Observation, Meditation

Life is so strange and beautiful in all its complex manifestations of simplicity.

I worry I may forget there is never anything to worry about. I long to connect with everything that I am already connected to. I exhaust myself in a struggle to gain that which I already posses. When the desire to change ceases, a different sense of aliveness is present.

"I don't know" may be the most powerful statement one can proclaim, and yet modern society, in an attempt to control everything, strives for mastery of knowledge.

Acting from a false concept of what we are, we meet life in an incomplete and divisive manner full of conflict and struggle. This struggle indicates there is something inherently wrong with the ground upon which we have built our ideas/concepts/truths. This ground is the concept of a uniquely separate, differentiated individual called "I." Upon the idea of "I" are constructed our individual realities based on knowledge, which seem very real as they are lent credibility by all others acting from the same false ground. Our personal false reality joins a collective false reality that feels real and impermeable.

To question this ground in thought and/or action is a challenge to most people's perception of reality and is therefore often met with immediate resistance. Most are not willing or ready to confront the possibility that they do not exist. Instead, we tend to spend our lives replacing the ideas built upon the false ground with a different set of ideas in the hope that this will alleviate the pervasive sense of "something is wrong, I must change." Be it fear of death or an addiction to struggle, few are willing to look critically at this false ground. Fewer still are willing to look at it with a perception free of all the ideas they have accumulated while believing themselves to be a separate self.

If one examines oneself with the intent to change the false notion of "I," frustration and confusion are bound to occur. To see that which is taking place in the present moment — which includes, but is not limited to the "I" masquerading as a false ground — requires observation of a different sort: observation without intent/focus. This observation cannot be classified as "my observation" or "your observation," rather it is simply Observation. We all have individual access to Observation, but it is not personal or divided.

Observation is always operating, but our belief and action from the false ground of "I" hinders (or even prevents) this type of observation from touching the conscious awareness of "I."

In the relaxation of all movement externally and internally, we may come to a point where the compulsion to change reality ceases and allows for Observation to touch the individual. This relaxation can be termed meditation. Meditation being performed with the "I"-driven intent to gain or change anything will only strengthen and more deeply solidify the idea of an individuated self and is thus not what is being termed meditation here. One cannot sit down to meditate in the hopes that it will bring about that which "I" wants. Meditation in the true sense is action, or inaction, wholly without motive for any outcome. Action without a past or a future.

A New Definition of Human Success

We in the western world commonly define life success through our capacity to access goods and services.  Money provides a unified system of access to goods and services and has become the most important of all commodities due to its function in providing said access.  Thus, the abundance of money in a person or group’s pocket has come to be equated to life success.  A lack of money is then equated to being unsuccessful and can lead to a devaluation of human life.

Besides human devaluation, there is another major problem with defining success through money.  Money, like all material resources, is finite; there is only so much to go around.  In order for one person to get money, he or she must take it from another; in so doing, robbing that person of their ability to access goods and services.  We spend most of our waking lives in an effort to take money from a person or group while thinking of more and more clever ways to do so.  We define ourselves as individuals by the means through which we take money from others, i.e. one’s job.  Consequently, equating money with success creates a competitive reality which divides humans from each other and forces them to compete for access to the worlds goods and services.  This atmosphere of competition breeds distrust, fear, hate, greed and loneliness as humans are constantly struggling against one another to be successful and survive.  When we come to the understanding that equating money with success ultimately divides humans against one another and creates a devaluing of human life, it becomes clear that as a society we need to redefine what it means to be a successful human being.  

How can we redefine what it means to be successful to allow full access to goods and services for all humans while maintaining, and even encouraging, trust and love between people?  If we define success in terms of how much of a finite material good an individual or group has, this will divide us against one another as there is only X amount of any material commodity to go around.  What would happen then if we defined success according to something that was infinite as opposed to finite?  

A human’s capacity to give is infinite.  Giving is not restricted to any material good or service.  The act of giving has a value which is not proportional to the thing which is given.  There is value in the act of giving itself, and our capacity to give is limitless.  What then would the world be like if success is defined by our acts of giving as individuals and as groups?  What if the act of giving became the new currency?  If acts of giving defined life success, then the greatest gift a person could give another would be to increase that person’s ability to give.  GDP (Gross Domestic Product) would become GDG (Gross Domestic Giving) as we shift towards measuring how many acts of giving we are producing as opposed to how much product we are moving.  Commodities would continue to exchange hands; goods and services would be abundantly accessible for all; a new incentive for the creation, advancement, and implementation of technology would arise.  To define human success through acts of giving would create an atmosphere of trust instead of distrust, love and compassion instead of fear and hate, generosity instead of greed, and community instead of loneliness.  

Imagine a world where we collectively derive meaning and purpose in life from our limitless acts giving.

Giving for a Living.  

Occupy Your Street

We try and drown our negative feelings in external experiences.  Anger, fear, pain, sadness, hatred.  We believe these feelings to be so overwhelmingly powerful that it is better to hide, bury, run, destroy them than to feel them.  So we go out for a night on the town, get drunk, watch a movie, eat until we cannot eat anymore, cut ourselves, go running, play a game, buy a toy, watch TV, surf the internet, call a friend, have sex, go to the gym, focus on the positive, spend money, make money, work, sleep, blame it on others, make others hurt...anything but feel what we are experiencing.  Anything would feel better, we believe.  Why not just feel what we feel?  Why not be aware of what is going on in our own minds and bodies.  We cannot control these feelings so does it make any sense to condem them? 

We are trying so hard to protect ourselves.  We work so hard and making life bearable.  We do not wish to be numb to life, numb to our feelings, but the fear of those feelings is so strong and overwhelming.  What if actually being present with our feelings and expressing them would help our lives be more bearable than it is when we are fighting them?

What if we all came together and made the intention to express our emotions?  What if we created a place where it was okay and safe to be afraid, to be sad, to be lost, to be angry, to have hate.  What if we witnessed each other feeling these emotions and gave loving attention to each and every one of those emotions, no matter the circumstance?  What would your life be like?  What would our world look like?  

Alphabet Soup

Daniel is X. Daniel wishes to be Y. Life is moving Daniel to Z. Daniel tries to be Y and is slapped in the face by life. Daniel hates being X. Being X is the path to being Z. Daniel must be safe in being X. Daniel must smile at Y and die. Die to the knowing of X Y and Z. They are all Daniel and Daniel is them. There is no Daniel, only the wish to be Y. To let go of the wish to be Y, is to let go of the idea of Daniel. Daniel must be safe in Death. Only in the death will the world open up past the alphabet.

Unknowable

Life. Like a classic tale of suspense, mystery and intrigue. The hero has a path, a set journey to travel and goal to meet. The audience knows the hero must complete a certain task, and the audience also knows that he/she will complete the monumental challenge beset to him/her. You, as the audience, just have no idea how they will do it. This is why we watch, this is why we read. We already know the end, but we do not care about the end. We want to see and experience the journey.

It is our own journey which we are seeking to uncover. We are our own hero. It is our own personal journey that really inspires us on. We want to know what is going to happen. We want to know how we make it to the end. How will we get to the final product? What awaits us around the next corner? What will I do? How will I do it? And yet, we cannot know before hand. Everything unfolds in the moment and is shown to us when we need to see it. If we were to know already how it is to transpire before it actually happens, we would have no care to continue. It is the mystery that moves us...the unknown. It is the unknown which we strive to unlock and that which we fear at the same time.