When experienced meditators meditate, a large-scale brain network called the Default Mode Network (DMN) becomes inactive. The DMN is a region located throughout our brain and plays a role in distinguishing between the many electrical signals coming through our five senses to prevent them from overlapping in the brain. The DMN becomes more active when one thinks about 'myself', such as 'my things', 'my future', and 'my past', and becomes less active when one thinks about things other than 'myself'. But the interesting thing is that the DMN is not activated when children are young, so when someone asks them something, they do not know how to say 'I'. And the reason why people who meditate see the world as beautiful is because by eliminating the existence of 'I', all virtual values and symbols disappear, and they see the world as it is. Humans, who couldn’t leave the world as it was, created an imaginary symbol called 'I' that didn’t exist in the world in order to understand this world. It seemed that the world could not be explained without 'I', so we created a virtual symbol called 'I' and were finally able to explain this world. After we created ‘I’, many other values were also created. As ‘I’ was created, ‘good people’ and ‘bad people’ were created, and as ‘I’ had beliefs, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ were created. However, “such a person” or “such a thing” does not exist, but is a virtual value created by us. An example to understand better: If you ask someone who has a bf or gf why they like their bf or gf, what will that person say? Because he’s competent and handsome? Because she’s pretty and kind? If that person answers that way, that person doesn’t like their bf and gf, but rather likes the virtual value he/she has given to that other person. Nevertheless, that person who get married thinking he/she truly love that person, when time passes and that person's face changes over time or the once competent person starts to be not competent, they don’t like their partner as before and they see that their partner no longer fits their virtual values and they says that their husband/wife has changed and became different. But no one has changed, the situation has changed. Situation from bf and gf who goes out on a date watching a movie in the cinema to mom and dad who raise their children. They didn't love their partner from the beginning, they didn't see the essence behind the virtual values. What the two saw was the virtual values, and that value changes when the standard and situation changes. The reason why people who meditate see the world as beautiful is because they see the world as it is, with all virtual values and symbols disappearing as the existence of 'I' is eliminated. Do you know how beautiful the world seen that way is? Don't look at the sky as 'sky', don't look at trees as 'trees', and you will realize that this world was full of beautiful art. We have large museums, large screens, and large paintings and sculptures, but the universe uses the entire sky to paint and the entire earth to create sculptures. Moreover, it is moving media art that changes every time! So how can we see the world without expectations? Just love everything! True love is love without ‘me’. If I love everything in this universe, this universe becomes me and I become this universe. At that moment, meditators say “I’m enlightened”. It is not difficult to see the world as it is, because we had already seen it that way. As we were young children, when we couldn’t even say “I,” we saw the world as it was without any standards, without any judgment, and that world was really exciting! Jaden
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Patience is probably one of the things I lack the most which is one of the very important traits that a leader should have. I believe that being the eldest child has made me the way I am. Being the eldest sibling comes with a lot of pros and cons, and has also been a huge reason for my short temper and lack of patience. I think my upbringing and home life have been a great factor in why I don't have much of it. I have grown up as the eldest sibling. Being the eldest gives you a lot of responsibility, but also a lot of freedom that my younger siblings do not have. Parenting my younger siblings, and just living with them in general, has affected my patience. Let's be honest, what older sibling has patience for their younger brother or sister? Not very many, but I know that I certainly do not. I try to work on being more patient every day, knowing that it's something I have to work on. To be a good leader you need to have patience, it's a must. I know that patience is something I have to work on based on how I react to certain situations. I notice that I tend to snap at my younger siblings when they upset me over something small and unimportant. Such as asking me to help them with a simple task or taking my things without asking me in advance. I need to change those habits because they can get me into trouble a lot of the time, which is something I obviously don't want, but is sometimes deserved based on my response. Those are just a couple of examples of many times that I will over react instead of responding in a patient and orderly manner. I hope to one day become a more patient person. I hope to learn to not over react as much as I do now. My grandpa is probably the most patient person I have ever met so I can try to learn from the best. He is a very selfless person and is always doing things for other people, no matter what. I will continue to look up to him in hopes of being as patient as he is one day. He is a gem. I have always been told to be patient and to wait for things, and hearing those words always made me feel more impatient. I would sit and tell myself to just be patient, but I then realized sitting there and thinking about it made me feel worse and more stressed out. I think this happened because I would be so incredibly focused on trying to be patient that it just started to upset me. Some things I have been trying to do to improve my patience is to not hyper fixate on things, I'm trying to “patiently” wait for. I also try my best to think before I speak, which prevents me from snapping or getting easily triggered by small things. Becoming a more patient person is definitely a difficult task but has gotten easier considering I have been more aware of it. If you can relate to having a difficult time being patient try not to focus so much on things and just let it happen naturally. I have realized over time that good things come from being patient. Yes it does sound a little cliché, but it's true.
