God knows why i am writing this now and posting it, but anyway...
Somewhere, i believe in some past life, i lost the sense that i could count on anything on earth to last, and that's been the underlying substratum of my whole life. Money can be lost, people can die or just leave you, or almost worse, your feelings change, houses can burn down, fame is fickle...
I"m 57: i don't have much income, no home of my own, no girlfriend, not much public recognition in my field of music (other than a person here or a person there).
But there have been times in my life when i did have a girlfriend, and often i was still unhappy.
Times i made money, often still unhappy
etc.
When i get into moods of "poor me", i remember those times, and i realize that what i am really looking for is a feeling of peace and joy, and seeking that feeling from external stimuli is ultimately fruitless, an up and down seesaw.
Not that i don't want home, girlfriend, money, success, i do, and at times acutely feel the lack. Not that i diminish the importance of having a happy and healthy physical life, i want those too, but what i really want is an unbreakable sense of happiness, a sense of happiness that's not just the effect of and dependent on external causes, which are not reliable. Meditation and yoga are the things that have brought me the most peace and happiness, and they are not mutually exclusive with a happy human life.
I've had no real desire for kids or to own a home or a lot of stuff, and that has allowed me a lot of choice. I understand that doing karma yoga in the world, job and kids, householder, is a very valid path, which i may be entering on, but up to now my path has been to withdraw from the world, to keep myself as protected as possible, safe from the overstimulation and unrelenting busyness i see so many people caught up in, 1000 Facebook notifications/10 thousand emails/500 cell phone messages a day.
I've lived in tents a lot, probably a total of 4 and 1/2 years of my life, in Big Sur and Mt. Shasta and some other places, and i have to say that, generally speaking i sleep and feel better in nature, and my ideal situation was when i had full access to kitchen and indoors and had the tent as an extra bedroom, so i'm not totally a nature boy, i like some comforts. Still, while it's nice to have power and a refrigerator, it's just too easy to get sucked into hours each day on the computer, and i don't like all the EMFs of modern life.
What i really want is to truly feel myself as spirit incarnate, as tat tvam asi, as the hindu scriptures and the western teacher Joel Goldsmith, and so many others, speak of. (go buy any book by Joel Goldsmith, they all say one thing). I can't say i've done that yet, but what i can say is that living a life with lots of free time, much of it in nature, relatively free of busyness and overstimulation, with as nearly constant mindfulness as i can manage, gives me occasional glimpses, and i'm at the point where it's time to re-enter the world and participate.
I've found so much truth in the saying "attitude is everything" and in the buddhist teachings, which basically amount to learning how to be happy and methods to accomplish that. I started out adulthood, like so many of us, as a wounded, damaged person. I've spent years healing, to the point where, despite my lack of externals, i don't feel wounded anymore. If i die tomorrow, it was time well spent, and, i want to fulfill my humanity and have a good human existence, and give something back, especially my music.
So, today, i got into the headspace of "i need this, i need that". Maybe i'm just writing this to remind myself of what i really need, maybe i'm writing this because it pains me to see people who are looking for peace and happiness from externals, and suffering much in the process, especially people i know. Maybe i just don't have enough wisdom yet to accept that.
So, i've written 700 songs, many of which nobody but me has heard, many of them not played in years.
I do Watsu and massage and energy work, i teach guitar, i can be very loving, nurturing and giving in relationship, and i am officially declaring that i am open for business as a human being, not a dis-embodied mind.
Amin
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Personal and political
Petsitting in the Bay Area for month of July. Just got back from 2 months in Cambria, Big Sur and Monterey, mostly camping. I sleep so well in a tent, away from a lot of electronics, especially in Big Sur. It's so somatically rich. Lying on the ground looking up at redwoods during the day, going to bed more or less with the sun at night.
On a physical level, the best i ever felt was when i lived at Harbin, my tent right by a stream, full use of kitchen and showers and hot springs, leave for the winter, come back in the spring. And, while somatically rich, there's more to life, and i've learned and grown so much since those days.
Even in Big Sur this trip, it was great, and after a while i needed more societal interactions. Maybe some day i'll be ready to go out to pasture, but not yet.
---------------
On this trip i met a lot of homeless people. Not down and out San Francisco types, just regular folks who had lost their job or place or had a health issue, and were trying the best they could to keep their heads up in the face of difficult circumstances. A number of them had a real sense of community.
