Book #8: A slightly different composition

Introduction

“I don’t blame the circumstances, I do not blame the place and time. When I had the choice between right and wrong, I could not quite make up my mind “—Peter Yarrow, from lyrics to Arkansas

Mythology, Religion, Liars, The Conspiracy Of Silence, And The Cloak Of Invisibility

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”—-Joseph Goebbels

Whether we’d like to admit it or not, governments, in general, are some of the shadiest organizations out there. The bigger and more powerful the country, the more likely it is to sit on a massive pile of shocking secrets. Such is the United States case, which perhaps has the most significant number of conspiracy theories drafted in its honor.  What about the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy’s assassination, the Iran Contra Affair, UFO’s, and all of the other so-called conspiracy theories did not just grow out of nowhere.  Due to the work of Congressional investigations, and the Freedom of Information Act, our country has learned that many of our so-called conspiracy theories actually do have a foundation in fact, though most times, the facts are not as clear as we would like them to be, thus subject to interpretation and political leveraging.

Our government is of the people, by the people, and for the people, according to President Lincoln’s Gettysburg address..  As goes our government, so goes our citizens, so goes our government, etc.  Our governments have been designed to represent the interests of its citizens, and if the citizens are prone to keeping dangerous secrets, so also shall the government.  Historically, America has shown itself to be the People Of The Lie. The white race has shown that it has immense talent and expertise in leveraging a falsehood into a profitable enterprise for itself. For example, the European immigrants committed genocide and stole America from its native inhabitants, and kidnapped and enslaved men and women of African descent, and much of America still found a way to justify its own murderous excesses,.

Much of the American Christian Church morphed into a political ally for our capitalist economic system and government, and they are the primary agent for the proliferation of the lie that we have no value unless we adhere to their belief systems..  And when it comes to our excesses and crimes against humanity, we have learned that if we change the subject fast enough, or spin the facts in creative, though deceptive ways, we can avoid being held accountable and responsible for our own errant attitudes and actions in our world.  We are a country that has learned to scapegoat the innocent, and enrich and aggrandize the guilty among us.

Where and when are we to find our freedom, while the church and the government are trying to control us?

Where and when are we to find our freedom, while our conditioning and our traumas are still trying to tether us to an unhealthy past, while trying to control us in the present?

Why would we ever consider granting each other release from the binding arguments of our own lies and misunderstandings?

This book is a documentation of my understanding of the facts of our lives, clues about our shared human nature, and the discovery of our possibilities for the transcendence of our human condition.  Our sense of self or ego is as limited and mysterious to us in our unenlightened space as is our limited concept of God.   The only “God” that most people ever become aware of.are the lies and confusion spread by unevolved religions and their less than aware adherents, or created through our reactions to our own history.  We do not give real prayers, as we continue in earnest our culturally prescribed mutual control dramas.

In our native essence, we have a curious mind and a balanced masculine/feminine nature.  We naturally seek to understand our self and our relationship with the whole, yet we become self-conscious, judgemental, and/or uncomfortable with those assessments.  The loss of our connection with nature and our imbalanced and inaccurate perceptions of self and each other contributes to our sense of isolation, loneliness and vulnerability. If we do not make ourselves aware of the reasons behind the choices that we make in life, we remain unconscious human beings, with little true freedom.  The resulting perceptions spawned from our confusion are legion in number, and are resistant to change. It is no wonder why making a conscious choice is so difficult. One eventually has to ask:

Why is life, and the truth, so threatening?  Why would I rather hold onto a fantasy, than face myself?

The fig leaf represents denial, or our need to hide from our inner creator and all of our creations. Thus, the ceding of personal responsibility is consummated through the scapegoating, or the sacrifice, of others. Our self protective armor has evolved over hundreds of generations from a single fig leaf to become a Kevlar suit and military style weapons for far too many human beings.  As Goebbels alludes to, the truth is the greatest enemy of our culturally institutionalized misunderstanding of Life, our self, and all of our relationships with all of mankind.  This division between reality and fantasy draws its energy from the lies that we continue to tell ourselves, and vigorously defend to each other.  Our ignorance to higher possibilities began in the mythical Garden of Eden, and is where, at least conceptually, the feeling of shame and the need to tell lies to cover up our sense of inadequacy becomes, mythologically, mankind’s first experience of dishonesty, which continues unabated to today.

When we don’t have the facts that we need, we sometimes trust the version of the facts offered to us by others, even if they are “snakes in the grass”.  The lies start small, as indicated by the fig leaf. But as our defense mechanisms grow in sophistication over a period of time, eventually we clothe ourselves entirely with them.  The flaming swords of the Cherubim guard the gates back into Eden, preventing us in our now “fallen” nature from ever reentering the Garden again.  The reason is simple:  We have abandoned our native intelligence, and now all that we see is a lie, projected out of our self, until we find a release from our temptations to  believe solely in our self-defining and limiting judgements, grief, traumas and wounds.  As we return back to our innocence, we lose our need to hide from ourselves, control others, and no longer remain paralyzed by the fear of our own vulnerability and innate spiritual power.

