Being Who One Is

The trick then after everyone is fed, clothed and sheltered, is to find those things and activities that fulfill one’s life -- in a way unique to every individual. Finally, one gets to differentiate from the crowd, rather than do one’s best to blend in with it, and conform to it. At that stage, one is ready to become a “leader” -- not necessarily of the pack, but beyond that, oblivious to it. That is freedom from conformity and the need to seek one’s approbation and validation from others.

An unfortunate number of people never make that leap -- that separates one from the pack, and so always and eternally, life is for them jostling in the pack, hoping not to get crushed, while fearing to stand out. They find their safety and security in the mass and anonymity -- wondering and wishing how it is that there seems to be a few, who are not so compelled -- dwelling tranquilly and equanimously on the fringes of that terrifying herd they feel bound to.

That is the fantasy many have in “retirement,” when they dream they will no longer have to do everything everybody else tells and demands that they do -- and for the first time in their lives, do what it is they really want to do, and be who they really are -- only to find out at that moment, that they have no idea who that person is -- or thought existed, for their whole lives up to that moment.

Then one can understand why it is that some (many) feel that everything they received approval for doing -- would not have been what they would have chosen, if allowed to make those choices without those terrible compulsions and pressures -- of living up to to the expectations and demands of everybody else -- and never having thought for a moment, what they themselves would have wanted their lives to be -- if they could have wished for their lives to have been any other than it had been. By then, many regard themselves in the mirror and see twisted , disfigured, distorted shapes of a person who could have been if allowed to shape themselves in the best they could have imagined.

That is the reason people take on the unpleasant and often hideous shapes they become. It is never too late to mold oneself back into the shape one desires to be (in). One first needs to will oneself into the realization that that ideal can also be their reality -- and that nothing more than integrating that understanding and appreciation, is more more meaningful for them to do -- once they are well enough to do anything.

Many convince themselves they will never be in that state of readiness (wellness) to attempt their best -- so for many, athletics is a good fundamental training in those possibilities, but unfortunately, most lose that conditioning and mindfulness in contending with other arenas of activities and concerns that fragment and disintegrate their experience of the totality of existence.

That is how reality and actualization come together in an integrated, comprehensible, meaningful and satisfying existence. Otherwise, life is that hodge-podge of random activity, signifying nothing particularly noteworthy -- becoming everything one hoped never to be, and not understanding those contradictions.

The Solution Was the Problem

Lately there are a lot of reports floated by researchers phishing for increased unlimited funding, that the physical condition of people in the country (world) is bad and at the present rate, dooms humans to extinction. When problems come to our attention, usually they do not continue on unimpeded at their present rate of destruction because that awareness of the problem, causes problem-solvers to focus on a real solution, realizing that the present solution that makes things get worse, is obviously the problem.

Every solution is a short-term solution, and not The Final Solution demagogues promise, after which, no other problems will ever arise -- if we just let these dictators make all the decisions for everybody else, what is best for everybody, especially themselves -- of which all the refundable tax credits, have mysteriously ended up in their private bank accounts -- for their solutions.

Still the newspapers dutifully report, the problems get worse each year -- demanding even more government funding for these “experts.” The previous generation were quite spectacular failures at having established themselves as the unquestioned authorities on conditioning and well-being, because most of the fit, refused to join their ranks in exploiting and terrorizing the unfit. That is generally characteristic of the strong -- that they have no desire or need to exploit others, and have always been the most helpful to others.

But there are many more who confuse power for strength, and think that the strong spend all their time bullying and intimidating anybody they can -- in the same manner they think that intelligent people go around calling everybody else, “Stupid,” because they have no idea what it is that really intelligent people do. Along the way, they’ve seen a few people explode in rage that they were not accorded the treatment they truly deserved -- and thought that was how powerful and important people behaved, and that’s what they wanted to be too, if they ever were allowed to.

Many of them unfortunately, were drawn into the instruction professions because it allowed this exercise of power over complaisant captive populations -- until such abuses were so evident and unproductive, they were abandoned entirely, and so the condition of the population, rather than reaching the predicted highest actualizations, were only given lip-service while obviously avoided by anyone who could think of a good excuse. The best was that they were “Too busy,” because the suggested regimen demanded that participants discard every other priority and activity in their life, so that they could achieve their ultimate best condition, and would have little time, energy and money for anything else.

So this first generation of fitness optimization was a spectacular failure -- never quite deciding definitively who really knew what they were talking about, but if it sold, that must be the proof of something. People are always impressed by commercial success, even if the product they are selling, is totally worthless. And in fact, that was the primary if not exclusive motivation for many operating in the health field -- that their professed love for mankind, was about the love of the money of mankind.

So now the professional fund raisers and grant writers are asking these amateurs to step aside and let the real professionals take over and operate.

The Conservation of Energy

A great problem with those who “should” exercise, is that they often don’t have the energy to do it -- and the demands of the exercise requires an extraordinary release of energy they do not feel they are capable of. So to say to them that they “need” to exercise, is like saying they need to fly -- and if they could fly, they’d be in wonderful condition, extraordinary condition.

Obviously, the thing that makes sense is to create effective “exercise” that requires the least expenditure of energy -- so they can do it, because the best exercise is useless, if one never does it, even as much as they should. A lot of well-meaning people provide such Catch-22 solutions as though they’re really providing a solution -- rather than reinforcing the futility of any solutions.

That their “recommended” exercises never produce any real changes, doesn’t bother them -- because it’s just a belief system rather than a system to produce verifiable, notable, observable results/changes/effects. Such proponents seem stunned that the body can change -- momentarily and instantly, and not just after a great time has passed -- because they really don’t have a connection of being and doing. Instead, being is one thing and doing is something else, just as they have fragmented every aspect of living and experience from every other, so that nothing is related and connected to anything else. Everything is arbitrary -- so because somebody with the proper authority, said it is so. Nothing corroborates with any other reality or experience -- and things are so because the proper authorities say it is so. This is not “science” but “authoritarianism.”

