a refuge for all the triangles heads

Problem solving has become a way of life. Every day, people wake up and goto work, to solve problems. Quite simply, there is not much money in 'being'. Infact being is to most problem solvers the anthithesis of productivity. To countries who value productivity the most, like China for example, being is severely frowned upon - to say the least; going as far as to even ban the practice of Falun Gong. The reason, we can assume being that energy cultivated within is very scary to the world of cogs, conveyer belts and money printing machines which relies heavily on a world of people being completely vacuumed into the false perception that all energy comes from outside or the external. Or perhaps it is merely that the 'self' becomes the authoritive place from which one derives energy, rather than clocking in and out of a factory and answering to those who have ammased the most amount of debt receipts, excuse me, I mean money.

In the world today for the most part, everything one does must create a stimulus response or solve some sort of crisis or perform some sort of distraction. We must keep the machine running. What is it about this obsession? The artist must tantalise the imagination or evoke some sort of emotion and constantly attempt to do better and re-invent herself. The businessman or woman must aim to change circumstances or provide some sort of solution or help create more profits. The teacher must provide answers and grade his or her students. The boyfriend must engage the girlfriend. But to be still is almost nightmarish. Where has this paradigm of thought come from? Clearly it is a parasitical train of thought because batteries do indeed tend to run out and there appears to be only so much coal - so we are now looking at the root cause and give some attention to the underlying problem perhaps before we suck ourselves into oblivian. Who wants to suck earth into oblivian dry concrete metal jungle grid of mind numbing sickened darkness? Probably nobody, so lets continue...

Today, in any learning institute the emphasis is on the problem and solving the problem and while creative thinking exists, it is within certain guidelines and constraints. Yet how much time is given to silence? Consolidation? True boundless contemplation? In all my years of schooling of the 200 or so days of school per year just 1 minute per year was spent in silence. In my country, Australia, that 1 minute was spent to remember all the 'aussie battlers' who mindlessly followed the mandatory conscription to join the army and head over to Gallipoli and be slaughtered. Whatever country you are in, you probably had something similar. We are encouraged to take this minute of silence and be grateful for all the hard work these battlers did for us and the bravery in which they fought. Personally, I've never quite understood the whole thing. Don't get me wrong - I understand the fear that must have been running through the veins of these soldiers as their boats approached the shoreline and my heart goes out to them and the loss of their families, but I never quite understood how people could take guns and point them at people they don't even know and pull the trigger. I always saw those people as a generation of people who were so ignorant of the world at large that they believed whatever was written in newspapers and blindly killed 'the enemy'.

But back to my point, of the 200 days in school per year, 1 minute was in silence but that silence wasn't even silence - it was no speaking while thinking about war. Ironic? Or is that just a contradiction? Obviously we, or the authorities that be, those elite who hand down and pass on the curriculum we study understand the fortifying power of silence and yet the only time Australians really are expected to be in silence is for a minute or 2 to remember when some 600 - 700 soldiers were slaughtered. I don't think really many Australians know why we went to Gollipoli or how that campaign benefitted Australia much at all. What we seem to know as a collective nation is that we were supporting the Allies and that was a good thing because the 'Turks' were the enemy because they were sided with Hitler and Hitler was a bad guy because he killed people. Of course we weren't bad people even though we were killing people ourselves -- we were just killing people because they were killing people and so our murders were a response to their murders. Can you see the dysfunction in this cycle? Because the crazy thing is here, and this is by no means a defense for Hitler, but the Germans felt they were killing people because they were being killed. So there is this huge elaborate and almost ongoing tit-for-tat massacre taking place which goes all the way back to BC and beyond.

We just got roped into it, didn't we and its not our fault, it was a time of kill or be killed, of course. Or was it just a time of mindlessness? A time when people didn't really look underneath the surface. If the shiny TV printed "BAD GUY" across the face of the enemy that was enough because we trust big media. We trust our reactions. We trust group thinking. We trust our emotions. We trust our fears. We trust what the masses fall for. We trust our instincts or whatever is the first impulse that comes to mind and when it comes to war or fighting when your world is being threatened generally the response is run, or kill. In this sort of generic fear based response, there is basically nill time given to centering or attuning to what is really going on. Perhaps you are not threatened? Perhaps there is nothing to worry about?

Have you ever watched a pack of Lions in the wild? Perhaps on a documentary? Or what about just a little kitten when it is trying to catch a Lizard or an Insect? Have you noticed how the Cats completely lose interest when the Lizard doesn't fight back or the prey doesn't run? The predator wants a reaction, as though something is instinctually built into the hunter to drive fear into the prey. A psychologist will tell you that a bully doesn't choose its targets to pick on rationally, but by instinct. They wonder the school ground looking for those that are in fear and leave alone those that are unphased - generally.

I believe that if we could survey every school on the planet and every business not even 1% of time is prioritised to just 'being', and 'being' is sold as something that comes secondary to 'doing'. 'Doing' is the primary objective, and we arm children to be engineers and equip them with the ability to build new structures and the ability to create new medicines or conduct experiments and to compete with one another etc, while generally as a rule little to no effort is put into making sure that children are coming from a space of even wanting to benefit society. The head is given full access to concepts which can essentially destroy the world we inhabit while matters of the heart are completely ignored. When I talk with people on this topic of giving children ethical education it brings up alarm bells. "How dare you try and teach my child values??!" or "You have no right to tell my child what is right or wrong" and so the education system that exists is expected to provide all the tools to do more or less anything while not being allowed to impede on ethics or morals - it is only in later years of education that these things come into effect even though many psychologists will explain how a childs values are formed much earlier in life.

