?
Existence poses questions that seem to end with more questions; an endless cycle of Why, What was, What is and What will be….Perhaps it is an inevitable product of being human.
We will never know the answers will we
Existence poses questions that seem to end with more questions; an endless cycle of Why, What was, What is and What will be….Perhaps it is an inevitable product of being human.
We will never know the answers will we
We have no notion of what lies ahead, but being aware of the present is the best thing we can do for ourselves.
When we wrap our heads around the concept of time, with the obsession of what was and will be, we will never be satisfied with the present. As one should never dwell on the past for too long, one should never be consumed by the future. If it were such, either or, how can you truly be grateful of the here and now?
The only concept of being, truly and wholly being, is to live in the present. You are here, right in this moment.
Live.
Breathe.
Be in the Now.
Who are we in the absence of people?
Are we something in a world without them?
Are we considered to be alive if it were just “I”
and there never was a “you”
nor a “they”
or a “we”
even “us”
What is the point of the things that we do
if there were no one to see them
no one to experience them with
no one to appreciate with
no one to disagree with
I guess what I’m trying to say is,
Do we only exist in the presence of others?
Are we only of purpose when we can serve
If I was alone,
what then?
“I am alone in the world, and yet not alone enough to make each hour holy. I am lowly in this world, and yet not lowly enough for me to be just a thing to you, dark and shrewd. I want my will and I want to go with my will as it moves toward action.
And I want, in those silent, somehow faltering times, to be with someone who knows, or else alone. I want to reflect everything about you, and I never want to be too blind or too ancient to keep your profound wavering image with me. I want to unfold. I don’t want to be folded anywhere, because there, where I’m folded, I am a lie.”
- Shiver, p.200
A vast majority of the human global population lives in a society of technological advancements, social networking, physical pleasantries, and masked truths.. all ruled by irrefutable consumerism. This state is a welcomed form of normalcy in our world today. Our everyday lives thrive in its excessive glory. I suppose since we are accustomed to this way of living many of us fail to even question their very nature, but if you look at how these things changed us as human beings, one begs to raise the question if any of this is good for our humanity or a road to destruction.
We as people have become too dependent on technology that a mere power outage turns us into chickens running around with our heads cut off, we have traded real relationships for online social activities, we accustom ourselves to more wants than needs, we care more about our image than our personality, our daily lives consist of constant worrying, we even care more about ourselves than other people…
Modern life poses so many distractions and superficial attractions that more often than not we can’t see what’s right in front of us. With the demanding fast-paced kind of lifestyle our society expects of us, we from time to time simply forget to breathe. We get sucked up into this black hole of blood, sweat, and tears just to achieve something worthwhile. The “way to live” as far as society is concerned is to earn as much money as you can no matter what the cost, just so you can enjoy the “good things” in life. But the lengths we have to go through to achieve exactly that is ridiculous. I have met a lot of people who sacrifice so much just to get by. And the horrible events in the news or everyday life bears witness to the downfall of some who can’t take the pressure of living that way. People die, people fall into depression, people seek destruction. Is that really the cost of living? The funny thing is, we think we are free when we are all mere slaves of society. And in that process we get thrown curve-balls left and right that we constantly lose our balance.
The thing about present society, is that it isolates us. Not only from other people, but from ourselves. Human beings are believed to be innately selfish. We are. But our environment drives that natural behavior into borderline suicidal. We become such desperate people to the point that we lose our humanity. In this world, it’s every man for himself. It’s “Eat or be eaten.” Play the game or starve to death. Kill to survive.
As much as we’d like to believe that we are all working for a “better” future, who’s future are we really working for? The honorable answer would be for the next generations to come, the utilitarian answer would be for the well-being of every single being on the planet, past, present and future. But alas, it seems that both those answers are far from the truth. The truth is, we work solely for ourselves. Most work to just “be somebody,” to be famous, and more ultimately to be rich. Monetary value and the spotlight of fame is such a temporary aspect, and it will never lead to true happiness. What people fail to realize, is that happiness lies in the simple joys in life, and that we are all already somebody, with or without “success.” We all have worth. We are all important. Becoming rich doesn’t make you any more of a valuable being than an old man that lives in the streets. We are all special. We don’t need to be somebody, we just simply need to BE.
In communities outside of what we call “civilization,” such as the Native Americans who live in the mountains, people work as a unit. Every person having a role that contributes to the betterment of the people. And no matter what role you have, big or small, is just as important. Whether you gather the crops or whether you’re the chief, everyone is valued equally. They all work towards a common goal, and that is to survive and co-exist peacefully. Before the modern age, I suppose that’s how everyone lived. Technological advancement and modern civilization, although have been a tremendous progress have also been a terrible digress to our humanity. Even our own planet, as we know it, has been suffering from own selfish goals. It is dying right before our eyes. It’s no question that we’ve strayed away from our roots and lost sight of the true meaning of Life.