Lies are the primary activity of the relatively unevolved mind,  a mind typically intoxicated by subservience to its hubris,  a second hand life experience,  and twisted self-centered understanding of what is good, and what is bad. Lies serve us as a creative avenue for maintaining a safe distance from threatening truths that we are not yet prepared to confront. Nobody wants to grow up to be the best liar in the world (the former President Trump might be the exception). Yet, through the living of a lie, and the telling of lies, we can convince ourselves that we have no need to adapt, adjust, understand others, accommodate, and/or heal.

Some who have been traumatized and victimized by the family, or by the community, may find little support in their search for justice and compassion, thus they are compelled to  remain silent about the abuse, fearing reprisal and spiritual assaults.  We are ALL the beloved of God, of this Universe, and of our Mother Earth, and that is a poorly comprehended and applied fact within our collective consciousness. In truth, we should also be beloved by our fellow man, and we all have felt that lack of love.  Unnecessary pain and suffering comes through denial of this truth, and is the basis for all of the social ills within civilization.

The parable of The Emperor’s New Clothes represents in narrative form how we are susceptible to the lies of the mind being spun together,with the invisible golden threads of self-deceit.  Our deception, both to ourselves and to others, creates for us a self-perceived “cloak of invisibility”.  The lies that we tell ourselves to cover our innocence and vulnerability feel like they are spun from gold, and, at least initially, we take pride in our new version of our self. Because of our social nature, we want to look good to others, thus the parading around of our latest “clothing”.  But life will always present us with “an innocent young boy” who sees through the deception, and proclaims our nakedness before our adoring crowds.  Oh how the masses loves this eternal parade of fools, which, in our deceived state, we remain active participants.

The need to please others without first finding our real self can lead to some incredibly challenging, and embarrassing, situations. It is enlightening to note how much of the ego’s energy is devoted to it’s own recognition, when there was a shortage of loving attention very early in life. The ego, both individual and collective, is created from a desperate call for love from a world that has not yet learned how to listen to and to love itself.

Through our own unwillingness to embrace this world with love, with its ever evolving truth, we tend to maintain a caricature of our real self, and we build an almost impenetrable fortress around this misunderstanding (this idol, or self creation, is called our “ego”), thus perpetuating a culturally conditioned war both against the present moment, and all who appear unlike ourselves. Acts and attitudes of duplicity and folie-a- deux characterize much of the crazy making attitudes and communication styles. The need to tell lies is a confirmation that we are practicing denial of our basic truth, and are not yet courageous enough to face our self completely and honestly.  When we don’t honor our own truth, we share in our culture’s conspiracy of silence created to continue the perpetuation of those control dramas that prove we are anything but children of God.

Be conscious, oh Mankind, of those pain filled secrets that we must keep,

For by our suffering silence, we slowly die, while staying disempowered and asleep.

The so-called cultural conspiracy of silence is spawned through our culture’s accommodations to our lying nature, the need to hide from those lies, and it manifests itself in two primary ways.  First, the conspiracy embodies all of the shameful ideas that we have thought and  acted upon, sometimes culminating in intentional harm to self, and to other.  We keep our secrets close to the chest and fear our day of reckoning, when others may see through our surface stories to the hidden truth behind our senseless fear,  heartless indifference or hatred of our self and others.  A compelling part of this conspiracy is that others also share in this activity of keeping dangerous secrets, secrets that are attacks against our self, the (potentially) innocent other, and the truth.  This mutually imprisons all of us.  And this is a most important component of the common knowledge game, an activity that I will devote a lot of attention to in a future chapter.

Second, the conspiracy indicates a hesitancy to talk with others around our spiritual potential, and our innate ability to connect with and manifest a more aware, intelligent, state of being.  Those who are avid in their church attendance may believe that merely belonging to a particular tribe, be it Judaic Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist, they are already granted their necessary grace, as if through a magical dispensation..They are threatened by talk that indicates that their way may not be in resonance with “God’s will”, and they shut down all points of view in disagreement with their own,  Others feel their resistance to any truth not already understood and applied.  Many just turn their heads, and their words, away from the resistant person, knowing that their own new or elevated understanding, or true spiritual discernment, makes them invisible to those who refuse to look at life anew, from a shared love or more collaborative perspective.

Who wants to spend their lives continuously  in confrontation with the unevolved?  Thus, those not trained or equipped to qualify for the debate team just smile, and walk away, keeping their words to themselves.  We may remain silent because of our own perceived inadequacy at presenting a supporting and compelling argument for our own point of view, fearing the indifference and rejection from others..  Those with personalized versions of our culture’s institutionalized hatred or judgements, such as white supremacists, toxic forms of masculinity,  misanthropic gun owners, and/or religious and political fundamentalism are especially resistant to open communication.  Such people may even  feel that their freedom and way of life are threatened.

