Meditation and Design for inventing yourself
Video script recorded in Bangkok in January 2020 for the NGO World Peace Initiative
“I just had an idea! A great idea! Wow! What a sensational idea! I think I’ll be very successful with this idea!”
In the field of Design, and, well, I’m a industrial designer, we know this situation as the “Love Syndrome at First Idea”. It is a great daydream, in which the mind rambles on about the wonderful consequences of wealth, innovation, status, and contribution to saving the world because of a mind-boggling idea.
However, it turns out that an idea is a thought. It’s just a thought. No more than that. In Design, in the creative process, we learn not to be enthusiastic about the first idea, we learn to put it aside, and generate other ideas, 100 ideas. Then, we select the best one in order to develop a product. This selection is made without dazzle, without much enthusiasm. It is a rational choice.
Well, since I started meditating with Peace Revolution, I have noticed that something similar to the process of selecting ideas in Design has also happened in Meditation. I learned that my thoughts were just thoughts, not me.
It was – it is – myself that choose my thoughts, my own ideas about myself. In other words, because of meditation, I became more aware of what kind of thoughts I was feeding into my mind and how I was giving them a sense of personal identity.
By this point, I can say that I came to see myself as a project, as a design. It was no longer about designing chairs, jewelry, trophies, clothes, things that I designed for years in my life.
But it was about learning to project myself, to select my thoughts more discerningly. Feeding in my mind more positive ideas for my well-being, without being attached to some first illusions, first ideas, and first thoughts deeply related to my ego, to my desire.
For example, I used to have ideas of judgment and retaliation for someone who hurt me. Because of the practice of meditation, I gradually replaced those thoughts by thoughts of compassion, of mercy. That was definitely revolutionary in my life.
However it didn’t happen overnight. I have been meditating since 2013, but only recently I realized that I have been able to change some mental patterns such as the angry mind to a clearer and more benevolent mind.
I may say that I stopped designing products, and I learned to design my thoughts. No dazzle. No passions. No wandering. Without attachment. I started to observe more.
I am infinitely grateful to the Thai monks and to the Peace Revolution meditation program, the World Peace Initiative NGO and all the staff. They gave me tools (the meditation techniques), as well as they gave to me opportunities (the meditation retreats free of charge) to get to know myself.
I can also say that meditation has allowed me to better evaluate my ideas, and has improved my creative process, better separating what is illusion from what has real potential of benefit for myself and for the others.
So, that is why I invite everyone here: – How about learning to create the best of yourself? How about to better understand your thoughts and coming up with good ideas from self-awareness?
Access the Self-Development Program at peacerevolution.net and start meditating, simple as that. For more questions, you can send me a message or private e-mail from my website ethicalfashionbrazil.com.
I am open to value and stimulate the personal development of everyone around me! We are together. Big hug and infinite gratitude.
