The soaring cost of fuel is putting many people in quite a pinch financially. Depending on where you are on the economic food chain determines how much you are hurting right now. There are some who are not feeling it yet, others who are starting to be a little uncomfortable and then there are those who are suffering unimaginably because the little income they have goes completely for food and when it costs more to ship that food the cost goes up and they end up starving.
I have seen and heard people make suggestions on how to stick it to “Big Oil”. Some have suggested not buying any gas or only purchase gas from the smaller companies. Truckers have protested by driving 55 miles an hour on the highway (not sure why that would be a bad thing) and it goes on and on.
Personally, I have kicked around the idea that as many people as possible should disconnect their cable and internet services on the same day and refuse to purchase music, DVD’s or go to a movie until gas becomes affordable again. It is clear that the “American People” really have no voice for the most part especially in government. If everyone united to give up the things we use to stick our heads in to escape reality than those industries would certainly want to send their powerful lobbyists to talk to our elected officials about gas prices. If you pinch one big industry they will start knocking on oil’s door.
Certainly there is a big part of me that wants to fight the power and look for ways to start a revolution. However, today I spent a lot of time outside thinking about our environment and the state of our world. It dawned on me that this is really the best thing that could happen to us. For years we have consumed and consumed at the expense of the poor, the environment and all living things and now we are reaping the karmic fruits of our actions. Now that fuel prices are so high we want to blame the big oil companies when most of the fault lies with us. They have simply been our pusher and when there is more demand and dwindling supply the price has to go up.
I think that the looming financial and energy crisis is really the only way we are going to be able to save our planet and ourselves if indeed there is time. We have to see clearly what our reckless disregard for the environment which has been all in the name of prosperity has led to. We are headed for a situation where we may have to reset to a pre industrial revolution existence in order to survive.
This time it’s not a meteor or an ice age that will wipe out life, it’s us. We are going to be responsible for the mass extinction of millions of life forms all because we wanted luxury and comfort and the crazy thing is less than 1% of the human race is actually happy! What a shame! We are never satisfied and once we get high off of materialism we move to the next big thing to keep the high going, essentially never finding satisfaction. Perhaps the looming crisis will spawn a new consciousness that is more in tune with the pulse of life and the cosmos. Perhaps we will get to a point where machines and technology, governments and differences between cultures, races and gender will finally be irrelevant.
As for me I am not going to complain about the cost of gas any longer. The more the prices go up the more I become aware of my consumption and really start seeing how much I could do without. I don’t have to sit in the drive thru at Dairy Queen burning gas like it‘s 99 cents a gallon, I can take my lazy ass inside instead. When I get ready to buy a new car I can buy a Hybrid or walk more or take the train. The higher gas gets the more I fall out of love with the automobile and the more I want to do my part to create a cleaner and better world for my children and my friend’s children. The more things start to fall apart the more I want to do better, not just for me but for everybody and everything.
Something had to happen to get our attention and perhaps hitting us in the wallet may be what gets our attention. Hopefully such a shallow repentance will lead to sincere reform and genuine love for the planet and all that call it home.
May you be well, happy and peaceful!
About Me
- Rafael
- I am just trying to make my way in the world without causing any harm while I am here. It is a noble task that I hope to get better at with each passing day. I currently write several blogs. NoThinker is my social activist blog. Running for CRSF is a blog I started when I wanted to track my training for my first half marathon race which I ran in Sept‘08. I also used this experience to raise money for an orphanage in Sri Lanka. My Meditation Journal is where I chronicle my thoughts and experiences with meditation. I hope that something here touches you and enriches your life. I learn best when I learn from others so all comments are welcome.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
It feels like the end of the world is at hand
For years I believed that Jesus Christ was soon to return and destroy the earth. I lived with the hope that all the old would be destroyed and the world would be made anew. I longed for the day when evil would finally be vanquished and a just God would rule over all the earth.