It could be said that schools do not do all that much in encouraging young adults to want to be of benefit society. The very fact that the system is based off competing with one another means that children are constantly in a state of alarm and survival. Quite simply, if you don't cut the grade - you will get in trouble. If you don't pass the test - you will be embarassed. If you don't get there on time - you will be punished. How do we expect to put children through decades of this arena of childish competition and expect them to take all of this higher learning in and magically come out the other side and want to help the people who have been oppressing them their whole life? Its rediculous, infact this can be proven that nobody wants to help society by this simple test.

Go around to every person you know and do a poll to find out how many people do as much as they can to pay as much tax as they can to government, then run a poll and find how many people try and do as much as they can to avoid paying tax. I rest my case. We live in a society where literally everybody tries to avoid offering anything back to the system from which has taught them and controls them. Doesn't that throw up alarm bells? You would struggle to find a single person on the planet who tries to pay as much as they can back into the system.

But, you're really not supposed to think about all of this too much. The idea is that there is always an exam coming up and that keeps you in the state of stress. Once you graduate from school, the exam changes and now the exam is rent, bills and tax. You have to question now - was school really about teaching you to be a good person who contributes to society, or was it simply training for the next 50 - 70 years of your life of being enslaved to the monetary based exam? After 10 - 12 years or so of being forced to come to school and be afraid of an authority who can make you feel shame in the school for being stupid or unqualified for the next grade, as you get older the equivalent becomes losing all your money or not making enough money and potentially living a life in poverty and on the streets. If you think about it, when you become an adult getting an A is being the elite, getting a B is being a millionaire, getting a C is being self employed or running a business or being a upper management, getting a D is working in a soulless job and getting an E is struggling to pay the bills and getting an F is being on the streets. Of course nobody translates that this reality to us - but through subtle insertions of values handed down through the Government controlled schooling system its not a hard value system to install on the sly - is it? Unfortunately, all of this backfires as we start to get all mashed together and the world gets smaller and there is less opportunity. In the dog eat dog world where one will do more for less ethics are questioned and with the right price a good man can be turned to an evil doer overnight. And this is where we come to teaching people how to fish and the unquestioning loyalty to this paradigm before even asking ourselves "why do we fish?" and no, because we are hungry is not the right answer. "Because we are hungry" has eventuated in the oceans being emptied so that we can have fish n chips served up whenever we want. "Because we are hungry" has eventuated in most of the beautiful coral reefs across the planet being ruined. "Because we are hungry" has eventuated in the Amazon rainforest being cleared to make way for livestock farms. "Because we are hungry"  equates to people basically doing anything at the cost of survival and it has created a world where people literally destroy the planet and the possibility of a healthy future just to get through the current day. Its a reason which dominates - and its a reason which is killing us but its a reason that will get you an A.

So what good is it teaching a child engineering skills that is going to wind up creating a nuclear power plant which is one day going to blow up in Russia and mutate the nearby villages and regions for years to come and in time gradually infect the planet with radiation? Perhaps a different design or a design that came from somebody with different value systems may have been more effective and less likely to blow up - we will never know, but the mayhem created in Chernobyl is a very real scar in earths history and reminder for us to look at. I don't know the ins and outs of what happened at Chernobyl, infact I don't know anything about the design of the Nuclear power plant for that matter - but what I do know is that the intention behind Nuclear power is a reaction to a shortage of power which is a fear which is a state of mind coming from an innacurate and faulty perception of the universe. Nuclear power is bound to fail. See its this mindset which says "The power has run out, therefor there is a shortage of energy" and for most people this is as much logic as one needs to convince the masses that something needs to be done. "The coal has run out, so we need an alternative energy source" and that is all that is needed for billions of dollars to be invested into something else. But have you noticed that it has literally been the complete last resort to consider... to just consider... that just maybe humanity needs to do less? That the solution isn't a new energy... that its perhaps what we're doing just does not work? I'm not saying that a new energy system won't work - but what I'm saying is that considering doing less and achieving the same amount - if not more - that this is a last resort is definitely a strategy to our annhilation. That the engines must keep running at full capacity 100 percent of the time is completely stupid and bound to come grinding to a halt. That is for certain. Nothing keeps going in the same direction for this long other than the sun. And even the sun burns out eventually.

So what else is the result of the current failing paradigm? Well, that is not too hard to ascertain, it just requires we make some observations. Take a look around and what do you see? For our current world is a result of our past actions and our approach to life. I see crazy people. I see people fixing problems not even knowing why they fix the problems or what effects fixing those problems will have. I see people fixing problems that are not even problems. I see people fixing problems that would fix themselves. I see people adding things onto stuff that don't require it. And while every day more and more things are solved one can't help but wonder - are we really changing or progressing? Have we convinced ourselves in our hyper active culture that we are moving ahead at light speed when the dismal reality just might be - we aren't really changing at all?

