You might think my writing all over the place: social media, business transformation, ‘true self’ and now earth law. (Being vegan is, also, in the mix.)
I can see that but, actually, it all goes to the same thing:
awakening.
Let me quote you — because it’s easier for now:
“Awakening occurs in the moment when we see ourselves for what we are. We see how enslaved we are to our feelings, our reactions, our stream of uncreated, autonomous thoughts. We experience ourselves as Gurdjieff described us, or as the film **The Matrix** described us so well…as machines. We are caught up in a web of intricate interactions that come about without our true participation, without our true understanding, without our knowledge of the intricate pattern of the whole. What happens when we awaken, when we “remember our self” as Gurdjieff called us to do? We have this sudden seeing, this moment of profound clarity, this deeply felt desire to awaken ever more. To become the “I” that we all believed we were, the “I am” in truth. We become something other than the product of everything that goes on about us that we can’t even begin to explain. We become the centre of ourselves. We become the mover as opposed to the moved.” — Michael E. Gerber, The Most Successful Small Business in The World, The Ten Principles
I recognise that for many, many people this looks hopelessly romantic but it’s my belief that if we woke from our narcissistic torpor that the world would be a better place.
In short, we’d be connected at the deepest level and from that place, it would cause us to see the world anew.
Need something more?
I love the word interbeing:
“Interbeing is a relatively new term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh to describe the essential interconnectedness of the universe. It challenges us to look beyond the world of concepts and opposites. If we look deeply into the nature of our universe we can see all things as profoundly interdependent. At the heart of this understanding is the realisation that we have no separate self, that everything is empty of a separate self in a universe which is in a constant state of flux and change. The interdependent nature of all phenomena is central to many Buddhist teachings.” — The Community of Interbeing
I accept that trying to point at something as ethereal as true self or interbeing is potentially no different to the personal development paradigm that exhorts you to get better but, and here’s the thing, you know you’re here (“I’m alive”) and there’s an unlived, felt sense that to date you’ve not fully lived.
You might think me completely deluded but look around you: religion, capitalism, even spirituality has hardly knocked us from our self-serving perches. It’s more than arguable that all they’ve succeeded in doing — by omission or commission — is to denude the planet of life — ours and everything else.
For the record, I think the man-made world we now inhabit, which has been christened the Anthropocene, will be our eventual undoing.
You might (also) say:
“Who gives a shit? No one cares less about anyone else, let alone the animals. It’s an individualistic world with a rapacious need to consume. Even if I understood what you mean, I’m content to stay fast asleep. Now f* off.”
But then again:
“Something’s grossly out of whack. The world is going to hell in a handbasket. Work is meaningless, and I’m treading water. What a way to live.”
To be clear, I’m not offering some magic-bullet, Jesus Christ answer. I’m ‘merely’ inviting you to look within. To understand that you’re born into this world with a false mask and that’s reinforced by your parents (well-meaning as they are), your teachers, the workplace and the institutions that tell us, constantly, that they know what’s best for us.
I don’t buy it.
Just so there’s no ambiguity, I’m not extolling the usual ‘find your purpose’ message but something much more foundational. If there is something to focus on it’s “[not] to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles. No, it’s to become who we are all body, mind, soul and spirit.
On a practical level, and however impossible it may appear, I very much hope that through my writing, poetry, speaking and teaching (although I’m not qualified other than in life), I can inspire you to ask a more beautiful question than “What’s next?”, and you might start to question your assumptions that have hitherto shaped your life.
I should say this post arose spontaneously like all my writing, although if there’s a discernible genesis it comes from my new found focus on getting clear with my writing. You see, up to now I’ve not concentrated on refining and explaining my true self message — the sine qua non of my work. Not that I want to be thought of as a one trick pony but this message is life and, frankly, there isn’t anything more important to me than that.
Take care.
Big love
Julian
_/|\_
If you want to learn more about me or my work you can study the archives to this blog, read my poetry on Tumblr or listen to my monologues on Podbean. You might also feel inclined to support my work financially by either becoming a regular contributor on Patreon or by making a one-off donation on Ko-fi. Of course, you may feel that you need to speak to me direct and that’s fine. Simply send me a message via the contact page, and I’ll respond in the normal way.