buy me a ticket the club digital, please

Last night, I was having a conversation with my family and the topic of NFTs came up. I was sharing the notion of ownership and exclusivity with them and that this is the primary value driver of NFTs. We started talking about how you can now buy real estate in the digital world and own clubs and buy tickets to virtual places, reflecting very much the same ideas.

It sharply unveils the human impetus for action; the warring, vicious, greedy and cruel aspects of our nature. It’s as if we are told this is the only important gear for us and the ultimate goal is to dominate and own as much as possible, excluding as many people as possible but those rare few.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

We are not all like this and in my ways this view simply reflects my own resentment to the pain I have felt in this life. But that it is even remotely sought after is unfortunate. Or am I running away from my own shadow? A surely impossible task…

If we do not alter the way we fundamentally view and therefore operate within the world, any world, digital or physical, will reflect the same primary inner motivations.

I do not wish to live in a world like this and so I won’t. There may be blockades and guards about the place but we move along and move what we can; all the while remaining in contact with the boundless, illimitable dimension of non-local reality often referred to as love.

Podare

The illusion of choice

Sacrifice is a necessary part of endeavour.

It is the path we take based on the illumined conscious information we have to best fit our circumstances. Sometimes, there is no choice. Perhaps, it is always so.

Yuval Noah Harari makes a compelling case on free will and I agree with him. He is a Vipassana meditator and if I actually committed (again, not sure on choice here), then I would be as well. What Vipassana teaches is that what arises both in the sensations of our body and therefore mind, but also in the circumstances of our lives is karma or kamma.

We have no control over the sensations that arise or the circumstances of our lives. It is so complex that the mind cannot process it or know it other than through observation. It is said that what we can control is how we respond to these sensations and circumstances*.

Although, I’m not so sure of this either. I believe this also to be tied to karma as well.

So, as I write this I am realising it is best to surrender control and to let the process carry you where it will. This idea to post on this blog is merely a desire to formulate and complete a thought each day. I have no idea about what or any idea of what it might become, only that I do it.

I like that.

*It can be said that all ‘circumstances’ or ‘situations’ of life are also just sensational experiences, despite the differing appearances in phenomena.

is every new year this way?

As I was writing in the honeymoon glow of the new year, the question arose, ‘has every new year been like this?’

I honestly don’t know.

There is a certain inspiration that comes with flooding our consciousness with the thoughts and visions of all the ways we wish we could change. Everyone is seemingly taking steps to overcome even the deepest of obstacles in their lives. But is that what is really happening?

I have been ablaze with action. Sawing steel, fixing curtain rails, cleaning, weeding, planting seeds (literally) and so many other things. Yet, when I look beneath even just one of these actions and this so called ‘flooded inspiration’, I find all the same stale energy essentially unmoved, unchanged, waiting.

Still, I will fill my days rearranging the pieces without ever pulling out one weed. It is still helpful. It is better than drowning in the overwhelming tides of our subconscious. Yet, those enveloping and timeless sensations of our consciousness - that which truly changes us and transforms our lives beyond shallow appearances, is obscured by these actions. I try to incorporate it as much as possible in these actions, but we do not always succeed.

So, I am again left with the haunting question, “is this what we do after the birth of every New Year?”

how to grow food from a nuclear bomb

I’ve been imagining post-apocalyptic worlds lately, and not out of abandon but out of hope. It could reflect my own inner longing to mature and thus for nature to thrust down upon my childish mind and pull me to new unforeseen heights, while simultaneously setting roots deeper into the Earth; the equal and opposite phenomena present in the gaining for new awareness.

It could also be a necessary story for our time.

The idea was born out of a conversation I had yesterday with a student about the most efficient energy system we have on the planet today, and how it can be used to help with the ecological crisis. I informed him, ‘to my understanding, nuclear energy is overwhelming the most sustainable energy form we have access to.’ He agreed. We talked for some time about the downfalls of solar and wind, and the various mental biases that blockade nuclear from taking its rightful foothold in our society as our primary clean energy source.

