I’ve been working at a normal job for the past 3 months now, working 9-5.  It is not terrible but I’ve had a couple self-observations I’d like to mention.  The hierarchical chain of command of the vast majority of organizations is counter-productive and demoralizing.  It lends itself to a situation of the dominant and dominated, which creates an uncomfortable atmosphere.  Organizations based on democratic values, such as co-operatives and employee owned companies are the way of future and much more efficient.  Also, the 9-5 work schedule is one which saps the most productive hours, days, and eventually years  of one’s life to (usually) a trivial cause.  The time the employee is given off is just enough to renew one’s energy for the next day of work. This short experience has re-ignited the embers of freedom and natural living within me.  More determined than ever to be a man of the land.

Q

Pioneered so many ways to degrade a human being
That it can’t be changed to this day
Legacy so ingrained in the way that we think
We don’t need chains to be slaves

Unfortunately for the species and ecosystems of planet earth there is a wave of inertia called recorded human history that is sweeping us all towards annihilation.  It started about 10 000 years ago when humans transitioned from a hunter/gatherer species working and in balance with the other natural systems to one that depended on agriculture for survival.  Humans started trying to dominate nature rather than work with her.  Since then there has been a need to defend, fight, and slave, in order to maintain and accumulate a perceived need for more and more resources.  Today, this need has mushroomed into an array of variations.  From a culture that says what you own is more important than what you do.  To governments murdering innocent people everyday in the name of security or freedom.  To the multiple forms of advertising that bombard the average person daily telling them they are not good enough they way they are.  When an observer looks at all the ways that we are destroying our habitat and the seemingly overwhelming resistance to change at every step of the way, one can become washed away in hopelessness.

Fortunately for the species and ecosystems of the planet earth, we all have a higher self that knows that the current culture is unsustainable and unnatural.  This self has much more history and inertia behind it.  From the millions of years humans lived within its small niche in the world’s ecosystem.  To the billions of years that life worked in harmony to create the multitude of species we see (and are killing rapidly) today.  We all hear the call from our higher self, some experience it as a soft whisper barely detectable and others as a constant roar throughout their lives.  Some experience it as a longing for something they can’t quite put their finger on.  Some as a feeling of emptiness that they are looking to fill.  Others experience it as a repulsion for their culture and a deep seated desire to distance oneself from it.  All of these urges are messages from the higher self that we need to go back into harmony with the rest of the earth and re-create the balance that was once there.  How we translate and interpret these urges are of utmost importance.  Meditation, creating a quiet space where the higher self can be more easily heard, has helped me personally.  However, I am sure there are countless ways one can interpret the desire of the higher self and put them into action.  However, action is the key, we can not continue to suppress the desire of the higher self with materialism, religion, detrimental substances, or ignorance.  We must become a vessel for the higher self to flow through OR allow the change impeding inertial of the last 10 000 years to push us right off the cliff.

Peace and Love

Q

Hello Compatriots,

This, more than any other article I have written in the last 7 months, will draw upon actual personal experience.  People fawn over and are obsessed with their self-image.  This is the mental construct that the ego considers to be “me”.  This phantom image contains all of the experiences of the person’s past.  All of the judgements, beliefs, fears, biases, the person has experienced over the course of their lifetime.  It is the reason people pay 5 times as much for a shirt or sunglasses, not because it is better quality but because it has some person’s name embroidered on it.  The ego, who considers itself the self-image, is insecure by nature and therefore is in constant search of tangible things it can attach itself to in order to bolster itself.  People become very attached to their self-image and are threatened by anything that seems to cast doubt or undermine it.  However, sometimes circumstances shine light on the fact that the self-image one has carefully constructed and built up is nothing more than a mental picture.  If this happens enough or to a sufficient level of intensity it can be the cause of a terrifying, painful, yet liberating event; the shattering of one’s self-image.

