to do when you switch over to your big mind while doing zazen, breathing, and sitting in the lotus posture.

“You are always complaining about something. But for Zen students a weed, which for most people is worthless, is a treasure.” — Shunryu Suzuki

One part of accessing the big mind is changing the frame you take towards things. As Suzuki says, most people are always complaining about something. However, a student of Zen turns this bad thing into a good thing.

For example, one person could see failure as something to be sad about. However, a person using their big mind turns it into a learning opportunity. Not only do you learn about how to do things better, you learn about yourself.

Real Calmness Is Found In Activity

“Calmness of mind does not mean you should stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself.” — Shunryu Suzuki

The aim of Zen Buddhist practice is a calm mind. This is usually done sitting in zazen, engaged in mindfulness and meditation. However, Suzuki says that this is not the only way to achieve calmness. Real calmness can be found in activity itself.

While this might seem a bit abstract, I have discovered what he means by this. In the past few years in order to get away from the chaos of modern life, I started engaging in strenuous activities that really challenge me. I took trips to train in martial arts in Thailand, but also did high-altitude hiking and climbing.

Hiking in nature is where you experience calmness. It is also where you really get to live in the now. For you are stuck between your start and your destination, and the only thing you can do is to keep on moving.

As you get more and more tired, you concentrate on each step. It’s all about putting one foot in front of the other. Martial arts training also gives you similar types of feelings. Maybe that’s why in Japan, Zen practitioners are also often martial artists.

“When you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind. You should be concentrated on what you do.” — Shunryu Suzuki

One piece of advice that Shunryu gave to his disciples is to engage in the things that they do with their whole body and mind. You need to be engrossed in your activity.

This advice is similar to what people like Einstein gave as well. In a letter to his son, Albert Einstein wrote that the secret to learning is to do things with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that time passes.

When you are fully engaged in an activity, you enter a state of flow. This is a concept that modern researchers have used to describe a mental state of being fully immersed in an activity. You are in the “zone”.

It’s about hyperfocus and concentration. In such a state you merge action and awareness, and your sense of time and space is distorted. You become so engrossed with the experience that other things stop mattering.

Some people have even posited this state as the key to happiness. Zen Buddhism doesn’t believe in duality, but instead in oneness. This means that there is no difference between your mind and body. They are one. In states of flow, this becomes a reality.

However, you need to keep in mind that the point of doing activities should not be to seek things that are outside your control. If you do that, you will never find them.

There is a difference between seeking calmness or any other larger abstract goal like freedom, and doing activities that could (but might not) result in calmness or freedom.

These things are largely outside your control. The only thing you can do is to engage in activities, and find calmness or freedom on the way. They will be a by-product of what you do. Don’t seek, but do!

“If you seek for freedom, you cannot find it.” — Shunryu Suzuki

The Struggle Itself Gives You Meaning

“Just to continue should be your purpose. When you do something, just do it should be your purpose.” — Shunryu Suzuki

It is the struggle itself that gives you meaning. Zen Buddhism is all about the journey. The destination is just secondary. This type of thought really epitomizes the old Nike slogan of “just do it!”

For Zen masters excellence is not the goal, but perseverance is. Practice of Zen isn’t about achieving certain results. It’s about bringing focus.

“At first you will have various problems, and it is necessary for you to make some effort to continue our practice. For the beginner, practice without effort is not true practice. For the beginner, the practice needs great effort. Especially for young people, it is necessary to try very hard to achieve something.” — Shunryu Suzuki

When you start practicing Zen, or any other activity, you will most likely struggle at first. That’s OK. To struggle is the point. It actually lets you learn and allows this to stick better.

“Those who find great difficulties in practicing Zen will find more meaning in it. So I think that sometimes the best horse may be the worst horse, and the worst horse can be the best one.” — Shunryu Suzuki

In fact, those people who find great difficulties in practicing Zen (or anything else) will find more meaning in it. People usually don’t really appreciate what they get for free, but treasure things that took effort to achieve.

Talent often doesn’t matter. Suzuki gives an example of horses. The best horse, the one which has the most talent, might cruise naturally at the beginning. However, it might not work as hard to improve.

On the other hand, the worst horse might struggle at the beginning. However, by working hard, at the end it can become much better than the naturally talented horse. Hard work beats talent.

“Those who are very clever with their hands often encounter great difficulty after they have reached a certain stage. This is also true in art and in Zen. It is true in life.” — Shunryu Suzuki

Talented people often reach a plateau and struggle once they reach a certain stage. One reason could be that they are coasting on their talent, and don’t adopt a beginner’s mind.

“Our understanding of Buddhism is not just an intellectual understanding. True understanding is actual practice itself.” — Shunryu Suzuki

Suzuki emphasized practice. This was the key to everything. You don’t become better by reading about it. You become better by actually practicing. That’s why whenever you want to improve in anything, you need to have a two-pronged strategy, where you combine reading and learning with actual practice.

All this advice is very practical for every day life. In a world of hustle and bustle, in a world halted to a standstill by a pandemic, Shunryu Suzuki’s tips can help you to gain perspective. Above all, they can show you how to keep a calm mind.

This type of mindset can really make a difference as you face your challenges day to day. Remember, a Zen mind is a beginner’s mind.

Read More:
Everybody wants to be a ninja.

This story was originally published on “Medium” here.

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