Category Archives: freedom

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

May your ego be full of a little less hubris and your attitude a little less cynicism

If we’re corrosive to ourselves and others it doesn’t matter how much love and happiness we receive. It gets drained.

So I wish you sobriety. May you learn to look at life without bias so your ego doesn’t constantly drain you.

If all you want is happiness and simplicity I hope that truth never finds you. I hope you manage to hide from the light in uncomfortable darkness. Though maybe you have some form of superficial light to cling to like money, outer beauty, material possessions, social status, etc. So if all you want is to be simple and happy, may your desire for substance and true light never surpass the shallow measures in your life.

Do not expect me to join you, do not expect me to respond when you get mad when I walk away. I return jagged insults back to sender. If you have shadow to process then may you realize what caused it, and eat your own, instead of making it someone else’s burden. None of us can afford those who wield hurt but turn into drama majors when the mirror is turned on them. There are people with mental illness who behave that way but the majority of the population has no such excuse.

If you’re hurtful toward others may you find the humility to see yourself and see past your ego to consider other people. May you realize it’s not all about you,

May this be the year you realize that if you play with negating words/actions toward others you’re playing with darkness and waive your right to play a victim. There is no right side when the sides are owned by darkness.

May this be the year we all see through the facade of our own false “innocence” aka naivety, the hubris that corrodes our true essence.

If you want to be more than a creature in a cage, may you wake up to how brutally and beautifully complex and incredible life is.

At the end of the day we don’t matter as superficial identities that mostly aren’t even defined by us but by society and what we think we need to be. I don’t wish you trite happiness if it means going to sleep in the machine. I wish that you find courage to face the light of consciousness and your mirror.

Happy New Year. Many blessings. May you find humility and your best possible path that makes you shine and contributes to the universe at large. Be a universal citizen and be your own authority on your integrity. Neither gods, nor karma, nor anyone else is going to keep you in check.

A Bird On The Road

bird

I saw this guy in the middle of the road driving home through the downpour. Everyone else was driving over him. I didn’t want to stop either, it was pouring and I was tired. I did though. He was huddled and hurt so I carefully put my hand under him. Brought him into the woods and was gonna place him under some leaf cover, he gripped my fingers like he didn’t want to be put on the ground. He shook and pinched me every time the thunder clapped overhead.

At any other time this bird would fly away. At that moment I could feel he did not want to be alone. So I drove home with him in my palm, one hand on the wheel. I put him under a covered deck where it was dry and not in the open. Dried him off and gave him my shirt to rest on.

After I took him home I wanted to keep helping. He was hopping and stretching his wings, eyes were open and alert. I knew the best thing I could do was trust nature and his strength. So after the storm cleared I took him back to the spot I found him. It was a cool drive because he was alert and looking out the window. I found some brush and cover, and he hopped to it. I said a little nature prayer, wished him well , thanked him, and that was that.

It was a heart intensive experience and my honor to help this beautiful bird. It is sacred to work with nature. He could of been dying and maybe all I did was show him something other than cold rain in those moments. Maybe he survived and I saved him. Maybe I gave him reassurance and held space for him, and the rest was in the hands of nature and whatever spirits were watching out for him. I have no illusions that this bird would let me pick him up if I saw him again. All life is sentient on some level though. Everything has a need to connect. No one wants to feel scared and isolated in the storm.

When we encounter a wounded animal or part of nature it is our responsibility to be the best caretakers and stewards we can in the span of time we are asked to. We make life a little better when we approach the wounds with mindfulness and empathy.

It Can Be a Jungle Without or a Garden Within

People show you who they are when you’re in a low place but it isn’t revealed until you’re in a high place.

Some people are nice out of genuine compassion, some are nice because you’re no threat when inferior.

Now I find it a funny world we live in where authoritarianism is so popular and external authority figures get so much appeal. This to the extent that people fight and even kill each other over whose external authority figure is supreme.

Yet so little regard for the inner authority and sovereignty of the individual self.

So much money and resources both internal and external given to the external authority figures.

Yet so little recognition and respect given to the heart and mind of each other.  So little care toward helping each other care for the garden of self.

You can’t get something for nothing in this world but you can get nothing for something if you give your energy to those external figures.

You can create great somethings if you use your energy cultivating your garden and helping those around you with theirs.

No One Gets Off Easy

One way people like to drag each other down is comparing their problems to others and pretending that others have it easy. My response is always – do you think this world doesn’t have some difficult checks and balances? As if some peoples’ struggles don’t exist or aren’t valid?