As a moth, the flame I am drawn to seems to be consciousness and how human beings understand and perceive reality and the powerful consequences that has on our world. I keep trying to ‘have a foot in the real world’, and yet find myself again back at the frontier that, if fear and self-preservation did not prevail, would be the primary motivation of all of our actions collectively. Instead, we meander along, overwhelmed and beaten by our own minds. Not all of us, but enough that we still walk the plank with our eyes wide open.

It begins in the final years of ecological collapse, and we are desperate to find serious answers to the situation that befalls humanity – and all other life on the planet. The forces of the human psyche are not obscure walls that must be torn down and vehemently defended as we see in politics today. But rather, they are reversed and the enormous power to create and transform is unleashed in this sense of emergency.

Legislation is passed. Nuclear power plants are built within weeks. Food is distributed to all. Farms and seeds are shared. Resources are distributed, as necessary. Systems of corruption are dismantled overnight. Natural leaders take their rightful position due to competence, not greed. It was necessary after all the create the situation that would redeem us.

After creating these nuclear power plants, we use up the stored uranium and still use the various renewable energy sources available, but as we are nearing the end of our stock of uranium, and as our fossil fuel energy system is no longer functioning; a global treaty is unanimously signed to convert all the destructive power of nuclear bombs into energy for food, water and the continuation of life.

It may be that this is a band-aid solution, but one that was achieved a supreme victory. It has vanquished the selfish, childish and ignorant perception of those flimsy men and women who previously ruled. We may still be doomed as a race and civilisation may still be at an end, but the new frontier of consciousness is one of hope, clarity, lightness, humour, insight and wisdom.

We are no longer blind to the consequences of our actions. We have seen the consequences of ignorance. Now, we feel the sewing of our every action as it happens, and taste the fruit — bitter or sweet, of every action known or unknown to us.

Podare

Naraka

Is it time we accept the impending reality of ecological disaster and the worst case scenario that proceeds it? In a word, yes.

All people understand that accepting reality and the truth of things is important and good for us - we may not like it, but we cannot deny it is good for us. Whether we apply this to addiction, health, corruption, science and the list goes on. Those who are willing to face the truth will ultimately grow as a result. This is the choice we face with the ecological crisis.

I’ve been reading some of Daniel Pinchbeck’s writing lately, and he essentially states, based of course on research and information of experts in that field, that we have passed the point of no return and the feedback systems of climate are active and unless we take some serious action immediately, we will see damage beyond our imagination.

As it appears that greed, corruption that has caused this issue is getting worse (the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than be bottom 60%. About 199,999,999 people), especially in those it matters most.

In my eyes, we are seeing a forced reconciliation with nature, a return to the old ways of Being, a redemption of our soul through the brutal manifestation of our collective actions as we perceive through our senses. Death plenty, putrid stench, destruction and madness as we are left with nothing but ourselves to navigate this world. Consumption ends.

It does seem that only through this extreme situation, will we realise that ‘material’ things will not and cannot ever bring us peace or satisfaction. It is a false reality.

I would like to explore stories on this topic, not of grim and hopeless times. But stories of truly deep, lasting peace and connection to something greater than ourselves. For there is truly nothing to fear. We are not losing anything. In fact, we have so much more to gain.

15th August, 2022

Podare

measure the sun, forget it gives life

It is difficult to comprehend let alone express how wrong we have perceived the world. I find it useful to listen to other philosophers, thinkers and commentators insomuch as they can help you to express what you yourself struggle to express. I’ve encountered Bernardo Kastrup in recent days, who has been of tremendous fortune in this regard, amongst many others.

Now, I say the only things gleaned from these great minds are new catch-phrases and hip lingo, which is of course not true. However, it has been sometime that I have truly encountered a mind-shattering idea that has split my mind in two. This has happened many times.

Specifically, I’m referring to Kastrup’s video game analogy, where the child is playing the video game thinking, “I know how to play this game! I’m really good at it!” Meanwhile, reality is unfolding, and the child gets better and better at the game, yet misses the entire process of life. This, he says, is ‘…the situation we find ourselves in with nature at the moment. Because we can manipulate nature and seem to know which buttons to press in order to get what we want from it, we then understand it.’ No, we don't. We know how to extract and manipulate very small parts of it, and we have no idea the consequences of our actions. He goes further to say that the most damaging part of this process is the harm we are doing to our physical health and mental health.

