IL-Logically Logical Logic

I was in college when I got obsessed by "Logic". I was in my Ayn Rand avatar and thought logic is the ultimate tool a man has. Just think logically and everything falls in place, since then I have lost some faith in Logic.  

Logic is a mode of reasoning and really, if you think about it, is there any other way to think but logically? Any sort of thought process is a logical thing; it is impossible to think illogically. The problem is that using logic is not an absolute and will not lead you to a generally accepted "truth".  If there was one logical process of inferring by reasoning, everyone in the world would all arrive at the same answer. Everyone looking at the same set of data would "logically" come to the same conclusion. But that is not the case. 

An example of where logic tends to cause a big problem is science. One would think doing a set of controlled experiments and obtaining a set of results should be *relatively* straightforward. Yet, the problem arises when interpreting these results by using logic. One scientist uses what he seems to be a logical explanation for the phenomenon, whereas another scientist's logic leads him to another completely different answer. 

Science is just one example of this issue with using logic.  You can try this experiment on various subjects - try to apply logic coming from the mindset of various different value systems. You'll find that you have arrived at various results. One mind applying the same "logical" process will get various results depending on how the subject has been approached. Therefore, every person thinking logically produces millions of ideas for the same few concepts. This is what makes the world as we know it. There is no way to know how it would be if we didn't think logically. The same occurs with religion and philosophy - a written word is interpreted millions of different ways. This, in turn, means each individual will not necessarily believe in the same set of tenets although they may be reading the same exact scriptures.

We need to realize that logic is not what it is advertised, it is a tool to reach a conclusion, yes, but not the same conclusion or a correct conclusion (whatever that means). In fact, it will make you reach where you already knew you wanted to go! So why go through the stress of doing this exhaustive logical exercise? The only reason is, by applying what you believe to be logic; you can justify and feel good about your own belief. If you really think about it, most of the time you already know which side you belong to and what you want. But the need to be a scientifically (pseudo) intelligent person, you have to push it through the bureaucracy of logic in your brain.

So why use logic? I guess probably because there is no other way to form our thoughts or take action but by internalizing it in brain. So relax, and take it with a grain of salt. Next time you are in a discussion, and you see someone seriously, logically breaking the concepts down and are frustrated that you don't get it; it is because both sides have taken a different tunnel and are deconstructing the idea differently and expecting to meet at the same point. Each expects they are right because they both think they are putting logic to test, but the problem is that logic is not absolute. It is a tool, like a shovel, that lets you dig and reach wherever you want. 

Humans are stuck in a very contradictory body. Speaking in poetic terms, the heart and brain don't tend to agree. The mind is to blame - although physics may be bound by certain laws, the universe is really not. It is prerogative of Physics to explain Universe to be bound by laws of physics, not vice versa. In the same manner it is Mind which needs to explain things in a logical way but the life around you is not bound by it. When it comes to the human experience, our universe is not one bound by logic. Only our mind is bound by it. The world goes on illogically, without rhyme or reason, but our mind has a compulsion of trying to explain it logically.

An attempt to explain things which are illogical, by applying logic to it, is one of the fundamental mistakes of the human brain. This mistake also leads to unhappiness and misery.

My point is - Realize the limitations of your mind's logical thinking and understand the illogical nature of life around. Really, logic is just a tool for the illogic to rule. 

You are the Happiest Person in the World

If you are reading this Blog the chances are that you are one of the happiest people in the world. Do you feel it? No? Let me prove it.

Chances are you have no problem of Food, Shelter, clothing and healthcare. You are either living in a developed country or at least in upper echelons of a developing country. You have access to all amenities to keep you physically comfortable. Se whichever way you see - you are probably in top 10% of 'luck index' in the world. Lets say Luck index is a mix of money / health / freedom / mostly happy relations and other things you find important in life. Look at what you earn and calculate where you stand in Human race out of 7 Billion, take your relations and compare to the world, do the same with whatever you think is important, even small things like taking vacations. How many vacations you take and where you go and compare to the world. How much freedom you have in your life and compare. Just keep in mind when we say world it is not your surrounding of under 10 miles, instead it is Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe and others. So you are very successful in life. Now you can argue money and quality of life has nothing to do with 'Happiness' well then I will counter it by - then it still means you have everything to be happy. At least you can't take success as an excuse to be not happy. Also why would you spend so awful lot of time and energy maintaining your lifestyle if that is not for giving you happiness or some kind of satisfaction? congrats you are one of the happiest person in the world! But why don't you feel it? In fact some of you would be shocked to know that you are being described as 'Happy'. Some of you may not be willing to accept you are happy because then the hobby of being sad, the sport of self pity which you cherish so much will slip out of your grasp. Once listening to a discourse of 'Gita' it was argued that Gita and all other philosophical great books were only for people who don't have these day to day survival problems because the platform for them to be happy is made all they need is a twist in the way they think and pure bliss is theirs.

