Chapter 6 Book #8: Some Questions For The Curious, Inquiring Mind

“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

—-Jiddu Krishnamurti

American society creates the perfect conditions for our population to experience insanity and to practice addictive behaviors.  We have an overabundance of predominantly misguided and power hungry shepherds, just waiting to lead any vulnerable sheep that they might find.  Yet, we can no longer blindly follow the dictates of others, as It remains up to us as individuals to create our own conditions for recovery.  Self-awareness, personal inventory, making amends to all who we have harmed including ourselves, working a strong spiritual program, mindfulness, meditation, eating healthier and exercising wisely, and hanging around like-minded people took me to the outskirts of my own promised land.  I also had to learn to ask new questions of myself, or ask the old questions, while supplying an attuned silence to each moment, which supplies new answers from the ever evolving now moment.

Life isn’t always pretty for me, but I remain personally responsible for my attitudes and behaviors.  I also retain freedom of choice in most of my affairs. Many have lost all such freedom of choice.   I have much compassion for those who still struggle with toxic participation within our society, with all of its forms of mental illness and alcoholism/drug addiction.  It is no mystery to me as to why those who still suffer choose death through suicide or continued dysfunction over a healing path, as that was the self-destructive route that I traveled upon for much of my earlier life.

Collective consciousness is comprised of all of the answers that our culture, our families, our ancestors, and all of our individual selves have dreamed up to some of the great questions of life.  The answers have become part of our philosophy, our history, our religion, the substance of our hopes and dreams, and the foundation for all of our nightmares.   I will first briefly address the seed consciousness, where my own answers to the important questions of life gave rise to my interpretation of life, and of the universe.

My incomplete and inaccurate answers became the unstable foundation for my journey through collective consciousness, spurring me onto new paths of consciousness, in the eternal search for meaning, truth, beauty, healing, and, ultimately, God.  It is this very matrix of misunderstanding that we all must eventually embrace within ourselves, see it for what it really is, and isn’t, and then move through the illusions of self to the very foundation of our timeless soul, where peace and healing eternally resides.

Questions that I have pondered:

• Why does suffering exist, and why does it visit me so often?
• Who and what am I?
• Is happiness, joy, and freedom possible in my life?
• What am I really looking for, and will I ever find it?
• What really is prayer?
• Does religion have relevance anymore?
• Can there be any truth. love, or justice to be found in the 21st century version of American Christianity?
• What happened to the moral and ethical authority once touted as being endemic to Christianity?
• Does religion hinder or help a modern-day seeker of God?
• What is a “well lived life” and how do I achieve it?
• What is good mental health, or what does it mean to be normal?
• Who are my “people”, and where are they located?
• Why do people cling to certain groups of people, and reject all others, and why do I feel rejected so often?
• Why don’t people get along better with each other, and why have I become so isolated?
• Will I ever fit in?  Will anyone ever notice me?
• Why don’t I feel peace of mind?
• What is death, and what does it mean to die to myself?
• Why does our society and much of the world’s population continue to not experience peace of mind, with beauty, wonder, and the innate internal integrity of our (potentially) divine nature, and what might I do to attain these qualities?
• Why is history defined predominantly by male energy, and why does my own life story spin so tightly around the male gender and its destructive byproducts?
• Why do some men become spiritually and emotionally disfigured by their desire for sex?
• Can men ever completely overcome objectifying women in their relationships with them?
• Why do some men exercise excessive emotional control over their partners?
• Why do I not feel satisfaction when I achieve the goals that I have set up for myself?
• Why do I not feel joy when others achieve greatness, or accomplish great things for themselves?
• Why do I sometimes feel threatened by others’ successes?
• Why do I internally try to hold others back from success and positive social acknowledgement?
• Why do I always seem to “self-destruct” right at the moment when I am about to achieve great success?
• Will I ever completely understand myself, and others?
• What is oppression, and what is my relationship to it?
• What is repression, and why do I participate in it?
• Why is expressing real human emotions such a double-edged sword, and why are my feelings so hard to identify sometimes?
• Why are some people always so angry, indifferent, detached, or depressed, and can these people ever see me for who I am?
• Why is anxiety the defining feeling of this age, and why is it so hard to heal from it?
• Where is the love that I feel is missing from my life?
• Why don’t I feel more love for myself or for others?
• Why do I continue to experience poor self-esteem?
• Why is our culture so focused on youth and physical appearance?
• Why am I so self-conscious, and will I ever be accepted for who I am?
• Why do I feel that I have to always be competitive, or “better than the others” just to fit in?
• Why is competition and greed, as presently coupled with Capitalism, the predominant economic system in our world?
• Why does shame and guilt control so much of my life’s experience?
• Is it possible to speak or live a lie long enough that we no longer can accept or believe the truth?
• Is a person’s silence because of an absence of opinion, or from a fear of speaking the truth?
• Why can’t some people be more emotionally and spiritually present for others?
• Why do people feel that they need to engage in mutual “control dramas”?
• Why do people endlessly pursue entertainment and/or use drugs and alcohol to excess, and ignore their own personal transformation and healing?
• Why is just more knowledge so much more important than intuition, wisdom and insight to most men and left brained dominated women?
• Why is collaboration such a dirty word for a national political process?
• Why do I have no desire to contribute to society in a more generous and meaningful way?
• Will America Ever Fully Awaken?