We know now how intricately connected our physical and mental health are, and in fact much of our ‘mind’ and what we experience in our mind is actually located in the stomach. But this isn’t what I wanted to say.

I wanted to say how completely and utterly wrong we have gotten things in this modern world. And no one seems to either have the insight or the courage to stand contrary to these world views. I certainly have not proved brave enough to stand boldly in the laughing face of blind judgement of people. Even though I know that the judgments are false and not rooted in reality. They are fictitious stories relentlessly pushed and upheld by us everyday, and I am as guilty as anyone.

Though, I am reaching a breaking point.

I cannot find any solace in pretending like what I am doing in education or more broadly in life, is having any positive effect on the world. Namely, because it is having no positive effect on me. The only boon I have taken from being involved in the pitiful apathy surrounding me, is a fire to work as hard as I possibly can.

I am finding it exceedingly difficult to participate in a society that does not acknowledge in any way its mistakes, flaws or fundamentally wrong views. Given that this society was essentially established in the late 18th century, and we have exploded in technological innovation and power. I am not blaming anyone.

It could be that we are or have actually shifted in our consciousness significantly and view the world collectively in a radically different way than even fifty years ago. It does not, however, reduce the momentum of the economic machine we have created through global markets and free market capitalism.

Yes, one can definitely argue this is the ‘best’ society we have ever created, and I agree in many regards. However, to be so arrogant as to deny completely that there is any error in ways makes me spontaneously curl in rage and disgust.

I stand by the importance of man standing up against the great many injustices of the world, bolstering the powerful, limitless, altruistic qualities inherent within each person.

Yet, despite my anger is vitriol towards a blatantly corrupt world or an ignorant world in desperate need of compassion, these feelings will pass. I know they are reflective of my own current inner turmoil and inability to express myself through my worldview. Or, more accurately to surrender myself to the organism as a whole; to absolve the responsibility of the illusion martyrdom and Christlike saviour delusion that befalls me.

As the Celts would say, we do not need to do anything special; each of us only need pick up the end of the string tied to us and weave it into the tapestry. None of us is responsible for the efforts or lack of others; we are responsible for ourselves. It is just that we do not know who or even what we are responsible for.

Podare

cries of the soul

I overheard a conversation between two women in the library at my workplace the other day. I’m a high school teacher. The conversation reminded me of something my mother said, ‘we [women] have deep intellectual and philosophical conversations.’

They were discussing metaphysical concepts of reality, and how since moving from a major city, their intellectual conversation and consequently intellect has declined.

I’m sure that is true. But there’s also an incredible amount of entirely unnecessary intellectualism in so-called ‘cultured’ places. I’m referring to any mental contortion, which does not deal or attempt to deal with fundamental levels of reality. It is perfectly acceptable to work with surface layers of reality, so long as it is understood the conditions of that situation were given rise to by a deeper aspect of nature.

Lately, I’ve been struggling to straddle and contain the vast scope of corruption, tragedy and evil in the world. It does not reduce the beauty, fascination and wonder I experience. It is just difficult to comprehend and contend with the bludgeoning realities of the world.

Banks are corrupt. Bankers are gangsters. Governments are corrupt. Politicians are liars.

What I struggle with is what feels like physical combat with a viscerally real monstrosity that is the economic reality.

I’ve always known this, and while the facts continue to pile up, it is not that which I struggle to combat. What I struggle with is what feels like physical combat with a viscerally real monstrosity that is the economic reality - the resultant quantification of the mind of people. This is only possible with the constantly bolstered worldview of Materialism.

To close, I will leave you with a few questions. Why do we the people have to ‘find goodness in all that we do,’ while the rich plunder, massacre and destroy the planet on which we all occupy?

Or are we sword and shield and gaunt, squared up against the mirrors of time, each reflection thinking it is facing its nemesis?

Why are we the people forced into a spiritual dimension of appalling economic and financial demands, which shapes enormously how much and where my physical body goes and what it does, says and even postures?

Why are the forces that influence resources on the planet so insistent on obscuring, guarding and denying me from accessing the gate to infinity within? Are we really combating others? Or are we sword and shield and gaunt, squared up against the mirrors of time, each reflection thinking it is facing its nemesis?

Podare