The presidential election of 2020 showed that there were 72,000,000 voters who picked, perhaps,  the most obvious and outrageous liar and deceiver to ever take political office.  And, of the 79,000,000 voters who opted for the more evolved alternative, who knows what percentage of those voters voted against the liar only because they did not have a well defined point of view, and a vote for Biden aligned them with their own tribe, yet not with their own heart.  It takes a person of the highest order of spiritual integrity to successfully confront such attitudes while maintaining compassion and equanimity, thus not being threatened or degraded by the contact.

This is a critical part of the conspiracy of silence.  We become invisible to each other, the less that we are curious about others while becoming unwilling to communicate with each other,  and the less we remain curious about ourselves.  We become invisible to our self when we sit on our voice, and fail to listen to our essence as our inner voice cries out for justice, peace, healing, and change.

As a culture, we also need to remember that our mentally ill population, which includes the addicts and the alcoholics, are society’s “canaries in the gold mine”. We are all susceptible to the damages incurred by spiritual asphyxiation, should we neglect to listen to the stories being told by our most vulnerable family members. The sensitive and the oppressed of our culture define the leading edge of the journey of our own shared human experience and are indicators of our collective spiritual condition.

There is a cultural conspiracy of silence, and that fact remains beyond question. Those who have been traumatized by their own, or their family member’s, mental illness often do not communicate their distress, and thus suffer in silence. There are many secrets that are kept, that are held close to the heart, for the victimized, the broken, and the ill do not have the language, nor the receptive audience to share their trauma and pain, with. Some traumas are so painful and distressing that the victim is fearful that the revelation of their disease will bring harm to others, or further harm to themselves. And major sectors our culture remains judgmental, uncaring and indifferent to the plight of the suffering, and close their minds, hearts, and ears to those in need, so that they can continue relatively unbothered in their own selfish, self serving worlds.

I have been personally impacted at the deepest, most profound levels, and my own mental illness and addictions as a teenager and young adult were a cause of greatest concern for myself, my family, and my community, as well. I have been victimized by mental illness, addiction, depression, anxiety, and panic attacks, and my path through life has made me a reluctant expert in these matters. Not only is remaining unconscious and victimized not a helpful option now, It is inappropriate and unhealthy for me to keep a silence around these issues, as I tend to be as sick as my secrets. In my unhealthy past, my conditioned response would be to keep silent, as I had nothing of value to share with the world, and/or the world could give a shit about what I had to say anyway. Extrapolate that response to all of life, and we can perceive the isolating framework that imprisons much of the American psyche..

We continue to feel forced to argue for our own limitations. Yet, to argue for those illusions is to ultimately prove their existence, for that which the mind focuses upon and identifies with, it attempts to develop a supportive narrative around.  Concurrently, if we continue to argue for and defend the world’s present chaotic, limited state of awareness, those illusions become further entrenched within our matrix of understanding.  In the seeing of our problems is the pathway to our release from them, and to our liberation, revealed.  Let us walk with assurance and integrity upon these new paths, after fully understanding the errant paths that we are presently wandering upon.

The mythical story of Theseus and the Minotaur provides for us an allegorical sign that points in the direction towards our own healing potential.. .Theseus had to travel deep into the labyrinth (the human mind) to confront, and to defeat, the Minotaur (our lies, fears, traumas and deep woundedness that negatively impacts our life).  Yet, Theseus would not have had success, had he not left a trail of string, to follow back out of the labyrinth,  after the Minotaur’s defeat..  Theseus had a “clew”, or, in our modern terminology,  a clue, or way to finally escape the clutches of a mind under the influence of its darker side.

J.R.Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy is a fantastic “Middle Earth” variation on the same theme, with the heroes Samwise  and Frodo taking the Ring back to its source in Mordor.  We must confront the dark tricksters and defeat and silence them, or remain controlled by them.  It is OUR responsibility to find our freedom, and blaming others for our creations is a failed, though socially acceptable, solution.

Consciousness itself is the Garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, the Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Apple, God, the labyrinth, the Minotaur, the Emperor’s New clothes, and the innocent boy calling out our lies. And, we are that Consciousness.  Jesus of Nazareth clearly stated that humanity is the prodigal son.  We have strayed far from Eden, and feast in the pig pen of an unevolved human experience.  Yet, the journey back to our true nature, or essence,  though being a most difficult endeavor, is the most rewarding, experience that life has to offer.  If we commit to traveling upon new paths of consciousness, eventually, Eden will reappear within our interior vision, and we need spin no more illusions of our self in vain attempts to capture the attention of others.

We can all return to our essence, to our original “Garden of Eden” state, but we had better have a “clew”.  Otherwise, we will remain trapped in our labyrinth of self deception and spiritual corruption until the end . Without the healing of our wounds,  loving acceptance of our self and each other remains impossible, we remain separated from our true nature, and we continue being dominated by our demons from the past.. The conspiracy of silence still reigns supreme, and our religions, economic policies, politics, and, in general, our collective consciousness, continues to give more support to our fantasies, rather than to facts and reality.  “Spin to win” is the propagandists slogan, and is a tool for oppression. By such processes throughout our history disputed or disproven “facts” are used to create theories that promote division, chaos, and disease within our world.

