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Overcoming Big Brother’s Four-fold Ministry of Fail

Gary Z McGee
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Overcoming Big Brother’s Four-fold Ministry of Fail

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.” ~ George Orwell

Orwell’s 1984 is one of the most influential novels of all time. In it he predicted with uncanny accuracy our current state of affairs. Big Brother has become a metaphor for the surveillance state erected around us without our permission.

wG31yIn a true democracy, one actually ruled by the people, such an entity would never exist. But since we live in an oligarchy, and more specifically a paranoid plutocracy, we the people have no say, except when we join together in solidarity.

In this article we will break down the four main culprits of the mass surveillance state, using the four overreaching and insidious tentacles of Big Brother as a metaphor, and see if there’s anything we can do to overcome them.

The so called Ministry of Truth

“The problem of our day is an inner deadening, an increasingly deployed defense against living in an overbuilt industrialized civilization saturated by intrusive advertising and media, unregulated toxic chemicals, unhealthy food, parasitic business practices, time-stressed living, and a heart-warping culture of perpetual war and relentlessly mindless political propaganda.” ~ Buzzell & Chalquist, Ecotherapy yes.we-scan

The Ministry of Truth controls information: news, entertainment, education, and even manipulates recorded history to benefit the current established order. It oversees propaganda and historical revisionism. Here, “ignorance is strength.” In the novel this is all taken to the extreme. Although our current system doesn’t take it that far, there is a fine line between truth and doublespeak.

Just think about the bought and paid for media outlets (Fox News, CNN). How the truth is twisted by prostitute reporters who are paid off by plutocratic government agencies to spread fluff news and corporate interest propaganda. Their bait is money. Most journalists give into the carrot dangling from the plutocratic stick. And though a few good journalists still exist, they are anathematized and demonized.

Think about how entertainment manipulates us into being more materialistic and superficial. Think about the bad shape our education system is in. Think about how Columbus Day is revered through historical revisionism. Think about how history books rarely mention the Native American holocaust. And these are just a few examples.

So what can we do? Well, we all know that the mainstream media is wholly owned and manipulated by the ruling elite. We all recognize that they are nothing more than a propaganda machine and a form of mind control. Even the people who still listen to it like it was gospel must know this to a certain extent.

They are just apathetic, fearful and beat into submission is all. Corporate media is a puppet regurgitating a corporate agenda, nothing more.

We just need to remember the wise words of Henry A. Wallace: “With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.”

We need to think about who these fascist groups might be, seek alternative ways of receiving news, and question it all to the nth degree.

Like Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

The so called Ministry of Plenty

monsanto“The cycle by which food becomes shit is functioning. The cycle by which shit becomes food is broken.” ~ Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

The Ministry of Plenty controls food, goods, and deals with economic affairs (rationing and starvation). It oversees shortage and famine. Here, scarcity is abundance. In the novel, this ministry falsely claims to have raised the standard of living, when it has, in fact, reduced rations, availability, and production.

In the real world, we are faced with a global epidemic of abundance for some and scarcity for others. Statistics show that there are an estimated 925 million hungry people in the world, which would imply that food is scarce.

However, the world produces 2,720 kilocalories per person per day of food, more than enough to feed everyone on the planet. Food is not scarce. Belief can be a terrible thing; such as the belief that it’s okay that billions die from starvation when there are millions of tons of food locked up in stores the world over.

Like I wrote in Five Things the Powers-that-be Don’t Want You to Know About Monsanto, There’s a reason why more than 50 countries around the world have either banned genetically modified foods all together, or are at least labeling them.

That reason is freedom of choice. Nobody wants to be force fed anything. The amount of trust we put into our food industry is baffling, but the food industry should at least respect our trust by honestly labeling their food products.

The Monsanto Protection Act, passed in March 2013, essentially allows Monsanto to sell GM products without federal permission, thus dodging any judicial consequences. It strips federal courts of the power to halt the illegal planting of potentially hazardous crops. This is an outrage.

