Time to UN-INSTALL Your Brain's Software?

"HALF-BAKED PHILOSOPHY IS OF NO VALUE"


Awa Kenzo (d. 1939)
Zen Archery Master

You may be thinking, "Philosophy is for geeks. What's this got to do with me or my life?"

What if "philosophy" here is a metaphor for your entire belief system, for that invisible "software" you use to run your life? Do you suppose if that software were wrong, your life could go off the rails?

The fact is, your results in life are largely governed by your beliefs, and most people's belief systems are a conglomeration of unproven assumptions they've uncritically absorbed from their parents, teachers, the media and their society in general.

What the #@!*&# kind of a basis for personal success or happiness is that????

These hidden assumptions are all around you. They apply to politics, religion, health, money, moral values, what it means to be human and to the very nature of reality itself. For instance...

My parent's generation believed that all the food at the grocery store was either good for you, or at least not dangerous. Millions of them paid with their lives for that false assumption. They also believed the medical doctor was next to God, could do no wrong and the drugs he recommended were miracle cures. Millions more paid with their lives for this one.

Many a soldier has paid the same price for assuming his political and military leadership is both intelligent and honest.

I've seen many a martial artist put on his ass because he assumed his martial art gave him an accurate paradigm about how real combat works. Bottom line...?

Real life has a way of trashing our assumptions. And if we survive the fallout, we owe it to ourselves to ask some hard questions.

RESILIENCE involves rooting out all the absurd assumptions you still run your life by, so that you can start rebuilding your life. The choice is yours: you can build your life on a web of a thousand unexamined assumptions about life (most of which are plain wrong), or they can DECIDE what "software" or "philosophy" serves you best.

Since the state of your health, the quality of your relationships, the size or your bank balance and your overall happiness are hemmed in by your belief system, do you suppose you should reexamine yours from time to time?

How many unexamined assumptions about every area of life can you spot today? In yourself? In the media? From people around you?

Master Kenzo had no room in his life for unexamined assumptions.

What about you?


~Dr. Symeon Rodger