April 2017

There were 8 posts published in April 2017 (this is page 1 of 1).

The virgin consciousness and its many suitors

True meditation is characterized by a state of openness and receptivity.  But in such a state, the mind is vulnerable to assault by any passing thought that wishes to colonize it. For this reason, meditators are usually advised to do is to take a single element: a mantra, the breath, or a quality, and to “concentrate” on it so that the mind will be occupied with this one thought instead of by all the others.

Nevertheless, the mind remains severely susceptible to attack by so many other thoughts that try to hijack one’s meditation. Eventually, it either gives in and goes with the flow, or enters into a kind of numbness.

So really there is no substitute for a chaste, clear consciousness that can remain completely receptive and vulnerable, but is still able to rebuff, without any resistance, every attempt to seduce it.

If the latter seems impossible, this explains why meditation is only one part of spiritual practice.

I, Daniel Blake

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/

We need to exist in alternative support networks of our own, outside State structures: communities, sanghas, churches, tribes, clans, whatever we are comfortable with.  Modern nations, whether so-called welfare states or otherwise, are too large, cold, insensitive to the needs of their populations. That this happens is just another sign of the way in which we are losing touch with reality and each other.  Our societies are an expression of ourselves – egocentric and alienated.  The real remedy is to break out of our separative consciousness that is gradually destroying everything.  Smaller societal units project the same ego, but in the meantime people have to live and require empathy.  It’s hard for people to feel empathy towards units that are too large and ungainly, therefore they require community.  We just need to make sure that the communities that we create are not pawns in somebody else’s game, as often happens with the established religions.

Samnyasa

There is no longer any reason to accept anything: any ideology or creed, or hold on to any conception of truth.

By now, we’ve proved all of them wrong. By the early 21st century we can say with complete confidence that they have all equally fallen into ignominy.

New teachers and apologists for old teachings still come along.  They should be welcomed with an ironic smile.

Only one thing remains certain, and this is that we are racing towards the destruction of ourselves and the biosphere.

The end won’t come today or tomorrow.  Or even next week.  The end is not near. But it is embedded in the present. In our greed, in our blindness and ignorance.

These are what we must change.  The old guys had clues to obtaining a different consciousness that could bring about a radical transformation.

The words in which they couched their revelation are unintelligible or wrongly interpreted, no doubt, and the implementation may have been flawed.
Yet they were onto something.

We need to seek out the kernel, winnow away the chaff.

Confusion

My friends and colleagues are much smarter than me.
They have correct answers for everything.
They are super-confident and know exactly what to say to anyone who thinks differently.
They have a knack for dealing with every possible situation and always come out looking good.
Me, I’m an idiot.  I make dumb mistakes.
When I think back at what I’ve said and look at what I’ve written – like here in this blog – I’m appalled by my ignorant vacuity.
My life stands as testimony to my ignoble character: a record of mistakes, errors of judgment and abysmal misunderstanding.

As in that old King Crimson song, confusion will be my epitaph.

Moving towards a new economic structure

I’m thinking that my community is operating according to an aging economic model – the same model that is still prevalent in our society.  This represents old thinking; a narrow conceptual straitjacket that needs to be shed in order to find a more flexible way of living where money, material goods and paid services will assume much less importance.

The new society will not be based on ownership and wealth.  The accumulation of capital and material possessions, based on a high stable income, will convey little advantage.  These may even be an impediment to personal well-being and freedom.  The basic means of livelihood will be available to everyone.  Those who want to give their time to study will be able to do so.  Those who are more active will be able to give their energies to their chosen field of activity.

A new society is possible because technology has leveled the playing field, because we live in an age of abundance, because the concept of permanent “jobs” is growing less and less viable in a time of automation and high unemployment, ownership of housing is becoming unattainable, work has become mobile and globalized, and one can live basically anywhere.  Needs can be minimized, tools and goods can be shared.  Services can be obtained on the basis of cooperation and mutual help.  Initially people may need to move away from places where property costs are too high and live on the periphery of old establishment society.  There they will set up alternative communities based on self-dependence, sharing time, goods and services, or simply live alone, working remotely, or even join traditional tribal communities that have been less affected by capitalism.

I see all of this coming and I want to begin operating according to this new model even now, to the extent that this is possible during this time of transition.

Revisiting Gnu Social and liking what’s there

Gnu Social had grown a bit quiet the last time I used it. I changed identities a few times after trying twice to establish my own instance, and people got tired of trying to re-follow me and I can’t blame them (that’s one thing that works better on Hubzilla).

In general, because of its core users, GS brings a different and sometimes hopeful way of looking at many of the issues that concern me. I find views and opinions here that are hard to find on Twitter or Google+. The commercial networks have vast numbers of people, and still they worry about $.  On GS there is confidence regardless of the number of users and shaky platform it’s all built on.

Now Mastodon seems to be having a good effect on the rest of the federation, and brings in some new voices, some of them more mainstream. Eventually, I think that federated social networks will prevail over the mega-capital dinosaurs.

Gatekeepers to a better world

The last thing I read before going to sleep was the Twitter timeline of Dr. David Frawley, Vamadev Shastri, or whatever he calls himself.  At the top, there’s a picture of his meeting with Modi. Every second tweet is attacking Muslims.  There are tweets praising the new First Minister of U.P.

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