Three Guiding Life Principles

1) No whining.  Nothing is accomplished by whining except adding to the negativity of your life and the lives of those around you.  If something is bothering you then do something about it or don't.  Can you make a difference?  Then do that.  If that doesn't seem possible or desirable, then don't.  But don't pretend that you are powerless or out of control of your own happiness.

2) Be vegan.  To "be vegan" means to broaden your circles of compassion.  

Self <-- Everyone has that one.  

Family, community <-- Easy, everyone is genetically or culturally connected.  

Humanity <-- Getting harder as there are "other" cultures with different beliefs humans.  We like to barbarize and separate from "others."  

Animals <-- Vegan.  

All life, all of the Earth, all of existence <-- Enlightenment.  

Being vegan means to acknowledge that your taste buds are not more important that the suffering that 'meat production' causes to animals (including humans) and the planet.  Being vegan means taking control of your own health and body.  I'm not going to leave it up to 'them' to tell me what to put in my body and what is healthy.  They are interested in making money, I am interested in living.  Being vegan is the base level way in which we express our views about humanity, life, and existence; live with love, compassion, and intention, and know that what you put into your body affects what happens in your body.

3) Be Here Now.  The past has happened and the future is uncertain.  Remembering the past and planing for the future are important, but dwelling on either is stressful and not necessary.  Be here, wherever you are and now, whenever you are, with the people you are with, in the park you are walking through, chewing the food you eating, sitting on the train car you are on.  Be present.  It's so hard sometimes when you do something that you regret, you just want to think about it forever, reliving it, deciding what you wish would have happened.  Or worrying about a tough situation coming up, like a hard conversation or going to a new group for the first time.  It's so easy to play what you want to happen in your head over and over again.  But you need to trust that in the moment, you will make the best decisions possible and be the best person you can be, so start by focusing on the moment you are in and doing it here and now.

What are your 3 guiding life principals (or 3 of your principals so far)?  Please share them by commenting.

Humans and Other Animals

What is the major difference between humans and non-human animals?  Is there one?

This is the question that I think about when I have 5 minutes.  I've been thinking about this question for most of my life.

When I was a child, I though it was language.  Since humans have language and can talk, then that must be the major difference.  Our brains must be better in some way.  Well, it turns out that lots of animals have language.  Prairie dogs have language, for example.

Then I thought, okay, well it must be language AND opposable thumbs.  Without our ability to hold tools we would never have been able to get out of the dangerous wild and cultivate culture in our safe cities and buildings.  Well, is that really a separation?  Other apes have opposable thumbs and are quite intelligent with language.  Why don't they build houses and cities to protect themselves?  Besides, lots of animals build houses.  Birds and bees, for example.

It must be something else.  War?  No ants go to war.  History, I thought.  It must be history that separates us.  We have language and have history.  We develop skills and build off the past.  Education, and history.  But not just having a history, but remembering it.  Not only history, but future projection.  We can imagine what we want to do in the distant future and work towards that goal.

History and the future boil down to one thing; we are living inside of our own stories.  Stories of who we were and who we will be in the future.  We tell stories of fiction, we can tell lies.  We have the ability to tell stories.  Without this ability, we would not be able to work towards a goal beyond our immediate or short term needs.  Without story telling, we would not remember the past and then not be able to learn from the mistakes and successes of our ancestors.

Other animals that do not have story telling have a limited sense of the future and the past.  They are living in the moment.

Perhaps this is what enlightenment is, discarding our stories about ourselves and living in the moment; denying what it means to be most human and connecting with the rest of the universe.

Do other animals tell stories?  Do dolphins have a sense of their ancestors or do they know what kind of Dolphin they want to be in 5 year-cycles?  Or is that such a human concept that to put it on other animals is to deny them their own specialness?

What makes a Dolphin most different from other non-dolphin animals?

