Welcome to the Meditation Podcast. The meditation for the elite. I'm Bealty. As we're on the subject of meditation, find a quiet place to sit with your eyes closed. Like on your terrace. The view will help to clear your mind. Through this immersive experience of meditation, you'll notice the finer details within this episode. I suggest sitting tall at the front of a firm armless chair without resting your shoulders on the back. Socrates, Confucius, and Siddhartha Gotama all lived around two thousand five hundred years ago. This is an interesting fact because all three of them didn't know the other existed, and each of them became someone we continue to admire today. As we've talked about Socrates and Gotama already in the previous episode, this is a good time for us to reflect on Confucius. Confucius was a son of a military father and a mother like all mothers. She was his guiding light. When Confucius was three, his father died, and he and his mother then lived in poverty. He worked menial jobs during a chaotic and politically unstable period that the context of history shows was a widespread phenomenon between China and Athens. Despite his modest upbringing, he enjoyed history, poetry, and music. Like the Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. When the message of the human condition is combined with written history from the same era, wisdom is developed. His perceptions of the world led him to become known as a scholar, educator, and philosopher. His reputation led to securing government roles and then becoming an advisor to rulers. Imagine having Confucius as one of your advisors. This is likely difficult to do with this limited understanding. To make it easier for you, I've selected one of his famous quotes and I've lightly modernized it for today. It's as follows. Archery is a metaphor for leadership. When the archer misses the center of the target, he knows the cause of the shortcoming is within himself. It takes a leader with integrity to accept such advice. Based on this single quote, you would have confidence Confucius genuinely cares about your success and well-being. Which, when you really think about it, sugarcoating is deceitful and sets you up for failure. You also know Confucius had gone the extra mile to enlighten you with relatable wisdom. It's like he has given you Sherlock Holmes' magnifying glass that enables you to interpret things others overlook. You know with certainty he will be by your side through thick and thin, unlike those that sugarcoat. Confucius was a true friend to a leader, a confidant. If he was in Hans Christian Anderson's story, The Emperor with New Clothes, there would be no story. Comprehension is a higher form of contemplation. We begin with something to contemplate, like a visualization. And when we start intermingling related contemplations together, we begin to comprehend deeper meaning. When we listen to the previous episode, we can contemplate all sections as a whole. This enables us to comprehend that the history I shared with you could very well have created a combined sixty five centuries of golden ages. Comprehension is essentially inductive reasoning and its opposite is deductive reasoning. Here's an example of both. An example of deductive reasoning is concluding that Socrates was killed for corrupting youth. This is because it is written that there were three accusers, plus many more authors of his day and thereafter reinforced the story. An example of inductive reasoning is concluding Socrates is deserving of respect. People in his time would infer this because his students were curious about different points of view instead of immediately conforming to popular opinion. Today, we infer Socrates is deserving of respect because many of his students wrote master works that laid the foundation to Western philosophy. For transparency, Western philosophy is a shift from bias, dogma, and indoctrination to reason. Let's honor Eastern philosophy at this time as skipping this effort encourages popular opinion to preserve a bias, dogma, and indoctrination. Based on reason, Eastern philosophy is a shift from control to enablement. In summary, deductive reasoning uses existing information that might be biased to draw a conclusion. It stops when the reasoning conveniently supports a point of view. When others imply the reasoning is incomplete, they use crowd mentality to lock in their point of view. Inductive reasoning uses thorough contemplation to assess the existing information to draw a conclusion. Its goal is friendly and constructive conversations. It might not achieve a conclusion, but at least their friendship continues to grow. Here's a skills testing question. Did I use deductive or inductive reasoning to summarize Western and Eastern philosophies? Here's another skills testing question. Can both forms of reasoning drink the Kool-Aid? And another. Can both forms of reasoning lead to indoctrination? And one more for good measure. Was Alexander the Great great, or would he be better known as Alexander III? When you've thoroughly contemplated the existing information of any of these questions, you've exercised inductive reasoning, which is a form of meditation called comprehension, which is easier to do with your eyes closed. In the sections that follow, we'll place a few ancient ideas onto something like an archaeologist's workbench to dust, mend, analyze, and document what they tell us. Our objective is to get a close look at what causes golden ages to fall or never see the light of day. He was reflecting on the architecture from ancient Athens and Rome that still existed more than a thousand years later. He then decided to have a closer look at their literature. He was amazed by the wisdom that was contained in the works, and he shared what he found with his peers. They were equally amazed by the wisdom. This led