Thursday, December 18, 2014

Waking Up From The Dream of You

We are living in a haze, a drama, a dream-like state. We are trapped inside a personal narrative, a collection of thoughts that seem to be woven together somewhere in our heads, creating the story of "I". In this net of thought there are knots. In those knots you feel stuck, anxious, afraid. But in this fear there is freedom. Freedom from the very concept of you. Freedom from the known. 

With the acceptance and movement with the unknown (everyday ordinary existence) there is what some may call Nirvana. "You" don't have to do anything. In fact, "you" cannot. That is the frustration. We believe to be this central "I". The experiencer to experience, when all there is is experience. The two are not separate. You are not separate. "You" cannot do anything for there is no static "you" controlling the moment. This moment, this life, this is uncontrollable. See how it flows? Surrender to it. It is all one.

The "I" claims authority and ownership to events, or really, motions/vibrations that occur in the present moment. This creates a split world, an inside and an outside. You are seemingly inside, watching a foreign world whizzing by, but that is you. What you see/experience is who you are. And it is always here. You can never not be experiencing experience. And if there was no "experience" before birth or after death, you were not experiencing it. You have always been here and always will be. Nothing is or can be outside the realm of consciousness.

In this mental concept that you have built up of you and then its flip-side, the world you see around you, it makes this moment seem like a split-second, a sliver in the grand scheme of experience and time. Time is a tool, just like the mind. It only exists relative to an observer. Just like the sun appearing to rise and set from the perspective of being on Earth, if seen from outer-space, it is continuously shining. And so too "outside" the narrative of the self, there is no time passing. It is continuously there, condensed, unified into the present moment. But when the now becomes a blip in time, stuck somewhere in-between the past and the future, you are no longer with reality in totality. You are no longer with yourself.



There is a difference between deep thought and mindless thought. Most of the time, our minds are wandering sporadically, endlessly, without us even noticing. Become aware of these thoughts as they arrive and as they leave. Be fully aware of whatever arises in the field of consciousness, experience. Thought is not something you should avoid, or even can avoid. It is there, it is a feature, a script, but don't get lost in what it is presenting. 

Just like when dreaming, there is a story going on that you take part in, get lost in. However, there is the ability to "wake up" from this story when inside of the dream and become lucid. A fully conscious dream where you have the ability to do anything you wish. Right now, you have the opportunity to wake up from the dream of you and do anything you wish. 

This is our destiny, to awaken from the illusion of the self and to return to the Self. To what is. It is the hardest and easiest thing one can do. This is the blossoming of consciousness, it is happening inside us all. There is no time to wait, in fact, there is no time. All there is is now. And right now, you have the ability to have a radical revolution of the psyche. Transcendence of the ego is the next step in human evolution. The return to where you are. This is what the world needs. Societal change, yes, but it all starts from within. As above, so below. 

So stop trying to change the world and instead change yourself. The outer reflects the inner and the inner reflects the outer. Stop whatever you are doing and sit with yourself. Stop the distractions. Sit with the emptiness inside. Sit with the pain. Sit with the joy. Sit with whatever is. Sit and be still.













Wednesday, December 10, 2014

5 Mind Blowing Videos On What It Means To Be Alive Today

Here are five videos that may give you chills, cry, get angry, laugh, destroy your faith in humanity, restore your faith in humanity, and realize how strange it is to be anything at all.

1. Wanderers 


2. Sonder: The Realization That Everyone Has A Story




3. Culture In Decline - Finale




4. Louis CK 
On the Distraction From The Emptiness Inside Us All





5. The Terence McKenna Documentary
The Transcendental Object At the End of Time



Sunday, November 30, 2014

The Devil Inside You - Transcending the Net of Thought


The devil is inside you. It is a thought, an illusory net, trying to pull you in and keep you caught in a mental loop of discontinuity with the present moment. Listen, watch it, see how it works within the idea of you, creating "you", and set it free. Right now, in this very moment, you have the opportunity to transcend this psychological bind you have put yourself in and have a radical revolution of the psyche. This is the destiny of all human beings on this planet: To transcend the individual ego and merge with the Whole.


"And what is yourself, the individual you? I think there is a difference between the human being and the individual. The individual is a local entity, living in a particular country, belonging to a particular culture, particular society, particular religion. The human being is not a local entity. He is everywhere. If the individual merely acts in a partiuclar corner of the vast field of life, then his action is totally unrelated to the whole. So one has to bear in mind that we are talking of the whole not the part, because in the greater the lesser is, but in the lesser the greater is not."

