SLAYING A DRAGON

SLAYING A DRAGON: KINDNESS AND COURAGE:

‘Anyone can slay a dragon. But try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That’s what takes a great hero.’ Brian Andreas

Have you ever stopped to think about why even though we are living in the most prosperous period in history, so many people around us seem more distressed and depressed than ever. Why in an era where we have instant access to any information, connection with people world- wide and opportunities that our ancestors never dreamed of, there is this growing sense of emptiness- that something fundamental is missing.

Perhaps you feel this yourself; that silent restlessness that emerges when digital distractions stop for a moment and you may wonder if you are truly living or just existing on auto-pilot. You are nihilistic and you cannot find any sense of meaning in your life whatsoever. You are not alone in this experience and what you are feeling might be the first sign of something much larger approaching. We, with all of our technology and abundance have almost completely lost our place in the world.

But every morning we need to construct our identity from scratch, decide what to believe, who to trust, who to hate, among thousands of digital influences, choose amongst hundreds of career options that might become obsolete before we even graduate. We might live to ninety years of age, because of healthcare technologies, but what is the point if you are always unsatisfied and afraid of the world?

‘Sometimes the point isn’t to make people believe a lie; it’s to make people fear the liar. Our old models never acknowledged the truth that many people desire disinformation. They are attracted by conspiracy theories and will not necessarily seek out reliable news at all.’ Anne Appelbaum

‘But many of the propagandists of Autocracy, Inc., have learned from the mistakes of the twentieth century. They don’t offer their fellow citizens a vision of utopia, and they don’t inspire them to build a better world. Instead, they teach people to be cynical and passive, because there is no better world to build.’ Anne Appelbaum

‘Their goal is to persuade people to mind their own business, stay out of politics, and never hope for a democratic alternative: Our state may be corrupt, but everyone else is corrupt too. You may not like our leader, but the others are worse. You may not like our society, but at least we are strong and the democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided, dying.’

‘Information operations exaggerate the divisions and anger that are normal in politics. They pay or promote the most extreme voices, hoping to make them more extreme, and perhaps more violent; they hope to encourage people to question the state, to doubt authority, and eventually to question democracy itself.’ Anne Appelbaum

‘Our modes of information have been shattered. We are all on our own with our thoughts, with our smartphones and laptops and our own personalized digital experiences are fragmented to the extent that we are no longer able to discern what is ‘real’ and what is not. We spend so much time thinking about and reacting to the digital lives that we and others have created, that there has been a complete breakdown of our ability to talk to one another or listen to each other.’ Sam Harris

‘One of the consequences of our reliance on information from social media and related technologies is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to arrive at some kind of consensus; some kind of fact-based discussion of what’s happening out there. Everyone has a discordant version of events and conspiracy theories; the result being that we have arrived at the point where we have rendered ourselves ungovernable.’ Sam Harris

‘We spend so much time thinking about and reacting to the digital lives that we and others have created, that there has been a complete breakdown of our ability to talk to one another or listen to each other. One of the consequences of our reliance on our source of information on social media and related technologies is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to arrive at some kind of consensus; some kind of fact-based discussion of what’s happening out there.’ Sam Harris

“An atom bomb exploded in our information ecosystem because social media turned our world upside down, spreading lies and fiction rather than facts and fueling hatred by design for profit.’

‘What social media has done is to grow the devil inside of us and give it a direct line into your nervous systems. Big tech transformed social media from a platform of connection to a weapon of mass behavioral engineering. These platforms are sophisticated systems designed to exploit your deepest psychological vulnerabilities. They monetize our anger, fear, and hatred, amplifying our divisions and systematically eradicating nuanced thinking and empathy.’ Maria Ressa

‘An M.I.T. study showed that lies spread six times faster than facts. If you tell a lie a million times, it becomes the truth. If you can make people believe lies are facts, you can control them. The study also revealed that the most effective way to keep people engaged, and scrolling was to sow fear, anger and hatred. You can control their actions; who to vote for. Without facts, you cannot have truth, without truth, you can’t have trust. Without facts, truth and trust, you can’t have democracy.’