My story indicates a path for a more holistic approach to the answer of some of these questions, and my answers may have a more universal application than to just my limited life experience. To satisfactorily answer all of these questions would require a series of trite responses, or a 5000 page book.

The following are formative energies that tend to shape and guide humans in today’s America, and are the unintentional by-products of our incomplete and/or outdated answers for the previous questions:

• Unconscious participation in the Common Knowledge Game of harsh and inaccurate self and other judgement, with resultant poor self-esteem inculcated into boys from birth by our wayward fathers, religions, and cultures,
• Remaining ignorant or fearful of our own feelings, including anger and grief, or expressing them unskillfully,
• Letting stress go on unabated in our lives, without challenging its points of origin
• Loss of emotional and physical safety in home, school or work environments
• not communicating honestly with others, and carrying the feeling of not being heard or appreciated,
• eschewing deep and meaningful relationships with others,
• excessive competitiveness with others while engaging with greed, trying to “keep up with the Jones’ “,
• proving self-worth in environments where self, and others’, worth is disrespected, thus trying to fit in where we really don’t belong,
• people pleasing, at the expense of our personal integrity
• not speaking up for ourselves or for others that are oppressed for fear of being marginalized,or further victimized
• over immersion in entertainment, excess reliance upon Snapchat, Facebook, or other social media platforms for social awareness
• excessive eating and/or eating excessive sugar or processed foods
• not exercising, not hiking in Nature and thus staying away from its healing balm
• excessive drinking of alcohol, use of recreational drugs to the point of habituation (including marijuana),
• smoking or chewing tobacco,
• using sex as a way to emotionally hide or escape, or to manipulate others,
• workaholic behavior, and forgetting how to laugh and play well with others

These and other phenomenon represent the factors that most men encounter or employ in our efforts to meet the needs for economic security, establish our place in society, relieve stress and keep ourselves at least marginally happy, and pursue family fulfillment, including ones sexual gratification. And, statements of personal well-being, such as those listed below, were anything but “facts of life” for most men.

• I am worthy,
• I am safe,
• I am whole,
• I am loving and lovable,
• I have something worthwhile to say

What do we really want and need, as human beings, and what might we need, that we have yet to be able to express clearly to others?  I have listed a few possibilities below, please add your own to the list.

