Exploring Ancient Wisdom and Modern Luxuries

A popular nihilist once said, when I wake up I don’t know if I should kill myself or get a cup of coffee and goes on to quote “but in the end, one needs more courage to live than to kill himself” Why start so dark Tej?! Lighten up a bit… I’ve said that to myself one too many times. On a lighter note a young mother recently told me, “You know a woman’s body is ruined with childbirth, it's never the same, nothing is what it used to be” I nodded in agreement, trying to suck in the loose skin around my belly. She continued “Look around you, do you think some of these people are worth it, a good woman’s body ruined for this! (She points to a down-on-luck young man who had bitten off the bottom of an ice cream cone) ” I chuckled, not proud of it but I did. How are these connected? my lesson for the week is to find humour in the mundane. A learned stoic Chrysippus who created the original system of propositional logic to understand the workings of the universe and then went on to argue the existence of God with this teleological argument. That being…

“If there is anything that humanity cannot produce, the being who produces it is better than humanity. But humanity cannot produce the things that are in the universe – the heavenly bodies, etc. The being, therefore, who produces them is superior to humanity. But who is there that is superior to humanity, except God? Therefore, God exists”

Now, if you are like me… You will think of death at least 5 times a day. I imagined Chrysippus to float onto the other side rather calmly, stoically even. But no! Chrysippus's death was the only recorded death of “death by laughter” for close to 100 years. Can you fathom that? He died laughing at a joke he cracked when he saw a donkey eating figs and cried out: "Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs", whereupon he?died in a fit of laughter. Yes, find humour in the mundane and courage will follow along…Just don’t choke on your joke.

I bring to you this week some “interesting” recommendations. Ever wondered how the rich live, and how they have rules bent over? Well, wonder no more…if you can afford it become a member of The Myria, the concierge service that can make anything happen in “Service you should know of”. Want to go on a soul exploring safe Ayahuasca journey, I have for you a “Retreat you should go to” and lastly, a book about a 109 yr old man who has mastered the art of grit and thriving in “A book you should read”

A service you should know of - Myria.us

Let me start with an incident, while on a drive to school, my daughter mentioned “Isn’t it crazy that the richer you get the more detached you are from reality and you will actually pay extra to cancel out the noise, the people and build stronger and farther fences, ironically these are the people building apps or making policies for the common blokes ” of course it's doubly ironic she made this observation while she sat in an insulated car with active noise cancelling headphones around her neck. Yep, money buys you isolation and privilege buys you choice in the company you keep. To back this researchers have concluded that sitting in 5 star spa and moaning over your tragedy is much easier than being homeless and hungry. Now, let’s not deviate from the topic, if you are rich and consider yourself in the 1% of the world population (You should be worth at least $30 million) then you should know of Myria. How is Myria different? The members of Myria are not served with material possessions, so no exclusive Gucci on their stands but what they can give you is Oscar tickets, last last-minute lodging in an exclusive “not open for the common people” mansion in Machu Pichu. In the words of Rey Flemings, this is what Myria is ‘Even with all the money in the world, access to things is very, very hard … Rich people want to be cool, and cool people want to be rich. We’re a platform to make that exchange happen.”

So, since I told you about this service, and if you get in, would you refer my name…. I may not be in the 1% yet, but I believe I am rather cool.

A Retreat You Should Go to - The Hayulima Spiritual Sanctuary

Well, if you are not rich you can still be cool. My definition of cool is kind, curious, non-judgemental and someone who’ll try everything at least once, except suicide. You see how I can slip death in any conversation.

Moving on, The Guardian put out an article on the Psychedelic brew ayahuasca’s profound impact revealed in brain scans(Read it). For the uninitiated Ayahuasca is a form of flower and an Amazonian drink that is used specifically in indigenous communities, this drink has the same properties of DMT Dimethyltryptamin. Honestly, this is something to explore on my list, but I am cautious and will do it after I have done my research on the right space and people. All this snooping around let me to The Hayulima Spiritual Sanctuary. If like me, you want to delve deeper into your consciousness then maybe you could try the retreat. Now, if that’s not your path another research has thrown up that when you are in a spiritual community and participate in prayer and worship together the same areas of the brain light up. So there, in prayer or on Ayahuasca what brings “profound impact” are the connections, a community.

A book you should read - The Book of Charlie, David Van Drehle.

I am in my 40’s with parents in their 70’s, and their grandchildren under the age of 25. We are grateful we all have each other, for wisdom, adventure, learnings and emotional, financial and physical support. We are a select few. However, 15 million Indians live alone and this is quite a number in the culture of joint families and arranged marriages. Ratan Tata recently invested in Goodfellows a start-up that connects senior citizens with young graduates for meaningful friendships. Isn’t that just precious? My daughter has had one too many experimental adventures in the kitchen with her grandma making radish omelettes and rice in a million odd flavours, she’s heard her grandfather speak of entrepreneurship, grit, failure and the art of charm and sales in stories I’ve lost count of. She’s heard stories of myth, and legends and watched countless travel videos with her grandparents. They share, and she absorbs. This again is privilege. The reason why the Book of Charlie stood out for me is something I had taken for granted. A connection with someone out of your comfort circle. Read because as Van Drehle writes “An American born in the early 1900s who managed to live into the 2000s would have one foot planted in the age of draft and diphtheria – a time when only 6 per cent of Americans graduated from high school – and the other planted in the age of space stations and robotic surgery.”

If you’ve read this far, thank you! Your likes, and comments are not feeding an algorithm, it's just telling me you really like what I feed my brain, in an age where insta #foodporn is trending, am happy to know #mindporn is your choice, if there really is something like that! Drop a line in the comments or a DM of what you’d like to hear more of on the lines of AI, Travel, Art, Books, Podcasts, Entrepreneurship and lifestyle. I’ll pick that and give you something unique.