Amelia H As a kid I was always told “Don't grow up too fast” and “Stay young for as long as you can.” I used to think it was totally cliche because all I wanted was to have more responsibility. I used to think about meeting the guy of my dreams, the fairy tale wedding, a house with a big yard for my kids to play in. Since then I’ve lost family members, friends and even parts of myself. I’ve had to grow up and face harsh realities. Life is like an hourglass, you have time and it’s slowly winding down and one day your time will be gone. Some people are given more sand than others so you have to make the most of what you get because you never know when it will run out. I've found myself stressing about the future and being scared to grow up. It's all I used to want to do but now that I'm closer to it I wish I could stay young forever and go back to when I didn't have anxiety and insecurities. It's not always bad to think and remember all your old memories but you can't stay stuck with them and keep living in the past like I have before. The present is special and you may not realize it until that moment has passed. Like Andy Bernard said “I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days, before you've actually left them.” Life goes by in the blink of an eye which is something I've realized. You have to live it to the fullest and make the most of your time while you're here. You also have to spend the limited time you have with the people you love like your friends and family. It may be scary but you have to take risks and put yourself out there. This is still something I'm working at, but compared to a year ago I've had so many more unforgettable moments in my life. Whether they were good or bad or I completely embarrassed myself, I wouldn't trade them for the world. They've made me who I am today. I'm looking forwards to the future and to living life to the fullest until all the sand in my hourglass is gone.
Anna S Ah, the good old days when you could read a newspaper or watch the news on tv to find out what was going on in the world. you didn’t have to question what was reported. But things aren't so easy now. With online news and social media being very popular sometimes we don’t know if the news we read is true or not. That article you may have just read about McDonalds making McNuggets from pink goo might not be the real deal. Fake news can change history usually for the worst and can really negatively affect future generations. We make important decisions based on information. We form an idea about people or a situation by obtaining information. So if the information we saw on the Web is invented, false, exaggerated or distorted, we won’t make good decisions.
Here are some ways you can find out if the news you see is fake. Consider the source Check the domain name of the site the story is coming from. If the web site address is a slight variation of a real news organization, this is typically a red flag. Who’s behind the About Us? You should be able to learn more about the news agency (including their address and staff list) by reading the About Us section of their website. Legitimate sites will give you complete contact information. Double check the information Search the title of the article and you should be able to find more information about the writer. If the information you find doesn’t match what it says on the news site, you’ve likely stumbled onto a nice piece of click bait/fake news. Use common sense If it looks crazy and has a really weird source it probably is fake. But you can always search up the article in google to double check. But things are getting better introducing independent fact checkers. Fact checkers job is to verify factual information, in order to promote the veracity and correctness of reporting. With these fact checkers showing up to help decipher real from fake news we can rest easy knowing that once it is fact checked it is the real deal. Here is a quiz to see if you can decipher fake news from real news. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/fake-news-quiz-nov-18 Callum A I didn’t really know what to write my blog about. I didn’t know until today. Me and my dad went out to go pick up sushi for dinner. In the car we put on gloves and a mask before getting out. We went into the restaurant and about 10 other people were inside. No one is wearing a mask or gloves. People weren’t staying 6 ft apart. I’ve been out a few times before, and every time like this one, we get people looking at us like we're crazy. It’s crazy how people look at us like we're insane for taking extra safety precautions. I don’t really care what other people think, but I just find it interesting how quick people are to judge. It’s also interesting how some people don’t seem to put much care into what we're experiencing right now. I’ll be at the store and people will walk right next to me. Like covid-19 is inexistent. For some people like that, it may not seem like a big deal. Some people will say “It’s unlikely we’ll get it” or “It doesn't really do much”. I get how it can seem that way, but you don’t really know until you can experience the pain of someone you love getting it, and the thought of them possibly dying. Those strangers that will walk by me with the slightest care in the world, don’t know the whole story. They don’t know what the impacts could be. For me covid-19 is especially scary. A few months ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was one of the most terrifying things I've ever experienced. She got the cancer removed successfully, and now she is going through chemotherapy, and then after she will do radiation