A word of warning

A word of warning. I'm not a fitness instructor, physician, a dietician, or a psychologist, so please don't blindly follow my lifestyle choices or ideologies.

I have been fasting for many years and my body and mind has gotten used to it. I do it mainly to control my sugar levels during the day which I need to keep under control to mitigate certain risks that run in my family. Please consult professionals if you're considering fasting and be kind to your body.

Sleep is extremely important and is the cornerstone of a good life. If money was not a concern I would build my life around sleep health, you should too. If you are having trouble sleeping, please consult a doctor, and use empirically and qualified experience backed resources if your thinking of self medicating. I recommend Peter Attia's Outlive [1] as a good starting point on the importance of sleep health on living a good life and an overview of remedies that are out there, but please make up your own mind.

There's a good chance my life goals, fitness goals and the constraints under which I live are different from yours, so once you know what you want from life, please sit down with a qualified instructor and see how you can build a sustainable fitness routine that will support your goals. Please don't blindly immitate me and get hurt.

Finally, please make up your own mind on any piece of advice, or idea you might come across in my content. For one you might have misunderstood something I've said, or as we are all in our individual journeys, which makes most sense to us and not others looking in from outside, blindly following advice that worked for me might not have the same outcomes in your life. 

Keep improving on yourself, and don't forget to be kind to yourself.

[1] - Outlive by Peter Attia

About my fitness and diet

My diet and workout habits have gotten attention from my coworkers and friends I thought I’d publish a quick official Q&A (if you're bothered to know, but please consult qualified and experienced professionals if you need advice on fitness or nutrition)

Do I fast?

Yes. I have been following intermittent fasting for the past 7 or 8 years. First it was hard, then my body got used to it. After a few years the benefits of the 16:8 fast plateaued and I experimented with longer fasts. I am not religious about fasting. I would say I have fasted correctly about 80% of the time, if my body is feeling weak or I have a demanding day(s) ahead I break the fast. I have also broken my fast on vacations.

Am I a vegetarian?

I am currently an ovo vegetarian. I grew up in a relatively conservative Buddhist family, we didn't eat a lot of meat or eat out. But in my late teens I became more independent and started eating out and ate a lot of meat. Then as I became more interested in fitness in my late twenties I tried to eat better. Around 3 years ago I stopped eating meat. I don't think I am superior because I don't eat meat.

Do I smoke?

I smoked in my twenties, but I stopped.

Do I drink?

I drank in my twenties, but I lost interest. I don't think drinking is categorically wrong if you can handle yourself and you are not a public figure by consent (more to think here). I don't mind a glass of wine every now and then (but I can't justify the cost of buying a bottle right now).

Do I sleep?

I do sleep, but like a growing number of adults in my age group I do carry a sleep debt and there are nights when I just can't get a night of sleep. I’m not convinced of medication that promises sleep, but I have taken an over the counter melatonin supplement and magnesium. ( I am not convinced these help either)

What do I do when I can't get a good night's sleep?

Over the years I have gotten better at proactively managing my sleep debt. I have gotten better at meditating in a sleeping position (no, I can't meditate an entire night away). Sometimes I read fiction using a book light.

I have also gotten better at operating with a sleep debt by educating myself on the topic and improving my faculties, through meditation, fitness and diet and other lifestyle choices. I encourage others to value their sleep and I proactively take sick leaves when my sleep debt threshold has been surpassed. 

How do I meditate? 

I do a version of Vipassana meditation where I try to maintain my complete awareness on bodily sensations at will. If you are doing it right you should be able to fool a sleep tracker on an inexpensive fitness band.

How do I workout?

Early on, I realized being fit has more to do with nutrition than exercise. So I educated myself as best I could and found a few over the counter supplements and became smarter with my diet.

During the first 5 or so years I focused mainly on targeted resistance training sessions 3 or 4 times a week. But as my life got busier (and harder) I changed my resistance training approach to make it more sustainable and increase the return on my investment by lifting lighter, but more consistently and focusing on a few vanity muscles. Of late I have got a pull up bar fixed in my room and started doing more cardio by rucking and spinning. 

