Insights (2024)

Face issues

• Pulse rate (1 year of stress)
• Steve and Greenslip
• Should have checked garage leak after rain bomb
• Estate duty calculation: Save loads for now

Power of my mind to stress

• Triaxil management fee
• Iceland competition
• Dr Cosgrove dex for Iceland
• Put water into oil ?
• Canon 400mm marks

Advantages of courage

• Went into pharmacy, avoided day of no dex
• Into emails, Triaxil management fee only $12000
• Moving garage leak along, facilitated going without engineer ($11K saving)

Iceland

• Flight Centre (travel agents) as potential source of cheapest flights. Going in avoided a 1 hour layover in Oslo.
• My brain really stresses out and jumps to worst imagining. 
• Gavin: Name wrong on ticket costs $1000 and difficulties. Bags not arrive. All taken as it comes, remaining calm. 
• Gavin asks for room for me in Reykjavik. Finds cancellation. Benefit in asking.

Photography

• Benefits of shooting in raw.  E.g Reduce shadow in terns. 
• Portrait and landscape. Wide and close. Different angles. Walk on, assess, take photos on way back. Imagine if in Grimsey I hadn't walked on ?
• Research photography. Soft water in Iceland. Neutral density filter.
• Take more video. Some in Iceland but wish more.

Offence, not defence

• Biden after debate → Weeks of hanging on, defending → Changing to Kamala
• Ukraine unexpectedly invades Russia to their shock

Finances

• Price of myopic focus on wisdom
• How can reduce prices by shopping around with reviews (E.g. Watch for $40, iPhone case $ 12 , hair clippers $20)
• How risk adverse I am: When markets tanked
• In order and visibility greatly ↓ anxiety
• Power of finances in order (E.g. South America travels)

Finances limiting me

• Lost in wisdom, no strategy
• Not invest in 2017 (or 2020 during Covid)
• Not invest in Nasdaq
• Not track levies etc. over time, only big expenses. Not notice levies etc ↑
• Move away from HSBC in 2023 only. Lose out interest as rising in 21, 22
• Wasted so much finances in 2017, 2018 etc.
• Threw out paper statements (utility bills etc.)
• Tax pre 2020 not keep records of calculations
• Not seeing some expenses coming off (e.g. housemate advert)
• Car hold on and keep spending

Books read (2024)

 Self-illusion

• The Ego Tunnel (Thomas Metzinger)
• There is No You (Andrew Halaw)
• Seeing no Self: Essential Inquiries  that Reveal Our Nondual Nature (Katrijn Van Oudheusden)
• Beyond Illusion: Exploring the Six Illusions that Cause  Our Mistaken Belief in a Separate Self (Katrijn Van Oudheusden)
• Selfless Service  (Katrijn Van Oudheusden)
• The Ego Tunnel (Thomas Metzinger)
• There is No You (Andrew Halaw)
• What Am I? A Study in Non-Volitional Living (Galen Sharp)

Idealism

• The Grand Biocentric Design (Robert Lanza)
• Being Myself (Rupert Spira)

Left versus right brain

• The Matter with Things  (Iain McGilchrist)
• The Master & His Emmisary (Ian Gilchrist)

Other books

• The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact  (Colin McGinn)
• God is Nothingness  (Andre Halaw)
  
  

Insights (2023)

Dx binging is bad for productivity

• 7 hours on 7 (5 hours on 2)

Essential to do bank checks 

• Lost $440 over 2 years from Roommates.com

Be informed, ignorance is stressful

• Capital gains on property, did calculations. Became clear.
• Research on PAYE.
• Research on % of house in tax returns.
• % yield on dividends verse interest.

When the mind is anxious, it tells terrible lies

• E.g. Slideshow, tax sms

Nip potential issues in the bud right away

• Become informed (online & experts)
• Prevention, not cure.
• Face worries & take action.
• Knowing can prevent so much worry.
• E.g. Tax issue if I'd googled it.

Look after health. 

• Blood pressure
• Pulse
• Blood tests
• Get a watch
• Do exercise
• Get rid of belly fat

When climbing a hill, go slow. 

• Not exert heart rate
• Metaphor for life. One step at a time, super slow.
• Power of tiny steps without exertion. This step alone. Limit looking at destination.

Don’t take Gav as gospel

• Better to be realistic than overly optimistic ? 

Love & respect my Future Self.  

