Back in my thirties, I spent two summer months --- most of every afternoon and some evenings --- with my departed friend, Maurice, a Black man who came out of the Black Christian South to advanced degrees and a career as a math teacher and musician in the north. And I got to experience the complete man, his history, his outlook on the society, his musical talent, his doubles partnership in tennis, and ultimately his love, as one of my two closest friends of that era of my life. The fact that I still miss Maurice today, that my gut tightens up, that I feel the love when I bring him to mind is evidence of how significant was that expansion of my consciousness; I never again looked at another Black man in that old shitty way of my childhood. This is task one. Task two is to realize that Homo sapiens is far from the only intelligent species on the planet. Bacterium to Bonobo, they all are.
Really enjoyed this piece. Made me feel very close to you in a collective consciousness kind of way. I was one of your readers who mentioned you to Russell Brand when he asked who his subscribers read regularly. You deserve the attention you are getting as a result. You are helping wake others up to the reality that our individual actions add to the shift in collective consciousness. I like to put it through a permaculture lens. On the progression from a grassland to forest, it is not always a steady sequestration of carbon. Sometimes something knocks us back, a lawnmower or a fire. In the end though we will eventually become a forest again, a self-sustaining ecosystem where whoever is left standing will share resources with others, and when they fall, their decay will allow others to grow taller. I think that is why I feel so good in a forest. I am home.
A great theory which I sign up to! I believe expanding our awareness/consciousness to be very important. Without this individual effort how can we evolve as a species? Unfortunately, the game is rigged. The world is run by narcissistic psychopaths whose ancestors were the most cruel violent individuals. Most of the huge country estates of the aristocracy and Royalty were built on exploitation at best and in reality many on slavery, wars and organisations like the East India Company. But we should not judge the children of these people by their ancestors actions but their own. That is why we must continue to shine light in the darkness and seek truth despite those in power having a huge propaganda machine of misinformation and disinformation.
I often wonder why we have made such huge leaps in technology but not correspondingly in spirituality? Does this not mean the technology and ability to destroy the planet is in the hands of a few underdeveloped children who cannot or will not see that bigger picture?
Yes, to become as conscious as possible. But what is there in that for us? I believe it is to become more fully human. The less conscious one is, the less human. The more conscious, the more human.
I agree we should seek to become as conscious as possible. However, I believe many people think that spiritual awakening leads automatically to happiness. It does not. It simply means a higher level of awareness. If you are truly aware you could not be happy with the current society. However, you may be driven to more awareness and helping others which will one day lead to us evolving as a species or destroying ourselves.
Another possible reply is the mystery surrounding what reality is. What is illusion? I think we are all connected souls having a human experience. This body is a temporary container.
It depends. If you see there is an underlying intention of growth behind the barbarism you, as a conscious observer have a choice about how you let it continue to affect your life. Buddha said life is suffering and we can learn to be in the world but not of the world.
Your comment reminds me of a paragraph I recently read from Robert Aziz's book on Synchronicity, Jung and Religion:
"Speaking with an acquaintance at his home in Kusnacht in 1938, Jung, reflecting on this problem of suffering, commented that in the East the objective is to eliminate suffering, "by casting it off," whereas in the West people resort to drugs seeking to suppress it. Suffering, Jung continued, is a serious problem, and we must seek to overcome it, yet in actual fact the "only way to overcome it is to endure it." #JPRS #p44
I would like to believe that but that’s not my experience or that of people I meet at Pagan/Shaman gatherings and retreats. But I’m not a Buddhist though have visited monks and a Buddhist nun. Each to there own path Borza. But after reading half a dozen or books or so on Buddhism I realised there were a lot of rules, traditions and male dominated hierarchy which felt more like main stream religion. I prefer the guides and signposts my path gives me. The simplicity of worshipping Mother Earth and nature being my church resounds with me. Namaste.
Not to be confused with being homo-sapiens; which I presume many will assume that being human is.