When I left Christianity, some ten years ago, I had to dismiss this belief. First it certainly would not bode well for me if I believed that Christ would return, separate the wheat from the chaff and burn the chaff in eternal fire. Second, this idea of an end of the world from a Christian perspective in light of science just didn’t seem logical. I soon put down my spiritual ways and gravitated toward the realm of science and became skeptical of all things spiritual or unexplained. However, my independent study in various sciences such as biology, astronomy, and physics made me more spiritual in a sense.
No matter how far I tried to get from Christianity there was always something intuitively that did not want to forsake my original belief. One can write this off to a psychological attachment to my mother belief system but I know that this is not the case. For a long time I fought Christianity and attacked the belief I once held so dear. However, the more my understanding grew in Buddhism the more I could really appreciate and embrace the message of Christianity again. I realized that my problem was not with Jesus or God, instead it was with the rigid dogmatic adherence to the belief that the Bible is the only and infallible description of God. It was dualistic thinking, the idea that it had to be one way or the other that made me think I had to either be “for or against”
I do believe that the Bible was written and inspired by holy men and women but not all of it. Further more there is so much other literature that has been left out that does not agree with the conventional neatly packaged stuff or organized religion. How did I come to that conclusion? Intuitively and logically there are just some things that can not be reconciled with a compassionate God. Perhaps for others but for me many of the accounts, especially the whole Promised Land doctrine just didn’t sit right. There was a time in my life when I thought it was perfectly justified for Old Testament Heroes like Moses, Joshua, David, Saul, Samuel and the Judges to commit what would amount to genocide and ethnic cleansing in today’s world because they were acting under the direction of God.
That thinking, that being comfortable with the unthinkable, made me very insensitive to some of the most appalling events in my life time. I simply saw them as signs that pointed toward the end with little or no compassion for the poor beings who suffered such things. It has become clear to me that much of what is in the Bible is simply a spin campaign to justify murder, hate and division. It does not mean that the book itself is evil, that God does not exist or that there will be no “New Earth” and this is where I made the mistake. It’s not too uncommon that many Christians themselves do not accept everything that is in the Bible and in fact many have probably never read it completely through. Nevertheless, they still believe that it is the complete and only revelation of God.
I think that the over dependence on scripture to define ones spiritual experience kills the real engine of spirituality which is intuition. Certainly scriptures are good but I think they are best served to be a sort of guide. However, the real work is done in the actions of “loving your enemies” “doing for the least of these” “clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, supporting the widow, and praying without ceasing”. Now, I should say that this became very clear to me while in college studying theology. I learned that the Bible was not the Bible I thought it was. Meaning, there was certainly a lot more of man’s fingerprints than I thought for a book that was completely inspired by God. There were many instances where scribes and religious leaders clearly manipulated texts to fit in line with their own beliefs or simply just made mistakes.
The Bible is also Western Civilization’s primary source for prophecy, particularly the book of Revelation. Now, for the skeptic, Bible prophesies are nothing more than a fantastical control method imposed on believers by religious institutions. For the fundamentalist this is the hope when all the bad people are destroyed and burned for all eternity and all the good people finally get their reward. For me it simply echoes what spiritual human beings have been saying for years and intuitive people are sensing and that is a dramatic shift in consciousness.
This will not be the first time that the world as we know it will come to an end. There have been many consciousness shifts throughout human history and even in my life time I have observed quantum leaps in consciousness and the way society and the world at large think and act.
I get the sense, based on intuition and the research my intuition has led me to that the end of the world as I know and understand it is soon to come. The Mayan Calendar puts the date at the year 2012 and it would seem like we are right on schedule. A change in thinking for many people; a shift in consciousness would certainly too much to handle. I have since let go of belief in the dogmatic sense. I am learning every day that the universe is dynamic and connected and full of surprises, which are only surprises because of dualistic thinking. We are shocked by the things that do not agree with how we have convinced ourselves they are. The conscious transition from a materialistic consciousness to a spiritual one will be earth shattering and certainly feel like an eternal hell for those unable and unwilling to move with the flow.
The return of “Jesus Christ” may very well be an archetype for the return of a superior consciousness that is actually consciously co-created by all living beings. It is simply time and whether we are aware or unaware we are ending one state of consciousness to usher in another one.
