Thoughted

Megaculture

rayray — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:31:34 +0000

Ever feel like all countries are slowly (read:VERY slowly) heading in the same direction? Politics, what we consume, what we wear, how we talk etc… People are multiplying at a ridiculous rate, yet are actually becoming more similar to each other than ever before! One benchmark for this is Apple products. If you dont have one people look at you as if you are a non-human – ok ok I realise this is an exaggeration, but I am amazed when I think how fast the Apple i-everything phenomena has taken over the world.

Everyone needs to have the latest Apple product, which makes them novel for a day, and then makes them the exact same as everyone else. Fashion and marketing has a lot to answer for – with people wearing and needing to have the same things and feeling as though they need to be the same as everyone else.

I could go on complaining about this for a while and talk about the reasons behind why, in my opinion, this is happening. Although instead, I want to talk about the positive implications. And there are many. IF all people were eventually to become one bigger megaculture, comprised of all the smaller cultures we experience now, we would in fact have effectivly broken down the very barriers that separate us. One people, one world (one love ja bless rustaah).

Would being part of one megaculture be so bad? Why do we need to be different anyway?

Just some thoughts…

-Rayray

The Misconception

nugget — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 13:37:22 +0000

I want to be happy. I want to be peaceful. I want to be loving. I want a lot and while I believe they are all things I can have right now, why haven’t I grasped them completely?
Recently I went on a journey to find happiness. Believe it or not I found it hard to find. I have read many books and articles on happiness, and they all tend to come to the same conclusion. Happiness is something that you create for yourself.
That is great, but why wasn’t it happening?
I told myself to be happy. I told myself to simply be my perception of happy and then I would be happy. It still didn’t work. What was broken so deep down inside of me that I could not allow myself to simply be happy?
That is when I really started to question the word happiness. Believe it or not I believed happiness to mean something to which it didn’t. Actually the dictionary defines happiness as “state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy” meaning that happiness itself has trouble being defined. It has a diverse range and Wikipedia expands on the list to add contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy, which doesn’t make the answer any easier.
How can you be something constantly if you have no idea what that something is? How can you be something that isn’t describable? How can you teach someone to be something that you cannot teach?
Like most things in life, it is based on an individuals perception. We walk through the city and look at all the faces that aren’t smiling and think “look at all the unhappy people”. With happiness being so diverse, how can you truly make that judgment? They might be looking at you thinking the same thing.
To me, I have labeled happiness as simply being contented inside of myself in every moment. It doesn’t make me want to smile and laugh constantly, but it does make me feel good inside.
What does happiness mean for you? No idea and I don’t think it is something I can teach you. Perhaps I am completely wrong, but I never took claim to being the master on the subject matter. I do believe that if you are searching for true happiness, forget the dictionary and the meanings that people constantly throw at you and discover it for yourself.

Death Is Freedom

nugget — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:01:06 +0000

I am not going to lie, I use to think about death a lot. It was something that confused and scared me and I truly didn’t want it to happen. Things changed over time and I do have a better relationship with death and hopefully we can be good friends and try not to hurt each other any longer.
How did I create this unsavory relationship with death? Well, I have accepted death as a motivator instead of a limiter.
I had a friend who was married. He loved the women but he suffered from major depression. Any challenge would be enough to make him curl up in a ball and talk about suicide as it was the latest craze. Don’t get me wrong, suicide isn’t a nice subject at all, but to even contemplate it means that there is something seriously wrong. His wife eventually left him and he reached rock bottom (in his opinion). He decided he was going to do it; Finish the job off and finally be free from the burden that was his life. He worked out how he was going to do it and realized he wasn’t afraid. He was someone who was afraid of a lot of things, but all of a sudden it seemed that the final thing he would ever do wasn’t scary anymore.
What did it mean to him? It was absolute freedom. If you aren’t afraid of dying, then you aren’t afraid of living either. He decided to live more and to exist in a more fearless way. He took up a bunch of hobbies he was afraid of before. He experimented with things he was afraid to before. He trusted the world in a way he never trusted before, and all of a sudden his life was becoming greater.
What he did was make peace with the inevitability of death and therefore realised that living could be a lot less frightening.
I am not saying to go out and try and hurt yourself or that you need to experience a near death situation. The point is, is we are all going to die eventually. If you are going to die anyway, why not try abseiling? If you are going to die, why not try karaoke? If death is on your door step, why not try to be the greatest you can be?
It is still about being your authentic self and doing what you desire, but it is also about not making excuses to live now instead of putting it off in the future. Perhaps my friend wouldn’t have lost his marriage if he had sooner decided to start living and being fearless then when his whole world came crashing down on him.

