Saturday, February 16, 2019

A Study of One

That is the only study that matters.  It doesn't matter what happens to everyone else.  All that matters is what happens to you -- personally, individually.

Most ideas are merely wishful-thinking.  People are uniquely individual -- so what works for one, or for the many, may not necessarily work for you -- but it is each individual's task to find out -- for themselves, what works best for them.  That is the deception of mass media -- that one size fits all, so one has to get with their program -- or face dire circumstances.

But one may already be facing insurmountable problems that the experts are hopeless to solve -- but they still want you coming back as a steady customer.  Even if they don't have what you need, they'll still sell you what they have to sell.  That is their business, and only concern.  What you do afterwards, is none of their business, or concern.

In many cases, they don't really know better -- or at least, have to clear out their inventory, before they can consider anything else.  And if nobody wants their old inventory, they'll hang on to it until it becomes fashionable once again.  That is especially true if one has cornered the market for that product -- or is the exclusive authorized reseller.

In the previous century, having inventory was everything, and the name of the game -- but now, it is more advantageous to travel as light as possible into the future.  Having that space, allows one to consider everything -- and not that one has no room for anything else, even if it works.  They are already overburdened with everything that does not work -- that they have no space, time or interest, for that which might actually work, and reduce their need for anything else.

Always, one is better off with nothing -- than all the wrong things.  That is the advantage of those born entirely in the new age.  They are unburdened by the baggage and clutter -- and are prepared to move on to better.  That is the default that conveys greatest advantage.  But most lose that advantage by grabbing onto all they can -- whether it is actually good and useful to them -- for the rest of their lives, leaving little room to embrace the new.

That could be ideas as well as things.  One should change, and not just remain the same forevermore.  Living that way, predictably, one grows less responsive with age.  Of course that is a failing formula for remaining viable throughout one's life.  Yet many decide at some point in their life that that is the way to be, and nothing will change that.  Of course they fall by the wayside and become irrelevant.  One wouldn't expect anything else.

So that manner of aging is obviously not working -- nor would one expect anything else.  While one size doesn't fit all, one can always learn from others -- what works and what doesn't work, and not that shit will happen no matter what -- like in the old days.  They just didn't have the right answers -- and probably even didn't know there was a problem.  That was simply life as they proudly knew it.  That's just the way the world worked -- badly, and there was nothing they could do about it, but eat, drink and be merry -- before things invariably got worse.

That was regarded as the normal course of life -- that accelerated as one got older, and never reversed.  That was the unthinkable.  It just indicated that they hadn't found the answer to their problems -- yet.  Many even gave up trying long ago.  They would leave it to future generations to figure out -- and the next.  In their own lives, all was futile, and hopeless -- and anybody saying any different, was simply uninformed.

Much easier and faster than finding out what works for everybody, is simply finding out what works for themselves -- and letting it go at that, and moving on to the next challenge.  They don't have to convince everybody else, before they can benefit themselves -- from their own discoveries.  They don't even have to market it to prove its validity and acceptance.  It just has to work in their own life -- even if it works for no others.  That is the beauty and simplicity of life: it just has to work for oneself -- and no other proof or validation is required.

And then after one has developed the prototype, it could work for others as well -- but that is not one's original intent or purpose.  The motivation is entirely selfish -- but that is not a bad thing.  It really is how each individual life serves the rest of humanity -- by solving the problems of their own living -- as best they can, and in doing so, blazing the trail for others to come.  In that manner, value piles on top of value -- in creating something immensely greater, and not just each competing against every other, to be the sole person at the top.

Undoubtedly, many embark on such singular quests -- as though it is a service to mankind.  They fail to realize they are already beginning at the top -- when they know they know nothing, and are eager to find out.  But once their minds are full, they have no room for any new information -- and are trapped in that past, forevermore.  It doesn't have to be that way.

Friday, February 01, 2019

Overcoming Fear

Usually one finds something when one is not looking for it.  That's why research grants don't usually work.  They merely confirm what one already wants to believe -- and every other finding is discounted and dismissed -- because that is not what is being observed and measured -- and that is not what they are funded for.  So even if the results are even more astounding than what they are being paid to confirm, they cannot be distracted -- even if it is far more valuable and significant.  That is not how the system works -- and many will smugly point this out -- as though they know better, and pride themselves in their sophistication.

Meanwhile, great truths elude them -- because they know only the the minutia.  And so they live in constant fear of ever finding out the truth of any matter -- because that would distract them from their job -- which is to be paid not to think for themselves, but only to think what somebody else would like them to think.  That is what they are getting paid for.

So arriving at that point in life in which they actually think for themselves -- and find out the truth of anything, is their greatest fear -- for which they never dare to go beyond.  That is the frontier and limits of their thinking -- especially in the old world view, that prevents them from ever discovering the new -- which is the "unthinkable."  They never think to go "there."  That is off-limits -- until first one, and then another, proves that it is not the fear it was thought to be -- and a whole new world is discovered, and created.

Of course there are many things we need to avoid -- but fear is this conditioned response to anything, and not just those things that are truly bad for us.  It can also be a fear of that which is actually good for us -- such as thinking for ourselves, when a self-selected few think they should do the thinking for everybody else.  That disempowers everybody else -- and eventually disables them. 

It begins with the most basic fear of life -- that of starving to death, which many learn to avoid every moment of their lives -- that then becomes their great undoing, particularly in the new world of abundance and virtually unlimited plenty.  The worst off, are convinced that the objective and purpose of life, is to overconsume as much as humanly possible -- unaware that humanity did not evolve under those conditions, that now become extremely problematical -- taken to extremes and excess.  It is rightfully observed to be "mindless" consumption -- for the conditioned fear of never having enough -- when that has ceased to be the reality.

Then the most extreme overuses (abuses), are what we recognize as compulsive disorders, or addictions.  One simply can't help themselves -- whether that is eating, drinking, exploiting, competing, cheating -- when it is not necessary, and have become counterproductive and damaging.  So the first thing, is to become "mindful" of what one is doing -- and what one is not doing -- in its most basic simplicity.

That is the power of fasting -- or not eating anything, for as long as possible.  Nothing is as effective at focusing one's attention than simply not eating for as long as possible -- totally voluntarily.  That is the wisdom of the ages.  Then the mind is fully focused and in tune with the body -- and from that integration, one can act with effectiveness.  Of course, forcing it on another, is always a violence -- but the self-enforcement of such a practice, is the cultivation of the discipline to accomplish anything else.  That is the very embodiment of the delayed gratification necessary to achieve great things.

Those unconditioned in this way, are the failures of every culture and societies -- demanding immediate gratification no matter what the circumstances and consequences.  In this manner, they must consume all they can, at every moment possible, and know nothing else, no other possibilities -- because it is not of their will, and voluntary exercise.  Those are the troubling crimes of these times -- when people felt they had no choice, no other way they could have been.

Something very fundamental and basic was missing from their earliest years.  That critical lesson was not always getting what they wanted, every time they wanted it -- without fail.  Such conditioning is the ultimate failure -- and that's why the self-imposed practice and exercise of not consuming all one can, is a basic lesson one must practice and exercise all one's life.  Often, one must do what is right, even when there is no immediate pay-off -- because the real pay-off, is in knowing that one still can exercise mindful and willful action -- especially when nobody else is around to validate it.  It is just who you are -- and the person one is.  That's all that matters.