Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ Humanity's collective awakening will unfold in ways that nobody is anticipating, for the same reasons an individual's awakening always unfolds in ways they can't anticipate. An individual's journey into greater consciousness is rife with plot twists and M. Night Shyamalan surprise endings, because it is always by necessity a journey into the unknown. Success on the quest to become a more conscious human will necessarily come with surprises, because you're bringing the light of consciousness to things that weren't previously seen. The things you discover surprise you because there's no way you can really anticipate something you haven't yet seen for yourself.
My allegory is no one was sitting around listening to Connie Francis wondering, "Where the hell are the Beatles?" Only in hindsight did they seem inevitable.
Politically, the best I can do at the moment is to stop participating in the lesser of two evils nonsense we're being offered in hopes that a space is created for something new to happen.
Too bad, enlightenment is SO painful, traumatic and unremittingly denigrated, dismissed & despised, in our culture (as detrimental to our production quota) that those fleeting instances, we're actually HERE, aware, awake, conscious & capable of self-actualization; it's like our skin's been flayed off, so we're in such horror and pain, we immediately retreat, back into obtuse oblivion. If you think this is exaggerated, or snark... you've never BEEN aware!
my philosophical understanding is, 1) there's nothing new or original under the sun in terms of human consciousness or intelligence, 2) and thus there's no progress or "getting better" on a linear measuring stick as more time passes, and 3) we have always understood and had choices, which do not overlap with each other, in terms of what kind of society, local and/or worldwide, we want to live in. and we live in what we collectively choose to live in. societies, alternative to what we live in, of various scales have existed and even thrived throughout human history and all over the world. never say no one saw it coming or no one knows what's going to happen. many have seen it coming, warned each other and presented alternative visions. what happens in the future depends on what we do now.
This article reminded me of the penchant people have to suss out hidden meanings, always encrypted of course, as in every fifth word of the bible or something read backward. Maybe it's to do with an innate distrust of officialdom, written rules and laws, mandates and commandments. They must feel the "truth" is in there somewhere, but is not literal and obvious. Greater consciousness is indeed an unfolding, a distillation of all experience. Its origins are mysterious, but we should always be open to it, the essence being, no one has a monopoly on "truth", it is inexhaustible, and the word itself has many meanings and manifestations. But for practice purposes, some obvious truths have priority: the planet is a mess, and we are in existential danger from the situation. Common logic, human perception, intuition and consciousness tell us that we as a species must be able to solve the problem. Otherwise we'd be the only species not to have been given the means to sustain itself in its environment, in this case, one to a great extent of our own making. That would say something unacceptably nasty about the universe, and we should not be willing to believe it.
Perhaps if our relationship with the rest of the biosphere had been more attuned to that of some aboriginal peoples, we would be more inclined to see the peaceful reciprocity that evolved therein. And please try to refrain from a focus on biosphere interactions that seem un-peaceful like a wolfpack taking down a young elk or bison. That viewpoint comes of our distancing from Nature and our desire to control it on terms that are at odds with the frugality, reciprocity, recycling of materials etc. that are the biosphere's operational principles. We have immense difficulty appreciating the systemic perspective, in which the whole really is more than the sum of its parts. Aboriginals practiced ecological economics, an interaction with the biosphere that played by the macrosystem's principles of operation. The moment of great narcissism when we turned our species' face away from that path was the moment we became pariahs within a system that doesn't hold dissidence as a value, save perhaps in the value of genetic variation as the substrate for evolution.
While I agree that "There are so many lights that can yet be switched on. So many potential doors currently hidden in darkness creating the illusion that there is no exit." I am also convinced that beyond one of those doors must lie a society that recognizes its collective interest as tied to the rest of the biosphere, that moves at least closer to the aboriginal understanding of the necessity for ecological economics as the replacement for consume-and-discard economics. Until that becomes the central focus, other economic arguments, e.g., capitalism vs. socialism, become less relevant. But can we find a way through that door without the racism and classism implicit in continuing the current and longstanding first-world/third-world narcissism?
Seems like "Everyone is having them dreams" (as Dylan sang)
I go with Heinlein and the "Thou art God" meme. It may sound nihilistic, but it is more along the lines of "Everything and everybody is just a dream that God is having". That hardly expresses what I really mean though since we're all 'skating on thin ice' here. I didn't understand most of what Caitlin was trying to communicate. I don't see any "love" in the universe (or multiuniverse or all of existence)
To make a long convoluted philosophical journey as short as possible. We are manifestations of God (dreams) trying to figure out if he wants to be "good" or "bad" and just exactly what defined "good" and "bad". It isn't so much that God "allows" us to suffer as he hasn't any way of preventing that suffering because he has no idea what is "good" and what is "bad".
Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and the laws of Robotics explore this question.
Anyway, I get to express my junkyard thesis just as much as everyone else does.
I think, therefor I am. Since I feel physical pain if my skin is pinched, it must be part of me. If my brother is cut and bleeds, I feel no physical pain, so maybe there's a boundary there. But lack of physical pain doesn't mean lack of care, which is developed and expressed through language. So yes, we are part of something larger, but I don't buy the ego doesn't exist schtick.
An unusual reprieve may have given humanity another few years to mend their wicked ways(or get their inner shit together) in that an under-ocean volcano in Fiji, near Tonga, on Sunday that spewed tons of volcanic ash high into the atmosphere. The ash, as an aerosol, acts to help reflect Sunlight back into space. It just may slow global warming to give silly humans another year or two to get their inner affairs in order. Enjoy today for all it's worth. Love your loved ones. May tomorrow come as well. It will all keep chugging along until it doesn't. It all begins with us. Peace, The Ol' Hippy
My allegory is no one was sitting around listening to Connie Francis wondering, "Where the hell are the Beatles?" Only in hindsight did they seem inevitable.