Don’t be afraid of death as it will come when it is good and ready. Live life with the belief that every moment IS your last and only in your ultimate presence will you find absolute peace.

The Cycles We Live In

nugget — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 23:01:31 +0000

I was talking to a friend of mine a few months back (how these deep ideas usually start) and she told me about how she felt about the cycles we live in. I pondered the idea and agreed with her completely. At the time I had come to the same conclusion about mine own life and the cycles had been obvious.
What is a cycle? First I want to talk about the common cycle that we create, then I would like to talk about the much deeper cycle that we quite possibly live in.
The day to day cycles are obvious when you look for them. They start with the basic “I am not going to eat chocolate today” and then eating a belly full. While not a cycle yet, it will become one when you start repeating the same experience over and over again. It goes deeper into the jobs we choose, our relationships, the way we deal with pain and everything where our lives would be much easier if we just decided to fix the problem instead of ignoring it and hoping it will go away.
That is the common cycle and it takes a couple of components to really break it. Firstly you need to accept that you do it. Sure I love to eat chocolate even though it isn’t good for me. The next thing is to reflect on it. Why do I eat chocolate when I know it is bad for me? The last component is let it go. I will try harder next time not to eat chocolate. That is the technique I attempt to use when ever I feel like something is repeating itself.
The next type of cycle is the one that not many people care to think about and for good reason. It has many titles, but lets just call it the cycle of the universe. It the repeat of the big bang and the creation or evolution of man, and the constant replay of history. It is something that a lot of philosophers believe in (including Plato) and it is taught in some Yoga circles.

The basic concept is this. We will keep reliving this exact same life for eternity. We will repeat the same mistakes, make the same enermies, break the same hearts, ruin the same lives and eat the same amount of chocolate. Basically the decisions you make every moment will reflect the same decisions you will make the next time you come around and so on. Sure it sounds very fatalist, and it can’t be proven, but it is something worth reflecting on. If you had to relive this life again and again forever, what would you change now so that it would be better forever? Would you forgive someone? Would you love someone differently? Would you stop acting a particular way? Would you seek more help? Would you trust people more? The questions can go on forever, and for me I would like to change a lot of things now so that my future selves will be in a much better position.
My history can’t be changed, but what does it matter as long as I can create a happy ending for myself? It is time you really ask yourself this question. Are you living a life of the greatest potential? If you answer yes then congratulations your future selves will pat you on the back in appreciation. If no, how can you change it reach that place?

I have decided that I love myself too much to let myself repeat the same mistakes, not just in this life, but in all my existances.