The shattering of one’s self-image is one of the most intense experiences a person can endure.  I speak as a person who has undergone this metamorphosis.  My self-image up until recently, revolved around my perceived ability to outsmart the system and others, my ability to manipulate people and situations, a me against the world outlook on life, where I would be able to accumulate resources without having to, in my eyes, sink to a level that was beneath me.  Money was what motivated me, not to buy clothes or cars, for these things never really interested me but in order to have the financial freedom to do what I wanted when I wanted.  I told myself that when this happened I would be truly happy.  A typical trick played on oneself, in order to endure the unhappiness of the moment.  The “I will be happy when…” syndrome, one which I am especially vulnerable to.

Than over a period of a few months, the house of cards on which my self-image was built came crumbling down.  It happened when I realized that, I had made it.  I had the ideal job out of school, I was making decent money, I had reached a point where I had nothing I was really waiting for.  I went into the bank I worked at everyday, saw people signing mortgages that were not suited for them, people encouraged to max out their credit, saw myself in a suit and tie, being groomed into a patsy for this multi-billion dollar corporation who would in a heartbeat sell me out or any one of their customers who were not VIPs and I hated myself and my life.  I realized that everything I had been told by teachers, the media, advertisements, and the dogma of our secular, materialistic society was bullshit and I broke down.  I didn’t know what to do, I felt trapped, I felt that there was no way out of this system and I just shut down.  I fell into what can only be described as severe depression.  I didn’t know who I was, I felt alien, I hated everything about the world that I lived in and because I was in this negative mind frame, my vibrations were so low that I could not perceive any good, none.  I could not function and quit my job and felt hopeless.

However, with a lot of support from friends, family, and my ex-gf and a rocky climb out of hell, I managed to start feeling good about life again.  However, all the baggage of my previous self, the thoughts, the beliefs, the goals, the image, were all gone.  It was if I had died and was born again, the old self-image did not apply anymore.  It did not vibrate with my frequency anymore, it was incompatible and therefore was gone.  I realized that when I had said that life was meaningless, when I was low, that I was right.  However, the context of this totally changed.  Life is a game, a play, an illusion, life is completely meaningless except for the meaning we give it.  Everything is fundamentally neutral, meaningless, we have the choice as to what meaning we assign situations, experiences, or things, or we can chose not to assign any meaning to it whatsoever.  This realization has transformed my life to the point where I very rarely experience any strong emotions.  I am detached from life, as an observer might be.  I can see perspectives I have never noticed, relate to people who I would have dismissed before.  I would like to experience a feeling of joy or excitement as my default state of being but it is not a need.  I will feel it when I am ready.

There is something terribly wrong with how the US corporate/political/military alliance treats the rest of the world.  The moral superiority long claimed by the States is a sham; the tactics used to keep billions of people suppressed and marginalized are calculated and ruthless.  The ploy is right out in the open for those who wish to see it, of course most choose not to, brushing it off as conspiracy theories or socialistic rhetoric.  The basic plot is as follows:  Agents of the IMF or World Bank (puppets of Western nations) go into developing nations and dangle carrots consisting of multi-billion dollar loans in the face of their leaders.  Some of these leaders are corrupt to begin with and care not of the fate of their most defenseless people.  Some leaders are tricked into thinking that taking the loans is the best thing for their countries and some refuse and are in the target sight of the world’s most powerful country.  If the leader accepts the loans, expected economic growth and subsequent rise in tax revenues do not come.  Governments are quickly unable to pay back the loans, revenue that could be spent on social services such as health care, education, or infrastructure are now diverted to make payments on the loans.  Sometimes these payments are so high, that they make up the majority of the country’s annual budget.  Soon these governments become entangled in a cyclical trap of trying to pay off the debt.  Now they are vulnerable and indebted to the United States.  Military bases, access to natural resources, perks for American corporations, all of these and more are demanded by the US and usually received.

