Last week, I spent some time in Japan, but before leaving, I had one of those wonderful mornings with my wife and kids. The kind that are simple, yet magical. It started with my wife and I lying in bed talking about life and planning our upcoming vacations, and ended with playing with the kids. My son, Chinat, beat me at the game Battleship. After the game, my younger son, Orson, helped clean up by picking out the red pegs from the white ones (seeing that there were fewer red pegs, it was a lot quicker to do so which was great insight for a four-year-old). Just the feeling of being in the same room as my wife and kids and seing what happens as it emerges fills me with such wonder and gratitude.
Here’s a fun talk about simplicity in design and life: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/172
Why and how is it that life can become so complicated? What are the sources of complexity? Inner turmoil? What are the “forces” that push fun and passion to become anger and frustration? What are the physical changes? There are chemical changes (neurotransmitters) and different parts of the brain get activated, but what are the inner forces that trigger these?
Complexity seems to arise from conflict, either between people or within one’s self. Conflicting ideas and emotional attachments to these ideas (desires) that, from a singular perspective, appear to contradict each other. These impede action and/or creates stress which contribute to “inner turmoil” and a “cloudy” mind. The very nature of complexity seems rooted in the mind and thought. In this sense, simplicity is also associated with “pure” action or intention. What kind of knowledge is needed to act in harmony? Is there a form of knowledge not rooted in mind and thought? If so, how is it to be accessed?
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