Real Change

Be the change you want to see in the world

Given the results of the election, I’ve been grappling with the question on what more should I be doing to bring the change I want to see in the world. Although, I think it is important to organize, protest, and advocate I believe it is equally important to look into our own lives and evaluate what we’re projecting into the world.

Although we place the onus on our leaders to create a functioning society – we can’t abstain from our responsibility as members of this collective community. The ethics and values a society holds to be true are just a culmination of each person’s ethics and values. Therefore, as members of this body we have a responsibility to ensure our beliefs are in line with the ethics and values of the society we want to create.

I’ve been personally annoyed by the disrespectful, divisive, racist rhetoric & culture created in this election cycle. However, it is unfair to pin the blame on simply one person or party, I also have to be honest with myself to see that in my life there have been times where I too have harbored disrespectful, divisive, and embarrassingly racist thoughts.

Although, I do believe the president elect wields a lot of power to dictate the values of our society, I can’t abstain from my responsibility as a citizen. Each moment we radiate our beliefs into the communities we live in. We may not be able to bring the grand change across America, but in each moment we can ensure our thoughts and actions are in line with the love & inclusiveness we hold to be true.

You may not have the time or energy to organize and protest for the policies you believe in. But if you were turned off by this election and are thinking about what more you could be doing – start with the simplest thing that you can tackle in this moment: your state of being. Ensure you are projecting out into the world beliefs that are in line with your values no matter how insignificant this action may seem to you.

Idealistic? Maybe…but just maybe this is the greatest good that could come out of this event, a cultural transformation towards love, compassion, and empathy – a recognition of the oneness that unites us all. No demagogue could control an electorate functioning out of love as opposed to hate & fear – no matter what policies he may try to enact.

The Beauty of Being

There is an unfathomable amount of love, energy, and peace found in presence, found in simply being as you are right now in this moment. Access to this vortex of peace is open to everyone, not restricted by age, gender, friends, things, money, jobs. Our natural state, despite what we’ve been told or taught to believe, is this loving energy.

We all (un)intentionally chase wholeness through external means – jobs, relationships, money, successes, friends. Recently, I’ve felt bouts of fear and inadequacy: Will I be as “successful” as my friends & family? Will I end up alone in the future? What happens if I can’t find a job or earn a living? Acceptance is contingent on how I dress and how my body looks.

When these types of questions and feelings arise we continue the downward spiral by doubling down on achieving a sense of wholeness through these external avenues – trying our absolute hardest to quell our insatiable thirst for acceptance.

But what I’ve learned in the last few years is that action taken out of fear, out of inadequacy, out of lack further radiates fear, inadequacy, and lack into the world. We overshadow our presence and being with these feelings – and that’s what we project out into all of our interactions.

The answer isn’t to replace the fear, inadequacy, and lack with confidence, adequacy, and abundance. The answer is to really feel your presence and being. We each have access to a sea of serenity & joy beyond these impermanent feelings/thoughts produced by the mind. Through residing and acting from this place does it become clear that we are already whole as we are.

There is simply nothing else we need to do in order to be accepted, for acceptance and love is intrinsic to our being. It isn’t something to achieve. I wish some of the people around me could experience their own being & presence in the way that I experience their being & presence. For if they could just get a glimpse of the energy and love they exude just through existing, they would stop chasing and demanding acceptance from the world, they would realize that they are perfect as they are.

As you act from your being, this world becomes this incredible adventure that you can simply enjoy knowing you are already whole. You emanate this love, energy, and passion through every action in every single moment.

Exploring Your Spirit

“And this world, they insist, is where we belong. This wider field of consciousness is our native land. We are not cabin-dwellers, born to a life cramped and confined; we are meant to explore, to seek, to push the limits of our potential as human beings. The world of the senses is just a base camp: we are meant to be as much at home in consciousness as in the world of physical reality.” – Eknath Easwaran

It goes without saying that I’m fairly spiritual, but I realized that a lot of people don’t understand what that means. I think some people write terms like ‘meditation’, ‘yoga’, and ‘spirituality’ off as blind faith or religious dogma. Some imagine that being spiritual means renouncing materialism and having pursuits out of mainstream society.

I can only speak for myself but I see my interest in spirituality almost as a scientific discipline. Just like someone devotes time, energy, and practice to an external discipline – spirituality is my exploration of the internal world of awareness and consciousness.