If Monsanto needs a bill passed that protect them from legal action, then surely they know what they’re doing is illegal. It’s not so much that these companies are making scary food that is potentially harmful; it’s that, with acts such as these, our basic human right to choose what we want to eat is being violated.

So what can we do? We can become more aware of what we are consuming, for starters. We can seek alternative methods of consumption. We can leave the outdated system of consumption behind and seek a more updated and sustainable system. Easier said than done, sure, but necessary.

Like Richard Neville said, “What’s needed are battalions of eco warriors with science degrees, gardening skills, and the capacity to create zones of survival. We need to move beyond the world of the possible, and the maybe, and prepare for what may soon be urgent and imminent. Are we preparing “safe passage” for climate change refugees? Are the tents being tested and the food kitchens assembled? If not, why? From where will food and freedom come?”

The so called Ministry of Peace

“Our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.” ~ General Douglas MacArthur

The Ministry of Peace is all about war. It oversees conflict and atrocity under the banner of security and peace. It boldly claims that war is peace, while obliterating peace through incessant war. It claims that the only way to maintain peace is to remain at war perpetually, which sounds like the ideology of a cancer cell.

Cancer begins with a group of cells that fail to communicate with the conscious signal of the host. Collectively, among every human, vanity leads to segregation and competition, competition leads to fear and greed, greed leads to deceit and immorality which leads to a breeding ground for the illness of waging war on earth.

Every act of hatred and self-destructiveness in our world begins with self-hate and self-destructiveness. And it all begins with a cancerous breakdown in communication.

Like Diane Di Prima said, “The only war that matters is the war against imagination. All other wars are subsumed by it.”

As it stands, we are a kind of militarized republic. Militarism is instrumentalism applied to nationalism: it is a principled rejection of eco-centric explanation… and so militarism is inherently anthropocentric – which is not surprising, since it regards parochialism as a virtue of being, rather than as a hindrance toward healthy progress.

It also suffers from another fatal flaw, which is that it assumes that the military has some sort of privileged access to the people it “protects” which it doesn’t want the people to have over it, as well as to the lands of other countries.

Amidst this ominous hyper-militarized shadow, the rest of the world is subjugated to paying a tithe, not dissimilar to the way imperial Rome was paid, “trusting” that the military will “protect” them from terrorism.

So what can we do? We can break the chain of obedience for starters. We can become sacred activists who persistently attempt to spread the lighting of the third fire. We can become peaceful warriors who determinedly dismantle the war machine. Above all, we can teach those who love peace how to organize as effectively as those who love war.

The so called Ministry of Love

when-freedom-is-outlawed-only-outlaws“Most of us have no idea that we are no longer fenced in. We’ve been so thoroughly brainwashed and intimidated and socialized that we stay huddled together, waiting for instructions, when we have the first, best, and once-in-a-lifetime chance to do something extraordinary instead.” ~ Seth Godin

The Ministry of Love controls and monitors potential dissidents. It oversees torture and brainwashing and deals with law and order. It arrests and converts anyone who steps out of line, until love for Big Brother replaces dissension.

Here, Freedom is slavery. People are a slave to the system that keeps them fat, comfortable, and safe. It is madness upon madness. And, sadly, not too far off what we are experiencing in the world today.

“To efficiently control the human farm,” writes Stefan Molyneux, “you need a majority of broken, self-attacking, insecure, shallow, vain and ambitious sheep, forever consumed by inconsequentialities like weight, abs and celebrities –and a minority of volatile, angry and dominant sheepdogs, which you can dress up in either a green (military) or a blue (police) costume and use to threaten and manage the herd.” And so it goes with the state of affairs today.

It’s dangerous being surrounded by a herd of well-meaning fools who believe that the law must be followed at all costs, even at the expense of goodness and morality. Even Thomas Jefferson realized the need to break unjust laws, writing, “If a law is unjust, a man is not only correct to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”

Are we not also obligated to do so? What gets us off the hook of being responsible, proactive citizens? Nothing gets us off the hook. There are consequences to not being responsible with our power: having our power stolen and used to manipulate us.