So why don't you feel it? I guess the entire blog is somehow geared towards this question. So I will only focus on a couple of reasons. One - you have never defined happiness for you. Two - You simply don't realize you are happy. There are other reasons like extremely myopic view, thinking happiness is a sign of weakness, prioritization calls etc but let's keep that for some other chapter and let's focus on the first 2 things. So all your life you have chosen to run this race of success, went to school, studied and geared yourself towards making money and looked to marry the right person etc... But you never stopped and thought why am I running the race. Probably you didn't have time for it. But now you have. Stop and think, now you are among the top 10% successful humans in the world. The 90% will take your place in a heartbeat if offered. So obviously in your equation happiness has to figure somewhere. So as far as worldly attributes and physical life is concerned there is no excuse but to admit that you are all set. So if you are still worried (even slightly) about financial and other worldly problems then probably it is due to either fearing of losing what you have, or you are aiming more. At least these worries are not going to go away if you start breaking your way into the top 1% nothing is going to change. At this point either you have started believing that you are one of the happiest people or you need to spend your energy somewhere else instead of this world race (that you have already won). Second thing we can do is remind ourselves everyday that how happy and lucky we are, when you worry about going to work or some work problem you realize this is your champagne problem 90% don't have that problem because they don't have a job like yours. When you worry about your kid's eating habits it's actually a sign of happiness. If your worry is how to make the kid feed more that means you have enough to feed and their is really nothing wrong except you are so happy that all your worry involves pampering your kid. Actually this is how happiness looks like. But you never realized it. Do a simple experiment, when in next few days or a weeks whenever you use words like - I am busy just stop and say I am happy. Because that's what has happened whenever you are happy you somehow call it by some other name. Oh I am so busy, basically means I am happy, because whatever you are busy with is really not a must do, but you have elected to do because you want to do. Similarly when you talk about your studies it's all happy talk (compare rest of the world's problems). All your Kid anxieties is basically happiness as you are fulfilling your hobby of making your kids successful. If you don't feel happy it is because you have no respect for the entire human race's condition and your relative situation and you don't ever make yourself realize it.

My point is - You are having a blast just realize it so that you can enjoy your life more before it is too late. Also think about it - things you have always done in present you have done them with stress and pressure, but later when these events are history you realize that it was one of the best times of your life. Then why not have a blast now and enjoy it now too. For example - you were in college at that time exams and pressures of studies were over bearing (though it was happy pressures, compare them to the world's kids how easy you had it) now you recall all that with so much happiness. When you raise your kids you are all stressed about every detail but when they fly out of your nest, these stressful days are remembered as the happiest days! Don't live in past happy days only, they are also in the present, you just have to realize it.  

History is just His - Story because Past is not Present.

If you have a memory - history is made. Humans waste so much time in talking about history of the world and their own past that sometimes it's difficult for them to live in the present. What is History? - Everything that happened in the past is history. So we grow up listening - History teaches us ... , History shows us ..., History is against so and so ... So I guess history is very important.

Let’s divide History in 2 parts. One is the world History (political / Sports / Eras etc) and the other is your own past.

Let’s take the world history - Except for the skeleton of the chronological dates and events none of it really happened. When you read history books except for the dates and probably the events (Example - A war was declared) not much else is factual. There are 7 billion histories in the world one for each head. They are not real. Everything is an interpretation and twisted by the person relaying the history. Someone's freedom fighter is another's terrorist. Someone was brave and some guy said something which meant something to someone is all interpretation based on one's point of view. Generally, it is said History is written by the powerful. What it means is - it is just a story it's not really a fact. So history is basically fiction and that is the reason it is so hotly debated because it can be changed and twisted however you like. Dates and events are not interesting; the part of history which is mostly debated is the one which is purely subjective. For example, no one will debate that 'xyz' was killed on a date. What will be debated is - what xyz said, what he meant, what killer was thinking, what he was saying while getting sentenced etc... This is all in each head for each to twist.

