Shout Outs to Teak and Atha! The only two people from Stanford that keep in touch (sort of, Teak, I know your working on it) and check this blog. haha. well done.
Now, on to Shameless Blog Surfing.
I've recently (not really) encountered the "next blog" button at the top of this page. It's amusing. I love it. I don't know why. It's just so interesting to see who blogs. And since this is somewhat along the lines of my work, I want to quickly list to you the type of people who blog.
- Random start-up business - Don't ask me why. They just do. A lot of the time they're Thai too. Thai start-ups. haha
- Artists - This is no surprised. What better place to publish their art to a wide (as long as they advertise well) range of audiences? Lots of photography, paintings, fashion mishaps, and so forth.
- Brazillians - Don't ask me why, but almost half, if not more, of the blogs I encounter are in Portuguese. So may their Portuguese? - you ask me. I considered that, but most of them are based in Brazil. Who knew Brazillians were such avid bloggers.
- Mormon Families - Again, don't ask me why. But this is what a particlar morman family blog is like. There's a beautiful family photo of young parents and usually a baby. Next to the photo is a quick description of who they are, when they got married, where they live, etc. Below that are about 10+ links to blogs of other family members. Something like "Family Blogs: George and Becca, Nicole and Steve, Emily and Clark..." The posts themselves would include photos of events, little random musings of the day, and family trips. Yes. It's true.
- Celebrity Stalkers - Photo after photo of their favorite celebrities with no other explanation.
I'm so glad I've returned to the blogging world.
Moving on to the next topic - New Found Freedom
So recently, I was starting to realize that as much as I loved reading A New Earth and The Path To Love and so forth, I was having a hard time with it. I didn't know what it was. I was just having trouble with it. I understood the concepts, but to me, it felt like what they were saying - living in the present - meant discouting everything in the past and all thoughts of the future. I'm sure this is never what they meant, but to me, that's all I kept hearing.
Then I asked a friend of mine one day out of the blue, "what do you think of this idea of 'living in the present'?" and from there on, it sparked a mini conversation between the two of us until he finally ended his thoughts with "If we're living in the present, and we're happy enough, why bother with the philosophy of it?"
And then it hit me.
That's true. Why bother reading and studying and figuring out how or why we live in the present if we do it and are fine with it. Okay so maybe the first part isn't quite right. I don't know if I phrased that right. But that's true. If one makes the effort to live in the present, and are content with the way one does it, then why explore the deep philosphies of it. It's understandable if one wants to do it out of interest, and studying its philosphy and trying to understand what people are studying is not a bad thing. Welcome to 20+ years of schooling, right? And it's not bad to have a bit of background as to what it is that you're doing. But if you (the relative you) are truly interested in living presently, then it would make just as much sense to just do it in a way that you're happy with, then worry about all the ways that other people have done it or tell you to do it. What's the point of just being if you're preoccupied with all the ways of 'being' and the 'how to/how not to' of it. You shouldn't have to work hard to be. You should realize that it's the only way to live, be aware of it, realize that you have already been living that way, and keep being.
Again, this is not to say that studying about it and reading it about it is bad. It's good. The more you know, the more you can establish your own thoughts behind it. But in trying to keep up with another friend and understanding everything he had to say, I forgot that the only person that lives my present is, in fact, me. I was so preoccupied with keeping up to speed with friends, being intimidated by ideas thrown at me, and worrying about how I was going to live in the present, that I forgot the very fundamental truth that I've actually been living by for the past seven or eight years of my life.
I've always been living in the present. But the past helps me in reminding me to live in the present. And my future gives me something to day-dream about and work toward when I need a mental break. My version of 'living in the present' includes a healthy balance of present, past, and future. And it's gotten me this far with this many successes and failures. I can educate myself, learn a few key ideas, maybe some meditation techniques and learn a new way to look at the world, but that doesn't mean I need to go and completely change the way I live just because one of my friends is doing it and various gurus and spiritual masters are saying what they want.
This was the new found freedom I encountered yesterday. All of a sudden, my anxiety disappeared, my sense of inferiority in the subject took its leave, and I was staring at a new sense of meaning and idea of "living in the present" in my life. And I plan to cultivate it, apply it, and live it.
And I love it.
bjs.
ps. before I publish this, I'm going to give you two links to two cool blogs I encountered while I blog surfed.
All you have to do is click here and click here. Sweet.
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