Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Opening the Mind


Know Thyself
- engraved at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi

Many civilizations have regarded self-knowledge as the catalyst and indicator of wisdom. The path to self-knowledge is self-examination, but that is no longer a component of our education system as it once was. This is unfortunate by any account. In our modern westernized world, self-examination seems to have been limited to the areas of interpersonal counseling and few others.


The timeline above is based on the last 9 months of my life. Quite a departure from the original MBA "track" I was heading on. I'm happy, and that's just scratching the surface.

Many things have changed for me since I started this blog. It's hard to believe it hasn't even been a year. Tomorrow I will be heading to a small Buddhist temple near Toronto to partake in a 2nd meditation retreat and delve a bit more deeply into the brighter as well as the darker corners of my mind. A great realization for me was to intuitively understand that we all share these same corners. So then, should I consider this upcoming retreat as an exploration of my mind, or of our minds? We are more similar than we are different, no matter how we happen to think or feel about it.

After reviewing the scientific research on mindfulness/vipassana meditation and observing the effects I experienced after first learning meditation in December, I am convinced that this may be the single most useful psychological advancement that we, as a species, have created. Big words that can only be truly understood after experiencing meditation firsthand. Gotta walk that walk you know?

I have written a few posts related with meditation, but in its most summarized form, it is simply a perfectly designed exercise in self-examination with some surprising positive effects.

I'll post again in about 2 weeks - with a little more insight perhaps. Thanks for reading.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous24.7.11

    I've been reading for a while (I always comment). How do I get SMARTER? I've tried meditation with little luck, but I'll keep at it. But I also want to be generally more intelligent--better able to process and remember information. Since you're involved with Harvard, you're clearly intelligent. What's the key?

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  2. Thanks for reading :) Why do you want to be "smarter"? For what purpose? I would spend some time exploring your motivation for this. You can share it here if you'd like. The brain works literally like a muscle. We are all born with a certain level of "smarts" but we can train it and improve on what we have. The mechanism is fairly simple. If you want to get better at math, do many math problems - the brain will create new neural pathways to process math problems faster and more efficiently. Look up the term "neuroplasticity". Meditation has been proven to improve cognition, but I don't know what specific areas of cognition are improved.

    As far as finding a key, don't overlook the different forms of "knowing."

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  3. I noticed the dice in your image landed on 7. I think we know what that means. Looking forward to the post-meditation post. ;-)

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  4. Anonymous8.8.11

    Why do I want to be smarter? To do something worthwhile. Write a bestseller, create better relationships, make more money, come up with more clever banter.

    I know those reasons are far from enlightened, but I'm just being HONEST.

    Oh, and to score chicks. But I'm not sure being smarter will help with that. ;)

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  5. Thanks for being honest and for sharing :)

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