Having said that, consciousness is over-rated. Far preferable is nothingness. To blot everything out so that it never is, total erasure so that even the concept of erasure becomes meaningless. I understand the allure of total annihilation, body AND soul into nothingness and maybe if we're lucky it will happen.
Talking about edges, it looks like we're right on track for an irradiated planet. Let's get together when this happens and we can compare radiation burns or have a race to see which of our body parts decompose and drop off first. I'll have my overdose ready, and I'll even share it with you if you play nice.
If these necessarily limited sense organs and brain can't tell you what you need to know about life, nothing and nobody can. It all comes back to these limited capacities - you still have to "see" it through the mode you are given. That's the thing of it: people are too ready to accept that someone else has the key, and go along with the nonsense in a state of limbo, over-belief and fanaticism, all really all based on skepticism. The simple truth isn't difficult: you hurt yourself, and maybe fatally, when you set out to hurt others. And what a demonic waste of time in the process! Some believe that chanting and taking drugs, alcohol, sex and other addictions will get them where they want to go. But there is no escape that route, or any other. Just a coming to terms with reality and choosing which aspect you want to emphasize: the ugly or the beautiful?
Along with all of this, we can either view the current global situation as a more challenging (higher) level of the game - and/or that there are a whole lot of humans who are trying to take over the game and subvert it to their own sinister ends. Or maybe who have just misunderstood the game.
(But it is not really our job to figure out where others are going wrong - the principle of expanding your own consciousness still holds!)
I love this, but this isn't the hard part for me. For me, the hard part is showing up and being present and kind to people I encounter on a daily basis. I tend toward isolation, cynicism and sarcasm, so trying to engage with people on a human level, especially people I find irritating, is harder than having empathy for victims of war who I have never met and will probably never meet.
Fascinating, just yesterday I was talking about out the lack of political Vision and also a lack of World Vision. I made the point of asking what is our purpose, I suggested right now in the Western world we sleep, wake, work, buy, sleep, wake, work, buy with short reprieves of social interaction that is becoming more and more digital rather than physical where we use that time to flaunt our wares and bragg how well we are doing. Meaninglessly consuming and producing for nothing but a few minutes gratification and the enrichment of others. Caitlin is quite right, if we're playing the game its full of rules with no understanding of the objective.
Lovely thoughts. I would add that the 'playing field' of biological, and all Life, is this eternal moment we share. Yesterday is very literally gone and tomorrow never comes. With this wisdom in our pocket, the simple question is how do we play RIGHT NOW. What do you want to think? How do you want to feel? It's going to be great fun when the totality of Now is clearly understood...
Expanded consciousness is bliss in my experience. Since I am still in this human body I do my best to still participate and feel the heartbreak... I also do my best to not let it get me down for too long. Know, be, love and trust yourself.
idk, im quite bright but that for many years led me to a dark place because i could see the problems with society and didnt like it, still dont and think its getting worse.
however the things ive learned in the last few years have been enjoyable, substack was a particularly good find of like minded bright people, i just wish i could find more in real life
Conscious of what is the question? Do you think that you are more conscious than others? Conscious of the pure, pristine, animating spirit that dwells within everyone, possibly? Could you love everyone unconditionally for being that? You can abhor their cruel, cold hearted, atrocities, but love the spirit that unites us all.
Back in my thirties, I spent two summer months --- most of every afternoon and some evenings --- with my departed friend, Maurice, a Black man who came out of the Black Christian South to advanced degrees and a career as a math teacher and musician in the north. And I got to experience the complete man, his history, his outlook on the society, his musical talent, his doubles partnership in tennis, and ultimately his love, as one of my two closest friends of that era of my life. The fact that I still miss Maurice today, that my gut tightens up, that I feel the love when I bring him to mind is evidence of how significant was that expansion of my consciousness; I never again looked at another Black man in that old shitty way of my childhood. This is task one. Task two is to realize that Homo sapiens is far from the only intelligent species on the planet. Bacterium to Bonobo, they all are.
