2 hour interview with Joseph Goldstein by Sam Harris

The Blog : Sam Harris

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Sam Harris, Waking Up, a missed chance

I was curious and excited about Sam Harris's book Waking Up. I even ordered the hard copy on Amazon, something I seldom do anymore.
I am sad to say that I find the book quite disappointing.
Harris circles the subject of waking up (awakening, enlightenment), but never touches it.  We learn about drugs, fake guru's, near death experiences...; the cliché subjects.
We learn a little of meditation for beginners.
I get the feeling that Harris does not believe that Waking Up actually exists as an experience.
But if that is the case, then why write a book with the title Waking Up?
Harris mentions Ramada Maharaji, but does not venture into this brilliant men's history very far. A missed opportunity.
I also get the feeling that the strongest message in Waking Up is Harris claiming the right to use the term 'spirituality' while being a scientist. A bad choice of language if you ask me as the term is more polluted then ever by vagueness and reeks of the very false guru's Harris is writing about.

Why do we meditate? To Wake Up from the dream that we call reality, from the illusion that we call Self. What happens when we reach such a state of realization? Harris does not really talk about that. A missed chance. Sorry, Sam!

 

In Praise of Negative Thinking

WATCH: Why positive thinking can be bad for you

Fiona MacDonald
Friday, 17 October 2014
Inspirational quotes and self-help books aren’t always right when they tell you to think positive, as the new episode of Braincraft explains. The internet loves to tell you to think positively - “She believed she could, so she did!” and similar positive affirmations are plastered all over Instagram and Facebook walls daily. But despite the hype, positive thinking may not be that great for everyone, studies suggest. In fact, research has shown that visualising success can actually cause people to fail, as Vanessa Hill explains in the latest episode of Braincraft. In one study, participants with high and low self esteem were told to repeat the phrase “I’m a loveable person”. Researchers then measured the mood and feelings of the volunteers, and found that those with low self esteem actually felt worse about themselves after repeating all the positive affirmations, and those with high self esteem only felt marginally better. In a follow-up study, those with low self esteem were asked to list negative self thoughts alongside positive self thoughts, and they ended up feeling better. This is because of something known as latitudes of acceptance, Vanessa explains, which basically means that messages closer to our position or beliefs are more persuasive to us than those that aren’t. And messages outside our latitude of acceptance, such as being loveable when you have low self esteem, are often powerfully rejected and just end up more strongly reinforcing what we already believe. Other research has shown that thinking you're going to succeed, without thinking about how you'll get there, can decrease motivation and drain our ambition. And those who visualise the coming week positively often feel less energised than those who picture it going negatively, and they also achieve less goals. But of course, we're all different, and we all respond in varying ways to positive visualisation. Watch the latest episode of Braincraft above to find out more about how positive thinking can sometimes be bad for us. And don’t forget, while we’re generally pretty upbeat here at ScienceAlert, the occasional negative thought can be motivational too. Source: Braincraft   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFeOw1tC_ew#t=125

It's easy to get what you want

If you want less.

When less is more — embracing minimalism

 
Minimalists Ryan Nicodemus, left, and Joshua Fields Milburn. Picture: Adam Dressler

 
JOSHUA Fields Millburn can fit most of his belongings into a single duffel bag. He lives in a modest one-bedroom apartment, and estimates he has donated or sold more than 90 per cent of the possessions he used to own.
It’s in stark contrast to his life just five years ago, when he was working 80-hour weeks to earn a six-figure salary and spend even more. But the 32-year-old is now a poster child for a generation that’s sick of having a shopping problem. Millburn is a “minimalist”.
“I started to get rid of a lot of stuff and felt this weight removed and started to feel lighter and happier and freer,” he explains. “If I was honest with myself, I gave so much meaning to those possessions, so much meaning to these things that weren’t actually bringing any purpose or joy to my life.”
Call it a First World problem, peak consumerism, or affluenza. The buzzwords all point to the same problem — we have so many things that we’re “stuffocating”.
Millburn, a writer and blogger from Midwestern America, and his friend Ryan Nicodemus have tapped into the discontent with their popular blog, The Minimalists, which they started after turning their backs on the over-consumption that defined their 20s.
They’re bringing millions with them on their quest for a more meaningful life beyond the excess. The Minimalists has two million readers from around the world and has been featured in the likes of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Speaking to STM from his simple office in the picturesque mountain town of Missoula, Montana, Millburn says their message about a pared-down existence can confuse some.
“People often ask what minimalism is,” he says, “and I usually answer that question with a question. I say, ‘How might your life be better if you owned less stuff?’.”
For all the imagery the term conjures up of stark white walls and rooms devoid of furniture, he clarifies that minimalism isn’t about living like a monk.
“As a minimalist, everything I own serves a purpose or brings me joy. It’s not about deprivation,” Millburn says. “I don’t think minimalism is just about getting rid of all your stuff. Anyone could rent a gigantic dumpster and throw everything out and be miserable.
“Minimalism is about getting the excess out of the way so we can focus on what’s truly important, and that’s different for everyone.”
By the age of 27, Millburn was the director of operations for 150 retail stores. He pulled in a six-figure income and had a wardrobe full of expensive suits. But in 2009 his mother passed away and his marriage ended, prompting him to question whether he was truly happy.
In his recently released memoir, Everything That Remains, Millburn details how his life was changed after stumbling across the idea of “minimalism” on the internet. He was inspired to start clearing the clutter from his life, and downsized from his three-bedroom house to a small apartment.
“For a long time, I made really good money in the corporate world,” Millburn says. “But I had financial problems because even though I made good money, I spent even better money and I had massive amounts of debt. I was able to get that under control with minimalism.”
The new-found philosophy had a ripple effect on his life, with a more simple routine helping him to drop 36kg and find more time to follow his passion for writing.
“I don’t have that same overwhelming feeling of being trapped by stuff, taking care of all the things that were just excess,” he says. “It used to take me eight hours to clean my big house with more bedrooms than people, but it takes me 45 minutes now to clean my apartment top to bottom.
“My relationships have improved drastically. My favourite line from the book is ‘You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you’.
“What I meant by that was I realised I needed to surround myself with supportive people and once I did I was able to make all kinds of changes in my life and the people around me were supporting me.”
Millburn and Nicodemus focused full-time on their blog in 2010, daring to ask the question “What if having less stuff is a better way to live?” to a society steeped in consumerism.
The response was huge. The pair have been invited to speak at numerous conferences, including TEDx, and at the Harvard Business School. They receive constant feedback from fans eager to share their own stories. Millburn quotes the response of a Canadian man.
“We had to get rid of our bed because of you.
“My marriage was falling apart and we argued about money all the time and the only reason we were together was because our two teenage kids were still living at home.
“But then my wife found your website and started to get rid of some of the excess stuff we had. I started to do the same and saw how focused I had been on the accumulation of things. Getting the stuff out of the way brought us back together. We found that we really still loved each other, and then our kids started complaining that our bed was too loud because we were having so much sex, so we had to get rid of it. So I just really wanted to thank you for improving our sex  life.”