Let’s discuss an autobiography, for example. Except for dates, there is nothing much you can get out of them because whatever the person said, never happened, at least in the way that we could fully trust the account. It's not that they are lying, but it is impossible to write what you did without thinking it in your brain, and once the brain is involved, you can't be objective. Though it's a good story to read and probably a good account of how that particular brain works, but as far as his history is concerned it is just His-Story and is really is like any other fictional story.

Events happen, your brain processes it, and then you tell another person and the other brain processes it a little more, so the farther away from the past you get, the more unreal the events become. When you tell your kids what you used to do as a child, the events are already less factual. This is the reason that when you read about times gone by, the people almost look unreal. They are either supermen or devils because the interpretations and biases make them completely distorted, that they start lacking their human touch.

In short - the way to interpret history is to regard it as a skeleton of events and then when you put your own understanding to better see how the skeleton looked like or what was its nature and values were; it is not really history it is your own fictional story.

Let’s get to the second and more 'usable' part - Your History. Your own past is something only you exclusively own. But it never happened (at least not what you remember). Think what happened yesterday or last week. What you think really happened is definitely not what many will agree. If you remember the 'pure past' then 'past' should be unique. But there are numerous pasts - one for each head. Here is where the tussle of life starts. You can clearly remember what happened and the other person just doesn't agree. How is it possible! It is so clear to you and other people don't agree to it! You get mad and your logical conclusion is that the world is against you. At least a few people are. They are conspiring to make you look bad and you start reacting to it. What you don't realize is that the world is not seeing what you saw. As soon as the moment passes, it ceases to exist and it is not 'alive' anymore. Hence, at the present, it has never happened and there is no account of it in its purest form. What remains is some twisted memory absorbed by your brain with all the biases and frailties of your brain. That is just a bad snapshot of a piece of time which makes no sense independently. And everyone is pitching their snapshot against other and trying to match it and when it doesn't match--it makes life a burden. For example, at work, you worked hard and now they say you were the problem! You thought you deserved promotion but the boss thinks you didn't do anything great. The fact is that no one is conspiring against you--everyone is trapped in their own sense of past. In other words, they are believing their own "his-story", or history.

My Point is - When you read history or biographies, take it with a grain of salt. All are good stories. Take what you like but don't put your heart in it. When you remember your own past, do the same. Assume it is not a very accurate account. When you get into a situation with others whose understanding of a shared past is something different, remind yourself that that's how it should be. It was processed by various minds and none of it is a true representation, and there is only something called the present, and there is nothing called a unique past. This will make you relax and understand. If you feel anger as soon as you listen to someone's account of the past - remember it is only because of 2 different past are being confused as one. As you start believing this, you will find yourself smiling more at 'issues' of the past than taking them seriously. Enjoy the story, don't believe it. And as an underlying principle of spirituality, try to live in the present as oppose to dwell on an unreliable account of the past.

God - The Under World Don

God is the one celebrity who is talked about the most. There are many definitions of God and as many interpretations. The interpretation of God I'm referring to is that which is invoked all the time in our daily life. He (or she) sees us all the time and rewards us and punishes us. In fact, he runs every minute of our lives, according to some. Popular phrases thrown around about God include: "God will take care of you", "Fear God or else he will punish you", "God, save me", "God sees everything", and "God, please help me clear my exams", etc. The type of God I'm referring to is the one you offer prayers to, fear, and talk to. 

Now, I have not met God, nor have I met an underworld Don. But I have witnessed the relationship people have with God and am well aware of the workings of an underworld Don from my extensive film watching. I can't help but see striking similarities in both God and a Don. The Don is a person who is really powerful and has accumulated his wealth and power by wrong means. He rules a few people and ensures they are loyal to him. They must play by his rules or they will suffer the consequences. He loves when people suck up to him, and Fear is the ultimate key to his success. This is precisely the sentiment that strikes me as quite similar to our view of God. Fear is the key to God, too. The standard view of God also shows him eager to punish people, say, if they slip in saying the right prayer and he expects that everyone do everything exactly as it is supposed to be done in some unwritten code of conduct. He is ready to be angry at drop of a hat. People have to sing songs and praise him all the time, suck up to him, and still have to live in fear of him. The same is the case with a Don -- he can shoot you because he didn't like the news you brought or didn't pay him the proper respect. 