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." ~Carl Jung
I got a heavy helping on Jung when I was younger. The idealism was misspent in so many ways and seems so elusive now.
For me, I need some idealism from somewhere. Hope in reductive materialism doesn't do it for me, neither does a thousand year old ancient religion.
So there's that...
Not saying I know where the answers lie. But Jung resonates with me now more than anyone else.
Really enjoyed this piece. Made me feel very close to you in a collective consciousness kind of way. I was one of your readers who mentioned you to Russell Brand when he asked who his subscribers read regularly. You deserve the attention you are getting as a result. You are helping wake others up to the reality that our individual actions add to the shift in collective consciousness. I like to put it through a permaculture lens. On the progression from a grassland to forest, it is not always a steady sequestration of carbon. Sometimes something knocks us back, a lawnmower or a fire. In the end though we will eventually become a forest again, a self-sustaining ecosystem where whoever is left standing will share resources with others, and when they fall, their decay will allow others to grow taller. I think that is why I feel so good in a forest. I am home.
Yes, home with family : )
A great theory which I sign up to! I believe expanding our awareness/consciousness to be very important. Without this individual effort how can we evolve as a species? Unfortunately, the game is rigged. The world is run by narcissistic psychopaths whose ancestors were the most cruel violent individuals. Most of the huge country estates of the aristocracy and Royalty were built on exploitation at best and in reality many on slavery, wars and organisations like the East India Company. But we should not judge the children of these people by their ancestors actions but their own. That is why we must continue to shine light in the darkness and seek truth despite those in power having a huge propaganda machine of misinformation and disinformation.
I often wonder why we have made such huge leaps in technology but not correspondingly in spirituality? Does this not mean the technology and ability to destroy the planet is in the hands of a few underdeveloped children who cannot or will not see that bigger picture?
Yes, to become as conscious as possible. But what is there in that for us? I believe it is to become more fully human. The less conscious one is, the less human. The more conscious, the more human.
I agree we should seek to become as conscious as possible. However, I believe many people think that spiritual awakening leads automatically to happiness. It does not. It simply means a higher level of awareness. If you are truly aware you could not be happy with the current society. However, you may be driven to more awareness and helping others which will one day lead to us evolving as a species or destroying ourselves.
Another possible reply is the mystery surrounding what reality is. What is illusion? I think we are all connected souls having a human experience. This body is a temporary container.
Ever hear of Baha’i?
It depends. If you see there is an underlying intention of growth behind the barbarism you, as a conscious observer have a choice about how you let it continue to affect your life. Buddha said life is suffering and we can learn to be in the world but not of the world.
Your comment reminds me of a paragraph I recently read from Robert Aziz's book on Synchronicity, Jung and Religion:
"Speaking with an acquaintance at his home in Kusnacht in 1938, Jung, reflecting on this problem of suffering, commented that in the East the objective is to eliminate suffering, "by casting it off," whereas in the West people resort to drugs seeking to suppress it. Suffering, Jung continued, is a serious problem, and we must seek to overcome it, yet in actual fact the "only way to overcome it is to endure it." #JPRS #p44
Ever hear of the Electric Universe and Thunderbolts Project?
https://youtube.com/user/ThunderboltsProject
I would like to believe that but that’s not my experience or that of people I meet at Pagan/Shaman gatherings and retreats. But I’m not a Buddhist though have visited monks and a Buddhist nun. Each to there own path Borza. But after reading half a dozen or books or so on Buddhism I realised there were a lot of rules, traditions and male dominated hierarchy which felt more like main stream religion. I prefer the guides and signposts my path gives me. The simplicity of worshipping Mother Earth and nature being my church resounds with me. Namaste.
You should check out the Baha’i: https://youtu.be/GPKEkSXhtgw
I believe our most human moments are the most sacred.
Not to be confused with being homo-sapiens; which I presume many will assume that being human is.
