"Stream test" - excerpt from "Maps"

- Knock knock.

- Who is it?

- Messiah.

- Vacuum cleaner Messiah?

- Well… yes… And I’m bringing you a special offer, my child.

I wish it was a real Messiah. But when someone knocks repeatedly, it’s usually a salesman, wearing his salesman smile. Kindness of strangers is rare. Hence while garbage is nicely wrapped and promoted as an exclusive offer, revolutionary ideas are rarely announced on billboards. They might as well be poorly printed on creased paper.

Quality doesn’t shout. It doesn’t desperately persuade you to join in. Just as a rich man doesn’t need to expose his golden watch to impress you. He doesn’t even need to have one. It’s the poor who will ask you to admire his wrist over and over again. Showing by this very behaviour that he’s not yet where he aspires to be.

On that note, what if the message is loud in order to silence other messages? What if it’s overly extensive only to cover something that’s deep? In that case it’s up to you to inquire what exactly is not on show. What is being hidden? What has been unsaid?

Quality is not always big and shiny. It’s not always on the side of the winners. That’s why, when faced something new, it’s worth asking: was I reaching for it or was it reaching for me? When it is you who make an effort, when it is you who’s stubborn in searching, there’s a chance to get to something valuable. I call it: the stream test.

There is also the source test. You don’t want to go for spiritual advice to the notary. Nor for financial one to a hippie. Now look who’s talking. But since you were brave or reckless enough to read “Maps”, working title “Message of a loser”, let me tell you this: do look who is talking.

Pick up artists and stocks brokers are often very nice. But they will lie to you. They have to. It’s the name of the game. Is it irrelevant for you that you are surrounded by liars? Doesn’t it bother you at all?

They want you to ask questions, but not all the questions. The priest will ask you to follow Jesus, until you’d like to follow Jesus without the priest. What if you could follow Jesus without the priest? Or even against the priest. The car company will help you to feel free, until you can feel free without a car. What if you could feel free without a car?

It’s not the conspiracy, it’s ignorance. The mainstream encourages to be active, but in all the wrong things. It turns recipient’s head in the wrong direction, avoiding the depth. Consequently, it promotes staying passive in all the right things, like learning about the cosmos or building honest relationships.

But instead of learning about the cosmos, we consume new credit card offers served along with news about bombing in the Middle East. And who has time to build honest relationships? There are so many well running fake ones, aren’t they? Dived in Halloween marches, dancing in masquerades.

In the world of amusement parks and costumes parties seriousness is wiped out. It's covered with makeups and masks. Now the message is noise. It is flat and annoying. That's why it should be penetrated by rehearsing the stream test & the source test. Both carefully & insightfully.

If a prison looks like an amusement park, it doesn’t change the fact, that it’s a prison. After understanding just once, even briefly, the beauty of the depth, the nature of the depth - you know the way. The shallow stuff loses its attractiveness. It’s too vulgar, too blind.

It’s going to be easier now. you have seen the promised land. Truth to be told, it’s not given forever. It is simply cold, just like freedom. And equally worth the effort.

Patron of "Maps"

Seeing a child drinking from his hands, Diogenes threw away his cup and remarked: "A child has beaten me in plainness of living." 

"The Antidote"

There is a type of man that becomes a comedian, and there is a mountaineer. Speaking of the latter, it turns out that during expedition one risks his life much more than necessary. Studies have shown that many climbers tend to be obsessively attached to their previously set goals. Especially in Himalayas, in changed weather conditions or with injured member of a team, much appropriate flexibility is not there at all. Many climbers show extreme stubbornness in such situations. Target must be met and turning back is not an option. This specific syndrome has been called goalodicy. One of many discoveries of yet another book enlisted in anti-self-help genre, "The Antidote". 

But dangerous doctrine of achieving goals at all costs is not the main theme there. Author Oliver Burkeman focuses rather on glory of - wait for it - negative thinking, as opposed to global industry of positive thinking, positivity run amok, orthodoxy of optimism. In his journalistic journey the very rational Cambridge educated Brit provides an alternative attitude to self development.

What I found interesting was his interview with Eckhart Tolle. Not much what the self-appointerd sage said, but the hilarious, well written description of his thought. Entering Tolle's apartment journalist stumbled upon first obstacle.  Even ‘How are you?’, I had suddenly realised, was a potentially problematic opening question when the word ‘you’ – and what, exactly, that might mean – was the very thing I had come to discuss. Burkeman managed to deliver Tolle's message in surprisingly entertaining fashion, since the author of "The Power of Now" is not very charismatic. But the message is strong, and even sceptical Burkeman was under influence of peaceful atmosphere of the house. When is was over he noticed that he doesn't feel like going anywhere. Instead, he would prefer to enjoy the moment in silence for few more hours. And this time he wasn't ironic.

Another surprise came with a Buddhist retreat, which despite earlier doubts turned out to be worth recommending. Not identifying with thoughts, not identifying with ego opens a new perspective.

One of the strongest points the Author makes is this: our constant efforts to eliminate the negative – insecurity, uncertainty, failure, or sadness – that is what causes us to feel so insecure, anxious, uncertain, or unhappy. In a long run convincing yourself that you are someone else than you are, you're in a situation you're not, simply fails. As painful as naked truth might be, it's the only real path to progress.

I still have a lot more to say than this, so my work on "Maps" continues.