There are consequences to not being proactive citizens: we become easily ruled. But, paraphrasing Herman Hesse, the unwritten law will always defeat the written one.

What is the unwritten law? Love, health, and justice. And so we should stand up with full hearts, clutching the unwritten law to our chest, and dare to shame the powers of Big Brother (and those who blindly follow) while mocking its unjust laws.

We should lead by example, and dare to show others what courage really looks like. Perhaps this is what Plato meant when he said, “For a state in which the law is respected, democracy is the worst form of government, but if the law is not respected, it is the best.”

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Energetic Blockages and Transmuting Fear Back into Love

Nikki Sapp
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Energetic Blockages and Transmuting Fear Back into Love

 “If you wish to understand the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibrations.” ~ Nikola Tesla

On a quantum level we are all just energy. Our bodies are energy, our feelings are energy and our thoughts are energy. Although the Universe is neutral to all energy, meaning that no thought or emotion is technically “good” or “bad” in a moral sense, there are energies that are of a lower vibration and more dense.

So on one end of the spectrum we have high vibration or lighter energy which is energy that is based in “love” (or openness, expansion, acceptance) and on the other end of the spectrum we have the lower vibration which is energy that is heavier and based in “fear” (contraction, closed off, darker & more dense).

How are Energetic Blockages Formed?

energetic blockages

When we have thoughts on a consecutive basis that are formed from the lower vibration energies, we run the risk of forming energetic blockages in our energy field. When this happens, energy is not allowed to flow freely through us, and we may experience “stuck” energies.

In our physical reality, this can manifest as unhealed parts of our psyche (unresolved emotions) which could eventually turn into sickness or disease if left unchecked. All blockages are able to be transmuted from fear back into love by first identifying where they are and then moving through the blockage, which eventually dissolves it.

So how do we go about identifying where there may be a blockage? And once we have identified that there is one, how do we go about moving through it properly?

“In a reality where we all take responsibility for our own feelings and work to heal and transmute the charges within us, getting our buttons pushed is a gift. We become aware of charges and triggers that we were previously not aware of, and as a result of our healing process gain more awareness and consciousness.” ~ Imran Hossain

Become Aware of Your Thought Patterns

Identifying blockages actually becomes very easy once we become acutely aware of our predominant thought patterns and also what annoys or angers us in another person. When we have predominantly negative or fearful thought patterns about a particular subject over a span of time, we can almost be assured that some sort of blockage has been formed as a result.

Also, when we pay attention to where we are triggered to feel sadness, hurt, anger, etc… by another person we can use those charges as an indication that we have something to work through. Unfortunately, many people stuff their negative emotions down hoping to not actually have to feel or deal with them, only to have them erupt at most likely an inopportune time which is the body’s way of moving through and releasing some unconscious energy.

These “eruptions” can in fact benefit us because if our body did not release some pent-up blockages it would eventually turn into an illness. Also, because our reactions to others are an indication of where we have some unhealed aspect of ourselves, we can be thankful to have people in our lives that are mirroring back to us places that we may need to look at internally.

Once we have identified where an energetic blockage exists, the next method of action is to move through the blockage in order to dissolve it and transmute it back to a higher vibration. This can be done in a number of ways, and the level of ease at which we are able to do this will depend on how “in tune” or in touch with our own energy we are.

everything-is-energy

For someone who is new to these topics, it may be harder for them to dissolve blockages on their own. They could enlist the help of an energy worker such as a Reiki practitioner, or a shaman. Also, things like using sound therapy, color therapy, and working with crystals have been known to be effective.

Removing Energetic Blockages

For someone who is very in tune with the energy in their bodies, they may be able to move through blockages on their own by just meditating and feeling their energetic field and dissolving the energy with their own conscious awareness. Whatever the case may be, it is important not to look for a “quick fix”.

We are conditioned to want to take the easy way out, and as a result, may depend on the work of an energy worker to just “take it all away”, so that we do not have to deal with it. However, most of the dissolving of blockages involves FEELING our way through them.

This means that we are forced to feel our stuffed down emotions in order to move through them. It is only when the energy of the emotions have been felt to completion that they will be properly transmuted back into love. Also, it is important to not judge ourselves because of the blockages.

