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Executive Director, Quanta Analytics
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Author of Globanomics. Jim has nearly fifty years of professional experience in the development of management information and analytical business decision support systems. Broadly disciplined with exceptional experience. Education includes an MBA from the Wharton School-University of Pennsylvania, ...more

On Simplicity -- My Opinion

Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2025 1:05 AM EST

Krishnamurti was asked the questions: "What is simplicity?  Does it imply seeing very clearly the essentials and discarding everything else?

Here is how i answered the same questions:

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If someone asked me off the top of my head "what is simplicity", i would say it is the opposite of complexity, which would not help one understand.  It would be easier to take the route that Krishnamurti took and that is to say that "simplicity" is essentially cosmos consciousness, the Buddha/Jesus/Mohammad mind, enlightenment.  In that way, there would be no confusion.

Krishnamurti would claim that the "empty mind" is simplicity and that the "even a just partially filled mind" is complexity (adding confusion to the whole mess of things--something simplicity ignores).  That's okay, if that's how you define things, but i am going to talk about simplicity and complexity together like they were "twins" which must work together.  I am not going to talk about simplicity as enlightenment itself, but instead i see am going to talk as though enlightenment is something that you achieve by working through simplicity and complexity together--in tandem.

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You must understand that simplicity and complexity are two issues that are always facing the mathematician.  Remember, the standard statement "Keep it simple, stupid" (KISS).  Well, i don't buy into that concept entirely.  I believe more in the KISS + COAN (Keep it simple, stupid. Add complexity only as necessary). concept of things.  Start with simplicity and do everything you can with it, but if it isn't working, if it is not coming to a conclusion, then start looking elsewhere for a solution.

Now, i know, Krishnamurti would be screaming, "No, no, no".  Keep it simple stupid. Period.  Don't even begin to think of complexity.  You are talking about "the universe of all things", i am talking Reality."

That is probably true, too.  I am talking about "simplicity and complexity" in terms that are more appropriate for the "universe of all things" than they are in Reality.  In the "universe of all things" simplicity and complexity exist together.  In Reality only Simplicity exists, complexity is nowhere to be found.

I guess if you do actually break things down to their most fundamental form, then all complexity goes away, but if you get to that point of understanding then you are already enlightened with the Buddha/Jesus/Mohammad mind, so back to the "universe of all things".

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I wrote a book one time called the Sower's Seeds in which one of my characters (Hurricane Brownstone) was a math teacher and one time he addressed his students with the issue of simplicity and complexity using music.  Brownstone used Bach's "Air on the G String" as an example of simplicity and Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" as an example of complexity.  One piece is slow, soft, soothing, while the other piece is fast, stirring, and exciting.  Both are creative Masterpieces.

Music is an art form where creativity can be expressed and highlighted.  And under Krishnamurti's definition, creativity comes from the "new", from that "empty" space between thought.  Thus, all creativity in some ways must express some form or degree of enlightenment.

Were Bach and Mozart enlightened?  Maybe, but the rub is this.  To have the Buddha/Jesus/Mohammad mind you must "always be creative"; it cannot be a parttime endeavor.  There is little doubt in my mind that both Bach and Mozart were real damn close to enlightenment (if they weren't fully enlightened).  They may or may not have had all the traits associated with enlightenment, but they sure had a "step jump" on the creative side compared to their contemporaries (even under today's standards).

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If there were two places to look for people who are most likely enlightened or most likely to achieve enlightenment, you would search the arts and sciences probably first because creativity is an offshoot from enlightenment.  After all, the two most enduring creative things that come out of cosmos consciousness are arts (music, art, literature, dance, etc.) and the sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, geology, etc.).

Cosmos consciousness is more available today because of the ever-increasing brain development of human beings.  And that is the truth of the matter.  Scientists and artists may have personal desires including a desire for wealth, but most of their creative activity is carried out with "others in mind" in an effort to share one's personal understanding with others in unique manners. 

It's one's inner soul that must be understood for cosmos consciousness to take hold.  The expression of that soul is best seen in our arts and science community regardless as to whether they used simplicity or complexity to get there. 

My opinion.

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ps.  32 Krishnamurti questions down with 6 to go.  i am looking forward to finishing this out this week, but at the same time, i am starting to feel a little melancholy over the whole thing.  Am i just "flapping my wings" without result.  Externally, probably.  Internally, probably not.  I think the entire exercise has forced me to explain myself better, which may or may not be of any use to anyone other than myself. 

ps2.  Do you ever get the feeling that no one understands you?  That happens to me on occasion after occasion after occasion.  And maybe rightfully so for one reason or another.

ps3.  I actually thought this was going to be a "simple" question to respond to.  As it turned out, i found the question more complex than i had originally thought.

 

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