Time for collection of weekly inspiration 2. Enjoy!
Podcast episode that impacted me the most
Tim Ferriss interviewed BJ Miler, palliative care physician at Zen Hospice Project, The Man Who Studied 1,000 Deaths to Learn How to Live. His story contains insights on our mortality, forgiveness, dealing with grudges, valuing our time, not taking ourselves so seriously and many more. It’s almost 2 hours long and contains typical for Tim tangents (still worth listening and enjoyable), but if you prefer shorter version – watch TED talk: What Really Matters at the End of Life.Interesting discovery
The idea of using technology to explore and study consciousness always fascinated me. That’s why I would love to try Entangled as soon as it comes out. It’s a mobile app based on the Global Consciousness Project, that will allow us to participate in large-scale consciousness experiments, like: see if our mind has any influence on our physical environment or possibly measure effects of mass meditation / directed intention towards specific worldly events. How cool is that?
What I’m experimenting with
It took me a very long time to overcome fear of getting away from the wall in headstand. Even when I stopped touching the wall with my feet, I still had this mental block to try headstand in the middle of the room. I fell down a couple of times, but finally got over this uncomfortable feeling of not having any support behind my back. Next level for me is a forearm balance and handstand. It’s all about building strength and balance here, but also digging deeper and overcoming fear of.. what really? Being upside down? Flipped perspective? Oh, and also simply have fun in the process! Main tool I’m using to help me with this is Cody (just so you know, this link gives you and me 50% off your first Cody plan) and Patrick Beach plan: Next Level Inversions.
Inspiration for the week
I recently finished reading Show your work by Austin Kleon. It contains many nuggets of wisdom, especially for a newbie blogger. Like this one:
We’re all terrified of being revealed as amateurs, but in fact, today it is the amateur—the enthusiast who pursues her work in the spirit of love (in French, the word means “lover”), regardless of the potential for fame, money, or career—who often has the advantage over the professional. Because they have little to lose, amateurs are willing to try anything and share the results. They take chances, experiment, and follow their whims. Sometimes, in the process of doing things in an unprofessional way, they make new discoveries. “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities,” said Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki. “In the expert’s mind, there are few.”
What I’m learning
When I was in high school, my friend asked me once if I ever had a dream in which I realised that I’m dreaming. Soon after, I experienced my first lucid dream and I’ve been captivated by lucid dreaming ever since.Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self by Robert Waggoner is my absolutely favourite book on the subject. I read it twice in the past and recently found it on Audible, so I’m listening to it again. In one chapter, Robert talks about influence of beliefs and expectations on how the lucid dream unfolds. For example, if you believe that you won’t be able to write down your name while dreaming, that’s exactly what happens when you lucid. Or someone tells you to try spinning in your lucid dream and, like Robert, you see the lights instead of intended change of the dream scene. You just didn’t know, that was the expectation behind this action.
All of this is an interesting parallel to how similar principle might apply to how our thoughts shape our reality in waking life and Sanskrit concept of maya. As Robert points out, it has its verbal root in ma, which translates as “to make”, so maya can be a “creative power”, “artistic creation” or “the process of creation”.
The ancient concept of maya, or illusion, alludes to the experiencer of the illusion as formatively assisting in the creation of the illusion. We do not exist in illusion so much as help form illusion. Lucid dreamers come to realize the truth of this as they see their own artistry, their own creative power, their own ideas formed into the dreaming reality that they experience. Like artists projecting their ideas, knowledge, and talent into their paintings, lucid dreamers project portions of themselves creatively into their dreaming. The lucid dreamer embodies and joins forces with the inventive power of maya.
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