Once you do start to slow down a little bit you start to notice the madness more. You will hear people talking about this problem and the next problem and before even finishing what they were talking about or arriving at any form of innovative conclusion they have quickly stampeded onto the next crisis to repeat the same cycle all over again. What this means is that most people don't ever really finish focusing on what they were focusing on and with every problem they string along kind of mental parasites which infect the next problem they are solving. What we now know about the way our brains work is that when we think a certain thing, we create neural pathways, like muscles. A train of thought which is used often equates to a part of the brain growing stronger and stronger and it becomes a muscle in a sense we rely on more to do the heavy lifting. In todays hyper active society, most people never give these muscles a rest and so they are using the same muscles over and over again but to solve completely different situations. For example, if you go find yourself a seat in a cafe like a Starbucks one day where there is lots of caffeinated conversations going on you can really glimpse into the madness at full throttle. I mean you don't even need to try and see if it exists because it is all around. You can hear people literally bouncing from one topic to the next. One moment a lady will be talking about how she has blisters from her new shoes. The next moment, without there being any conclusion of what to do, such as the obvious - taking the shoes off - she is mentioning her annoyances with her workplace - before arriving at any finally with that topic she is now breaching the topic of her boyfriend or partner and how he isn't talking enough or their sex life is slowing down - and without any silence in between any of these topic changes they quickly stand up and decide its time to go shopping and get some new dresses. For the next 2 - 5 hours, the ladies will browse different shops and continue talking about all of these issues in bite sizes. Each will take turns to devulge information about their issues and by the time they get home, their boyfriends are in for a surprise.

There is something severely disfunctional about fixing problems without having first seeing things from the bigger picture and the greater unfolding taking place. The universe is constantly changing on the surface. The earth changes. Water constantly flows. Seasons change. Infact it is believed that the only thing that doesn't change is that 'things change'. Change being the one and only constant. And yet, if you take a look around the world what we see everywhere is people attempting to stop this change or resist it.

This can be seen when we bulid dams to hold onto water so that a certain area can always have a non-stop water supply despite the seasonal shifts. This way we need not worry about whether it rains or not.

On coastlines and major tourist beaches around the world the oceans tides and waves will wash away sand changing the shape of the lands edge, yet councils will exhaust millions of dollars to bring in sand dredging equipment and rebuild those beaches so that they remain iconic and as they were.

The earth starts to pull apart in earthquakes and cracks are formed in the surface and we go ahead and fill them with more dirt and rocks. Constantly attempting to defy this change. How long have we been doing this? Ever since we convinced ourselves we are no longer a part of nature is my guess. Man and woman have elevated themselves above nature and are no longer species of earth, but rulers of it and as David Suzuki says in his book The Sacred Balance we have done something no other creature has done before and considered ourselves a Super Species, above and beyond the laws of nature. Rather than change with the tides and move with the seasons we have picked our positions of choice and created artificial value systems that are disconnected from nature. And if nature dare challenge that, we fight it. We rally arms against the storms and the droughts and rather than listen to nature we attempt to dominate it even though most attempts are wasteful and costly, generally futile.

So what is the problem with all of this supremecy? What is the core issue with believing we are no longer a part of the changing world? Well, for starters with this mindset comes a huge serving of delusion and a pair of glasses which distorts our vision of the world. And with distorted vision, isn't the result not seeing things as they really are? So what happens when we're not seeing things as they really are - doesn't that imply we can't really create 'solutions' which fix the underlying issue rather we are focused by the distraction or the most superficial layer of the core of the problem. While there is truth in that if you have a bleeding wound putting a bandaid will probably stop the bleeding and start the healing process - but if underneath that wound is a parasite eating at the surface of the skin to make the wound in the first place the bandaid isn't going to do much in the long run. So is there any truth to what I am saying or is this purely theoretical nonsense? Well, if we were to look at the largest problem solving and largest money making industry on the planet perhaps we could see if this theory holds any evidential weight.

In the medical and drug industry, the most profitable and most relied on industry on planet earth as it stands today, they are in the business of fixing health issues. But more accurately they are in the business of fixing symptoms. Which sounds well and good, but what is a symptom? Lesions on the skin is a symptom. Coughing is a symptom. A sore throat is a symptom. Vomiting is a symptom. A runny nose is a symptom. You get the idea. Naturally, when one has a symptom, the aim of the game is to get rid of it so that one can be symptomless. Its common sense really. Yet this common sense comes with a fatal problem: it only fixes the symptom and little no effort is ever really put into what caused the symptom in the first place. See, to the average person out there, stuff just happens and that is life. People catch colds and having the flu now and then is just to be expected. Getting these symptoms was really just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or perhaps it was just being born with the wrong genes that were susceptible to catching certain diseases or having certain deficiencies. So to the common person, when we catch something or fall sick with something we go out to the doctors and get the medicine that will fix the symptom and we kill the symptom and get back to work... which is great... if you're a soldier in a war where the whole current modern medicine model stems from. Soldier wounded. Fix it asap. Get him back on the field and it worked for the old world warriors.

Yet, what really caused the problem in the first place? And could there be more to it then just that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time or are misfortunate and have weak genes? Who cares, right? Because by now you have popped a few pills or had surgery and the problem has disappeared. Out of sight - out of mind the problem no longer exists. Or does it? Has the problem really been solved or did we just simply temporarily alleviate the discomfort?

Today, despite the dominant drug industry in place, an awareness which to the masses seemed to be lost for some time has started to creep its way back into the minds of the populous. Today, you find many 'alternative' healers who would argue strongly against simply having an operation or popping some pills and they can explain to you how underneath the symptoms are the real cause of those problems.