The economic data that supports such a system in inherently flawed.  The concept behind the justification of such immoral actions is that any economic growth is good for all.  This is simply not true.  After these loans are received, a small minority of the country’s citizens, the ruling powerful class see massive benefits.  The rest of its citizens see no benefits or even a decline in living standards.  However, with the influx of American corporations and the rape of natural resources it may appear on paper that the GDP of the nation is going up.  However,  GDP growth does not take into account the increase in pollution and the destruction of the natural environment and the economic growth is uneven and the gap between the minority rich and majority poor grows and grows.  People in foreign countries may not receive high education like we do in the West but they are not stupid.  They know that they are being screwed by this clandestine version of imperialism.  In many ways it is just as brutal of a system as the imperialism of the 18th and 19th century.  They realize this and the anger builds up and we wonder why we are a target of terrorists.  I don’t support any form of violence but I do understand the mindframe of someone who is so blinded by anger that terrorism seems like a sane and viable option.

Speaking of terrorism, the US has practiced it on many of a sovereign country who refused to play ball.  There is example after example of democratically elected leaders, mostly in central and South American, who refused to allow the American military/industrial complex to rape their land and were murdered for it.  From CIA led coups to outright assassination, the US oligarchy is brutal to those who oppose it.  The US will tolerate the most hideous, heinous, terrifying leaders, if they give preferential treatment to US corporations and will overthrow altruistic, moral, leaders if they don’t.  The US oligarchy, commonly referred to as the military/industrial complex is very real.  You see these men skip and jump from the private sector to high government positions and back again without missing a beat.  Dick Cheney, George HW Bush and countless others are part of an effort between banks, corporations, and governments to push the American agenda of capitalism, survival of the fittest, no mercy, economics on as much of the world as possible, regardless of how many people they enslave in the process.

‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman’ is a must read for anyone interested in this.

Start with high quality seeds or cuttings.  Skimping at the beginning will equal major loses down the road.

The missing link

Our bodies contain approximately 75 trillion individual cells.  There are a variety of different cells, each of these groups form differently and provide different functions necessary for life.  EACH of these separate cells have the same basic abilities and functions that our human bodies have.  Sensory abilities, digestion, excretion, energy conversion, transportation, and reproduction.  However, this is where the similarities end.  Cells only consume the amount of nutrients necessary to survive for a few seconds at a time.  They do not save or hoard or stock up for a rainy day, there is no room for that type of inefficiency.  Our cells trust the higher intelligence will provide the necessary nourishment when it is needed.  Cells work in harmony within a huge community, in order to provide the best experience for all involved.  Each cell is an agreement to work for the higher purpose of the community and is willing to sacrifice itself for the good of the all.  There is constant communication between the entire community.  Messenger cells race throughout the body to spread information.  All cells possess intense awareness.  They remain flexible and alert in order to meet any of the numerous challenges that could come their way.  Cells recognize that they are interdependent on each other and therefore are equal.  Cells can be incredibly creative and do not cling to old habits, they need to be creative in order to face the complexities of life.  The primary functions of cells is to give.  This inherently leads to all cells receiving as well, providing the best possible climate for all.  Cells pass on all their information and talents to their offspring, holding nothing back.  This leads to a type of immortality as the knowledge is never lost.

This is one way to ‘look within’ in order to find more of ourselves.  To realize the wisdom of our cells and humble ourselves enough to learn from them.

Building upon the last article ‘Manufactured Scarcity’, we will discuss some novel, pragmatic solutions and compare them to the terribly inefficient ways society does things now. The practice of farming has not fundamentally changed in thousands of years and is a wasteful practice. Let’s say a farmer bought a new piece of natural land and wanted to begin the practice of standard flora farming. He first must put forth much effort to destroy the vegetation that lives there. Cutting down trees, pulling out bushes and grasses, tilling the land, etc. Than at the beginning of every growing season he must purchase seeds and plant them in the newly plowed soil (the soil must be tilled at the start of every season). The soil no longer has any natural vegetation to promote water retention so the farmer must use an outrageous amount of H2O, procured from an outside source, so that his crops won’t dry out. Not only this but the farmer has literally killed the soil by the practice of plowing the land. The natural state of the soil is one where life is teeming. Micro-organisms break down matter and provide minerals and nutrients to the plants. Decomposers, such as worms, do the same productive actions. Natural predators, such as spiders, ladybugs, etc, feed on insects that eat the vegetation, keeping the ecosystem in balance. Of course, plowing the land and destroying all the natural plants breaks down this system, putting an end to the finely tuned and intelligent design that nature provides. The soil is now dying and becomes less and less productive with every growing season. So now the plants have no nutrient source, the farmer must buy fertilizers every year and apply it to his fields. The natural predators cannot survive in such a static ecosystem, so the farmer must buy toxic insecticides and spray his fields multiple times a season, both inefficient and detrimental to the health of his final customers. Of course his fields, supported by nature, yearn to go back to a natural state of being, so the farmer must purchase herbicides to kill any vegetation that is not the cash crop being grown. All of this is a terribly inefficient and wasteful system to say the least, so what is the alternative?

