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Published: October 10th 2009
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Wow, so everything is a bit different here in the north side of India. For one thing, most girls are wearing jeans and not those beautiful silk dresses that ALL the girls wear in South India. It’s a fast pace city and just a bit dirtier than New York City. The vibe I get from this city is that it’s free and chaotic. As oppose to Boston or Tokyo where there are so many rules. ‘Anything goes’ vibe is comforting for a traveler because I don’t have to worry about accidently disrespecting the culture by inadvertently breaking the rules. I walked around a nice park and realized that I’ve made India like my home now. Usually, when I travel to countries on vacation, I feel compelled to do something active and fun all the time. But now, I have time to enjoy the simple pleasures that the local people enjoy and it’s such a different experience.
It's what I want, not what I need The wise man asks: At the highest degree of alchemy, I can turn lead into gold, but why can I never turn air into gold? The answer to the alchemist’s questions
is simple but only the deep philosophers can really practice this. Air is a necessity whereas gold is a desire. Air is absolutely essential to life and gold is a metal that people like. You would think trading air for gold could make you rich but you would only learn that greed kills. Would you sacrifice one inhale of air for a gold bar? Every inhale of breath that you have ever taken has led you to this moment of life right now, you’ve never missed a breath so far. If you choose to stop inhaling just once, then you would suffocate to death. This is the idea behind meditation: once a person is able to be grateful for every single breath he takes, then he can truly enjoy the present. The real treasure is in the breath of air that we need and not in the worldly objects that we want. It’s the golden breath!
The reason I asked the alchemist’s question is because I wanted to be in the mindset of a deep philosopher. A deep philosopher is a brilliant thinker, but more importantly, he practices his ideas in the real world. Many people say one thing
India gate
to commemorate the lost soldiers, kinda like the Arc d' Triumph in Paris and then do the other, but good philosophers do not. I am only an amateur philosopher because I do not practice my ideas enough. I truly believe that what makes us happy is holding onto our ‘needs’ and not our ‘wants.’ We should rid ourselves of worldly objects that hinder us from inner peace. But even though I truly believe this, I do not practice it. I still enjoy buying the latest tech gadgets because it makes me happy. Watching movies and paying for entertainment is fun. There’s so many possessions that I have that I do not need, and yet I feel like they are essential to my happiness. It’s hard to shake my wants and desires. If I was the alchemist then I would have screwed up and made
gold until I suffocated.
Even though I am not able to always follow my philosophy of ‘having only what you need’, at least I am a little more aware now of the things that I need and want. When I buy something, I rarely say I need it, I say that I want it. This simple adjustment has helped me tremendously from wasting money on useless things. I’m
not ashamed to say I ‘want’ some new shoes because that’s how I feel but I would feel bad if I started to say I ‘need’ new shoes. Everybody has their own level of needs and wants but it gets harder identify when we start thinking our wants become our needs. It starts to blur for me when I think about whether I need my iPhone or I want my iPhone. The phone has become such an important object to me because it’s my music player, phone, video player, book, navigator, internet browser and game machine. But as much as I think I need all those things, the truth is, it’s only a strong desire to have all those things.
The reason it’s important for me to identify between my needs and wants is because it will help in the long run. Everything that I do is based on a decision that I have made in my head. In one day, we probably make more than a thousand decisions and we aren’t really aware of it. But after paying more attention to my thoughts, I have realized that the split-second decisions that I make are because my subconscious has
already prioritized what is more important and decided upon it. A lot of my decisions are like a quick battle between my needs and wants. If I start choosing my wants over my needs more and more then I can feel myself become greedier. I used to always let my wants overpower my needs and make my decision based on pleasure. Now, I’m starting to turn the tides and let my needs be more victorious. It’s still a long process but so far, I feel a little more free and a little more detached from material objects.
Money is always an interesting thing for me. Is it a need or is a want? To live in the modern times, you need some cash or else you won’t survive. When you are broke, you don’t just want money, you downright need it! But to some people, money is a desire that helps them buy stuff. I think that money is both a need and a want. I feel that money is a ‘need’ up to a certain point but then it transforms to a ‘want’ once you have enough money. Once we have more than enough money, we start deluding
ourselves into believing that the newest car, TV and phone are our needs.
I’m learning to separate my needs and wants more now because a lot of the people in India have so little and yet, they treat their neighbors and visitors with so much respect. I’m just so humbled by them that I feel guilty every time I buy more things. And also, the more things that I buy, means the more things I have to carry in my backpack. This is an easy reminder for me not to fill my endless void of material desire!
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Steve chang
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Lighter packback means true freedom
Vic it's very inspired living wisdom about minimize ones want and aware ones needs whenever doing shopping I bet this blog will be a wake up call to whom still stay at sex and city Looks like you are at ease in India don't keep on shaking your head when you agree are you on ur way to taji maha ?