to ensure it won’t come back. A lot of people know this but when you're sick like that, your body gets super weak, and can’t handle a lot. So if my mom were to get it, she could very much possibly die. That’s why my whole family needs to be careful. My whole message on this blog includes two things. The first thing is to be careful while this whole virus is going on. Stay safe and think of others before doing things. We’re all gonna get through this. Another thing is that you truly don’t know what people are going through. Someone might seem so happy, but is sad inside. Someone might be a bit strange to you, but don’t make it obvious you feel that way. Think before you do something mean, judge, or say something about someone. How could that make the person feel? How is that spreading positivity? Think about others, before you do something. You could do something that might not seem like a big deal to you, but really something as simple as walking too close to me, could take someone's life.
Alexa K It's Wednesday morning, and I am waking up to an alarm that I would rather not be going off at all, it's like this. Even though I can Zoom, get a workout in, see the people that I see every week, my friends, the people that will never judge me, the people that will always lean in for a hug, it's not the same, it's like this. The sun that was here yesterday, making my room as warm as a blanket, has been replaced by a steady drizzle of water that drips slowly off of the side of my house. It builds into drops and then hangs ready to fall off the edge of my roof as slowly as some of the days have passed in the last month, it's like this.
I can't stand in front of my students talking about things that I love to share, I have to sit at my computer waiting for a notification that someone has done some tiny task that I can click a box to show that I know that they did it instead, it's like this. But I know that it's like this, I know that I can do what I can to become a better teacher while the day drags on. I can find things to make myself happy, to move forward with projects, to look forward to seeing my friends for boardgames on zoom. I know that I can learn new things and call people that I never had time to call before now I have all the time in the world because, well, it's like this. What we do have at our fingertips is a calm, slow-paced, small project-based world, where I have a job to do, tasks to complete, lawns to mow, toys to fix, and dinners to make. I have 170 students to care about, to worry about, to think about, to check in on because they are mine. It's like this being a teacher. It's like this now but it won't be this forever, it will go back to what it was and we will forget because that is what we do. So, for now, it might be hard but I know it will get better, and we can do this for a while, because for a while and only a while, it's like this. Richard Hortness I once heard an analogy that really gave me perspective on what values I should live by and what my life should consist of. It went like this… “You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? "Well because someone bumped into me, of course!" Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea. Whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out. Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It's easy to fake it, until you get rattled. So we have to ask ourselves... "what's in my cup?" When life gets tough, what spills over? Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility? Or anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions? You choose!” When I read that I really had to begin to ask myself, “what am I filling my cup with”. Especially with coffee, when spilt it leaves a stain and is difficult to clean up, so if I fill my life with anger, grudges, and hurtful words, when life shakes me it will leave a stain on the lives around me and those I have affected. It is difficult sometimes to clean up your mess when it spills. This analogy has helped me gain perspective on how I want my life to impact others. If i want others to be impacted positively by my words and actions, I must fill my life with positivity. Some people struggle with understanding how to make that change in their lives. Here are some ways that may help you gain positivity in your life that will then pour out onto those around you. Like a new years resolution, incorporating new habits or adapting to a different lifestyle and way of living can be difficult if not sometimes extremely difficult. Keeping up a positive and strong persona can sometimes become very difficult. Learning how to focus on the good things rather than emphasizing the small negative things is super important in maintaining a healthy relationship with yourself. There is that saying that says “to love others you must love yourself first”, to be able to have a positive affect on others, you must have a positive attitude with yourself and grow as an individual in these areas so that it may spread to those around you. To quote a video that gave me inspiration for this blog it says “the effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is”. So what is in your heart? Do you hold onto the hardship in your life, do you focus on the small negative things that are not going to matter at the end of the day, or do you delight in focusing on the good? How do your actions and words make an impact in the lives of others? What is in your heart will spill out onto others. People won’t remember all of your success, they will remember you by the way you made them feel and the impact you had on their life. What impact do you want to make?
