Showing posts with label Spirituality. Show all posts
We are all searching for something.
Often in life we feel lost or scared or confused, but what we are is
directionless. We've stopped searching. As we stop searching we begin
to feel confined, isolated and afraid. We are out-of-sorts, and we
continuously wonder why.
It is because we are not in our
Element. It is because we have not remembered our Authentic Swing. It
is because who we are in actuality is not who we are pretending to be
in reality.
These are all topics I've hit on
before. Topics I've hinted at and mentioned. My posts on Zen and the Art of Teaching are all about this, in the broadest sense. Yet, I've
never tackled the issue head on. Partly, because it is still
undefined in my own mind. Partly, because I know that my ideas are a
collection of Ken Robinson's and Leo Babauta's and Kevin Smith's and
Steven Pressfield's and Joe Rogan's and John Green's.
The names I mentioned are just the tip
of the iceberg. Each of those individuals were inspired by others
stretching back through time. Rogan loves Graham Hancock and Hunter
S. Thompson. Kevin Smith is motivated by Wayne Gretzky and his own
Catholicism. Pressfield studied Indian cultures and religions.
Everyone is a collection of other people's ideas. It may be that
there is no originality whatsoever, only the ether. Only the Element
where all possibilities exist simultaneously and continuously. Where
our Authentic Swings can be remembered.
I am mixing different terms which may
be confusing to those trying to pay attention. Let me be clear:
There is something beyond our own
internal bodies. Something outside the clicking clock that operates
our organs. It goes by many names; heaven, yin and yang, the Field,
the Element, the Middle Path, Nirvana, consciousness, the ether,
Alpha and Omega. Arriving at a name is problematic because it has a
tendency to alienate those unfamiliar with this new name. Or it
causes suffering because of preconceived notions and biases.
I realize these problems exist. Help me
circumvent them. I am calling this consciousness outside ourselves
The Element. It is what drives us in our searching. It is both the
destination and the path. The Element is where we all wish to reside.
We have been there before. When we are
playing sports and get into the zone our bodies seem to become
extensions of our minds, reacting at our slightest will, and
sometimes, without our will at all. Almost on pure instinct. When we
are writing and the words seem to flow from our fingertips. The pen
flies across the paper, our fingers dance across the keyboard and
beauty emerges. We are in our Element when we are in love and when we
are at play. I know we have all been there before. The key is how do
we remain there.
How can we be in The Element at all
times? That depends on who you are. Are you an athlete, a warrior, a
writer, a lover, a singer or a saint? To put it another way, what is
your Authentic Swing? The path you will take is not identical, in
fact it can not be identical, to someone else's. Your path is based
on who you are and the experiences you have. It is individual and
personal. Yet, it is still The Element.
The Element is universal. It is calling
to all of us, and we are searching for it. The more we realize this,
the more we become aware of the cues. We begin to see what leads in
the right direction and what leads us astray. Awareness is the first
step towards The Element. You must open your eyes before anything
else can take place. Yes, the light is bright, but we must embrace
it. We lose our way not because The Element has shifted the path, but
because we choose to shield ourselves from the light.
Take the first step. Open your eyes.
On this week's podcast Rolando and I were discussing the changes Netflix is making as a company and when that morphed into talking about globalization and the positive/negative affects of technology, I kind of went off the deep end. This blog is to clarify my ramblings, and expand on a fun concept that my brain kicks around from time to time.
The gist of what I said:
“I think we are at the point in our
society when there is the possibility that we could develop a way to
connect our minds through the internet, or something like it. Not
just you sign in to facebook and look at what I'm doing, but your
mind is plugged into the internet, and my mind is plugged in and we
literally are one. We know everything there is to know about each
other. When/If that happens I think that is what religions are
striving for. To become one with all humanity.”
I didn't come up with this idea in a
vacuum (In fact, no idea comes from a vacuum, but that's a different
blog post). This is based on Ray Kurzweil's thoughts on the future of
technology and what he calls the singularity. The point when a
man-made machine becomes better than the human who created it,
mankind ceases to exist. He was on the cover of TIME a few months
back and there is a great story there.
Technology is on an exponential growth
curve. Each year it grows faster and faster because it is being
created with the previous years' new technology. Think of it this
way: Windows 8 OS isn't made on a computer running Windows XP, it's
made on a computer with Windows 7. Windows 9 will be made using
Windows 8. That's incredibly simplified, and not even entirely
correct, but it's a good example for what I'm trying to say.
Technology develops on an exponential curve because it uses the
newest possible technology to create the next greatest thing.
Our Smartphones today are thousands of
times more powerful than the first computer, and they fit in the palm
of our hand. As technology keeps progressing exponentially, why would
it be crazy to think that they could put our smartphones into our
brains?
For me, that's where things get interesting. The line between who you are as an individual begins to fade away. All of a sudden you can literally sign on, see, feel and interact with the internet using your own mind. The same way you can, right now, imagine and visualize signing onto your computer and reading a blog; in a few years you'll be able to actually do that. All in your own mind.
Using that technology, we create the
next tech. Which would be to completely remove any chip in our heads
at all. We could, theoretically, copy all the information on our
brains, everything that we are, and put it inside a computer.
Here comes the spirituality. Once you
do this, and I do this, and a guy in India does this, and a girl in
Russia... then we are connected. Not in a flimsy way that Facebook
tries to tell you are connected to all 500 of your friends. It would
be as if their minds were my mind. As if there was one collective mind
of all our combined knowledge, emotions and thoughts.
To me, that is Nirvana. That is heaven.
That is what it means to become one and achieve enlightenment.
This idea- or goal if you must think of
it that way- is talked about more often in Eastern religions than
Western ones. But just because we don't talk about it doesn't mean
it's not there.
Old Testament: Lev 19:18- Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
New Testament: Mark 12:31- And the second is namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
It doesn't say love your neighbor a
lot. Or love your neighbor like you love your children, or your wife,
or your best friend. It says love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Ask yourself who is the person you love
the most.
My guess is it's the person that you
know the best. That you've spent a lot of time with, because the more
you know a person the more love you have for them.
Now to bring it all back. Imagine this
world I'm talking about when minds can be shared. Not pieces of a
mind, or the flashy outsides that we display publicly. Everything a
person is. You would know them exactly as much as you know yourself.
If that happens, how could there be
anything but an overwhelming amount of love for one another?
That's a good intro. I'll expand
another day.
Thanks for reading.
One love.