ZenFix

Absorb what is useful,
Discard what is not,
Add what is uniquely your own.

Bruce Lee – The Official Website

Martial Arts Bruce Lee

To counter one’s arrogance or pride,
you need to reflect upon shortcomings in you that can give rise to a sense of humility…
From my own personal experience,
whenever I have a little tingling sense of pride,
I think of computers.
It really calms me down!

Training the Mind: Verse 3 – the Dalai Lama.

Meditation Computer, Dalai Lama

Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Boy: There is no spoon.

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix – There Is No Spoon: Video

Zen in Movies Neo, Spoon, The Matrix

You can reach
But you can’t grab it
You can hold it, control it
No, you can’t bag it

Pop Album(1997) U2

U2 – Discotheque: Video

Zen in Music Discotheque, U2

If God has a master plan
That only He understands
I hope it’s your eyes He’s seeing through

Precious by Depeche Mode.

Depeche Mode – Precious – in Smallville: Video

Zen in Music Depeche Mode, Precious

A strange loop occurs when you move through the levels of a hierarchical system and arrive back where you started.

Douglas Hofstadter uses the concept of self-referential strange loops to explain the emergent property of consciousness in the books – Gödel, Escher, Bach and I Am a Strange Loop.

And yet when I say “strange loop”, I have something else in mind — a less concrete, more elusive notion. What I mean by “strange loop” is — here goes a first stab, anyway — not a physical circuit but an abstract loop in which, in the series of stages that constitute the cycling-around, there is a shift from one level of abstraction (or structure) to another, which feels like an upwards movement in a hierarchy, and yet somehow the successive “upward” shifts turn out to give rise to a closed cycle. That is, despite one’s sense of departing ever further from one’s origin, one winds up, to one’s shock, exactly where one had started out. In short, a strange loop is a paradoxical level-crossing feedback loop. When a system evolves to a certain level of complexity, we have the emergence of a new system that cannot be reduced to the sum of its parts…the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I think therefore I am…more than a neural network.

I see the Tao symbol (Yin Yang symbol) as an example of a strange loop. We see self-reference because there is Yang in the Yin (white in black) and vice versa. A circular motion is suggested by the symbol which represents a never ending loop of transformation.

Strange loops links:

Arts, Philosophy

In 1906, an Italian economist observed that 80% of Italy’s wealth belonged to 20% of the population. The Pareto Principle is known as the 80-20 rule, because 80% of the output results from 20% of the input. For example, 20% of the customers create 80% of the revenue. This is an example of how most systems are not distributed evenly.

This has been used as a rule in everyday life, including an individual’s output. If you paint a room in your home, you can cover most of the wall with paint relatively quickly using a roller. The smaller area near the edges requires more time and preparation – applying masking tape, carefully manipulating the paint brush. Also, if you try to do a “perfect” job it can take more time and effort – applying the paint evenly, getting edges straight, applying more than one coat of paint. In this case, a good strategy would be start your day with the paint edging, if that is when you are at your peak energy level.

Can you identify other ways of applying the Pareto Principle in your everyday life?

ZenFix

The notion of multitasking is derived from the apparent ability of multitasking computers to do several things at once. However, to complete a task properly we must concentrate on it fully. What is going on in your mind while you are combining activities such as watching TV, listening to your iPod or using the computer?

A state of happiness is the benefit of being able to focus on the moment. If a task is complex , it is best to break it down into mini-tasks that can be completed before moving on to the next task.

Extreme relaxation achieved by meditation requires the mastery of abilities that can be seen as the total opposite of mental process of multitasking.

ZenFix multitasking

How can we be more creative? How can we learn to think outside the box?

A good way it to vary our daily routine and try new things. Doing this will help to remove the auto-pilot on our mind. Some examples of things to do:

• Drive to a usual destination by a new path. Can you plan a trajectory using online maps?
• Go to a restaurant and have something you never tried before.
• Ever taken a lesson of Tai Chi, Qi-Qong, Yoga, Taekwondo?
• Listen to a genre of music that you don’t usually like. What is the top hit this week?

Any suggestions?

ZenFix Creativity

This a method of attaining quick relaxation.

1. Rub the palm of your hands together very quickly to create heat from friction.
2. Close your eyes and place the palms of your hands over your eyes.
3. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth slowly and deeply three times. Imagine that as you breath in that a balloon in your abdomen is filling up. Count with each expiration…1…2…3.

ZenFix Meditation

Psychological resilience is your ability to cope with adversity.

How to strengthen your resilience:

• Have goals. Short term goals such as your daily to-do list. Long term goals such as learning a new skill.
• Remain positive and use humour when possible.
• Act on problems you can solve. Try to chip away at it with “baby steps”.
• Stay in shape physically and psychologically by exercising, eating well.

Can you suggest some other tips?

ZenFix

De-clutter the physical space around you and it will help you de-clutter you mind.

The first goal should be to clear all floors and flat surfaces such as countertops and desks.

Start with one area at a time such as the surface of your desk. Only have the essentials on the desk which may be your computer and your phone. Get rid of things you don’t use and put the rest away in a drawer or a closet (these areas will be your secondary goal for de-cluttering).

Everything else should be out of sight, out of mind. This will start the process which will clear the clutter in your own mind.

ZenFix

Hyakujo wished to send a monk to open a new monastery. He told his pupils that whoever answered a question most ably would be appointed. Placing a water vase on the ground, he asked: “Who can say what this is without calling its name?” The chief monk said: “No one can call it a wooden shoe.” Isan, the cooking monk, tipped over the vase with his shoe and went out. Hyakujo smiled and said: “The chief monk loses.” And Isan became the master of the new monastery.

What does this mean to you?

I see that the cook used action instead of words.

Also, if the water was scarce then everyone would experience thirst and “know” what water is and “know” what the vase is.

Philosophy

Is a Tibetan word usually translated as “attachment” but described by Pema Chödrön as an ineffable situation where one is “hooked” by an emotional trigger or by an pervasive state such as an addiction. I find this concept of Buddhist psychology very insightful as a way of learning “to roll with the punches” of life.

Meditation can be helpful in learning to “free” oneself from Shenpa.

Philosophy

In this famous thought experiment a cat is placed a sealed box. A random event at the quantum level has a one out of two chance of triggering a lethal mechanism.

The outcome of this event is unknown until an observation is made. According to the principle of superposition of states, the cat exists in a state that is both dead and alive until an observer opens the box.

Science