Jiddu Krishnamurti 

Language gives us the ability to communicate with one another, to share and collaborate for a better world. However, if the universe is seen only through the confined filter of the your internal dialog, a language that was given to you by external sources, it creates a fragmented world of illusion. 

We are all bound by our thoughts; hidden in a mask of fear from our true selves. The world you see out there is just as much a part of you as your lungs and yet we treat it as if it some foreign commodity we can exploit. Trapped in the net of thought, we have become aliens to ourselves and the world around us (although the two are one process). 

Liberation of the mind is the next evolutionary step of mankind. From the part to the whole. The real you does not live in one particular spot. Like space itself, there is no center. The real you is everywhere. All you have to do is re-member.



Tuesday, November 25, 2014

What the People and the Medicinal Plants of the Amazon Know That You Don't

Mark Plotkin is an ethnobotanist who was cured of an ailment by an Amazonian Shaman and has been fascinated by the medicinal plants of the Amazon ever since. In this TED talk he informs us on the knowledge that the tribes in the Amazon have on the forest and the medicinal plants within it. These tribes are slowly disappearing and with it, so too will the knowledge. Threats are coming from all sides: Trade and transport, illegal gold mining, commercial hunting and fishing, illegal logging, narcotrafficking, and many more. At the root of all these threats, as you can see, is profit. Profit is destroying our world and is a disease within the minds of the people. But what these plants tell us is that we are fundamentally connected with the Earth and each other and we have a duty to take care of both. 

These tribes are truly living in harmony with nature and are actually listening to what it has to say, something us Westerners lack greatly. We have a lot to learn, but so too do the tribes. Together, we can merge our ideas and technology to help better our world and by the use of modern technology help protect the contacted and uncontacted tribes of the Amazon who hold a wealth of knowledge that can lead us into a better and more harmonious world we all know is possible.  







Friday, November 7, 2014

5 Steps to Finding the Ground of Being

**Disclaimer: This should not be viewed as something you need to "achieve". It is simply your natural state of being and is truly only available through surrender.**

This process is a basic guideline to finding what mystics might call the Ground of Being, the Self, the Source, what have you. It is not a strict set of rules you need to follow in order to get there (here). It will not "work" if you think of it that way. Simply, if you let the moment you are currently having evolve on its own while being completely with your body and your extended-body (your environment), it will naturally do this on its own. So really, you don't have to do anything. This is, however, the natural and unintentional process I went through whilst meditating to do so.

Before you begin, I would like to add that for each step, be completely and totally present with your current thought-narrative going on "inside" you during the process. All you have to do is watch it, no need to toy with it. See how the thoughts you have and everything else in your present experience go together. See how there is no separation between the two. 

Let's begin...


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Step 1. Stop everything you are doing and begin slow rhythmic breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Repeat this until you are fully relaxed. Take as much time as needed.


Step 2. Slowly, bring your awareness to relatively the middle part of your brain, near the pineal gland (or what some would call the third-eye). Keep breathing while doing so and focus all of your energy in this particular area of the body. This may take a while. Eventually, you will begin to feel a tingling sensation coming from this area.

Step 3. Hone in on the feeling you are experiencing. Intensify it as best as you can simply by observing/feeling it. Try to find out every little detail about it through your direct felt presence. See how it ripples and flows like some watery energy.

Remember... take your time. Don't rush anything.

Step 4. When the sensation has intensified to a certain point, keep your awareness focused on it, and slowly open up that awareness to your heart. It should almost feel like an energetic sphere inside you with focal points at the heart and the pineal gland. Keep doing this until you feel "it". Once again, this could take a long time. 

Step 5: Let it naturally connect with the rest of your body and follow the sensation deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, into the deepest levels of your consciousness. Do not imagine this, just feel it. It will go deeper on its own the more awareness you place upon it. Surrender to the Void that is you. Eventually, you will feel it. This cannot truly be described but you will be at the fundamental Self, the Void, the Ground of Being, the Source; whatever you want to call it. And if not, do it longer. My first time it took me around two hours of deep meditation. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is felt is indescribable, as is any (the) moment, however I will do my best to share what I experienced. I saw/felt a still pond that was at the "bottom" (although there in no bottom) of what I'll call my inner self (the thing below the surface realm of existence). This pond was a source, the Source that was connected with the sensation I was referring to earlier. This "pond" that encompassed everything would occasionally ripple from the production of "my" thoughts. Although, they were no longer "mine" for there was no "I" or person to claim them. For a duration of time I was no longer identified with anything. I was for the first time in my life free. Everything in the Universe, everything in my direct felt experience rippled from this source. And I realized I have always been here, and so have you, we are just lost in the ripples.