Why I decided to take action to improve on my online privacy

A couple of years ago I came to the personal conclusion that human rights such as the rights to privacy are fundamental for an individual to thrive. But at the same time, in order for a state to function smoothly and perform its highest function of making citizens, some encroachments of privacy must be allowed.

However, there may be exceptions to the states need for encroachment, where in the act of making citizens, due to limitations of resources or errors in decision making by authorities, harm may fall on the societies the state is bound to protect through the unconcensual breach of privacy it may conduct on individuals. In such situations, it is the moral responsibility of the individuals in question to do what they can to improve their personal privacy. 

Having come to the personal conclusion that it is far too easy to violate and abuse individual privacy in a country like Sri Lanka, and due to my personal academic interests, it would be irresponsible of me to take actions that are available for me to improve my online privacy (as online privacy is an important facet of individual privacy for me). To this end I have decided to use a VPN and improve on the security of my home tech stack.

The idea (until a better solution is found) is to make the VPN and any possible back doors built into the key software be the weak link, trusting anyone who might have access to my content would be responsible with it (e.g. 13 eyes). As the intention is to prevent abuse of my personal privacy to harm me and not allow the possibility of my personal content to unconsensually and indirectly harm others.

My personal stand on religion

WARNING!!! This post may contain opinions or ideas that could be perceived as offensive to some individuals. The intention is not to cause harm or discomfort. If you feel that you may be offended or uncomfortable with differing religious opinions, I kindly advise you to refrain from reading further.

 
I am of the opinion that every mature individual should make up their own minds on important social issues and express them so that if anyone cares to know about them they can. But there may be some social issues where sharing your opinion may add noise to a topic that may have been discussed at length. However, if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in a situation where you have no other alternative but to share your opinion as a definitive source, then sharing it in a kind manner can be helpful. 

1. I’m of opinion that religions are created but they are necessary

I have personally come to the conclusion that reality needs creation to explain itself. But religions like Christianity and Buddhism are human constructs that were required to explain certain phenomena in a way that secured the moral requirements of the times they were thought of. Plato may have shared the same sentiment as in the Republic, it is claimed that religions are required to give the moral requirements of a community divine authority. If Plato and Aristotle had heard of the jews exodus out of Egypt and the birth of the 10 commandments, I’m of the opinion that they would say the jewish race, and it's god needed those 10 commandments to thrive in those times.

I’m of the opinion that as different as religions like Buddhism and Christianity may appear on the surface and the stark differences in their explanations of reality, the phenomena that are discussed operate under the same principles in one reality that accommodates them. It’s just that the moral requirement of the jews at the time of the 10 commandments was different from the moral requirement of the Buddha and his followers at the time the religion was thought of.

2. I’m of the opinion that Christianity was a great achievement in human history

I'm of the opinion that Christianity as we know it today was not birthed 2000 years ago but that it gradually evolved, and assimilated over the last 1000 years. As far as religions go, it has one of the lowest barriers of entry, which in my opinion is a good thing. But the growth of the practitioner depends greatly on their own comprehension of the texts, personal revelations, the maturity of the denomination and the leaders whom they belong to.

3. I’m of the opinion that fundamental versions of religions are obsolete

As much as the 10 commandments were needed to keep the jewish community functioning smoothly all those thousand years ago, they are obsolete now. I’m of the opinion that if we had access to those times, and we had investigated the moral requirements of those tribes we might have come up with similar laws and explanations . Then as the religion grew, for the same reasons Plato proposed the need for a governing class (The guardians), the justifications of such commandments and explanations of phenomena were needed to be kept away from the ruling class. This separation helped the religion and its followers to thrive.

Over the past 1000 years the society has radically changed in ways the religions can’t explain without altering the texts which can’t be done in our connected, digital world without drawing unwanted attention. So due to shortcomings of the religious community leaders, more and more of our youth lose hope in religion and fail to find alternatives elsewhere.

4. I'm of the opinion that discrimination and subjugation of people based on religion is wrong.

I have witnessed outdated religious laws being used to exclude individuals and groups. How such laws are used to subjugate and keep individuals captive by deeming them guilty and deserving of punishment (specially converts and the curious). Or justifying discrimination based on non membership. I am of the opinion that it is the religious fundamentalist who discriminate against others in such blatantly obvious ways, and that non fundamentalist religious practitioners, at least for the sake of financial motives, understand how to get along with non members of their religion and their own outcasts. As such they pay the way for a better future.