No one is exempt from them, and we are all on our own spiritual journey back to “wholeness” or higher vibration, so just because we have a blockage or a hundred blockages does not mean one is any less of a person than another.

“There is more wisdom in your body, than in your deepest philosophies.” ~ Friedrich Nietzche

The fact of the matter is, you are already whole and perfect. It is only your thoughts and beliefs and judgment of your emotions that has you believing otherwise and thereby has formed blockages in your energy field.

Thankfully, our bodies are highly intelligent machines and if we pay very close attention to our aches and pains, and where we are holding on to emotional hurts, our bodies will reveal to us where we need to be aware of something.

As long as we continuously bring more awareness and presence into our being, we will be well on our way to transmuting the denser and more fearful energies back into love and light.

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Heal your Life with these 5 Ayurvedic Remedies

Sonali Bansal
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Heal your Life with these 5 Ayurvedic Remedies

ayurvedic-proverb-diet “Herbs are like food; they are catalyst to bodily functions. Conventional drugs don’t balance bodily systems; they either stimulate or inhibit.” – Bev Maya

Transcending the boundaries of modern medicine, Ayurveda or “the science of life” (the Sanskrit root ayur means “longevity” or “life” and veda means “science”) is one of the oldest healing systems in the world.

Ayurveda stands to be the root of many other medical disciplines like Tibetan, Chinese and Greek etc., and provides us with the knowledge of how to prevent disease and to eliminate its root cause.

Nature holds the solution to all ailments and diseases; just as a mother watches over her child unconditionally, nature too tends to our needs. This art of being dwells on feeding the body with the right form of food as per the seasons and our natural constitution to win the battle against different diseases.

Ayurveda works on the premise of unification of the body, mind & consciousness – restoring the balance between the person and nature. When any of the three separates, it leads to imbalance and blockage in our system. The cause of the separation can be accounted to stress either emotionally, physically or mentally.

To counterbalance the stress levels and maintain perfect harmony, Ayurveda has presented humanity with Adaptogenic herbs. The primary motive of this class of herbs and remedies is to eliminate the detrimental effect of stress without sedating or stimulating, but improve the quality of our lives by building immunity, vitality, strength & energy levels.

While there are many remedies that can decipher the code to this elixir of life, we will focus on some of the easily available & most effective ones.

Ashwagandha or Indian Ginseng

ashwagandha
The root and berry of Ashwagandha are used to make medicine

This small yet effective herb is found densely in the Indian subcontinent and has been used for 2500 years in herbal science. Literally translating into ‘Fragrance of the horse’ or ‘sweat of the horse’, Ashwagandha is used as an adaptogen that promotes the body’s ability to maintain homeostasis and resist stress.

The leaf extract of ashwagandha selectively kills tumor cells and, thus, is a natural source for safe anticancer medicine. Ashwagandha has long been used as a remedy for diabetes in Ayurvedic medicine.

It slowly works on building the immunity levels, thereby coping with everyday diseases. It is known to strengthen the nervous system and therefore improving concentration, memory, and reaction time.

  • Benefits of Ashwagandha:
  • Decreases inflammation and pain.
  • Controls bacterial infections like gastrointestinal, and respiratory tract infections.
  • Provides strength, energy and combats insomnia
  • Acts as an aphrodisiac
  • Rejuvenates tissues, particularly muscle and bones
  • Reduces the stress hormone cortisol, it slowly works on reducing aging too
  • Has antibacterial and antiviral properties
  • Stimulates the thyroid gland
  • Reduces anxiety and depression
Adaptogenic Herbs - Ashwagandha

Brahmi or Gotu Kola

centella-asiática-brahmi-gotu-kola
Brahmi has been known for its memory-enhancing properties

Offering complete rejuvenation, Brahmi is a yogi’s herb. Derived from ‘Brahman’ meaning universe, Brahmi literally translates to God’s consciousness and is one of the powerful brain tonic in Ayurveda.