How To Grow Without Pain

nugget — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 23:11:56 +0000

I was hiking on the weekend and I met a young man who raised an interesting question. How do you grow without pain?
I can say that I have truly not grown without pain. My life has been pain after pain after pain and every time I learn amazing lessons, but why do I need pain to do that?
I have been told it is because of my desire not to grow up. It is possible that my wish to not HAVE to grow up causes me to grow up the harshest way possible.
I won’t delve to deep into why my life is painful and why everyone round me seems to be going through some sort of pain or suffering. I believe I may have something that might really help skip the pain and move straight to the lesson. I believe it is about appreciation. Not just saying thank you, but completely understanding why you need to be saying thank you.
I have a friend who was living at home with his parents when all of a sudden he met a woman. They had a child early and all of a sudden this man was forced to move out of home, buy a house, raise a child, support a family and be completely responsible. He did it but it was extremely hard for him, and he learned to really appreciate his parents through it. That wasn’t enough though.
Eventually this woman left him and he lost his child, his home, his way of life, the woman that he loved and a magnitude of things. What did he learn from all that? He learned that he had a lot to lose and that he truly didn’t appreciate what he had until it was no longer his. He felt a lot of regret for things he had always wanted to do with his family and would now quite possibly never get the opportunity to do it. It is a very sad story for this man, but we can learn a lot from it.
How do you appreciate something if you have never lived without it? If growth is about appreciating what you have right now and not what you will have in the future or the past, how do you appreciate it?

For me I feel it is really spending time being conscious with that thing. Just sitting and staring and really getting to know it at every opportunity. Otherwise you will only learn that you have something to lose after the fact you lose it.
I am sitting here right now and I am appreciating my life. I appreciate the fact I have a life. I appreciate my health and I appreciate my circurmstances. Hopefully the journey of pain I have had to experience to get to this point can now end and my future will be one of gentle lessons.

Today I will reflect on the things that I have lost and I will give them the appreciation I wished I had given them when they were once mine.

Reflection Healthy. Analyze Not So.

nugget — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 10:33:38 +0000

I over analyze things. I admit it. I like to think deep, and I have been told it isn’t healthy or good for me, but after over analyzing the question today, I disagree.
The human mind works like a computer. You give it information and it will compute it and give you an answer. Give it incomplete information and it will make assumptions. Give t0o much information and it will be overwhelmed. The point is, if you give it clear and complete information it is a fantastic tool for helping you grow.
I have friend who has currently gone through a lot of hardship. He is doing extremely well, but he has a lot of questions for which there are no answers. The truth is, that the more information people gave him about his situation, the more overwhelmed he became. Because the information was created out of judgment and their experiences the information came out full of assumption.
He was told to just accept and move on and stop thinking about it, but like me, his nature isn’t to give up so easily. How can I help someone who has a problem with no answer and doesn’t give up so easily?
You change the focus of the question. The best way to analyze is through reflection. Why did I react that way? How can I stop it from happening again? When you reflect upon yourself there is a good chance you have all the complete information ready to go.
He started to find lessons he needed to learn. He learned a great deal of wisdom about the situation and started working his way out of the rut. He didn’t simply accept what had happened and moved on, he isn’t the type of person who simply accepts. He reflected, found what he needed to grow and learned from the experience. His next important step was to let go, but that is another subject all together.
Of course you have to be reasonable when you reflect on a situation. Sometimes you simply don’t know yourself well enough and you have to start asking “how can you stop it from happening again?”
As one particular famous scientist once said “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” Searching inside of yourself can be a great way of helping you let go of a situation and to learn a great deal about your nature, but remember everyone has their limits.

Keep reflecting and learning, and the same mistakes might not be made again. It is what Einstein would do.

The Perils Of Accepting Invitation

nugget — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:36:52 +0000

I have been thinking around the top of accepting invitation in regards to living your greatest possible existence. Basically, I believe that people have to start accepting invitation to live a fulfilling life, and stop being afraid of what is out there. But what if someone said to jump off a cliff? Is that not an invitation?
I had to think deeper because a friend came to me with an experience she had. She had been invited to try a party drug by her boyfriend at the time. Unfortunately she had a reverse effect and she almost died. An ambulance turned up and she was rushed to hospital and the boyfriend was no where to be found. She had accepted the invitation but it almost killed her. Sure she learned a lesson for next time, but why did she have to learn the lesson at all.
What it comes down to, I believe, is being authentic. What that means to me is be your true self when you accept invitation. Stop and ask the question “is this the greatest good for me or not?” For example someone asks you to jump out of a plane with them. Sure it is scary, but is the only reason you aren’t doing it is because of fear, or because you truly have no desire to do it? Does you authentic self call out to jump out of the plane and have a secret excitement or does it feel nothing.
An another example; you are at a bar and a person walks over and says “lets go home and have some wild love making” (possibly with different words, but to the same effect). While some people will say “for sure”, you have to ask ‘is that the sort of invitation my authentic self would accept?’
Life is not about being afraid of new experiences, but it is about choosing which experiences you believe is the most aligned with who you are and want to be. If you simply accept every invitation that comes your way you may find you aren’t doing things for you anymore, but for others. That is when you stop being your authentic self.

