First buddhism-related post in quite a while. This one a speech from one of my favorite wise people about progressing along the path of spiritual-development. What does it take to grow? Do we need guides along the way? Certainly it doesn’t hurt to be pushed once in a while. I love the story here and how it demonstrates the value of troublemakers in our lives.
“A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.” — MLK
KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA, by Muse
Come ride with me through the veins of history
I’ll show you a God who falls asleep on the job
How can we win when fools can be kings?
Don’t waste your time or time will waste you
No one’s going to take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
No one’s going to take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
No one’s going to take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
Herein lie future-wise explanations
for why even though nothing I type here is reflected back into my eyes,
my fingers still move letters on up to the blanketed electrical opulent sky.
And I don’t have a clue why this has to be written
except that it helps me to fill in the space
between me and my greatest most creative pace.
But it will come through the years of hard work I believe in.
Something like this very piece I believe in.
Something like this that others will enjoy as peace within.
Because passion, when true, is a trustworthy guide.
And the passion is true and is turning the tide
And so, it says, to you, alongside,
“Will you please come with and join us my friend?”
And so you wonder if it is
so that together we can be as one in fact.
But no, it’s a bit more recent, with a little bit more tact,
that in the quoted lyrics of the splendid flaming lips
my passion grabs the mic of unison and shouts out just this:
Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face?
Do you realize that we’re floating in space?
Do you realize that happiness makes you cry?
Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes
let them know you realize that life goes fast.
It’s hard to make the good things last.
You realize the sun doesn’t go down,
it’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round…
This too comes from the flaming lips. Enjoy the ever prescient glimpse.
I think I just flowd.
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It was a song by Filter that sprung this following most productive line of thinking into my head just a few days ago. If you wish you can jump to *the song at the end of this silly article*.
It was a journal entry, Journal Entry #5,556 to Everyone, which sported the fresh thoughts on relationships and mutual respect. The prose was simple and conformed to all of the extravagant principles of multiplexology. It was allowed no rhyming and had a paragraph limit of three sentences each. The text follows this colon:
Dear Everyone, I found some things out. People don’t like those that are fake, and we all know there are already far too many of them. Also, I realized, you should never force anyone to think about their own personality using any kind of psyche behavior mirror.
Psyche behavior mirrors don’t paint you in a pretty light. People wanna be themselves, which is comprised of their average best highlights from their unofficial life resume. People wanna be themselves without showing you their resume.
People don’t wanna see your unofficial life resume either. Unofficial life resumes include too many self-compliments and sob stories. They are no fun to read.
There’s nothing better than entering into a mutual friendship without having to exchange life resumes — life resumes suck. It’s all a pack of pretty lies on the fanciest, thickest paper you could afford at the time. But I’m sure you’ll have a job soon and then you can save up for even thicker paper and revamp your micro-spiritual proselytizing strategy.
But be careful; micro-spiritual proselytizing strategies are not really all that good. At best they are attempts at behavior modification using the intellect; at worst, invasive mind hacking operations. The intellect should not be used for such ignoble things.
Let’s face it — lies of guilt-ridden-self-pitying-bullshit have fallen out of favor. Will truth make a comeback? There’s no telling when the monstrous lack of self-forgiveness will decay into progress.
It’s like the Japanese phrase: 心が伝わるといいね = “Here’s hoping our hearts connect!” (roughly). The way you say it is “kokoro ga tsutawaru to ii ne”. No, no, it’s “cocoa-row”, say “cocoa-row”…
And why is everyone all of a sudden an agent of self-actualization? I thought that stuff went out the window with new-age-ism last millenium… You know what they say — old security blankets die hard, but not before they get moldy and stink up the place.
It’s official: there is no more reflection that needs to be done. Put down your psyche mirrors, and your life resumes. Put down your neighbor even; if that’s the only way you can speak your mind you must; you only have one mind, and it’s getting full of marginally useful stuff and spent coping strategies, and we live in the information age in which you’ll probably run out of storage space, and you definitely don’t wanna do that.
There’s a song on the radio. It’s The Wake by Filter. I think I’ve heard this one before.
Happiness is a process that you continue to change,
in fact, you never use the same process twice.
All processes are defined by brain context,
which is defined by environmental and metacognitive context.
But is this all predefined by something beyond physical determinism?
That would be, in a word, mind.
Mind determines happiness in relation to brain context,
which is in relation to physical and metacognitive contexts.
In fact, it is your mind that sets the variables.
So much happens unconsciously,
it is difficult to track it all.
It must be felt and responded to as if in a movie.
One must imagine being in a movie that must continue to be entertaining for all those that are watching and acting in it.
It must be good for all players,
so it is your job to act your part,
whatever that may be,
and hope that you are allowed to move onto the next scene,
in which you are the star of the show.