What i saw, in political terms, was what a sham the American dream has become for people who don't have skills, especially computer skills, at least in California. To think that someone, starting from zero, can a) get a job in the first place, especially if they don't even have money to pay their cell phone, and b) even if they get a job, how can they get a place making minimum wage, $8/hr, and apartments are $800 month and up, not to mention utilities, etc., is a joke. Anybody who can add 2 + 2 can do the math, and it doesn't add up. These are the people i met.
Anybody who says "fine, go someplace else", well, where's the money to get there, knowing nobody, where to stay, etc. In short, not so simple.
For myself, i don't have a place of my own, mostly because i seem to travel endlessly, haven't had much money, but do have skills, prospects and practices, more of an old fashioned drifter, although today that distinction seems to be getting lost. To some extent i could relate to what these folks were going through, on the other hand i felt a bit above it all, even though at times my bank account was down to $120 and i did get a bit nervous, but i always have miracles in my life. I've learned to expect and count on them and this time was no exception.
Still, i do have a strong sense of "there, but for the grace of god, go i". Every time i think of getting a place, i look at the rents, and i see the effects on me personally of a system that encourages exploitation. i have some advantages; educated, frugal, skills, good with money, white (let's tell the truth), strong spiritual grounding.
What about the people who don't have those going for them?
-----------------
So, personally, i'm in a great place petsitting, looking to get my own life together, and i expect i will... and i think about all the people who were pushed over the edge, they didn't fall over the edge, they were pushed, by a social/economic system that empowers greed and exploitation, an ethic of "i got mine, screw you", the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, I win, you lose, "the very thing that makes you rich makes me poor" (a song title from a Ry Cooder album)-------the greed of all the executives who downsized and moved jobs wherever they could pay desperate people almost nothing, just so they and the people at the top, the %.01 (it's really not 1%, it's the %.01 could add millions and tens of millions of dollars to their own pockets, while millions and tens of millions of blue collar folks lost everything. Sure, it's everybody's responsibility to make the best of whatever happens, and i don't deny that many people are just as much victims of themselves as of a corrupt and exploitive system, but i would at least like to see the system set up for average people, not just the smartest and most ambitious, to live a decent life, and it all comes down to the basic values of individuals and the society collectively, the most basic one being compassion for everyone. Instead, America, to a large extent, at least the laws governing money, functions on dog eat dog, i win, you lose, tough shit.
Especially as someone who has followed my calling as an artist, rather than maximizing my income, i see how, despite cute PBS programs, the underlying pressures in the society are for people to sacrifice their integrity and their dreams to the necessity of making MONEY, wasting their lives as wage slaves, often in useless and ecologically destructive ways, and then i see how the people who do that so often seem stressed and unhappy, hardly enough time for themselves to pee.
I always struggle with the fact that, in metaphysical terms, i really do believe in divine justice and that it's all perfect, and the struggles are to learn from, but when i meet and hang out with people i like and have good conversations with, people who, on one level, are getting fucked over by the system, it's a lot harder for me to be so philosophical about it.
----------------------------
I add three links from Barbara Ehrenreich, who has written compellingly and beautifully on this topic
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/thislandistheirland.htm
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Falling-Inner-Middle-Class/dp/0060973331
some more links
David Cay Johnston Perfectly legal
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket
http://www.nationalmemo.com/wages-fall-at-record-pace
I've done other posts on this blog on similar topics, just check the politics tag.
On a physical level, the best i ever felt was when i lived at Harbin, my tent right by a stream, full use of kitchen and showers and hot springs, leave for the winter, come back in the spring. And, while somatically rich, there's more to life, and i've learned and grown so much since those days.
Even in Big Sur this trip, it was great, and after a while i needed more societal interactions. Maybe some day i'll be ready to go out to pasture, but not yet.
---------------
On this trip i met a lot of homeless people. Not down and out San Francisco types, just regular folks who had lost their job or place or had a health issue, and were trying the best they could to keep their heads up in the face of difficult circumstances. A number of them had a real sense of community.
What i saw, in political terms, was what a sham the American dream has become for people who don't have skills, especially computer skills, at least in California. To think that someone, starting from zero, can a) get a job in the first place, especially if they don't even have money to pay their cell phone, and b) even if they get a job, how can they get a place making minimum wage, $8/hr, and apartments are $800 month and up, not to mention utilities, etc., is a joke. Anybody who can add 2 + 2 can do the math, and it doesn't add up. These are the people i met.
Anybody who says "fine, go someplace else", well, where's the money to get there, knowing nobody, where to stay, etc. In short, not so simple.