to a movement of people studying ancient literature. This then led to a movement of people interested in equaling and surpassing the intellect of our ancestors. Because of Petrarch, we call him the father of the Renaissance, which was the second time in history when there was a sudden appearance of the greatest minds in history. We have to ask ourselves this question. Is this second emergence of intellect fading away just like the first? It's an unflattering question, as it suggests our intellect is fading. If we quickly dismiss the question, then it's likely true. If we go through the exercise of forensic science, then we're encouraging the intellect to continue. As this is on our workbench for analysis, let's briefly go through the paces as we meditate. Before we do, understand that this is our past, not our present. This commentary will make us aware of the dark side of human nature. If we ignore it, then our dark side is encouraging our intellect to fade. If we take a deep breath and maintain our objectivity, we're encouraging our intellect to blossom. This becomes a great time to test our ability to use meditation for its original purpose. To remain objective. Like captured by the master of reconciliation motif discussed in the first episode. Take a deep breath to encourage yourself to maintain objectivity. With this wealth, it funded artists like Michelangelo to spend three years making David. A sudden leap in wealth does introduce the risk that idle minds become the devil's workshop. We'll notice this in a moment. The printing press started to spread publications that pointed the finger at certain demographics for corruption, greed, and superstition, like fearing witchcraft. Many of the greatest minds of history were placed in an official publication called The Index of Prohibited Books. Here is where we have clear evidence that idle minds become the devil's workshop. This is a list of the most notable authors who appeared in the index. Nicolaus Copernicus, who we call the father of the scientific revolution. He is responsible for officially placing the sun at the center of our solar system, not the Earth. Rene Descartes, who we call the father of modern philosophy. John Locke, who we call the father of liberalism, Adam Smith, who we call the father of modern economics, Voltaire, Baruch Spinoza, David Hume, Immanuel Kent, Jean-Paul Sartre, and the list goes on. It's worth a little homework to see if their ideas are valid, and if they are, are any of them rolling in their grave? Copernicus's work was in the index for around two hundred years. Descartes was listed for three hundred years. Let's take another deep breath. Nothing empowers ignorance better than oppression. Oppression can become so ubiquitous, so normalized, that it takes away our human right of comprehension. It dumbs us down. Ignorance is responsible for little things like arguments, to big things like ethnic cleansing. When ignorance combines with steadfast stubbornness, it becomes crab mentality, which then causes golden ages to collapse or never see the light of day. When the elite wake up to this truth, they're on their way to become game changers. It will take time, but there is order here. Very faint and very human. Let's explore this. A mentor teaches one thing at a time so that a protege achieves a level of mastery to become independent from the mentor. A teacher who is not a mentor teaches many things and hopes that enough is remembered. A teacher who is not a mentor turns proteges into students. If this commentary is poorly received, that's crap mentality. I certainly don't look down on teachers. They genuinely want to enable the coming generations. Teachers are only constrained by the systems they abide by. I also don't look down on education systems or education boards. They also genuinely want to enable the coming generations. I look down on crab mentality. Crab mentality is ignorance on overdrive. It's like a cat playing with a ball of yarn filled with catnip. Crab mentality is the invisible puppet master who pulls all our strings. The further away we get from enabling mentors to enable proteges, we coincidentally shackle mentors to conform, which turns them into teachers who are not mentors, who turn proteges into students. People who don't see these patterns are destined to repeat them. When they do, they unknowingly express crab mentality. We can either have conversations to uncover the truth that enables us to make progress, or we can argue and let crab mentality shackle us for another thousand years. This commentary emphasizes the importance of the elite. The world follows the elite's lead, whether they are brilliant, wise, clueless, or a dictator. It's very important that the common person knows we cannot pressure the elite to change. Their focus. We can have friendly conversations to share wisdom. The moment we pressure the elite, we encourage them to get defensive and look down on us as anti-intellectuals. There's no I in team. During Socrates' time, mentorship was individualized, focusing on tailored instruction, emphasizing a one-on-one conversation. Such mentors also mentored only their specialty. Education was private, not a state-run system, so the teachings were chosen by the mentor. Also, the protege to mentor ratio was low. The number of students was often dictated by what a mentor could manage and what parents could afford. We worry that an education model like what Socrates had used will lead to indoctrination. But is this the same psychological projection that Socrates' peers had used? The golden ages throughout Asia had a unique style of mentorship. In addition to mentoring certain specialties like astronomy and statecraft, they mentored mentorship, which naturally scales. Is mentoring mentorship the recipe for a golden age that never ends. I was curious about Socrates, so I