The Desire To Understand Everything

Some say "its better to dig one deep hole in the ground and discover the gold than to dig ten holes in the ground and discover nothing."
A few months ago I thought deeply about this. It was at a time where all of a sudden I had an unbelievable desire to understand all things. This was quite the contrary to my school and university years where I just got by without really paying attention to the 'essence' of the knowledge - simply getting by for the sake of getting by.
But then - and the irony is almost choking - after university ended this desire showed up out of the blue. Not only did I want to understand the entire field of computer sciences, I wanted to understand matters beyond that; I wanted to deeply understand philosophy, politics, cars, self-mastery, psychology, physics. I wanted to compose music, learn how to draw well, become a painter, be good at reading poetry and literature. In essence I had an almost abnormal enthusiasm concerning all things for all people. Truly, there was nothing egoistic about it - I wasn't on a quest to boost my ego for the sake of recognition. It was just a sincere wanting to understand.
But as cool (or uncool) as that sounds, I gained naught. Nothing. Zero. If anything, that kind of mental attitude was counter-productive. When I told my friend about it, he warned me it was dangerous.
Then I tried to search about this issue and I found an article that had to do with 'polymaths' (meaning a person who is well studied in many fields of knowledge). Leonardo Da Vinci is the archetype of a polymath (also called 'renaissance man') - he seemed to understand everything. He seemed to be capable of anything. In fact I think all the associations in his brain allowed him to understand more than that which is understood - but that's for another time.
The article also mentioned that it's harder to be a polymath nowadays. This is due to the fact that the amount of knowledge available to mankind now makes it impossible for a single individual to have fluent mastery in almost everything. In the old days you could have some knowledge about art, history, linguistics, literature, etiquette, table manners, and that would be enough for you to be considered a polymath. Nowadays, even the field of computer sciences is too large for the lone individual.
So now you might be guessing that I'll start to write about 'delegation' and 'working together' and 'expertise', or even the division of labor. Well yes, that is ideal for todays world. The unit of production can no longer be attained by one individual alone.
However I'd still like to maintain the subjective opinion that there is a certain elegance in one who is AT LEAST moderately versed in many issues. I have (very cheesily so) called this thought 'the philosophy of the sword'. It simply means that one must have both horizontal and vertical growth. The vertical growth would be the sword body - your expertise, whatever it may be. This sword body would be used to thrust your way through life, your engine of sustenance and if possible, your source of passion. The horizontal section of the sword, the cross-guard, would represent an ongoing aspiration to know at least the basics of as many things as one desires to know, say, the basics of politics (May I suggest that spirituality and your chosen belief be represented by the sword's sheath/scabbard?).
To end, it's interesting to note that if you were to buy as many books as possible and read ONLY the first chapters of those books, you would therefore have quite an extensive amount of basic knowledge on numerous subjects. I haven't done this yet, but I reckon it would be great to have such a balance in such a specialized world.
Just a thought.

Observing Yourself - The Mental Attitude

As you observe yourself, you will naturally find the task rather daunting. Before you know it, you're already in thinker mode again, thinking things like "this is impossible" or "I can't possibly succeed at this".
Being able to constantly remain in observer mode takes practice, and usually when you start doing this, you would travel back and forth between thinking and observing. Thats great, it's the natural course of things.
As Tolle puts it "The moment you realize you are not present [in thinker mode], you are present [in observer mode]". Paraphrased, we can say, the more you 'realize' you aren't observing, the better. So just keep on realizing and realizing.
When I started observing myself, one key that proved really useful was plain acceptance - to accept that my state of mind was simply as it was. To be 'impartial' about it. Without judgment.
So doesn't that kill the purpose you may wonder? Well consider this. Say you are trying to observe your mind but you find your mind is bloated with thoughts of all kinds. Being irritated about it would really get you nowhere - in fact it would add more thoughts to the already bloated mind. For example, if you're observing, and you see the bloated mind, and think, "what a bloated mind I have", then you have just introduced a new thought through the 'back door', and you have returned to thinker mode.
To conclude, when you are observing yourself, the best is to accept, let go, and realize when you have fallen back into thinker mode. Trust me, when you have this positive mental attitude towards your practice, its effectiveness will increase significantly.

Observing Yourself

Did you know that it's possible to observe yourself? The ability of self observation is one quality that distinguishes us human beings from animals. Unfortunately, it's quite evident that in todays world, not much attention is placed on this profound skill.
This self-observing-the-self is easily put in words,but I've discovered (based on my own experience, and the experience of some of my friends trying it), that it's not that easily done. What does it mean? How can the self be an observer of its own self?
It can, no doubt about it - and it's nothing new. Freud called it something along the lines of "the interested yet unmoving observer/witness".A well known contemporary figure, Eckhart Tolle has described it beautifully as "watching the thinker". When I studied computer sciences, I learned about 'metadata' which is data about data, and I used to associate it to "metathinking" - thinking about thinking.
This is very pragmatical; when I say it can be done, you don't need to believe me - just try it for yourself. Personally It was a huge eye opener for me to hear Tolle's description, and that helped a lot.
If you have never done this, try it, watch your thoughts.
Okay, now you may be wondering "well how do I watch my thoughts?". Thats what happened to me too. I used to be perplexed as to what it would be like to watch my thoughts. Finally, what I did was I used to visualize "pulling back from my mind into observer mode, and watching my thoughts like watching a movie".
Thoughts come in pictures and also inner voices. For instance, in a films we may see a brokenhearted man in silence, but we also hear a voice (his voice) speaking "she doesn't love me anymore". Bingo, thats the inner voice. I'm sure you've heard these voices in your head before, but you we're never aware that you we're observing. And that is a crucial factor - awareness. Now you're 'aware' that you can observe, you can observe whenever you like.
Therefore it can be said that we have two modes: the well known 'thinker mode', and less common 'observer mode'.
This is the true meaning of "free your mind" : enter Observer Mode, enter MetaThinking.

First post

Hello. This is my first post, but perhaps you'll also probably guess that this is my first attempt at blogging due to the cliche nature of the post's name. Oh well, no worries, over time, creativity with the titles will improve.
The name of this blog was taken form Robert Anton Wilson's Prometheus Rising, one of my favorite books as of late. (Edit: this blog was initially named "What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves"). For those of you who aren't familiar with the book, suffice it to say (for now) that it has a lot to do with the mind - and thats precisely what I'd like to write about in this blog - 'mindful' matters.
I'm not a psychologist - I actually have a degree in computer sciences which seems somewhat remote to the issues that are to be written about here. Nevertheless, I possess deep interests on issues concerning the mind, and based on experience I've acknowledged that you are what you focus on and what you love to do (just like you are what you eat).
The mind may indeed seem like a broad topic, but due to its broadness, it can therefore be expanded to many different endeavors of life - relationships, spirituality, health, and even music (yes music). But most of all life itself.
All that said, I'm no expert at what I'm to write about, and this really isn't some kind of self help. I'm just a student of life, excited on sharing my views, and hoping that whatever I write on may prove to be of some value to you.

I've faith that I will seek, and henceforth I will find.