Agroforestry. This is a system where the farmer works with the natural environment in order to produce a diverse array of crops. The anchor of the system are perennial plants that produce fruit (fruits, nuts, vegetables, flowers) year after year with hardly any interference needed from the farmer. The farmer gradually introduces wanted species of plants to the ecosystem but is careful not to disrupt the delicate balance. If annual plants are wanted, seed balls, or a productive seed mix can be applied to parts of the forest floor where there is not much shade. In this system there are layers of plants, rather than just one standardized crop, leading to much greater and diverse harvest per acre of land. Contrary to standard farming, wildlife (both natural and introduced) are encouraged, providing weed control and manure for the plants. With the contributions of animals and the natural decomposing of plant matter, the soil actually become MORE productive year after year. This is aided by micro-organisms and other organisms that thrive in the soil. Plants can be introduced that encourage the right kind of predators, eliminating the need for insecticides. The diverse array of plants and the healthy soil provide such great water retention that outside watering is not needed. The farmer takes a holistic approach to farming, considering the entire ecosystem before making changes to the forest. This is not a wide-eyed fantasy. People have been farming this way, very successfully, for decades and more people are realizing its benefits every year. It makes perfect sense to work with nature rather than battling it every step of the growing season. Using agroforestry the farmer is required to do much less labor, has much less expenses, and gains a greater harvest year after year. So, as I have espoused before, we must realize what true efficiency is, holistic efficiency, and do much less, while gaining much more, by living in harmony with our environment.

It’s hard to be objective about a society that one has grown up in, been shaped by, and been continually told to accept but this is what needs to be done.  For a moment imagine being an outsider, looking in at how earthlings have shaped society.  The whole system is based on supposed scarcity.  Scarcity of resources, scarcity of wisdom, scarcity of love, etc.  However, are we really lacking these things in a fundamental sense? OR is it because we have been told that this is how things are and therefore impose self-limiting beliefs upon ourselves.  The earth provides more than enough for everyone to live comfortably IF we arranged our societies to be TRULY efficient.  This means treasuring and conserving nature, creating only technologies that work with the earth, consuming what is only necessary, never hoarding, trusting each other and natural law, having a healthy respect for the other species we share the planet with, basically the complete opposite of how we live now.

Currently, we are faced with the constant threat of scarcity.  “How am I going to pay this month’s mortgage bill”.  “If this country secures access to this water supply, we will not have enough”.  “I must obtain higher education because there is not enough jobs for all of us”.  Again, this is not fundamentally true, it is what is propagated down from the top and oozes out of every media source.  It is what is true BECAUSE we chose it to be true.  It may not be a conscious choice but we all give up the feeling of natural abundance in order to feel secure and safe.  Of course we never actually achieve this feeling of safety because change is constant and there is no such thing as a stable reality.  However, this is a reason to rejoice.  Change is a beautiful thing and if we put our faith in oneness, change will only teach us more about ourselves and bring more joy.