(The use of an entheogen is recommend but not needed for this process)

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

New Study Shows Cannabis Does Not Lower IQ, But Alcohol Does


A new study revealed this week shows that in spite of past claims, marijuana use does not affect IQ. The research, performed by the University College of London, was presented on Tuesday at the European Conference of Neuropsychopharmacology in Berlin.
The longitudinal study was performed on over 2,000 students. Researchers studied subjectsonce at age 8 and again at age 15born between 1991 and 1992. As the Washington Post reported, the study found
“‘No relationship between cannabis use and lower IQ at age 15,’ when confounding factors – alcohol use, cigarette use, maternal education, and others – were taken into account. Even heavy marijuana use wasn’t associated with IQ.”
This runs in stark contrast to what an internationally publicized Duke University study found in 2012. That study claimed that using marijuana in adolescence led to irreversible drops in IQan average of 8 points. Though scientists almost immediately objected to the efficacy of the Duke study, the University College of London’s findings are the most recent to prove it wrong.
As the lead author, Claire Mokrysz noted,
“This is a potentially important public health message- the belief that cannabis is particularly harmful may detract focus from and awareness of other potentially harmful behaviors.”
In fact, the only substance the study found to lower IQ was alcohol, a government authorized drug.
While cannabis, a largely prohibited plant, improves a variety of medical ailments, alcohol is mostly detrimental and addictive. Even the state, which allows alcohol consumptionacknowledges alcohol’s health risks and admits that it instigates violence.
Similarly, toxic chemicals are considered legal and safe (as are poisonous foods and pesticidesapproved by the FDA and EPA) because corporations pay for special treatment.
Meanwhile, drugs deemed dangerous by the government continue to be outlawed and punished. Marijuana is not the only one. LSD, mushrooms and MDMA are increasingly recognized as beneficial yet they remain classified as Schedule 1 narcotics, described by the DEA as
“Drugs, substances, or chemicals…defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.”
Painkillers do not make the list, nor does alcohol.
The London study did find that among the heaviest marijuana users, test scores averaged 3% lower, cautioning that there are still drawbacks to consumption. However, as Mokrysz noted,
“The current focus on the alleged harms of cannabis may be obscuring the fact that its use is often correlated with that of other even more freely available drugs and possibly lifestyle factors. These may be as or more important than cannabis itself.”
The study’s main findings add to the growing body of evidence that marijuana is far more medicinal than it is harmful. The new evidence adds to a long list of other past claims about the plant that have been disproved: that it causes cancer, that it is a gateway drug, and that it leads to crime and delinquency, to name a few.
Regardless of how harmful any drug — legal or illegal — may be, it is clear the government is not concerned with keeping people safe. Rather, its audacity in outlawing beneficial substances and promoting more dangerous ones shows not only its tendency toward corruption, but its belief that it can control what an individual non-violently does with his or her own body.
This notion is more dangerous than any drug the government condemns or endorses, but thanks to increasing studies like the University College of London’s, perceptions and policy continue to change.
Like this article? Then join the Conversation with many others in EWAO !
Credit: TheAntiMedia
This article is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Carey Wedler and TheAntiMedia.org. Follow The Anti-Media on Facebook and Twitter to receive their latest articles. Image creditCannatraining

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The Global Mental Illness - Sustainability in an Unsustainable Society

This needs to be set in stone: Global warming is not fictitious, it is real, and the realest threat we face. The Earth is running out of its resources and as a result the seed of sustainability has been planted in the minds of the people. What can we do to be more sustainable? How can we save our environment, ourselves, and the thousands of species slowly going extinct? These are all questions we ask ourselves within the context of our current society. However, trying to be sustainable in an inherently unsustainable society is like trying to stop a gaping wound with a few band-aids. It may slow the inevitable, but it will never work. A revolution of the human psyche is needed for this change, this transition we need to go through; a true facing of ourselves internally and our world externally. Our system is broken, rotten, and toxic. We cherish our economy more than we do our own habitat. We are living in a dream and it is time to wake up.

