I came across an interesting post recently written by Ryhen entitled, ‘Do You Think You Are Special?’, which was on his blog Virtual Synapses.

This particular post has stuck in my mind ever since because of the pictures it contained, which left me speechless.  You can now see for yourselves a video representation of the pictures here.

Warning before watching the following video: For all those people who revel in their self-importance and pettiness, be prepared to have your self-imposed bubble of pretentiousness well and truly burst:

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We Must all Feel Responsible for Change Within Ourselves and the World

Let me start this post with a couple of questions:

What does it mean to be responsible in life?

How can one feel responsible in a world filled with nothing but irresponsibility?

Allow me to give the late Spiritual Philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti the opportunity to answer the previous two questions in the following quote,

“And if one sees the truth of this matter, then what is our responsibility? Not only one has a family, wife and children, one has to be responsible for those naturally, but what is your responsibility globally? You understand my question? For the whole of mankind, because you are the mankind, you have your illusions, your images of god, your images of heaven and so on and so on. You have your rituals, you know, the whole business, exactly like the rest of the world, only in different names, they don’t call themselves Christians they call themselves Muslims, or Hindus, or Buddhists, but the pattern is the same. Right?

So when you realise that, what is our responsibility? That is, how do you respond to the challenge? You understand my question? How do you answer? What is your reaction when you feel that you are humanity? This is a challenge – you understand? How do you meet a challenge? If you meet it from your old individual conditioning, your response will naturally be totally inadequate. Right? It will be fragmentary, it will be rather shoddy. So one has to find out what is our response to this great challenge? Does your mind meet it greatly, or with your fears, with your anxieties? You follow? The little concern about yourself?

So the responsibility depends, if I may point out, upon the response to the challenge. If one says this is your responsibility, join – not the League of Nations but some other nations, form a group, do this and do that, that is not an adequate challenge. How do you respond to this challenge psychologically? Inwardly? Is it just a flutter, a romantic appeal? Or something profound that will transform your whole way of looking at life? Then you are no longer British, American, French – you follow? Will you give up all that? Or merely play with the idea that it is a marvelous Utopian concept? Right?

So the responsibility to this challenge depends on you, whether your mind is capable of meeting this enormous human wholeness, this human current.”

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“Virtue makes the goal right, practical wisdom the things leading to it”

~ Aristotle

Is wisdom really the key for our world to progress? Maybe. Although I have created this blog encouraging everyone to embrace this seemingly rare thing, I have to remain realistic to the fact that it cannot be easily taught. One must discover wisdom for themselves and put it to good use whenever they come across any obstacles that threatens their own awareness and progress in life.

Maybe if one had common sense to begin with, it would help one to become wise. But unfortunately, as is most obviously the case, “common sense is the most uncommon thing in this world.”

In the following video, Barry Schwartz sheds some light on the problem of permeating a society with “practical wisdom”.  Schwartz offers solutions on the teaching of wisdom and for institutions to revolutionise themselves towards embracing “practical wisdom” instead of “impractical bureaucracy”.  This will more than likely sound somewhat Utopian to most people in the cold light of day.

‘Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.’

~ ‘Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom’ appearing on TED Talks

Please watch the following insightful talk by Barry Schwartz:

As I’ve kept on saying incessantly since starting this blog, I think that the only way for progress and a change for the better to happen globally, is if we all, through self-knowledge, develop wisdom within first – which unwittingly sounds more Utopian than Schwartz’s suggestions.

I do love a challenge…any suggestions on this “imparting wisdom” conundrum?

For those who wish to complain for every little thing in their lives, please spare a thought for those who are less well off than yourself.

• Do you have a roof over your head?

• Do you get to eat three square meals a day?

• Do you have a nice warm bed to sleep in?

• Are you in constant danger from being killed violently because of war or internal conflict in your country?

• Are you in danger of losing everything you possess, including your family, because of a natural disaster?

If you can answer favourably to all the above questions, what right do you have to complain?

There are people, as you should all know by now, who have recently lost their home, possessions, and much more importantly, family in the Haiti earthquake. Read more…

Take the Road to Wisdom to Find a better Life

Wisdom, wisdom and more wisdom!  How many more times must I spell out this simple but obscure six letter word that hides a beneficent gift to humankind.

The reason for encouraging you to attain this rare commodity, is because of the seemingly sad state of today’s superficial and ignorant world.

Whilst pursuing the things that we think will make us happy, paradoxically, they eventually serve to make us more miserable as we continue down the path of  self-destruction.

Why not get off this ignorant path of perdition, my friend, and instead discover for yourself a pathless trail towards self-knowledge, self-improvement and limitless wisdom.

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Yes I know, more Krishnamurti.

You may be right in thinking that I have only gone and created a blog site just for Jiddu Krishnamurti considering recent posts that have mostly featured him, but the reason for me starting with him is because I wish you to start with yourself in regards understanding your own mind and emotions.

As intimated by Krishnamurti in the past, we all must have inward change before there can be any change for the better on the outside.  So this is the main reason for my somewhat bias beginnings to my writings.

For us to be able to live a more wise, intelligent and productive life we must begin with liberating our minds and thus transform our attitudes towards each other.  So what better way to start this blog than for Krishnamurti to point the way for us to take the important initial steps towards learning about ourselves.

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