Minimalists Ryan Nicodemus, front, and Joshua Fields Milburn.

Millburn and Nicodemus have been on the road for the majority of this year on a speaking tour, covering 82 cities throughout the US and Canada. They bring their message to Australia next month.There is no question the minimalism message has struck a chord with many.
“Our crowds are very diverse. We’ve had CEOs of major corporations show up at the same talk as (activist) folk from Occupy Wall Street,” Millburn says. “And they’re all asking the same underlying question, ‘How do I live a more meaningful life?’.”
Minimalism is just one facet of the current discourse around western society’s definition of success. The founder of The Huffington Post news website, Arianna Huffington, published a book earlier this year focusing on what she dubbed “the third metric” of success. In Thrive, Huffington argues that success goes beyond money and power, and should also be measured by our inner wellbeing, our compassion and generosity, and our ability to draw on intuition.
The wellness industry is booming, with a push towards nutrient-rich whole foods, meditation and self-love as a backlash to calorie restriction and size-0 idolisation. Even the fashion industry is having a turn, with “normcore” bringing no-brand mum jeans and daggy shoes back in vogue.
Millburn is the first to admit the idea’s not new.
“I’m not out here trying to say we’ve invented some new way of living,” he says.
“People think we’re Buddhist or Christian, or people will say Henry David Thoreau was the first minimalist or Mohammed was the first minimalist. But what I think is new is that this is a new reaction. We’re not trying to convert anyone to minimalism. We basically found a recipe that worked really well for Ryan and myself and we’re trying to share that in the hopes that people can tease out the ingredients and create their own recipe.”
For those wanting to dip their toe into minimalism, Millburn suggests trying the “30-Day Minimalism Game”, where players donate or get rid of one item from their house on the first day, two on the second day, and so on.
“The important thing is to get momentum,” he says. “And by the end of the month, you would have gotten rid of more than 500 items.”
Millburn’s business partner Nicodemus was more extreme in his first foray into de-cluttering his life. He had a “packing party”.
“Ryan packed up all his stuff as if he was moving and then unpacked only the items he needed for the next 21 days to figure out what was adding value to his life,” Millburn says. “It was amazing — at the end of those three weeks, 80 per cent of his stuff was still in boxes.”
The Minimalists will release a documentary next year, parts of which were shot on tour.
“We interviewed minimalist families, musicians, designers, and architects,” Millburn says. “I think people hear minimalism and they get scared. It sounds radical and extreme.
“We’re trying show what minimalism looks like for all of these different people. None of these people have the same recipe, but they all have the same results — a more purposeful life and they are all a lot happier.”
For Millburn, life is simpler now. He has pursued his passion as a writer, and teaches a writing class to make some income. He says he has adjusted his lifestyle so he doesn’t need the same income he had before.
“I have all the everyday creature comforts of the consumer life, but I spend my money with intentionality,” he says.
And the minimalist journey is a continuing one. Millburn says his time on the road for the past eight months with just one piece of luggage made him realise he needs even less than he thought.
When he returned home, he donated to charity anything else he felt he didn’t need.
“I keep asking that question — does this thing add value to my life?” he says.
The Minimalists’ Everything That Remains tour hits Perth on November 19. Tickets are free. For more information, visit www.theminimalists.com.

(From www.perthnow.com.au)