‘The Big Tech Companies like Facebook, Twitter, and others did their research on how to keep you engaged by manipulating your basest emotions: fear, hatred and anger! And that translates into billions! These sites use complex algorithms and AI in order to personalize your own version of ‘truth’. Seventy percent of the world’s population now live under Autocratic Rule and in democracies we see the rise of populist political parties. And this is before Elon Musk purchased Twitter.’ Maria Ressa

‘We can’t begin to solve existential problems like global warming. This outrage economy built on our personal data, microtargeting us, transformed our world, rewarding the worst of humanity. ‘ Maria Ressa

‘Online violence is real violence. The challenge today is whether our international rules-based order still works. Does it? Two many people are getting away with impunity from countries to companies to democratically elected leaders and it is dividing us, destroying democracy, destroying trust.’ Maria Ressa

‘As we have seen again and again throughout history, in a completely free information fight, truth tends to lose. To tilt the balance in favour of truth, networks must develop and maintain strong self-correcting mechanisms that reward truth telling. These self-correcting mechanisms are costly, but if you want to get the truth, you must invest in them.’ Yuval Noah Hariri

Democracies die not only when people are not free to talk but also when people are not willing or able to listen. Silicon chips can create spies that never sleep, financiers that never forget, and despots that never die.

‘This radical empiricist position implies that while large-scale institutions like political parties, courts, newspapers, and universities can never be trusted, individuals who make the effort can still find the truth by themselves.’ Yuval Noah Hariri

‘The increasing unfathomability of our information network is one of the reasons for the recent wave of populist parties and charismatic leaders. When people can no longer make sense of the world, and when they feel overwhelmed by immense amounts of information they cannot digest, they become easy prey for conspiracy theories, and they turn for salvation to something they do understand—an autocrat.’ Yuval Noah Hariri

‘One of the recurrent paradoxes of populism is that it starts by warning us that all human elites are driven by a dangerous hunger for power, but often ends by entrusting all power to a single ambitious human.’ Hariri

‘We may now be at an inflection point, a moment when we have to decide how to shape surveillance technology, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, voice-or face-recognition systems, and other emerging technologies so that their inventors and their users remain accountable to democratic laws, as well as to principles of human rights and standards of transparency. ‘ Anne Appelbaum

‘We have already failed to regulate social media, with negative consequences for politics around the world. Failure to regulate AI before it distorts political conversations, just to take one obvious example, could have a catastrophic impact over time.’ Anne Appelbaum

EXISTENTIAL LONELINESS OF GEN Z AND ONLINE COMMUNITIES

The following is a brief excerpt from a talk given by a young British girl, Freya India, that I found on YouTube and it should serve as a wake-up call to the world, of what we’re creating and how we create technologies that we don’t understand that certain individuals make billions by manipulating us.

‘If you look at the state of Gen Z and how lonely young people are, we can see that this promise that the internet was going to connect us was a complete lie. Three quarters of U.K. children spend more time inside than prison inmates. Young people are saying that they are lonelier than pensioners.’ Freya India

‘It’s a real tragedy that we have lost this spontaneous interaction and I think -if you think about it Gen Z …we’ve never known anything different. We’ve never known flirting before it became sending an Instagram DM to someone. We’ve never known falling in love before swiping on dating apps.’ Freya India

‘We’ve never known a world without obsessively documenting and editing and performing yourself as you go and I think obviously we are struggling with our mental health now because those unplanned encounters in communities and with people… you know are crucial to mental health and we’ve completely lost that.’ Freya India

‘If you think about it, it’s been the only world we’ve ever known. It’s been a world where we can pretty much have everything we want without any human interaction. We’ve got delivery apps, dating apps, we’ve got self-service check-outs, we’ve got online communities, we’ve got online porn, we’ve got online lectures.

This is a world where we don’t need to interact with anyone or have unplanned encounters. It’s a really tragic world. And I can’t get across how little familiarity young people have with any sense of community.’ Freya India

This idea that online communities are a lifeline is just a joke. To me I think it’s a real indictment of modern society that we think they’re a lifeline. There’s no such thing as an online community. It’s a complete oxymoron. Freya India

WHAT SOLUTIONS DO WE HAVE: KINDNESS AND COURAGE

KINDNESS: A SPIRITUAL LIFE IS WHERE THE MEANS AND THE END ARE THE SAME

Spirituality is the movement of our own prison of self-blame and self-preoccupation to an inclusive and open engagement with all of life. In many ways a spiritual path is about connection- a deep connection to our inherent capacity for wisdom and love no matter what; a connection to a bigger picture of life no matter what. We can easily go from dawn to dusk disconnected, not only from genuine contact from others, but also from fundamental and loving aspects of our own hearts.