By definition though, God and Don are not the same. A Don is an outlaw who probably has some good qualities, but in general tends to be "bad". Now God, by definition (irrespective of religion), is the most powerful and nicest dude ever. He is so powerful that he has made the entire universe and he is pretty much the definition of 'good'. Good starts and ends with him. Basically he is the ideal parent and infinitely powerful such that he can do anything. If he is so good, by definition, then do you think he will ever do bad to you? So, why does a human need to 'fear god'? If God is omniscient and knows whether you are "good" or "bad", why do you have to suck up to him? So if you are a good guy or a bad guy, it won't make a difference if you go to the chosen God's house of worship, how many times you remember him in a day, how many times you pray to him, what you make for a feast in his honor. However many things you do to please him it, he won't care. Why? Because by definition he is not an insecure human who needs pampering or fake followers to make him feel good. He is the universe himself so probably all he cares is - you be good. Try being good to each other... right? 

So what is this entire world doing sucking up to this underworld God? It's very possible that long time ago, due to the lack of structured government and law and order, this view of God was used to control masses. and society used his name to put every rule in place. Whatever the case is, we don't need to worry about it anymore. 

My Point is - Don't worry, be Happy. If you believe in some kind of God, by definition, he is good and nice so he won't do you harm. He may guide you, but he won't harm you if you are trying to be good. Unfortunately, if he turns out to be like an underworld Don and needs all this sucking up to do to keep him happy, then we all are doomed, anyway. Don't worry, he will find a fault in no matter what ritual you do. He will catch you with a mistake, no matter how hard you try. In that case, maybe you should choose a religion which has fewer tasks required of you to keep him happy. But there's another reason you may continue to do these rituals. Probably out of love. So do whatever you do for God, do out of happiness and when you feel like it, not out of compulsion and fear and some written diktat. For good or for bad God knows already .... so relax.

You are Worthless

What is your worth in your own head? Probably it is very less as compared to your possessions. People work hard to earn money once they accumulate enough they dream of getting 'things'. They always thought these things were beyond them, now they are in reach. When they thought these things are beyond them somehow they put themselves below these 'things'.

You buy a Sofa, a dress, a suit and then tip toe around it as if you are its slave. Someone's kid jumps on the sofa and your heart leaps, your body language changes when you wear that suit. You drive that car but you are afraid to park it anywhere. You wear that piece of jewelry but keep touching it as you are scared it will fall. When did you become a slave of your possessions? Why a 'nonliving thing' becomes more important than a living thing which has so less time left on earth? Those things had no worth inside the earth when they were extracted out and when they were honed into a thing and when they went to market, they still had no value. They became of value only when you wanted them. Now they are worth so much in your head that your peace of mind, your blood pressure, your happiness all is dependent on them.

Humans were not always like that I guess, something changed probably after industrialization, when economy started depending on marketing and all it did was to reduce you to nothing as compared to these 'things'. I don't see a cave man worrying about his toys, maybe he would worry about his weapons but not his toys.

Let's take it one step further what is 'you' really worth? (I know you can't put a value but at least it should be forbidden value.) To answer this we need to know - What is you? It is your body and your intangibles (sometimes called soul). Body needs food and exercise. Now when body craves food let’s say you crave a Kitkat in a vending machine ($1.00) and you don't get it thinking you could get it for a Quarter at Winco your worth just fell below a dollar. Not only you have no worth as compared to these nonliving things you have no worth as compared to other living things. You may be a VP in a corporation paying you $100/hour but when you decide on working on a project in your kitchen which you hate (will work few days on it), you calculated handyman's worth ($300) Vs You ($0). You just became worthless!

My point is - you are the most precious, by you I mean - your peace of mind, your happiness, your whims, your time here on earth. If a 'thing' is giving you only 'stress happiness' get rid of it or make yourself worth it by respecting 'yourself' more. Imagine your favorite thing break or get stolen. Nothing changes it had no worth before you used it now it has no worth because it's gone. Another experiment you can do is, put a worth on you. Let’s say $10/-. I will not think twice to keep me happy at least if it is a question of under $10/-. An example - Next time you stop at cheap gas station and there is a line of 10 minutes when you wanted to rush to your family and be with them. Is your precious time with family not even worth 2 cents a gallon? Go to chevron and get that gas. Respect yourself and be a happy human.

