Change Happens (2016)

The masterpiece is not complete until the last brushstroke, although it takes a million or so brushstrokes to create a master worthy of a masterpiece

5/14/2016:
A crow cawing in the night
No longer anyone around to protect the innocent
No more remorse for the horrible deeds of the past
No more sympathy for the mothers & fathers who lost their children to the beast [not even the master can tame the beast- the beast within- the animal nature]
The ills of mankind which are reflections of the artificial pain and self-induced suffering, as if we were not suffering enough… Society adds more pain without much promise of gain
The same repeating pattern of life & death disguised as a game
We make the old mistakes but give them a different name
“If we don’t support the frame, we won’t have a foundation to maintain…”
The simplicity of living in the city but knowing nobody in the vicinity
Lonely masses hurrying hopelessly and openly without openness
The homeless repairing a hole in the heart where the mind wandered off
Problems are temporary when one has ways to forget, the solutions are hard to obtain when one has nowhere to start
The factions of people operating in fear, stuck in methods of earning income, not questioning the system that feeds off them, never spending the time to see friends & family, nor finding practical enjoyment in freedom (not just an escape but a freedom in which one has awareness of being alive)
We don’t just live to survive (to feed ourselves and die) but we exist to have liberty, find ourselves, experience higher states of consciousness, express higher abstractions and forms a.k.a. Art
We wish to surpass the physical & emotional needs to fulfill the spiritual needs, to feel achievement & accomplishment in one’s being, to understand the nature of existence and the meaning of our individual & collective place in the universe- to have community and experience love, peace and happiness…


Waking up from an ocean of dreams & only remembering a droplet from the cosmic water...it’s possible to have too much of a good thing


Ruthlessly awaiting death
Haunted by the sound of silence
Tempted by the song of doom
Digging for pieces of ourselves in ancient ruins
Researching the complicated order of life
Contemplating the complementary opposites
The structures that contribute to society
Squandering the days which pass us by
No one can fight the balance of nature
We will be defeated by trying to defeat nature
We can work with nature as our guide- as our source
Nature has a plan but it has no intention
And one certain thing about nature is that it appears chaotic
The nature of reality has often provoked deep questions:
What is the property of life?
What is the substance of reality? (Which can tell us much about the nature of consciousness?)
What is reality without consciousness?
What is mind?
What can we consider real versus what is just a reality of the mind?
Is there an objective reality? Or just subjective experience?
[with a ceramic face and complimentary smile]


Makeshift midnight melodies marking mirrors with morning madness, not to be mixed up with mourning and sadness
Laughing and carelessness, restlessness and festive activities
Irrelevance and prevalence- semblance of reality, not knowing the predicate
A friend is nothing but a future enemy- We all live in different realms
People are sounds of voices occasionally making eye contact
They decide whether they want to respond or react depending on their mood (time of the day, what they ate) and creativity, if they see themselves as created or the creator
Do we create reality? Or does our experience become pre-destined merely by the constraints of the brain-mind and the physical possibilities of the universe? [Universal Being]
Are we living in a probability machine that tends to seek out the Good for people’s genuine happiness?


Happiness must be cultivated
A year has elapsed and nothing seems to have changed for the better
The only thing that has changed is the Essence of Being
I am but who am I? Me? The Ego?
I am not a thing. I am no-thing.
There exists no experience nor experiencer.
Nothing yet everything exists.
Who is the experiencer who observes ego-death? Buddhahood?
The True Self has no conception of self- thus no-self (anatman)(anatta)


Life cannot regret when every mistake becomes a learning experience
The stubborn person can only regret their stubbornness at the end of a life of no-change
Those who were deaf to the advice of their peers can now listen and follow
They can wake up to a new day with new thinking and novel practices


You have a vision shared by nobody
(and that’s why they criticize what they can’t see)


6/9/2016:
What is the Absolute? The One? The Whole?
What is time for a tree? How do plants experience time?
(The philosopher asks questions but expects few answers- it’s more important to think than always to know- to know everything would not be very fun but to wonder and never stop wondering is what has importance)
Wisdom in life is knowing that you know nothing
Memories play tricks on the mind
What is the importance of memories?
Do we attach our idea of self to our memories?
Are we simply the collection of memories of our life?
Nothing is what you think it is
Life only has meaning in relation to the meaning that we give it
Reality exists because we have consciousness and we describe reality through intersubjectivity of experience as it appears to us. We can discover truths in nature through interaction with our environment, and we can discover truths about ourselves through observation of our cognitive processes and through interaction with other minds. Ultimately our behavior dictates how we function in our environment and how we interact with other social animals. Our evolution and development affect how our brains work, what we think, how we talk with & act towards other people.