Just like we immerse ourselves in the wonders of the external – experiences, foods, opportunities, and people, I would argue it is as equally important to explore the inner world. To ask and reflect on some of the deep metaphysical questions in life: What is this experience? Who is conscious? What is consciousness? What am I? Body? Mind?

This inner reflection and inquiry can create a pretty awesome guide for traversing the trials and tribulations of our physical existence like suffering, loneliness, fear, and death.

Practice is necessary to undertake this inner exploration. It helps to make time everyday to concentrate and focus the mind – which a lot of people call meditation. I think a lot of people think meditation is this passive activity but I’ve found that meditation requires me to be extremely focused, attentive, and alert.

My interests in these deep life questions have come out of my observations of the transient nature of experience – fleeting relationships, finances, opportunities, health etc. Facing death through the loss of loved ones has inspired me to take an even deeper study into what existence and life really is.

What I’ve learned so far can’t fully be expressed into words as a large part of my own growth in this domain has been a series of subtle shifts and an experiential awakening. It may sound like a marketing gimmick, but you seriously have to experience it on your own to understand the benefits of this life inquiry.

Although the spiritual journey is subjective, people across time and faiths seem to converge on a similar idea of unity and oneness through this exploration. Any idea of separation is illusory. The real You is not this body, mind, and ego – the real You is consciousness that pervades everything. The Vedantists have been saying this for over 3,000 years and we’re starting to see this idea of unity reflected in the realm of quantum physics. That being said, these conclusions shouldn’t be taken on face value – each person should do their own inquiry and come to their own conclusion.

In my childhood I wasn’t exposed to this internal inquiry. Like most people my life was geared around external worldly pursuits. I think that happens because of the stereotypes associated with spirituality. I think people see meditation and spirituality as something passive and as an escape. Some people mistakingly assume that spiritual pursuits might mean renouncing all worldly goals and living a life as a celibate monk in some forest.

However, I’ve realized that this sentiment is far from true. Instead of a passive pursuit, this spiritual exploration will allow you to engage with the world free of a lot of the suffering and fear we normally bring into our daily lives. You don’t have to renounce materialism, be vegetarian, convert to any religion, or believe in God to be spiritual.

At the crux of it, this exploration is simply an inquiry into the truth of existence. There aren’t any rules to follow in order to engage in this inquiry. However, what is true is that as you engage in this pursuit your view on some aspects of life may change. You may for example start shifting to a more simple lifestyle, because through your inquiry and reflection you start to actually experience how transient and impermanent everything really is. You might start feeling how a lot of your worldly desires are empty. You might start feeling a level of joy that comes in simply existing that dwarfs any joy you’ve ever derived from material wealth. These types of shifts don’t happen over night, they are fairly subtle and happen over time.

Some people are so fascinated by this inquiry that they choose to dedicate their lives to this study. These folks might become monks and move to a monastery, just like someone chooses to get their PhD in physics and dedicate their lives to the study of that subject.

My overall point is there isn’t a right or wrong way to be spiritual. There isn’t a prescribed path that you must follow. Although, I am spiritual, I still enjoy my iPhone and MacBook just like any other person. The difference is that I engage with these material things in my life with the knowing that they are all impermanent, and that joy doesn’t come through the acquisition of more stuff.

I don’t have the false expectation that by acquiring a certain object or pursuing a certain opportunity I’ll be happy. This deep inquiry has convinced me that I’m whole as I am today and that joy comes through simple existence and understanding of what I truly am.

This understanding is truly liberating, because it allows you to engage with the external world (opportunities, people, things etc.) without attaching so much baggage to everything in life to uphold your sense of identity. You are allowed to freely engage and interact with everything and anything, without relying on the external world to give you happiness.

In a world where it seems like everyone is agitated and scrambling to find something for relief, I believe that lasting relief can only be found by taking pause to reflect on the internal.

Acting from Presence

There is really nothing for you to do today, no action to take, no tasks to complete, no goals to pursue — except to be the loving energy that you are and allow action to come forth from this place of love. Don’t turn your experience into a plethora of to-do lists and validation in order to feel joy and happiness.

Every time you make your happiness and joy contingent on external events you are giving your power away to the world of form, reclaim this power by reflecting on the limitless joy that is present despite “failure” vs “success”, despite the approval of your family and peers, despite what our society says.

When you align with the knowing that all you are is this loving energy, then you unlock your real power and can mindfully set goals and take action without worry, fear, and anxiety. Knowing that despite what happens today you are already whole, you are already love, you are already joy, you are already happiness.

Listen to your heart — if you feel the love flowing as you read this, that is your proof, that is your intuition, trust it.