For myself, i don't have a place of my own, mostly because i seem to travel endlessly, haven't had much money, but do have skills, prospects and practices, more of an old fashioned drifter, although today that distinction seems to be getting lost. To some extent i could relate to what these folks were going through, on the other hand i felt a bit above it all, even though at times my bank account was down to $120 and i did get a bit nervous, but i always have miracles in my life. I've learned to expect and count on them and this time was no exception.
Still, i do have a strong sense of "there, but for the grace of god, go i". Every time i think of getting a place, i look at the rents, and i see the effects on me personally of a system that encourages exploitation. i have some advantages; educated, frugal, skills, good with money, white (let's tell the truth), strong spiritual grounding.
What about the people who don't have those going for them?
-----------------
So, personally, i'm in a great place petsitting, looking to get my own life together, and i expect i will... and i think about all the people who were pushed over the edge, they didn't fall over the edge, they were pushed, by a social/economic system that empowers greed and exploitation, an ethic of "i got mine, screw you", the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, I win, you lose, "the very thing that makes you rich makes me poor" (a song title from a Ry Cooder album)-------the greed of all the executives who downsized and moved jobs wherever they could pay desperate people almost nothing, just so they and the people at the top, the %.01 (it's really not 1%, it's the %.01 could add millions and tens of millions of dollars to their own pockets, while millions and tens of millions of blue collar folks lost everything. Sure, it's everybody's responsibility to make the best of whatever happens, and i don't deny that many people are just as much victims of themselves as of a corrupt and exploitive system, but i would at least like to see the system set up for average people, not just the smartest and most ambitious, to live a decent life, and it all comes down to the basic values of individuals and the society collectively, the most basic one being compassion for everyone. Instead, America, to a large extent, at least the laws governing money, functions on dog eat dog, i win, you lose, tough shit.
Especially as someone who has followed my calling as an artist, rather than maximizing my income, i see how, despite cute PBS programs, the underlying pressures in the society are for people to sacrifice their integrity and their dreams to the necessity of making MONEY, wasting their lives as wage slaves, often in useless and ecologically destructive ways, and then i see how the people who do that so often seem stressed and unhappy, hardly enough time for themselves to pee.
I always struggle with the fact that, in metaphysical terms, i really do believe in divine justice and that it's all perfect, and the struggles are to learn from, but when i meet and hang out with people i like and have good conversations with, people who, on one level, are getting fucked over by the system, it's a lot harder for me to be so philosophical about it.
----------------------------
I add three links from Barbara Ehrenreich, who has written compellingly and beautifully on this topic
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/thislandistheirland.htm
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Falling-Inner-Middle-Class/dp/0060973331
some more links
David Cay Johnston Perfectly legal
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket
http://www.nationalmemo.com/wages-fall-at-record-pace
I've done other posts on this blog on similar topics, just check the politics tag.
Friday, November 23, 2012
it's that time
Like many other people i know, i have been going through big changes. The life i lived for years, bouncing around a few weeks here a few weeks there, low income, invisible to the greater world (for the most part), the wandering sadhu, wandering minstrel, blahblahblah; i appreciate, honor and am grateful for all the experiences i had, lessons i learned, people i met through that mode of life, and i'm feeling done with it, ready to begin something new, a more rooted, more visible, more manifested in the world life with a home, band, steady relationship, real income, honor, recognition and reward. Bring it on.
Friday, March 19, 2010
My Business Plan
I have written over 600 songs and a bunch of poems. Never counted the poems, definitely hundreds. People tell me they like my music and poetry. I think i have all the raw materials for a cottage industry
So why isn't it happening?
I'm actually a pretty good businessman and marketer, and for whatever reason, after years of saying i should, i should, the truth is, i don't, i don't, and i don't want to, because my creative efforts go into writing and composing, and i can't do both. The times i have, i stop playing and writing. Fuck that.
So, Business partner wanted. Someone to:
My ideal person
Basically, i am looking for a cross between King Solomon and Steve Jobs. Maybe the solution is not one person, maybe it's a team. I like teams.
The deal:50-50.
I am a very cautious, conservative person in some ways. I would want months getting to know anyone i am going to get seriously involved with in a business way, because once we start working together, i am not looking to change horses in midstream.
Potential issues down the road;
I'm not holding my breath, i'm not expecting it, but i really do believe it could happen. It's not that i want to get rich and live in a mansion; i do want to be comfortable financially, screw the mansion. It would be nice to have some money to use for helping others and good causes.
So, there it is, my business plan. I make the music, you do the business, we split the proceeds.