Elders in a Society of Youth

Our society does not respect it's elders.  Our culture focuses on and values youth.  Youth is manifested in the importance placed on good looks, material wealth, activity, speed.  In this society the elderly are burdens on the youth-ness of the young.  Burdens on their family, potentially financial burdens, burdens in terms of time needed to take care of the elderly.  Burdens on society for walking/driving/shopping too slow.  They get in the way and need to be taken care of.

I do not want to live in a society where I become obsolete and a burden as I grow older.  How can society change so that elders can be respected and be sources of wisdom and respect?

The elderly today, unfortunately grew up in a society that placed value on youth and material wealth.  These current elderly spent much of their lives focusing on material success, not spending the time they needed on developing themselves as great people who have wisdom and a deep understanding of life and balance, qualities that are to be respected in old age.  They themselves can feel that they are indeed a burden on the fast young society around them.  Couple that feeling of having lost what is most important in society (youth) with the way society treats the elderly and portrays them in the media, and you have a self perpetuating and self fulfilling prophesy.

To be respected in old age, one must live life in a way that promotes self reflection and the pursuit/acquiring of wisdom.  In a society where people grow up doing those things the elderly can and will be respected.  If the wisest among us are held as the heroes, not the richest and most beautiful, then the elders will be the heroes, not the movie stars, musicians, politicians and models.  You can not attain deep wisdom by the time you are 30.  Youth will not be the most important thing.  Aging well and good will be the most important bar to which people are held.  To live this way and encourage others to do so is to change the values of society in which we live and in which we will live when we are the elders.

Now, this issue is actually much more complex than what is described above.  My own grandfather (as many of you are probably thinking now) is an example of a great man.  There is so much to look to him for in terms of examples on how to lead a good and love filled life.  He lived a humble life style, surrounded by family, and always staying positive and optimistic about life's challenges and mysteries.  But unfortunately for my grandfather, he is starting to feel that he is becoming someone who needs to be taken care of.  He's beginning to feel that he could be a burden on those around him and on society.  If he grew up, rather than knowing that one day he would become a burden in old age, knowing that he would be a respected member of society, he would have a completely different mindset.  He may have gone through life searching for the answers to secrets to happiness instead.  Instead of being a family hero, he could be a hero to society.

Thoughts

Those that are always
          thinking
Think they can think themselves
          to salvation
Their thoughts raising them up above
          their own beastly nature
Much higher, happier than the
          thought-less
Who not much higher than the noble
          apes
Float thoughtlessly on the tides
          of emotion.
But you'll never break through
          because
Thoughts never lead to nirvana.
Only un-thoughts.

A World Without Reason

Someone recently learned that I was Vegan.
   For what reasons are you Vegan?
   "For all of the reason," I said.  "Environmental reasons, ethical reasons about the way that other sentient animals are treated, the working conditions for the humans working there, for not supporting the massive corporations operating under these practices..."
   "Health reasons?"
   "Health reasons, yes, for sure.  Good one, I forgot that.  Yes, heath reasons.  I want to live as long as possible.  Why are you not vegan?"
   "I eat the way I do because, it's the way I always eat.  I love the taste of the food I eat.  Meat, cheese.  I couldn't give up cheese and dairy.  I WOULDN'T give it up. I love it.  Well, meat, I could give up for a while, but not dairy.  Not cheese."
   "Eggs?" I added.
   "Eggs, yeah, that would be tough.  I mean... some things you just don't need a reason for.  It's just the way things are."
   Some things you don't need a reason for...  I totally disagree.   If we do not act with the reasons in mind, then we are acting as a society without reason.  We actually need to have reasons for the things we do.  Let's consider the option of living in a society without reason.