I challenge you and encourage you to think about what your cup is filled with right now. Love? Hurt? Pain? Positivity? Then compare it to what you want your cup to be filled with. Next, I challenge you to think of ways in which you’re able to make small changes to either remove or incorporate new values into your life. You will notice these changes in the way that you interact with others and the impression and impact they gain from you! Continue being a light in the lives of others! Emily C Reframing or taking a different look at a situation gives a lot of perspective. It lets you stop and analyze what is happening in your world, and decide what is going on not necessarily in your world but in the person with whom you have the problem. What brings this up? Late assignments. When I was in school it was never, NEVER, never an option to turn things in late. If you were going to turn it in late you better come in to talk to the teacher beforehand. Like well beforehand. Not in the 3 minutes before the class that it is due but in the days leading up to the due date. Two weeks ago I posted a list of 17 grade 10's that were missing one or more out of 4 assignments that were over the last 4 months, all of which I gave class time to work on and even in one case a week long extension to improve the copy that they turned in on the due date if they were not happy with the final outcome. I try to take the same approach as Howard Aldrich. He does not have a hard and fast rule when it comes to late assignments . If someone comes in and says they are going to turn in something late I generally start with "Ok", and then for seemingly no reason they proceed to give me some long drawn out story as to why it is late.... I just said "OK". I honestly do not care if you turn it in late or not. UNLESS .... You see when you turn something in late it does three things Piss me off, piss me off, and piss me off. Just kidding I just said I don't care. 1) It makes it harder for me to give a fair grade to you and to others if there is any subjectivity to the rubric, because lets face it I am kind of annoyed to be grading this thing after I have graded everyone else's. 2) It puts you at a disadvantage to your peers. You see that assignment you just submitted was tied to you actually learning something. Something that I took time to prepare for you. Or something that we have agreed is actually important for you to become a better person in the big wide universe. 3) It tells me that you don't care about your leaning, about yourself, and that you don't respect me and others in the class (keep in mind this is my personal view and may not be 100% accurate). You see, especially with something like these blogs we need them in on time to have something to do. For example our blog review classes are planned around the leadership students turning in one blog per term on a due date so that they can help elevate those in our class. So back to this whole reframing thing. I understand that we all have busy lives. Students these days have jobs, when I was in school you didn't have a real job. Students are hyper scheduled. Even my two year old has soccer on Tuesdays, and swimming (soon to be gymnastics) on Saturdays. What happened to the good old days of playing in the street? (Thats another blog). Then there is family(guy), Netflix, video games, and whatever else comes up. But what is a teacher to do? I love to remind people that in the business world if you miss a deadline you lose you job or a client. But as a teacher I am supposed to grade you based on the work you do not on wether or not you turn it in on time. So what should I do, give you a zero the day you miss your assignment? Wait 'till report card time and then zero out your chance for that term. Give you an incomplete on your report card and not pass you if you don't turn in a blog? Or just take it and smile? Or should I just reframe my expectations as a teacher? Should I just wait patiently and give out incomplete grades? Dealing with sad students, and angry parents because I was "not doing my job" as a teacher reminding every student, missing every assignment, every time I saw them? |
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