So what has this got to do with anything I am talking about? Quite simply, when a problem arises in the world that threatens our feeling of being superior to nature and the constant changes it immediately rings off alarm bells. It is a bit like being derailed off a train track. Just a moment ago, before the symptoms manifested -- whatever those symptoms they may be, medical, business, relationships etc -- we were perfectly fine living in our wonderland of delusion. Up until a moment ago, we were supreme rulers of the universe, on top of the world and in charge of everything. We were comfortable in our nice square blocks of land with our lawns at 5 cm length and all the dangerous fauna and flora were locked up in neat Zoo's or prisons or farms out of harms way. But now, all of that has come crushing down as the symptom or problem shows its head and we descend from our heavenly godlike positions in the clouds and are reminded of our imminent death. We are reminded of our pending doom from many things, perhaps an expensive bill that will make us broke arrived in the mail, or a system in the business stopped working like the cash register or perhaps an employee suddenly quits, or perhaps the girlfriend has started to cry and wants a change, or perhaps a new war ovearseas threatens our bank interest rates and petrol prices. It can be anything -- anything that reminds us we are not in complete control and then the disasterous thing happens: we panic. Almost nobody is immune to this panic and with it comes generally one thing: fear and reaction to quickly get into problem fixing mode.

A river widens because the earth has decided the tectonic plates need more breathing room. With it a bridge falls down and traffic into a certain precinct becomes literally impossible. The citizens cry fowl and it is all hands on deck. If that bridge is not fixed commerce to this part of the city could collapse and there will be potential economic ruit. Then it wouldn't just be the bridge that is broken, but the community. Immediately a plan is put into to action to replace the bridge. It is known and common knowledge that doing so means that one day, the new bridge being planned into action will probably fall as well creating bigger turmoils for the future generation - nevertheless, one must not look too far ahead and think of such things - afterall, this is a crisis and we must act now because people are worried.

A woman is showering and finds a lump in her breast. It feels strange and even hurts a little to pinch. She is worried and immediately schedules an appointment with the doctor tomorrow for a pap scan. As she presses her breast between those cold plates and as it pushes down she feels a tightness on the lump she has never felt before. A screaching pain, but she bottles up the pain -- afterall, the doctor must know what he is doing. A tear falls from her eyes. Little does she know that the body is doing everything it can to naturally stay alive and fight off cancers and things of the sort and so it has contained the damaged cells or toxic matter in a bubble like prison but now the cold clamps have squeezed it, infuriating it, potentially even squeezing some of that toxic matter out into the body further excaserbating the situation. As it turns out, the test results come back positive, meaning its bad, and straight away an appointment is made to remove the lump. An incision is made into the chest and the protected sad inside the breast is cut open and sucked out with a syringe. More toxic matter is now entering the blood stream and the womans health is worse than it was before the test. She is now put onto a prescription of other harmful toxins which will no doubt defeat the bodies natural defenses more so weakening her immune system more so making her even more susceptible to future problems.

Every day, there are warning signs that our reaction to the problems arising are not helping. Yet we defy this because we are in fear. We build the bridge and we get the operation even though we know that it is not the long term solution. Every day, people have cancers removed and little to no deeper research has been performed by the doctors to even see if there is something innately wrong wtih what the person puts into their bodies. It is ignorance masked as mastery at its finest. Yet it makes billions and trillions of dollars every year simply because the world has gone mad. People have become so disconnected with what is, or any form of genuine insight that we don't trust ourselves. If a person with a certificate or 2 on the wall says something is what we need to do - we do it. And if a whole bunch of people with 1 or 2 certificates on the wall come together and say something is so, then that makes it a permanent fixture of what is. We dare not challenge it because together they have a combined total of 100 million certificates and obviously with that many certificates it must be true. Whatever they say goes, right? Wrong.

When we are in a state of fear we are off center. We make rash decisions. In science when an animal experiences something that is shocking or overly stimulating the areas of brain we use change. Referred to as 'fight or flight' mode and it can be induced when we are in danger. The aim of this mechanism is simply to survive and it is controlled by the part of the brain that connects to the top of the spine. Some consider this part of the brain the reptillian brain because it works on a core level of predation or avoiding being a victim to predation much like a reptile thinks most of the time. When this part of the brain is in full effect, the other larger parts of our brain of logic and creative thought start to turn off and so when in a state of fear or anxiety quite simply our bodies stop sending as much energy or electricity to our creative parts. Physical pain receptors are turned down and we burn more energy and can endure more stuff. A sort of emergency mode, we are no longer thinking long term - but here and now - and not in a spiritual being sense - but in a survival react and live sense. This of course serves its purpose say when a tidal wave comes its not time to think too creatively or analyse the situation too much - the animal instinct kicks in and says "run to the top of a mountain or climb a huge tree". Yet what has happened is that this sort of mentality now permeates a much more advanced world where there is world wide vaccination plans and weapons that can destroy cities at the push of a button. Day in and day out woman go and have their breasts removed even though it defies all logic because this state of fear is so rampant that we ignore our own bodies instincts. And we know deep down that just building another bridge isn't going to solve the real situation here unless of course this bridge can some how change with the next massive tectonic plate shift. Yet we proceed. We proceed when we don't even know the damage we are causing in the future. No doubt, that bridge will collapse again at which point the part of the city will be larger and probably rely on that bridge even more so, creating even more drama at which point even more resources will be needed now to fix the problem. But we will build it anyways, because 100 guys with certificates on the wall said so, right? Correct.

Yet where is the certificate for checking in with the frequency from which people resonate in? Where is the degree in wholistic thought which verifies that people who come up with solutions are coming from a space of what is best for the collective? Or the planet? Or the water in the ocean? Or the tranquility of the birds? Where is the test to check which persons or people are coming from the least amount of fear? Because there are volumes and volumes of texts which most philosophical minds on the planet would agree with which suggest that coming from a state of fear and anxiety produces more fear and anxiety yet anybody trained in these areas are considered simple mystics and mostly irrelevant. They are a last resort you visit at a retreat. They are compensation for all your hard work. Yet in my opinion, in the increasingly challenging times these people will be the most valued members of society who will not be the last people advised, but the first.