We are now in a society full of people acting without reasons behind what they do.  In this world actually there are some reasons, like, "I like they way it tastes", or smells, or looks, or feels to the touch.  These are known as selfish sensory reasons that only benefit one person, the experiencer.   All other reasons in this society are forgotten.  Here people act on instincts and their sensory reasoning.  In this world, companies are making lots and lots of money because no matter what the cost to the lives of the less fortunate, or the planet, they can do whatever it takes to make their products cheaper and more efficient, saving as much money in production as possible, just to sell their product to the population who acts without reason.  They put up huge signs around the cities where the reasonless live and put advertisements broadcasting out on every television and on every page on the internet.  These signs show the people what is normal, what looks good, what it means to be successful and what it means to be human.  Luckily for these companies, through repetition, even the smartest of the reasonless people can not block these messages from getting into their subconscious and the people believe everything that the advertisements tell them!  Now people think that one specific body type is sexy, they know what to eat and what to wear!  Anyone doing anything different from what the companies say, IS different.  Not normal.  All the while, as the reasonless people eat the right things and wear the right clothes, the companies providing them of course, somewhere, they are making these products.  But since the conditions of where these things are made are of no consequence to the reasonless people, they go right on with life, not giving it any consideration.  "It's just the way it is, we have to accept that."  The companies could literally torture the animals that are being made for food, literally destroy the mountains and pollute the air to get the energy to run their machines, could pay the workers in their factories nearly nothing to produce their goods (giving no regards to their personal safety), could literally poison the people consuming their products, and the reasonless people will keep on doing all the things that they are told.  "It's juts the way it is.  I mean, it tastes good, it looks good, it feels good, it smells good, it's cheap, it's what my parents did, my family wouldn't like it if I did it any other way, it's normal.  I could never give it up."

No Shells

What is matter?  

Well, it's not really what we see around us.

It's atoms! Definitely atoms.

Well, what are atoms?

Atoms are electrons and protons and neutrons!  Electrons don't really have much mass though, almost none at all in fact... so mostly protons and neutrons?

That's right.  In fact, atoms are almost entirely empty space!  Electrons are 'somewhere' flying around the nucleus repelling the electrons of other atoms.  And the nucleus is so small compared to the area defined by the electrons.  If the nucleus were the size of a basketball, the electrons would be occupying a space the size of the earth.  THE EARTH!  A basketball as the nucleus, empty space the radius of the earth then one electron 'going around.'  E.M.P.T.Y. S.P.A.C.E. is what we're made of.  And the nucleuses don't even ever touch!  As I type these letters, the electrons of the atoms of my finger repel the electrons of the atoms of the keys and they come very close to touching but the negative charges repel each other!  Our nucleuses are still relatively separated by a distance of the earth!

Okay, that's pretty cool, and disturbing how solid everything is despite that fact...  but what are protons and neutrons made of?

Quarks of course!  I learned about those in high school.

Sure, and what are quarks made of?

Well... probably smaller particles?

The thing is, that we imagine atoms, and protons as having these shells around them.  These 'boundaries.'  But in reality, there are no shells!  Everything is just made of forces!

What!?

Yeah.  No shells.  Even quarks don't have shells, so to speak.  they are made of infinitesimally small forces that have... wait for it... event horizons!  The edge of the forces, sort of.

Woah.  I've heard of event horizons before.  Not only is it a super rad horor sci-fi movie about a ship orbiting neptune, but that's what we call the surface of a black hole.

That's right.  But like neutrons, black holes don't have a 'surface' or shell, the event horizon is the distance where, if crossed, light either can or can not escape the force at the center of a black hole.

So neutrons and black holes are... the same?  Similar?

In the sense that both are though of as having edges or shells, when really there is nothing but forces defining the 'shape.'  And black holes are made actually by stars compressing so much that the electron 'barrier' or event horizon between atoms is broken through, the proton force event horizon is broken through (the quark event horizons are broken through, the [whatever makes up quarks] event horizons are broken through etc.) and atoms sort of melt into one point.

So, what are black holes then?  Where does their force come from?

Well, we don't REALLY know other than that they are a combination of all the forces of the atoms that have been forced to combine.  Which really makes the event horizon of a black hole VERY similar to the event horizons that define the forces of every single atom.  Every atom could then be though of a tiny black holes.  These tiny black holes just are not black because their forces are not strong enough to hold light in.

