Tricking optimism...

In southern India it's common to trap rogue monkeys and teach them some tricks for a quick buck. However, while trapping them you don’t want to hurt them, tranquillisers are expensive, running behind them with a stick is futile. And, thus came about the South Indian Monkey trap. This trap plays solely on the mind of the monkey. It's a simple trap with a coconut that has been carefully hallowed out at one end and is chained to a pole in the ground, some sweet rice is placed inside the coconut through the hallowed out opening, which is big enough for the monkey to place its hand in and grab a handful of rice but, too small to remove it's clenched fist. Eventually some monkeys will come about, reach inside the coconut, greedily clutch as much rice as possible, making a fist and eventually find themselves trapped. I’ve witnessed this in my maternal village and I’ve read about this too often ranging from Robert Pirsing’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance and recently in Arthur Brooks “Build the Life you want”. Why bring you this story? I am often trapped in the same trap, there is a momentary joy of grasping on to that sweet rice and in my case a designation, money, respect, fame, love, lust, reputation… yep! the whole circus variety greed and voila! am playing monkey tricks while someone makes the metaphorical “quick buck”. The story also sheds light on our own mental “sweet rice” like ideals and principles which have served us well in the past and we clutch tightly to it. “The difficulty,” as?John Maynard Keynes?put it, “lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.”

So, will this monkey ever get its hand inside the trap and pull it out without making a fist? If there is anything I know I will stick my hand inside many such coconuts out of sheer curiosity. It's a trap Tej!, you may say, once in, never out… but you see there is always grace in being the one who is easily distracted, curious but not desperate, tempted vs addicted… to hold on to anything needs consistency and sometimes we need to re-evaluate our own ideals from time to time and apply them aptly. Now, hold on, before you judge me as “convenience seeker”, and I refute, let’s resolve this. Yes! you are right… you hit nail on the head there, but what I pledge here and I beg you to consider too is not to intentionally harm, we all seek the “sweet rice” but please can we also sit with ourselves, introspect and re-evaluate the values and ideas we hold so dear with compassion - if not it may just make a monkey out of us.

This week I have for you some traps to watch out for, firstly the “Invisible Gorilla” in which we explore how our minds conditioning traps and blinds us, then learn of an unfortunate disease where people can’t stop making puns (for real), in the trap of humour. I have an amazing book recommendation for you where we explore how absolute power traps and blinds against human rights and dignity.

The Invisible Gorilla & Nobody's Fool, Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do about It by Daniel Simons, Christopher Chabris

“Within the labyrinth of deception, the power of awareness shall be your compass, guiding you to unveil the truth hidden amidst the shadows.”

You’ve probably heard of the Invisible Gorilla experiment, if you haven’t then (here’s a link) This is not something new and versions of this experiment have been doing the rounds since the 70’s. However the first ever version was the Trojan Horse. As mentioned in Homer’s Illiad, the Greeks and Trojans fought a 9yr war in an attempt to besiege Troy and starve them out, but the Trojans were always aware and never completely cut from allies and continued trade. Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus were some the prominent Greek characters who tried every trick in the book including conquering surrounding cities. When the fort of Troy couldn’t be besieged, the Greeks packed up and “visibly” drifted back, leaving behind a gift of truce. We know how that story unpacked, the Trojans “saw” the Greek soldiers sail and opened the gates to bring in the horse and in it ??were the aforementioned warriors who let the Greek soldiers in to eventually defeat and ruin Troy. The invisible gorilla here was when the Trojans were counting the ships sailing back, what they did not see was the building of the Trojan horse, a huge chunk of the Greek army hid on the sides of fort whilst the careful custodians of the gate kept their eyes glued on the sailing ships and a sense of victory.

How do you NOT miss the Invisible Gorilla? well, the answer is you will miss it, atleast 50% of you. “blindness is a general property of the visual system and it applies to almost all aspects of visual processing.” read the full article with statistical data of The Invisible Gorilla

Btw, did you spot the Gorilla?

Trapped in a mind-trap!

Puns are no joke, they are just a play on words, Gosh! am sure you’ve heard this before. Well, pardon my writer’s block but if I were to look back on the times I’ve been funny, it hasn’t always been the best days or honest/real connections. My good days are quiet, in states of flow and delightfully dull, my meaningful relationships are with people who I can be “unfunny” and alarmingly boring with, of course they do deal with my many bouts of “comical observations”. If you’ve hit a certain age and maturity you will realise the joys of low effort stability, the beauty of silence and simple communication. How lovely it all seems, now imagine being woken up by your partner in the middle of the night and they will go on a wit entrenched puns for a good hour, not pleasant or funny but if does happen then call it Witzelsucht (German for addiction to wisecracking) an anomaly caused from damage to the frontal lobe leading to pathological joking. Read more about The curse of people who can’t stop making puns

Drawing Iron Curtains - is silence a trap, what about prosperity? Voices from the Gulag Archipelago

"The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a grim exposition of the soviet forced labor camps. The style is raw, honest and takes you to some uncomfortable places in your ideologies. Grief, deprivation, loneliness and humanity vs absolute corrupt power. I first came to know of the Gulag incidentally from a Seinfeld episode where Kramer calls in two Russian cable guys to fix an illegal connection to Jerry’s telly. “He's an amazing man. He's a Russian immigrant. He escaped the Gulag! He's like the Sakharov of cable guys” Kramer yells and Jerry gives in. A comical reference led to my read of the Gulag Archipelago, philosophically I found my connection to the book in the value of suffering, I realise I quote from a place of privilege, but I also know that suffering is a source of learning and personal growth. I leave you with this quote “Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.” Read and ask yourself if you will trade freedom for security and if within you resides evil. I hope you will refuse the former and accept the latter and find the courage to bear through your choices.

Until next time, be woke, be curious…drop a comment, a like, clap, love... I accept all forms of approval.