This global, external illness is the reflection of an inner conflict we all face: we have split ourselves internally. With self-awareness we think we think our thoughts and feel our feelings, when in reality, all is one process. Sentience has created a curlicue on existence and we have become lost in it. We are attached to this kaleidoscope of symbols, language, and the story of ourselves. We find ourselves to be separate, detached from the external world and thus we see mother nature, our planet, our environment as an outside alien force that is completely cut-off from our sense of self. When something is not intrinsically you, or if there is a part of yourself you don't like, your initial reaction is to get rid of it, pretend it doesn't exist, and live in a state of illusion. This is how we live with ourselves internally. We never want to be where we are, who we are, so instead, we put on a mask. The economy/culture/the system is the external worlds mask, a reflection of your own internal mask. We spend most of our experience in a state of alert-consciousness, the story of "me" in the "outside" world, all happening "inside" my head. However, this is a part, not all of experience. If you are in the part, you are not in the whole.

There is an emptiness inside all of us. We try to fill this space with everything and anything, never wanting to accept and surrender to it. This fuels our materialistic society today. You can see the effects it is having on our environment. The Great Pacific garbage patch, the giant concrete, mechanical jungles that we call cities that are suffocating and blocking the Earth's natural formation, the massive hurricanes and other horrific storms which are becoming stronger by the year, the rapid rate of deforestation taking place within the Amazon and all around the globe... something is obviously not right.



Currently, there is an illusory notion that we are separate from our environment. We feel as if we came into this world, from the outside in. We did not come into this world, we grew out of it. There is no such thing as separation when something grows from within itself. The universe was a seed (the big bang) and has grown and continues to grow. What you are experiencing at this very moment is the big bang coming on as you. 

"It's like you took a bottle of ink and you threw it at a wall. Smash! And all that ink spread. And in the middle, it's dense, isn't it? And as it gets out on the edge, the little droplets get finer and finer and make more complicated patterns, see? So in the same way, there was a big bang at the beginning of things and it spread. And you and I, sitting here in this room, as complicated human beings, are way, way out on the fringe of that bang. We are the complicated little patterns on the end of it. Very interesting. But so we define ourselves as being only that. If you think that you are only inside your skin, you define yourself as one very complicated little curlique, way out on the edge of that explosion. Way out in space, and way out in time. Billions of years ago, you were a big bang, but now you're a complicated human being. And then we cut ourselves off, and don't feel that we're still the big bang. But you are. Depends how you define yourself. You are actually--if this is the way things started, if there was a big bang in the beginning--you're not something that's a result of the big bang. You're not something that is a sort of puppet on the end of the process. You are still the process. You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are. When I meet you, I see not just what you define yourself as--Mr so-and-so, Ms so-and-so, Mrs so-and-so--I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way. I know I'm that, too. But we've learned to define ourselves as separate from it."

Alan Watts

Each election year we are given the illusion of change with the idea of voting. Pick the puppet on the left or the puppet on the right; two sides of the same broken coin. Sure, there is some small changes that may take place, but in reality what really changes is only the face while the toxic body remains, seeping into our daily lives. The economy is our worlds main focus. We must grow and achieve more and more and more. This is a reflection of the emptiness we feel inside. The economy is a collective idea, solidified by you and I. It is infinite, while the world we live upon, our precious planet that we are and grow out of is finite.  


How can something finite live within something infinite?  

It cannot.

To change the outer world while still being uncomfortable internally is madness. Stop whatever you are doing and be where you are. Sit in your sorrow, sit in your joy, sit in whatever current state of being you are in. It's not about what you want there to be or what there was, but what there is. Be humble and go slow, there is no rush. No one wants to sit with themselves in complete silence, doing nothing. We are afraid, afraid of what we might hear, of what might happen, but we are that... so there is nothing to be afraid of.