Be aware of those fig leafs, and automatic weapons.  Watch out for those minotaurs.  Listen for that innocent child who is trying to call BULLSHIT on the parade of fools.

Beware of those institutions of government, religion, and politics as they force feed the population lies and misstatements of the truth in order to maintain their own self-serving “order”.

Eventually, without collectively AND individually embracing our troubling issues and seeking healing from them, the  chaos and division created through the lie, or Armageddon,  will eventually overwhelm the culture, and threaten civilization with its very destruction.  And, the most “religious” humans among us will suffer the same fate as the most profane, for we all are living the LIE.  When the planet’s ecological balance is irreparably damaged through the actions of man, Armageddon  will not separate the ” good from the bad”, it will only separate humanity from its ability to live, and to thrive.

I do not care to read the post apocalyptic narrative that will be created by the ignorant, or the wise, survivors.   We can choose to work together to defeat the cultural Minotaur.  We can work together to take the dark ring back to Mordor.  We can work together to repair the gates to Eden to make paradise accessible once again,

We are free to make new choices, and thus travel new paths of consciousness.

We can dramatically improve our perceptual aim, and  finally hit love’s bullseye with consistency.

Freedom is only for those brave enough to seek it, while breaking free of our culture’s historical shackles.

We can break free from the narratives created by the religious and politicized people of the LIE.  We must find a way to bring Love’s eternal order out of the chaos of the normal human experience.  By improving our perceptual aim, we will hit Love’s bullseye more consistently.

We can save the world . . . from our unhealed self.

We can stop hiding from ourselves. . . and from each other.

Prepare to take the journey to meet our real Maker!

 

 

Chapter 2: Childhood Trauma and Imbalanced and Inaccurate Perceptions

 

 

Chapter 16:  WAKE UP!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYlwF0jP5-w&feature=share

Remember those late night television commercials in the 1960’s and 1970’s, where Tom Peterson would come on the air, and knock on the inside of the screen of our TV’s, yelling “WAKE UP! WAKE UP!!” ?

This is John Lennon’s equivalent in song, without the sales pitch to buy a TV!

God is a concept

By which we measure

Our pain

I’ll say it again

God is a concept

By which we measure

Our pain

I don’t believe in magic

I don’t believe in I-Ching

I don’t believe in Bible

I don’t believe in tarot

I don’t believe in Hitler

I don’t believe in Jesus

I don’t believe in Kennedy

I don’t believe in Buddha

I don’t believe in mantra

I don’t believe in Gita

I don’t believe in yoga

I don’t believe in kings

I don’t believe in Elvis

I don’t believe in Zimmerman

I don’t believe in Beatles

I just believe in me

Yoko…

A select few in our world grow weary of being tied to the whipping post of cultural and religious ignorance, and break free from those punishing, choking, binding chains. In “waking up”, a certain alone-ness ( all-One-ness) is found, a journey towards individual and collective healing. When God as a religious concept finally dies, Reality awakens. Life becomes a profound experience, even if living a simple life.

Fasten the seat belt, though, because when we finally let go of our controlling thoughts, the journey through the Unknown becomes quite the exhilarating ride through the unexpected, unanticipated, unexplored aspects of the human heart and soul!

And the real life “sleeping beauty” finally Awakens, which some give the name “LOVE”.

No longer is one on the “outside looking in”, One is on the “inside looking everywhere”. Then, all that we will ever see, unto eternity, is our Self, in its infinitude of forms.

How will we see our Self today?

WITH NO LIMITS

“IMAGINE” THAT!

IMAGINE (edited from Imagine, by John Lennon)

Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us, only sky

Imagine all the people living for today. . .

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope some day you’ll join us

And the world will be as one

 

CONCLUSION/FINAL CHAPTER/EPILOGUE?

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king

by J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

Even if you remain lost in the shadows, having vainly pursued the lost Garden of Eden, the dangerous Minotaur in the labyrinth, or the dark kingdom of Mordor, there still is hope. To be insane in an insane world, to be a stranger in a strange land, is the true new normal for many people presently wandering upon the face of this troubled planet. How we deal with the insanity determines whether we remain imprisoned, or eventually find our freedom. Blaming others for our present station in life is self-defeating. Yet, that is the first response of an immature mind, a mind not ready and willing to make the necessary adjustments in course to create a new life experience.