started researching his mentors. Socrates credits Aspasia of Malitas as his teacher in public speaking. Let's think about this. I've had teachers of public speaking. My mentor, however, is Tik Nut Han. I've never met the man, though I've listened to his audiobooks where he is the speaker. I also give Nuthan credit for being my mentor of mindfulness. Unsurprisingly, the world calls him the father of mindfulness. Socrates also credits Diotima of Matine as the source of his philosophical insights on the nature of desire and love. Let's think about this. I've never had a mentor on the nature of desire or love. My partner has indirectly, indirectly mentored me on how to love, but no one has mentored me on the nature of love. In the world of desire, I've had no mentor, though this contemplation is starting to mentor me. Socrates had other teachers, though no one has categorized how they mentored him. One teacher taught that the sun and moon were physical objects and not divine beings. Which was something his teacher was arrested and charged for. Maybe this situation mentored Socrates in critical thinking. From this brief curiosity, I began thinking, who were my mentors? Earlier, I said Tichnathan was my mentor of mindfulness and public speaking. Dale is my mentor for loving work. Jesus is my mentor of forgiveness. Siddhartha Gautama is my mentor of contemplation and comprehension. Bruce Lee is my mentor of formlessness. My partner has mentored me on love, wisdom, and life. I found this exercise to be very insightful. I encourage you to reflect on the mentors you've had in your life. Let's reflect on its traditional definition to deepen our understanding of history. A bodhisattva is traditionally considered an enlightened person who voluntarily delays entering nirvana to selflessly mentor others to achieve enlightenment. I find this summary good, though it has weaknesses. The first is voluntarily delays. The second is the word selfless. And the third is the word nirvana. I'll begin the discussion with the selfless part. Before the fall of Nalanda, discussed in the previous episode, Bodhisattvas mentored people and successfully surrounded themselves with people who lived fulfilling lives. They reaped the rewards of their effort, which makes bodhisattvas generous instead of selfless. So, why do we say bodhisattvas are selfless? Is it because after the fall of Nalanda, people were too busy acclimatizing to the international economic shift to listen to bodhisattvas? Did this mean the mentoring efforts of bodhisattvas fell on deaf ears? Does that make them selfless? Let's shift to voluntarily delaying. I think sharing nirvana with others is far more fulfilling than being the only one to enjoy it. I consider being the only one to enjoy it as the ignorance of bliss. When it's written as voluntarily delaying, it seems just like how it's written that Socrates corrupted youth. That's indoctrination. We'll now shift to the word nirvana. I really don't like the English definition of the word nirvana. It obsesses over the tiny details. It's analysis paralysis. It's mind-numbing and makes it hard to comprehend. Here is an example definition. Nirvana is a transcendent state, free from suffering, desire, and the cycle of rebirth. I know what you're thinking. WTF. We need a Rosetta stone to figure it out. In a moment, I'll share a useful meaning of the word nirvana, though after some forensic science. Remember what Asia was like before the fall of Nalanda. Asia was enjoying a widespread golden age based on arts, culture, and intellectualism. It was likely the closest thing to heaven on earth that a region of the world has ever experienced. Individually, a person within this widespread golden age could be whoever they wanted to be. They developed art forms, and they contributed to the greater good. If someone struggled to find their place in their community, a mentor would appear, take them under their wing, and enable them to find their potential. That's nirvana from my point of view. If I were to write a definition for the word nirvana, it would be as follows. Living a fulfilling life. To understand this, we'll place one of Gotama's mnemonics onto the archaeologist's workbench to study it. At the time of this writing, it's commonly called the Noble Eightfold Path. When they translated Eightfold and Path, all translators were content. When they translated Aria to Noble, other translators felt it was an incorrect interpretation, and something got in the way of the conversation. Let's dust it off, look at it with a magnifying glass, and analyze it. Arya is a noun that means a highly enlightened person. Noble as a noun is a person of high social rank. People of high social rank are not characterized by being highly enlightened. This is because some nobles have tarnished the label. This is why translators were in disagreement with the title. Many people think the word noble in the title is an adjective. As an adjective, it's flattering, though incorrect. Unfortunately, this adjective encourages people to blindly defend and preserve the incorrect translation as they feel informed people are defaming something that deserves to be respected. I'll continue to call it the Arya Eightfold Path, and in time, the truth will achieve critical mass and the translation will be updated. Let's look at another feature with our magnifying glass. Know that each fold in the Eightfold Path in the English language has translated the adjective sama into the adjective right, whereas scholars translate it into the words like skillful, ideal, balanced, and thorough. Something got in the way of conversation once again. As people with different points of view think they are right and the other is wrong, the adjective right is as good as flipping a coin. Unfortunately, translators have locked in something that encourages people to