• What I do today. What I choose. My dx consumption.  All effect my beloved future self. Do it for him.

Non fiction books read (2023)

Idealism

• Dreamed Up Reality: Diving into the Mind to Uncover the Astonishing Hidden Tale of Nature  (Bernardo Kastrup)

Non fiction books read (2022)

Advaita Vedanta 

• Advaita - Tools for Spiritual Unity (Merlyn Swan)

Idealism

• Brief Peeks Beyond: Critical Essays on Metaphysics, Neuroscience, Free Will, Skepticism and Culture (Bernardo Kastrup)
• The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality  Bernardo Kastrup
  
  

Non fiction books read (2021)

Consciousness

•  The Flip: Who You Really Are and Why It Matters  Jeffrey J. Kripal

Idealism

• Rationalist Spirituality: An exploration of the meaning of life and existence informed by logic and science  (Bernardo Kastrup)
• Why Materialism is Baloney (Bernardo Kastrup)
• More than Allegory (Bernardo Kastrup)

 

World as Simulation

• The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics All Agree We Are In a Video Game (Rizwan Virk)

The illusion of the separate self (ego)

• No Self, no Problem (Chris Niebauer)
• The Self Illusion (Bruce Hood)

Advaita Vedanta

• The Greatest Secret: (Rhonda Byrne)

Death and Near Death Experiences

• The Top Ten Things Dead People Want to Tell YOU (Mike Dooley)
• 500 Quotes From Heaven: Life-Changing Quotes That Reveal The Wisdom & Power Of Near-Death Experiences (David Sunfellow)
• The Purpose of Life as Revealed by Near-Death Experiences from Around the World (David Sunfellow)

God

• Mind, World, God: Science and Spirit in the 21st Century (Tam Hunt)

Bernardo Kastrup

I learned of Bernardo through Rupert Spira. He is a wonderful philosopher who makes a very convincing argument for  idealism, the theory that reality is mental rather than physical. I read most of his books and listened to many hours of him very eloquently discussing this theories on Youtube.

Books that inspired me

Quotes

• Physics is a science of perception. We start with perception and then start to model the behavior of those perceptions. Bernardo Kastrup
• Science does not say what things are. It only says how they behave. Bernardo Kastrup
• Experience is already mind in motion. Bernardo Kastrup
• All of reality is a phenomenon of, and in, mind. Bernardo Kastrup
• The brain is like a whirlpool in the stream of mind. Bernardo Kastrup
• All reality is in mind, including your body and brain. Bernardo Kastrup
• We are all multiple personalities of a cosmic consciousness.  Bernardo Kastrup
• How can consciousness arise from something truly unconscious. Bernardo Kastrup
• Death causes us to remember all that we already know but cannot recall. Bernardo Kastrup
• Every whirlpool represents the subjective world of its respective human being. Bernardo Kastrup
• If you can be sure of anything at all, it is that your conscious perceptions exist. Bernardo Kastrup
• The whirlpool represents a partial localization of the flow of experiences in the stream. Bernardo Kastrup
• The whirlpool of mind ‘filters out’ of itself most subjective experiences unfolding in nature. Bernardo Kastrup
• The brain is like a whirlpool in the stream of mind that filters in our experience and filters out all else. Bernardo Kastrup
• Localized points-of-view become seemingly amnesic of everything that doesn’t fall within their respective vortices. Bernardo Kastrup
• According to idealism, all of reality – the entire universe – exists in mind, although not all in your egoic mind alone. Bernardo Kastrup
• In a sense, we have been deputized by mind at large to look back at itself and try to make something out of what we see. Bernardo Kastrup

Non fiction books read (2020)

Evidence for God

• How To Know God Exists (Ray Comfort)
• How Science Reveals God: What Every Thinking Person Must Know (Stephen Martin)
• The Experience of God (David Bentley Hart)

Spiritual narratives

• Rethinking Our Story: Can We Be Christian in the Quantum Era?  (Doug Hammack)

God and Science

• Soul Search, A Scientist Explores the Afterlife (David Darling)

Metaphors for God

• God Reflected: Metaphors for God (Flora A. Keshgegian)
• God the What: What our Metaphors for God Reveal About Our Beliefs in God (Carolyn Jane Bohler)
• Wearing God (Lauren F. Winner)

The power of awareness

Hi there Aimee

I had this thought and wanted to share it with you...