Even the Brahmi leaf resembles the cerebellum and is traditionally used to promote memory, intelligence and to relax the central nervous system. It is found in abundance in India & South Africa and has been used by many to replenish the deficiencies posed by external environment.

Known for opening the crown chakra, it is often consumed by yogis before meditation, as it balances both hemispheres of the brain and creates harmony in the conscious system.

Benefits of Brahmi:

    • The primary function of this adaptogen is to bust stress hormone- cortisol.
    • Aids in digestion
    • Achieves clear skin
    • Fights varicose veins & swelling.
    • Works on the prana energy and balances Vatta and Pitta too.
    • Supports restful sleep.

Chyawanprash – The ancient herbal tonic

amla-indian-gooseberry-Chyawanprash
Amla or Indian gooseberry is the main ingredient in Chyawanprash

Among many tales of Indian mythology, this herbal tonic too has a tale associated to its origin. The word “chyawanprash” has been taken from the name of a sage, Chyawan. The story goes that the sage was quite old and he regained his youthfulness and vitality with the use of this herbal mix.

The number of herbs used may vary from 25 to 80, but the main ingredient in Chyawanprash is
Amalaki or commonly known as Amla, which is an extremely rich source of Vitamin C that helps in boosting your immunity. It also contains other powerful herbs and spices like honey, ghee, ashwagandha, cinnamon, clove, asparagus, long pepper, grapes, ginger, cardamom, lotus, liquorice etc.

Benefits of Chyawanprash:

  • Combats cough, cold, flu, stress and anxiety.
  • Aids digestion.
  • Decreases cholesterol level.
  • Works on metabolism level and increases cellular protection.
  • Curbing the signs of aging.
  • Improves heart health and energy levels.
  • Improves hair growth
  • Chyawanprash also helps purify blood, stimulate the liver, and promote the elimination of toxins from the body.
  • A healthy herbal remedy for those with asthma and chronic bronchitis.
Chyawan's Love Story | John Douillard's LifeSpa

Shilajit or Mineral Pitch

A tar-like substance oozing out of mountainous regions in India, Pakistan, Tibet and sometimes found in Caucasus mountains and Altai Mountains where its called “mumijo.” Literally translated to “rock invincible,” in Ayurveda tradition Shilajit is considered to be the destroyer of weakness. It is also mentioned in the works of Aristotle and prized by Genghis Khan.

ShilajitIt contains around 85 minerals and nutrients in ionic form, as well as selenium, fulvic and humic acid, and phospholipids. These compounds make good source of antioxidant and energy-enhancing components. The color range varies from white to pitch-black, depending on composition.

In Ayurveda it is used to boost stamina, vigor, vitality, immunity and to prolong life.
The fulvic and humic acids in this herb are the ones responsible for its deep penetration in the tissues acting as a skin-renewing agent. It is also consumed by hikers and mountain climbers to maintain energy & oxygen levels on high altitudes.

Benefits of Shilajit:

  • An energy enhancer leading to heightened physical strength
  • It helps neutralize free radicals in the body.
  • It works on Kapha levels, thereby maintain metabolism and eliminating excess fats.
  • Shilajit has also been used to improve symptoms involved with urinary tract disorders, jaundice, digestive problems, enlarged spleen, epilepsy, anxiety, chronic bronchitis and anemia.
  • It could also work as pain-reliever and anti-inflammatory medicine.

Ginseng
ginseng roots
Traditionally, different varieties of ginseng root have been used as medicine in Asia and North America for centuries. Ginseng is one of the most popular herbal medicines in the world. There are two main types of ginseng: Asian or Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng) and American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), and the former is considered more potent.

Ginseng roots are usually taken orally as adaptogens, aphrodisiacs, nourishing stimulants, and has been used in the treatment of type II diabetes as well.

Benefits of Ginseng

  • Increasing immunity and combating fatigue, even in cancer patients
  • Increases concentration level and refines cognitive functions of the brain.
  • There may be substances in Ginseng that have anticancer properties.
  • Red ginseng has been used for treating erectile dysfunction
  • Drinking ginseng tea is good for refining and rehydrating the skin

These herbs and remedies when combined with yoga, meditation and healthy food habits can result in extended benefits. A boon & a blessing of nature, let us all shift to Ayurveda, the nature’s way of healing lives.