Money is both a disease and a blessing, all depending on your spot on the globe. Some people are literally dying from lack thereof while others have so much they don't know what to do with it all. We walk by people almost daily who are begging for change, begging for something to survive. Why is this? Is this inherent with this system or are they just lazy? Well, let's look at how this monetary system is made. Where does money come from? What is it? What it is, really, is nothing, an idea in which we make real. And where does it come from? Assuming you are in the United States, The Federal Reserve (which is actually not federal at all but rather a privatized banking system) sends money to the U.S. when they send them "banking notes" or really just more fictitious pieces of paper. This money they send the U.S. is literally made out of thin air. So where is the value? In debt, or more simply put, slave work: working and getting nothing back. Because of this monetary system, inherently some people will be on the wrong end of the stick. When you make something out of nothing, the only way to make it valuable is through paying it back with more money/work. All of this debt everyone is in is starting to make sense now isn't it? With this system in place, it is impossible to pay back the debt. Inflation continues to increase and the debt will grow, and inevitably there will be a collapse.MIT predicts by 2030 it will, I think sooner. Let it, we don't need it, but we need to prepare. We need to provide our own food, shelter, and water. It will be hard, but it is possible, especially with modern day technology.. Together, let us leave this rubber society in the dust. A modern day Archaic Revival (as Terrence McKenna puts it) is needed. 100% sustainable communities need to be put in place where we work together to feed, clothe, and truly be with each other. We need to work in-harmony with mother nature, not against her. We all crave a tribe to belong to, our hunter-gatherer instincts are still in-play today. And the great thing is, we can go back. Our sense of community, understanding, and overall well-being will increase ten-fold in this way of life. It is possible, it is our future, our only future. All we have to do is shift.






Monday, September 29, 2014

The Void - Dissolving Into What You Are

To believe there is an everlasting afterlife that we will be judged upon death and is far more important than this life, makes this life meaningless. It enables us to submit to day in and day out frustration and obedience. When all that matters is what happens later, whether it be the afterlife, retirement, tomorrow, the future, whatever, it dis-empowers you. You are no longer focused on your immediate direct experience, which is all there is. You are in a world of abstractions, images, icons, and illusions. What's great about that, is that if you see them for what they are, for what it is, you don't have to do anything. But still, here we are, trapped within this head of mental labels of the external, creating an illusionarily separate world. Look around you and pick something, a chair, cup, yourself, whatever. See how it sits with everything around it, see how it all goes together? See how you see it as a separate part? Sure, this is convenient and is very helpful in communication, but language can be hypnotizing if not watched for what it is. Each thing around you is given a name, the keys upon a keyboard, the sofa in the room, you and "other", the Earth and the Sun. The Whole (which cannot be split or separated) is seen as a split puzzle need fixing within the ego, a cut-off world of illusion. You see yourself as a fragment of the Whole, when all there is the Tao, the Universe, the Way. The real Tao cannot be named. It is the name-less name, the frame-less frame, the game-less game, the gate-less gate, nothing and everything. A paradox... and you are that. 

We spend day after day working, waiting for a call. A call that will bring us salvation, or really, our idea of it. Whether it be being rich and famous, the afterlife, a car, retirement, a raise, whatever, we all have our own call we are waiting for. We get hypnotized by this idea and run after it like a carrot on a stick. Salvation, however, is already here. You cannot wait for the call when the call has been made and is continuously being made at this very moment for eternity. It is currently making the call and you are that making, though the two are not separate, so there is no one to pick it up! It is already here. It is in your heart, it is your soul, it is now, breathing with this direct experience you are currently having, all encapsulated within the eternal Tao, the Motion, the Void, the Emptiness. Dissolve into where you are, what you are. What you are is what you are currently experiencing. It keeps moving. Don't be afraid to have faith in it and move with it, for you are that. Nothing and no one is experiencing this, so there is no reason to be afraid at all. Fear is an illusion, "you" are an illusion, all there is is experience, motion, a dance. There is no experiencer to experience. That is just a game you play, we play, it plays. The Cosmos is what you are and you are playing with yourself, pretending you are not it. The Universe is jacking off.

So stop hiding in your head, stop pretending you are a fragment, cut-off and alienated from the Whole. Re-connect with the source, go within, go without. Re-member who you are. You see, the problem you face is illusory. Nothing is wrong with you. There is nothing need fixing. Just stop for a moment.. stop trying to be something or someone and just be. Dissolve..




Picture from the movie The Zero Theorem.
 Go see it! This post was inspired by it.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Living In the Now - How In This Society No One Wants To Be Where They Are

Lately there has been this notion that the present moment is all we have. Most people don't understand this reality and more-so see it as an abstraction. This notion, however, is indeed reality, the reality and for a more in-depth look into this, check out my previous post Time Is Always Now.

