The "Dually-Digitted Clueless"

Imagine being only capable of utilizing your two little fingers for everything you try to do in life. That's what "ordinary mind" is like. AND, everyone's in that same "handicapped" waiting line - politicians, preachers, poets, paupers, ALL - the "dually-digitted clueless".

Evolving (maturing) beyond one's "ordinary (birth) mind" would be like gaining access to and control over SIX additional fingers and TWO opposable thumbs. Where people are today, world over, in their ability to deal with the world, and themselves, in all its complexity, is like trying to build intergalactic space ships out of toothpicks and sealing wax... using just your (remember?) two pinky fingers.

Uh, can you say, short-digitted? 

It's NOT that people don't HAVE all 10 digits (or senses, for those of good memory), it's that the BEST EIGHT are totally occupied by meaningless, useless, extraneous motion/information. You know what that useless motion is? Attempting to fix, repair, modify, even destroy the "ordinary physical world". Just that, nothing more. What's so funny about it is, NOBODY ANYWHERE actually cares one damn bit about it, really, but ALL were taught from a young age to participate in that activity, so they do. They were suited up as a "worker bee" at a young and impressionable age, and for the rest of their growing up years and beyond the supposedly necessary "worker bee skills" (which are hardly that, but something much less!) were imprinted upon all of them. Now, they can not get free of them. Just look around.

Can you see/realize the state of human life today

 is spiraling down daily, rather than spiraling up? 

And, it ain't easy (though it is simple when you know how) to distinguish between USELESS (unprofitable, inefficient) MIND ACTIVITY, and what "could be" called, Extraordinary Superman-like stuff, Genius Savant-like stuff. Now, there's lots that can be done with just two pinky fingers, even build rudimentary civilizations, institutions, and assorted junk none of us really need anyway - such as we have now on planet Earth - but THAT AIN'T NOTHIN'... Jeez, Louise, Wake Up Puhleeze!

The call of the ordinary is stronger than gravity, 

and almost everybody succumbs to it while young.

 You can't get out, till you can. It's law.

And now for something...

...  completely different, with many thanks to the MP's

Some perhaps recently watched the 2-part special on the NSA scandal, detailing what they have been doing - for over a decade now with no end in sight - to erode the privacy of everyone alive who uses technology. According to them (the mean ol' government): "To keep us all safe from the evil-doing terrorists." According to us (everyone alive): "Big Brother! Overlords! Back OFF!"

It was interesting for a number or reasons, the least of which is the ease ordinary minds will have siding with the "privacy protectors," while railing against the "privacy tramplers." After all, there is obviously a conspiracy afoot to take more from the citizens of the world than they ever give back, even while the tramplers say otherwise. "Hey, we are keeping you MORE safe; so what if we read ALL your Internet and Phone traffic - you should be glad we're doing it!" Or, put another way, the powerful always take advantage of the weak, and that will never change, so quit complaining!

But there is always "the third side of the story" which is NEVER told, certainly not by the "protectors" or the "tramplers." The reason should be clear enough - they CAN not, because they don't perceive it. The "protectors" think they are completely and totally "in the right," and the "tramplers" think they are completely and totally "in the right," so there is no way to convince anyone otherwise. Human life is not simply a Duality, however, though it seems that way. It is a Triality, which is rarely if ever seen by anyone. It is necessary to withhold judgement and opinion in order to even begin to see the Third Side of every story.

Consider yourself, right now, willingly giving over private thoughts, images, web searches, and web links to the "powers that be" without even thinking about it anymore. Technology has already become fully integrated into the lifestyles of everyone on the planet who regularly uses it, and its reach is increasing exponentially every day, while we accept all of this "encroachment" with a smile... ("Thank you sir, may I have another?") But when we begin find out even a little bit of what's going on - like right now, and that will surely increase over time - very few will stop using it, even then. Humans are already hooked, like fishes on the line. The technology has already become so integrated into our ordinary lives that we can't go back.

Even as one side tries to hide everything they are doing, and to keep doing that and more, the other side tries to find out everything they are doing, and put a stop to it now, and yet neither seems to understand the Larger Truth. Neither side can succeed - hiding it completely, or finding out everything - because both sides can not SEE THE WHOLE THING, only a very small part, and it is with that almost insignificant bit of information in relation to a greater whole, that all their judgments and opinions are formed. Incomplete information is the Rule when it comes to human interactions and activities - in all things, everywhere - and taking sides usually gets one nothing but a headache, and perhaps a stomach ache, and perhaps something even worse (like an excuse for suicide.)

You can download the documentary here 

via uTorrent. 
Or, online: Part 1 and Part 2.

Travel Destinations

People think they are free to think about anything and everything, almost in the same way they are free to travel the roads and highways, but they are not. If there are no roads there already (vehicle pathways), you can't travel there - unless you have some kind of "off road vehicle" or go it on foot, but even then, you still can't go certain places. Same with thinking. If there are no "roads" there already (neural pathways), then you can't think about it yet.