Many people are uninformed in thinking that knowledge is perception. “Reality” is like an optical illusion, what one sees is not really there. Our perception of time and space (proxemics) are ways that our brain has evolved in order to navigate our world. Our perception is not perfect, but it is rather good for the function it evolved for: adaptation to the environment.


With each inquiry into meaning, the meaning is lost. The miracle of life goes unrecognized- taken for granted. People juggling their ego-trip with no thought of the possibility of losing ego because to many people the idea of losing their ego is losing their self- one’s self identification comprises of worldly attachments and pursuits of worldly attainment for security (as opposed to spiritual attainment) not realizing that the aim for worldly possessions brings no true fulfillment. The betterment of one’s higher self (artistic ability, for example, realizing one’s potential and finding value in what one does) can afford one a life of meaning although it may not produce a luxurious life- the “dream life” that most people desire. There is a price to pay for mental baggage associated with striving for material riches but possessions do not promise any fundamental happiness. The goal of human life is spiritual well-being, not monetary gain. And rightly so, people are concerned with taking care of their families, almost inevitably making the same mistakes as their predecessors. Fear looms heavy on the souls of men and women.


6/11/2016:
Having truth is knowing what not to think
Laughing in the face of death
The mind-senses are everything to us
What is more real?: The visions (beautiful radiant) OR Ultimate Reality
The mind and its thoughts seem more real than sense-perception
The simultaneity-synchronicity only appears so from the subjective observers’ perspective; all things are relative from one’s point of view… no thing stands all alone by itself; there’s an interconnectivity of all phenomena...an interwoven fabric of space and time- our physicality does not experience the laws of physics on the grander scale yet it makes up our very being.
The universe seems mysterious yet it seems like it wasn’t a mistake that we exist the way we do, in the shape and form of which we manifest- it doesn’t seem like an accident that our planet is habitable for life, in a solar system that otherwise seems devoid of life. It seems that it’s likely for some kind of life to develop and flourish under such conditions...and given our circumstances, it seems highly probable that complex life (multicellular organisms) could evolve on other planets in our galaxy with the right variables (especially the presence of water existing in the “Goldilocks zone”).


Our perceptions are worth observing but not to be taken too seriously. One must see perceptions as what they are and not as the way it is. No one has control over the way it is, but people certainly control the way they see things.


The world has mystery. Does anyone know what we’re supposed to be doing? Is there any grand “purpose” to existence besides interacting with other members of our species? Sharing stories and alternate perspectives? Do we find out who we are through other people? Do we discover “meaning” by seeing the unity and harmony between all perspectives? Can we learn to understand ourselves through the ideas that we share with people?


A person’s worldview (or idea of how “reality” operates) seems directly related to one’s experience of reality. This includes one’s exposure to different ideas (knowledge) and the consequences of one’s actions/ social behavior (wisdom). If one has nothing smart to say, it’s best to keep one’s mouth shut. What goes unspoken cannot be misinterpreted- but likewise, silence can speak volumes.


6/14/2016:
What’s the good in learning a lesson if the mistakes have already been made? What if Earthlings heat up the planet’s atmosphere past the point of no return? What if the planet’s human population exceeds its carrying capacity and ability to produce enough food?
In order to change the system we need more people to become aware of the problems and stand up and speak out...but people are satisfied and content. When people are not going hungry- and adequately sedated with technology- they choose not to rise up. They live without any qualms except for the meaningless things that seem to make life somewhat easier, forgetting the meaningful things that control us everyday.


6/19/2016:
What gives us the need to know about the world in certainty? What gives us the desire for material things? What causes lust?
Why do humans seek comfort in death?
Why do people become paralyzed by the thought of their own mortality? Everyone wonders about their existence. We all have questions about our place in the universe. Why do we live just to suffer? Why do people waste their time on trivialities?
Humans are great at self-deception. Cognitive dissonance serves some kind of evolutionary function. We must adapt by becoming aware of ourselves- look at ourselves objectively
Why do we love? Does anyone know what love is?