Spiritual practices of mindfulness, generosity, service and loving-kindness not only turn this tendency around towards genuine connection, they also become the manifestation of a free mind. Spiritual life is a place where the means and the end are the same.

We should not be deceived into thinking that by changing the external circumstances of our lives that the internal will change of its own accord. It works the other way around. The path that needs changing is the one in our minds. This is not to say that once we become aligned with our higher selves we won’t want to change things in our physical world, but it is our minds that need to be changed first.

KINDNESS AND COURAGE This article is about courage and kindness. But most of all, it is about a word that I use more than any other word: and that is kindness. There are so many obstacles to overcome, especially if we want to make the world a better place to live in for ourselves, but more importantly for our children, our grandchildren and generations to come.

The people who are grasping at total power today want us to become nihistic and apathetic, and to give up hope. Then they can rule the world.

‘Our Society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, the test of a civilization is the way it cares for its helpless members’ Pearl Buck

‘The ultimate moral test of any government is the way it treats three groups of its citizens. First, those in the dawn of life- our children. Second, those in the shadows of life- our needy, our sick, our handicapped. Third, those in the twilight of life- our elderly.’ Hubert Humphrey in an address to the Democratic Convention on July 13, 1976.

‘There seems to be a disconnect between this clever brain and the love and compassion of our human heart. Only when head and heart work in harmony can we attain our true human potential.’ Jane Goodall

‘We are the most intelligent beings on the planet. But are we so intelligent? The main difference between us and other animals on the planet is this explosive development of our intellect; our brain. We’ve designed a rocket that goes up to Mars and out creeps a little robot which crawls around the surface of the red planet and although we once thought that there might be life on this planet, that is not so.’ Jane Goodall

What can we gain by sailing to Mars if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and, without it, all the rest is not only useless, but disastrous. Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity of the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

‘The general desire of men to live by their heads rather than their hearts, and the strong allurements of great cities, as in Europe, the sinks of voluntary misery. Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.’ A. Leopold

Peace of mind is to be found both in silence and in our hearts. When we live all the time in our minds, we set up an impediment to our connection with all of life and to genuine connection with others. Every wisdom tradition believes in the power of silence and that silence is usually found in nature. That seems to be the ideal place for the heart to be at rest.

However, it appears that humankind has separated itself from nature as well as the healing power of silence. This is perfectly natural since we, like all creatures. come from the same source. We have separated ourselves to such an extent that we are destroying the only home that we have: Planet Earth.

KINDNESS : By far the most beautiful thing about kindness is that it is so wonderfully easy to find, so simple to do, and so delightful to discover. Unfailing, each and every act we take makes our world a little brighter-and us a lot more happier. What an amazing gift.

‘We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place- or not to bother. You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.’ Jane Goodall

If you look for it opportunities for kindness are all around you, and invite you to take them, wholeheartedly. With little moments and grand gestures alike, every day offers a chance to make a difference in this big, beautiful world we call home.

‘Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one must take responsibility for their lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.’ Jane Goodall

Anyone familiar with my writing knows that kindness is the word that I use the most. I don’t know why; there’s love, empathy, compassion. I guess for me kindness has no religion, no concepts, no baggage. I even use it when I sign off when I leave a message, Kind Regards Colin.

I have also noticed that my son uses it as well, and I don’t know why he does. He has a blog here on Sub Stack, but as he lives in Luxembourg, and myself in Canada when we Google Meet we don’t talk of such things: we talk about hockey, as every self-respecting Canadian does! :)

Being positive isn’t always easy- and sometimes, well, it’s just not possible. There are things that come our way that we can’t anticipate or avoid. But what we can do is make space for gratitude, even for those bad things.

‘I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it’s important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge-even wisdom, like art.’ Toni Morrison

When those moments come that challenge you, don’t criticize yourself for acknowledging they are hard to deal with. Let those feelings happen and then make time, when you’re ready, to reflect on where you can find a silver living in each situation. Then you move forward with grace and compassion.

Sometimes, surprisingly, suffering and the feelings of depression and despair offer us an opportunity to grow and serve as signposts by showing us new ways to see and new ways to live our lives. And with a filter of gratitude, we can create more positivity and kindness in our lives. If we can get through our most difficult moments, the sun will shine all the brighter,

There is still a lot in this world that is worth fighting for. And although we may not think that we can make a difference, we can begin sowing the seeds of love. This is what karma truly is. To reach out to someone who is staring or falling into the abyss and lifting their spirits, leading them to safety and resolving to be a warrior for peace.

