He talked about rediscovering ourselves by doing the direct opposite, which is: simplifying. Instead of searching for new things to adapt, learn and become, we should find things to remove and simplify. Instead of working hard to increase our income, we should think of reducing our expenses. He said one can only find him/herself by removing things and that removal is the foundation of simplicity. Quite an interesting concept but strikingly different from my worldview.
I am veered more towards John Locke's tabula rasa(clean slate) view which argues that all of us are born with a mind identical to a blank slate, on which experiences are written. Hence we do not have innate ideas, but rather ideas that are fed into us by experiences. I find it difficult to understand Kent's meaning of 'self'. I see the self as an ever changing persona that becomes more and more complex over time. More of a self authorship of ourselves than his version of an innate pristine self that can be found through simplicity. Interesting nonetheless.
great post :)
ReplyDeletei find the self meaning in a quote by William Blake - “Man is all Imagination and God is Man and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of Man is the Imagination and that is God Himself.”
In one bible verse, it says " Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" If this two sentences make sense, then one can infer that life here is nothing but a drama with God as the director and we the actor.
And it is experiences that we go through personally (as in the scriptures) that we will be disappointed, angry, commit adultery, betrayal, forsaken, etc that we eventually come to the conclusion that trying harder may not be the answer.
Then some of us turn into mindfulness, meditation, spirituality (in whatever description) we put it to make sense of what's going on in our lives.
After a roller coaster ride in both my corporate and self employed business, I have come to the conclusion, we are indeed powerful beyond our own imagination. So now I spend most of my time educating and applying this principle to better my life so I can walk by faith and not by sight.
Hi Desmond,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the bible verses and good for you! Hope you have found your godilock zone in life :)