October 24, 2019
More NEW things this time around,
Here's a highlight of my past week’s learning.
1: Reading
I want to share some of the articles I read this past week and what I learned from them. The first one was ‘I gave away our stuff’: the minimalist doing more with less on The Guardian. And it was incredibly insightful. I learned how often we buy things we do not need, and what severe consequences we pay for this un-needed shopping, both individually and globally. I can’t go into the details of it but I’d really like you all to read it yourselves. Second article, or set of articles, were on Dante Alighieri, a 13th century Italian poet, and his impact on today’s world. Dante’s Divine Comedy endures as an essential book of mankind on Independent UK and why Dante is relevant today by Huffpost were the articles I read and pondered upon. After reading them I realize how our history defines our present and how much we can learn and aid from it. Although it was an assignment from our literature course, this deep dive into Dante and his Divine Comedy will stay with me long after this course.
2: Watching
Porn is something I have struggled with a lot, for reasons both obvious and others not so obvious. And since there is no room to talk about it with others, and even if you do, there's no real outcome from those discussions. However, internet is there to help. So I watched After Porn Ends recently, a documentary (18+) starring pornstars who share their stories about how they ended up in this industry, what their experiences were there, and how they came out of it. While self-pleasing could be argued, (there is a great video on art and masturbation (18+) on the school of life channel), porn is straight out bad in moral terms. There is no way around it. Yet we have grown to be dependent upon it to meet our desires. But watching such documentaries makes you question what you mostly find yourself taking pleasure from, and then gives you such insightful answers that your quick pleasures turn into concern and empathy. Anyone who, too, struggles with porn (addiction) should watch this documentary to see the human side of these pornstars.
3: Listening
I listened to Tim Ferris’s podcast with Kristina Tippett about what does it mean to be wise and spiritual and the lessons from Tippett’s eventful and insightful life. It is a really, really good episode. You learn so much by 1 hour 17 minutes of listening. Tim’s very accurate and important questions brings out the best of Tippett as she answers many queries regarding her life and her teachings of leading a blissful life. Kristina has some bestselling books on wisdom and spirituality, and has also been given an honorary award by Barack Obama for her contributions to lessons of calms and wisdom. The whole episode is a joy to listen to, and she talks so softly and with such ease. Highly recommended episode.
4: I recently wrote an article by the title of “On Receiving Help” and I would like to share that article in this 4th point, for I believe it is a really insightful article and there is a thing or two to learn from it. Here’s the link to the article.
https://ejaz159.blogspot.com/2019/10/on-receiving-help.html?m=1
5: Quote
“I may disagree with your opinion, but I cannot disagree with your experience.” This is such an essential and insightful line by Kristina Tippett that I came across from her interview with Tim Ferris on his podcast. We mostly don’t try to reach to the experiences behind the person’s opinion because we cannot go past their opinions, good or bad. Good and we accept it without any further exploration as to how he/she came to believe it; bad and we reject it right there and then. However, this will really help me avoid jumping to the conclusions when talking with someone from now on. And on the other side, it is also important that we should base our values and beliefs not only on opinions, but on experiments and experiences of our own as well.