We do not exist for ourselves alone, and it is only when we are fully convinced of this fact that we begin to love ourselves properly and thus also love others.

We have but this one life; we’re dealing within a limited time frame here: myself more than most. So we must make the best of our lives with the time that we do have left.

COURAGE: IT IS BETTER TO FACE YOUR FEAR THAN TO RUN FROM IT

Maya Angelou believed that courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistency. You can practice any virtue erratically, but not consistently without courage.

She had a remarkable life and exhibited true courage in her life. She made her mark in literary history by writing the first non-fiction bestseller by an African- American woman in her 1969 memoir,’ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’. It stayed on the top of the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.

Her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, has been banned by the Trump Administration.

‘When you take a risk, you have to trust that someone will come to your aid; and when it’s your turn, you will help someone else. It’s better to face your fear than to run from it because running won’t make the problem go away. When you face it, you have the chance to conquer it. That was how I began to define courage.’ Maria Ressa How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Maria Ressa from the Philippines was only the second journalist in history to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The first journalist recipient was murdered at Auschwitz

Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you can’t be successful or happy. Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find they haven’t half the strength you thought they had. Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence.

To have faith requires courage, the ability to take a risk, the readiness even to accept pain and disappointment. Whoever insists on safety and security as primary conditions of life cannot have faith; whoever shuts himself off in a system of defense, where distance and possession are his means of security, makes himself a prisoner.

To be loved, and to love, needs courage, the courage to judge certain values as of ultimate concern—and to take the jump and to stake everything on these values. The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

When we live a fully engaged and fulfilling life, there are bound to be many goodbyes to loved ones. If we are not willing to accept having our hearts broken, then we simply close ourselves off from all of life, from having meaningful relationships and live an isolated and meaningless existence.

We don’t get to choose whether we have our hearts broken or not, what we do get to choose is what we ultimately care about, what causes us pain, what breaks our hearts. So we need to choose our values; what and who we truly care about. And we need to constantly reevaluate and examine our belief systems, values, and motivations.

From his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes, ‘The values of fairness, of integrity and honesty, of human dignity; the principles of service to others, the striving of excellence and the principle of potential; that we can grow and develop more and more talents. These are natural laws that are woven into the fabric of every civilized society throughout history and comprise the roots of every family and institution that has endured and prospered.’

‘These values are part of every enduring religious tradition, as well as enduring social philosophies and ethical systems throughout the history of human civilization.’ Stephen Covey

‘In the day to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

‘If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing you will die a million deaths before they grieve you. Worship power, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay.’ David Foster Wallace

HAVING THE COURAGE TO SIT: SITTING IN THE EYE OF THE STORM :

There’s a reason why they say ‘ignorance is bliss’ because the deeper you search for truth, the more unbearable the world starts to feel. And still, I don’t think we can truly meet ourselves until we face the world as it is: cruel, unjust, endlessly aching. It’s a lifelong act of discernment: to hold space for suffering while remaining tenderly attuned to the sanctity of your existence.

The problem about coming back and landing in the present moment is what we find when we get there. Do you think that is why we avoid it so much? As soon as we come back to our body and close our eyes, we discover we’re full of everything we’ve been experiencing and all the images, sounds, and feelings that come with it. If the world feels broken already, why would we want to encounter it; we want to resist.

It may seem that there is a paradox here: on the one hand, the Zen Masters tell us to breathe and accept the situation, but on the other hand, they say we must seek to change it. The way out is to do both. How can we hope to change something if we have not yet understood how it came to be?

How can we listen and understand what’s going on outside if we can’t hear and understand what’s going on inside? Twenty or thirty minutes of taking care of the world, its suffering is reflected in our own body and feelings. It takes a lot of courage.

‘We train to encounter ourselves with gentleness and without judging or reacting. We don’t sit to become a buddha or to be someone else, someone better or someone different. We just sit to be ourselves, sitting. Creating a window of fifteen minutes of freedom to be ourselves every day is already something.

There’s an art to sitting. It’s not about adding up the minutes, holding a certain posture, or escaping somewhere other than right where we are. There’s an ease and naturalness and an aimlessness to just being there, alive, fascinated by the miracle of breathing and sensing the world.’ Sister True Dedication Plum Village, France

We listen deeply to the imprint of the world in our body and feelings; we dissolve the restlessness, soothe the anxiety. If necessary, we cry the tears. We don’t meditate to touch peace; we meditate to recognize and recognize, embrace, and transform everything we find that is blocking the way between us and peace.