- Music CDs
- Poetry CDs
- Downloads of songs and Poems
- Music DVDs, mixed with some interview and poetry
- DVDs of Music Videos (my songs are very visual, would lend themselves well to this)
- Written folios of song lyrics and poetry
- Frameable Poems and Lyrics, done in calligraphy, with illustrations, printed on high quality paper, or maybe just available for download. I had in mind some zen style, Paul Reps type brush and ink work
So why isn't it happening?
I'm actually a pretty good businessman and marketer, and for whatever reason, after years of saying i should, i should, the truth is, i don't, i don't, and i don't want to, because my creative efforts go into writing and composing, and i can't do both. The times i have, i stop playing and writing. Fuck that.
So, Business partner wanted. Someone to:
- Do the marketing. Spend hours on the computer contacting every fan and other music website in the world saying, check this guy out.
- Do booking and promotion
- Someone who is good at setting up the accounts with all the sales websites like imeem and CD baby
- Do the CD and DVD covers, and handle the production of the printed materials and the artwork, because i am useless at the computer graphic work.
- Ideally, this person had recording equipment, and was good with it. This is flexible, i am very good and efficient in a studio, so money takes care of that
- provide cash up front for recording and putting out the stuff
My ideal person
- 1 Honest, goes without saying
- 2 Competent. I have heard stories of well meaning people trying to help, but didn't know what they were doing, and no happy ending.
- 3 Wise, patient, caring person. Someone with heart.
- 4 Someone who can accept that i want a music career to be an important part of my life, not take over my whole life. I'm in it for the long haul. That means i pace myself, proceeding at a comfortable clip. Translation=10 shows/month, 10 months/year, travelling arranged in a healthy way, not a bunch of one night stands. I want to, for instance, go to Seattle for a month, sublet a room, and do a bunch of shows in the area. I need hours each day to do my meditation, qigong, yoga, prepare healthy food, etc.
- 5 Excellent computer skills, including graphics and layout, and dealing with emails and websites
- 6 People skills, lots of patience and tact. A lot of people in the music biz are full of themselves. You can not take offense. Actually, at times person might need people skills to deal with me.
- 7 Meticulous, diligent, responsible, especially with the accounting and keeping track of the email.
- 8 I am their only client. Maybe one other. Not spread too thin
Basically, i am looking for a cross between King Solomon and Steve Jobs. Maybe the solution is not one person, maybe it's a team. I like teams.
The deal:50-50.
I am a very cautious, conservative person in some ways. I would want months getting to know anyone i am going to get seriously involved with in a business way, because once we start working together, i am not looking to change horses in midstream.
Potential issues down the road;
- If i got really successful, at some point a professional booking agent, with contacts already in place all across the country, would make sense. Ditto for distribution. Some financial adjustments have to be made. Maybe we split the booker's percentage.
- What if we decide to part ways. This could happen for a variety of amicable reasons, as well as other reasons. What percentage of my sales are you entitled to, and for how long, after we split?
I'm not holding my breath, i'm not expecting it, but i really do believe it could happen. It's not that i want to get rich and live in a mansion; i do want to be comfortable financially, screw the mansion. It would be nice to have some money to use for helping others and good causes.
So, there it is, my business plan. I make the music, you do the business, we split the proceeds.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Living Well
Ok, so you've read my earlier blog posts, and lots of other similar material, and you're saying "life sucks, and then you die".
The delicate balancing act of life is to keep the spiritual eye open to the higher truths, to live a life of integrity, to keep a good attitude, and a smile, to take care of your health, to not let stress chew at you and destroy your health, to eat well, take care of your body, have good relationships, etc
AND
to see the world as it is, to see through all the lies we are told and the frauds we are sold, to not just accept the propaganda, the brainwashing, the bullshit.
I'll tell my own story. A few years back, i was getting so upset, taking on so much stress, about all the "problems of the world", thinking about it so much, that my health started to go down. i really had the feeling that if i didn't find some way of dealing with this, that i wouldn't be around much longer.
I have a long background and repertoire of spiritual practices. I meditate, do yoga, vegetarian, all that stuff. In this case it saved my life.
I started doing a practice of sending energy up to my third eye, of holding the intention, praying, if you want to call it that, that i be allowed to see the world with the eye of spirit, because to my human eyes, it looked like it was bad and getting worse.