Cool.  So I'm made of black holes?

Yeah, pretty much.

Preppers

Preppers are the people who are building secure stockpiles of food, water, firearms and whatever else they believe necessary to stay alive once society crashes.  Normally I would, as I have in the past though of these people as extreme and also, I know it sounds bad to say, but rather trashy.  When I see someone training their teenage kids to use automatic rifles out in some compound that they built on their land in Texas, I usually feel a gulf between our ideals, both politically, religiously, and socially.  Therefore, I would probably write them off as not worth considering for the position of role model or thought leader, just as they would do the same for me.  Reject what is different, they never know as much as you or will ever be as righteous or as good of a person as you.  Well, obviously, that statement, intellectually doe snot fit with my world view and I am forced to reexamine my personal gut reaction feelings I get for anyone.  For example, preppers.  

Basically, these preppers believe in two fundamental things.  These things to you and me may sound like possibilities, but obviously are not strong enough possibilities for us to actually act on.  These two principals are as follows: 1) Our society is on a path towards collapse or destruction.  2) This collapse or destruction will be happening in the near future, and therefore worth preparing for (or "prepping" for).

Now, it doesn't take a big stretch of the imagination to entertain these possibilities.  Let's examine the first one: our society is on a path toward collapse.  Humans over consume and over populate.  We are affecting the environment with no signs of stopping or slowing.  In fact we are increasing speed.  Ishmael would have more to say about this first point.

Second point: it will happen soon.  Well, we certainly are a growing population, rapidly growing.  Those making the decisions have little regard for the environment as money is the key motivator.  Humans do not like to regress to anything less than they have currently, taking a step backward is possible for an individual, but for society, very difficult.  Too difficult maybe.  We will not consume less unless we are forced to do so by a major catastrophe such as major war, economic depression, environmental/ecosystem collapse to a point where human society as we know it can not continue.  Our waste is a growing problem, our air is growing more green-house-y every year, ice is melting at unseen before rates.  Our politicians are, while I can't point out any specific corrupt politicians, I know that they are in the pockets of big financial backers, corporations continue to favor monetary gains over human safety and environmental safety.  Technology is also increasing at rapid rates, changing human behavior and psychology at rates just as fast.  Species and the rain forrests are disappearing, the oceans are dying, I mean, it certainly seems like things are heading in the wrong direction quickly.  I think the main point is that humans never like to go backward in comfort, luxury, or technologically and in doing so are mucking things up royally for those exploited.  We are a progress oriented society.

So, I mean, considering all of these factors, one could easily make a strong argument that points one and two are indeed more than a slight probability.  Am I saying we should train our kids how to use guns to defend themselves?  Am i saying that we should build bunkers and stockpile?  I'd really like to say that we can have a peaceful society where those things are not necessary.  I don't want to get caught in a prisoners dilemma where I bring guns to the party just because I am worried about them bringing guns. However, I'm not saying anything.   And one thing that I am certainly not saying is that these preppers are acting foolishly.

This reminds me of my previous opinion of the Amish.  Silly horse and buggy drawn people living in the past.  Well, that was a pretty horrible thought, and one that I don't admit with pride.  It was more of a subconscious base thought.  I thought like a typical human, "hey, if you don't use technology then you are living in the past and while that is interesting, you pretty much are not relevant if you don't live in "the present.""  However, I can see how technology has really expanded humanity on our planet, and unfortunately, though it brings greta joy and health and beauty, it seems to have extended us beyond our safe limits.  We are more detached from our world.  We are far too reckless  as a people for this kind of power to be okay for us to wield.  I admire the foresight that the Amish people seem to have had when faced with a choice involving the future.  Choices concerning the present are often easy to make.  The variables are much more certain.  But, like the preppers, the Amish looked into the future, looked at themselves and chose a lifestyle that fit with what they saw to be the safest and best action for them and their children and future generations.  (I don't really know anything about the Amish actually, but I should find out.)  Not to say that these two groups of people would get along, but they both make me think; what do I think the future will be like and what is the best course of action for me and my family?  How do I get people to see the future I see and come with me in my vision of what to do?