Simplistic 'Thumb Rules' Complicate Life

People tend to simplify their lives by creating "thumb rules" based on their values and beliefs. These thumb rules are like traffic rules that one follows without thinking about the reason they were created. They come as a reflex without having to take the matter to the brain. So far so good. So these rules do tend to simplify our lives, as long as one's values stay the same. The problem is though, that values and beliefs change with time, yet its easy to forget that the rules should also change.

A few examples of these rules are (not related to each other in any way) - Always buy from the sales rack, a self made person is better, spending on luxury is bad, drinking is bad, dowry is bad, Disciplining is good for kids, chemicals are bad, I need to do dishes everyday. Now these by themselves look harmless but under different circumstances these may make you uncomfortable or even miserable.

The problem arises when one begins to stress about this rule, and cannot get themselves to question the validity of the rule because it is so ingrained in their mind. In the example of the rule of "the dishes should be done every day to maintain a clean home", say our subject just had twins. Obviously, due to the crazy busy lifestyle that our subject's life has turned into, is it really a big deal if the dishes are left in the sink? Probably not. But the thumb rule, "the dishes are done every day" is so ingrained, that our subject may not be able to even question whether it applies to her life anymore just because it's a "rule" she has created for herself so early in life. In turn, she is unhappy that she cannot do the dishes every day whereas if she thought about it, she'd realize that that rule should not apply to her life anymore.

Our values are formed very early in life and we created a thumb rule based on those values. As we grow older and "wiser", our surroundings change and circumstances shift, but due to these rules we created, values stay stubbornly fixed along with the rules. In turn, these rules are hindering the growth of our values and beliefs. When and if you revisit these rules after many years, the logic or beliefs the value was standing on are not recognizable or not relevant to your circumstances.

My point is - When you get worried, angry, cranky over a given situation again and again, the problem lies in this thumb rule. The existence of the rule automatically blocks any potential for debate in your mind. If a rule is detracting from one's happiness, you'll notice this because you catch yourself always reverting back to stating this rule to yourself as justification for your actions. Lets take a quick example of a person whose thumb rule says going out at night is bad. Now he has changed countries and cultures but he still feels uncomfortable if his near and dears go out. He just is antsy and irritated by the whole idea but he doesn't know what rationale to use to explain his irritation. It's important to then reassess the value that this rule was first meant to address and whether that is something you currently believe in.

This is by no means an easy thing to do. It is not intuitive, and you need to find such a situation in your life and act on it. Otherwise, you may find out too late that your thumb rules have made you into a person you never intended to be.

Your Greatest Strength is your Biggest Weakness

It is said 'Philosophy' is the only thing that differentiates between Humans and Animals though I am not sure. Probably complex animals also got philosophy, anyone who has an idea of time, that is past present and future thinks philosophy. Some do consciously and others unconsciously. When I started talking to myself in my own head in a structured way the one discussion I had with myself and what I figured that day which was probably 20 years back still holds water after so many years..

Back in College days, we were supposed to fill out forms where we needed to fill out our strengths and weaknesses. As we constructed our false strengths and weaknesses with the focus on impressing the interviewer. I started thinking what is a weakness and a strength?

The more I thought the more I was convinced that there is nothing called strength or weakness, but there are characteristics of a human which are perceived or twisted to be strength or weakness and the dominant characteristic is twisted in a way to be thought as a strength and the same dominant characteristic becomes the weakness when seen in a different situation. Now this entire strength and weakness became a joke for me, this has stood over time and there has never been any confusion in my head about this. I see the entire world always dividing a human / team / country / culture into strength and weakness but it is the same characteristic they are talking about as a strength and weakness!

Let me give you an example - Attention to detail is a strength then probably not able to see the bigger picture is the weakness - but it roots from the same characteristic. You can take a sport and check strength and weakness of any player or team and you will see it. In cricket - Sehwag's carefree uncluttered approach to batting is a strength is his greatest strength and biggest weakness. Take NBA - Spurs is a methodical well oiled machine that's the strength and weakness. As a religion - hinduism is not structured and defined - thats the strength and the weakness.

My point is - whenever you struggle with a situation - think what makes you so bad? And then realize that due to that trait you may be better off in other situations.