5. I’m of the opinion that some of us have a moral responsibility towards practitioners of fundamental versions of religions

I have personally known fundamentalist Buddhist in the past whose intentions were misguided and pushed nationalistic agendas in the gais of religious indignation. I don’t personally know any western christian fundamentalists, but through movies I’ve seen I can empathize with individuals who care for fundamentalist Christians who are not Christians in the general sense of the term. You can understand how some of these non-fundamentalists, especially those who are more humanistic and are educated, are looking out for the fundamentalist even when at times it seems they’re out to bite the hand that feeds.

I am of the opinion that if you find you are morally responsible for a religious fundamentalist, you still need to find a way to treat them with respect and dignity. Understand how much you are willing to compromise for that individual and understand your personal limits of compromise. You should not push your beliefs on the individual. It may genuinely be a case where the individual in question is not cognitively capable of changing their beliefs or be able to cope with the complexities or responsibilities of a different belief system. Or they may be socially or financially constrained. In such a situation most would agree an individual that follows the 10 commandments is still more favorable to an animal.

What if an individual tries pushing the 10 commandments on you? Claiming according to the first command he must object to your corrupt definition of God? What if he misunderstands your attempts to avoid discussing the matter with them out of your sense of moral responsibility? These are questions I myself have thought about at dept and if I have concluded the person who is asking me the question is not capable of handling the answer, then it would be immoral for me to answer it honestly and completely. If there was no other alternative, I would tell them of the Allegory of the cave[1]. The prisoners who see the shadows are right to a degree when they make conclusions about reality based on the shadows they see on the walls. The prisoner who breaks his chains and crawls out of the cave would see the objects that casted the shadows inside the cave. The conclusions he makes on reality based on these objects would be even closer to an objective reality than those made by the prisoners who are still chained inside. But this prisoner might understand that those truths other prisoners hold are a subset of his own truths and that they are constricted by the parameters of the cave. This realization should humble him to think that even his truths might be a subset of someone else’s truths. He would realize that the prisoner who is still inside the cave is not completely at fault for not understanding his truths.

I am of the opinion that if the worst comes to worse, you do your best to do justice by fundamentalist, cut ties (if this is an option) and move on yourself. 

      

So in closing, At 37 years of age, I am not religious, I believe religions can be a force for good so I am tolerant of them when they are not used as an excuse for abuse or discriminate. 

[1] -

The Outsider, a first impression on the book and Absurdism

WARNING!!! This post may contain opinions or ideas that could be perceived as offensive to some individuals. The intention is not to cause harm or discomfort. If you feel that you may be offended or uncomfortable with differing religious opinions, I kindly advise you to refrain from reading further.   

At 37 years of age, I hold the view that reality constitutes creation and that most people if they are not being forced in some way would at least confess to agonism. Including Camus if you take the translation of Sandra Smith to be loyal to the original and that Camus meant to capitalize and uncapitalize the noun God in the final act between the Christian priest and Meursault.

I found 'The Outsider' extremely interesting and well written. It was short and to the point. I enjoy it when authors take a philosophical position or a question and use a story to investigate it and draw conclusions. This is probably one of the best books I have read.

As I see it the main concept being investigated in this story is moral responsibility and justice.

Salamano and his dog can be a metaphor that investigates how we can fail to comprehend our commitment when we become morally responsible for another. Camus ties Salamanos narrative masterfully with that of Raymonds in the early parts of the story. 

Meursault is the protagonist of the story. He is a young man with low affect, who seems disillusioned by society but showed an interest in life till his end. There are many references to sleep deprivation in Meursault’s narrative. Even at the point where he commits murder Camus brings this point to readers' minds. We learn that he has lost affect possibly since an incident in his youth where he was forced to abandon his educational pursuits. Although it is also a possibility that Meursault was born with low affect as this is not uncommon in some eastern cultures. Regardless of the cause of his affliction, Camus implies that Meursault is unable to rationally manage himself, his emotions and his actions when he is in the diminished capacity brought on by sleep deprivation and is at times portrayed as an observer of his own life. Camus asks the reader if it's moral to hold such a man at guilt? 