Let's go deeper into this reality of the now. If you are to plan for the future (which this society takes for somehow being more important than your immediate experience) it is only of value to those who can truly live within the moment. For when you get to that future goal, you will continue to be somewhere else, not even present for the experience and joy of your dreams coming into fruition

The internal and external sides of life are one in the same, two sides of the same coin, however, it is sometimes necessary to differentiate between the two and I am going to do so here. Internally, we are living in a world of abstractions, mental labels/boxes that make the external world seem split/separated. Externally, in this society, we are inherently set-up to not want to live in the present moment, which as we have seen, is the only reality there is. Why is this? Because we live in a world where we get paid later for doing things we don't like doing now. Day in and day out we spend our precious time on this Earth for institutions that could give two shits about us. The institutions have come alive and we are the ones feeding these parasitic entities that are taking over like a cancer.

Go to any work environment and almost everyone talks about how they want the day to go by faster, it's going too slow, I want to get home and relax, work sucks, etc., etc. In this way, in this system of control, we don't even want to be where we are! And when we get home to relax, the place we were talking/thinking about all day, we want it to last and so we grasp. We try to grasp the ungraspable. As you can see all around you, a car going by, the words in your head, the water, the clouds in the sky, it all keeps moving. Life is motion and you are that motion. The form changes, as with death, but it is always here, always now, and always one. All ripples within the Self, the fundamental underlying reality to reality, though the two are not separate. But when we hold onto life, hold onto a form of motion, life is terribly frustrated because it always slips between your fingers.

So what to do? We need to live now, a bit redundant for that is the only "time" there is, but we need to bring our awareness back to where we are and from there, or should I say from here, live! Do what you want to do! That doesn't mean screw everyone else and it's all me, no. If you are present with yourself and how "you" are always connected with the world around you, you will see that the Earth you rest upon and the people inhabiting it are just as much a part of you as your finger nails or heart beat. If you see yourself in the right way, you don't have to do anything. You will know what to do, in fact, you already know what to do. You've been doing it this whole time. Life is the drive-less driver, so have faith, trust in it, and let go. Deal with the pollution inside of you first and the rest will follow. Before anything else, before that next step you take, become connected, aligned with who you are, what you are, now. Be with this current experience you are having, in whatever form it is in. Accept who you are, be who you are, act as who you are, see who you are, know who you are, and from there your life will begin; you will be Reborn. 





Thursday, September 4, 2014

A Day of Dedication: Breath

Breathing is an essential part of being human. Whether we notice it or not, we do it all the time. We have parts of ourselves that go on without "us" knowing it. Like our heartbeat, our blood flow, and any involuntary actions. And then, there are parts of ourselves that are voluntary, like consciously moving one's hand. The breath is an interesting part about being human for the breath is both voluntary and involuntary. A lot of the time it goes on without our awareness. Only when we bring our awareness back into the body and back into the breath, can we breath fully and truly be in the moment. Most of the time we are only taking "sips" of our breath and are unaware of what is happening in the present.

The word "spirit" is from the Latin word "spiritus" meaning breath. The Father (consciousness), The Son (the mind), and the the Holy Spirit (our breath) is the trinity we are all comprised of. When linked in harmony, deep peace can be felt within. This is our natural state of being. However, in our modern culture we are so used to being controlled by our thoughts that we take this unnatural, disharmonious state as normal. A majority of humanity is in this state of discontinuity with the present moment, partly due to our culture's obsession with "security" in the "future". Although, first and foremost, this is a problem from within; as is all of the problems you see in the world today. There is a crisis in consciousness on the global scale. So, to tackle this problem, it starts here, it starts now, and it starts with you. 


I invite you spend an entire day dedicated to your breath, the awareness of your breath. Start when you wake up in the morning. Slowly, bring your attention to your breath. You will notice your mind will take over you and lead you astray, this is okay. Every time you notice you are no longer focusing on your breath, see this as an opportunity to re-focus your awareness to the breath, to the moment. Notice how you are drawn away from it by a stream of thoughts. Once you get a feel for this, start to watch the thoughts as they arise and as they go. You will see where they come from; nothingness. Indeed, they will come and go, just like a wave or a cloud. If you are not aware of these thoughts and do not accept them, you can and most likely will become lost in their story, seeing yourself as them; this is known as attachment. In this mental fog, you will eventually notice you completely forgot about the breath. You will wonder where you went and how you got there. It's okay, all that matters is that you are aware of the discontinuity with the breath. Simply, bring back your attention to it and repeat this whenever it happens throughout your day. It's fascinating to see how lost we get in thought without the slightest awareness of how. Eventually, you will see the space that the breath will open up for you. This space is who you are. Thoughts will still come and go, but instead of being hypnotized by their story, you will be free in this inner space of stillness; this is known as detachment. Remember, the breath is a fantastic way to come back to the present, and when mastered, life will once again be a gift. 


