Take the red pill & journey thru the dark human matrix in search of the elusive truth
Why am I here?
Ready for a little walk?
Oh yeah, what better way to begin a new journey towards the search for meaningful purpose than to ask the ultimate, sometimes pretentious, clichéd, pseudo-intelligenciated, (is that even a word?) soul-torturing, self-important, self-flagellating, existentialist of all existential questions?
Why am I here? Literally, figuratively, spiritually! Why? Why? Why? What is the purpose, the real meaning of it all, the universe, God(s), angels, demons, the little critters that flit around our feet and the really big ones that can crush us with theirs?
The love guru
Self-help and spiritual gurusget paid millions and maybe billions now to share their insight into this elusive, frustration-inducing question, so apparently a whole lot of us are willing to fork over tidy sums of paper fiat for books, CD's, workshops and getaway retreats in the hopes of uncovering the elusive beast so they can begin living the life of their dreams.
Cue the promo video of beautiful people who have learned the secrets from their guru of choice and have seemingly become all they can be. We know this because they are tanned, smiling and relaxing in their personal stretch limo on the way to their private jet, which then flies them at super-sonic speed to their tropical, private resort where their private yacht awaits to ferry them out to sea and their appointment with...destiny. Dissolve to Somali pirates tracking said beautiful people in their ostentatious floating city, sacking the vessel, killing everyone aboard and sinking the yacht. The end.
They have a purpose
What the...? What kind of crazy metaphor is that? Yeah I know, not pretty (unless you're the pirates - then it's pirates - one, beautiful people - zero), but maybe the point is that many of us seem to equate finding the purpose for existence with making a shit-load of paper. Nothing wrong with monetary wealth on the surface. Hey, we gots to eat, man and I consider myself a humble student of money and into the accumulation of real money (not paper - more on that later). But without a real purpose as to why we want it, it simply leads to empty, soulless consumerism which is a dead-end that leaves us open to getting our metaphorical yacht sunk eventually.
God's money: gold and silver, not paper.
Ever wonder why the government calls its denizens "consumers" and not well...denizens or even people? I believe it's because the consciousness of the greater mass population doesn't have any real sense of "why am I here?" so it simply consumes and hoards to fill that void. The U.S. is the greatest consuming nation in the history of the universe, er...okay, the world anyway. Our productivity rate barely moves the needle, but our consumption for cheap imported goods and foods are off the charts! "iPad 10 and all you can eat anyone?" What does that says about the state of this country?
Black Friday indeed!
When the question of "why am I here?" is not asked or answered for that matter, it turns the populace into mindless, consuming zombies whose only purpose is the constant shuffle through endless day after endless day, devouring everything in sight without ever stopping to ask why or whether it is even hungry. It becomes like a bacterialvirus, a fungal cancer that spreads and grows into massive tumors that eventually kills the host. The rates of disease have skyrocketed over the past fifty years,infecting and killing both the rich and the poor equally. Might it be perhaps that there is a causal link between a lack of truthful purpose for living that leads to zombification and finally merciful death through disease? I believe this is an important question for us to wrestle with and find the answer to...and the sooner the better.
GMO's to help them grow
Along this journey, we'll be travelling the world, sharing experiences, thoughts and ideas on a wide range of intriguing topics: money, health, spirituality, God, science, philosophy, evolution, physics, the universe, politics, history, the greater unknown, to name a few, so you'll have very many opps to play "blast and flog the blogger" if it so pleases or even a little notation to share your thoughts would be appreciated.
The search for our truth has gotta start somewhere so let's dive on into that deep bamboo forest and see what we find on the other side, shall we?
The Bonsai Tree Man is still searching for his purpose
Love this post! I like how you discussed the fact that if we are not asking the question of "why are we here?"... we are bound to become "zombie-like" consumers. Society makes it very easy to get caught-up in a world of obsessive consumerism. Although, I think consumerism is just one of many behaviors we can use to "check out".
Do you ever remember discussing these topics (regarding the meaning of life) in grade school, high school or college? I'd like to hear your thoughts about our education system.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I look forward to continuing on this journey with you!
Thank you Alma. Yes you are right, there are many vices used to fill the void inside and to keep the zombies docile. I look forward to discussions on many of those topics here and solutions to begin the reversal process back to full human consciousness ;) I do in fact remember discussing (pleading really) to roomfuls of blank-faced adults when I was five why their education system was not for me. I sure could have used a blog platform then!
This is a great post. Personally, I think we are here to unfold our unconscious potential in space and time. Unfortunately our "unconscious potential" is often just that, never actually realizing itself or worse; it does and it isn't what our egos had hoped it would be. Our egos, being finite, struggle to acclimate with the more infinite aspects of ourselves, and because of this misunderstanding, we become vulnerable to a wide range of malaise, some personal, and some collective (i.e. consumerism, zombification, etc).
What I"ve learned through the past 10 years of so of kundalini awakenings, cancer, divorce, job loss, back injury, along with surviving all of the above and transcending their traumas to find myself more psychologically and spiritually free than ever before is this:
We have to be really open to ourselves on a deeper level and step into the unknown every day, waiting to see what it is in our depths waiting to come out and make itself a reality. I think we are facilitators of the universe, representing both the good and bad it and we are capable of, and choosing to make the best choices if we can. Little, local creators part of a big creative process, much bigger than our minds at this point in our evolution can really understand, yet make bold, narcissistic attempts at doing so (science, religion).
