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Restructuring the site

Getting back into writing on a blog, so I took the time to restructure the site.

I’ve recreated the Blog page containing anything I want to write about that I find interesting. No definitive conclusion. No advice. Can just be pointless drivel, thoughts, interesting links, or just a view into life circumstances during a particular time. Archive show all the posts arranged by year.

Then a Directives section containing short ‘do this and don’t do that advice’. This is for myself. Don’t take it too seriously. It’s often contradictory. Any advice is context dependent. Take what is useful, reject what is not.

A Fiction section to hopefully inspire me to write more fiction.

A bit of an update to Me

A section with some music A section with some photos

Poetry

I’ve been reading a lot of poetry- mostly Rumi and David Whyte, and I wanted to articulate the value I get if anyone asks.

Words are a difficult medium for expressing the internal state. Sometimes, you want to convey ineffable states or paradoxical ideas. Poetry can do this.

I don’t like all poetry. But I’m enjoying Rumi - a Sufi/mystic poet, that writes on perennial ideas of grief, death, loneliness, love, suffering and many more.

My favourite is the Guest House and Only Breath. Moment of Happiness Birdsong

These definitely make me think that he had deep ’non dual awareness’/spiritual experiences.

I’m surprised I like poetry. Looking back a few years ago, it’s not something I would actually have considered enjoying. Probably because I had read a lot of bad poetry (overly self obsessed / too snarky / pretentious)

Cycling and Walking

I’ve been green-pilled. Cycling is the best way to travel. You don’t sit in traffic. You get sun exposure. You get exercise. It’s faster (with traffic). No worries about parking. It’s fun.

Cars are expensive. They take up room. Cities become constructed around cars, promoting ‘suburbia’. They cause air pollution.

I think I’ve become a bike commuter (for the rest of the foreseeable future).

Silent Meditation Retreat

Just finished a 7 day meditation retreat. Profound. Hard to put embodied first person experiences into words, because the practice is non conceptual.

This means it is pretty hard to explain what meditation actually is to someone who has had no exposure.

My default response starts with explaining basic ‘mindfulness’. If you’ve ever sat with your mind (and never paid close attention internally) you’ll realise that… you can’t. The mind wanders. Ask a person to focus on their breath, they will forget and the mind will wander to a story about the past or a fantasy of the future.

The basic training is consistently returning your attention to the sensations of the breath. In doing so, you are cultivating the ability to pay attention to the internal introspective sensations of the body. You are paying attention to the contents arising within conscious experience.

This is valuable because you are then paying attention to life. To the present moment. Rather than being lost in delusions.

Buddhist philosophy claims that by paying close attention this, you can understand something about the nature of the mind in regards to ‘suffering’/hurt/unsatisfactoriness.

From an intellectually curious perspective too, there is much to understand about the nature of the mind. Science can look at it through external means, but there really is another way to explore your conscious experience - directly.

A good video to direct people to : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3XUee3-meA

Removal of Tech

Again going back to a relatively ’tech’ free life. No Reddit. No Twitter. The phone is on black and white/silent. All socials off.

Focus on some real projects. Anything worth doing requires real focus, and I was finding that it is incompatible with using many of these services.

Alternate? Read real books. Write crap posts on the blog. Take photos. Cycle. Sit on the floor and listen to music. Hang out in person. Observe.

I’ve noticed spending time/writing on the laptop is actually way less distracting than mobile devices.

I’ve also noticed when I’ve removed/reduced tech in the past, it’s been the ‘happiest/peaceful/content’ and also the most creative I’ve been.

Inevitably for some inane reason, I go back to centring my life around the smart phone and distraction. I always regret it.

Value of Photos

I’ve restructured the photos section.

Part of it involved looking back through my entire photo gallery. I had a few thoughts on the topic.

I’d previously written about photos and the importance of documenting. This is just another reminder.

Carry your camera. Photography is infinitely more fun with a camera than a smartphone. You pay much closer attention.

You only need one or two good photos to throw you back into the past.

A good photo is one of the best gifts you can give someone.

Take photos of everything. It takes no space. The memory is way more valuable.