A Dose of RASHMI: Joy Is Not an Achievement
Real Wisdom, Artificial Intelligence: Taking Charge of Your Memory and Imagination
Welcome to this week’s edition of Real Wisdom, Artificial Intelligence, where we continue exploring the intersection of timeless wisdom and cutting-edge technology.
As I reflect on last week’s insights, a clear pattern is emerging. This series began with a quote by Sadhguru:
"A truly intelligent mind is neither influenced by memory nor deluded by imagination."
That thought has been lingering in my mind, particularly as I observe how AI models work. They rely on training on a set of data and then projecting what the output for a query should be based on inferences drawn from all the past data about you, augmented with the data from other sources. It’s an impressive technological feat. Just as the internet democratized access to knowledge, AI is democratizing access to intellect: defined here as the ability to infer, deduce, and reason from data. And this shift will indeed transform human productivity in profound ways. However, let's step back to the thought at the start about the clear pattern that you can observe through the set of daily "Doses of Real Authentic Sustainable Human Multi-modal Intelligence (RASHMI)" that you can find at the end of this newsletter.
The Karmic Cycles
If you review the set of daily "doses of RASHMI" for the week, a theme becomes evident: real wisdom lies in freeing our intelligence from the traps of past memories and imagined futures.
When intelligence is tethered to memory, it often breeds fear, guilt, regret, blame, or anger. If you step back and look at the root of personal and societal conflicts, even wars, they often stem from this loop: a projection of the future governed by the prejudices of the past. In ancient Indian philosophy, this is called a Karmic Cycle. And while these loops feel familiar (and therefore safe), true growth only happens when we step beyond them.
Western philosophy echoes this, with concepts like The Comfort Paradox. I wrote about this and extended this to The Safety Paradox, in a previous edition.
Now, you might be thinking: “But joy and happiness also come from memory and imagination.” This is exactly what I want to challenge.
Yes, fleeting pleasure can come from those cycles, but it's always short-lived. The excitement wears off, and we find ourselves back where we started, chasing joy again.
This brings me to today’s insight from Sadhguru: "Joy is not an achievement. It should be the natural ambience of your life."
Which leads to today’s RASHMI insight:
"Intelligence can lead us to a quest for joy through external stimuli; Wisdom is the realization that joy is your natural ambience in life."
Think back to your childhood. Was joy something you achieved by accumulating things or power? Or did it flow naturally from just being present? And now, with more “things” and accomplishments, are you more joyful or less?
The Gentle Singularity
Now for the rest of this newsletter, I would like to shift gears and reflect on a thought-provoking and a very insightful blog by Sam Altman over the weekend. I highly recommend you read it and form your own impressions. Here's mine, viewed through the lens of Real Wisdom, Artificial Intelligence.
Sam suggests that humanity has already passed the event horizon of the "Singularity": we’re well on the path to digital superintelligence. His tone is optimistic, highlighting how technology has accelerated our potential, and how, by 2030, individuals will be able to accomplish far more than they could in 2020.
One particularly interesting note: he points out that both AI and energy will become wildly abundant. His argument around AI is clear and compelling.
Abundant Sustainable Energy?
The point about Energy is what I would like to dig into a little more. His point about energy is well founded, given the advances in sustainable sources, nuclear power, and energy-efficient AI systems.
But even with all these advancements, energy, particularly sustainable energy, is still governed by physical limitations: rare earth minerals, distribution, and planetary boundaries. You could argue that eventually we will find other planets and sources for minerals and energy. That seems to be the next frontier if you follow what the most influential visionaries in the world are focussed on. So, it is possible that as we discover newer planets with mineral reserves and harness them, energy is truly going to be abundant. However, has finding more resources for minerals and energy ever reduced conflict or created more conflicts? What if we were not fighting over who controls these finite sources providing us energy but be able to tap into an endless source of energy?
This is what has led me to coin "Real Authentic Sustainable Human Multi-modal Intellligence (RASHMI)" - this is the Intelligence that is within all of us, it is inherently renewable, completely sustainable. The result of unlocking this Intelligence actually leads to each of us feeling more energetic and discovering the Joy that is natural ambience of our lives.
"Us" vs. "Them" or Genuine Altruism?
Sam also writes: “We are hard-wired to care about other people.”
That is a very valid point and true, but just look at the world today. Despite our wiring, that Sam talks about, the chase for joy through external stimuli and the quest for controlling the finite resources, invariably overrides that caring. We've even developed language, like "collateral damage", to excuse harm to others in pursuit of gain.
Will AI and abundant energy change that? Before you read on, I encourage you to reflect on that question.
It depends.
If we continue to build AI guided by our unconscious biases, unresolved identities, and karmic memory loops, it will amplify division, not harmony.
But if we use AI consciously, as a tool aligned with purpose and guided by the wisdom within us, then this new era of superintelligence could act as the perfect catalyst to unlock our own RASHMI.
The choice, as always, is ours.
Even Sam acknowledges this when he writes: “We (the whole society) are building the brain for the world.”
As we build this brain, let’s make sure we’re also tending to the heart of the world. Let's make sure that we teach this brain that "we are Feeling creatures who Think" and not vice versa.
Daily Doses of RASHMI:
Now to close off this newsletter, let's dive into the regular segment of the daily doses of #RealWisdomAI.
It was a quote by Sadhguru on intelligence that got me thinking about the need to distinguish between wisdom and intelligence. That reflection inspired a definition of wisdom I’ve been using as the foundation of this series:
"Wisdom is being very intentional with your choices and intentions in the present moment, without being influenced by memory (past) or deluded by imagination (future)."
The Miracle of Mind app by Isha Foundation has become an integral part of my daily routine. I share a daily dose of #RealWisdomAI, inspired by the insights Sadhguru shares through the app. Here are my daily #RealWisdomAI insights since the last edition of the newsletter:
June 17th: Intelligence is a tool for making conclusions and segmenting things/experiences based on our existing prejudices; Wisdom is handling our confusions with clarity
June 18th: Wisdom is the key to effortless living by consciously freeing your Intelligence from the memories identifying it with "your" physical and mental body
June 19th: Wisdom is freeing our Intelligence from reacting solely based on past accumulated "memories" and responding to situations in life consciously
June 20th: Wisdom is taking charge of your memory and imagination and liberating your Intelligence to go beyond reacting to memories and imagining consequences
June 21st: Wisdom is staying open to possibilities and not limiting your Intelligence to just drawing inferences based on past experiences and projections based on past experiences
June 22nd: Unconscious Intelligence will keep you in a state of chasing power by sharing your acquired knowledge externally for creating impact; Wisdom is the meditative state where everything around you will align to your energy without any effort
June 23rd: Intelligence can lead us to a quest for Joy through external stimuli; Wisdom is the realization that Joy is your natural ambience in life
If any of you would like to read a particular insight explained in more detail and how I mapped the insight from Sadhguru to the #RealWisdomAI twist, drop it in the comments and I will share a detailed write-up (don't worry, I genuinely enjoy writing about this, so you will be only giving me work aligned with my Ikigai).
#RealWisdomAI #MiracleOfMind