"So, how come you know so much wan ah?"

Often, people ask me, "So, how come you know so much wan ah?". Years ago, I would've responded, "How come other people don't know anything one leh? The information is out there mah....you don't know meh now so easy to get information, we live in an age called Information Age mah."

Nowadays, I just say, "I read about it." I can't even say with a straight face it was 'hard work' to 'gather knowledge', because it doesn't feel like it at all. Information or clues turn up exactly the right time I need it to lead me to another and another and another. Money will turn up to enable me to pursue that path. Help will come, in the form of previously unidentified opportunities, acquaintances or temporary benefactors. All I have to do is .....really, Do Nothing. The harder I work, the less I get. I cannot be filled with "show me the money/evidence" attitude and then go hunting. I have to just think of the thought, put it somewhere at the back of my mind and then go do something else, which is usually nothing...until I completely forget about it. And then the information will turn up, days, weeks later.

The funniest "Do Nothing and something happens" event I like is how I got to know about Paul Krugman. The thread of how economics ties into politics was starting to emerge in me - I've forgotten the stream of thoughts that led into that, must've been when I got so pissed about how people cannot see the link between money,war and power. Up til then, my interest in economics was as much as my interest in politics now - negative. I am so apolitical, in fact, that 'politically-minded' people have chided me with the remark, "How can someone as intelligent as you be so damn stupid about life." Touche.

But around 2004/5, I found this book THE GREAT UNRAVELLING in a 'bargains' table at POPULAR - it was going for RM14.90, hardcover. I remember laughing out loud because that was such a fantastic bargain I almost wanted to drop down on the floor, kick my legs in the air and get up again to do a victory dance. Paul Krugman was articulating all the things I've been thinking about money, politics, policies, relations, etc since Bush the Dumber went into power. (I really bought the Al Gore environment pitch.) Every afternoon, I sat there reading the collection of his articles in that book and laughed out loud every few seconds, sometimes whooping. My uncle asked,"What's the book about?" I answered, "Economics".

Looking back, I must sound very crazy, holding a hardcover 'textbook' written by an MIT (or was it Princeton....err, go google that) professor and reading it three times over. By 2006, I loved Paul Krugman so much that I would pray for him to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, the way I was so happy Mohd.Yunus had won the Nobel Prize for Peace. ( I had tears in my eyes when I read the news report announcing Mohd.Yunus as the winner for the Peace prize as opposed to the expected Economics prize. I still remember the photo of him in the paper on that day, sitting down next to the Grameen logo for a picture.)

At that time, I had no idea the size of the celebrity status Paul Krugman was enjoying among the NY / Economics-academia circle. I was able to pick up his books and the dozens of others later on because my 'mind's eye' was ready for the information.

It would seem like I'm intentionally understating the 'effort' I put into Learning because I'm jealously guarding some 'secret'. That could not be further from the truth. I have tried very hard to reflect on my path of learning, to articulate them so that the general themes can be duplicated by others.

The closest way for me to describe the feeling is that of a 'Snowball effect'.
I had titled one blog "my time is UP' with another name, "Let it snowball." Eventhough I've changed the title since, I now realize the significance of why I wanted to call it so several weeks ago. I had wanted to write about the feeling of 'alignment' and 'creativity' that comes once you lign up all other things first; then you don't sweat the rest.

My interest in marketing, investment. economics, law, sociology, anthropology, literature and languages don't feel to me as if they are 'separate' things to learn, rather, the learning of each enhanced the learning of the other in a spider-like way, you know, like an internet search spider. Because I picked up one new piece of fresh information at one place, it facilitates the spidering of information of another thing and another thing and then it expands exponentially like a web without much effort. And because there's an intricate and meaningful link between one piece of information and another, the quick retrieval of information, almost spontaneously, becomes possible.

I personally don't think I know a lot - it's just that other people don't know a lot of things they ought to. The truth is, it feels like the more I learn, the less I know about anything, which is a really amazing feling because it keeps 'learning' novel and fresh. It is unlike the thoughts we normally associate with 'learning', i.e. Effort. There is really no 'effort' at all because all we have to do is 'lay the dominos'. So often we associate Learning with Education and Schooling and that is why it is hard for us to accept the more Natural way of learning - a learning that is very organic in nature.

The thing is you really can't see anything significant happening when you're laying things down in alignment; it's a pregnancy you don't know you're having or a tooth you don't know is starting to have plaque buildup :p. Sometimes it might even make you feel down for doing what your gut tells you is right - yeah, kinda like morning sickness or going to see the dentist!

I'm pretty sure that life is not about 'hard work' and effort at all. We only struggle and suffer as a consequence of not having the right alignment to things; we're out of harmony, out of sync. I know a lot of people will say that's not true at all, and I bet you the same people saying that are the people who have the most amount of suffering and struggle in their life and yet choose to defend their excuses. I don't mean to belittle anyone except to make a point that the freedom of expression allows suffering people to undermine what I say while being a living witness to the ease of Life underscores the point I am trying to share here.

But to be fair, I am simplifying things a little bit. However, it is my wish that people take the big picture, the long shot, and not the myopic version of things. Of course the passage an infant takes while squeezing through the birth canal can be considered, 'struggling' but the infant does not define it as such, it defines it simply as, "is". Of course Helen Keller seemed like she had to struggle and suffer - but it only seems like that to us, not to the individual undergoing it. For the individual Present in the situation, what they go through is simply part of the process of the alignment or the snowballing. If they had believed it was a 'struggle', they would become bitter from the sweet. So I am not talking about the 'description' of struggle or effort from a third party's point of view, I am talking about the Present Experience of the Experiencer - and to the Experiencer, it is not a 'suffering'.

I believe that this principle of first aligning oneself and Do Nothing in order to allow that alignment to happen can be applied to a lot more things beyond Learning. It can be applied to investing, management, psychology, creativity, etc. Once the first phase of alignment is 'set', the 'roll-out' will happen. As more and more phases unfold and align, the speed of the 'roll-out' will feel like the Snowball Effect.

I suppose if this were so true, then the next question would be, "How to do Nothing? What does Doing Nothing entail?" - I think it is ironic that we even need a silver bullet or a step-by-step tutorial to do Nothing. I could suggest getting a cat; they are perfect examples of how to be absolutely glorious in The Doing of Nothing.

You don't have to take anything from me - I am, after all, a nobody, only someone who finds learning always effortless and fruitful. But my take is this : Nothing of significance is ever achieved through struggle, effort, discipline and hardship. It can only be achieved in equilibrium, joy and love - and the Centre of Equilibrium, Joy and Love is to stop moving 'externally' and just be 'still' enough - to just stop rattling our own cage. You'll find the key there. And when you do, everything else, even what we like calling 'discipline' becomes a natural extension of our Living rather than an imposed doctrine of 'shoulds' to upkeep.