How do these roads get laid down, anyway? Somebody has to do it. Same with thinking, usually, but not always. Somebody has to think it, and not only that, they must speak it or write it down so that it can be heard or read. THEN, you can travel there, but generally not before. This is why it is always SO EASY to comment on somebody else's ideas - whether heard or read - but SO HARD to come up with something of your own, and especially, on a regular basis.

Try it for yourself: Break out of THIS "line-of-thought" and open up Notepad, and compose five hundred+ words on a topic that you have NEVER read before, NEVER heard before, NEVER thought about before. Go ahead. Try it for yourself...

For the ninety-nine-to-one-hundred-percent who didn't even bother to try it, here are some topics you might want to consider the next time you have 25 or 30 minutes to fill - hey, it won't kill you:

• Why is it so hard to invent/create new ideas for yourself, that you KNOW at the time are new to you? 
• Could it have anything to do with the idea presented above, that there are no such neural pathways in you yet? 
• If so, then whatever you think about must have some kind of stimulus from out there - or even in here - that kick-starts the whole process. 
• And if so, then consider this: how might one learn for oneself to kick-start their own brain into some kind of "accelerated neural activity" that consistently generates new ideas, new thoughts, new areas of investigation? 

"Practice," it is suggested, "makes perfect" (though there are caveats to consider: look for the link to a fun and interestingly related game to play - Axon.) Practice does improve things, however, at least between the ears. One must use (the higher operations of) their brain or one WILL lose it - bit by bit, connection by connection - and sometimes much quicker than one could possibly imagine, and usually at the most inconvenient times. Too much practice at not using the mind - i.e., not activating/expanding the higher neural pathways - is always somewhat detrimental, and, it seems, we humans are just made that way... to practice everything BUT activating higher neural pathways. In fact, the most time-consuming way to avoid this intentional neural activity is by watching/listening to TV, radio, movies, youtubes, and all the other forms of externally received "infotainment," which could easily be grouped into the larger term: Day-dreaming.

For another kick in that sensitive place 

(don't you just love 'em?) 

check THIS out.

The Crutch

Humans everywhere are walking around with crutches and don't even realize it. Particularly those living in civilization, where they have become necessary in order to just get by, and even then many are not. These crutches come in many forms, but they all serve to "prop up" the person while he spends the majority of his days doing what humans must do to make it into the mysterious "tomorrow." The "will to survive," while instinctive and not a bad thing of course, is part of what attracts the crutches to oneself, as humans are mostly incapable of living in civilization with other people without external help - the crutches - even after they leave home at 16 or so, when they should have already grown their "higher faculty" (i.e., crutchless.)

The biggest crutch comes in the form of "teachings" - which are called many things, like bibles, holy books, religious works, legal systems, political systems, and too many others to name here - but here is the way it generally works. The "teaching" (of whatever type and kind) is always believed to be "true and correct" (not necessarily one hundred percent, but usually very close to ninety or ninety-five percent,) and thus the person feels much less inspired, motivated, and inclined to discover the One True Teaching on their own, by their own certain and specific efforts. Until then, they think, "Hey, why should I? I have the 'teaching' to guide me."

Fine. That's, uh, reasonable, and since nearly everyone believes it humanity is, today, at about the lowest level of sadness, anger, despair, negativity, rage, upset, and mental/emotional/bodily dis-ease in every possible way, than at any time in the past. Just look around and within. Even if another person asks, "Hey, how are you doing?" they will generally respond, "Fine, fine, juuust fine."

But they are not doing fine, they are deflecting from the greater reality that they are slipping away, day by day, closer to the grave and not liking it one damn bit. Maybe if people would just respond with their real truth - "Not so fine at all. The clock is still running down and there seems to be no end to it, until the last moment that is."

Humans could be helping each other and themselves - in Objective Ways - if only they could free themselves from the CRUTCHES that have been propping them up for so many, many years. To look and listen to most humans everywhere, their arms and legs have actually grown into wooden crutches, along with the rest of their body.

They look and sound more like stick puppets:
wooden crutches top-to-bottom, and no master-on-board.
All suited up and playing their part
till death, when they are extincted.

Most will never feel this directly, nor understand this objectively, at least until they throw off their crutches, and learn to stand erect and walk alone without the support of stories from the civilization they were born into - but their own internal being/conscience/consciousness. It is necessary to Create one's own Story - from Higher Inspiration - and then to discover how to share that Story with the rest of the world - from Higher Motivation - even as they know, deeply, that the Story is not meant to change anyone or anything out there, but...

CHANGE the puppet into a REAL PERSON.
Stop Lying with each and every breath, and Speak Your Truth.

Death of the Damsel

(Works for Damoiseau's too.)

Ask a hundred people what they would consider to be "dying a good death", and most would say it would be to die at home, in bed, asleep. A few of the action-oriented types, would say they'd want to die as they lived - skydiving, mountain-climbing, piloting their plane - you know, "fighting the good fight till the end".