One of the great tenets of all life, is the absolute imperative for the conservation of energy -- as the wisdom evolved ever since life began. There is no wisdom in the wastage of energy -- so even if a person is grossly overweight and out of shape, the proper strategy for correcting that would still be that which conserved as much energy as possible as the intelligence that body would manifest.

The surprising thing is that many of the most fit people in the world don’t spend all their time exercising -- because the amount of exercise is not responsible for their good condition they manifest, as it is the quality of their movements and activities. They may actually exercise a lot less than most other people -- but they are extremely efficient in obtaining/producing results.

It’s really a skill to achieve one’s desired “condition,” rather than “amount” of “random” effort people have been conditioned to associate with these outcomes -- which is the reason it is unappealing and unproductive for most people.

Can there be a better way -- or even another way? The people who dictate the orthodoxy won’t hear of another way, even if the way they advocate, doesn’t work for most people. They are not convinced with that compelling evidence that there can be a better way -- that works for most people!

Only, people are convinced that there can’t be an easier, more effective way -- and that is their essential problem and source of all their difficulties.

Virtual Intelligence

Probably the worst source of information, predictably, is the easiest to come by -- which are collectively, what we recognize as “mass media” -- designed for easy penetration into the consciousness of people. But whether that is the most useful information to have, is now being questioned by increasingly many. In fact, having “their” information, may be the greatest “handicap” for one seeking to optimize their own functioning and controlling their own lives.

The mass media messages is about doing what others would like us to do -- and not necessarily what is personally best for us to do to maximize our own advantage and provide for our own greatest happiness. That is the primary right and imperative of every individual who can recognize this highest calling of being true masters of their own existence -- and that is far more meaningful than primitive notions of being masters of the world and the universe.

One is the world and universe -- not partially and fragmentarily, but wholly, not in the egotistical sense of projecting one’s desires and inadequacies on the world, but in the awareness that the world is one’s interaction with the rest of it. Nothing is occurring in isolation to everything else -- nor is the individual acting in opposition to the environment. One is the environment, just as the environment is the individual -- and if that is the case, than why make the distinction at all? Indeed, why?

Is one better off in thinking that one is apart from the total environment (universe) -- even defining oneself as the struggle against it, or would a life be more complete and full to regard oneself as the totality of all intelligence and everything that ever happened and is? This is far from being a very trivial consideration and an argument of semantics -- or meaning, because the great reported lack in people’s lives (though often not defined so clearly), is this lack of meaning and purpose, despite all the "busyness" of their activities.

In fact, the busier one gets, the more likely it is to hear one self-assess that the more meaningless and purposeless, life seems to be. Some people even have a notion that if they were to cease their activity for a moment, the entire world would come crashing to a halt -- and they would be responsible for all failings, and so they must tirelessly and unquestioningly spin the wheels and engines of society just that much faster -- and the ultimate crime against society, the world, themselves and God, would be stilling their minds and bodies even for a moment to contemplate -- without interposing themselves as the sole mover of it all.

Of course, such a picture of reality and actuality is a great delusion many otherwise competent people are laboring under, and why all their strivings create so much mischief and futility for the world.

When the Best Things in Life are "Free"

People who see me on the streets or read my writing, often comment that my “solutions” while unquestionably simple, logical and commonsensical,, won’t be taken seriously because they don’t cost any money -- and if there’s no money to be made, nobody will be motivated to pursue that solution or provide that information/insight.

Therein lies the problem -- for most, if not virtually all of contemporary problems -- that the solution-provider has no interest in it unless there is a way they can profit handsomely from the implementation of their solution -- feeling fairly confident, that the consumer won’t be interested and motivated enough in the solution, unless they themselves have to pay handsomely for it. They have been conditioned to believe the value of anything is what one has to pay for it -- while dismissing the notion that anything of value could be obtained for “free,” or just in the rethinking of the problem.

Such ideas are actually the greatest need of these times -- and not the money or the materiel, which is usually just wasted, or “underutilized.” All the elements for a life of prosperity for virtually everyone, are already in existence, but there is a need for a greater unifying idea that makes everything mesh and work. Otherwise, all the resources are going for the purpose of canceling out one another -- which is what reflexive competition does -- to produce only one winner, despite how advantageously everyone begins.

We see that most frequently at athletic events -- that no matter how proficient all the competitors, only one emerges victorious, and the rest are rendered “losers,” no matter how admirable and capable they are. This is a mentality that now prevents human progress -- how much money and other resources is available to all, if the conditioning in society continues to be, that there can only be one winner, and that one has to compete to be that winner -- and that is the only game in town.

Thus lawmakers and policy makers also compete on that same basis -- of how valuable their work and ideas are, based on how much money it costs -- and never that ideas that cost virtually nothing, could ever be a good idea -- or is even recognized to be a valid idea at all.

Of course, it is quite possible to spend nothing at all and obtain the poorest quality of existence that compounds all one’s problems in life. Cheaper is not necessarily better -- but neither is the most expensive solution either. The consideration of value is not related to the money but is the appropriateness of the action to the circumstances -- something else entirely than just the cost.

People who have grown up thinking that “more money” or just “more,” is the solution to every problem, are difficult to convince that “better” solutions exist than simply more of what they’re convinced is the only solution -- especially one that is not working very well. Still, they will persist in thinking that all that is required is simply more -- and not a different approach entirely.

At such inflection points, that which has greatest value is free because it is unappreciated, while that which is most expensive, is obviously that which is not working but is an unlimited drain on one’s resources.