What ended up happening, is that i started getting the understanding, the deep intuition or feeling, that the world was a one room schoolhouse, that we are all here, and have chosen to incarnate here, in this time, in the midst of these problems, for the purpose of learning lessons. One of the biggest, and for me, probably my own personal most important lesson, is to not hate those who do wrong, to see them as the wounded, sick individuals they are, rather than as "bad" people. To see the innate goodness deep in the soul of even the most horrendous torturer.
And, ultimately, i received the understanding that we are all, as Wayne Dyer says, spiritual beings having a material experience. Our essence is not wetted by water, not dried by wind, not cloven by a sword, not burned by fire. Our bodies are like suits of clothes. If something happens, you can always get a new one.
That may all sound pretty pie in the sky to materialistic types who believe in no higher reality than what they can touch, taste and smell. Until you do some practices, which open up your energy body and higher centers, it's all just a bunch of words, until you start opening up higher modes of perception.
I personally believe that anyone living in this world, especially those trying to change the world for the better, owe it to themselves to give themselves the spiritual and psychic nutrition they need, and this is done through every day practice. I am not trying to sell any particular brand. There are a lot of different choices, what is important is to do something.
Now you can see from my other blog posts that i still react to wrongs, but I now have a sense that, as Martin Luther King said, "the arc of history is towards justice".
good luck
The delicate balancing act of life is to keep the spiritual eye open to the higher truths, to live a life of integrity, to keep a good attitude, and a smile, to take care of your health, to not let stress chew at you and destroy your health, to eat well, take care of your body, have good relationships, etc
AND
to see the world as it is, to see through all the lies we are told and the frauds we are sold, to not just accept the propaganda, the brainwashing, the bullshit.
I'll tell my own story. A few years back, i was getting so upset, taking on so much stress, about all the "problems of the world", thinking about it so much, that my health started to go down. i really had the feeling that if i didn't find some way of dealing with this, that i wouldn't be around much longer.
I have a long background and repertoire of spiritual practices. I meditate, do yoga, vegetarian, all that stuff. In this case it saved my life.
I started doing a practice of sending energy up to my third eye, of holding the intention, praying, if you want to call it that, that i be allowed to see the world with the eye of spirit, because to my human eyes, it looked like it was bad and getting worse.
What ended up happening, is that i started getting the understanding, the deep intuition or feeling, that the world was a one room schoolhouse, that we are all here, and have chosen to incarnate here, in this time, in the midst of these problems, for the purpose of learning lessons. One of the biggest, and for me, probably my own personal most important lesson, is to not hate those who do wrong, to see them as the wounded, sick individuals they are, rather than as "bad" people. To see the innate goodness deep in the soul of even the most horrendous torturer.
And, ultimately, i received the understanding that we are all, as Wayne Dyer says, spiritual beings having a material experience. Our essence is not wetted by water, not dried by wind, not cloven by a sword, not burned by fire. Our bodies are like suits of clothes. If something happens, you can always get a new one.
That may all sound pretty pie in the sky to materialistic types who believe in no higher reality than what they can touch, taste and smell. Until you do some practices, which open up your energy body and higher centers, it's all just a bunch of words, until you start opening up higher modes of perception.
I personally believe that anyone living in this world, especially those trying to change the world for the better, owe it to themselves to give themselves the spiritual and psychic nutrition they need, and this is done through every day practice. I am not trying to sell any particular brand. There are a lot of different choices, what is important is to do something.
Now you can see from my other blog posts that i still react to wrongs, but I now have a sense that, as Martin Luther King said, "the arc of history is towards justice".
good luck
Friday, April 3, 2009
a little bit about me
for those of you who have read this blog, and perhaps some of my other writings on my website, jaydancingbear.com
you may be under the impression that i am a knee jerk, bleeding heart, liberal do gooder. Well, maybe i am, but i don't think so.
I started out as a Republican, a real meat head type, the guy who said we should nuke North Vietnam (this was during the Vietnam war). Times have changed.
In many ways liberals drive me crazy with their politics of victimhood and failure to demand personal responsibility and accountability from all the "victims". As far as i can tell, most people are just as much victims of themselves, of their own arrogance and stupidity, as they are of anything else. Lack of resources is one thing; poor use of resources is another. As a musician who has lived on a low budget my whole life, and done well with it, i know that you can spend $10 on one meal or on groceries for three meals.
Now the big BUT
But, even though liberals drive me crazy, they are so absolutely right on in their view of how our political and economic system is rigged to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and to produce lots of losers to fill up the prisons and march off to war. Conservatives close their eyes to how having a kid grow up with virtually no parent time, because the parents both have to work 2 jobs to survive, because the landlord gets to grind them to pay enough rent to pay his mortgage and put money in his pocket, and then that same kid goes to a school where classrooms have one teacher for 35 kids, and of course he's been subtly told he's not good enough because he's not white, well, what do you expect?