Lets look at 9/11. What happened on 9/11 was frightening. A symbolic gesture of the headquarters of modern economical supremecy came crashing down. We saw people dying and our certainty toppled to the floor in a rubble. Immediately, the world descended into a state of fear and within months American citizens passed acts which would mean that rights to liberty would be waivered. Within months innocent civilians were taken to torture camps where they were experimented on with the aim of extracting information that would mean people woudn't have to suffer. So people suffered in order to avoid suffering. It is madness - is it not? Yet it took years for the fear to subside and for the more expanded parts of our brains to kick in again and realise the lunacy of how we had reacted. It took us years before as a whole we looked at the terror we were causing in the middle east was far worse than a couple planes flying into a few buildings. In reaction, we blew up schools with innocent children, we tortured innocent muslims, we turned half the world into racists, we literally declined in progressive understanding 100 years. But this is the standard practice and mindset which is totally acceptable in todays world. A problem occurs - and we react. That is common sense. And by common I mean it is commonly used I don't mean it in a complimentary manner. Common sense, is actually sometimes quite silly.

Some analysists suggest that the war in the middle east, which was a reaction to 9/11 (which by the way was probably a reaction to something else) is now the reason why the world is in a global recession. That there was war going on around the main source of oil on the planet meant the prices lifted dramatically and kept lifting. So the American presence overseas was supposed to lower the levels of fear of terrorists by wiping them out, in reality by going to war against them brought the fear directly into the home of every single person on the planet more or less by making the problem real for everybody in that it was no longer a drama available just on the TV - now it was in the workplace and metaphorically we saw people dying all around us who lost their jobs and their houses came crushing down not to rubble, but to receipts as the banks forclosed on them. Now every person who has worked hard for something or is trying to make their business survive or put their children through school is concerned that there isn't going to be enough money all of which has sent the world into a state of more panic. Which means what? More reaction and more bad decisions and more bugs in the program and more stuff to fix and more needing to look outside for some miracle solution.

Since all of this happened, we have seen more and more people get onto the bandwagon of conspiracy theories. Pre-9/11 it was still a very fringe idea to be talking about the Global Bank empires out to rule the world - now it is almost dinner conversation. Another example is pre bird and swine flu. Before those out breaks, the old trustworthy drug industry was the night and shining armor to the masses. But now?

Since my last post talked about doing 'nothing' I guess you could take the title of this chapter two ways but chances are, despite my convincing explanation that consciously doing nothing could lead to being able to do so much more you probably did nothing about it -- and by nothing I mean nothing in the ignorant apathetic sense not the type I was talking about previously. Why? Simply because one of the hardest things to do in a world full of buzz and hype is simply to sit and do nothing. To follow no thoughts. To silence desire. To put a lid on the noise, so to speak. Simply, to do this equates to death of your figmented self - it equates to the death of your drama - it equates to actually changing rather than keeping the spielberg product running and to the undisciplined advanced monkey running around the planet, most importantly, this is considered 'wasting time' - even though it has been considered by many to slow down time and allows the practitioner to achieve more in smaller spaces of time -- just try explaining that to iCalendar or the office or team which have got you scheduled to countless deadlines. On a side note have you ever wondered why they call them 'deadlines'? My take is, if you bind your life to future appointments you are already dead. The deadline seeker is completely frazzled and has lost touch with the moment. Life is literally on delay, waiting for the future to arrive that never does. It is madness. But I digress for a moment - back to talking about doing nothing.

But can you really do nothing? Apparently we are always decaying or regenerating and to some deep thinkers like Deepak Chopra, they refer to sitting still as dynamic non-change -- meaning you are changing while not changing at all. There is the you that remains the same, and yet you inhabit a body with some 1 trillion cellular changes per second roughly. The observer remains intact, perfect and complete while your body is dying and being reborn every moment complete in its seemingly neverending ongoing deconstruction and reconstruction -- its continous struggle to keep order while dealing with the enslaught of chaos and entropy.

Naturally, we are on a quest to achieve what we want and keep our shit together. Yet what do we want? Do we find what we want by reading blogs or watching TV? Or do we remember what we truly want when we sit down and observe, listen, feel and reconnect with the undying eternal part of ourselves? Quite a silly question really. Essentially, if you are going directly for what you truly want, rather than a bit of this and a bit of that while being distracted here and there then obviously one would be many times more potent in creating what they want - when they can tell the difference between a true inner desire and a distraction. But most people, do not take the time to make the distinction. Life is one reaction of impulse to the next. Do you want a coffee or a water? Do you want to walk or have sex? Do you want to build or business or simply climb a mountain? Cereal or fruit salad for breakfast? Buy now or get a payment plan? The overload of stimulii in the outside world has made most of us totally uncertain of what we truly desire and so we react to a smorgasboard of substanceless options all of which can create momentary passings of pleasure which most of the time have no positive lasting effect on our health and happiness as individuals or a collective.

We are taught that trial and error is the way and you must exhaust all possibilities before you know what the right solution is and going within and simply knowing the path to walk is a kind of lunacy. That is the malfunctioning dogma at least - failing forward. The other alternative is to simply combine and do everything simeltaneously - the ceasar salad approach to life. For example, fruit salad with cereal. And water with coffee. And just take the iPhone with you and do business while you climb the mountain. A bit of this. A bit of that. We live in a time that is frothing with opportunitistic semen - an orgiastic boundless groping of stuff to do - a plethora of people who want everything now while only partially commiting to not much at all. Are we confused? Are we betting on a bit of everything in the hope one of the horses comes through? It sure seems that way.

