Thursday, August 25, 2011

"Nothing really matters"

A few years ago, shortly after I'd started studying nonduality and the idea that what we call "life" is a dream, and doesn't exist, I saw a therapist for some back pains I had. The therapist, pretty much out of the blue, told me about another patient of his who had terminal cancer, and how this guy had told him: "nothing really matters". I don't know why he told me that. I guess he is a person who operates very intuitively.

Here is an interesting short article about Steve Jobs, written upon Steve's stepping down as CEO of Apple (but staying on staff) in August 2011, due to ill health. This guy was phoned by Steve, on a Sunday... 
...we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve. 
"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow.

A great leader cares about things a great deal. But somebody who cares that strongly about every tiny little detail is just bound to make himself sick sooner or later. The mind and the body just can't handle that much tension. 

A wise man said that the estimation of the importance of a datum is as important as the datum itself. And I think that datum is one of the really important ones. 

11 comments:

Laurie said...

Or as the great Zen Master said,
"Be as one too ill to bother."

We've been watching a lot of folk masters DVD's lately -- Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger.
When he came home from work Jeff said, "Hey, there's a folk festival going on around here, you interested?" I thought about it a minute then said, "I'm as uninterested in that as much as I'm as uninterested in everything."
Meaning, the self that used to be *passionate* just aint' there anymore. There's a new presence, or REALITY, to life, but nothing truly grabs me.

Jeff just laughed. He knew exactly what I meant.

I used to think *intensity* was the catchword of enlightenment.
Now it's much closer to "peace,"
or "kindness" or "humor" maybe, lol....

L.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I agree.
The wise man I quote is L.R. Hubbard. On the other hand, his "tone scale" of emotions and attitudes has "serenity of being" at the top (40), and "Action" at 20. Both are considered much much higher than humans normally go. But the funny thing is that virtually all Hubbard's followers, and himself, consider Action the optimum place to be, rather than go for the top. I don't know why, except that H was the quintessential man of action, and that feeling is all through his philosophies and writings, fiction too.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Oooh, para one of yours, I assume you made a funny? That's a good one actually.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thank god they invented blogging, cuz I can't keep up interest in a piece of writing for longer than 800 words or so! And even that length only comes about as I expand a post as I study a subject further, like when the iPad came out.

The good part about apathy and laziness is that one learns to be concise!

Laurie said...

I've been trying to read Being and Time by Heidegger for a year.

slightly off topic
(you'll appreciate it, it's short)

DUALISM IN A NUTSHELL

What is Mind?
No Matter.
What is Body?
Never Mind.

L.

Laurie said...

I never think of you as apathetic, lazy OR concise. Just Danish.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Snort.
I really don't know what Danes are supposed to be these days (a millennium ago was a different matter), so I'll just choose to take it as a compliment, thanks.

The dualism thing was used by Homer in the very first Simpsons episode (he was a bit unformed in that one), only the third line was "what is matter?". Clever though. And probably not a linguistic accident, like Arten and Pursah said about "individualism" ending in "dualism".

Laurie said...

I also don't know what Danes are, only I've heard you describe yourself as laconic, i.e. *Danish* ! I only know two Danish guys, one is dead (Kierkegaard) whom I highly regard, and the other is you, whom I also highly regard.

I got the non-dualism quote
from the book "Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates" by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein.

In the phrase "Nothing really matters" I read it this way:
No THING really matters, but *nothing* REALLY matters.

Laurie

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Ah, clever.

Sadly I was not introduced to Kiergegaard in School, but I have a book about him I need to get around to.

Laurie said...

I'm not sure you'll dig him.
He was religious, albeit, spat out by the Church. Heady, quite intellectual. Beautiful soul, that you'd like.

kids in town used to make fun of him, like he was crazy or something. He was a deep soul, who spoke out about the lies of his age, his people, his culture. He suffered for it. One of the world's greatest philosophers.

Laurie

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

One thing I heard was that there was this famous satirist, and SK complained that the guy never made fun of *him*. And the guy complied, and did it to the degree that SK almost got a nervous breakdown!
"Be careful what you wish for!" indeed.