Having said that, consciousness is over-rated. Far preferable is nothingness. To blot everything out so that it never is, total erasure so that even the concept of erasure becomes meaningless. I understand the allure of total annihilation, body AND soul into nothingness and maybe if we're lucky it will happen.
Don’t cut yourself on that edge.
Talking about edges, it looks like we're right on track for an irradiated planet. Let's get together when this happens and we can compare radiation burns or have a race to see which of our body parts decompose and drop off first. I'll have my overdose ready, and I'll even share it with you if you play nice.
If these necessarily limited sense organs and brain can't tell you what you need to know about life, nothing and nobody can. It all comes back to these limited capacities - you still have to "see" it through the mode you are given. That's the thing of it: people are too ready to accept that someone else has the key, and go along with the nonsense in a state of limbo, over-belief and fanaticism, all really all based on skepticism. The simple truth isn't difficult: you hurt yourself, and maybe fatally, when you set out to hurt others. And what a demonic waste of time in the process! Some believe that chanting and taking drugs, alcohol, sex and other addictions will get them where they want to go. But there is no escape that route, or any other. Just a coming to terms with reality and choosing which aspect you want to emphasize: the ugly or the beautiful?
You need to know about the Baha’i: https://youtu.be/GPKEkSXhtgw
Along with all of this, we can either view the current global situation as a more challenging (higher) level of the game - and/or that there are a whole lot of humans who are trying to take over the game and subvert it to their own sinister ends. Or maybe who have just misunderstood the game.
(But it is not really our job to figure out where others are going wrong - the principle of expanding your own consciousness still holds!)
I love this, but this isn't the hard part for me. For me, the hard part is showing up and being present and kind to people I encounter on a daily basis. I tend toward isolation, cynicism and sarcasm, so trying to engage with people on a human level, especially people I find irritating, is harder than having empathy for victims of war who I have never met and will probably never meet.
Fascinating, just yesterday I was talking about out the lack of political Vision and also a lack of World Vision. I made the point of asking what is our purpose, I suggested right now in the Western world we sleep, wake, work, buy, sleep, wake, work, buy with short reprieves of social interaction that is becoming more and more digital rather than physical where we use that time to flaunt our wares and bragg how well we are doing. Meaninglessly consuming and producing for nothing but a few minutes gratification and the enrichment of others. Caitlin is quite right, if we're playing the game its full of rules with no understanding of the objective.
Lovely thoughts. I would add that the 'playing field' of biological, and all Life, is this eternal moment we share. Yesterday is very literally gone and tomorrow never comes. With this wisdom in our pocket, the simple question is how do we play RIGHT NOW. What do you want to think? How do you want to feel? It's going to be great fun when the totality of Now is clearly understood...
Expanded consciousness is bliss in my experience. Since I am still in this human body I do my best to still participate and feel the heartbreak... I also do my best to not let it get me down for too long. Know, be, love and trust yourself.
This appears to assume that there's such a thing as "winning" the game, and that "winning", whatever that is, is the same for all people.
The rot inside the human heart is of a spiritual nature. And for that there's only one answer.
"The whole problem of our time is not lack of knowledge but lack of love." ~Thomas Merton
idk, im quite bright but that for many years led me to a dark place because i could see the problems with society and didnt like it, still dont and think its getting worse.
however the things ive learned in the last few years have been enjoyable, substack was a particularly good find of like minded bright people, i just wish i could find more in real life
Conscious of what is the question? Do you think that you are more conscious than others? Conscious of the pure, pristine, animating spirit that dwells within everyone, possibly? Could you love everyone unconditionally for being that? You can abhor their cruel, cold hearted, atrocities, but love the spirit that unites us all.
When Gotama the Buddha was asked to summarize his realization, he said this.
Sabbe paapassa ai-karanam
Kusala-sena upa-sampada
Seha-citta pariyoda-panam
Etam buddhana saasanam
Refrain from all bad deeds
Accumulate the merit of good deeds
Completely master your mind
This is the teaching of all who become enlightened