Here's one possible solution, Let's buy some land in central Canada, get all of our family and smartest people we know to come live with us, as become self sufficient.  I want to be able to grow my own food when the grocery stores stop getting stocked.  I want to be able to have power when the power plants shut down.  I want to be able to forage when the growing season is slow.  I want to be able to live if/when society crumbles.  (not to mention, Canada will be nice as climate change affects the US and all costal areas, raising temperatures, causing droughts, spreading disease, etc.)  But no one seems interested and I'm certainly not going alone.

For now, we are trying to live personally sustainable lives, learn about food growing, live simple and mobile lifestyles (as I type this on my computer :/).  Acting on the unknown future is a tricky thing.  I don't want to look like a fool and act prematurely just before things get better.  But I also don't want to be stuck in inaction until it's too late.

Feeling Fine on $150 a Week

Want to lose a few pounds?  It seems to me that the first best option is becoming vegan.  Next best option: go on a super tight budget.  Now I'm not saying that everyone needs to lose a few pounds, but when on a tight budget it is almost inevitable.  When you budget out snacks and eating out, and drinking at bars, what else is there that gets you over-weight in the first place?  The only things you eat (if you're a vegan) are healthy diners, left overs for lunch, and bagels for breakfast.  Healthy, yet minimal.  it's not that we decided to NOT east snacks, eat out at restaurants, and drink at bars (in fact we do those things on rare occasion) there just is not enough money in our $150 a week budget to accommodate much more than groceries and a few other necessities.  Besides, not drinking alcohol regularly alone is a great way to not gain a few.  Also, lucky for us, our restaurant tastes are on the cheap side.  Falafel, coffee, maybe Peace Food Cafe if we're feeling wild.

It's not only a "diet" plan, but an exercise plan too.  What do you do in your free time when you can't spend any money?  No movies, no bars, no restaurants?  In NYC... no problem.  You walk around.  You walk to parks, you walk in parks, you walk in museums (especially ones that have miles and miles of art and mind blowing natural history artifacts.  You walk around town, check stuff out.  That is what New York is here for.  You do donation Yoga.  Everything that you can do for free is going to require some physical activity.  

So needless to say, we both have dropped a few pounds and are feeling pretty good on $150 a week.

Be Here Now

Ram Dass's Be Here Now pretty much says it all, maybe.

Be here now.  Be here now.  Don't be thinking about the future worrying or thinking about the past sulking.  Just enjoy whatever his happening in your life right now at this very moment.  Remove all context.  Waiting in line?  Anxious?  Want to get it over with so you distract yourself with games or torture yourself by dragging out every moment by thinking about the future?  Try just being here, now.

Being here now is the point of meditation.  Just close your eyes, or soften your gaze, focus on being here now.  Focus on your breathing.  Your breathing happens endlessly, like waves on a shore, so you never have to be anxious to see if the next one will come and they are not interesting enough to dwell on the thought of a particular breath.  Each breath is exactly the same, and will be exactly the same as the next.  If you focus on each breath that comes and goes you are living in the exact moment of that breath. You are riding the waves of the here and now.

imagine your life as a needle on a record player, there are waves that move up and down, the future is spinning towards you and the past is spinning away form you, you are articulating the present reality as is washes under you or over you.  We only exist in the here and now anyway!

We don't exist in the future and we don't exist in the past but as a shadow of what is happening here and now.

Calm your mind and be present in exactly where you physical body is in space and time.  That is meditating.

I wonder if animals can see as far ahead on the record of time as we can?  We can stress about it, worrying about how long something will take or all of the dangerous possibilities that lie in our uncertain future.  The problem is that we have 20/20 vision and can imagine with great detail the future.  With other animals I imagine that they have a vague sense of if the future holds much danger, but for the most part I think they exist in the here and now.