‘When I look at my life and its secret colors, I feel like bursting into tears. Live to the point of tears. Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.’ Camus

Tears have a purpose. They are what we carry of the ocean, and perhaps we must become the sea, give ourselves to it, if we are to become transformed. You’re allowed to cry, just don’t forget to breathe.

We embrace our tears with the energy of mindfulness. In sitting, we need the compassion and creativity of an artist, the stillness of a meditator, and the discipline of a warrior.

Everyone is familiar with the age-old adage, ‘The only way out is through.’ and I agree wholeheartedly , but sometimes the only way out is in. The trick is to balance the two. Going inside and acknowledging our pain is necessary, if we want to be courageous, and take that leap of faith that is often required to ‘go through’! So the way out is through and the way out is in.

Small things add up. Acts of kindness shouldn’t be judged by their size; a door held open at just the right time: a hug at the end of a bad day. A small act can have great power - especially when done with an open heart. Each act of kindness we offer can be a pebble in the water, rippling happily outward to an unknown end.

Imagine for a moment encountering the same person each day with a smile and a thank-you- a small but meaningful act of kindness. Now replace each encounter with a frown and a judgement. The difference is clear. Day after day, though small, each act has an undeniable impact. In short as E.F. Schumacher put it, ‘Small is beautiful.’

WHO AM I: THE GREAT CIRCLE OF LIFE: The Buddha taught that our common perception of the universe as containing multitudes of discrete objects causes suffering because we feel separated from the world that we live in- Stars, planets, trees, birds, houses, ourselves, others. The belief that we are all separated from one another is a misconception, an illusion.

According to the Buddha, birth is not a beginning, but a continuation. Likewise, our death is not an ending, but a continuation. This is something wonderful about meditation. You realize you can do something to have a better continuation.

Seeing reality in this way, you are no longer separate because you are the cosmos, you have this body, but you also have a cosmic body. The whole cosmos can be found in you. You have a cosmic body right here and right now. You are made up of non-you elements. You are the continuation of stars, moon, sun, rivers, mountains, and your ancestors. You are the cosmos. You are the Universe looking at Itself.

So if birth is not a beginning, but a continuation, and death is not an ending, but a continuation, what are we talking about here: the Great Circle of Life.

The point is that we are all in this together! It can become overwhelming, and all we can do is try to realize that we are all interconnected. To believe that we are all separate, not connected to anything or anyone in this world. If you see yourself as the epicenter of your world, you will suffer. Build a community. The internet took community from us. Let’s take it back

Neil DeGrasse Tyson relates that when a supernova dies, all the elements of the periodic table are sent out throughout our galaxy and eventually land on our planet. All these elements end up, with the help of the sun, creating life and creating us. So we are not just metaphorically, but literally made of stardust.

We are stardust. Billion year old carbon- We are golden caught in the devil’s bargain and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden……… Joni Mitchell

We have got to find our way back to the Garden. We have lost our way. We have to find a way to foster awareness of the imminent and wanton destruction of our home, Mother Earth. We have what we seek. It is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us. Your heart will lead the way to fulfillment. Transformation is a journey without a final destination.

The truth is that many of us have become alienated from Mother Earth. We forget we are alive, here, on a beautiful planet and that our body is a wonder given to us by the Earth and the whole Cosmos. If the Earth has been able to offer life, it is because she, too, has non-Earth elements in her, including the sun and stars.

When my mind stops and our eyes open, lying in a field on the underside of the earth on a clear summer night, I am held only by the magnet of gravity, looking down into a bottomless sea of stars-the Beauty is all around us.

The world we live in is a temple, and the miraculous light of the first stars is shining through it all the time. Like an innocent child we can rejoice in life itself; in the very fact that we are alive.. In place of original sin, celebrate your original goodness, for we are the beauty we have been seeking all our lives.

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great blue dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

O shooting star that fell into my eyes and through my body-Not to forget you.To endure. Rilke

Miraculous does not refer to extraordinary phenomena but to the commonplace, for absolutely anything can evoke this special awareness provided that close attention is paid to it. Once perception is disengaged from the domination of preconception and personal interests, it is free to experience the world as it is in itself and to behold its inherent magnificence… perception of the miraculous requires no faith or assumptions. It is simply a matter of paying close and full attention to the givens of life; i.e., to what is so ever-present it is normally taken for granted.