So we have to look at what has stood the tests of time. What has retained inspiration throughout the ages and what is a new fad. Kellogs Fruity Loops is a fad compared to say, conversing with friends and family. McDonalds is a fad, compared to Oranges. Self-help books are a fad, compared to meditating and contemplating. And in reality, none of these fads have really done much of anything for me in my true times of problem solving needs.

Personally, I can't recall the number of times I have been sitting in front of my computer trying my heart out to solve a certain technical issue. The solution to the bug seems to evade me and it is ultimately frustrating. Then I remember "ahh, thats right! If I'm being frustrated I keep on creating more frustration" and I hop up and walk outside because I know it is the truth for me that what I focus on expands. By focusing on the problem, the problem becomes the focus and not the solution. Does water try to move the objects in its pathway? Absolutely not - infact, water has no intention of making its way down the slopes of a mountain - it just does. And if the water finds a rock that it can't move over? The water simply takes the lowest form by moving around, and a little bit underneath. Over time, simply by using the power of gravity the water moves the tiny pebbles underneath the large rock, and those little pebbles get washed down stream by the power of gravity and with no effort on the waters behalf what so ever a hole has been formed underneath the rock and the large rock falls down into it. Now the water flows through the space where the rock once was. Completely effortlessly. So I take a seat down on the floor away from the computer and just breath and turn my mind off. I stop trying to get on top of the problem and through no effort what so ever, I let the natural powers that exist in the world to move the pebbles so to speak in my own mind so that I can create a space for the rock to fall into.

Generally I notice 2 things happen:

1. My mind continues thinking about the problem even though I'm telling my mind not to.
2. In the moments in between the sort of elastic unwinding of those thoughts I feel a true sense of joy regardless of not solving the problem... yet.

Deep down, I know that once I can stop being in the frequency or the train of thought I am in, that the solution will actually just pop into my head and yet, it won't come while I am trying to think about it because this type of problem is something completely different to the rational or logical ideas I have tried already. See there is something innately wrong with the whole package or program I have written and its time to come from an entirely different space. So I keep breathing... I keep coming back to nothingness... I keep reinforcing that I am ok sitting on a balcony or in the garden and that despite my program being broken - I am not broken. I am ok. Infact I am more than ok, I am inspired now. I feel quite incredible actually. I mean really, what a great time to be alive. Wow, you know life is pretty damn amazing. What is that smell in the air? Is it jasmine? Jasmine with a hint of basil. Just delightful.

By now, I've literally forgotten what I was even working on. The subtle smell of life has overtaken the nagging electro cyborg issues I was working on. And then the most profound thing happens... a lightning bult hits. Not literally, but I'm perhaps making a cup of tea and I see something entirely different inside my mind. A pathway or a way to do the programs math in a way I hadn't even thought of before. Its a true breakthrough. I am excstatic, both by the possibility that this solution just might work, but also because I didn't even need to think about the issue for the solution to bloom inside my mind. Is that the deep subconscious coming to life and working for me? Am I tapping into parts of my brain I haven't been using? Does the simple act of being happy and inspired mean new parts of the brain start working? Or are there angels perhaps feeding my mind thoughts because I took a moment to notice the flowers? Who knows - really? What I do know is this works and that the solutions I have come up from in this space seem to transcend things I have spent sleepless nights tapping away at keys to create.

I believe if you were to ask some of the most profound creators of our time like Gary who co-created posterous we would find time and time again they came up with these awesome ideas when they were inspired, and not when they were afraid of a recession, or afraid of meeting a deadline, or in fear of running out of money. If you ever find yourself in these states of mind, just go for a walk, find a place to sit and simply do nothing. As you start to become comfortable with the idea that you actually get something truly sustaining and rewarding from the silence, the old belief that this so simple act of doing nothing is hard becomes overwhelmed with the reality that ease of life in all areas comes as a result of this practice.

There is something also ultimately rebellious about all of this. No, I will not mindlessly proceed and play out the dramas that were handed to me. No, I will not react to the fears and the scripts that everybody believes in. I am choosing to break this cycle which is clearly dysfunctional and adding to the noise and chaos in my life. I am choosing to collapse this delusion and I am choosing to embrace more - with less. I am choosing to be aware of more - without trying to be. I am challenging the concept that life is hard and that intelligence is difficult to grasp rather than what is inherent and flowing through every cell of my body. I am choosing to make my body my teacher and my feelings my children. My emotions no longer control my life. No more will I entertain fleeting desires and the persuit of temporary pleasures at the expense of my sanity and longterm joy.

With all the people I have talked to over the years, I don't think I've truly met a person who just absolutely loves doing the super healthy stuff. For example, eating a head of broccoli straight up and raw... mmm mmmm mmmmm... doesn't exactly get the mouth watering does it? What about a nice shot of wheatgrass? mmmm yumm... makes my stomach curl. How about going for a jog? Oooh yeah. Not.

