Focus on Life™

Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper published a two-page interview on their Easter Sunday issue. Check it out.

Here’s a small preview:

This is a conversation about the book, the writer’s process, and his insights. The questions are deliberate: they are asked from the level of ‘the initiate’. It is an early stage when one is seeking a pre-supposed gratification from wisdom, such as ‘How can it make me more money? Be more attractive? Seduce more partners?’ Some of the most profound advice is lost on ears because the seeker is only looking for pre-defined answers, thus focusing on what they want and missing what they are getting. Are we failing to get answers because our questions are flawed? This conversation speaks to those who may realise that it is indeed the question that needs re-framing.

Ramla Akhtar: Who is Peter Cajander?

Peter Cajander: Peter Cajander is your conceptual image based on your perception, information, and knowledge you have. It is your ‘mental’ impression that mostly reflects your own past experience and history. Each and everyone has a different ‘understanding’ of Peter Cajander. And none of them is truer than any other—they are just subjective interpretations. So, Peter Cajander is not what you think.

RA: What is reality?

PC: It is whatever you perceive it is. That is your reality, but don’t expect anybody else to underwrite you definition. There is no absolute or objective yardstick for reality. Or to say it differently in a word: energy.

RA: Reading through FOR, one feels as if the mind is more an impediment than the wonderful tool we thought it to be. What good is the mind after all?

PC: Not much. It’s a good servant but a poor master. Would you rather prefer to have peace of mind and silence? Or constant rambling almost 24/7 without a way to quiet it down? Won’t you rather use the mind only when you specifically need it? Mind is useful when you need to think something, i.e. find a logical solution or plan something. Otherwise it should be mute and not act like a radio gone bizarre by jumping from station to station non-stop. If you observe your own private radio it only plays something from the history channel (your past) or from the sci-fi channel (the future that has not happened). Mind is never here, right now, present.

RA: The world pays a great importance to upholding belief systems. The philosophy of consciousness summarily dismisses belief system to address the subject of … consciousness! Where would people be without a belief system?

PC: A belief system helps us structure and ‘make sense’ of our surroundings. It is our conceptual framework that enables us to interact and cope with our circumstances and environment. It is based on our past experiences and knowledge. But since it is our ‘short-cut,’ we use it to extrapolate the past to the current situation and tend to ignore the present moment and not perceive it as it unfolds to us but how we ‘believe’ it is. So belief system can make us passive and ignorant of our surroundings. And without it? Everything would be fresh and new, ever-changing each moment.

RA: Why should we seek reality when the culture places a great importance on the qualities of imagination and creativity? Is there a conflict here?

PC: Who says that reality is boring and has nothing to do with imagination and creativity? Creativity is based on doing something unique and new — not repeating old and known patterns. Only our thinking is rigid and boring — it does not create anything new. We only know what we know. Why do you worry? Because you cannot think your way out of the issue you’re worrying about. In other words, you’re not creative! Thinking is not creativity. Nature is creative — it does not copy itself. Everything it creates is unique and original. We are part of nature and we create our reality by living it. Each morning you have a new empty canvas to draw and fill with your desires.

Read the complete interview…

A recent interview of Lew Rockwell.