A Party of Philosophers: Lao Tzu to de Bono

I feel to speak about philosophy today. It is really about the way we think that creates the way we see. Often we think what we see is real, that includes believing what we think as real. Our lives are what they are and that is it. No argument. Is that true I venture? Often people say when a calamity strikes, they never see their life the same again, as the pattern has completely changed, new experiences came in and the worldview or window changed. Trauma creates that, education creates that, travelling creates that, marriage and children create that, maturity creates that, life changes the way you see. For life is change itself. When you are open, it changes. There are plenty of examples.

I remember two instances in my life where philosophy was the topic. The first was when I met Edward de Bono. I want to explain how I met him as it is the magic of life that interests me and is of importance for you to understand. I was studying economics at Griffith University. I remember seeing a conference on lateral thinking. Edward de Bono is considered one of the foremost thinkers in the world of creative thinking. He gave workshops with top companies and the United Nations and he also produced books for teaching lateral thinking for children. He owns an island and lives between Malta and London I believe. He coined the term lateral thinking and wrote hundreds of books. He certainly is an example of a person who is teaching business leaders to step out of the box.

Anyway, as a student, I hear of this conference but I recall it being $400 per person. As a poor student, impossible for me to afford. So I decide to write him a letter it had an image of a hand with two fingers up. I was wanting to make two main points. I told him that talented students shouldn’t miss out on a conference and I think I suggested a scholarship. Anyway, to my surprise he rings me and invites me to this conference as his guest. I laugh when I recall this I imagined being up on the stage (yeah right). Instead I was in the audience. He sat on the stage and did drawings illustrating the power of lateral thinking. I had inspiration around him and I knew this is the way to break out of fixed and rigid thinking. To the extent we believe everything we think, there has to be ways to say hey, there is another way of seeing. Anyway, Edward and I had coffee in the break. This was the moment I found memorable. He asks me to imagine 10 doors and there is a goat behind one of the doors. He says, what is the probability of getting the goat behind one of the doors. I thought about it and said 50:50. Now most people would go what? surely it is 1:10 (probability theory). My feeling was you either get it or you don’t. Now if I was to answer today I would say 1,0 like binary code. It is like on/off, yes or no. Again, you are meant to be in front of the door or not. This is manifestation not probability, we both agreed to disagree at this point. For example if I am meant to go to Russia with Patch Adams it will happen (yes/no). Someone offers me 7,500 to go and it is yes. What is the probability, a million to one to be able to go, I have no money. So do you see through my example of how seeing differently affects the way you perceive life. If you are negative you may think ‘I will never be happy’, ‘I will never be successful’ this is limited thinking, just let go and follow your desires and whallah you may get what you ask for.

The second example of philosophy was when I was in London back in 1993/4. I noticed a big Philosophy sign on the London Underground. It actually said ‘if you see this sign you are thinking about philosophy’, something to that effect. I did go to the philosophy course. Anyway it was all about the ‘I’, ‘the ego’, it preached western philosophy which I felt was very ego centric. I remember just saying that ‘when you say man, I don’t relate to it as a woman’. This was true the teacher kept referring to humanity as ‘man’, for me as a woman I see man when this term is used. So I felt it was not me, I couldn’t relate. Someone piped up and said I was being politically correct, this was a cynical remark. I didn’t even know what that meant at the time. I was just speaking the truth. I wasn’t having a go at men or being a feminist, I just couldn’t see myself in the word ‘man’. Fair enough I think today. I left the course that day as it didn’t resonate. I felt confusion there, in the philosophy was where I felt it. I went riffling through the books on display as I was leaving. I found my reason for coming to the course lying on the table. I picked up the smallest most obscure book. It had a Chinese man on the cover sitting on top of an Ox. I looked inside and saw all these verses like poetry. I am a natural poet so I just was automatically attracted. I am also not a reader so smaller is good. I started to read this philosophy, it was profound and I understood the message. This was Lao Tzu the mysterious Chinese philosopher of 700BC, I resonated immediately. His book was called the Dao De Jing (The Way and the Life) and he was my first philosophy teacher, wasn’t alive but his message was. I realised eastern mystercism was able to see the depth of the life better and it didn’t feel ego centric, it was about detachment and letting go and allowing, it was about the flow, I felt instant connection with that. Through Lao Tzu I was able to see the cosmic beyond the earth plane. Wow what a teacher. That changed my experience of life and set me on a journey from which I have never looked back.

So interesting where life takes us. I go with my feeling and that is how I make choices of what I will listen to. I am not just following the crowd. I couldn’t care if everyone says hey this is the way, if it doesn’t feel right I may go in the opposite direction. For example I don’t feel having a job means I am responsible, I don’t feel owning a house or being married with children makes me a decent upstanding person, I already am that. I don’t seek externals to help me to belong in society. I already do. I am here. I feel no envy for people who are successful or wealthy, i am perfectly happy as the wealth I feel is expressing my truth, and nothing can take that away, I have nothing to lose, but everything to give. Which is why I am spending my time here talking to you and not making money in this moment. This is the currency of my life and it has the greatest value to me.

So I will share with you my poem about Philosophy.

A Party of Philosophers

A party of philosophers,
Yet no philosophers came to the party,
For many were playing alone,
For logic is linear and self indulgent,
Reality is abstraction,
Emotions are distraction,
Consciousness becomes a new idea,
He thinks therefore he is,
She feels although she isn’t,
The great I AM lives beyond reason.

I have found that real philosophy,
Starts from first principles,
An inner integrity,
For one has no idea of real meaning,
If one’s meaning is unreal.

For if you cannot see the point,
Does it no longer exist?
Is the observer separate?
From the object of interest?
For judgement and righteousness
seek confirmation,
Argument seeks confrontation,
For one is taught to differ,
To look for the gap,
To recite great philosophers,
To parade the figment of depth,
As a shallow silhouette,
For the greatest depth,
Lives in silence.

In the depths of the heart,
The truth is questioned,
Many are seeking right and wrong,
Yet philosophy is the art of angles,
Perspectives circling an idea,
Feeling the contour,
Touching the heart,
An inner sense,
That is an uncommon
communion.

Emmanuel Kant,
Max Weber,
Aristotle and Plato,
Western philosophical inquirers,
Shaping the way we see,
For to look is to see,
But what do we see,
If we don’t look?

The eastern tradition,
Travels the subtle path,
For life becomes a meditation,
An ability to be out of the mind,
Where the real world is opposite,
It is the mirror image,
Wisdom is the reason,
For experience produces new thoughts,
Life is suffering when we feel our way,
home.

I have walked to the summit,
I have cried in the valley,
I have seen people speak yet say nothing,
I have observed the image of a life pretending to live,
I am losing myself,
As I detach from my ego,
For this is the source of suffering,
This is the product of confusion,
For the illusion is the separate self,
For we are one voice,
One breath,
One heart,
One life,
Waiting to exist,
For it takes courage to let go,
To allow others to win,
To be marginalized,
To be nothing in the eyes of society.

Self importance seeks to be valued,
Yet our value is incomparable,
Each a diamond,
Each a jewel,
Woven into a fabric of community,
Each colour a vibration,
Singing the song of a new consciousness,
That reveals itself to those who know,
Whispering love is the greatest truth,
An unsolved mystery,
That awaits your welcome,
If you will only call,
You let it be free,
To see the beauty,
Liberates the eyes,
To truly see,
That you are me,
For eternity.