Camus fictionaly implies external agency for the acts and situations that brings Meursault to commit murder. He nudges the reader to think Salamano who is likely an elderly ostracized Muslim, the Christian Priest and the Judge who offers him pardon if he repents his sins can understand the cause of his affliction and influence of external agency using their belief systems. 

Camus asks the reader how just can a justice system be when the decision of guilt depends on the beliefs of those who decide on behalf of the accused? I wonder how many of our lawyers, juries and judges have read this book or agree with its message. 

Having read this book, I can understand why in 1942 Camus may have thought life was meaningless and absurd, but if he had lived to our days, inlight of the advances we have made in understanding the human experience, I believe he would have been intelligent enough to have seen enough meaning behind the mess. Too bad automobile safety was not what it is now back then and he was born in a terbulent time in his country. 

Story of Philosophy by Will Durant: Plato

 

Introduction to the series

I have had a passing interest in philosophy for a while and with age and career progression the benefits of knowing the thought process of the great thinkers on Justice became apparent. How do you answer questions like, ‘how do I give my recommendation as a senior to one junior over another for a promotion or what really is at stake in such a decision?’ or ‘what is my moral responsibility if I find myself working with someone who doesn’t have as much autonomy as I have as a senior?’

Since I don't have intentions of pursuing philosophy as a vocation, It doesn’t make much sense for me to study all the prominent schools of thought in philosophy by studying the body of work of the great philosophers who wore those thoughts best throughout history. So for the time being I have decided to pursue self study of the subject relying on the generalized and in most cases summarized opinions of the great philosophers and their contributions as presented by established academics. It is this intention that lead me to pick up Will Durent’s the Story of Philosophy.

What I have learnt from the first chapter 

The first chapter gives the socio-cultural context in which we find Socrates and plato. It made me realize that there were others (sophists) throughout pre-socratic history that questioned the order of things like Socrates, but they had enough wisdom in them not to find themselves in the bad books of the socio-economic system like Socrates did which left him with the end which he chose for himself. 

Plato must be thought of in the context of Socrates' final decision. Some of the claims he makes in his psychological solution seemed to have been influenced by his master’s death. Will Durent captures Plato’s philosophical contributions to ethics, politics and epistemology in the 3 problems and the 3 solutions.

The ethical problem

Ethics, the right conduct according to Plato is a relationship among individuals and so it is the harmony of the whole. It is easier to observe it and correct it at the level of the community than at the individual. Though he hints it ultimately about ethics at the individual level. The ethical problem therefore is the unethical behavior of the individual.

The political problem

Plato paints a picture of an eden-like utopia, where inhabitants live simply but in a state of just. But he claims such a simple utopia can’t come to past because of greed and luxury. (I suspect the ignorant fear of scarcity may have also been in his mind but he may have not stated it outright as it would have not been wise of him). Therefore, the political problem is the inability to control citizens' greed and luxury to a state where it is not detrimental to the whole).

The psychological problem

According to Plato man’s actions are governed by the intrinsic elements. ‘Desire’, ‘Emotion’ and ‘Knowledge’. He claims the more you are driven by either desire or emotion the more you are used by the world. And it is when you develop the element which he identify as ‘Knowledge’ that you can become the master of one’s own soul and stand unused by the world. His saying ‘know your soul’ which has penetrated the popular imagination today is a testament to the claim that this is what is meant. He goes on to say that in all of us lie desires and emotions that are harmful to the whole, but when knowledge is given front seat in one's soul one may substitute harmful desires and emotions to less harmful and live out a better life.

The psychological problem and the root cause for all other problems therefore is the individual's lack of autonomy. And the evils and the offenses that may come to light through the individual due to the lack of ownership of their own lives.  

The psychological solution  

Plato proposes creating better archetypes he calls ‘the guardians’ who will be used to mold the youth until those who are among them who are capable may break free from the archetype to become ‘guardians’ themselves. 

He proposes a mostly self-governing social order and a program that would chisel out the ‘guardians’ and other roles such as ’auxiliaries’ and citizens. Who are as a whole cured from the greed, luxury and other ills that he may have not mentioned. 