All of our stuff we carry and possess is based on humans looking into the future.  Stock pile for bad times, make weapons to defend or attack other humans in the future.  Attacking requires plans.  Animals hunt, which requires the ability to be in a state of zen, of attuning all of your senses to the here and now as to not make a false move.  Every step the cheetah takes gets him one step closer to a blurry future that involves him eating, but if he makes a wrong step by not focusing on the here and now, his immediate future will not be him eating.  We humans do not need to worry so much about being in the here and now to survive, so we don't do it.  We are out of practice.  It's like hitting a zen state.  It's a special thing that only happens every once in a while when you can get your brain to turn off it's thinking and just open up to the now.  But as we meditate or do yoga, we practice and get better at it.  Our minds calm more easily, we can focus on the task at hand or appreciate the things that are right in front of us.  We are optimistic about the future because we know that we need not worry about every detail.  Every passing moment, our future options ring is getting smaller and more manageable.  We can focus on our own happiness and not strain our consciousnesses by trying to focus on the distant future.  We can never see the whole picture anyway because the disk is too big.

Everything is a Torus

Everything is a torus.  Galaxies, universes, black holes, stars, atoms, planets, weather patters.  All toruses.  It's the shape of things.  The pattern of things.  the direction things move and flow.

Even time and our lives flow like a torus.  You can imagine a possible universe and reality, as a wheel spinning vertically.  Our lives are a fixed point and as the wheel passes that point, we experience the life being related through the wheel, what is turning towards us is the future and what then passes us and moves away from us is the past.  Now imagine all possible realities, each as a separate wheel, however, our consciousness/ our reality, our here and now, is still fixed It is the point on which all possible realities exist as one point.  At the one time that all of the possibilities exist at the exact same here and now.  It is a torus shaped object; here and now is at the center and the future and past are spinning discs radiating in all directions around us on a plane. 

The farther away in the future you look (the farther ahead on any of the reality discs, or all together as a torus) you see the future possibilities are vastly different as two wheels on the opposite sides of the torus are farther apart.  10 years ahead on your torus could be represented as a large ring.  So many different things could happen.  Who knows what exactly you will be doing at any "here and now" in 10 years.  You may be sitting in a chair eating breakfast on a porch as it lightly rains with your dog sleeping near by at your house in Nashville.  Or you might be driving to work in a city, flipping your turn signal waiting for a traffic light to change in Santa Fe.  So many things could happen to steer you on a varying path.  Eventually, though, as that point that was 10 years away gets closer, the ring on the torus that represents the possible different "here and now" of that exact moment in time gets smaller.  Imagine that we looked at the ring on the torus that represents 10 minutes into our future.  Chances are that the ring is pretty small in that you could be only doing things within a certain radius of where you stand now. While the possibilities are still infinite as to where EXACTLY you could be, it is a smaller set of options than the ring that represents 10 years form now.

So, as the wheels of reality spin through your existence, time passes.  As time passes large rings on the surface of the torus move closer to you and become smaller, representing a smaller number of possible future outcomes.  As they get closer and closer to present time, they get smaller and smaller until finally they reach you, here and now and there is only one option because it is exactly what is happening right now.  Only one option. 

As time passes behind you who knows what happens to all of the possible realities.  They diverge again.  If you were to look at where you are here and now, there are any number of possible pasts that could have brought you to this exact point.  As time goes on, the variety of pasts possible only grows. 10 seconds ago I was typing and that makes sense because I am still typing now.  10 years ago I could have been doing anything and still end up here typing.  However, we have only experienced one here and now and the string of those moments is being woven into a linear line right down the middle of the torus.  Shooting out from the center, like a galaxy or a black hole have energy beams shooting out of their cores in opposite directing through the center hole of the toruses.

I don't buy it anymore when people say that there are different parallel universes all HAPPENING.  Quantum physics says that it is true, but i just feel that impossible.  I feel like consciousness is not that abundant to be having universes so close making slightly different decisions and so similar to one another.  It means that no one is unique and nothing is unique and everything is happening infinite other times elsewhere.  No.  I don't even believe that the universe is never ending and therefore, based on mathematics, there must be an infinite amount of universes with an infinite amount of arrangements of atoms that somewhere there is another me typing this exact same thing, only in all italics.  No.