disagree, which changes the original intent of the Eightfold Path. Let's look at something else with our magnifying class. In English, the fifthfold concerns the word livelihood. What if the original word meant a livelihood we never retire from? This makes sense as back in the day when Gotama created this mnemonic, people only retired on their deathbed. Today, when we have a livelihood we never want to retire from, our enjoyment turns our livelihood into an art form. Now think about this. Gotama was destined to be a king. As a youth, he was trained as a warrior, as well as mastered academic subjects like literature, mathematics, history, and philosophy. Let's imagine he excelled for at least one of them. When someone excels at something, it becomes an art form. It's reasonable to think Gotama new arts were fulfilling in that arts lead to greater wealth. It's also reasonable to think the first four folds of the Eightfold Path were ways to become skilled in an art form. The first four are as follows Balanced View, Balanced Intention, Balanced Speech, Balanced Action. Keep this in mind as I get to the next point. Maybe write them down on a piece of paper to help you keep them top of mind. As people either lived in a kingdom or as nomads during his time, for Gotama to turn his mnemonics into the phenomenon we know today. He likely went to a kingdom, talked to the king, and was given the opportunity to make the kingdom wealthy through mentoring people to develop their art forms. Could it have happened any other way? Let's return to the Eightfold Path discussion. Why does balanced effort come sixth in the Eightfold Path? Does it suggest our art form is not the end of what we do? Do we need to exercise effort to enable our art form to be in harmony with the art form of others for the whole to prosper? What if this effort relies on the seventh and eighth folds, which are mindfulness and concentration? This seems like a reasonable interpretation. These few updates continue to preserve the intent of the Arya Eightfold Path. They also make the Eightfold Path more of a methodology and far less onerous. When we look at the context of Mahayana, we notice mentorship is an effort of mindfulness. When we look at the context of thunderbolt, we notice leadership is an effort of concentration. Now, if the sixthfold of the Eightfold Path is the effort to sync art forms between people together, the only people who can put that in motion are the elite. This matches up with our modern understanding of leadership and professional development. If this is what Gotama had envisioned, I'm speechless. It makes him the father of business coaching. Think about it. Gotama gave the world another mnemonic that we've put on the workbench. Let's have a closer look at it. It's called the Four Arya Truths. At the time I launched this episode, it's called the Four Noble Truths. In English, we often use the word suffering in the Four Truths. This word, as soon as we hear it, puts the weight of the world on our shoulders. Tick Not Han has suggested the word unsatisfactoriness as a better English word to use instead. I've taken Nathan's lead and have put the four truths in modern terms as follows. One, different points of view are everywhere. Two, ignorance turns our different points of view into division. It rhymes nicely with what is known in the English language without the ambiguity or heaviness. The squeaky wheels won't like it, but the elite, well, they can do whatever they want. I like the term factory settings. It's a fresh start. The emperor with new clothes needed to return to factory settings to figure out how he was playing with a ball of yarn filled with catnip for far too long. The same is true for the emperor's ministers. They don't exist to sugarcoat things. They're there to be like Confucius, drawing a comparison between archery and leadership. The same is true for the common person. They have to realize that when they play along with a facade, indoctrination is complete. They validate the madness. Albert Einstein captures the comprehension succinctly in the following quote A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others, living and dead, and that I must give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. If we don't live to Einstein's words of wisdom, we are playing with a ball of yarn filled with catnip. What's the harm in indulging once in a while? Nothing really, but when we do it more than we should, it's a trap. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy that makes us believe we as a civilization are doomed, and we might as well indulge. The purpose of Thunderbolt is to turn Confucius's archery and leadership quote into a fellowship. A fellowship where we let the conversation serendipitously stroll around and build into a climax we call an epiphany. When we have a sudden insight, we'll hear and feel the pulsing of our heart as we become enabled to have a fresh start and put our new ambition in motion first thing tomorrow morning. We'll learn about Thunderbolt in the next episode. I have one last contemplation for you. With the exception of family, I don't do selfies with others because it turns them into someone like the emperor with new clothes. I don't do group photos because I rather be like the cowboy that rides off into the sunset. I don't sign things because what I do is for everyone. I also don't wish to be in a paparazzi like photo because it means they don't understand their own potential. Thank you for listening. Please also visit meditation.ca for programs for the elite and for the genuinely ambitious people who seek to serendipitously contribute to the whole. Like those with an interest to lead our face to face meditation programs in cities near you. This will take time, but there is order here. Very faint, very human. Whatever you do, do it with compassion.