I can’t give a date. I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t tell you how it will be but I feel it in the very core of my being. Perhaps the book of Revelation and its description of a New Heaven and a New Earth is a guide to what is to come. This change will be very unfortunate for many but the most fortunate thing is that all spiritual beings will be able to participate and be unified by a single consciousness that is not divisive or dogmatic or based on only one religious belief. There is hope for every body that wants a better world and is willing to live a life that centers on love and compassion for all living beings. It will be a day when there is no title for a believer; he or she will just be a more conscious spiritual being.
When I left Christianity, some ten years ago, I had to dismiss this belief. First it certainly would not bode well for me if I believed that Christ would return, separate the wheat from the chaff and burn the chaff in eternal fire. Second, this idea of an end of the world from a Christian perspective in light of science just didn’t seem logical. I soon put down my spiritual ways and gravitated toward the realm of science and became skeptical of all things spiritual or unexplained. However, my independent study in various sciences such as biology, astronomy, and physics made me more spiritual in a sense.
No matter how far I tried to get from Christianity there was always something intuitively that did not want to forsake my original belief. One can write this off to a psychological attachment to my mother belief system but I know that this is not the case. For a long time I fought Christianity and attacked the belief I once held so dear. However, the more my understanding grew in Buddhism the more I could really appreciate and embrace the message of Christianity again. I realized that my problem was not with Jesus or God, instead it was with the rigid dogmatic adherence to the belief that the Bible is the only and infallible description of God. It was dualistic thinking, the idea that it had to be one way or the other that made me think I had to either be “for or against”
I do believe that the Bible was written and inspired by holy men and women but not all of it. Further more there is so much other literature that has been left out that does not agree with the conventional neatly packaged stuff or organized religion. How did I come to that conclusion? Intuitively and logically there are just some things that can not be reconciled with a compassionate God. Perhaps for others but for me many of the accounts, especially the whole Promised Land doctrine just didn’t sit right. There was a time in my life when I thought it was perfectly justified for Old Testament Heroes like Moses, Joshua, David, Saul, Samuel and the Judges to commit what would amount to genocide and ethnic cleansing in today’s world because they were acting under the direction of God.
That thinking, that being comfortable with the unthinkable, made me very insensitive to some of the most appalling events in my life time. I simply saw them as signs that pointed toward the end with little or no compassion for the poor beings who suffered such things. It has become clear to me that much of what is in the Bible is simply a spin campaign to justify murder, hate and division. It does not mean that the book itself is evil, that God does not exist or that there will be no “New Earth” and this is where I made the mistake. It’s not too uncommon that many Christians themselves do not accept everything that is in the Bible and in fact many have probably never read it completely through. Nevertheless, they still believe that it is the complete and only revelation of God.
I think that the over dependence on scripture to define ones spiritual experience kills the real engine of spirituality which is intuition. Certainly scriptures are good but I think they are best served to be a sort of guide. However, the real work is done in the actions of “loving your enemies” “doing for the least of these” “clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, supporting the widow, and praying without ceasing”. Now, I should say that this became very clear to me while in college studying theology. I learned that the Bible was not the Bible I thought it was. Meaning, there was certainly a lot more of man’s fingerprints than I thought for a book that was completely inspired by God. There were many instances where scribes and religious leaders clearly manipulated texts to fit in line with their own beliefs or simply just made mistakes.
The Bible is also Western Civilization’s primary source for prophecy, particularly the book of Revelation. Now, for the skeptic, Bible prophesies are nothing more than a fantastical control method imposed on believers by religious institutions. For the fundamentalist this is the hope when all the bad people are destroyed and burned for all eternity and all the good people finally get their reward. For me it simply echoes what spiritual human beings have been saying for years and intuitive people are sensing and that is a dramatic shift in consciousness.
This will not be the first time that the world as we know it will come to an end. There have been many consciousness shifts throughout human history and even in my life time I have observed quantum leaps in consciousness and the way society and the world at large think and act.
