Posts tagged Silence
The Devil Is White
Sep 30th
“What color is the devil?” I asked a group of teenagers sometime ago, and I got a unanimous deafening answer; “Black!” I was stunned – not at their answer, but at their certainty. I got really curious. “Have you guys seen the devil before?” I was compelled to ask. “No” they responded. “So what gives you the impression the guy is black?” I further probed. Then the room was almost quiet, except for some little buzzes here and there. “How about the devil is white?” I calmly proposed, taking advantage of the silence. “No!” They all riotously yelled as the room became boisterous again.
Whatever gave them the impression the devil is black! Interestingly, when I was their age, I thought so too. I wouldn’t even know where I got the idea from. Perhaps because we came across a wicked, black, ugly, two-honed character named Devil in comic books a couple of times. What gave the comic illustrators the idea? So let me ask you too, what color is the devil?
Before you start wondering what business of mine it is with devil’s color, I really DO NOT need you to answer that question. I don’t care what color the guy is anyway. The idea is to get you to see things differently. I needed you to ask new questions that might challenge some of your life-long held believes – the same result I desired to achieve when I asked those lovely teenagers the same question some years ago.
When was the last time you challenged your believes? When was the last time you asked good questions? If Isaac Newton never questioned the scenario of that apple that dropped like millions of people who have seen the similar actions before him, there will probably be no laws of motion today! And without Newton’s laws that formed the core of science, the world would have been hundreds of years behind. Imagine how many years behind the world might be right now because of questions you are not asking.
Creativity, inventions and innovations are the products of good thinking, and good thinking is a product of good questioning!
People customarily avoid answering “tough” questions especially when they have a hint that it might lead to more probing questions. They are always ready to defend their mental lethargy with the same old alibi, “No one can know everything.” Their minds go inactive and increasingly degenerate.
Haven’t you noticed that questioning declines with human growth? As children we asked more questions. What happened to that keen and curious mind God gave us? This is sad!
If you really want to grow, discover and make your life more meaningful, you’ve got to dare some questions you’ve avoided hitherto. Let your mind loose. Let it go wild. Most importantly, focus on quality questions that breed quality answers.
The following rules will guide you:
1. Don’t hesitate to ask people questions about things you don’t understand.
2. Always challenge some of your long-held believes – they may be wrong assumptions anyway.
3. Revisit childhood questions you’ve avoided like “Who gave birth to God?”
4. There are no dumb questions, only dumb people who avoid them.
5. All questions are meant to be answered.
6. There is no question without an answer.
7. Silence is NOT an answer.
8. If you ask “why”, the “how” will follow.
9. It is true you can’t know EVERYTHING, but you can know MANY things.
10. Always ask yourself, “How about the devil is white?”
Meditate to Relieve Stress
Sep 27th
People from all over the world have been practicing meditation for centuries. Meditation is used to quiet the body and mind and to relieve accumulated stress. Meditating daily can be highly beneficial to your mental health, it relieves stress, gives you clarity and helps you focus on your tasks.
I read an article the other day on a popular magazine that said that writers meditate to get over writers block. Many times authors experience writers block because of all the resistance in their heads and meditation helps clear this resistance up. The article also stated that many businessmen “go into silence” when they need to solve a problem, when they finish they find a that their problem has been solved like magic.
The most common way to effectively meditate is by finding a quiet place, this can be in your front porch, bedroom or even your office. When you meditate make sure that you are sitting upright that makes it simpler to quiet your mind. Many meditation experts state that you should “go into silence” in the same place every day.
Make sure it’s quiet, turn your cellphone off and make sure you don’t have a television in your peace spot, that way you don’t have the temptation to turn it on. In this article i will give you some simple tips that i use to meditate. The first step you must take is to sit quietly and still in your chosen “peace spot” and then close your eyes.
If you are a beginner you are going to find out quick that quieting your mind is kind of impossible, so don’t focus on anything at all just stay as still as you can and as you get better at it you will find that your mind stills itself. Sometimes you come from work very tired and try to go into peace then you find your mind can’t stay still, just let it be.
If you have never done this before start with ten minuet sessions then move on to twenty and then on. After you start to get some experience under your belt you will find your self deeply relaxed and you will actually start to look forward to your meditation sessions.