The true wonder of the world we live in is available in the here and now, and available in the minutest part of our bodies, in the vast expanses of the cosmos, and in the intimate interconnectedness of these and all things. We are part of a finely balanced ecosystem in which interdependency goes hand in hand with individuation. We are all individuals, but we are also part of a greater whole, united in something vast and beautiful beyond description.

The more grateful we feel, the happier we become. This is because gratitude helps us realise that we are all connected. Nobody feels like an island when feeling grateful. Gratitude awakens us to the truth of our interdependent nature. If you genuinely care for others and look for ways to help others succeed, you won’t need to look for ways to boost your mood. A selfless and kind act will lift your spirit and sense of self- worth.

We are Stardust. We are Golden

KINDNESS

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,

You must travel where the Indian in the white pancho

Lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you.

How he, too, was someone

Who journeyed through the night with plans

And the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside

You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing

Then, it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

Only kindness that ties your shoes

And sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread.

Only kindness that raises its head

From the ‘CROWD’ of the world to say,

“It is I that you have been looking for”,

And then goes with you everywhere

Like a shadow or a friend. Naomi Shihab Nye

Nothing is sweeter than love; nothing higher, nothing stronger, nothing larger, nothing more joyful, fuller, or better.

Whatever we put our energy toward gets much of our attention. This is also true for the actions we take each day. Those who focus on positive thoughts are naturally kinder, more positive people. Those who focus on giving what they can, with a clear heart, are naturally more grateful for what life offers them.

In studies, when people are asked how spending money made them feel, they will note those instances when they donated to a charity or helped out more than when they spent money on themselves. Generosity always has a double reward, offering amazing gifts both to others and themselves. I always call it the ‘Gift of Giving’.

I look back in wonder at the pain and suffering of my life, and how I somehow managed to break on through to the other side. And that I, or we, any of us, must be much more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. And I know I am not alone. We all have had our traumas.

And if I have gained some wisdom from living my life, and despite my existential loneliness, perhaps all of my struggles have not been in vain; that I am exactly where I am meant to be. Writing day and night to find joy, solace, clarity, kindness, or insights which may help someone navigate the storms of life.

I have found something that allows me to continue to try to make a difference in this world and that something I can’t explain or articulate, because it resides in far too private a chamber of personal experiences to be shared easily. To have faith in a foundation I have discovered in life, and which, though it is difficult to describe, even to myself, I refuse to relinquish.

I will never stop trying to make a better world. Am I delusional? Yes, but I shall never cease from exploration; to find answers to offer a modicum of solace, joy, clarity, insights, and last but certainly not least, kindness. To have faith in a foundation I have discovered in life, and which, though it is difficult to describe, even to myself, I refuse to relinquish.

I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a person’s life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.

The real opposition is that between the ego-bound man, whose existence is structured by the principle of having, and the free man, who has overcome his egocentricity. We must deliberately challenge the validity of what we have been previously taught and hold near and dear to our hearts. The path to wholeness lies through questioning everything.

Sit down before the fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved all risks to do this.

As humans, we are capable of growth through self-discipline, love, and experience. Our understanding of the world, and our place in the world grows apace. Conversely, some people fail to grow in self-discipline, love, and life experiences: ergo their understanding fails to grow. Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his power.

SPEAK FROM THE HEART: Say what’s true. More than please and thank-you (although these are important too), being genuine with your words can open up a world of possibility- to give and receive kindness in sometimes surprising ways. When you express your gratitude, acknowledge help from a friend, or bravely confront an issue, you have a chance, each and every time, to speak from the heart. To offer your kindness through respect and honesty.

The words you choose don’t have to be perfect , but they should be sincere. Connecting truth and authenticity is better than any grand gestures you might make. So take a deep breath, find what feels true, and speak. Kindness will be your guide, put a little love in your heart, and the world will be a better place.

It can be easy to think that kindness is a purely outward action. That is solely about giving to others. But being kind to yourself is the kindest thing of all, for everyone. Being kind to yourself isn’t about being selfish, or disregarding others’ feelings. It’s about accepting what you are capable of and knowing that the happier you are, the more you can really offer to others.