If you are familiar with the FDR (www.consciouslifestyler.com/fdr) at all you know that Don recommends using Salt or Bi-Carb soda for a tooth paste. Some people might say "well isn't that an abbrasive that can kill your enamel?" In some cases - it can. But here is another persons take I am borrowing from a completely non-affiliated website I stumbled across from http://www.myhomeremedies.com/remedy.cgi?remedyid=2571&page=4

  I'm inclined to comment (for the overpaid and pessimistic dental   hygenists out there) that baking soda was integrated into O.T.C   pastes for bruhing years ago. Yes the content is regulated and   likely by the FDA. Regardless, it is accepted by the same   affiliation whose concern is the general public. Tell me, how many   dentists would EVER promote a home remedy? The answer is few and   they're likely the meek and good hearted ones who aren't out for   several insurance claims to pay for their second yacht. The truth of   the matter is that baking soda IS an abrasive, and caution should be   exercised is using it as polish in a home remedy, as much so as it's   concentration is regulated in OTC toothpastes. You shouldn't scrub   your teeth with it hard enough to rip the enamel off, because it   will. Cider vinegar improves the calcium metabolism of the body.   This only scratches the surface of the benefits of vinegar to the   body though. These benefits include the removal of everyday fatigue   that some of us (who intake insufficient vinegar volumes) contend   with daily. Vinegar, contrary to some opinions has no ill effects on   the body. Calcium is certainly one of the main components of bones   and teeth and it must be acidified entirely in the stomach before   its absorption, and can only be absorbed through the duodenum and   the upper small intestine before it loses its acidity. Vinegar helps   to acidify calcium in the stomach to help this process along. This   is suggesting consumption however, and we're discussing brushing and   teeth whitening. Vinegars main component is acetic acid, a stain   remover when applied to teeth as well as to the bumper on a classic   coupe deville. Yes vinegar has so many uses it's had several LARGE   books dedicated to its uses and practicality in everyday life. You   need to ignore comments from the ivy league peanut gallery of   dentists who care about money and their own healthy teeth. Notice I   said Money first and teeth second. I believe this is pretty close to   the truth. Let's face it, if you're searching for teeth whitening   tips you can try at home you're likely not in the same state of mind   on the matter (ever!) as a dentist with great teeth. So keep you're   teeth clean, stay away from excessive sweets (cavity avoidance) quit   the excessive smoking/wine/coffee, and other teeth stainers, brush   regularly and use this mild solution as well- baking soda, apple   vinegar, and a dash of salt (salt has an antiseptic effect, that effect isn't on teeth, it's on the oral cavity. Because of this,   warm saline rinses are prescribed to patients after extractions.
  Sodium chloride does not have any particular effect on teeth, but a   very high concentration may cause a little attrition (wear) when   accompanied by strong brushing.) So now you know and if you're smart   you won't take my advice either. If you realy want the truth   research the matter yourself.

Cool huh? What is your tooth paste formulae?

With the human body, we know that it is important to exercise. Exercise is vital. It gets circulation happening and since life is movement this is a wonderful thing. The simple act of walking dialates blood vessels and more nutrients can be delivered to the muscles and skeletal structure. Bone density grows. We burn fat. But just as important as exercise is resting. Resting allows for a balancing of energy to take place. Perhaps you may have overworked the legs and so the body will work at keeping a balance and delivering some of that leg workout to the arms. Rest is vital to recover.

In business, it works the same way. Exercise could be considered the act of building more systems or working on improving the products. Or it could be marketing or networking or simply paying the bills. If however, like with the body, you continue to keep pushing without rest you will in fact burn out. Perhaps this isn't always the case, but it is generally what ussually happens.

The question is - are you resting? Do you take time in your business to let it breath. Do you take time to let it do its thing or do you keep pushing it as though its in a non-stop marathon?

Imagine you are running all day non-stop and all night non-stop and on and on. Can you imagine the body to hold much reserves? It doesn't... somebody who did that would have literally no fat or reserve energy and would probably collapse. Are you getting my metaphor here? The equivalent in business is you wind up eating your reserves. Instead of building bone density, which could be considered your business systems or investing in stronger bones, you start chewing into that money to pay for people to remain stressed and continually pushing the marathon runner.

Take a break. Truly sit back for a moment and come from gratitude. Not a weak dismal tiny moment... I mean really sit back and marvel at what you have accomplished and the simple reality that you are even in a position in evolution to have perception of all this. You could have incarnated as a street sweeper or a shoe shiner scraping for change to buy some rice - instead you are actually building a business and choosing to be conscious. Its a miracle - is it not?

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." ~ Albert Einstein

To me, there is nothing inspiring about a struggler or a person who is frustrated or wants more than what is. That is not to say I don't feel inspired to experience something else but I feel when it comes to inspiring others nothing is more inspiring than a person who is happy in this miracle.

If you take this advice, I believe you will notice a miracle in your business as I have seen time and time again. Here's the scenario... you have tried everything... the systems are in place... the marketing looks great... you have a great product and a great team behind you. You have tried everything but what you haven't tried is nothing. Try doing nothing at all other than gratitude. If its been a while since you've done this... try spending at least a whole day being grateful. Don't pick up any phones. Don't respond to emails. Put a notice on your web page that says you don't like auto-responders and you've taken the whole office out to an exotic island for the week and go do that. Be careful though - because if your business has the goods - prepare to come back to a long waiting list of orders or new customers.

"Tried Vegemite?" she asked. And from that simple question a conversation unfolded between the 3 of us but what I'm about to talk about was not included in the conversation.

Did you know that many moons ago, the beer industry in Australia had all of this waste matter from the beer making process and didn't know what to do with it. It was like a black sludge that wouldn't break down in land fill. The solution? Add some salt, put it in a jar and give it an Aussie marketing campaign.

