“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” MLK Jr.
Do you ever lay awake at night wondering about things that are unknown or impossible to understand – like the universe & how it really began & how it works?
I personally have spent time questioning the universe & the way things are, but things are as they are & we don’t always need to know why or how.
If we see a change we’d like to make in the world, we can act towards making it happen, and have faith that it will – and by taking the first step in that direction.
We don’t need to understand everything that happens, who could ever do that?
But we can make some impact in an area of our life or the world that we would like to be better.
We can waste time worrying about things outside of our control, or we can cultivate a little more trust & faith in life & in ourselves.
“If you go to Paris you know more about reality than people who don’t. If you smoke DMT you know more about reality than people who don’t.”
— Terence McKenna
Would you listen to someone talk to you about Paris if they have never been there?
Same thing with psychedelics… so many people love having an opinion about psychedelics, but almost no one has actually gone on any deep & true psychedelic trips.
Why listen to people who have never lived? Have never experienced?
Choose who you listen to.
Truly this world is filled with liars & cheaters & schemers who live through an egoic awareness – ego breeds ego. So many people love having an opinion about things they know nothing at all about.
Learn to discern what you hear and who you listen to.
This world doesn’t need any more liars & criminals & thieves in high places.
This world needs some truth, some love…something real.
Learn who to ignore, and who you should actually listen to.
“The ego is always on guard against any kind of perceived diminishment. Automatic ego-repair mechanisms come into effect to restore the mental form of “me.” When someone blames or criticizes me, that to the ego is a diminishment of self, and it will immediately attempt to repair its diminished sense of self through self-justification, defense, or blaming.”
— Tolle
The ego can be fragile – easily offended, easily angered, feeling threatened easily, quick to blame others…
Is there anything beyond the human ego?
Obviously, yes, but most of us grow up in environments that enforce & reinforce individual egos – in both inferior & superior ways; artificial identities.
We learn to identify with our race & country – & to feel threatened by other races & countries… We are taught to identify with where we were born & to imagine that our country & race is superior to other countries.
Is anyone’s country or race superior to another? No, but people are not taught this. People learn egoic identities from an early age & egos are reinforced time & time again until people genuinely start believing in lies: that their race & country are superior to other races & countries .. politicians especially reinforce theirs & others egos by preaching supremacy, & then pastors in churches reinforce politics by preaching supremacy by supporting racism, sexism, egoic ways of thinking…
the blind flow of the ego has led us all here… will we continue with the fragile & easily threatened egoic ways that cause wars, hatred, violence?
“If the words ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ don’t include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn’t worth the hemp it was written on.”
— Terence McKenna
Experimenting with your consciousness is not for everyone, and it’s sometime seen as taboo, but it should always remain open to experiment with. Clearly. Even if it brings clouds & smoke your way at times, it can also bring clarity and love.
I don’t encourage anyone to experiment with their consciousness. I encourage people to do what works for them.
I, though, once or twice a year, use a high dosage of a psychedelic, and it takes me to often heavenly and sometimes hellish places … it’s worth it to me every time, since I rarely do it, and since the experience is so alien & cosmic & beautiful, for me at least.
The integrations before during & after are important, but sometimes the purpose is about the experience itself; nothing more & nothing less. There & then. Here & now.
It’s not for everyone, but if you’re interested in the psychedelic experience, here is a guide containing preparations & activities before during & after your experience.
“At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door, and say,–‘Come out unto us.’ But keep thy state; come not into their confusion…
…The power men possess to annoy me, I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act. What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love.”
—Emerson
Conspiracy.
Was Emerson right?
Do people actually go out of their way to bother others? – To try & bring emphatic trifles into another’s life?
I can’t imagine any decent person doing that to someone, but this world is filled with a whole range of people.
It’s filled with people seeking power, liars, manipulators, greed, ego .. all for what?
People don’t even know…
Some light would be nice. Some truth.
& some encouragement even maybe – rather than discouragement & bothering others… but if you want to be encouraged, begin by encouraging yourself.
Don’t enter the confusion of the masses & of the criminal “leaders” of today…beware of their greed & their shallow ways, and just go your own way.
Love yourself, & don’t ever expect love from a lying politician or any of the criminals in the “upper” class.
“The closer he got to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became…In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So he could not be hasty, not impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.”
— Paulo Coelho
In pursuit of your dreams, you will be tested.
& if you choose to pursue your dreams – & the journey of your dreams – you will reach a point where sirens will screech into your ears.
You may encounter a cyclops, & perhaps witches who try casting spells upon you…
As you pursue your dreams you may even feel at one point the entire world calling out to you – to go to them & to stop following your dreams.
The noise may get so loud that you temporary (or permanently) lose your mind or go crazy…
haha, & it’s all alright – all a part of the marvelous universe dancing, even dancing with you & your dreams.
I encourage you to seek your best dreams & to surround yourself with people who encourage & uplift you.
Patience is not only needed in the beginning, but along every step of your way.
In the United States & places of the West, people are often, if not always, living from an outside-in perspective.
They experience life never within themselves, but always outside of themselves – reacting to environments & people rather than experiencing life. Most have literally become a product of their dead political environments, & not a part of the true living nature that is within us & all around us, at all times.
I have studied & practiced methods & techniques from both the East & the West, & I enjoy learning about all of them. I do prefer living life from the inside-out though – I prefer living empowered within myself – & not being a reactive machine conformist to nothing – to a dead society.
I choose life & non-conformity every time.
This doesn’t make me better than anyone – it just is me making a choice to choose what I believe & how I perceive life – rather than taking someone else’s word for it – rather than being manipulated by the criminal oppressors of this world…
Here’s Alan Watts with a short relative paragraph to this topic:
“Just try and see something from another point of view for a change. I’m not saying that we should do what the Hindus do, but just look at it in from another point of view. And they would smile at us and say, ‘You really think it’s as real as all that?’
‘Have you never experienced what’s on the inside of this game?’
See the trouble with you Westerners is you never experience first. You never got down to the root of reality. You don’t know that state of consciousness. And so you’re frantically trying to patch everything up, and pin it all together – Screw the universe up so that it’s fixed…
You can never do it. All you’ll be doing is wildly rushing around and creating trouble.” -Alan Watts
My question to you is, are you experiencing life?
Or merely existing?
Do you live as a reaction?
Or do you live alive & active?
Meditations are a great way to begin going within and trying the inside-out perspective — to at least try it for even a short time and see if it’s for you or not for you. It’s perfect either way!
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find eternity in each moment.”
— Thoreau
Do oceans wave in the past or future?
Or do you wave your hand in the past or future?
Waves happen now.
Life happens now.
You can spend your life in phantom fears – or living with ghosts & lifeless machine people, or you can break through & experience waves of the present.
With Ken Thompson 