Freedom From Fatigue | John Douillard's LifeSpa

(The information provided in this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other health provider/naturopath with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition)

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Jester Guru Chronicles, Part 2: Redefining God

Gary Z McGee
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Jester Guru Chronicles, Part 2: Redefining God

“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that’s what He’s getting” ~ Jack Handy

Today, using my seventh sense, I found a worm that had a god in it, and that god glared in at the god in me that had a worm in it. And it got me to questioning things: What is this drunken physiology; this aggrandized cell-tautology; this clockwork of blood and bone?

What is this mechanism in my head, this impossible chimera, doing backflips in my skull? How can it even come close to being a thing that can comprehend such a concept as God?

OCUPY_IMAGINATION_30X40_MIRROREDPREVIEW

And then I remember a quote by Goethe: “The highest to which man can attain is wonder.” And I think, maybe God is precisely this: wonder, imagination, curiosity, awe. But, then again, maybe not.

And then I remember a quote by Paul Tillich: “There is a God behind the gods of men and women –one that can be experienced but not defined, and that makes all of our definitions woefully inadequate.”

Bingo! Wait. What? We’re back to where we started? We sure are.

Asking a human being what is God, is similar to asking a fish what is water. The sound of bursting bubbles is pretty much all you’re going to get out of it. Similarly, waiting for God to show up is like waiting for Godot. But I’d rather the thrill that comes from daring the gods and failing, than the safety that comes from accepting a low-grade ennui and succeeding.

So this article will dare to redefine the concept of God, understanding full-well, here at the outset, that it will be a complete and utter failure. And that’s okay. Because last night I crept up close to the gods talking in their sleep, counted coup on them, and then left with their secrets in my satchel. And I learned something very important…

godotGod is anything you want God to be: woman, man, hermaphrodite, Spaghetti Monster, Jewish zombie, a guy on a microphone speaking in tongues through a gas mask, a girl with a mohawk killing us softly with quantum-gravity Kung Fu. Or whatever!

The key is not to be serious about it. Just be sincere. For me, in all sincerity, God is a magnanimous question mark in the sky with an infinite amount of answers spilling out of it like galaxies with nowhere to go but everywhere.

Similar to that weird symbol-thingy that the artist formerly known as Prince is now known as, “?” is the artist formerly known as God.

Like Aldous Huxley said, “All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.”

Indeed, the Infinite Question Mark of God can pull my strings all it wants. I will forever heed her call.

Now I know this simply won’t suffice for some of you. Some of you want things clearly defined. And that’s okay, except for the fact that absolutely nothing can ever be clearly defined. I know it’s frustrating. But being a human being in a strange universe is supposed to be frustrating.

So if you tell me in all seriousness that God can only be a He, or only a supreme being, or judge & jury, or only one single thing, then my eyes will promptly glaze over and you shall be intellectually dismissed.

If, however, you tell me God is possibly a frequency, or possibly everything and nothing intermittently, or possibly Infinity itself, then you will have my attention and we can then proceed with an intellectual conversation about the subject.

Like Alan Watts said, “The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.”

Sometimes (similar to killing Buddha on the path) you have to kill the gods of sacred texts in order to finally discover God. I mean, God is probably more than words spilling from speaking-in-tongue tongues. Indeed, maybe God is simply the point being moot that things change.

Or maybe it’s like how Ralph Fiennes describes it: “God is not anything human. God is a force, God is chaos, God is unknown. God is terror and enlightenment at the same time.”

android jones1Or maybe Stephen Mitchell has a point when he says, “If you don’t make yourself equal to God, you cannot perceive God; for like is known by like. So leap free of everything that is physical, and grow as vast as that immeasurable vastness; step beyond all time and become eternal.”

Notice that the key words so far in this discussion are “maybe,” “perhaps,” “possibly,” and “probably.” This is extremely important to notice. Not because it’s a serious subject, but because it’s an important concept for human beings to wrap their heads around.