If you were God, you could go to anyone, spiritual or not spiritual, and offer them the entire world and all they could ever dream of (all the money, fame, love, intelligence, talent, good looks, experiences, special powers and indescribable pleasures imaginable).  In exchange for this, all they need to sacrifice is their conscious awareness.  No-one in their right mind would make the exchange!  Without the light of awareness, these things would go on in the dark, unknown and in-experiencable and therefore, meaningless.  That’s how precious awareness is!!

In my circumstances, if God were to come to me and offer me 100 million dollars and in exchange for it, all I need to sacrifice is my ability to be aware of being aware while thoughts arise. In other words, I'd go back to and stay in the state I was in 7 years ago of being totally identified with my thoughts and mind.  I'd say "thank you, God, but no, I'll stick with my awareness."  That's how sacred awareness is to me: the ability to rest in it and know myself as it.

So it has just struck me how precious awareness is. And we can rest in it knowingly (bask in it, Be it) whenever we want.  It's effortless and free and our innermost essence.  Wow, what a priceless gift!!!!

Graeme

---

Wow... that is so beautifully put. I really had to take a few moments to sit in the Awareness-I-AM and feel the preciousness of that.
And you are so right, AWARENESS is the treasure, the gift, the jewel, the diamond...
What ELSE could possibly be? I am laughing even thinking about the concept that anything could be more precious than the conscious Awareness-Infinite Mind-we are.
But we think fame, money, beauty etc etc etc is the PRIZE for Awareness - Never!
This Awareness is unpossessed and that's what makes it so incredible... no amount of external pleasure can make you feel more Aware...
How blessed are we, Graeme? Truly, we have found the most prized jewel that is free for all.. paradoxical yes...but also simply the Truth.
AND YET we also get to experience being this unique individual called Graeme and Aimee.. what a Wonder of Wonder ! ! !
Aimee x o x

Insights (2019)

• The importance and power of balance and variety.
• Power of being real, not perfect.
• Thank you life, for awareness, surrender and spaciousness.
• Wisdom Trove, Compass and Life Trove are expressions of the same thing: Guiding wisdom and appplication (Compass) and the sharing of the wisdom, applied to my life (Life Trove,)  Also about truth and inspiration to see sacredness of world and embrace life.
• My life is a laboratory for experimenting with the wisdom from Wisdom Trove.
• Wisdom Trove is a form of content curation: Selective wisdom, specific theme (Wisdom on the art of living) and a specific point of view.

Non fiction books read (2019)

Consciousness

• One Mind: How Our Individual Mind is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why it Matters (Larry Dossey)

Idealism

• The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes (Donald D. Hoffman)

Nature of the self

• Why Buddhism is true (Robert Wright)
• The Ego Trick (Julian Baggini)

Physics and spirituality

• The Tao of Physics (Fritjof Capra)
• You Are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters (Deepak Chopra, Menas Kafatos)
• Reality Unveiled: The Hidden Keys of Existence That Will Transform Your Life (and the World) (Ziad Masri)

Evidence for God

• A Quantum Case For God (Dennis Zetting, Randi Zetting)

• The Case for God: What religion really means (Karen Armstrong)

• The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist fundamentalism and the denial of the divine (Alister McGrath)
• Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Doubting Dawkins (Keith Ward)

God and physics

• God and the New Physics  (Paul Davies)
• The God Franchise: A Theory of Everything (Alan H. Dawe)
• The Physics of God: Unifying Quantum Physics, Consciousness, M-Theory, Heaven, Neuroscience and Transcendence (Selbie Joseph)
  
  

Advaita Vendanta

• Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment (Scott Kiloby)
• Vedanta: A Simple Introduction (Pravrajika Vrajaprana)
• Why God Permits Evil and How to Rise Above It (Paramahansa Yogananda)

Course in Miracles

• A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles (Marianne Williamson)
  
  

Creativity & Wisdom

• 100-WHATS of CREATIVITY: One-hundred "What-if?" questions to spark your creativity, unmuck your mind, and break through your mental blocks. (Don The Idea Guy Snyder)
• The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead (Warren Berger)
• The Best Advice in Six Words: Writers Famous and Obscure on Love, Sex, Money, Friendship, Family, Work, and Much More (Six-word Memoir) (Larry Smith)

Habits

• Atomic Habits:  (James Clear)