"Young Peter loves Vegemite" says the ad, "and his mother loves giving it to him". The ad continues to explain however that Mum can't buy Vegemite as easily for her son though, because there's a war going on and the Vegemite is going to all those smart and brave aussie soldiers, of course. Truth or lie? I probably won't ever know - but what I do know is this is mind manipulation at its finest. Scarcity creates an attraction and the catch phrase here is "He's doing is bit for his dad". By buying Vegemite, you're being a little trooper sponsoring a company who is sponsoring the war.

The war in question was 100% fruitless and unoriginal for Australians. It had nothing to do with us. We got nothing out of it. We had massive losses.

Back in the 40's, you did what you were told. It was very much still a white christian nation back then. You didn't ask questions- you followed orders. They were the sheeple days and we honor those sheeple every year with anzac day. "Lest we forget". Yet what we are told to honor is the bravery and the loss, yet are made to forget the stupidity and blind following of a campaign that had nothing to do with us and that served no benefits. We were simply another wing / extension for Imperialistic countries with their own agendas. The war was as good for Australians as Vegemite is good as putting my penis in a blender is good for my health.

I see Vegemite as a great metaphor of the mass stupidity. A toxic waste that doesn't break down is given a nice badge. But whats truly incredible, is that Kraft is owned by non-australian companies. Am I right?

The same stupidity exists today, when a new fandangled campaign comes out like 'Swine Flu'. It came from the Swine, of course. Or is it that its mass produced in China and its the year of the pig aka swine? Coincidence much? Almost as coincidental as the avian flu coming out the same time as the year of the Rooster.

Where am I going with this? Yesterday I tuned into an awesome recording with Don and Tyler Tolman who dissected the origins of additives and preservatives and how over time we have seen toxins turned into anti-oxidants through the evolution of words which is more or less well devised marketing strategies, like what Kraft devised with Vegemite.

Have a listen:

Wednesday Webinar 5 - Nov - 2009 by consciouslifestyler

Or you can check out the blog post at ConsciousLifestyler @ http://www.consciouslifestyler.com/were-back-with-the-wednesday-webinar-this-...

I blame the war for a few things - namely, I believe the war got most of the world addicted to comfort can food and jar food. Pre 1940's a massive portion of the world was still growing vegetables in their back yards. But what happens when you have a string of world wars and the only comfort for the men in those times is a little bit of highly addictive can foods its easy to get the world hooked on it. You would think when the troops came home everybody would have gone back to the vege patches right? Wrong. Because without the solid man in the home unit, the woman were being marketed to about the 'new trends' in the kitchen. It simeltaneously became seen as being poor to have to grow your own food and as the 1950's kicked into gear, people were wanting to have the picket fence and tv's.

People blame generation Y today. But did generation Y walk away from natural home grown food? Nope. Did generation Y make computers? Or did they make TV the coolest thing since fresh fruit? Nope - we did not. The dumbest decisions in all of history were made roughly 60 - 80 years ago. Deciding to make canned crap with preservatives more 'sophisticated' than growing your own food to me is not even proportionate to children of today who get smashed and grafitti brick walls and disrespect authority. Its really a balancing effect in my opinion. A few generations ago, people followed blindly, today, the antipode has arrived.

Its not all doom and gloom however, actually its far from that, its anything but doom and gloom. In my opninion, this is the first time in roughly 60-70 years where potentially more than 50% of the worlds population are going "hey, we've been lied to!". And that is wonderful news for us. Firstly, a little bit of scepticism is healthy for the planet. Secondly, it means people start looking into things a little deeper beyond the coat or the hat of the person giving the information. For far too long it was enough that a person with a pointy hat from the church or doctors in a trench coat or a scientist from a lab could tell people something and it would be believed dogmatically -- without a single bit of personal research. We just gobbled up their lies like they were our breakfast cereal.

"Hey, its on the TV - it must be true."

"Media channels have an agenda? Don't be fanatical."

"Why on earth would a doctor lie? He's here to help people. Afterall, look at House - thats what all doctors and nurses are like."

I'll tell you what I believe. I believe in nature. I believe in the ocean. I believe in not knowing everything. I believe nobody knows everything. I believe that when a part of my body is visible to the Sun, it feels warm. That when I'm in the water, I feel wet. I believe there is so much more to it than that -- what is wet, afterall? Being slippery? Being hydrated? What is hydration? What is warmth for that matter? As you can see -- I believe in questioning. I believe in questioning why I am questioning and questioning why I am questioning why I am questioning and so forth.

What do you question?

Where does disease come from? Are people today getting sick more because there are more additives in the food? Is 'can food' cooler than 'tumors' or 'ADHD' or 'autism'? Is seeming to be switched on with our picket fences and clipped grass more enjoyable than picking fresh fruit and nuts when we walk out the door? Do we simply goto work to buy cars in order to goto work? Do we simply buy nice houses close to the city so we can get a job close to the city to buy the house? Isn't it all a big f'ing waste of energy? Who cares about energy though right - its not like there's an energy crisis or concerns about there being too much waste. Afterall, we can just turn our toxic waste into the next Vegemite, right? We can just turn the poisonous allumunum waste product into dental care aka flouride! Yipaaaaaaay.

Am I cynical? You better believe it - but you also better believe I am happy. Why? Because of what I eat. Mostly everything I eat is still something identifiable in nature. And once you've eaten fresh whole foods for as long as I have, you start to know what the difference is between eating death compared to eating life. I don't eat animals, I eat pulse. I don't eat subway, I eat abundance. I don't eat, mcdonalds, I eat spinach. I don't eat, vegemite, I eat almonds. I don't eat canned salmon, I eat cayenne chilli's. I don't eat ice cream, I eat music.