The bumbling idiot’s guide to living a life worth writing about

"The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself" said William Faulkner. I agree, even though the language, the vocabulary is imprecise.

The "heart" is one self, and the other self is the precious "I", the delusional "I", the lower self.

The conflict, the struggle to make those two selves align, as William Faulkner says, is worth writing about... because it is like a hero's journey.

I call it "soul correction" because I am firmly rooted in Kabbalah's view of life. But it is the same thing: bringing the two selves in harmony so they cause synergy that allows living a life worth writing about.

This pretty much the context for the next quote: "Either write something worth reading (about) or do something worth writing (about)." - Benjamin Franklin. I added the word "about" in brackets for clarity. Continue reading "The bumbling idiot’s guide to living a life worth writing about"

Do NOT set ambitious goals… sounds counter cultural? Of course, what else did you expect?

If the caterpillar planned to become a butterfly, there would be no more butterflies.

In the famous marshmallow experiment by Walter Mischel. He said that the 30% of the kids that didn't eat the marshmallow, didn't even look at the marshmallow. They kept doing other things, keeping their eyes off the marshmallow. Consciously, intentionally, purposefully.

I have read a lot about that experiment, I have even written about it, but I didn't know that the "winners" avoided looking at the marshmallow. that piece was missing for me, until now.

Watching that TED talk yesterday opened up something inside, that is still full of swirling fog, ethereal figures, and yet, I know that something from the invisible has been released. Continue reading "Do NOT set ambitious goals… sounds counter cultural? Of course, what else did you expect?"

The path to self-love… a totally different take… a valid one.

Some 35 years ago I read Rav Hillel's few lines, If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

If I am not for me, who will be for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, then when?

it flew in the face of the culture I was raised in, Socialism... I cried, and started to attempt to integrate it.

It took me 35 years.

It's the hardest of any journey to self-love, self care.

It was for me, and it may be for you... It is easier when you have a teacher.

The main job of a teacher is to hold the dirt while you are digging for gold. The gold is there, but unless someone is there to hold the dirt, the dirt falls back into the hole and covers the gold.

I just listened to a TED talk, and it lays out an amazing and simple way to take care of yourself...
Continue reading "The path to self-love… a totally different take… a valid one."

There is no suffering, there is never anything wrong in reality. All suffering, all wrong is brought on by words…

myth... unrealityWe live in an imaginary reality... with literally no capacity, no ability to tell fact from fiction.

For the purposes of this conversation we'll define reality as something even a just landed Martian can see, a Martian who isn't complicit in the fiction we have been honoring as reality.

A Martian can see what is actually happening, but cannot see anything that is a cultural modification of the happening, or what happens inside your head.

So, for example, a Martian can see your mother talking, can hear voice coming out of your mother's mouth. But he won't see yelling, because yelling is a cultural, very emotional modification of speaking, even of speaking loudly. And a newly minted visitor on Earth, a Martian will not consider the meaning of the words, because the meaning isn't happening... Continue reading "There is no suffering, there is never anything wrong in reality. All suffering, all wrong is brought on by words…"

You hate your job? It is boring? It doesn’t make a difference? You are not good at it? It just pays the bills but no fulfillment?

George Bernard Shaw wrote more than a hundred years ago: "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

And what he wrote about you, being a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances... is more true today than it was in his time.

No one has offered a solution to that issue until now.

Continue reading "You hate your job? It is boring? It doesn’t make a difference? You are not good at it? It just pays the bills but no fulfillment?"

What is reality? Is this real? Is this happening or is this just my mind playing with me?

has it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong?This is a severely truncated article from "Vox"... I am only interested in giving you Bayes' Method, that will help you go to reality with more certainty than you have now, and spend less time, a whole lot less wondering about your feelings... Whatever they may be.

To my dismay, this is what you have been doing, emoting. You make your decisions based on emotions... Life spent in utter uselessness.

I must admit: I didn't know. I have never done that. I have never been thoroughly seduced to go down THAT rabbit hole, and spend my life in utter uselessness there. Continue reading "What is reality? Is this real? Is this happening or is this just my mind playing with me?"

You never feel bad about what you think you feel bad about

Homo Sapiens, as a species, is pretty messed up. Everything sets its emotions off, and the specimen gets all emotional, angry, afraid, violent, or sad and depressed.

This emotional reactivity makes getting things done near impossible, learning, or having people together pretty hopeless.

Almost all diseases are a consequence of this phenomenon... people eat to soothe themselves. People eat to eat another out of their fortune. People eat to feel superior. People eat to get some enjoyment out of life.

And they eat to fix the damage that overeating caused, and do all kinds of unnecessary things to reduce the damage. Continue reading "You never feel bad about what you think you feel bad about"

The crab bucket mentality

You know, it is really true that your environment, the people with whom you identify and spend the most time with have more to do with who you are going to be, what you are going to do, what your main concerns in life will be, than anything else.

I have been observing people, some more than others.

Some are genuinely talented... and yet their whole world is low vibration, their approach to the world is an incoherent mix of low vibration consistent with their friends' and their main concerns, while high vibration would be consistent with their inner potential.

One example for this is Tai Lopez.

His friends are low vibration, lowbrow... you could say. Continue reading "The crab bucket mentality"

The Michelangelo Method of becoming you

As I said it before, I have a strong affinity to the dramatic... in every area of life. This may be part of my bipolar personality... taking things to the extreme.

I do that with food... I call them experiments, but largely these are experiments taken to the just too much...

And, or course, I pay the price. With my health, mainly.

But... as in everything, there is a silver lining, a benefit, that I would be amiss not to appreciate.

I have discovered almost everything in the area of health this way. Or in the area of training, self or others... or in anything else.

So my latest "fad" thing has been sorghum. I cooked up a huge vat of sorghum seeds with sauteed (fried?) onions and butter... delicious. Continue reading "The Michelangelo Method of becoming you"

The suppressed ambition… awakening your inner motive power

Although I use this iconic picture from the French protest... this is not a political article... Something, deep inside the French was activated by the new tax on fuel... and moved them to action...

In this article I want to talk about how to awaken that inner, deeply buried energy that could set you free. The caged desire. A suppressed desire.

Rob Brezsny, and many of his similar positive thinking contemporaries, cannot see, will not see, unwilling to see that not everyone is capable to do, see, understand, use everything.

This is my biggest beef with Landmark Education, or any other marketing organization or person: they lie. They pretend that you can do it, you can see it, you can understand it, you can use it. Continue reading "The suppressed ambition… awakening your inner motive power"