We so quickly fill our days with responsibility and self-criticisms for mistakes (real or imagined). And we wear ourselves down. What’s more, these feelings naturally trickle outward: to our friends, to our colleagues, and to the world. But even with a few moments of self kindness, we can restore our inner balance - and enable ourselves to give more fully. Just remember that being kind to yourself doesn’t take much. But the reward can be truly lasting

WHAT IS TRUTH: DOING THE RIGHT THING: For me, truth is the recognition of my lack of knowledge. Truth is admitting that there is no one truth, and that everything is a Great Mystery. Truth for me is that we are all interconnected and that the single most important thing in this brief existence is to love. I define truth as to stop looking for answers and get lost in the quagmire of complicated conceptions. For me, I only know of one truth: that everyone deserves to be loved.

Some of us continue to search for a deeper truth. The path to ultimate reality takes hard work and practice. If we value truth and reality, we chip away at falsehoods, both large and subtle in our lives. This also applies to living a virtuous life; do not distinguish between small and large. We all know, in our hearts, what is right and what is wrong.

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS :Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. Compassion and kindness towards ourselves are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and loving attention.

Mindfulness practice can be practiced without any prior knowledge of the concepts and tenets of Buddhism. Buddhism or simply a secular mindfulness is Kindness and Silence. That’s it.

I, myself, choose the tenets of Zen Buddhism, because it gives me a ground to stand on: to wake up, live in the present moment, practice gratitude for the myriad of miracles inside us and in the world, and finally arriving at the liberation of knowing that there is no difference between inside and outside, between myself and the world that I live in. Then it makes it easier to try to have compassion for all living beings.

Awareness is like an elder brother or sister; gentle, attentive, who are there to guide you. It is tolerant and lucid, never violent or discriminatory. Meditation does not mean to fight with a problem. Meditation is to observe.

We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.

‘When one door of happiness closes, another one opens; but often we look so long at the closed door, that we do not see the one that has opened for us. When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.’ Helen Keller

One of the best ways to show you care is to dive deeper- to do research, to ask questions, and to learn why something matters to someone. What is something that we all struggle with, what non-profits are the most effective, and how did they get started? By discovering more about these topics you are creating more empathy.

And with empathy you can share more richly, understand more fully- and find kindness easier to offer: both to the people you love, but more importantly, to complete strangers: the ‘others’ -the dangerous criminals within who are viscious murderers, eating your dogs and cats.

Oh Lord, Give me Strength!! The one thing that has helped me in my writing, is that it compels me to search for new knowledge. I am always, always, always searching for answers to this enormous Big Cluster*** that we call Life!

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HATRED OF THE OTHER: THE ENEMY WITHIN: ‘To shut out the person and refuse to consider him as a person, as an ‘other self’ we resort to the impersonal ‘law’ and to abstract ‘nature’; that is to say, we block off the reality of the other, we cut the intercommunication of our nature and his nature and we consider only our own nature, with its ‘rights’, its claims, and demands. We justify the evil we do to our brother because he is no longer a brother, he is merely an adversary, an accused. ‘ Merton

‘To restore communication, to see our oneness of nature with him, and to respect his personal rights and his integrity; his worthiness of love, we have to see ourselves as similarly accused along with him- and needing, along with him, the ineffable gift of grace and mercy to be saved.’

‘Then, instead of pushing him down, trying to climb out by using his head as a stepping-stone for ourselves, we help ourselves to rise by helping him to rise. For when we extend our hand to the enemy who is sinking in the abyss, God reaches out to both of us, for it is He, after all, who

extends our hand to the enemy.’ Thomas Merton

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That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane. It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas and feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consensual validation as such has no bearing on reason or mental health.

HOW DO WE CULTIVATE A LIFE OF MEANING:

‘The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse. It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks; to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.’ Helen Keller

Look into the eyes of your neighbour and find yourself with life; therein is immortality. Life eternal, never changing for him who is not in love with life there is the anxious burden of doubt and the lone fear of solitude. For him there is but death. Love Life, and your Life will know of no corruption. Love Life, and your judgement will uphold you. Love Life and you will not wander away from the path of understanding.

There is still a lot in this world that is worth fighting for. And although we may not think that we can make a difference, we can begin sowing the seeds of love. This is what karma truly is. To reach out to someone who is staring into the abyss and lift their spirits and resolve to be a warrior for peace.

We do not exist for ourselves alone, and it is only when we are fully convinced of this fact that we begin to love ourselves properly and thus also love others.

