A Panda's Journey
“We have a tendency to think in terms of doing and not in terms of being. We think that when we are not doing anything, we are wasting our time.
But that is not true. Our time is first of all for us to be.
To be what? To be alive, to be peaceful, to be joyful, to be loving. And that is what the world needs most.”
— Thich Nhat Hahn
To be or to do? I say both.
Let us always “be”, even as we do.
Meditation is a wonderful place to cultivate “being”.
“The discovery that the experiencer is the experience, is meditation.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
Two people can be sitting next to each other in the same room of a hundred people, watching a sports game & may experience completely different things.
They are in the same environment. Surrounded by the same people.
Watching the same game.
Yet they have a different experience than the people around them.
Same thing if you’re watching a play, or reading a meditation book, listening to music, or walking in nature.
You may hear & read & see the same exact things that others are hearing, reading, & seeing, yet you have your own interpretations of the experience.
It’s good to have your own interpretation.
All children are living from their individual perspective until they reach a certain age & the world sort of takes away their individuality & tells the person what to think, how to feel, and how to interpret things…
So as we age we sort of lose ourselves as we conform to our surroundings, but what if we didn’t?
What if we kept our individuality?
What if we understood the power of conformity, & then we understood the power of our individual self?
What if we stepped away from the crowds, & decided what we actually thought about things?
Your perception is your reality.
And how we feel about it?
Do not disempower yourself by adopting other people’s perspective.
You are it!
“And what does the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty, and above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits out quantity.”
— William S Burroughs
The systems, in multiple countries, operate to guide people into working for the system.
Death roams this planet looking for the next life to devour. The next life to transform to be more death-like and less life-like.
The majority of children are vibrant & excited to live & learn about life…until ignorant & dead-minded “adults” teach them to fearfully obey them.
Many people & organizations teach fear to children and adults, and then they wonder where life went… the feeling of being alive.
The joy of life & living has turned more into a fear & blind obedience – & to behave like a lifeless machine – so that you’ll fit in with all the other lifeless machine people.
Some fear is healthy – but too much fear truly drains the life out of a person.
Mindfulness meditation is one practice to allow life to fill you up again.
Something I observe with the human race is that most of them are never present.
Their minds are elsewhere.
One persons mind is living in the past.
One persons mind is dreaming of the future.
And one persons mind is not even their own… they’ve lost their mind and now they are everywhere but present with themselves.
Everything is always happening in the present moment, even if your mind is not present.
The body is present, always, but the mind can be all sorts of places.
The good news is that your mind can be present too, in an intelligent way.
I may write another meditation guide, but the first one I wrote is here, titled the 7 psychedelic meditations.
Psychedelic in this context means “mind-manifesting”
Life happens in the present.
Buy the meditation guide today to begin your journey into the present moment.
“Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.”
— Nikola Tesla
Why would anyone socialize with people they don’t even like?
Also, cultures like that in the USA are enemies of meditation.
They are an enemy of the individual being with themselves and enjoying their own company.
The USA culture wants people constantly moving, constantly consuming, constantly being busy, constantly distracted.
The “powers that be” are great at creating predictable people who obey their systems without question.
What the “powers that be” cannot stand is an empowered individual who thinks for themself.
The “powers that be” will literally break laws to break down the empowered individual, and all the mindless masses will just think that the individual was wrong for being an individual…
It’s a crazy system…if you think about it, but most people don’t think about it – they just try fitting in so they lose their individual self in hopes for acceptance, yet then they are almost never really satisfied.
Don’t lose yourself and gain the world… but most people lose themselves and the world, as they conform to what the system wants, and lose their individual self.
How can you begin taking back your individuality?
Go somewhere and be silent. No technology. No media. No music. Just you with yourself. In nature is the best place to do this.
Here is a short meditation guide to help.
This is the beginning of meditation.
This is the beginning of taking back your individual power.
“Fortune and blessing gather where there is stillness. But if you do not keep still—this is what is called sitting but racing around.”
— Zhuangzi
Where there is stillness, fortune and blessings gather.
Do you have stillness in your mind heart body?
“I have no fear of depths, and a great fear of shallow living.”
