The concept of democracy is a noble one, but I don’t think we’ve evolved or matured enough to implement it within our society. Greed and self-interest still rule nations, from political parties to influential individuals alike. These privileged groups put their needs ahead of the people, try hard to coerce us to see their selfish plight, with the real objective of getting our votes. Oftentimes, they rely on the tried and tested methods of fear-mongering, which produces the desired effect of dependence. From religions to governments, they want us to see them as our salvation, and all they ask for is our voice. So choosing governance in many so-called democratic nations is less about what people want and more about what interest groups want, with the help of an indoctrinated population. This swings left and right depending on how successful indoctrination campaigns are. There have been monarchs who held a closer ear to people’s needs than many political parties nowadays, in part because they could not lose their power. The envisioned concept of democracy does not revolve around gaining and accumulating power, but sharing it. We’ve made strides towards that promise since the Age of Enlightenment, but perhaps we can accelerate it by removing ideological and purely intellectual labels that ultimately divide us. We are not just liberals, conservatives, libertarians – we are a bit of everything in different proportions. We are unique but complete individuals with innate common values. Values like independence, compassion, empathy, collaboration, and insatiable desire for strong, symbiotic social bonds. Values that seek to connect people, and not condition them into political fodder for the privileged few.
Month: July 2022
Moment’s Freedom
Excessive indulgence in memory, and its offspring, anticipation, entraps and attaches you to time. Letting go of them, even fleetingly, propels you into the infinite space of a moment – the timeless and absolute reality. This vast, potentiating dimension is life in motion. It is a liberating feeling encompassing your breath, your presence, connection to everyone, and all that surrounds you.
Choose to Act
Fantasizing and daydreaming stem from overthinking and not doing, not expressing your feelings, intuitions, or natural desires. Once you understand what is on your mind or in your heart (usually the two are connected), choose to act. Embrace the discomfort, and shyness, fear, and pre-judgement will blow away. You will feel filled with life, nurtured by the fullness of a moment, with no projections, no expectations – and no disappointments. Choose to experience life and your natural role in it, for what they are, not for what you imagine them to be.
Relationship with the Universe
Your relationship to the world matters, it is the original lens behind how you see reality. Our world, and the universe as a whole, is not a scary place. It is our home and origin. Love and see it, with its many forms, as you do yourself, and you will feel a connection, a natural belonging, nurture. You are a loved part of that ever-expanding, Self-completing whole. You matter to it, and when you recognize and feel that, it matters to you. The universe sustains you in so many ways, and you help shape it through your thoughts and acts.
On Identity (part 1 of many)
Who am I? The problem of answering starts with the question that seeks to strip down something uniquely formless into a familiar, standardized group of adjectives. Personally, I prefer the less literal approach of pointing toward how one perceives reality – through acts and authentic expression – rather than passively describing it. We are bundles of life experience glued by an inner essence. The changeable and the unchangeable. All the connections we make with people and the world give us concrete form to say we are this or that. But we often forget to zoom out, attaching ourselves to individual parts of the bundle, when instead we are closer to being their sum. A sum whose potential is not only greater than the totality of its individual components, but also unquantifiable (nor should it be unless you wished to reduce it). It is us a communion of the known (conscious, learned, experienced) and the unknown (deeper, unmanifested awareness). When we allow this synthesis to take place, we feel more complete, and we begin to feel the depths of who we are. We let ourselves be, to belong. We learn to purposefully navigate the world – but also to extend and transform it, through acts of compassion and selflessness. The universe is a canvas, and we are one of its countless brushstrokes.