The majority of us go to jobs we don’t like, that are excruciating boring, why?  Because we are told we are lucky to have them, that there is not enough for all and we should be grateful for the scraps we are given.  The only way they can get us to go to these jobs is to pay us, of course we would not do it for free.  How is this natural, should life be a drag?  Should we play only in limited time frames and even then only to refresh so we can be more ‘productive’ for work?  Should we spend the majority of our waking hours, in the prime of our lives, working for a lifeless entity.  Working so that one day when we are 70, with poor health, low energy, and finally without a feeling of financial scarcity, we can start to live?  Than another scarcity comes into being, energy and time.  None of these beliefs would be possible without the propaganda of scarcity, that is force fed to us in every possible way.  What if instead of spending trillions of dollars on war, weaponry, and defense, these resources were used in a productive way, a lot of imagined scarcity would disappear.  This is only one way resources are being squandered, there are thousands of others, that either bring no productivity or true efficiency or actually bring destruction and a lower quality of life.  What if instead of the smartest people in the world going to work for finanical institutions, coming up with more complicated, more clever ways to screw people out of money, what if they used their talents to help make the world a better place instead of lining their pockets, while making life worse for millions of people.

We have a society based on winners and losers and there are much more losers than winners.  The motivation of the winners, is to keep on winning, gaining more and more resources at the expense of others.  The motivations of the losers is to one day be a winner.  Of course, noone tells them that the rules are made by the winners, that the odds are stacked against them ever feeling free of financial scarcity.  But the propaganda system is so instilled and so powerful that people will sacriface almost anything in order to achieve that fabled ‘american dream’.  However, the cracks of this myth are beginning to appear and more and more people have begun to see the transparency of the current system and are becoming disgusted with it.

The key is to change motivations. To be motivated to make the world better for all, instead of just for this sack of skin we call ‘me’.  To create new societies, new ways to live, new relationships, that will come to the forefront when the old systems collapse under the weight of their greed, corruption, and inability to provide for all. To realize that we can do much more, with much less effort if our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours were overhauled to truly reflect the abundance of nature.  Nothing is permanent, the Roman empire fell, much like Rome, our society is not providing for the majority but spoiling a small minority and even the propaganda machine we call media can not hide this fact for much longer, this too shall pass.  Be ready.

- Q

hello comrades

If you are the whole of the infinite, a holographic being, in connection, communication, and total communion with all that is, why does our experience feel so fragmented?  Well let me begin with an analogy.  Say you have a video game where there are no rules, no limitations, no risk and where you know what is going to happen in advance.  This would be very fun for a time, perhaps even a long, long time but eventually you would become bored of it. You would first want to impose rules and limitations on the game, so that it becomes a challenge.  Next, you would want to include risk in the game, the possibility of death or failure as to make the game more exciting.  Finally, if you had the capabilities, you would allow yourself to forget it is a game altogether and become lost in it.

This is the game the infinite is playing.  At its deepest being and therefore ours as well, it knows that this is all a game.  However, through us the infinite can lose itself and forget for a time that it is a game, where the world seems very real and very serious.  So we live as if it is not a game at all.  We create an all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent, god because we feel insecure, that we are small, weak, insignificant beings on a small rock, in a small solar, system, in an ordinary galaxy, in a unbelievably large universe.  Because we have forgot that it is a game, we are fearful of change, the unknown, god, and even each other.  It is a play, a performance, we put on different masks depending on who we are with, where we are, the situation we are in.  We do this because we have forgotten who we are and the world requires us to be someone, so we try to be what we think other people want us to be or become our ego.  We yearn to have an identity, so we create our ego and we think that this individual ‘voice in our head’ is us.  All of this is a charade.  It is the infinite expressing itself as an individual, being so creative, that it imposes limitations on itself in order to have new and unique experiences.  This may seem cruel in some respects but the game ends fairly quickly, in terms of cosmic time, in a moment.  It ends when we know that it is a game and live our lives, our behavior reflecting this knowledge, this happens to a very small percentage of people.  The rest of us see that it is a game at death and I’m sure it is quite humorous to find this out.  Reality doesn’t seem serious anymore, in fact, it is more akin to a joke, a dream, or a play.  Not a joke in a degrading sense but in a playful sense.  Realizing all of this before death may be a worthwhile practice to allow.