It’s a common saying, a statement that gets the average worker to not bring home frustrations and sobs from mistakes that took place during the day. It’s a motivator to those who think that since the world still moves on, that they better move on too. (You caught the post earlier about what happens when you stand still.) But what you may not know, is that the saying is used by the dispensable cog, the mediocre, the “average” Joe, the common worker.
See, a Linchpin, someone who brings the best to their work, brings passion, motivation, self-determination and so much more; when they stop working, when they take a break or leave for the day, the world doesn’t move on. Linchpins make the world stop when they stop being creative. The world can’t function without them doing what they do best.
Sure, the mediocre can move on, but the Linchpin moves up.
Don’t you hate when questions are answered with questions? They are often confusing and even more aggravating unless it’s Krishnamurti asking the questions.
This was my second time picking up “Think On These Things” and reading it all the way through. I mentioned that I read it all the way through because it’s actually a hard book to read start to finish because you are constantly asked to do exactly what the title says, to think on the things that are talked about. I’m not sure about you, but thinking can get exhausting especially when what you are thinking about is breaking boundaries, challenges status-quo and punching tradition in the face.
The reason I tried reading it a second time is because the last time I read it, I was 16 years old and I wanted to see if 1. It is really worth reading a book twice and 2. If I had a different outlook on the philosophies that Krishnamurti spoke about 3.5 years later.
Before I write a short book regurgitation, let me riff on reading books over again. This isn’t my first time trying it, and I’m going to give it one more shot with another book that I am going to read again soon. During New Years I was reading dozens of posts about the best books to read and the fact that this year is supposed to be about reading the best books over again and applying the lessons to your life.
What I have come to learn is the little things which you would catch in reading a book over again, are rain dropped throughout a similar book by a different author. The books are similar, so these small repetitive lessons are also similar. You have already taken the most important pieces of the first book; there is no point in reading it again to catch the small points when you can just read another book with new big important pieces and the same small points.
The thing about the many books based on the same subject or field of interest is that they are all plagiarized. The author read nearly a hundred books on the subject, used the small points from them and created the larger, new, more important ones and the next author did the same. Because this is the way books are written, it seems ill-fitting to reread a book over again.
Book Regurgitation
“To find out what you love to do demands a great deal of intelligence; because, if you are afraid of not being able to earn a livelihood, or of not fitting into this rotten society, then you will never find out”
The real reason I picked Think On These Things up to read it again was because I wanted to revisit his concepts of the function of education which is the title of the first chapter. Throughout the entire book the way education is taught is challenged and ideas are given to improve it. Being straightforward, everything that is mentioned in the book is supposed to also be mentioned in school, to be thought on, to be philosophized on – something that will also appear in my first 30,000 word eBook that will be released at the beginning of August.
Freedom is the next subject that is focused on as most people are not free; they are dead or near death. “We all want to be famous people – and the moment we want to be something, we are no longer free.” (pg 10) At the same time of freedom, intelligence is thought on. Intelligence is to find out, but to find out is not to make a conclusion. Once a conclusion is made, the mind is bordered and dies much quicker. See, the whole concept of freedom is to free the mind, not in the sense of it being empty but in the sense of it being aware with love and experience.
Love is mentioned very few times throughout the book because love is simple.
“Have you noticed how few of us have deep feeling about anything? Do you ever rebel against your teachers, against your parents, not just because you don’t like something, but because you have a deep, ardent feeling that you don’t want to do certain things? If you feel deeply and ardently about something, you will find that this very feeling in a curious way brings a new order into your life” (pg 61)
Another quick note to make about the book is that aside from the opening of each chapter, the chapter is comprised of answers to questions. One particular question is “However much I may want to be an engineer, if my father is against it and won’t help me, how can I study engineering?”
Krishnamurti’s answer, “If you persist in wanting to be an engineer even though your father turns you out of the house, do you mean to say that you won’t find ways and means to study engineering? You will beg, go to friends. Sir, life is very strange. The moment you are very clear about what you want to do, things happen. Life comes to your aid – a friend, a relation, a teacher, a grandmother, somebody helps you… But you see, we don’t want to invite life, we want to play a safe game; and those who play a safe game die very safely is that not so?” (pg 126)
Other great questions which are issued and responded to:
To revolt, to learn, to love – are these three separate processes, or are they simultaneous?
How can we be free of dependence as long as we are living in society?
What is self-knowledge, and how can we get it?
Why do we want to be famous?
I am full of hate. Will you please teach me how to love?
What is happiness in life?
Why do we find pleasure in our games and not in our studies?
Why do we hate the poor?
Why do we like to be lazy?
How is one to become intelligent?
Why do birds fly away when I come near?
As always, I have to give the one chapter to read to see if you are interested in getting the book. “The energy to life” is the fourth to last chapter in the book and basically answers how to be full of energy all of the time rather than lethargic and lazy each day. All in all, was it worth the read a second time? No. Was it worth a read the first time? Yes.
Free Library
Krishnamurti is the far right one, had to be different and put the pages facing out
Since I moved to Madison, I have noticed something peculiar popping up as I ride my bike on the bike paths. Bird houses. Not just your typical bird house, but a huge bird house, with an actual door instead of a hole. Above the door the words “Little Free Library” are written. Inside this giant bird house are random books that people have put inside. I think it is an absolutely brilliant idea and as you can see, I have deposited my Krishnamurti book in one. At first I was worried that there are only bad, terrible books being tossed into the free library because people don’t want to hold on to them. Then I realized the books inside are probably the best books anyone can read because they are so valuable that people have to share them, have to let someone else experience them and have to feel that inspiring power of knowing that you contributed to someone’s experience in reading a fresh, positive, great book. To the person who will pick this book out, enjoy. To the readers who will check this book out at a public library or view the recommended chapter at a book store, enjoy.