The Power of Deciding

The power of making a decision is incredible. In making a decision you are reclaiming your power, you are taking ownership, you are telling yourself and others what you want. One of two things will happen — either things will flow in the direction you desire or they won’t. In either scenario you learn, you grow, you experiment, and you are empowered.

For far too long I have been scared to making a decision when it came to work, friendships, hobbies etc. The fear of making the wrong decision, led to massive amounts of frustration. What I’ve realized is that the frustration stems from being indecisive, from the cognitive overhead in endlessly debating between two possibilities and trying to somehow optimize for the right one.

I’ve decided to cut the frustration out by just making a decision. I feel so empowered by making a call and in this process I realized that there is rarely an objective truth in making a”right” vs. “wrong” decision. Life is way too dynamic and each of us are way too unique with our own preferences, likes, dislikes, experiences that factor into every decision we make. Realizing this, how can we expect to find an objective truth in our decisions?

As we grow up somewhere along the way we become fearful of making a “wrong” decision. We try so hard to turn life into a formula of steps to be optimized for, failing to realize that the moments that really take our breath away are usually in those serendipitous moments: the random conversations at the coffee shop, the sun setting perfectly against the clouds to produce breathtaking purple and pink light, the early morning walks before the city is alive — and these fleeting and seemingly insignificant moments remind me that true joy is in simply experiencing. True joy is not found in a right or wrong decision, it is found in just experiencing life in every moment regardless of the paths we take.

For the extremely humbling truth of the matter is that despite how hard we each try to architect a “right life”, we are all united by the common end of this physical existence. So whatever decisions you’ve been pushing off, it is time to reclaim your power by deciding, moving forward, and having fun with life.

Get Out of Your Own Way

The biggest block to living the life of our dreams is ourselves. I make this statement after reflecting on my own life, and I have a feeling this might ring true for other people.

In the last few weeks I was faced with two “challenges” – one work related and one personal relationship related. Both of these situations instantly caused me to feel some fear and anxiety because the outcome was uncertain. I sat with this fear and dove in deeper to realize that for a large part of my life whenever I was faced with something novel my first reaction without fail is always doubt.

The inner chatter always says “You can’t do it” & “You aren’t good enough” – which I react to with fear and anxiety. When I reflect on how things in my life have flowed in the last few decades everything makes a lot more sense. If my initial reaction is always with self-doubt no wonder things in my life have unfolded in the way they have.

I’ve spent a large part of my life proving this self-doubt wrong, and to be honest this doubt at times has served me well by lighting that fire inside to work hard and prove the world wrong. However, over the years and especially now I realize there is no need to fight life.

The key is in recognizing the energy/being/greatness/(whatever adjective resonates) within you. If you truly truly feel to your deepest core the greatness that lies within, there is no need to feel fear, anxiety, or doubt, for these things are rooted in basing our self-worth on whatever happens externally.

I’ve realized that we can all tap into this sense of being, it’s there within all of us, we just need to get out of our own way and tap into it. We need to sit through the storminess of our thoughts and recognize the being within. Once you feel it, you can proceed through each moment realizing that no matter what challenges you may face, that energy within does not diminish, and then feel how this speaks to your inherent worthiness.

The biggest block to this is ourselves. We are in love with putting ourselves down, beating ourselves up, telling ourselves that we are these isolated bodies in this isolated world and we have to battle life to stay on top. This way of being isn’t working anymore, the havoc we are wreaking on ourselves, each other, and our environment is proof of this.

Stop fighting life, get out of your own way, feel the energy within, and live every moment knowing that your very existence speaks to your worthiness – and then experience how life flows more effortlessly.

Planning Without Attachment

Living a pretty unstructured life right now is allowing me to explore the concept of life in ways that I never allowed myself to explore. There is a fine line I find myself traversing between over thinking things vs. actually having an epiphany. What’s most interesting to me is that we don’t talk about stuff like this more often. I kind of feel cheated that I went through almost all my education without being forced to think critically about life, but maybe I’ll save that discussion for another post.

One area that I’ve spent a lot of time exploring intellectually and experientially has been present moment living and making goals/plans. For a while, I thought these two concepts were mutually exclusive. Isn’t setting goals/plans rooted in the non-acceptance of the moment at hand, a way to evade the present moment? How can we aspire towards something we want in our life, while fully accepting the moment we are in?