The Day of Dedication blog posts will be a series of posts, so look for more in the future. :)

Monday, August 25, 2014

7 Ego-Shattering Videos Everybody Should Watch

Sam Harris -
It Is Always Now

Abby Martin - 
The Artist's Task


Graham Hancock and Joe Rogan - 
The Precious Gift

Terence McKenna -
The Evolution of Reality

Joe Rogan & Bryan Callen -
Earth Suits Engage
  
Alex Jones (Surprisingly spot-on) -
Waking Life Excerpt

The Joe Rogan Experience -
The Wake Up Call Documentary


Monday, August 18, 2014

A Short Insight On Anxiety

To deny or resist your current state of being, in whatever form it is in, is fear. If you are stuck in a state of fear/resistance/anxiety, simply notice this. See if it is possible to watch the entirety of yourself, with all of your different thoughts and feelings, without any judgement. Seriously, I invite you to try this now. Don't try and examine yourself, just let everything sit and move on its own. Just watch... that's all you have to do. The universe does not need a central "I" to push it. The world will keep turning, your heart will keep beating. Thoughts will appear and disappear in different forms. Just watch it all go by. This is meditation.

How do you allow resistance? How can you love fear? By allowing the fear to take over you. By doing so you are entering reality, accepting it as it is; from panic to freedom. However, this cannot be taught. This is something one needs to do on their own. It cannot be "put off" either. Throwing it into the fog of the future and letting it swim in the mist of potentiality will do nothing. Come back to where you are now. To be at peace, to love yourself, to be with reality, you have to be with yourself. To be with yourself you must be aware of what is happening. Remember, everything is always in motion, always vibrating, all you have to do is align with it.

Do not try and deceive yourself about your current state. It will not work for you are already experiencing it. There is no getting around this. We can put a mask on the moment, play a little game with it, pretend it is what it isn't, but in the end it all comes back to what is.


















Monday, August 4, 2014

The Return To Where You Are - Finding the Ground of Being

"Nirvana is right where you are, as long as you don't object to it."
Alan Watts

The modern view of economic, political, or even individual growth is based on a false premise of reality, a false sense of self. Currently, most of humanity is attached with the surface, material realm of existence. The majority of us are fixated upon the idea of ourselves in the apparent "outside" world that we experience on a day to day basis. Rarely does one go within and actually look. But this is what is needed, a return to the Ground of Being, a return to where you are.

Go beneath, go within, feel the emptiness. This emptiness is which gives birth to the surface. To identify with the surface is due to a resistance with the entirety of being. The entirety of being is undefinable, which is why mystics and Buddhists may refer to it as the Great Void, nothingness. Define nothing, define emptiness. How? There is nothing to identify with. The surface reality can be picked apart and played with, but in truth it is only a mist that "sits" upon the ground of being. It is an expression of you. 

The denial of the eternal, internal emptiness within is the way we operate on an individual and in-turn global level. Since we deny this emptiness, we try to fill it with anything and everything. Even Buddhists can fill this hole with the achievement of enlightenment. We almost all try to fill this void with the apparent acceptance from others, which is why trends occur in society. We all try to be accepted by others and so we act like others. Rarely is someone truly being themselves, the entirety of themselves. This requires acceptance of oneself and if one is preoccupied with being accepted by "others" "externally", this internal acceptance cannot be done.

The feeling of being trapped inside yourself and your thoughts can bring tremendous pain and suffering. Of course, it can bring happiness but it is always impermanent and soon leads back to suffering. But how can "you" suffer if there is no central, static you? If internally we are empty, then all flows through. If this is realized, not through thinking but through being, then the you that you thought you were, is no longer boxing you in. It is no longer all of you, but simply a part of the whole of experience. It becomes a voice, wisping by with everything else.

Through this connection within, you can feel the connection with the whole. You are entering your body. This includes your physical, biological form, the environment it interacts with, and the source within. It is already here. Always return to the Ground of Being, the void within. You will rise back to the surface, very easily at first. The more you return, the longer it will last. You will know when you get there, you will feel it. And when you feel it, go deeper. This is the inevitable ecstasy. All you have to do is return to where you are, be where you are, it is that simple.