The the program consists of harvesting and producing the healthiest children, who for the first 10 years are given a physical foundation that can better stand the forces that wish to drive them through ‘Desire’ and ‘Emotion’. Then they are given an education in music to make their minds receptive to the spirits. He then speaks of the need for a religion to keep the would-be citizens in order that would give the moral requirement one has to another divine authority. He gives a description of the religion.

The growing children face two trails one harder than the other. Based on where they fail, they would become ‘Citizens’ or ‘Auxiliaries’. The moral requirements of the two classes are enforced through the newly established religion and the ‘myth of the metals’. 

Those who pass the second trial, are given an education of philosophy at the age of 30. Plato’s theory of forms is discussed here.Then they are put out into the world to fend for themselves. Those who become self-sufficient at the age of 50 become the ‘guardians’ and the de facto rulers of the state.        

The political solution

Plato claims once the psychology of the classes of the citizens is raised up to a standard that resolves the problem. The political problem can be solved through aristocracy. A description of the ‘guardians’ lifestyle is given. The importance of avoiding war with other groups over population and trade is given. The least cured of the classes plato claims would abandon monopoly of administration as the better cured of the classes abandon monopoly of luxury. 

The ethical solution

Justice to Plato is doing and having one’s own. Justice is what binds society together in harmony. Similarly justice binds the different elements of an individual together in harmony so that the individual may flourish. Plato claims members of a state are members of one another and so morality is the harmony of the whole. 

Personal criticism and final thoughts of Plato’s theories

The proposed solutions seem too generic(based on Will Durent’s writing and not the actual works of Plato). Given the advent of globalization some of his arguments are still potent at the level of the species. The examples of implementation of his theories given in the book prove that over time self-governing social systems become less efficient to the point they become ineffective and fall apart. Would be Implementatiors must take into account the progress made by the human race since then and the aspects that Plato may not call progress that that the ‘brones’ class would require and so should be accommodated to be corrected in cycles.  

My personal stand on LGBTQ+

WARNING!!! This post may contain opinions or ideas that could be perceived as offensive to some individuals. The intention is not to cause harm or discomfort. If you feel that you may be offended or uncomfortable with differing opinions, I kindly advise you to refrain from reading further.

I was born male, I am heterosexual, I identify as a male and I express myself as a male.
...

A couple of days ago I learnt that the percentage of people identifying as LGBTQ+ in the US is around 7% and that the global percentage may be as high as 10%. Though you don’t meet as many LGBTQ+ people in Sri Lanka or experience them in the local media as much, it’s important to be aware and to respect their decisions in life and treat them with dignity regardless of our thoughts on the subject.

Gender identity is how you identify yourself with regards to your gender and gender expression is how you choose to express your gender to society. Mastering these two aspects of life takes time and maturity. Ideally, society must wait until individuals are mature enough to make decisions on their own. But sadly, some of our children never reach this level of maturity, and some parts of societies are built in such a way that ignorance and ambiguity in these areas may be used for harm or be used for profit (in most cases to profit a third party).

Gender expression in essence is how we expect society to treat us. So when a person who is mature enough to know themselves but is insincere in their intentional expression of their gender, (e.g. a heterosexuals' man pretending to be gay for profit or promotion through clothing choices and act[1]) that person is trying to deceive society. It is my personal opinion that cases like this should be placed in the right cultural and situational context and be judged as letting such cases pass without consequence sets a bad precedent and takes away someone else's opportunity. But we must not be too harsh with the consequences and leave room for correction.

When it comes to society's end of the agreement made by our expression, we must be patient and empathetic, not because their mistreatment based on your gender is justified, but because of factors such as culture and education. In some cultures (due to lack of education), being seen as LGBTQ+ sympathetic can have real world consequences. But the silver lining is it does look like the world is becoming more welcoming of all humankind.

I have chosen not to cover the legal rights LGBTQ+ people should be given as I am citizen I am not in a position to make such decision. You can find the Kantian justification for this choice here [2]. 

 

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp99wqxLatc 

[2] - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ke9RMXlu6T7gG-Ym41GCz0usKEbqp7s-osUUZxqtOA0/edit?usp=sharing