God – Money – You
“What we once did ‘for the sake of God’ we now do for the sake of money…. This is what at present gives the highest feeling of power.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
For whose sake, shall we do anything then???
- You experience tremendous joy – you love doing what you are doing and you would do it for free if you could
- It uses your strengths – there is really no point in fighting your weaknesses. Focus on your strengths, outsource your weaknesses. In business, they call this focusing on core competency.
- It benefits others – we are not alone on this planet. Each of us has gifts that we are here to share with each other (even money, in its origin even before trading, came from gifting – think about that for a second).
- It sustains you – tricky one a bit. This is about making sure you set up proper value exchanges, so that when you benefit other people, something comes back to you to ensure you have all you need to continue.
- There are synchronicities – as my friend stosh likes to say: “universe isn’t talking to you, pal, but you better fucking listen“
Arts and Culture to stimulate Economic Development
Artists have always been the transformational engine of society. Even politicians seem to get that now as this recent document from the National Governors Assosiation shows.
If you wish to create, achieve, build anything, the very first thing that needs to be done is to imagine it. Without creative imagination, we would have never attempted to go around the earth in 80 days or less, go underneath the sea, have chairs in the sky…
Without the arts, we are blind. Without creative imagination all the engineers of the world would not know what to build. And this is not only true for physical objects, but also for ideas. Because of artists we can imagine different ways of relating to each other. Because of artists all across the world showing us their realities, we can now see ourselves as one human race across this planet.
And even more… Artist have always been about authentic self-expression (at least the ones that were actually making art and not trying to please their audience). Artists lead the way in showing that – in spite of prejudice and ridicule – it is worth living a life dedicated to one’s own creative energies and expression thereof.
As the materialist systems are collapsing – and with it the idea of a life spent in consumption -, the idea of a life spent in pursuit of creative expression is becoming more and more important. My friend Barry once said you can live your life as a consumer or as a producer.
Consumption is death. Once you consume something, it is gone. Production is life, giving existence to something that was not there before.
Economics is the science of scarcity, it is about how to distribute a limited amount of resources for consumption. This is a model that cannot survive any longer (the premise is fucked to begin with if you actually take a look at nature). We now are shifting into a model of ecology, where each member produces what they are here to produce – because they love to do so -, consume only what is required to produce, and where each product and any waste become immediate nutrients for other systems.
The latter model is actually sustainable – and if we wish to survive as a species on this planet, it might behoof us to adopt it sooner than later. Even the governors seem to get it on some level…
up in smoke: mon(k)day number 1
Okay… so today is day number 1. Sucks. arrrrgggghhhh… But I did it. One too many times. Nearly 14 years ago I told my dad I would quit smoking (that was the good news, the bad news my moving to the US). Since then, I have been out of integrity around it. Bunch of half-assed efforts, but they all came from discipline – from fear. And what better thing to do in the face of fear than rebel? And so I smoked even more…
Now it’s time for a new level of devotion to my life. Devotion comes from love and makes discipline look like childrens play. Let’s kick some monkeybutt! Day number 1 sees the premier of mon(k)day. Will keep you posted on how it goes.
Growing up in public sucks and is so wonderful at the same time… Ahhh nothing like committing to an unknown quantity of strangers…
I nearly joined the army today…
… because even they seem to start getting it… As I was in the midst of my daily facebook updating, relating, procrastinating, I saw this ad and laughed out loud. Spiritual leaders… crucial to the success of the mission… WOW… Seriously… I know the military doesn’t usually get particularly good rep, and personally, I think the fact that we are still killing each other on this planet in spite of obviously being one human race, is pretty pathetic. But there is also a different side to this to be honored.
Spiritual warriors have always been part of the human archetype all across this planet. Maasai, Samurai, Hashishin, Templars, King Arthur’s round, Native American warriors, we can discover them across the world. My friend Pamela surprised me years ago when she told me about her work teaching myth to the US Army. But it made sense…
In a way, soldiers today, whether they join the military because of social and financial reasons, to get a college education, international experience, or just to get the fuck out of whereever, soldiers are the few who today are upholding the idea of the pagan hero death, a death – and consequently life – spent in the pursuit of a worthy cause.
We find similar tendencies in firemen, policemen and others, but nowhere is it as apparent as in the military that you are signing up to be willing to die for a belief or system of believes (even if you get drafted and used as cannon fodder or join a different spiritual war without uniforms).
In order to be a soldier, you have to face death, your own, and the death you might be inflicting. This forces you to really appreciate life, your own, and the life you might be taking. While some eighteen year old kids might not get that when they sign the dotted line at the draft office, at some point in the career of a soldier this understanding will set it.