So ask yourself this, how much do I really know of the world we live in? How much of what I own is a need, and how much of it is want? When was the last time I really hung out with a friend instead of using social networks to “communicate”? Am I doing anything to help or contribute for the good of the world or society? Are my goals and my steps to achieving them selfish? Is being rich really important?
If you are able to answer any of these questions with honesty in your heart and the realization that something must be done to solve this global demise. Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll finally sleep better at night.
We only have one life, one planet. Never use and abuse any thing or anyone.
Love and live.
When we are in love, we see things in a different light.
When we love we do things for others with light.
When we are loved we approach life with light.
When we are love we become light.
Dreams are something we deem to be a state of the unreal. It is something our minds conjure up, quite “imaginatively” so, only while we are asleep. We regard it as something of an illusion, something fictional. It is a level of consciousness that could never touch reality…or is it?
What if the state you are in right now, that which you perceive as reality is in fact just a dream?
Most of us have had dreams wherein they feel so real the fact that you were asleep never crossed your mind. There may have been times that yes, you’ve questioned just how much of it is reality, but you always eventually end up never really being sure. So how sure can you be about everything that’s happening around you?
How do you know you’re not in a dream right now, right at this moment?
What if you’re in a coma and you’ve been dreaming this whole time and the life you are leading is just something you manifested in your mind through the passing of time? And it is only when you awake that you realize it was all a dream…But what if you just wake up in another dream? Try to wake up again and you’ll just “wake up” in another dream. A dream within a dream within a dream is not after all impossible.
What if I’m not real to you? What if you are reading this in your dream right now and my ‘presence’ is merely a figment of your imagination, the content of this post a part of your subconsciousness?
Indeed the connection of dreams and reality is something we vaguely ponder about. Scientists wouldn’t probably even dare think of them collectively as one and the same. Philosophers on the other hand would question it but would never come up with a definite conclusion. Instead, I urge you to think about it. If it is true that our own reality is based on our perceptions, then what makes dreams different from reality?
The importance of seeing is much more valuable than the insubstantial state of merely looking.
Looking only requires the indefinite understanding of things that lie on the surface. It takes more than sight to comprehend life, your self, and the people around you. Seeing, really seeing, on the other hand, requires a sense of openness and awareness of the mind, body and soul. Reaching down to the depths, lifting the blanket and unfolding what lies beneath the surface. Once you have permitted yourself of this wonder, one by one the planes of reality and the truth slowly peel their transparent layers, breaking through the opacity of the external facade.
Awareness is the key.
The core of the truth in which you are seeking, in its truest essence, will therefore be revealed to you like a flower unfurling itself to the warmth of sun.
What is a conscience?
Is it something we can locate, on an MRI? Studies have shown that people with damage to the ventral medial prefrontal cortex are actually more willing to sacrifice a human life as long as they perceive that it is for some greater good. But what about people who have no trouble sacrificing others for their own selfish ends.
Is heartless cruelty our true nature, and empathy the aberration?
My grandmother used to say, “It’s nice to be nice.” and that may be true…or are we better off spending every waking moment tending our own selfish need. The good news is it turns out there’s an evolutionary advantage to simple human kindness. You couldn’t get through a cold Paleolithic winter without a little cooperation. Still, on some prehistoric level, we are all lone hunters. So it can feel dangerous to show any softness to other members of the tribe.
But, we manage to lay down our clubs, and our sharpened rocks,
answering the call of the altruistic imperative
and BE its own reward.
- from the show Perception: Ep. 4 “Cipher”
.
This beautiful narrative from Perception particularly spoke to me because it made me ponder about our roles as interrelational beings.
Although we as humans like the feeling of solitude, even embrace it to a certain extent, the fact is “No man is an island.” There is a reason we are all voyaging through this common journey called life. There is a reason we feel lonely. There is a reason for relationships; families, friends, lovers. It is the reason that we need each other simply because we cannot survive alone. And compassion? Compassion is what makes life easier…happier…fulfilling. We all feel the need to love and be loved back. It is the core of our essence. The way we treat others directly correlates with our need for strength; mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. We as people, in one way or another, thrive on support.
Humanity is like a house; with our lives as the base/foundation, and the people in it the pillars and walls that hold up the rooves on our heads. Keep taking out people, bring them down, and all you’ll have left is a collapsed structure…bent and broken.
We are all each others homes.
For without each other, who are we?