Don’t be afraid of learning who you are, because then it becomes much easier to be yourself.

The True Power Of Wisdom

nugget — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:47:08 +0000

Today’s article is a little hard to explain and a dangerous area to enter. It is based on two words in the English language, and basing anything on the meaning of words is always the best way to start an argument. Let me give it a go anyway.
I have been thinking heavily on the best way to help people. I discovered that advice is a hard one as telling someone what to do without experiencing it yourself doesn’t build confidence in the party you are trying to help. The best way I found was through wisdom, but I soon realised that wisdom has an ugly sister called manipulation, and I will now try and make you believe they are related.
The definition of wisdom is accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment. The definition of manipulation is exerting shrewd or devious influence especially for one’s own advantage. They are completely unrelated it seems, but let me give you an example.
A friend of mind was having troubles with his relationship. I could see he was in pain and that it was unhealthy for both him and his partner. He was given some great wisdom from a friend who was also went through a similar experience “You need to leave that person because they will only get worse in time and you will get old and unable to find someone new”. This was truly his wisdom as he was 10 years older when he decided to leave his partner and it was the best thing he ever did for himself, though he always wished he did it earlier.
There was a problem with this though. For some reason it didn’t sit right with me, and over a time I rolled it over and over in my head. I saw something unhealthy in the wisdom that was shared and there was good reason. He used fear to push his point. He pushed his point because he felt he needed to be validated in his actions. He needed to be validated in his actions because he is still unsure of the decision he made. Basically the wisdom came from a place of negativity and therefore was a manipulation not a peace of enlightened wisdom.
I feel that wisdom should always come from a place of positivity. To be truly enlightened you have to find the positive experience in everything that has ever happened to you, because you would not be where you are today without them. If you are advising people to change because it could become a greater negative experience if they don’t, you are teaching them with fear, and fear isn’t a force of enlightenment. Fear is something that you overcome when you become enlightened.
For a simpler example imagine your job. Lets say you hugely dislike your job and come to me for advice. I could say out of manipulation “You need to leave that place because you are only wasting your life away working there”. I would be saying that if you don’t leave you will waste your life, or scare you into leaving. What I could say instead would be “Perhaps you should talk to someone at work about how you feel? They may be able to help you. If not you can always look for a new job.” This way you empower them to make a choice based on positive options and not fear based negative options.
Using fear as a tool to teach only creates more resistance and is really only a tool to control people and manipulate them. Most of us do it because that is how we have been brought up and taught, but it is easy to break those old habits and start teaching with our true enlightened wisdom. Reflect on what people have helped you with lately and see if you can find the manipulation and wisdom in all their lessons.

Fear is what drives reactions in this world. It is better to act with power then to react in fear.