Human life is a journey unto death. And if death is not an end, then it must be a bridge to somewhere, we-know-not-where. At death, one will either be asleep in a sickbed somewhere, ordinary walking-around awake, or conscious.

If one is conscious, one can step onto and across the bridge. If one is just awake, one will step onto the bridge, but only possibly cross it. And if one dies in their sleep, unconscious, then one just collapses there in a pile at the foot of the bridge, with all the rest who've gone before.

An obituary column of three people:
Ms. A., lying there in her terminal sickbed for the last several weeks, now asleep, unconscious, unaware of what's taking place, barely breathing, weakened pulse, finally dies, slumped in her bed, takes her place among the rest at the foot of the bridge. Because she died while unconscious, she is survived by nobody.

Ms. B., walking around, ordinarily awake, has a massive coronary, eyes bulging, shooting arm pains, unbearable pressure in the chest - she's aware of what's happening - then she dies, right there on the side of the road, but at least she knew what was going on, and so stepped onto the bridge. Because she died while awake, she is survived by her immediate family and friends.

Mr. C., fully conscious when he died, didn't really 'know it' - oh, he Knew it but he didn't notice any particular change-in-circumstances, he just stepped out onto and across the bridge, while we, on this side, just 'lost sight of him' - though he didn't lose sight of himself. Because he died conscious and aware of what was happening, he is survived by the whole world. A true bodhisattva.

It does not matter the circumstances of your untimely death, where you are, what you are doing or not doing, what you did while alive, or didn't do, nor the circumstances around you at the time, or leading up to the time of your death - all that matters is your state of consciousness at the actual time of death. That is why 'taking your own life', or 'allowing it to be taken' (Jesus-like, Socrates-like) - conscious suicide - might not be such a 'bad thing'; at least, then, you're in control of the moment when it happens. At any other time, you're under the law of accident.

If a conscious man or woman does die, do they Will it so? 

And if so, is that suicide?

originally published in May 2004

Mastery-of-self, vs Mastery-over-others

This should be an easy setup for most people to "consider" without having to think too much about it. In fact, this could be an "Oh boy, a thought-experiment," for those who like such things, though an "Oh shit! W-O-R-K!" (as Maynard G. Krebs would say.)

One should be able to instantly realize that, in general, humans are not interested at all in "self-mastery," preferring the, much easier to "play at" (meaning, very few actually accomplish it,) "mastery-over-others." Humans don't even know what the idea "self-mastery" means, not in the slightest degree. Ask a few of your regular friends, or even your ordinary self what it means, and take note.

The first AIM (if you can call it that) is just not drilled into anyone from birth onwards, either by parents, peers, the educational system, or life-in-general. In fact, just the opposite occurs. Humanity, in one form or another, teaches everyone rudimentary, barely usable ideas about the external world in order to control aspects of it, particularly other people, and virtually nothing of any significance at all about the internal world. The motto seems to be: "Get yours as soon as possible, before someone takes all that you have and more." Similar to "Eat them, before they eat you," - i.e., The Way of the Uncivilized Inhabitants of the Jungle.

Imagine a world where the AIM (being actually called that by all) was Mastery-of-Self - first, foremost, as soon as possible, and taught to everyone starting at about 4-5 years of age - and "mastery over others" was reduced to a non-consideration for everyone but parents of very small children where it is clearly necessary. People would then, very likely, take care of others as they would take care of themselves, and think/feel/sense that their Work here was not done, or even started, unless they are also taking care of others who are less able to do so. But, hahaha, that is just a pipedream. It was not happening long ago, it is not happening now, and it very likely will not be happening in the future. This is the "dog eat dog" world Life made for everyone; and the way we think, feel and sense ourselves and our world is the direct result of what Life ItSelf has done. We, each of us, are just after-effects. Nice going, Life!

Given the probability that that is a reasonably correct viewpoint, it must be in Life's best interest to tolerate a thinking species - humans - that, in only a few short thousand years, has acquired the intelligence and capability to change the planet in real and demonstrable ways, including blowing it up a little bit at a time as we now see almost everywhere, and even all-at-once with multi-megaton-nuclear-bombs, which fortunately has not happened yet, but certainly could, given the general belief in "Eat, or Be Eaten!" as the general way of life. Nice going, Life!

So, where does Mastery-of-Self come into this dire situation that was already here before we were born, and is accelerating every day? Can one even hope to achieve something for oneself, or is one just a cog in a wheel within wheels within wheels, destined to die too young, worse than one was born, under someone's thumb, and definitely NOT FREE? Is that the state of ordinary man today? If so...

Nice going Life... 

What are you UP TO?

The initial "thought experiment" has just now been slightly modified, though it was directly linked by just one thought to the setup: "Mastery-of-self, versus, Mastery-over-others."

Here is a small hint for those who don't need 'em: in order to "consider" such a question (a Koan, really), one must get out of their own way, because ordinary thoughts and feelings quickly go down a rabbit hole. So, stay out of the rabbit hole, and Look Around from the INSIDE OUT, and you might see the one linking thought.