The modern adaptations of meditation largely position meditation as a way to experience peace/calm/rest and to develop self-awareness of your thoughts that allows you space to change your inner environment. These are both true and great.
But the actual, original purpose of any inward looking practice -- meditation, inquiry, contemplation -- is to discover the nature of your consciousness, to answer the question, "who or what am I?" by starting with the only part of our experience that is not changeful -- our awareness that we exist.
When you begin to try to honestly answer this question -- "when I say 'I', what am I referring to? this body? this mind? how can I know what I am, beyond a theory or thought? etc" -- it leads to a radical and yet in retrospect totally natural process of self-investigation -- turning your self-awareness upon itself -- whose end product is called self-realization, spiritual awakening or enlightenment.
If you set aside your preconceived notions and read it as a series of hypotheses that must be confirmed within your own direct experience, it will transform your experience of reality and set you on the (pathless) path to enlightenment.
Amazon for Education: We're the first marketplace that helps people discover, compare & enroll in trusted local classes (from casual classes like cooking, art & Spanish, to professional programs like finance, writing & programming).
Philosophy taught me to ask the following question: "What is the purpose of our university degree?" If the answer is: "to secure a well paying, promising job after college", then I think at worst, philosophy is on par with a wealth of other majors. Consider however that the answer might be: "to find oneself. To discover what what causes in us joy, sorrow, anger. To provide us with a lens through which we will view the rest of our lives. To equip us for the magnitude of our future mental, emotional, and physical reality (of which our occupation plays only a part). To teach us how to understand our own mind." In this case, is there any major more important? One thing I can promise is that your salary, your achievements, your success - none of these will bring you peace.
Really like the idea - have been waiting for an application that will allow teachers to become masters of their own digital pedagogical content. However, I'm not a huge fan of the attack on classrooms - perhaps it's a personal opinion, but 'needing improvement' doesn't necessarily mean 'broken', and the statement makes me question the efficacy of a service purporting to be a panacea for all the flaws in a traditional classroom.
I loved this, thanks.
The hardest part about being a creative / writer, or even entrepreneur is the high expectations set by those you admire, and the impossibility of fully imagining the amount of time it will take you to reach their level.
I don't know how true it is, or whether others agree, but I have always felt (except with work of exceptional brilliance), that I have the power (given enough work) to create work on the same level of anything I can see and appreciate - the key, I think is knowing why I appreciate it.
This was going to be my comment - I often do my on-phone reading on the subway/elevator - would be great to have an app that worked when I don't have cell phone service.
As a person with hereditary skin issues (both my dad and grandad have suffered for years, and now it's setting in for me), I'm definitely going to try it - my father and I already noticed a big shift when changing from scented to unscented shampoos and soaps - I'm willing to give the no-soap a go to calm down the rest of my skin - cheers. I'll comment again if I notice a sudden down-tick in the number of people willing to spend time with me ;)
I have given up soap, shampoo, deodorant...etc...due to serious health issues. For me, it was a gradual progression. I add salt to my bath water. If you have serious skin issues, I would recommend a salt water bath. Kosher or "canning/pickling" salt is better than table salt. A good quality, high brine sea salt is better still.
Look forward to hearing about this. I switched away from using shampoo and only washing with soap bars recently and that helped a great deal.
I think I would be better served by getting plainer/more natural soap bars than not using soap at all, but I'm still curious about the results of this.
I agree with you, Matt - I wouldn't want to just pick the first technical cofounder that could dazzle me with jargon I haven't heard.
I'm a business type, and I absolutely believe that business types with great ideas and hypotheses they want to test can hire a team to get their minimum viable product off the ground, for a very reasonable price. And, if skilled at product development, they can get quite far on this track.
Yes, of course you want to partner with a great technical co-founder, but how do you expect to attract such a hero without having proven your worth, the viability of your idea, etc.
What's a bit frustrating about this post is that it's going to paralyze a lot of perfectly good business folks with the ingenuity to get it going on their own first. I'm not saying that hiring a team is a long term strategy, but in the short term? HELL YES! YOU CAN DO IT!
But the actual, original purpose of any inward looking practice -- meditation, inquiry, contemplation -- is to discover the nature of your consciousness, to answer the question, "who or what am I?" by starting with the only part of our experience that is not changeful -- our awareness that we exist.
When you begin to try to honestly answer this question -- "when I say 'I', what am I referring to? this body? this mind? how can I know what I am, beyond a theory or thought? etc" -- it leads to a radical and yet in retrospect totally natural process of self-investigation -- turning your self-awareness upon itself -- whose end product is called self-realization, spiritual awakening or enlightenment.