• To be able to express our thoughts and feelings authentically, without bringing unnecessary harm to ourselves or to others
• To belong, to feel safe while belonging, including the desire to help and protect others while helping oneself,
• To speak up, and feel like we really were heard, and not have our spirit layered over with another’s error in reasoning and judgement,
• To be able to listen to another at the deepest level possible, and be present in the spirit of understanding, cooperation, and collaboration.
• To feel whole, and to be able to recognize that wholeness, not only within ourselves, but within all others, even those living in alternative realities.
• To love all others, as well as to be accepted, and loved, by others, with as few conditions attached as possible.
• To evolve, for if we do not, we become subject to the forces of friction and chaos inherent within a closed mind, and system, resulting in higher physical and mental disease and dysfunction.

A most important issue of the emotions is our willingness and ability to skillfully express our anger  All too many of us have been victimized by family members, friends, acquaintances, co-workers, or strangers who have aggressively and maliciously used this emotion in an attempt to control or abuse others.  Anger gets a really bad name from those who are of a sensitive nature, whose being does not respond well to strong emotions, and from those who have fear of anger itself.  I know that when I did something wrong as a child, and my father either witnessed it or heard about it, he got angry, and my ass got whipped by his belt, so anger sure had a bad association in my mind between its expression and my pain!

Anger is appropriate in these times, but constructively using this energy for the good of the people requires understanding, however. We are beings of energy, GREAT ENERGY, but that energy gets pushed away every time we fail to recognize that anger may be one of our most important spiritual assets available. There is a vast difference between anger and hatred, and those who confuse the two, in the name of their own dis-empowered belief systems, have given themselves permission to not rise up publicly, and to speak out against those who are attempting to oppress, dominate, and control us. Anger can inform our Passion, and give us access to that extra energy needed to rise up, and speak out. Sitting back on our hands, and developing spiritual philosophies that allow us to ignore what we are viewing is tantamount to creating more FAKE NEWS, and normalizing that which is insanity.

We can’t dismiss what is going on, and deny our hearts and spirits, when there are millions of dis-empowered citizens who cannot defend themselves, or speak out against the oppression, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY HAVE THEIR RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL LEADERS CONTINUING TO FOIST DIS-EMPOWERING BELIEFS, AND PHILOSOPHIES, UPON THESE UNSUSPECTING ADHERENTS. Though their hearts may be in the “right place”, this is not the time for more dis-empowering agendas from those who have already given themselves permission not to stand up and be counted .Righteous indignation and anger may not be for everybody, but those who have been inspired by these powerful energies can harness them for the greater good of mankind, and, for themselves.

An appropriate response to the needless suffering of others IS ANGER, especially when we are witnessing the same ignorant oppressors repeating the same antagonistic actions over and over again. Speaking out in loud voices is a powerful way to let the oppressors know that we are NOT SHEEP WILLING TO BE LED TO OUR SLAUGHTER, but instead we are warriors willing to stand up and defend our self, our families, our neighbors, and our world. The Liars and Thieves that many times takes the form of politicians and national leaders need to be able to hear our voices. The feeble, baying voices of the multitudes of oppressed sheep of this world will continue to be persecuted, oppressed, and their human values will continue to be systematically trod upon. The AWAKENED AMERICAN has never been a member of that dis-empowered flock, however.

The Far Side Wait, Wait, We don’t have to be just sheep

The Far Side: Wait, Wait, We don’t have to be just sheep!

My heart breaks for the innocent, yet somehow, miraculously, love still lives.   And I want to give the reader some hope, after so much description of the down side of the American male consciousness.   My philosophical background predisposes me to the discussion of the blocks to love’s awareness and experience, for by seeing completely the shades pulled over Truth, ultimately we will see through them, to where the mystery of the unknown, and Love itself, actually resides. The capacity for insight brings change, in the actual seeing IS AWAKENED THE CAPACITY FOR LASTING INTERNAL CHANGE.  The  Kingdom of Love is where the need for words is almost negated, unless one is a poet, or a writer seeking an audience or a book deal.

(merge this chapter with the chapter on knowledge, and the unknown)