— Anaïs Nin
Ralph Waldo Emerson also said “It is not length of life, but depth.”
Depth has multiple definitions, one of them is: “a point far below the surface.”
People dig into the Earth to find gold, minerals, things that will help themselves. But who digs into themselves to find gold within? Almost no one.
There is gold within you – there is gold within all of us, but most will never find or seek the gold within.
“Pearls don’t lie on the seashore; if you want one, you must dive for it.”
It’s easy to do what everyone else is doing – to follow the crowd, to conform, to let someone else tell you the meaning of life. But that is living on the surface; shallow living.
You will get by on the surface, but you won’t find or experience gold within your life.
You must dive within yourself to reach the gold, and it really does take years.
But you have to start somewhere.
Meditation is the place to begin.
You can be like the majority of people & live life on the surface, or you can begin your journey to the gold within yourself.
“An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t pull you down unless you allow it to get inside you.”
— Thich Nhat Hahn
From the time we are born, to the time we lose our own mind (death of individual mind), to the time we physically die, we are being told what to think.
Parents tell us what to think. Newspapers tell us what to think. Governments tells us what to think. Television tells us what to think.
Almost every child born with parents of one political party beliefs will inherit those beliefs.
People think they have their own beliefs – but they almost never do.
People’s beliefs are almost always inherited from their parents, and sometimes by their teachers.
Ce la vie.
Anyway, how can you break free from inherited beliefs and start thinking for yourself?
You have to learn to think with yourself – within your own mind – to ask yourself questions and not just answer reactively, but to dwell in it, sometimes for days, weeks, months, and then brainstorm answers.
This doesn’t happen overnight – especially in these shallow reactive emotional societies we live in.
First, before you start thinking like a philosopher, you have to meditate.
You have to let go of your thoughts and beliefs and just appreciate life beyond inherited beliefs, temporarily, as you continue on your journey.
Here is a great beginners mediation guide. Also the word psychedelic comes from two Greek words that mean “Mind Manifesting.”
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!
Begin your meditations here:
Doe Bay is a resort on Orcas Island, to the West of Washington State.
I spent 7 months there in 2021 as a workaway employee; (Workaway is a platform that offers volunteer & paid jobs & housing in many countries.)
I applied for a few different workaways & am super thankful that I received & accepted the role at Doe Bay.
During the time leading up to this job I was looking forward to spending time on an island, away from the city life. This workaway did not disappoint.
My housing was a single cabin, surrounded by about 5 other cabins, & a lot of trees, in nature. (On an island in nature too, so deep into nature, places I love.)
I had a couple days to settle in before getting to work, planting trees, whacking weeds, watering fields, & I helped daily with the Spa – cleaning the jacuzzi decks & testing & balancing the waters & chemicals. This may not sound like a lot, but there was always something to do, and I loved this type of work. After 5 months I also began cleaning cabins & continued with the Spa stuff, but I preferred the outdoor nature work.
I sometimes fed worms to birds too, haha. & once a bird jumped into my cleaning bucket, true story. Started flopping around & so I dumped the bucket & sat next to the bird for like 10 seconds before it hopped away.
Anyway, working this job was like a meditation for me. I loved planting trees – digging holes in the ground, learning about soils & good ways to plant trees. Connecting with nature, being all there. I really loved it, & I got paid too.
Every week throughout the summer there were multiple music artists invited to the resort to perform for a few evenings. I enjoyed a range of talented artists, especially the performances by the bonfires.
At night in the woods I could see a vast amount of stars. A beautiful sight.
In my free time I hiked serene trails, & I read & I wrote. (I’d been working on The 7 Psychedelic Meditations many months before Doe Bay, and I finished writing it & publishing it in my free time there.)
This resort & entire island was & is a tranquil place.
The staff was (& is) awesome too.
One of my favorite things about the resort is that sometimes a peacock would be walking around, & chillen. It was a cool, friendly, & beautiful being.
Anyway, I really enjoyed my experience at Doe Bay & Orcas Island. I recommend both visiting Doe Bay, & if you’re interested in a workaway experience, to go for it.
Cheers to your journey & travels.
With Ken Thompson 