Simplify

In contemporary society, we usually think that doing more and being more is best. The key term for doing more is multitasking. As for being more, it's all about building one's identity like building your profile on a social website. However, to live a more fulfilling life, it's better to do less and be less. Then you can realize that you are a part of a whole and not a busy bee.

Doing more is a distraction from life. Instead of doing one thing well, you are doing many things poorly. Perhaps you can get a lot done, but there is no reward because the next day you have just as much to do. You can only focus achieving these tasks like a mouse in a maze. It's the rat race.

Being more is also a distraction. You can only be your biology and your skill. Your personality is just an illusion to make your ego feel comfortable. If you think about personality in the modern world, it's mostly made up of material preferences as a young adult. Who we are is how we relate to people. It's no use building up this great persona if nobody sees it, and usually nobody cares to see it. Interaction is key; everything else is a false identity.

I spent the last 8 years of my life trying to simplify myself. In that time, I have distanced myself from sports (Green Bay Packers), popular culture icons (Beatles), political diatribes (liberals), and even this (Taoism). I've come to realize that I don't have to pick apart and label the different things that make me. Once I do that, I don't seek these things out. Instead I can distance them from me.

I was going to reference a website with a similar philosophy about simplifying. However I found it ironic that it's steps to simplify your life were not simple at all. For me, I have to realize the material self is an illusion. Once I remove that, I realize I don't need all these materials for identity. All I need is me.

Passage of inspiration, Verse 48 of the Tao Te Ching:
To become learned, gain daily
To obtain the Tao, reduce daily
Reduce and reduce again until all action is reduced to non-action
Then no one is left
Nothing is done, yet nothing is left undone.

After writing this passage, I also find it easier to deal with death. When I die, I can ask, "Was I ever here? And do I care because now I am gone." And then I truly become part of the whole as the part cannot be distinguished from the whole anymore.

The Joys of Skepticism

You may ask, "Isn't being a skeptic mean that you are critical and doubtful all the time?" I may answer, "No," and I do answer "No." Being a skeptic or practicing skepticism is actually quite fun because I can analyze topics that I have always interested me. But I can look at these topics rationally instead of ignorantly. It's time for the list-maker to make a list, an abridged version from the Skeptic's Dictionary.

Topics That Interest Jeremy
* means I completely lost interest after becoming a skeptic

• ancient astronauts
• aliens
• Area 51
• aromatherapy
• astral projection
  
• astrology
• Atlantis
• auras*
  
• Bermuda Triangle*
• biorhythms*
• chakras
• channeling
• chi
  
• creationism
  
• crop circles
• crystal skull*
  
• doomsday (cults)
• dreams
  
• enneagrams
• ESP
• exorcism
  
• face on Mars*
• feng shui
  
• firewalking
• Gurdjieff
  
• haunted houses
• holistic medicine
  
• hypnosis
• invocation
  
• intelligent design
• jinni
• karma
  
• levitation
  
• lucid dreaming
• mediums
• mind-control
  
• multiple personality disorder*
• near-death experiences
  
• Nostradamus*
  
• Ouija boards*
  
• phrenology
• placebo effect
• poltergeists
  
• precognition
• psi
  
• psychics
• psychoanalysis
• Qi Gong
  
• reiki*
• reincarnation
  
• Roswell*
• Satan
  
• Scientology
• seance
• sorcery
• souls
  
• spontaneous human combustion
• synchronicity
• tarot
• telekinesis
• telepathy
• theosophy
  
• Transcendental Meditation*
  
• UFOs
• unconscious mind
  

"The Inner Light" by the Beatles

George Harrison quotes from Verse 47 of the Tao Te Ching:

Without going outside, one can know the whole world
Without looking out the window, one can see the ways of Heaven
The farther one goes, the less one knows

It's been a while since I blogged about verses from the Tao Te Ching. The reason (besides laziness and a new baby) I was delaying a posting about the Tao was that I trying to avoid an apparent influence. Did the Beatles subtly brainwash me into become a Taoist when I first listened to "The Inner Light" back in 1992? I just read that the music you listen to as a teenager can have a strong hold on you for the rest of your life. I'll keep you posted when I start reading the book--This Is Your Brain on Music.

Add Skepticism

Over the past year, I have been developing another perspective on the world around me. This blog has been mostly about Taoism, which has been my dominant philosophy for the last four years. Before Taoism, I believed in the tenets or non-tenets of Dada or Dadaism. Now I have put on a new hat--skepticism. The main influence of this skepticism is the podcast, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.

I have found that skepticism has been the healthiest and most logical viewpoint I can have on the known universe. A skeptic is a firm believer in the scientific method. Although I was never liked most of my science courses, I did like science's approach to knowing the world around us. Ever since listening to SGU's podcast, I have been hooked on reading books about skepticism and its attack on pseudoscience. Here are the books I have read so far in order of my preference:

1. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
2. Terence Hines, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal
3. James Randi, Flim-Flam!

I still adhere to the philosophy of Taoism for things science cannot fully explain. More importantly, I use Taoism to understand human behavior and human interaction. For me, Taoism helped me reach the conclusion that egotism is the road to ruin. The philosophy of the Tao is the best medicine for stress relief. This philosophy works well with science in that both point out how small we are in the universe. But Taoism shows us how we can change the universe--by changing ourselves.

And Dada is still very important in my life in terms of having fun and expressing myself. For example, this posting is not very Dada. Dada mocks this style. For what is the use of blogging to no one or the blob known as the blogosphere? Dada is like Taoism because they play with language's inability to explain the universe. That's why I can't really get to the point in this paragraph. Dada cannot fit in a paragraph. Dada cannot fit anywhere. Dada fits in empty space. Dada destroys occupied space. Although Dada is an old art movement, it always seems fresh to me when I apply it.

Dada and skepticism can be used for self-defense. If I want to protect myself from scams and hoaxes, I will use skepticism. If I want to protect myself from creeping boredom and dead seriousness, I will use dada. I apply logic and the scientific method in skepticism, whereas I apply the artistic approach in dada. If my self-defense works, I become a stronger skeptic or I become a more creative and fun-loving person.

How has skepticism changed me in the past year?

• I no longer sit on the fence about my belief or disbelief in UFOs, ghosts, and psychic powers.
• I have an even stronger argument against the fallacies of creationism and The Bible-as-literal-truth.
• I wish more people turned towards science rather than religion for answers, especially for questions like "How old is the world?"
• I have a stronger belief in Western medicine but not in the current American health care system.
• It has given me a new angle to view politics, although I reach the same conclusion of most politicians cannot be trusted.
• I have new found love for the sciences.
• I am more optimistic about the future.

Thank you skepticism.