The way I think it works is if we knew half of what was coming, we would give up and say "I can't do that". But of course after most of the things we must overcome are overcome, we wind up always looking back and realizing it was best in the long run to surrender to the change and transform through it.
By asking "Why am I here", you prepare yourself to be the answer. But I think it requires too much patience and surrender for most of us, and because of that, we look for short term answers to long (and many lifetimes), age old forces at work in human civilization.
Great comments Mr. Cranor! I suppose the major purpose of this blog is to bring practical applications to the myriad philosophies and experiences that life brings our way. Yeah, ego is going to be a recurring topic as it can be insidious when going after what it wants. I hope to hear more of your thoughts in the future here.
Yeah the ego thing is kind of a mindfuck, quite literally. I've struggled with understanding the concept of ego for years. All I can surmise is that it is quite necessary on one hand when dealing with day to day existence. But on the other hand, when it assumes complete control of the psyche, it can lead to massive personal and collective delusion. I think the vilification of it by most gurus/wisdom traditions comes from the fact they know just how delusional it can be when it upsurps power from the rest of the psyche, and literally hit their disciples over the heads warning of its evil intents. But after reaching a certain point in my own journey, I realize now the ego just needs to be in proper relationship to my unconscious, which is the main thing that powers myself (autonomous nervous system, breathing) as well as the rest of the universe. Of course, trying to maintain that relationship is a motherfucker once real life issues confront burgeoning personal philosophies. All I can do is try. Maybe one day when enlightenment "hits" I'll know what it all means.
Love this post! I like how you discussed the fact that if we are not asking the question of "why are we here?"... we are bound to become "zombie-like" consumers. Society makes it very easy to get caught-up in a world of obsessive consumerism. Although, I think consumerism is just one of many behaviors we can use to "check out".
ReplyDeleteDo you ever remember discussing these topics (regarding the meaning of life) in grade school, high school or college? I'd like to hear your thoughts about our education system.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I look forward to continuing on this journey with you!
Thank you Alma. Yes you are right, there are many vices used to fill the void inside and to keep the zombies docile. I look forward to discussions on many of those topics here and solutions to begin the reversal process back to full human consciousness ;)
DeleteI do in fact remember discussing (pleading really) to roomfuls of blank-faced adults when I was five why their education system was not for me. I sure could have used a blog platform then!
This is a great post. Personally, I think we are here to unfold our unconscious potential in space and time. Unfortunately our "unconscious potential" is often just that, never actually realizing itself or worse; it does and it isn't what our egos had hoped it would be. Our egos, being finite, struggle to acclimate with the more infinite aspects of ourselves, and because of this misunderstanding, we become vulnerable to a wide range of malaise, some personal, and some collective (i.e. consumerism, zombification, etc).
ReplyDeleteWhat I"ve learned through the past 10 years of so of kundalini awakenings, cancer, divorce, job loss, back injury, along with surviving all of the above and transcending their traumas to find myself more psychologically and spiritually free than ever before is this:
We have to be really open to ourselves on a deeper level and step into the unknown every day, waiting to see what it is in our depths waiting to come out and make itself a reality. I think we are facilitators of the universe, representing both the good and bad it and we are capable of, and choosing to make the best choices if we can. Little, local creators part of a big creative process, much bigger than our minds at this point in our evolution can really understand, yet make bold, narcissistic attempts at doing so (science, religion).
The way I think it works is if we knew half of what was coming, we would give up and say "I can't do that". But of course after most of the things we must overcome are overcome, we wind up always looking back and realizing it was best in the long run to surrender to the change and transform through it.
By asking "Why am I here", you prepare yourself to be the answer. But I think it requires too much patience and surrender for most of us, and because of that, we look for short term answers to long (and many lifetimes), age old forces at work in human civilization.
Just my 2 cents (maybe more like 3).
Great comments Mr. Cranor! I suppose the major purpose of this blog is to bring practical applications to the myriad philosophies and experiences that life brings our way. Yeah, ego is going to be a recurring topic as it can be insidious when going after what it wants. I hope to hear more of your thoughts in the future here.
DeleteYeah the ego thing is kind of a mindfuck, quite literally. I've struggled with understanding the concept of ego for years. All I can surmise is that it is quite necessary on one hand when dealing with day to day existence. But on the other hand, when it assumes complete control of the psyche, it can lead to massive personal and collective delusion. I think the vilification of it by most gurus/wisdom traditions comes from the fact they know just how delusional it can be when it upsurps power from the rest of the psyche, and literally hit their disciples over the heads warning of its evil intents. But after reaching a certain point in my own journey, I realize now the ego just needs to be in proper relationship to my unconscious, which is the main thing that powers myself (autonomous nervous system, breathing) as well as the rest of the universe. Of course, trying to maintain that relationship is a motherfucker once real life issues confront burgeoning personal philosophies. All I can do is try. Maybe one day when enlightenment "hits" I'll know what it all means.
DeleteLoved your post!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts why are bonsai trees so expensive