I thought that Buddhist teachings encouraged complacency, and that any desire was rooted in falsehood. After a lot of experimentation and reading up on Buddhism & desire I have a different outlook on integrating your goals with present moment living. I now feel that the true art of living is to have a plan in place that fills you with energy and inspires you in the moment, BUT knowing that the end result isn’t important.

There isn’t an exact formula for doing this and it requires a lot of self awareness. You have to be mindful of what your goals are rooted in. In the past I’ve set goals rooted purely in the end result, like working on projects that I didn’t resonate with, but worked on because I believed the opportunity would lead to better things. Living with this mentality was a perpetuation of the mindset I learned since I was a kid and reaffirmed by my formal education.

Forcing myself to work on things that I didn’t enjoy just for the possibility of a better future ended up leaving me drained and pretty pessimistic about the point of life. I also found that there was never a terminal point to any of this, there wasn’t a point where I’ve been like cool I made it I’m here, now I can just enjoy this moment. This constant sacrificing for this esoteric vision is the default way I think a lot of us live.

Seeing the impermanence of everything in my own life and in the lives of my closest friends reminds me of the importance of making sure that our goals allow us to feel more engaged and appreciative of this moment. I’ve personally witnessed how a “sure thing” can crumble right before my eyes. I’ve seen how health issues can deteriorate whatever master plan we’re working towards. In the most extreme case,  if we spend our entire lives working towards a future vision, a huge earthquake could crush everything we’ve known to be true in a second. There is way too much variance in life, and if our lives are only directed towards a future point I’m realizing that it will never come, and if it does come there are a million other things that could happen which could cause an abrupt change.

Instead of living in this way, we could set goals and plans that leave us feeling awesome in the moment. For example, I’m pretty passionate about how to infuse well-being into day to day living. I’m working on my own ideas for a type of product that could help people do this. This project is allowing me to develop some basic programming, design, and user experience skills. Everyday I get to work on this idea and learn something new and it leaves me feeling inspired. Regardless of whether this project manifests into something bigger, I just enjoy spending my days thinking about these ideas and learning something new. This is a goal I could say with some level of certainty makes the present moment more enjoyable.

Another example a lot of people could relate to are health & fitness goals. I think there are some people who set these goals purely for the end-result to look a certain way. When I first started taking my health seriously back in college I probably fell into that bucket. Although it would be nice to be stronger and look more fit, the main reason I set health & fitness goals is because it just leaves me feeling awesome in the moment. My days flow much better and I feel way more alive on the days that I exercise. If someone told me regardless of how much I exercise I would look the same, I would still do it without a doubt.

I say all of this knowing that there are practicalities to life, and at times we have to engage in activities that may not enhance the moment. But as I continue to experiment with shifting how I think about my goals, I’m finding that I’m more inspired every day. This is having the nice side effect of leading to more opportunities, which I believe will allow me to fulfill those practicalities in life in a more empowered way. Instead of trying to change all your goals/plans start with something small, maybe make a promise to yourself that whatever project you work on next will be rooted in enhancing the moment and just see what happens.

The key is to live with a plan in mind, but die to it in every moment.

Finding Comfort in the Unknown

I believe a large part of life is spent in evading the unknown. We beat ourselves up, push our bodies, deprive ourselves of sleep, inflict stress upon ourselves in order to find certainty in life. What I’ve realized is that there is never certainty, there is no terminal point where I’ll finally be like okay I’m here, I’ve found it.

Instead, when we do get close to whatever vision we have there is almost always another reason to continue running and grasping for certainty. I’m not advocating to not have a plan and to wander aimlessly (nor am I condemning that path), but I think a better way to approach life is to make friends with the unknown. To become comfortable with that which is unknown.

When you can be appreciative and joyful even when things are unknown, then you are truly free to take action rooted in what you love, as opposed to action rooted in evading the fear of the unknown.

This fear manifests in a million different ways in daily living like propelling us to buy things we don’t need, working endlessly to change ourselves to conform to a societal ideal, or confining us to settle for lives half full.

However, the paradox of the unknown is that it can kill your dreams, but it can also be the place where you learn how to thrive. Ultimately, the decision is yours. When faced with this fear you can choose to run and grasp for certainty. Or you can learn to sit with the inherent uncertainty in life and make peace with the feeling. From there, you can choose to act, acknowledging that the true nature of life is always based in fluidity and uncertainty.

The Line

Prince Guatama left the riches of his kingdom to starve by himself in a forest to understand the truth of living and become the Buddha. Arjuna decided to fight his own family in the epic war the Mahbharata. Moses stood up to the Egyptian pharaoh, even though he constantly doubted himself, and everyone around him probably thought he was crazy. Gandhi decided that non-violent protest was the best way to take on one of the most powerful empires in the world.