‘Anyone can slay a dragon. But try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That’s what takes a great hero.’ Brian Andreas

Focus on what matters and leave the rest. We must make room in our lives for the most important things first. Otherwise we won’t have space for them. Procrastination is the thief of time. Usually it’s the most important step that we don’t want to take. So you will have that burden, living like there’s a sword over our heads.

If that is the case, we cannot be there for our loved ones, for anyone for that matter. At the end of the day, we all want more- more good things, more happiness, and more time with our loved ones. Don’t wait for these moments. Find them. Create them. And hold on to them tighter than anything else.

WE ALL MUST WORK TO MAKE THE WORLD WORTHY OF OUR CHILDREN

Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was not loaned to you by your ancestors. It was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth, we borrow it from our children.

‘Every person born into the world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique. If there had been someone like them in the world, there would have been no need for them to be born.’ Martin Buber

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe: a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two is four and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to them: ‘Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another you.’

‘Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may be a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you harm another who is, like you, a marvel?’

You must work- we must all work- to make the world worthy of our children.

‘If they can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love.’ Nelson Mandela

‘A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us, that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost.’

If I had influence with the good fairy that presides over the christening of all children I should ask that their her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life. ‘ Rachel Carson

Life is a pure flame and we live by an invisible Sun within us. True wisdom springs only from the calm heart’s clarity which follows the elimination of the ego by inward search and finding out that the search for self is a futile endeavor.

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the heartbeat of the world; to match your nature with Nature. The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again.

In the ruling of the recently decided court case; Sackett vs U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has scaled back the water protections under the definition of the Clean Water Act. In essence, SCOTUS greatly limited the EPA’s authority to regulate the nation’s waterways.

The new interpretation puts constraints on the type of waterways that the EPA has the authority to regulate. Formerly the EPA informed the Sacketts that they would be fined for developing their property because the land contains precious wetlands that should be saved. So in the final analysis the Sacketts can do whatever they want so

Oh, you don’t know what you got until you lose it. So they paved Paradise and put up a Parking Lot… Joni Mitchell

WHERE WILL THE CHILDREN PLAY? : Well, I think it’s fine building jumbo jets or taking a ride in a cosmic train. Switch on summer from a slot machine. Yes, you can get anything you want if you want ‘cause you get anything

I know we’ve come a long way. We’re changing day by day. But tell me where do the children play? Well, you roll on roads over fresh green grass for your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.And you make them long. And you make them tough but they just go on and on and it seems you can’t get

Oh, I know we’ve come a long way. We’re changing day by day, but tell me, where will the children play? Well, you’ve cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air. But you will keep on building higher till there’s no room up there. Will you make us laugh? Will you make us cry? Will you tell us when to live ? Will you tell us when to die?

I know we’ve come a long way, we’re changing day by day. But tell me where will the children play? Cat Stephens .1970!

I’M SCARED FOR THE CHILDREN Computer screens and magazines, manufactured hopes and dreams. Playing in a concrete box cause Mother’s got her shows to watch. I’m scared for the children. This is the end of the age of the innocent. One more game before they go. This is the end of the age of the innocent. What will we leave them with? I suppose we’ll never know.

Processed greens and man-made meat, running out of things to eat: little boys having way too much fun playing with a big boy’s gun. Oh, I’m scared for the children.

And on the day the last bird dies, there won’t be a drop from their big square eyes- An old man with his eyes like glass kisses the last blade of glass. Oh, I’m scared for the children! No respect for anyone! Why would they after what we’ve done? What an example we have set. What a planet we have left. Let’s bet there for these children.’Colin Mac Rae (This is a poem I wrote)

My generation has made many mistakes. We borrowed this planet from you, and did it great harm and destruction. You are receiving a beautiful planet that is damaged and wounded. As someone belonging to the older generation, I hope the younger generation can step up as soon as possible. This planet belongs to you, to future generations. Your destiny and the destiny of the planet are in your hands.

Our civilization is a civilization of borrowing. Whenever we want something we can’t afford, like a house or car, we count on our body and our labor in the future to pay back the debt. We borrow and borrow without knowing if we can ever pay back. In this way, we have borrowed from ourselves, from our health, and from the planet.

But the planet can’t take it anymore. And we have borrowed too much from you, our children and our grandchildren

‘ Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of the little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show them many things which older people miss.’ Black Elk

‘To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most people do not see the sun. At least, they have a superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Stay safe. Stay sane. Do whatever it takes. ‘I shall never cease from exploration.’ although some of you may wish that I would cease. Transformation is a journey without a final destination.