Mass hypnosis, oppression, mental illness, drug addiction and alcoholism, and their most oppressive spawn, murder and suicide, have been a scourge upon the fabric of human consciousness for time immemorial. Our mental journey far away from Eden begins with the loss of self esteem and mutual respect, loss of personal meaning, and the loss of clarity in making good choices for our life.  This confusion morphs into depression, alienation, isolation, anxiery, despair and loneliness. Suicide, the ultimate act of oppression against self, and murder, the ultimate act of oppression of the other, appears as a reasonable choice for the final act of protest against life from those suffering from the effects of oppression and repression.  Suicide and murder are cruel acts of oppression against those with loving intentions for the victim.  They are the most tragic forms of violence against self, family, friends, and the supporting community.

Suicide and murder are perceived to be the only solution for desperate souls who have reached the end of their options. Our society continues to supply potential perpetrators, and victims,  at a catastrophic rate, and that rate will only increase, as the diseases of planned political divisiveness, oppression of those not in the cultural “in” group, addiction and mental illness within our culture continues to increase. I have known, and buried, far too many friends and family members who were waiting for a better day, and life, while abusing drugs and alcohol, or collapsing into mental illness.

My own “wait for a better day” has born great fruits for me, but the fruit was not passively acquired, nor was it acquired through waiting for the outer conditions of my life to improve. I first had to confront my own suffering, and the sources within my mind, memory, and heart that would push me towards self-annihilation. Suffering need not lead to death, for those who choose to awaken.

Life can be an extremely humbling experience. Those blessed few who stop resisting life and develop the capacity to accept “defeat” are the ones most receptive to healing. It is when we are defeated that we become the most open to life affirming change and growth. After accepting the grace innate within the willingness to change, we can accept personal responsibility for the rest of our lives,.  We finally learn that the willingness and capacity for changes in our attitudes and behaviors can become our “higher power”.

When our goal has finally been spotted, or, has spotted us, we each can make our own unique path towards it. The trail that each one of us blazes is as important as any path made by any prophet, saint, or savior who has ever lived, or will live. It is only our ego, or the egos of the hero worshipers of other faiths who have not yet realized their own highest truth that would say otherwise.

To make dramatic changes in my life, the desire had to come from a place deep within myself. I did not change because my wife and family, my friends, my minister at church, my employer, my political leaders, or my “people pleasing” attitudes cajoled or advised me to change. I had to begin to value myself differently, and to become conscious that my behavior was causing irreparable harm to myself, to other human beings, to our animal brothers and sisters, and/or to the sustainability for life on this planet. I understood that my behavior was insane, and that I had a death wish for myself, and/or for others. I sought for a higher power or energy to overcome my insanity.

Bringing healing to a situation is about recognizing what we are not doing well and accepting where we can improve, right now, in this moment, to help unfold more holistic intentions. Positive change follows the hearts’ intentions, if the heart is pure. If it is a desire from the Heart, never stop seeking that which seems unattainable, for it is the Heart itself seeking for its own highest expression. Please do not stop until  Life’s Miracle reveals Itself to you.

Built right into the very fabric of life, is death itself.  There are up to one hundred trillion cells within our human bodies that are constantly dying off, and being replaced by others so that we can continue to live, and even evolve (or regress as the situation may dictate).  So also should all of our old thoughts die off, to be replaced by newer, more vibrant creations, if we are to continue to live, and grow, and even evolve.  Those who do not do the work to shed the old ways, the old thoughts, the incomplete and inaccurate ways of seeing life, and being in life, will remain the “poor among us”, and more susceptible to the ravages of disease, aging and deterioration of the mind and body.

Even though the disease and despair wrought by toxic male energy is woven throughout the collective garment that now covers our humanity, there are many threads of hope interwoven within it, as well, and these threads are our hope for transcendence. Most forms of insanity can be healed without a lifetime of therapy or taking medications, if it is recognized that at its source, insanity arises from our habituated thoughts and feelings.

Insight changes attitudes, insight changes behaviors, and insight changes lives. To change my world, I first changed myself, through insight, meditation, making amends to all people who I may have harmed through my insanity, and through carrying the message of recovery and healing to all who are interested in not only hearing my story, but bringing healing to their own lives, as well.

I continue to die daily, to all that is not like my true nature. I do not need pills or philosophical ideas to separate me from life’s goodness. I now see the good that is really good, and all of the illusions of self that others, and the past versions of me, offer up to the world as our daily “prayer offerings’ for its conditional acceptance, or its rejection. Though I lost out on my childhood dreams and goals of becoming a space traveler, to “get off this fucking rock”, I was able to live into a new dream. This “fucking rock” transitioned from a living hell, to becoming more of a peaceful paradise, where I became a more conscious traveler through the infinite regions of inner space, or Consciousness itself. My spiritual launching pad only awaited for me to “let go of the controls” to be catapulted into the unknown, mysterious, transformative and healing potential of the infinite.

