Truth exists (Part IV)
Live outside of thought and finally be able to see life as it is and not be subject to its circumstances.
Your brain never stops thinking — while you are awake or asleep.
Your body stores memories based on those conscious and unconscious thoughts and experiences. We know thoughts can be overwhelming, and if impactful enough, your body will save the reaction and play it back to you when triggered; think of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
We go through life and all of its parts and continuously think about desires we find appealing, and your body is getting a full dose of external wants every day, and it adds it to its muscles' memory. This goes on for years, and your behavior evolves around those thoughts. Next thing you know, your life is based on old desires that slowly decay from inside and out of you—death by a million cuts of thoughts of the same variation.
Truth is there in everything we seek and identify with. In our love of the arts, we worship our idols. The truth in that is giving your all to something superior. This is an indication that there is something worth our admiration. A paradox in a sense, we are doing exactly what we ought to do, but we are doing the act the wrong thing. You can only see it if you are out of your imaginary branded dome of ideas.
What is a branded dome of ideas?
Imagine your first year of college, a really cool experience to be away from your nest (aka your parents' home). The world is your oyster, and you get to pick whatever field you are interested in studying. There is a school of science where you can learn all sorts of amazing stuff, and there will be an excellent job waiting for you after 4–10 years of learning. There is the field of computers, the technical building block of the future. We now have artificial intelligence and machine learning. Pick your poison.
You end up making a decision, whatever that might be. Let's fast forward 20 years later, and you wake up from your bed. It's early. There is a knock on the door, and your doorbell camera shows a nicely dressed person, who looks important, is waiting there patiently. You pull yourself together and make your way down to the door. You open it, and it's you. You invite yourself in and sit in front of each other. This conversation will be tense.
The nicely dressed you start listing out who you are in yes or no questions.
Are you alumni of school x?
Yes.
Do you work for company x?
Yes
Is this your favorite coffee?
Yes.
Are you dating so and so?
Yes.
Is this your five-year plan?
Yes.
Is this your dream vacation?
Yes.
Do you watch this tv series?
Yes.
Are you trying to lose weight?
Yes.
The interrogation lasted for hours, and all of your answers were yes. Tears start pouring down your cheeks. You are filled with emotions, and the vault is turned open.
The nicely dressed you end with, "you know this about yourself too."
An experience like no other. Would you go back to your everyday life? The answer is yes. The real question is, would you continue to that trajectory laid out in front of you the first year in college? You would think, what is the alternative? The answer is yes; what is the other option? That question alone is a foot out of the door from the branded doom of ideas.
I used to drink coffee black with no sugar because it represented being bold and manly. My first experience with sweet coffee came way before the idea of being a man a certain way became compelling.
I won this girl's heart back in high school through AOL chat, dating myself a bit, and she agreed to go on a date with me. I did not have a car, but she did, and so she picked me up to take me to her favorite coffee spot, Caribou Coffee. My very first time in a coffee hang-out place. I have no idea how the conversation went because she was out of my league, and I was trying to figure out the sweet drink served to me. I definitely made her laugh with my reaction to the drink. She was a year ahead and left for college that fall, and that was that because I knew competing with a college guy was a tall task, and I didn't have a car.
Life went on, I built my pallet for coffee, and after college, I joined corporate America. And my first day at the job, I stood by the coffee machine with two objectives, one to learn how to operate the fancy thing and two to see how experienced man drank their coffee. I went all black with no sugar for the next eight years. Marriage to my best counterpart and our first child happened in that timeframe.
One day, I decided to change my diet, no meat, to live a healthier life. To help, we got rid of our grill. So I posted it on an online secondary marketplace. I get a message from a buyer showing interest. Then comes a random question, what kind of coffee do I like. I sat on that for a few minutes and didn't know how to answer. I was vague and said bold but to taste good and didn't know the buyer's attention. He said okay and told me he was coming to get the grill.
You can imagine the thoughts going through my head. A random stranger wants to know my coffee preference and is coming to my house to give me money for the grill. He shows up, a super nice guy. He handed me a bag of coffee, and we talked about it as I showed him the grill.
It turns out he was a manager at Caribou Coffee and gave me a lesson on the process of making coffee. This was the first time I learned that dark and bold coffee is overcooked coffee beans, and if you want flavor, you have to drink it medium roast to get the full, enriched experience. Since then, I have switched to medium roast and enjoy sweet coffee.
Life came back around, and I listened and learned, making a change.
Truths might be magical, but they can also be simple. It's all in the choices you make to better yourself, then watch the trickle-down effect take place.
We will explore further in part 5.
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