It’s all connected

Over the course of my life I have been compelled to seek for truths, answers to questions that haunted my mind, solutions to the riddle of happiness, and to find the path through the maze of life. I am not sure where this drive comes from, perhaps it is from witnessing what is wrong in the world first hand and having faith that there must be more to life than this. My journey has taken me all over the world, different cultures, and into the minds of various sages and authors who dispense their wisdom in the pages of the many books now resting on my shelves. Through time and introspection, I believe I have found a few simple truths that has made my journey simpler. I have divided my life into three basic quest, the first one of gaining physical mastery, the second gaining life mastery and the third is understanding the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Now at first it may seem a bit convoluted but stick with me and let’s see what this could all mean.

The search for physical mastery took me into martial arts, bodybuilding, Pilates, yoga, chi-gong, and olympic weightlifting. After studying these activities as a participant, learning technique and form, the real learning happened when I went below the surface and realized that though these activities all had different names and looked different on the outside, from the inside they looked very much the same. I learned how the body moved, how it produced force, how it moved gracefully and with poise, and learning that from the inside were simple rules of stability and muscle awareness that allowed me to easily transcend into all forms of movement with greater ease. When we remove the labels we find a simple essence of movement that is beautiful and much easier to attain. I learned to simplify.

The search for life mastery and knowledge took me into the fields of natural medicine, hypnosis, NLP, psychology, philosophy, Christianity, Buddhism, quantum physics, poetry, personal development, the science of the human body. Spending the last 30 years pouring over books, reading periodicals, listen to audio courses, and learning from mentors, again I found a commonality within all knowledge. It seems that all knowledge is linked and is inseparable, as we humans are. The more I branched out in my academic curiosity, the more I kept finding that all knowledge had a goal of defining order, to remedy this existence that seems bent remaining in a chaotic state. But it was only when I drew on "all" the various pieces of my new-found knowledge did I find that common truth. It pointed to order coming out of chaos and only to return to chaos in an effort to evolve into the next higher order.

This lead me to the 2nd law of thermodynamics and a concept called "logical entropy". It seems that humans, like most things in the universe are classified as open systems, that is to say we are a part of the flow of the universe. We are subject to the ebb and flow of external stimuli that demands become smarter, wiser, stronger, healthier, more flexible, more self aware, more loving, more compassionate, more successful (insert your idea of success here). And when we reach a certain stage in any of these there is a temporary breakdown as we are forced to develop new skills, new character strengths, new awareness’s etc. This constant fall into chaos and rebuilding is a dance that has been going on for millions of years. The only time we suffer is when we refuse to accept change so we try and withdraw from the flow of life (we have now called it depression) where we try and avoid contact with others, sunlight, movement, food, in an effort to avoid the demands of the universe telling us we "must" change or perish.

I am intrigued by this journey we call life and have chosen to become of student of life rather than a victim of circumstance. My only regret is I have but one life to unlock the mysteries of the universe so I am making good of the time that that I have left. What will you do with the rest of your days???

C. David Gilks Your Fellow Traveler