So perhaps one solution is to simply have some fun with the way we define God, and to purge ourselves of any preconditioned, spoon-fed ideas we might have about the idea of God. After all, “God emptied to the limit is man,” writes Alan Watts, “and man emptied to the limit is God.”

If we can empty ourselves, maybe we can discover something healthier to fill ourselves back up with. And then we can just keep emptying ourselves, over and over again. Maybe we can even learn how to see things the way God does, but probably not. T

hen again, Meister Eckhart did say, “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” So it goes.

All I know for sure is that we need to stop bludgeoning each other with seriousness. We need to stop being so brittle. It would do us well to laugh at ourselves, to trick our own predilections, to surrender to solitude and meditation. Let’s dare to walk through the threshold of our own pain and come out the other side sharp enough to cut God.

Like Adyashanti said, “One must be willing to stand alone – in the unknown, with no reference to authority or the past or any of one’s conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete nakedness, innocence, and humility.”Fire_Question_Mark

Perhaps then we will be strong enough to love God. Perhaps then we will find ourselves at peace with the fact that we are interdependent beings living in an interconnected cosmos.

Like Hermann Hesse brilliantly penned, “We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”

Head-butting the gods will get you nowhere, my dears. You’ve got to laugh at them. And laugh hard. At the end of the day, I laugh mightily, God’s tongue in my cheek. All by myself I am a giant nostalgia. My soul leaps through the hoop of itself. I am here to shake things up. And I am willing to do what it takes to do exactly that; even if that means stapling your god’s heart to my wall and throwing darts at it.

Like Dr. Richard Bartlett said, “You are more than your thoughts, your body or your feelings. You are a swirling vortex of limitless potential who is here to shake things up and create something new that the universe has never seen.”

Indeed. In the temple of my heart, God is on fire. He makes for good kindling. But what rises out of him is a mighty Phoenix. She is that Giant Question Mark in the sky (a fiery red question mark to be exact). And she has risen to burn all answers with her almighty questions. She is damn good at what she does too. Like Margaret Atwood said, “God is not the voice in the whirlwind, God is the whirlwind.”

I leave her to it. Meanwhile, I’m moving forward, to that place where emptiness is full, and fullness empty.

Like Einstein “I believe in Spinoza’s God, that which reveals itself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a god that concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”

I’m too busy moving forward. I am not a victim of the world, I am the world. But I’m also between worlds, God’s precious little oblivion. I am Sweet Law Breaker, constantly in the throes of Metanoia.

I’m here to disturb the undisturbed, comfort the uncomfortable, and free the unfree. I am the oracle who has come to tell the old oracles that they have failed. I am Jester Guru, Wag & Sage, Donkey Genius, THE HEYOKA THAT BEFUDDLES ALL HEYOKAS, and my duty is to crack you open to reveal that you were always God-in-hiding. To teach you that you are nothing like God, and like God you are nothing; but also that you are everything like God, and like God you are everything.

And it’s not that I have a God complex; it’s that God has a Gary complex. The blitzkrieg of my heart is a bag full of God. I tease it to no end.

Like Bradford Keeney said, “Tease God. Do not fear God. A fool’s love is what God loves best. It represents the ready and available heart of a child at play.”

And have no illusions, friends, the world is a playground and I’m on recess.

Zeitgeist George Carlin cartoon

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Million Mask March by Android Jones
Waiting for Godot
Melt by Android Jones
Burning question

Attachments: Breaking Free from What’s Weighing You Down

Nikki Sapp
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Attachments: Breaking Free from What’s Weighing You Down

 “The root of suffering is attachment” ~ Buddha

Attachments come in many forms; so much so that there are probably hundreds of attachments you are holding on to right now that you had no idea even existed. They come in the form of anything from beliefs (about ourselves and others), expectations of how situations should go or ways people should behave, to more obvious things like relationships & material possessions.

Anytime we are dead set on something happening, or are holding on to an idea, belief or plan, or object so tightly that we are unable to entertain any other points of view or options of outcomes, this is an indication that we have formed an attachment.