One existence per consciousness.  Torus shaped, just like everything else in existence.  Time moves through us from a myriad of possible futures, narrowing into one exact here and now, and we live in the here and now always.  Our possible pasts moving away form us and our futures moving towards us.  We are just the needle on a torus shaped record. 

Money Money Money Money Money

So much of everything wrong comes form money in the fabricated society of modern man.  People work their wholes lives to get 'enough.'  They work hard jobs without much vacation or they work easy jobs because they are enjoyable.  Some people make a LOT of money doing their 'work' and some people make very little doing their 'work.'  Quite possibly, the difficulty of the work does not greatly influence the amount of money that you get for doing it.  A bank CEO or something makes hundreds of times more money yet still lives within a 24 hour day, working, sleeping, eating, spending time with their family (maybe).  So many people work the same hours have a 24 hour day and make so much less.  What is the deal!?  It all seems so void of real meaning and it doesn't make any sense.  Where does money come from?  Why are some making so much more?  Banks are literally just making up money, pulling numbers out of thing air.  "Intrest?" Please!  What a scam. 

Some great people I know are in massive amounts of debt and may never get out of it because of interest.  They are great people and because they wanted an education they are now slaves to the system for their whole lives, or for a good portion of them.

Whenever I mention not wanting my money in banks or in the system, people just NEVER GET where I'm coming from.  

"I don't want my money in banks." 

"What?  Why would you ever take money out of the bank?  You wont earn any interest?  You could invest wisely and make more money!"  

"No, I don't want to put my money into a system that holds the poor down and elevates the rich few. PLUS why would I give my money to someone/some company that I don't trust, to make me more free money?"

"Did you just say that you DON'T want free money?"

"Yes, I don't want free money.  I don't want any money!"

I like to think of money as work-karma.  I get these karma points (dollars) for working to better society and I can do with those points as whatever I want.  I can eat fancy foods, sleep in a safe place, access the internet, and all the things of life.  The problem is that what a lot of things people do to earn these karma points does not better society.  These people still get the karma points and can drive cars, eat fancy food, sleep in a safe place.  In fact, as mentioned above, some people do harm to the world and still earn the karma points.  So I need to give up my idealistic view of money, basically.

Society is not built for people, it's built for money.  Money is the motivator, not people.  Why is our planet being trashed? Money.  Look out your window, find anything.  Why is it there?  Because of money.  It is cheaper, it's more cost effective, it's increasing the revenue stream, it's on sale, it's so they don't get sued.

Isn't there a group of people who can just live without using money?  Looking Backwards, The Dispossessed, both books with non-money societies.

If I'm going to be the best human that I can be, how can I be using money?  Animals don't use money.  Even socially based animals don't use money.  What would humanity look like without money?

It's hard right now for me to think about this any more and I feel like I still have not broken through.  More to come hopefully.

Thoughts about 'The Way'

So, basically it comes down to this.  here it is, I'm writing my thoughts.  Both A and I have been reading a lot of books and watching videos all kind of getting at the same thing.  We have been exploring buddhist meditation and reading Modern Buddhism, we have been reading What is Tao and the Tao of Pooh, we have been reading Be Here Now, I've watched Crossing the Event Horizon which talks about the structure and organization of the universe in energy and matter, A has read some of the Bible, we've read Ishmael, we've read Tesla's biography, we've been deepening our Yoga practice.  I've been reading Ursula K. LeGuin!  All the while we've been discussing with each other and people in our lives about The Way.  All of these things intersect, while not quite leading to exactly the same thing (enlightenment, afterlife/reincarnation, healthy living for body and mind) but they all certainly lead us towards a deeper understanding of 'Our Way' if not 'The Way.'

