We require coherent conceptual frameworks to live a convivial life. When we have some way of evaluating our lives and the society around us we are happier because it helps us to know what to do in any situation in life in a mechanical rather than thoughtful way. In this historical age, our conceptual frameworks have become disordered and confused and thus we aren’t really sure what we should do. In terms of human evolution, this is not a bad thing—it is, in fact, an opportunity to explore new directions because only the new can provide a way to move beyond the deep contradictions of our society today. I suggest to you that politics and working within our current cultural institutions is totally counter-productive. Why? Because our current reality is that these institutions exist not to help us, not to enhance life but very specifically just to exist. Our public education exists to exist, not to educate, if education happens by accident then great, but the real focus is survival of the institution. That system ignores much of the findings of science of learning and developmental psychology in favor of a variety of techniques that help the system endure and, coincidentally, also produce citizens unequipped to handle real problems in the world and are sufficiently compliant to listen uncritically to authority. The same basic idea is behind our medical system which, again, largely ignores science in favor of profits.
Protesting, writing Congress and all the rest of it has been shown, time after time, to be largely waste our time. Elections are mainly bogus because the various systems we have are designed to be gamed and hacked if needed by the ruling elite. Even if we get someone in office who is honest and cares about people his or her first duty (as they see it) will be to survive in office. If they don’t do as they are told by the leaders of Congress and the well-funded lobbyists that continually surround them and their staffs they will not return and may suffer severe sanctions. If they do as they’re told they will live on easy street for the rest of their lives. We can complain and shake our fists but it will make no difference whatever. True social movements will be taken over by government and/or corporate agents as almost every movement I’ve seen since the early seventies have been whether it’s Q-Anon or BLM. If, by some miracle a major figure emerges that person will either suffer the fate of Martin Luther King and be shot down by government agents or end up like Julian Assange who is being tortured in a British prison (on the orders of the Washington regime as a warning to anyone who may desire to tell the truth about the National Security State). So don’t think you or anyone you know is going to lead a major movement will be able to do anything other than what the oligarch-dominated government wants. Those of you who doubt this only have to look at the following following story: “Princeton Study: The U.S. Is Not ‘Losing’ Its Democracy, It’s Already Long Gone.” Given this situation the only way to move towards a less authoritarian society is through an attitude of non-violent non-cooperation (which may still get you in trouble if the current Biden anti-terror laws go into effect, i.e., any opposition to any authority can be called “terrorism”). But this is all a kind of dry-hump. One and only one clear path, in fact, a highway awaits those of us who dissent from the mass-culture imposed on us from the oligarchy as well as those who aren’t sure and who are just feeling a vague distrust about our current situation. That highway now opening up to us is called “spirituality” a loaded term I will try to unravel.
For me spirituality is the practice (and it evolves through practice and practices) that reveals our authentic self. In Yogic philosophy it is described as “Atman” which the ancients describe as the same as the Creator which in their mythology is called “Brahman” in our mythology it’s called “God.” Without, at this time, going into detail, I believe that Jesus of the Gospels is pointing us in exactly that direction. This idea and practices and ideas surrounding us is present in all major spiritual traditions in one way or the other as documented in Aldous Huxley’s book The Perennial Philosophy. There is no need to follow any particular path because, as I’ve implied, we have a highway available and all we have to do is go straight down and follow the road wherever it goes. The road signs will be available when we decide we are going to follow this road and begin some basic practice because our consciousness and priorities will change.
The first thing we encounter on this highway is that it is covered with brambles—these brambles are the sum total of our conditioning whether it’s trauma or just indoctrination/conditioning from our education and the mythos of our society we accept to find meaning and to live smoothly in our society but, as I’ve alluded to, lack solid foundation in reason and philosophical rigor. The reason for that is that the rapid and unprecedented change in our most basic assumptions about life have already revolutionized our society to a degree most people seem not to have noticed. We assume we are the same society we were in the late 1940’s where actually we are utterly different. Our daily lives are different, our modes of communicating are different, our sexuality and sexual identity is different, our view of our society, values, and so on are all radically different. Almost nothing our society is saying collectively at this time makes much sense; it is, at best, a hodgepodge of myths and vague notions that constitute the “philosophy” we see in movies and “news” programs or other cultural events that tell us what to think. Almost all of those ideas, particularly those presented by the news media are mainly false and some just invented to achieve control for the ruling class. T
These basic structures in our minds are added on to by our constant mental chatter and constant attempt to create a viable identity within the context of those bramble-bushes. When a society has does not have a coherent and well-structured mythological/conceptual framework our own psychological processes fill in the blanks, connect and connect whatever dots we perceive into some sort of temporary value system even if it is absurd. In contrast, traditional societies I’ve encountered and or read about in my studies of anthropology, have a conceptual framework that works because it’s been tested in tried for sometimes centuries, sometimes millennia. Only when they are exposed to an utterly materialistic and hedonistic (all societies that are adrift end up being hedonistic) society do they begin to falter or rapidly and successfully transition taking in the new data as in Chinese, Indian, and some others more robust traditional societies.
As we clear the brambles of our own habits of thought and the unexamined myths we live by the truth of who we really are will gradually emerge. The truth of who we are is quite simple to find. If you’ve ever experienced pure joy then you know who you are—you are that which experiences that joy or more truly, joy itself. There is absolutely nothing fundamentally wrong with you or anyone else. The spiritual path starts with this notion and will give you the energy to remove the brambles that impede you. Once you realize who you really are the next technique is to “remember” the joy you’ve experienced and bring it up in times you feel badly. The next part of this is to also remember to observe yourself particularly when you are reacting to things with negative emotions. For example, when you are angry with another or something happening in politics, observe your body and where the anger or tension is and observe what your mind is doing and what is fueling it. This doesn’t mean you will not be angry only that you are looking closely at the feeling. In no way does this act of observation “resolve” any conflict or bad habit only that it remains, as you practice this diligently, less and less powerful in your life. I’ve noticed that several bad physical habits and habits of negative thinking have gradually dissipated as I’ve continued this practice.
That’s it for today.