Many of the former soldiers I have met have confirmed this. Can think of two in particular (both medics, curiously enough), who I have met lately. Both of them have a passion for life and an appreciation for it that is infectious. Thinking of the two of them inspired me enough that I decided not to join the army in spite of their great ad on facebook. Instead, I will do some death yoga, remind myself to die after every breath, and focus on being a spiritual warrior of a different kind.
Intimacy and the Art of Relating
Below is a brief introduction to a four-fold model of intimacy and relating that I presented at a c3 event called “Return to the Source – The Art of Conscious Loving“. Been working on this particular model for the last few months since a lovely young lady asked me last December what my stance was on relationships (my proclaiming to be a monk has been confusing at times). As I believe we are in a time where we redefine how we relate with each other, where traditional group labels and relationship patterns are dissolving, I think it is crucial to have some foundational agreements around language we use to communicate about our relating. This model is a beginning on this journey.
Living the lifestyle…
… of transformation is a curious thing. Talked with my yoga teacher not too long ago about the Krya of Yoga, the three tenets of openness, proper reflection and changing habits. Have been pondering them quite a bit and am adopting them into my own concept of a transformational lifestyle.
A transformational lifestyle would in this case consist of three elements:
- Openness to Transformation – Instead of shunning or merely accepting change, inviting it and embracing it fully, making it willful and hence transformation. It is the willful dying after every exhale, and the understanding that each time we inhale, we make choices – we create ourselves and the entire universe around us anew. “The most important thing in life is to give up who you are at any point for who you could become.“
- Proper Reflection – inviting those into our lives that give us honest and loving feedback, and taking it even if it comes in a different package. Listenting to all otherness, seeing ourselves in others, realizing that when we point at someone, three fingers point back. It is reviewing and seeing ourselves as much from an objective perspective as our subjective perspective allows. And this also includes saying “Thank you” when someone compliments you. It is, as we perceive reality and our relations no matter if we like them or not, to hold the mantra “I created this, because I wanted to…“
- New habits – The majority of our daily experience is based on habit, and this is necessary to some extent – if you had to rethink walking for every step, you would probably not move very fast. This is okay in as long as our habits serve us. Many of the programs our little bio robot runs, though, have become obsolete and require replacement. In order to replace them, though, we need to create new ones. In yoga it is taught to begin good new habits and old bad habits will fall away. Or, as Bucky Fuller put it “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Now, this is a tall order. Really living this fully might seem something better left to saints. But it is a continuum, on which we can move and advance. Striving toward those imeasurables is what matters.
The last weeks have been filled with an atmosphere of change. The ides of March, the end of the year just before spring blossoms. It is a violent time, seeds are being cracked open, a brutal death for the known structures of comfort. Old shells have to fall away as new life emerges…
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Twitter- International List of Futurology Research Centers - http://t.co/9bdE9acU http://t.co/FdDRY7Ts
- How Do Innovators Think? - Bronwyn Fryer - Harvard Business Review http://t.co/dHla2e7Y
- Fascinating overview of many new technologies on the horizon http://t.co/blav1MD6
- Star Wars re-mixed http://t.co/uiJipQfL
- Infographic: Why the movie industry is so wrong about SOPA | Matador Network http://t.co/pqxZWwbu
- Health News - Neuroscientists Find That Status within Groups Can Affect IQ http://t.co/1sMYEzWu
- Julian Baggini: Is there a real you? #TED http://t.co/Cf7c0gQ2
- Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing #TED http://t.co/enLbpuTA
- Why own a car when you can share... http://t.co/c5xuRSfo
- “But the nature of the universe is such that the ends never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.” -Huxley
- Posts by others I enjoyed reading
- The Silliness of Busyness
- Remaining human: A Buddhist perspective on Occupy Wall Street
- The Fringes Disagree But Science And Religion Do Mix
- Five Tips to Break Through Your Filter(s)
- Reminders from the world
- Tattoo 2.0
- Violin made with a 3D printer
- Realtime Face Substitution softwear
- On The Creating And Sharing Of Awe
- Unautomate Your Money
- 5 Ways To Turn Fear Into Fuel
- Become a God of Learning Your Trade
- A Young Artist's Guide to Playing for Keeps, Pt. 15
- Twelfth century orgasmic brain heat
- Projecting meaning
- AGI and the Emerging Peer-to-Peer Economy: Ben Goertzel Interviews AI Researcher Mohamad Tarifi
- The Future of Brain Workouts
- Breaking Free From Consumerist Chains
- Data is the new Oil: must-read PDF by the World Economic Forum
- TED: JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out - JR (2011)