6/20/2016:
Ancient peoples had a better understanding of Being- a better “connection” to the world because of their use of psychedelics through the rituals of religion (“religio”: to reconnect). This seems evident in the art of ancient history. They understood intuitively what modern humans cannot discover through empirical analysis of objective reality. Psychedelics advanced our evolution- changed our brains, influenced human thinking and affected social behavior in early human development from prehistoric times through ancient history up to the end of antiquity (from “cave art” to the “Eleusinian mysteries”).
Collective knowledge (collective consciousness) is contained within our ancestral DNA and it can become “activated” or discovered through the use of psychedelics (in the proper set & setting). This is not only revealed during the “trip” (the introspection into the inner processes of the mind) but also prolonged into the adulthood of the spiritual explorer (psychonaut or “shaman”).

6/21/2016:
What has happened to having a nuanced position or argument? People seem to have forgotten about the complexity of the issues we deal with contemporarily. People want to argue that it's either ‘this’ or ‘that’ with no recognition of views ‘in-between.’ No issue that we are presented with today has a simple solution. There’s a reason that moral dilemmas exist.


6/22/2016:
Love is war.
Happiness has no measure- but there may exist corollaries. We can only know happiness relative to others’ suffering. There’s no happiness in wanting what other people have, because it might seem like people have more than you but then you may find out that they have twice as many problems as you do, that they have less happiness because they can’t enjoy things as much as one can enjoy a pure contemplative state of being. They can’t exist in a state of wonder in the bliss of pure awareness because they’re always chasing a material hoax. Some people cannot step back to realize that what they’re always grasping for and trying to attain has no fundamental reality. They never stop to seek their truth because they spend all of their time working towards a goal which is a lost cause. Most people work for a company which has separate interests from the worker. One works all day, five days a week, and never reap the benefits which that corporation provides. The single motive is profit. People in that predicament cannot develop a worldview, or work towards self-improvement and spiritual attainment. People’s view of the world becomes what they see on television or social media and they become indoctrinated into beliefs rather than thinking for themselves based on evidence from books and using logic and reason to form opinions.
There’s a time when we question what it all means. Is it possible for life to be divine without postulating a divine being? Can I point out that certain feats of life on Earth and humanity in particular seem miraculous without assuming that a true miracle has to occur to explain it all? Am I allowed to awe at Nature’s glorious beauty and feel inspired by the abundance of life without attributing its bounty to the grace of God? Do I need to presume the existence of a timeless celestial superbeing to rest assured on how the universe exists and why it created us? [Is people’s idea of God simply an aspect of human consciousness, or self-awareness that feels “foreign” or “alien” to most people, enough so that they project this feeling of awareness and intentionality as a supernatural entity which watches over them and presides over the intellect?
Conveniently the belief in such an entity helps one to answer (rather inadequately in my opinion) the unsolvable questions, such as “why do people act the way they do?” and “why do bad things happen to good people?”- giving people a sense of comfort (although false comfort) rather than accepting hard truths (and discerning from falsity), for example, holding onto a belief in the afterlife because it comforts feelings while neglecting the apparent facts about the nature of consciousness. Instead of contemplating complicated issues of morality, it’s much easier to cite the absolute morality of a supreme authority called God who knows all things and does everything for a reason (more psychological projection of the ego).


6/25/2016:
Wasting away as a body and mind
Wasting my abilities and wasting my time
Oh, we have fun pretending that nothing really matters
Pretending we don’t really care


7/4/2016:
Lay me to rest- Bury me in the ground- Let the earth by my coffin- Let the heavens be my witness- Let the world know peace until hell freezes over- May the animals fight over territory and play the God-given roles of predator and prey- May the plants and insects live in harmonious accord- Let the fire burn until its last flames- Let the water flow down the valleys and canyons in its life-giving stream- May the mountains crumble into the sea as the wanderer stumbles over the hills on the pathway which leads to the place where he/she feels free- May the fish rise up to the surface momentarily for an evening bite to eat- Let the cows graze the pastures where they feel at home- Let all men and women get along for they know one thing equally the same: that life is valuable and we don’t need much to become happy- We only live once and life doesn’t last long- It goes by faster than you think- Like a shooting star, a blink of an eye, a light from a firefly, a fleeting high, a midnight sigh...- Let the wind sweep the leaves from under my feet- Let tonight’s sleep remove the weariness from my tired mind- Let the dreams bring me to a place within the deep space of subconscious realm- May we prosper and die when it’s our time to die- May the flower of divine life bloom whether or not there exists someone or something to internalize its beauty- May the world & universe continue to have an objective meaning & purpose (without intention) regardless of the existence of an observer’s mind and eye


7/5/2016:
Life’s uncertainty forces one to make things happen, to take responsibility for the consequence of one’s actions. It allows one to not feel too much surprise when in the moment of an unexpected event.
Society is held together by the fabric of real human interaction- people talking face-to-face, recognizing emotions in facial expressions and tone of voice. We establish true ‘tangible’ meaning by observing how people say things other than merely the content of what is being said.
Social media is a fake popularity contest- a game of who can win the most social approval. It gives people a charge of motivation but it only grants people a determinate amount of immediate happiness. People’s inordinate fulfillment and satisfaction depends on having intimate friendships and overall positive relationships with people whom one is close with. Life’s value and meaning relies on bonds.