The figure i saw was that 1 in 3 high school kids do not graduate. Where are they going to end up? In prison, making a lot of money for police, courts, judges, prison guards, the suppliers of clothing and food, etc. And that's the point. The system is designed to produce these losers to make money off of.
Just from a selfish point of view, we're better off not having a bunch of fucked up, angry, uneducated people stealing our car stereos when we park, or having to trip over a bunch of homeless people when we go downtown (and let's not forget how many of these homeless are vets).
I just wish everybody would cut the shit and tell the truth: people are ultimately responsible for their own actions, and the system is rigged to produce losers.
And the environment. Don't get me started. A slow motion train wreck, the ultimate disaster. But hey, let's not interfere with business, even if we all get cancer, our homes are blown away in a hurricane, and the world either cooks us or goes to a new Ice Age.
WAKE UP. Even if everybody else is a marching moron, at least open up your own eyes.
http://www.projectcensored.org/
you may be under the impression that i am a knee jerk, bleeding heart, liberal do gooder. Well, maybe i am, but i don't think so.
I started out as a Republican, a real meat head type, the guy who said we should nuke North Vietnam (this was during the Vietnam war). Times have changed.
In many ways liberals drive me crazy with their politics of victimhood and failure to demand personal responsibility and accountability from all the "victims". As far as i can tell, most people are just as much victims of themselves, of their own arrogance and stupidity, as they are of anything else. Lack of resources is one thing; poor use of resources is another. As a musician who has lived on a low budget my whole life, and done well with it, i know that you can spend $10 on one meal or on groceries for three meals.
Now the big BUT
But, even though liberals drive me crazy, they are so absolutely right on in their view of how our political and economic system is rigged to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and to produce lots of losers to fill up the prisons and march off to war. Conservatives close their eyes to how having a kid grow up with virtually no parent time, because the parents both have to work 2 jobs to survive, because the landlord gets to grind them to pay enough rent to pay his mortgage and put money in his pocket, and then that same kid goes to a school where classrooms have one teacher for 35 kids, and of course he's been subtly told he's not good enough because he's not white, well, what do you expect?
The figure i saw was that 1 in 3 high school kids do not graduate. Where are they going to end up? In prison, making a lot of money for police, courts, judges, prison guards, the suppliers of clothing and food, etc. And that's the point. The system is designed to produce these losers to make money off of.
Just from a selfish point of view, we're better off not having a bunch of fucked up, angry, uneducated people stealing our car stereos when we park, or having to trip over a bunch of homeless people when we go downtown (and let's not forget how many of these homeless are vets).
I just wish everybody would cut the shit and tell the truth: people are ultimately responsible for their own actions, and the system is rigged to produce losers.
And the environment. Don't get me started. A slow motion train wreck, the ultimate disaster. But hey, let's not interfere with business, even if we all get cancer, our homes are blown away in a hurricane, and the world either cooks us or goes to a new Ice Age.
WAKE UP. Even if everybody else is a marching moron, at least open up your own eyes.
http://www.projectcensored.org/
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Happiness is
a state of mind.
So often i have thought, i would be happy if this or if that. it is true that having my human needs met frees me to access deeper truths, however, ultimately, i find happiness is a state of consciousness, and dis-satisfaction is a state of consciousness. of course, very often these states are the result of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc. (drugs are way too powerful for me).
leaving those aside, the question becomes, how can i live in the state of consiousness that has happiness as one of it's attributes.
In Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy (it's a great book) there is a saying that joy is the surest sign of the presence of god. is that ultimately the key to human happiness, an ongoing mystical experience of the presence of god, living with the presence of god? (god also meaning spirit, goddess, or whatever you want to call it, they're just different names for the same thing).
yes.
So often i have thought, i would be happy if this or if that. it is true that having my human needs met frees me to access deeper truths, however, ultimately, i find happiness is a state of consciousness, and dis-satisfaction is a state of consciousness. of course, very often these states are the result of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc. (drugs are way too powerful for me).
leaving those aside, the question becomes, how can i live in the state of consiousness that has happiness as one of it's attributes.
In Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy (it's a great book) there is a saying that joy is the surest sign of the presence of god. is that ultimately the key to human happiness, an ongoing mystical experience of the presence of god, living with the presence of god? (god also meaning spirit, goddess, or whatever you want to call it, they're just different names for the same thing).
yes.
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