Tuesday, December 27, 2011

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.  

Thursday, December 8, 2011

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?  

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

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.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

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.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Sensation Creation

There is so much to do, and yet nothing to do. Thought feels it is the center of everything. It sees itself as the one who has the power to change, make, control. In the end, the only power thought has is in letting go. Letting what is, be what is. No reaction to the actuality of what is perceived. The perception is the only reality. One can be sure that what is felt is real...not the thing giving the feeling, but the feeling, the sensation itself is a reality. Considering thought has no control over what sensations it perceives, what sense is there in wanting a sensation to be anything different? To desire creates inevitable conflict. Whether it is a desire to recreate a pleasurable sensation, or whether it is a desire to never feel a particular sensation again, desire creates a resistance to the actuality of perception.

There seems to be a very deep and hidden aspect of the mind whose job it has become to interpret the sensations felt on the body. The average person is oblivious to the subtle, constant sensation which the body is undergoing at all times of the day and night. This part of the mind is in constant contact with all the sensations. We give free reign to this part of the mind and the consequences of this freedom are disastrous. This aspect of mind interprets, judges and responds to certain sensations it comes into contact with. It actually generates its own sensation in an attempt to encourage or discourage certain specific sense patterns the mind experiences. However, no aspect of the human mind has control over what sensations it comes into contact with. We may try and limit certain sensations and chase others, but ultimately we have no control. Additionally, this subtle aspect of the mind has a major flaw besides its feeble attempt at control. For example, the mind interprets a sensation it deems highly undesirable, it then generates a feeling overwhelming which the conscious mind becomes keen to and aware of. This feeling which the mind has generated has an effect on the body, the body reacts in a negative fashion. Perhaps the stomach flips, or there is a sensation of intense pain, nausea, tension, anger, fear etc. If intense enough, the reaction the body has towards the sensation which the mind generated is now interpreted as a new sensory event for evaluation. This sensory event which is so obviously unpleasant, can cause the mind to produce another sensation which then may have an effect on the body. This can quickly spiral out of control. This process is known to us as anxiety, and in extreme cases, panic attacks.

If we are to understand this process and see it, feel it, we must become sensitive. We must become aware to not only the large sensations which we are experiencing on the surface level of awareness, but we must reawaken our capacity to feel everything that is happening in the body no matter how small or insignificant we may deem the sensation. If we can see this process unfold; if we can become aware of how this subtle aspect of our mind is constantly trying to grasp at pleasurable sensation and run from unpleasant sensation then we may be able to see that it is not the thing outside of our body which causes us pain or pleasure. Rather it is us. Therefore, we have no one or nothing to blame for our reactions, not even ourselves...because we literally have no control over this small, subtle aspect of the mind. It does not see or understand the totality of the function which it has undertaken. If this part of the mind were to see the chaos it produces, we stand to rid ourselves of all anxiety and perhaps more.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

with my death.

And so it is.
That on this day, at this very hour. That I, understandably so, set out on a journey of one so unspeakably pointless that it warrants nothing but one, seemingly ridiculous and drawn out sentence as to convey, not only to those who would read it, but unto myself what it is that I am feeling and what it is that I have felt.
Time is lost and the time has come.
Tired.
That I am tired of doing what I am supposed to do.
That I am tired of doing what is right.
That I am tired of fighting the fight never ending.
And yet, it does end and will end;
with my death.
Life is nothing but a pointless journey from here to there. A movement, a fleeting few tiny steps in the vast and incalculable continuum of that we call life.
So heavy a burden it lay upon our shoulders.
So deep it cuts into our hearts.
What will one do? How shall one go on when there is no fruit, no taste, no joy of that which is timeless.
Now is the time for the timeless. Now is the time for the seed is planted. There is nothing to do. It has already begun. The end. Your End. Our End.
For I am tired.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

To the Master and the Maker:

There comes a time when all the roads and the paths come to a point. A fork in the ways. A crossing of thought, time and reality.

All things happen for a reason. The pain, sorrow, fear, pleasures, pursuits, passions.
We wander this life looking for meaning once had, now lost. There is nothing special or sacred to find out in the physical world.
All that we see, feel, hear, taste and smell can never tell the whole truth. All that is true - all that is real, exists within ourselves.
Choice is an illusion. You are but a small and insignificant part of a larger order. You are born of order and can only exist as order. Good, bad, right, wrong is a concept unknown in an orderly system.
There is nothing to do, to understand, to control. What must happen, will happen; what you must do, you will do.
Be the order, love thy self, drop judgement, 1 with now. I am separate; we are together; 1 is whole. 1 is real.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

No Mind = No Problem

What if there was no Me? What if there was no thing to look at? No thing to observe and say, I did this or I did that? If there was no thing to label then there would be nothing one could compare one`s self to. All judgments would cease to exist for there would be nothing to judge against. Then it does not matter if there is actually a Me or not a Me. What matters is that one believes there to be a Me. I believe I exist. I believe I am here and am making choices and have the ability to change what is Me. Thus when things happen I judge as negative, I then have the desire to change it. When things happen to me I judge as positive, I have the desire to sustain it. If there was no Me that things happen to, there would cease to be desire.

Of Love, Judgements and Desire

Love and judgement are not the same thing. Do not mistake love to be a positive judgement of yourself. By judgement, I mean looking at the events of your life, the thoughts and choices you have made, and either liking or disliking what has happened. If I look upon the past and see something which has happened to me, that which I have thought or that which I have done and am happy with the results, that is not love for one`s self. Love can only exist when there is no judgment at all. When you judge yourself, you must first have an idea of what you desire or what you want to avoid. If there was no idea of the way things should be, the way I should act, the way I should feel, then there would be no judgement. Only when judgments are not present is there space for love to exist.