I Want To Exercise

nugget — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 02:44:37 +0000

I was talking to a group of friends and they were admiring the current level of fitness I am at. They wondered how I did it and for a change I actually had an answer. Simply I exercise because I want to.
Every morning I wake up early and go out and run followed by yoga. I also walk every day during my lunch break and do other forms of exercise on weekends (hiking, swimming, etc.). Why do I do them though?
The first reason I came up with was to look attractive.
The problem with exercising to look attractive is it will take a good few months before you start to see clear results, and also it is driven by ego. If your ego doesn’t see a change it will simply lose interest in exercising all together. We also become identified with exercise and that isn’t very good if you start to put on weight again, or have a period when you can’t exercise. Looking good is a reason, but I needed a better reason to continue doing it.
The next reason I could come up with was for my development. I have spoken before about the body being an important part of my, and arguably everyone’s, spiritual journey. To me being fit in the body is just as important as all the meditation and consciousness training I have done over the last few months.
I found it to be great, but I also found it hard to not lose interest in exercise as I felt more powerful and as the journey progressed. The universe willing me to exercise, as crazy as this sounds, isn’t a good enough reason to do it.
I dug deeper and came up with nothing that was generally a great reason to exercise. We can talk about the release of endorphans, but that doesn’t matter until we exercise and if we don’t need feel down. We can talk about living longer, but that is in the future and noone really know what is going to happen in the future. There are millions reason for exercising, but they all have a future based reward, not one that is instantly gratifying.
What I eventually got to is that I WANT to exercise. I enjoy running like I enjoy watching films and eating pizza. I enjoy hiking in the forest like I enjoy a good book in front of a fire. I love doing yoga like I love playing guitar.
I find that the best reason to do anything in life is because you really, truly , whole heartily enjoy doing it. The question we need to ask ourselves is what physical activities do we enjoy and why aren’t we doing them? We might be surprised by how weak our excuses actually are.

Our body is part of your journey. We should show it as much love as we show our spirit and mind.

How I Opened My Heart

nugget — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:36:41 +0000

Earlier this week I was talking to a friend of mine and we spoke about opening our hearts. To most people it will make no sense. To some of us who are on a journey they may ask “that’s exactly what I want to know!”. I have a theory and a few exercises I have used to help open my heart up, but remember they were designed for me and do not come with a money back guarantee.
Opening your heart is possibly one of the greatest things a single human can do in my experience. It says to the world that you no longer live in an existence of mind controlled fear and instead trust to follow what the heart desires. I feel that to open your heart is to be fearless, to trust the world and to be truly open in any relationship you are in, whether with a lover or a stranger on a bus.
I am not the first person to come up with such an idea, and in a lot of ways yoga was designed for the same thing. After speaking to a friend who is a yoga teacher they explained that part of yoga is to force your posture to straighten up and to open your chest, therefore opening the heart. So to make this journey easier I recommend finding a yoga class and practice every moment of every day.
Yoga will get you on the path, but I feel that there are definitely other components that can help. One thing I practice is letting go of a situation completely. That means that in every moment, whether good or bad, I do not judge, do not assume and do not analyse. That allows me to interact with people without thinking anything about the situation and to simply talk from the heart. It allows me to communicate openly without a care of being hurt or rejected. Scary I know, but it really works wonders for me.
The next component, and perhaps the most important, is loving yourself. How can you be open and trusting to anyone in the world if you aren’t to yourself? You have absolutely no reason not to love yourself, and once you begin you will quickly find that it is far more enjoyable then the opposite. You are beautiful, you are powerful and you have all the potential in the world to do anything that your heart desires. I never had a doubt in any of you and neither should you.
Loving yourself is a hard one, so let me elaborate on some exercises that can help in this experience. Go stare at yourself in the mirror for a while and focus on all the things you love about yourself. Say them out loud for a greater effect and do that every day to remind yourself that you are beautiful. Touch your self all over, and that can mean sexually (David Deida the author of Dear Lover recommends this for women) or it can simply mean massaging yourself lovingly. What you will notice is when you start loving yourself that more people around you are attracted and also that you will find the people around you more and more beautiful. You will begin to reflect on the world what you see in yourself.
There are hundreds of possible ways to open your heart, but remember you can’t do it out of fear or manipulation. It has to be done with trust and fearlessly or it simply won’t work.
Remember you are doing it for your greater good. There is no ‘or else this will happen’ scenario. It will take time to trust the world especially if you haven’t for a long time (or never), but I promise that life will have a new freshness when you do.
While opening your heart is really as simple as accepting that you have an open heart, for people like me it doesn’t hurt to have some techniques and tools to help along the path. If you have any possible ways that you believe are important and work for you, then please share them in comments below.

Open your hearts and the universe will open its abundance to you.