I get the sense, based on intuition and the research my intuition has led me to that the end of the world as I know and understand it is soon to come. The Mayan Calendar puts the date at the year 2012 and it would seem like we are right on schedule. A change in thinking for many people; a shift in consciousness would certainly too much to handle. I have since let go of belief in the dogmatic sense. I am learning every day that the universe is dynamic and connected and full of surprises, which are only surprises because of dualistic thinking. We are shocked by the things that do not agree with how we have convinced ourselves they are. The conscious transition from a materialistic consciousness to a spiritual one will be earth shattering and certainly feel like an eternal hell for those unable and unwilling to move with the flow.
The return of “Jesus Christ” may very well be an archetype for the return of a superior consciousness that is actually consciously co-created by all living beings. It is simply time and whether we are aware or unaware we are ending one state of consciousness to usher in another one.
I can’t give a date. I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t tell you how it will be but I feel it in the very core of my being. Perhaps the book of Revelation and its description of a New Heaven and a New Earth is a guide to what is to come. This change will be very unfortunate for many but the most fortunate thing is that all spiritual beings will be able to participate and be unified by a single consciousness that is not divisive or dogmatic or based on only one religious belief. There is hope for every body that wants a better world and is willing to live a life that centers on love and compassion for all living beings. It will be a day when there is no title for a believer; he or she will just be a more conscious spiritual being.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Seeing
I saw something this morning during meditation. While sitting on the cushion in my shrine room, my mind started to wander away from my breath and I began thinking about a situation that has come about in my life and has been bothering me a great deal. As my mind fixated on this unpleasant situation I started to do what I have conditioned myself to do since I can remember. I began telling myself alternate stories by creating hypothetical scenarios in my mind. In every mental scenario I was the victim and I was the one who was the good guy. I was feeding into my self righteous ego and once again telling myself in a sanctified way how good I am and how bad “they” are.
As I fed into these delusions, out of the periphery of my conscious I saw something very clearly and I began to direct my attention there. I observed that anger, hatred and envy were strongly present in me and it was then that I resolved to calmly observe what has happening. The rush of negative emotion began to slow down somewhat and I observed and acknowledged that these were just feelings and that they were impermanent. However, as I watched them come and go I noticed that they were still with me and as one hateful feeling passed it seemed to give rise to another new feeling and they just kept coming. As I calmly watched it seemed as if time began to stand still. The construct that is feeling and emotion which normally moves at the speed of light was suddenly moving in slow motion. I could plainly see that it was my craving and clinging to these emotions that gave rise and new life to what seemed like a never ending rushing flood of negative emotion.
I finished my meditation with a sense of knowing that I had never experienced before that moment. However, it wasn’t long after that I was in a situation where I was very angry. In spite of that situation I find great comfort in what I achieved on the cushion. For the first time I was absolutely sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that as I grow stronger on the cushion I will grow stronger when I am off of it. In time I will be able to catch these emotions long before they mature and eventually I will lift the veil of ignorance and free myself from my self imposed prison of delusion.
As I fed into these delusions, out of the periphery of my conscious I saw something very clearly and I began to direct my attention there. I observed that anger, hatred and envy were strongly present in me and it was then that I resolved to calmly observe what has happening. The rush of negative emotion began to slow down somewhat and I observed and acknowledged that these were just feelings and that they were impermanent. However, as I watched them come and go I noticed that they were still with me and as one hateful feeling passed it seemed to give rise to another new feeling and they just kept coming. As I calmly watched it seemed as if time began to stand still. The construct that is feeling and emotion which normally moves at the speed of light was suddenly moving in slow motion. I could plainly see that it was my craving and clinging to these emotions that gave rise and new life to what seemed like a never ending rushing flood of negative emotion.
I finished my meditation with a sense of knowing that I had never experienced before that moment. However, it wasn’t long after that I was in a situation where I was very angry. In spite of that situation I find great comfort in what I achieved on the cushion. For the first time I was absolutely sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that as I grow stronger on the cushion I will grow stronger when I am off of it. In time I will be able to catch these emotions long before they mature and eventually I will lift the veil of ignorance and free myself from my self imposed prison of delusion.
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