Another day spent in endless waking moments. It’s 5 in the morning and my eyes refuse to surrender to the dark void that lurks behind them.
My mind is currently indirectly proportionate to my body when it comes to the agreement of sleep. My body says yes, but my mind says no.
Right now, I am talking to “Sleep” as if it were a separate entity altogether and some thing that I can actually address…or talk to. I am commanding it to disarm me right at this moment, because my wandering thoughts and insatiable desires are consuming me senseless. And by insatiable I do mean, ever so seriously, dissatisfied hunger and the need for more (preferably delicious but at this point anything will do) consumable sustenance.
I am just desperately hoping, that once my stomach is full and happy, that Sleep (yes, i’m still talking to you) will overcome me like a fog seeping into the night.
….or else I will release the kraken.
With that said, I am taking this box of chocolates to bed with me. Good ni…morning.
I can never read a book standing upright or sitting down
in a proper manner
the way people do in public
in libraries
coffee shops
educational institutions.
I always feel the need to lie down,
sit with my knees against my chest,
my feet up leaning sideways,
or half-sit half-lie
with my head laid down on one armchair
while my legs are propped on the other
dangling in the air.
My body instinctively collapsing into itself
like a cocoon on a cold winter
warming its form, biding time
growing into an accumulation of wonder,
lost in a world where no other can reach.
The clock ticks
seconds go by
slowly whispering lullabies
shaping dreams
moaning sighs
Souls asleep,
except for mine
Peace in silence
A hushed sense of state
A manner of belonging to the night
A surrender to darkness
when light is proving too dim
verging on the relatively non-existent
The void
ever present
consuming both sleep and waking life
In the state of the in between
Still and moving consequently
Alarming disorder
Isolation
Meditation
Ignite the light
to spark the flame
.
I am who I am
but
who am I?
We all try to find meaning in any thing, object, idea, thought, form. In the same sense, we also try to give meaning to any thing, object, idea, thought, form. But what if in some moments they don’t mean anything at all? They just, are what they are. They simply exist and that is all there is to it. To give or find meaning will then tarnish our understanding of what they truly are, which will then never give us an inclusive acceptance of what they simply are.
Make sense? Probably not. My curiosity has yet to kill the cat. My need to understand life and existence on the other hand will continue raising possibly-nonsensical queries such as this.
Do you ever have those moments wherein your dreams feel so real they disguise themselves as reality?
Over the past week I have traveled to 4 different countries in my dreams. Two I have been to and the others I have only seen in photographs and movies, heard about through people, and read in stories.
The reason these dreams stand out to me quite alarmingly so is because I’ve never had dreams out of the country. Perhaps my desperate need to escape, explore and start anew has transported themselves from the deepest recesses of my mind to my subconscious sleep. And for those “experiences” to feel so real puzzles my physical self. In my dreams, I could feel, taste, hear, smell and touch. How is it that my subconscious self can connect with my senses as if it were my physical self experiencing it? Odd.
In the “reality” of it, or so I thought, I’ve even made life-altering decisions in that sleep which past and presently haunt me when I am awake. My goals for life, trying to find my purpose, and the problems that often limit me into achieving the prior has presented themselves so convincingly that making those life-altering decisions in my sleep was something I had to endure emotionally as well.
And each time I awoke, disorientation filled my body and cluttered my head. Emotionally, I felt exhausted. Physically, I felt as if I ran a marathon. It feels as if I had an out of body experience; my mind and body slowly waking up to what is, in fact, reality.
Dreams.
Perceptions.
Reality.
All three of which I feel is interrelated but as to what exactly their true connections are is a daily question I ask myself. I think dreams are equally important to the experiences we encounter in our waking lives. That something in them holds underlying meanings and quite possibly answers.
Another word pops up whenever I think of these dreams: Astral Projection.
To that I just find myself asking more questions…
There were these people
People who,
once thrived in your life
living and breathing alongside your very existence
but something happened in a span of a moment
The tie was severed
for whatever reason
and they suddenly drift away
like paper boats floating in rainwater with no other direction but the gutter
Paper boats drenched, now lost and forgotten
There were these people
People who once thrived in your life
But now they’re just ghosts of the past
Ghosts that fleetingly haunt your present
Maybe it’s time to mend the broken link
Or maybe it’s time to let go…
.
Compassion makes us human.
Strip it down and you just have an animal with intelligence.
Strip intelligence then all you have left is an animal.
An animal ready to kill for survival with no remorse for the lives taken.
Love,
and be love.
Only then will we realize our true potential as human beings.
.
.
A series of flashing lights
Blinding numbness
Fragmented thoughts
Insatiable desires
.
Turn away lost soul
This is not where you belong
Learn, to love.
Love, to learn.