If someone were to ask me right now, "Hey Brad, what is The Way?"  I would respond, "It means to be as human as possible while encouraging other to be as human as possible and other non-human things to be as 'themselves' as possible.." Just like a tree is as "tree" as possible, a bear is as "bear" as possible, "North America" is as ""North America"" as possible and they should all keep on doing so with no violation on my part.  To do that we need to do the things/activities that let us live as long as possible, as stress free as possible, as connected to the earth as possible (as we are Earth).  

These activities that I would consider healthy activities include being vegan and respecting life.  Staying away from the fabricated society based on over consumption and money.  Treating others with respect and leading by example as best I can.  Surrounding ourselves with things that weren't made by humans and with people that have a like mind, both to remind and refine our understating of what I just mentioned above.

There are some major problems in the world and I can pretty much sum it up by calling that the "fabricated society of modern humanity."  Money, harmful exploitation, industrialization, overpopulation.  All major issues in regards the health of humans, humanity, non-humans (Earth, really).  There are also some amazing possible things on the horizon for humanity.  A deeper understanding of the working of the universe may lead to crazy new technologies like free energy.  No matter the good, no matter the bad, if I as a human, keep being as truly human as possible, then I'm on the right path and I will help take humanity one person closer to a future where the fabricated society of modern man isn't necessarily going to be affecting the lives of everyone in a harmful way.

Maybe for discussion's sake, I will stop there and if there is something you want to talk about particularly from that, we can dive in.  I'd also love to get your answer to the question on "What is The Way?"  Wherever you want to go, let's go!

All One!

So, I've been focusing a lot on and about "all one."  So far my conclusions have been this:

When the earth was being formed, there were chunks of rock that solidified out of the matter left over from the suns formation.  These rocks clumping together literally contained all of the matter and atoms that make up everything on earth, - life, rock, water- all from those initial rocks.

So we are all connected.  We are all earthlings, OF THE EARTH.  Every tree and every human and every cloud and every ant.  Earthlings.  So it makes sense that we are all connected.  Our atoms came from those rocks.  Those rocks formed and cooled... everything that exists on earth today.

Reincarnation kind of works with that if you asks me.  Our consciousnesses  came from the earth, just like all other consciousness in other animals and life.  Wy shouldn't they be linked?  When we talk about spirits and see and feel the interconnectedness of things we are seeing and feeling that we are the same stuff.

Analogies are though here.  It's like pulling apart cotton from one clump into two.  There are still strands connecting the two clumps.

My body is just an ape shaped vessel that my earth consciousness inhabits.  It defines the abilities and limitations of my physical life and my ability for abstract thought, just as a whale's body defines its abilities and limitations of its physical body and how it thinks and interacts with the world.  Both our physical bodies and our consciousnesses came from earth, the same stuff.  A chain of humans coming out of humans, back and back until the thing coming out of the other thing is only a single cell splitting from its twin, back to just atoms.  Whales too.  And trees.  All one.

So if when I die and my physical body and my consciousness separate, it feels right that my earth consciousness would go back to the earth and my earth body goes back to the earth and gets reused by other earth things.  Nothing disappears.  The same protons and neutrons as before when the earth was just rocks clumping together.  Consciousness doesn't disappear either.

Living things are physical vessels for consciousnesses of different kinds.  Animals, plants perhaps?  Still, all earth.  All one.

So to live fully to the potential of my consciousness I need to keep my physical vessel as healthy as possible.  Why limit my body, that body which defines my physical limitations and abilities.  Why limit my human brain that determines my level abstract thought?  Instead, nurture and grow my body and mind to be as human as I can be.  Whales are going to practice singing and swimming and breathing to the best of their ability.  If there was a whale that didn't do a good job eating, it may die relatively young for a whale.  If a human is not good at maintaining its body, it may die relatively young and not reach its full expression of humanness.

Now, I thought I'd just mention that not only are we all from the same atoms from earth, but everything in the universe comes from the same atoms as well.  All one.  ALL one.