My “spirit rocket” now lifts off daily, without the extra encumbrance of religious and cultural conditioning, misunderstanding, judgement, and all of the superstition which impedes spiritual progress. Love and acceptance of myself and all others, INCLUDING ALL ANIMAL LIFE, now unfolds within me as my primary, life affirming propellant. To remain healthy, we must be willing to “punch a Nazi”, figuratively speaking, but not just those projections out of our own wounded past. We instead will be dealing directly with issues that need to be addressed through insight into self, communication with others and/or outright confrontation with the offensive and antagonistic elements within our society still operating under the influence of the chaos and swamp of the collective consciousness that we all arose from.

Always question prevailing attitudes and philosophies of the people in power, be they politicians, employers, pop psychology or spirituality gurus, or religious figures. Healthy skepticism is warranted whenever a person or organization tries to exert pressure on individuals to conform to certain beliefs or traditions. Never sit idly by while witnessing injustice or unfair and hurtful judgement and action meted out by the people in power against innocent people. By your silence, you are supporting the ignorant and the evil doers. They will use your silence to claim that you were in full support of their abhorrent behavior.  Do not join in their conspiracy of silence.

Taking dominion over the world, and then destroying its wildlife, forests, rivers, oceans, and lands was never part of God’s will. It was always part of a worn out patriarchal attitude that still pollutes human awareness to this day. The greed and self-serving interests of our Christian ancestors has been glorified, and exalted, over and above the preservation of our planet, and the cultivation of harmony between the diverse interests of people on this planet. Our politicians and corporate leaders use our Capitalistic economic system to rape and pillage the Earth, and its people, and all of its life.. The “mark of the beast” is seen daily in the attitudes of those who promote the destruction of our environment, and who incite hatred and enmity between people.

The closer I get to my “God’, or the creator of my creations, the more anonymous that I become, and the more my story becomes about the truth of life, and, a little less about myself..My story may have little or no value to you, yet, there is a story, long neglected within your own heart and soul, patiently awaiting its delivery to our world.  Your world awaits the King or Queen within you ..You only needs to pick up your own unique crown of the truth of being, and wear it with integrity and love.  Take that MAGA hat off, and throw it in the dumpster, the corruption of thought and heart that this hat represents exists at a level far below your real nature.

Never let someone speak for us, we are responsible for bringing our voice into the world, and having it heard. Never take for granted our right to freedom of speech and its expression, both at home and in the marketplace.  Find the way to express yourself without sacrificing your integrity, and stand up tall and strong in the face of any ignorant,  unfair or unwarranted criticism.  You will “cast your pearls before swine”.  Our hard-earned deepest truths have little value to those who are considered hypnotized, which are many of the “civilized” and “normalized” citizens within this diseased culture of ours.  If they cannot see how your wisdom will increase the size of their bank accounts, increase their prestige and popularity, get them more or better sex, or just generally appeal to their ego, it will have little value, except “laughing value”.  “A prophet is never respected in their own hometown”.

Healthy anger at people, situations, politicians, religious figures, and abusive family members is not only acceptable behavior, it is required for honoring the truth of the moment, and to retain spiritual integrity.  Do not follow those well-meaning souls who claim that all anger is hatred, for that is simply not true.  Anger becomes dangerous when it does not naturally arise from the moment, but instead from animal/tribal instinct, memory and religious and cultural conditioning.

Oppression and repression are birthed through incomplete and prematurely aborted responses to environmental threats.  Institutionalized anger, or hatred,  arises from memory, inadequate education, and emotional immaturity, and can be stoked by politicians and religious leaders with ignorant and evil agendas, and it is dangerous, being the source or racism, war, hatred, alienation, and cultural insanity.  The insight gained through mindful, non-judgemental self examination, is our clew/clue for how to escape the confusing labyrinth of the mind. The clues gained will advise us to avoid the road blocks to enhancing our awareness of Love, and the integrity of our self. The expression of love INCLUDES the conscious expression of anger, whenever it is appropriate. Those who can consciously and skillfully express anger are the game changers for our age. Nearly 80, 000, 000 Americans appropriately expressed their anger at a corrupt president through their vote for an alternative. 3000 Americans expressed their anger on January 6, 2021 in a self-destructive manner.

I remain concerned about the “unaware ignorance” that is so prevalent within many sections of our society, including elements within the American Christian church. Using a church to get to the truth and beauty of Life can be like using an old Volkswagen Beetle to drive around the world, with a worn out, outdated map. Though Christianity brings a form of comfort with its historical and cultural familiarity to all, for many of us it is a clumsy vehicle for consciousness, with much too philosophically restrictive, time dependent dogma that even postpones “heaven” into a fantasy future after death, with no guarantee that anybody will ever spiritually ascend, no matter how much we try to match “what Jesus would do”, or what the other “prophets” would advise us to do.

Mysticism is at the core of all true religions. Each of us is a mystic, should we shed the oppressive and repressive energies of familial, cultural and religious conditioning. Each one of us should become the leader of our own internal movement towards truth, beauty, love, intelligence, awe, wonder, grace, and miracles. What is the difference between the “mind of God” and the “mind of man”? Ah, the answer is there, for you to discover for yourself. You should never just accept my answers, without your own deepest inquiries into your own personal truth.