*You can’t try doing everything in one day because then nothing will get accomplished or done any good*


7/9/2016:
For most people dreams remain dreams and then they die. People want to sit around divulging in their shattered egos until their waiting goes nowhere… How do people expect to catch the train if they’re nowhere near the tracks? One can’t make a living being a freak unless you join the circus. People ride off the imaginings of their ill determined destiny. People look for easy money rather than work towards something productive and manageable. Knowledge is power, but not the abusive kind of power held by people with seemingly little knowledge.


7/13/2016:
I don’t feel like myself. A page has turned in my life. I don’t see myself like I used to and I wonder if I have changed or just my view of things. Times are changing but it’s a matter of adapting to that change and not getting swept up with it. No one remains the same person for their entire life. Personality changes as people grow and experience new things. People don’t really know what they want in life but they know that they want. Desire seems to drive us forward but few people have an end-goal in sight. One might have an unique vision for Earth and its inhabitants in the long-term but the ordinary person’s vision is very near-sighted. People have a myopic view of the future, and most people seem quick to forget the past. Because of this, we’re bound to repeat the mistakes in the lessons of history. We’re bound to overestimate our ability to support ourselves in times of hardship and crises. What’s the point in trying to lead the blind when they claim that they can see? How do you convince people that their ideas and actions are doing more harm than good when they claim to have righteousness?
The truth lurks in the murky waters- the dark depths of the subconscious which few people have the fortitude and qualifications (character) to explore. Sometimes it requires a good dose of melancholy to know what joy is when you feel it. Sometimes the only thing that comforts your sorrow and grief is the knowledge that it won’t last forever.
Everything has impermanence.
Appearances are not reality.
All life has sanctity.
Meaning has intersubjectivity.
Love has no boundaries.
People fight wars to make peace.
People make music to quiet the mind.
Sometimes people have to lose their mind to free their soul.
Change happens. How one deals with change is what defines one’s character

8/2/2016:
Consciousness has no explanation, no description.
History and evolution can explain our behavior and ideas.
The lightning, thunder and rain brings the moment to the forefront of awareness.
People make the mistake of confusing lust with love.
Quantum physics determines the probability of all events and actions. What about free will?
Our instincts were beneficial for the survival of our species on the plains of the savannah but conscious reasoning benefits us in modern day civilized society.
We no longer rely on discriminative perception and consciousness to evade harmful predators or to track down prey. We use our brains for higher goals like understanding our universe and admiring the beauty of nature on this planet and our place in it.
Religion and mythology is useful to understand how our minds intuit and make sense of the world with introspection and imagination. It highlights the human need to tell stories and have a narrative for human growth and progress. It gives us a compelling look at the natural answers that our ancestors gave for the deep questions of life. That’s why people still look towards religion as moral guidance, because the concept of God relieves people of the pain of asking those hard questions and answering those questions for themselves.


8/25/2016:
A blackbird sleeps in the dark of night
Waiting to feed on the worms in the morning light
Its eyes glimpse the shadows made by the moon in its graceful flight
Its sound is silence as the roosters crow just out of sight
And as the horizon transforms into blue, growing bright
The dew drops turn the green grass into a sheet of white


11/12/2016:
There was a time when everything was good and groovy until it all went ka-boom!
And here we are.
Dig it man.
Well, of course it all evolved into what we are today-
All of the galaxies, super clusters, solar systems, elements, molecules, organisms…
(Evolution or Involution?)


Most good things come to an end eventually, while sometimes they change or transform into something new but even that thing eventually comes to an end and transforms into something else.
(This is not vague and ambiguous at all- and rigorous logic)
The exceptions do not disprove the rule.
There’s an awakening and there’s a darkening. The Spirit rises and it falls.
We love and grow while others hate and destroy.


Like a lotus blossoming- our lives enfold outward
The future will have moments that are more magical than the past
We will have experiences that seem more fantastical and dreamlike than anything we can imagine in the present