Politically, the best I can do at the moment is to stop participating in the lesser of two evils nonsense we're being offered in hopes that a space is created for something new to happen.
Too bad, enlightenment is SO painful, traumatic and unremittingly denigrated, dismissed & despised, in our culture (as detrimental to our production quota) that those fleeting instances, we're actually HERE, aware, awake, conscious & capable of self-actualization; it's like our skin's been flayed off, so we're in such horror and pain, we immediately retreat, back into obtuse oblivion. If you think this is exaggerated, or snark... you've never BEEN aware!
my philosophical understanding is, 1) there's nothing new or original under the sun in terms of human consciousness or intelligence, 2) and thus there's no progress or "getting better" on a linear measuring stick as more time passes, and 3) we have always understood and had choices, which do not overlap with each other, in terms of what kind of society, local and/or worldwide, we want to live in. and we live in what we collectively choose to live in. societies, alternative to what we live in, of various scales have existed and even thrived throughout human history and all over the world. never say no one saw it coming or no one knows what's going to happen. many have seen it coming, warned each other and presented alternative visions. what happens in the future depends on what we do now.
Wow, thank you for that.
This article reminded me of the penchant people have to suss out hidden meanings, always encrypted of course, as in every fifth word of the bible or something read backward. Maybe it's to do with an innate distrust of officialdom, written rules and laws, mandates and commandments. They must feel the "truth" is in there somewhere, but is not literal and obvious. Greater consciousness is indeed an unfolding, a distillation of all experience. Its origins are mysterious, but we should always be open to it, the essence being, no one has a monopoly on "truth", it is inexhaustible, and the word itself has many meanings and manifestations. But for practice purposes, some obvious truths have priority: the planet is a mess, and we are in existential danger from the situation. Common logic, human perception, intuition and consciousness tell us that we as a species must be able to solve the problem. Otherwise we'd be the only species not to have been given the means to sustain itself in its environment, in this case, one to a great extent of our own making. That would say something unacceptably nasty about the universe, and we should not be willing to believe it.
Imagine by John Lennon, 1971
Perhaps if our relationship with the rest of the biosphere had been more attuned to that of some aboriginal peoples, we would be more inclined to see the peaceful reciprocity that evolved therein. And please try to refrain from a focus on biosphere interactions that seem un-peaceful like a wolfpack taking down a young elk or bison. That viewpoint comes of our distancing from Nature and our desire to control it on terms that are at odds with the frugality, reciprocity, recycling of materials etc. that are the biosphere's operational principles. We have immense difficulty appreciating the systemic perspective, in which the whole really is more than the sum of its parts. Aboriginals practiced ecological economics, an interaction with the biosphere that played by the macrosystem's principles of operation. The moment of great narcissism when we turned our species' face away from that path was the moment we became pariahs within a system that doesn't hold dissidence as a value, save perhaps in the value of genetic variation as the substrate for evolution.
While I agree that "There are so many lights that can yet be switched on. So many potential doors currently hidden in darkness creating the illusion that there is no exit." I am also convinced that beyond one of those doors must lie a society that recognizes its collective interest as tied to the rest of the biosphere, that moves at least closer to the aboriginal understanding of the necessity for ecological economics as the replacement for consume-and-discard economics. Until that becomes the central focus, other economic arguments, e.g., capitalism vs. socialism, become less relevant. But can we find a way through that door without the racism and classism implicit in continuing the current and longstanding first-world/third-world narcissism?
Thank you for writing such a hopeful message!
Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.
Beautifully said.
Peace is always here waiting for us to notice it.
Seems like "Everyone is having them dreams" (as Dylan sang)
I go with Heinlein and the "Thou art God" meme. It may sound nihilistic, but it is more along the lines of "Everything and everybody is just a dream that God is having". That hardly expresses what I really mean though since we're all 'skating on thin ice' here. I didn't understand most of what Caitlin was trying to communicate. I don't see any "love" in the universe (or multiuniverse or all of existence)
To make a long convoluted philosophical journey as short as possible. We are manifestations of God (dreams) trying to figure out if he wants to be "good" or "bad" and just exactly what defined "good" and "bad". It isn't so much that God "allows" us to suffer as he hasn't any way of preventing that suffering because he has no idea what is "good" and what is "bad".
Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and the laws of Robotics explore this question.
Anyway, I get to express my junkyard thesis just as much as everyone else does.
I think, therefor I am. Since I feel physical pain if my skin is pinched, it must be part of me. If my brother is cut and bleeds, I feel no physical pain, so maybe there's a boundary there. But lack of physical pain doesn't mean lack of care, which is developed and expressed through language. So yes, we are part of something larger, but I don't buy the ego doesn't exist schtick.
hows that forced vaxxed aussie lockdown...that you never write about...working out for ya? just wonderin
An unusual reprieve may have given humanity another few years to mend their wicked ways(or get their inner shit together) in that an under-ocean volcano in Fiji, near Tonga, on Sunday that spewed tons of volcanic ash high into the atmosphere. The ash, as an aerosol, acts to help reflect Sunlight back into space. It just may slow global warming to give silly humans another year or two to get their inner affairs in order. Enjoy today for all it's worth. Love your loved ones. May tomorrow come as well. It will all keep chugging along until it doesn't. It all begins with us. Peace, The Ol' Hippy