Stay Positive & You Get The Most Thoughts For Your 4 Bucks With This Book
Nor are opportunities or priceless moments to demonstrate your talents or your art.
If a rock is left in a strong stream of water unmoving, naturally the stream will grind down the rock into a pebble. Ultimately defeated it will either be piled on with more rocks meeting the same fate or get taken by the stream and tossed out.
Like the pebble, standing still in life will lead you to be grinded down to non-existence, except it occurs much quicker. When a person creates a stream of their own success, by starting to move, starting to push, starting to lean forward, their stream continues to gain momentum and power. They (their stream) strong with creativity, toils anything standing still. (you?)
A person just following orders, just trying to reach the finish line, just trying to complete something, with no intention of creating inexorable value, does a two-step forward, one step back process.
They make progress, with some setbacks and eventually reach the destination but there’s not much value in that.
Every person running a five-mile race gets to the finish line but only a few significant people are the first to reach that destination with even more passion and vigor than when they started. They are the ones to get the audience standing, whistling and applauding until their hands sting. That is value.
To make anything remarkable, creative and irreplaceable, it’s still a two-step forward, one step back process, there is nothing special to it, there is no natural born talent, they merely have more passion. That’s it. That’s how to create value.
Notice, those who finish last in the race get the same type of applause as the winner because the audience can see the passion burning, the determination to complete the race, the relentless effort that the last place person is putting in. That is value.
Also notice that the audience is going just as crazy over a few runners that are in the middle. The ones clapping for them know how passionate they are about running the five miles. The runners made sure to express their passion, whether they win or lose. That is value.
See, whether you finish first, fiftieth or last, you have the ability to create value. All you need is to declare, bespeak and manifest your passion.
When I write, I let typos slip, mechanical or grammatical errors to pass, I leave the crossed out words on the page, I keep the notes I wrote in the margin, and in other words, while I juggle all aspects of writing, I drop the ball and make sure everyone notices it.
I call it the Juggler’s perfection.
Have you ever thought what would happen to the Juggling industry if Jugglers never dropped a ball? In other words, what happens to it if failure never participates in the show?
Juggling ceases to be a profession. It is no longer entertaining to watch and there is no point in paying to watch it. The exact reason Jugglers are incredible, get paid to juggle, and amaze people is in the fact that they fail. They drop the ball.
Instead of trying to be perfect, be imperfect perfectly and accept failure as a sign you can still make a living off of it.
Stay Positive & Invite The Jugglers Perfection Into Your Muse, Work, Passion
It seems that we are finally seeing a slight but steady decrease in monopolies. It is something I hoped for when I was 16 and even when I thought of the most logical step to take to do it. Three years ago, I wrote the following in my journal.
“America needs to focus more on free market and trading and bartering, then it would lower monopolies.”
What I didn’t know at the time was what the free market – trading and bartering – would be made up of. Traditionally speaking, it would be about exchanging a couch for a punching bag, or a TV for food, or a boat for some of the fish the user would catch. We would expect to see a decrease in the use of money and overall monetary value and an increase in personal tangible need.
What I have now come to realize is that this free market that we are riding into is not about specific valuable items, or about money, or about the vital needs for sustainability. In fact, it is a collection of it all. We’re heading into an age where the free market is composed of information, skills, talents, art, passion, action, change, teamwork, and originality.
It’s no longer who has the fanciest house, who has the most food, or who has the biggest boat. It’s about who created a new model of a house, who combined an ancient recipe with their own originality and successfully opened a restaurant with that as its signature dish, it’s about who ditches their biggest boat to bring actual art and change to humanity.
Those who successfully enroll themselves in this new free market enterprise are the ones who will become the monopolies – trusted and valued monopolies.
Stay Positive & I Prefer To Call It The Free(dom) Market Economy
Lately, if you have noticed, I have been on a long riff about how information is being shared. After months of observance, I had the experience that gave me the ultimate understanding. I owe this post to every single persons experience because you have had it hundreds of times but specifically this post is the story of mine that happened to me a few days ago. I sent a link with the words “and I thought about you”.
A couple of times a week I stop by MentalFloss. I clicked a post about banana art and thought about my brother who refuses to accept he’s an artist because of what he would have to give up (his bad habits) to have his dream. I saw the bananas and had to share it with someone, someone special, someone whom I thought about immediately after seeing the bananas.
That’s the aim of content isn’t it? Or at least, it’s supposed to be the aim. Great content does good to one person but can only change the world if it’s shared with everyone on it. Whether changing the world is done through banana art or any of the billions of artistic niches, it has to be shared. To be shared, you must have the reader or viewer think of those five words.
Those five words are the most powerful words in the world because they employ action. The moment a person thinks about someone else after reading or viewing some form of content, they are held accountable to share it with that person.
Thinking about it again, this happened the other month when I sent a picture of this tiger to my friend whose favorite animal is a Tiger.
Rawr
As a writer and creator of valuable content, the aim of having it shared is not based off the most Tweets, the most “likes” or the most reblogs. While the content can be shared with thousands of people this way, the connection of the shared knowledge is void of character, void of passion, void of care. The aim of providing invaluable content is to fit into someones worldview and you can only do so when you say or type those 5 words.
Stay Positive & I Wrote This Because I Thought About You
