What is reality? Is it our thoughts? Our beliefs? Is it what we can conceptualize? What we can imagine? Is it our ideas? Or do all of these attributes of the human mind simply allow us to create a story between our ears to obfuscate the reality we can’t confront?
When we take the time to be present – to turn off the constant chatter inside the head – we come to understand that we rarely see the reality of our circumstances. Instead, as if set on automatic, we expertly churn out a narrative about the world in place of simply observing the situation. We fixate, we create, elaborate, intellectualize, analyze, rationalize and do anything but realize the flow of life. We therefore remain oblivious as we make our way along a shallow existence.
We literally spend our entire lives inside our heads.
We base our identity upon our thoughts. I think, therefore I am; couldn’t be further from the truth. I am, therefore I fixate seems to be more accurate. We like to believe we’re so logical yet our lives are illogical. Is it logical to expect the economy to grow infinitely on a finite planet? Is it logical to destroy the very habitat that keeps us alive in the name of profit? Is it logical to continue to vote and support policies, politicians and bureaucrats year after year who promote the things I mentioned above? Is it logical to believe that food comes from a grocery store and water comes from a tap? Is it logical to create poverty so it can support wealth? We’re not logical we’re conditioned like rats in a cage.
So what to do?
First, get out of your head. Stop thinking your way through life. Look where thinking has gotten us. Begin by responding to life as it happens. If you see injustice; address it. If you hear about a better way to live; investigate it. If you feel life is passing you by; do something about it. This isn’t difficult. We’ve made it extremely difficult by telling ourselves a never ending story. We went from gathering food to locking it up in stores. We went from living to earning a living. Where once it was our job to live; now we live to work. It’s called a con job.
I’m calling for an evolution in our approach to decision making.
Instead of rationalizing our current living arrangement we need to react to it. Currently we live in a world that promotes injustice and environmental degradation. We rationalize it by reforming it, using technology to fix it while never addressing the reality of the situation. In reality, we are in the midst of planetary ecocide and all we do is continue to concern ourselves with economics. The very thing (the global industrial economy) that has created planetary ecocide is the thing we rationalize the most. Simply revolting without an evolution in our decision making will result in nothing more than a reshuffling of the cards. Revolutions are circular and what goes around usually comes back around because all that’s changed is who is in charge. The shit between our ears remains the same.
Letting go and then moving beyond the constant narratives running through our heads is the only way to experience the world as it’s actually happening. The rest is a long series of make believe that becomes an elaborate story we’ve mistaken as life. It’s an imitation that plays out in our minds as real life passes us by. Maybe reality is something to be avoided and that’s why we make up these stories and scenarios? Maybe what is is simply too painful to participate in? If that’s the case, then your life – our way of life – is a waste of time. Dare I suggest, then, that we move along and leave life to those species who are competent? After all, the ants, catfish and koala bears aren’t destroying habitat. They’re not going to school to become more productive. They’re not arrogant and they’re certainly not here to earn a living. Change or be gone.
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