It is revealing to note how the experience of “enlightenment” allows for the love for all people, and respect for all love based philosophies, yet promotes no dogma, religion or philosophy, as such, for its own support. The prerequisites are a desire for change, self-honesty, insight, mindfulness, meditation, and the developed ability to see beyond the controlling mirages of cultural and religious conditioning. Yet, religions, and their followers, tend to strongly move in tight circles around their own adherents and practices, and often exclude others from their spiritual “inner circles”. And those who point to the benefits of non-religious, spiritual enlightenment are regarded suspiciously, and, in some cases, as manifestations of Satan, or are seen as Infidels, by those who claim to be “religious”.

This meandering story has presented a small portion of my own journey towards healing. As each individual is unique, please do not use my experience to minimize, or maximize, your own. We must eventually find our own direction for life, and not only learn how to think for ourselves, but also to learn how to think and feel with others. We can truly be one with others in a non-controlling, NON-JUDGMENTAL manner, and be with each other with compassion and in communion. It is healthy to acknowledge that we all need each other.

I can’t do this life alone, nor would I ever want that for myself. We are here to help and support each other, and to love each other. Each moment can either be a new beginning, or just the continuation of a painful past where all of human suffering arises from. It is our choice as to how we will experience this moment. I must be willing to travel new paths of consciousness, and never to become too attached to any particular memory, or teacher and their teachings, as it is up to me to work out my own “salvation”. When I let go of the controls, including my own internalized forms of institutionalized thoughts, when I let go of time based thoughts and expectations, when I respect the truth that many times the presence and wisdom of the Great Unknown, rather than just more information and knowledge, is what I am best fed with, that is when I am truly trusting the life force which has always supported me, whether I have recognized its presence or not.

While incarnated into human form, with our poorly illuminated human minds, we can only witness the projections of our minds. All that we will ever see, unto whatever eternity that we can possibly conceive of, is our self, so the most important question for each day is “how will I see myself today?” The answer to that question determines whether I can see through the eyes of the truth of this moment, or just the limited eyes of the past. Each person that I meet either is one of the infinite manifestations of God, deserving ultimate respect and love, or they become just another dead illusion of my aging, conditioned mind.

Why would anyone just settle for the “finger pointing at the moon” or the verbal description, when one could walk upon its very surface, and be one with it?  Sucking more meaning out of someone else’s “finger” will never replace the direct personal experience of our deepest desire, the underlying truth of our own nature. Be ever vigilant with the internalized image of anything, or anyone. Note how the desire for the image, rather than the truth that underlies it, will attempt to take precedence, and will distort one’s view of the world. The image plays to a small part of fragmented being, whereas the truth plays through the wholeness of the all beings.

Lust, greed, selfishness, hatred, and judgement of all others unlike oneself all play to the structure of internalized individualized images. Seeing each other through wholeness and love and thus disempowering the fragmenting images, which is another way of saying “giving forgiveness” allows for right action and healing in the otherwise chaotic and broken world created within the mind of individual self. The ultimate truth is that “you can’t be real”. For in God’s eyes, there is only one self, one love, one existence, with an infinitude of manifestations. There is no room for “you and me” in ultimate truth, though we must continue to make room for that “illusion” in the relative truth of this world, through practicing forgiveness and letting go, until the final ascension into “enlightenment” or complete spiritual understanding.

Finding the true connecting link is the journey into wholeness that our human race must undertake, if it is to survive. When we see our brother and sister as our own self, then we are home. This connecting link is not to be found through our digital devices, or through our “best thinking” or philosophies. It will unfold when we learn how to no longer think time based thoughts, but, instead, eternity based thoughts. That is the only place where Unity will ever be experienced. To see eternity, is to first witness the self without fear and judgement, and then see through the illusions of self to the Heart of Truth.

MOUNTAINS IN THE DESERT

While in realization of Truth,

God’s High Mount is found to be just another illusion to climb

The idea infects like a virus to control the innocent, and all fearful, desirous minds.

The non-illuminated, restless mind remains forever devoid of Love’s Rhyme and Truth’s Reason

With its fruitless chasing of desert mirages,

Until it looks within, and sees the movements that are guilty of treason.

The quickest way to prepare for the new world order (which was once the old world order, by the way) is to get outside of the house, the computer, the movie theater, the Facebook pages, etc. and start getting acquainted with the great outdoors. Once we are free from the encumbrances of our daily lives, we may be more receptive to the call of our spirit. We are not connected to God through our technology. In fact, most of our media related technology has separated us from the quiet state of being that allows God’s will to be readily accepted into consciousness.

Our mother Earth, Gaia is a living being, and is the true “son-daughter of God”. And yes, we are children of that sacred child. God’s face is seen clearly, once the detritus of human misunderstanding is moved aside long enough so that Reality may emerge, once again.