Sometimes it’s laughable because you have faced a lot and know it. Who is anyone else to question or invalidate that? They’re not anyone or anything to do so.

It’s up to us to learn to love ourselves and our journeys too. Even find the positives in our personal challenges. Use them, don’t let them own you. Love the blood, sweat, and tears you’ve worked through.

Maybe those who are empty or who sell their souls can live completely easy and cushy. The moment you have a soul and a will of your own there will be challenges. There will be obstacles There will be things that try to hold you back. Life gets more complicated.

Go ahead and cry about it. I have, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s the people who deny their emotions and deny their selves who are the biggest assholes because they never get over themselves. Crying or sober, kicking or screaming, it doesn’t matter. Just that you’re challenging your challenges.

The best way to simplify things is to push through and climb your mountains.

Remember that only people who have no minds or souls to challenge have it easy.

Strengthening The Light Strengthens Us

I think I’m nowhere to be found on the political spectrum. The world is a tough place, yeah. So we have to put our own efforts in. At the same time it can be so cruel that it is a good thing to help (when we can) others find their feet, their step, or maybe heal their feet.

I think the madness and cruelty of the world can really have a corrupting effect on us. It can really turn people into overly egotistic, judgmental, negative something or others…

So I try to find the good in all sides. I have left leaning friends, I have right leaning friends. I have religious, spiritual, and atheistic friends. I try to listen to the knowledge and compassion in all of them.

It’s a cruel world and I think in some ways it’s been made that way to corrupt us. To make us into Orcs, like fallen Elves (LOTR reference). It becomes easy for the darkness and madness to take center stage in our eye’s and fill our realities.

That’s why we should focus on the light in ourselves, each other, everywhere. In different opinions, ideas, sides. It’s not about duality. It’s about finding the quality and follies in both sides.

The only counterbalance to the darkness out there is focusing on the light in all things. I don’t mean in an “Everyone gets a sticker” kind of way. I mean in a way that takes strength and effort to cultivate that light and encourage it in others. I wish we did that more.

Just because we focus on the light doesn’t mean we become blind to the darkness in the world. It means that we become stronger and develop self command, so the darkness doesn’t possess us. It means seeing the corruption and pain with knowledge and empathy.

Focusing on the quality in ourselves and others makes that light a stronger reality. If some people don’t seem to have any light, then focus on those who do. Those who don’t will want to catch up eventually and leave the darkness of chaos and separation from the light to be part of the true “in” crowd.

The more we focus on and exercise the light the easier it becomes because it begins to take center stage.

It’s like a muscle, all muscles become stronger when exercised.

The Two Men in Man

There are two men in every man. There is his ego, his superficial self which you come to know in waking time.

There is his soul.  This is under the surface and unspoken. Yet it does slip through in speech occasionally, in symbolic actions and timings, and the actions a man takes despite what his ego says.

If you want to know a man pay less attention to his ego and what he says. The goodness or negativity of a man is told from his soul despite proclamations he makes on the surface. It is from within that men act from. Many are unconscious of what is driving them but this does not change what is driving them.

We live in a world where many men make proclamations on the surface, all their energy is invested in force and extroverted action. This has made man into a hypocrite and something of a shell.

So a man must awaken the sleeper within. He must humble his brash surface and go within, discover his soul. There he must do clearing and atonement, depending on its nature. He must get in touch with his true self and quest to consciously act in accordance with the eternal breath that gives him life and the unconditional heart which gives him his pulse and sentience. He must strive to act with the positive aspects of his soul. He must endeavor to act in “right action”, or conscious use of will in all that he does.

In this way man does not need salvation, he walks a path that is his salvation.

A man’s path becomes him whether he is conscious of it or not.

Lesser Evil or Greater, They’ll All Steal Your Instinct

Sometimes I wonder why we teach kids right and wrong if we’re expected to throw it away as adults.

I mean, what changes in us that makes us stray from what we know is right and to look up to what we know is wrong?

I see all this political fighting, in this dualistic arena that is so artificial. It’s like “Pick my side because my bully will only push you down, break your teeth, and make you eat sand! The other side will do all that and kick you in the head too!”

It’s like we’re programmed/conditioned/grown into this state of disconnect in our world where we lose touch with our own sense of self preservation.

I know a lot of people say “You have to vote for the lesser evil for your survival”.

But are we really surviving? We sure aren’t thriving as a whole. Are we surviving though, or slowly dying?

Everyone rejecting the mainstream, they’re just waking up to the fact that we’re dying and they’re saying “I don’t want to die!”

Anytime anyone questions the world, the “way things are”, and especially their own conditioning they’re saying “I want to live”

That’s the spirit of life. That’s the spirit of freedom.

