Sickest place I've ever been.

While studying on exchange in Singapore, I had the fortune of going on a journey to the island of Java, Indonesia. As someone who's never been out of North America, this was the most foreign place I have ever been, extremely different from the world I've grown up in. As someone who has, in the past few years, become obsessive and hyperfocused on efficiency, productivity, and striving for success, experiencing this part of the world and interacting with its people has delivered me some realizations on the nature of time and existence.

While ambition is key, it should never come at the cost of being present.
Most of us in the modern world are perpetually concerned with either the past or the future and spend very little time in the now. The past and the future are both illusions, and while I believe you should still look to the future, set goals, and pursue a greater existence, that pursuit can only ever executed in the present. The eternal now is all that will ever exist; live in it. People in many parts of the world have no conception of "December" and the potential internship they're considering to take next year, they only think about today and what they're going to eat for dinner. Most of us think compulsively, spending time in the world of symbols and thoughts, and spend very little time in the real, raw, current moment. Music is one of the few things that is created solely for the sake of itself. It is perhaps the most human experience. Meditation is another, at least as it should be done. I have been experimenting with meditation for quite some time, but have done it as a sort of duty, as something that will enhance my cognition, character, and focus - it's something "successful" people do isn't it? But the paradox is that meditating for the sake of ulterior motives is no longer meditation. Meditate for its own sake, not for some future benefits (although those will likely be delivered).

Just had this flow of thoughts.

Thank you Indonesia.

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