When I think about the stories of these people I can’t help but to think how crazy and insane these people must have come off to the people around them. They all went against the status quo and did something that violated social norms. These people, if unsuccessful in their endeavors would have been long forgotten by history & most likely ridiculed by their peers.

This brings into question, what is the line between insanity vs. sane, right vs. wrong, terrible vs. awesome? I used to think the line was clear cut til this past year. As I continue to grasp onto the idealism of my early 20s, there are days where I look at myself and I think I completely lost my mind and at others times the path is illuminated brighter than ever and it feels so right.

Maybe it actually doesn’t matter what side of the line you fall on, because it is all a function of your perception. Maybe the people that ended up doing “great” things frankly didn’t care. They just decided how to BE despite what others around them thought. They knew their truth and resolved to live by it despite what their societies were telling them. From this perspective, there is no line that separates the sane from the insane.

There is only one criteria for deciding what side of the line you fall on: Are you following your truth?

Overcoming Apathy

Awakening Your Inner Wisdom

I find myself increasingly confused with the question about how I can contribute to the world. The problems seem so enormous and complex that I don’t even know where to start — government corruption, environmental degradation, human exploitation, poverty, inequality, education, terrorism are a few of the things that have been on my mind.

I go through this familiar wave of activism every few months. I learn about an issue that makes me feel incredible empathy & compassion, I go about researching it and learning about how enormous of a problem it is, and then I usually end up apathetic doing nothing. As I think about these problems what is becoming clearer to me is that the true sustainable solution has very little to do with the problems themselves, and almost everything to do with the world consciousness which manifests in the reality where these problems exist.

There is an essence missing in our lives. I call this essence various names depending on context, but I like calling it heart-bases living & inner-wisdom. We each have the ability to decide how much we listen to the wisdom within, as opposed to mindlessly following the status-quo and our conditioned mind. This wisdom isn’t something we have to develop, we all have it, but for most of us its been buried under years and years of fear, stress, and conditioning. However, this wisdom is within and ready to talk to us if we choose to listen.

What this wisdom says is to trust your heart, no matter where it takes you.
It leads you to make decisions and take actions that to some people may not seem rational or logical. It tells you that you do not need more money, a better job, a relationship, or acceptance to be whole; existence & worthiness are synonymous when you are living from your heart.

This inner-wisdom tells you to live with incredible love and compassion for others. It actually feels connected to everything in the universe, for it intuitively knows that everything in this physical dimension is made up of the same “stuff” & we are all part of this flow of life together.

So what does this way of living have to do with contributing to the world?
I may not know what the solution is to poverty, disease, murder, and corruption but I know that any true, lasting, and sustainable solution has to do with re-integrating heart based living into the consciousness of the world. Every time I am in tune with this deeper knowing I feel connected to nature that I can’t even fathom hurting the environment. I feel so connected to everyone that giving to others is natural and just common sense. The amount of compassion and love I feel is off the charts for everything in this universe. What would happen if everyone chose to live from this space?

I belief a lot of the problems we’re seeing in the world would simply vanish if we all lived from here. I know this sounds incredibly idealistic, but maybe this inner awakening is the best action each of us can take to solve the problems in the world. As the atrocities pile up and the problems multiply, we can either put up blockades and carve out a niche of security in our own lives, or we can use these moments as opportunities for awakening love & compassion within. In the face of world atrocities we can choose to be conduits for radiating love & compassion out into the world!

Although, we may not be able to directly solve the problems we’re seeing, we do have the ability to change our way of being and interacting in the world to propagate more of what we would like to see. As I think about the recent suffering: the airline passengers killed in Europe, the students executed in Kenya, the humans exploited in Asia, I can’t help but to feel that it all is resulting in a deficit of love & compassion in the world. The pilot of the fateful airplane and everyone suffering from mental health problems needs more love, those raised within these radical terrorist organizations need more love, the exploiters and exploited in the world need more love. The only way to “create” love for others is for each of us to awaken to the wisdom within.

To solve for environmental problems we need to slow down and feel our intrinsic connection to the world.

To solve for inequality we need to feel our connection to all humans.

To solve for corruption we need to feel our inherent worthiness/wholeness despite money and power.

To solve for materialism we need to spend more time within.

No amount of money, policy changes, and technological advancements can permanently solve the problems within the world unless we first start with changing ourselves.