We should revere and respect that spirit in ourselves and each other. Not try to squash it in each other.

I can’t think of anything more self destructive than trying to squash the life in each other.

We’re only on phones and computers right now because someone, at some point, discovered electricity and invented all these pieces of technology we’re using.

Someone thought outside the box and gave us running water.

You probably have ancestors who made decisions at one point that went against the group but lead to their own survival.

We’re losing that instinct. We have plenty of the instinct to be insentiently greedy, possessive, and materialistic. That greed and possession instinct doesn’t necessarily lead to the best chance of survival though.

The instinct to think for ourselves does. It’s the most important instinct because it’s the most sighted instinct.

From that independent instinct we are more aware, we behave more wisely. We don’t go around abusing and using others, or kicking them down, because from this instinct we’re aware of how precious our freedom is.

It’s the spirit of freedom, it’s something that children revel in. It’s something we would be wise to appreciate in each other.

Don’t Vote Third Party! The Lesser Evils Await!

To everyone trying to dissuade others from voting “third party” or whatever – YUCK.

Seriously, YUCK. I hate pseudo plea pulls at the intellect and sympathy like that. I hate the way these arguments use subtle authoritarian angles and seek to push the fear buttons in others.

“I understand the need for third parties and your passion for them, but you must vote for such and such because of the greater evil”

YUCK.

Our world is already on a road of destruction and in desperate need of change. WE are in desperate need of a sense of urgency. It’s only a matter of time before there’s a Fukushima in the U.S., or fracking hits a fault line, or there’s world war 3.

We already live in a country that doesn’t give a shit about lead in drinking water. It’s not outlandish to conclude that greed and apathy rule not just our water supply but much of our modern world.

There’s so much destruction and our “leaders” don’t care! These are not good times in which to turn the mind off!

If we’re lucky we’ll use the bumps along the way to wake up. To withdraw our energy and consent from our own downfall.

I’m voting for anyone but the two “evils” because I care about my self, perhaps karma. Seriously, if the world goes to shit I want to know that I didn’t support one crook over another. I have self respect and it is a respect that deeply cares about others too, about survival on a deeper and long term level not just what’s happening on the news today.

There is no good reason to support any evil, lesser or not, if one cares about their integrity.

If it takes decades for the masses to wake up and withdraw their support from false and destructive roads, and explore other options, so be it!  We are in the mess we’re in because people have lost touch and “gone along to get along” too much. We think we’re thinking long term when putting support toward the “lesser” of evils but we’re merely taking a slower road to hell.

Long term vision is something many have lost.  We’ve lost the common sense to include the survival of our hearts and souls in our practical thinking.

The only way we can save ourselves from this mess is by WAKING UP.

Commend those with the strength and conviction to do so TODAY. Don’t patronize and condescend them.

It’s not smart to condescend those who think for their selves. You will be such a person yourself some day if you aren’t already, and the “karma” we accumulate for kicking others for thinking for themselves can be ruthless. It’s the most difficult test of the soul anyone faces in this world, it’s the loneliest and harshest test. Few want to face it so they stay asleep.

There’s nothing wrong with that (we wake up when ready), but it’s not good to attack those who do challenge themselves and question the world. It’s better to listen and learn from them as we will be them ourselves some day.

It’s always better to be awake today than pay for it tomorrow. Yet there are many extenuating circumstances in which we think we must “go along to get along”. Just because we have to do that sometimes doesn’t mean we should be ok with it. Not being ok with it is what makes us human.

It’s the conflict, the nagging itch within that makes us alive. As soon as we give that up and go to sleep we are no longer living.

Condescension toward those who have courage to think for themselves is, always has been, and always will be shameful.

Maybe it’s better to stop trying to convert them and rather stop, listen, and learn from them.

The First Order Of Business

Watching the RNC… one of the tragedies of humanity is that we usually gain the ability to hurt and destroy life before we gain the conscience to appreciate it.

There’s a lot of people playing with dark emotions these days – hate and anger – without the self discipline or composure to handle them without being consumed by them.

Maybe I’m too Zen Jedi about things to be commenting on politics, but I believe the first order of business is self mastery. Especially the ego and emotions.

The world out there, especially politics, is full of avenues that are making it easy for people to leave their self control and consciences behind.

That is not the message to be buying into.

Men need to start taking pride in their self mastery, not in how loud, forceful, violent they can be toward others.

We don’t live in a society with much strength, that’s why there’s so much chest beating. Insecurity.

We can change that though, by looking within our own selves and at our own mirrors.

It’s the first order of business.