What we may not realize, however, is that in doing so we are also setting ourselves up to experience some level of suffering. The level of suffering is directly proportionate to the level of attachment. The more fiercely we are clinging to an idea or belief, the more pain, anger, or hurt we experience when someone or something threatens it or in our perceived loss of it.

Since most attachments are so embedded in our minds it may be hard for us to identify all of them at first, and once we have identified where we are attached, it may be even harder for us to cut the cord on them. After all, that’s why they call them attachments right?

So how do we go about identifying where we are attached, and how do the attachments form anyways?

“True non-attachment is understanding that you are fundamentally attached to everything and through that understanding dropping your attachment to the view that you are detached from that which you encounter. At the same time real non-attachment means not clinging to things or people. It means dropping the idea that if you don’t have this or if you can’t get that, your life will be a catastrophe.” ~ Brad Warner

The fact of the matter is, attachments are stemming from the illusory world of fear. There are many different reasons fear may manifest as an attachment.

Some of the more common ones being: fear of losing control, where the underlying belief is that “If I don’t control how every situation goes, I will feel anxious and uncomfortable so I am attached to an outcome, to things going exactly how I want them to,” or fear of being alone, which will manifest in such ways as attachment to people or relationships, also fear of not being worthy or measuring up, which in turn forces us to become attached to an idealized image or even material possessions which we believe will turn us in to the happy person we long to be.

There’s the even deeper attachments also. Some of these come in the forms of belief systems. These beliefs begin to form our ego. Then, we become so attached to who we think we are, we become agitated or even aggressive when someone dares to question us. For example, let’s say someone has attached themselves to the idea that they are a democrat, or republican or a Muslim or a Christian… doesn’t really matter what the label is.
cutting-the-cord-on-attachments
But when we cling to labels based in belief systems such as these, what we are really saying is that we are afraid to be wrong. We have intertwined who we THINK we are so much with this certain religion or political party that if an idea comes along that does not coincide with our beliefs we immediately must discard it as a non-truth.

Because anything else would threaten who we believe we are, but in actuality it’s not who we are at all. It’s just a label we have chosen to attach to. What we fail to realize here is that the inherent fearful nature of our attachments ensures their fallibility. Anytime fear is the underlying reason, it means that there is some level of resistance happening.

When we resist how people are behaving, or how life is actually being presented to us, or being open to another person’s belief we prevent life from being able to transpire naturally in a path of non-resistance. We also fail to allow the intelligence of the Universe to make things go in a direction that is most beneficial for us because we are too busy complaining about how things didn’t go the way we wanted.

The outcome we were attached to happening didn’t, therefore we become consumed with the idea that things have gone “wrong”, when in all actuality, we are preventing the flow of life to unfold with ease.

“Dying to your own attachments is a beautiful death, because this death releases you into real life. You have to die as a seed to live as a tree.” ~ Mooji

We must die to what we thought we were, or what we thought would happen, or what we thought we should have in order to become what we were truly meant to be. In order to do this we must force ourselves to become super aware where we are holding on to fears which are in turn becoming attachments.
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Once we have confronted these attachments and confronted the fear, we will most likely find that the outcome or belief that we were holding on to so aggressively was never really real at all, it was only an intangible idea in our heads.

We’ve already experienced things not turning out the way we planned probably millions of times since we’ve been born and we seemed to make it through those days okay, so who’s to say we need to attach ourselves to the way any future events will go?

Also, in the present moment (which is all that truly exists) do our labels for ourselves matter?

Aren’t they really only ideas in our heads or words on a piece of paper? Does anything about your present moment change if you were to lose your “labels”? Are you not still sitting at your computer reading this article whether or not you’re a democrat or a Christian, or whether or not you end up having to stay late at work tonight or get that vacation time you put in for at the end of the month?

Detach from everything you must be, and from everything you think must happen… allow yourself to be life itself. Be in a state of total freedom, with no cords of attachments holding you back.

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Breaking the chain
Freedom
Creative freedom

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