We need a real awakening, enlightenment, to change our way of thinking and seeing things. To breathe in and be aware of your body and look deeply into it, realise you are the Earth and your consciousness is also the consciousness of the Earth.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Technology is only a tool, though it has become another new world religion, a way of life for far too many people. Our country, and our world, shows the collective effects of falling far short of meeting or even acknowledging the existence of our spiritual needs, or attempting to meet our spiritual needs through illusory processes. Most of our media devices have continued the promotion and distribution of cultural hypnosis, and most people continue to be separated from a greater good through that process. The world exists in a state of hypnosis, and it is easy to see that truth when the mind finally takes itself off of the grid of shared cultural and religious misunderstanding. We can pull our eyes off of the phone display for a moment, and engage the person next to us in conversation. We will all benefit from the exchange. We do not benefit in any spiritual or social way by remaining glued to our phones.

Someday the rest of the world will wake up, and realize that all of our technology is only a symbol for the true power that we all have access to, if we only were to fully explore the full range of our consciousness. My closed mind and heart was eternally grounded, and would have NEVER freed itself from darkness’ grasp, until I accepted personal responsibility for the brokenness, and self-destructive and other-destructive life that I had co-created for myself and with others, see the damage that those illusions caused, and became willing to have a different, more spiritually oriented type of life experience. Freedom may not be for everybody now, but it certainly is for me, now, and for all of eternity. I am grateful for my wife Sharon White, who shares in the new/old insight. May all sentient beings be freed from their suffering. But first, all sentient beings must become conscious enough to be aware of the options available to free themselves from their suffering. Pay attention to the man behind the curtain! Get to know him at the deepest level. And then, don’t give up finding truth, beauty, and love until the real Miracle appears in your own life, OK?

Like my father asked, when I was nearly four years old, and finally learned how to talk,

“Will that boy ever run out of things to talk about?” and

“Bruce, would you please shut up!” Once I started talking I proved that I had the capacity for speech, and A LOT OF IT. Both of my parents wondered, at times, if I would ever shut up. Once a person touches Consciousness, Infinity is the limit to our potential.  Yet, my own voice disappeared, after many years of oppression, and repression. The long-term oppressive effects of the conspiracy of silence that plagues most men will continue to limit our potential to experience happiness and longevity, and love for our life.  That certainly was the case for my own life, and nearly eventuated in my early death at thirty years of age.

I am humbled and amazed by both the miracle eternally embedded in SACRED SILENCE, as well as its bridge to human consciousness through the Word. May the Word take a form unique to each of us in all of lives, and lift all of us together into a unity of love, thought, action, and a new shared story of world healing and wholeness.  May the Word spontaneously arise from our SACRED SILENCE, and not from the chaos of our troubled past. As I contemplate the entirety of my life, I see a simple truth arising from the complexities of the details. Silence born of ignorance and oppression brings suffering and disease. Silence born of healing brings joy and love into the world. This same Silence brings forth the capacity to listen with the heart for the deepest meaning embedded within All of Life, in All of Its infinitude of forms, and return the dignity back to each sacred manifestation of life. Is anybody really listening to each other?

Those who have learned how to really listen, hear the “voice for God”. And, we finally get to live in the creation that Love provides for us all, when we accept Love’s vision as our own.

And, no, Father, in whatever form Father may take, I will never “shut up”

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

We all have had problems listening to each other. We all have had problems listening to ourselves. Yet, our stories must be told, and we must listen to the “other’s” story, with respect and compassion for ourselves, and for the other. Every good story has an ending. And, so do our bad stories. What value is a story, if it is never told? What value is love, if it is never shared? What is the value of speaking, if nobody is even listening? What is the value of writing, if there is nobody left to read? We all have infinite value, whether it is ever recognized by another, or not. Discover, enjoy and celebrate INFINITY, rather than the limitations thrust upon us by the deafness of our culture and of our families of origin.

Sing your song, like your life depended on it, BECAUSE, IT DOES! All of our lives depend on each others stories. Those who will not listen to our story, and in turn, will not share their own story with us, are still stuck in their own story of repression and oppression. They are still unconscious participants in the Conspiracy Of Silence.

The sun shines, and the artist interprets its light upon the beautiful landscape, and paints a classic piece of art. The wolf howls in the lonely, cold, snow-covered wilderness, and, miraculously, another wolf a great distance away howls back at him, reassuring both that each other is still there. The bird sings alone in the forest, yet, a hiker stops for a moment, listens, and her heart begins to sing and soar with the bird. The divorced and lonely man sings in the shower, and the salesman at the door hears him, and is so impressed by the man’s voice that he encourages him to try out for a local band. An isolated man stumbles upon the miracle of silence within his being, and a resultant bridge of words subsequently connects this sacred silence to his latest writings, creating beloved poetry and healing balms for all. As I look at my life’s history, I bear witness to Love and its healing Mystery.

I have penetrated the Conspiracy of Silence, and I have lived well beyond my expiration date.  My “miracle experiment” continues in earnest. My world can never be the same

How about yours?