I've been dead inside for over a decade. help?

[lifetimelearner]

okay now I am going to have to go listen the I am a ♥♥♥♥♥ song

sorry dude

[RRR]

Check out this poem I wrote!
Humanities purpose.
Make into poem the posts of Mr. P

What do you honestly believe? What is your opinion? I'd appreciate knowing

[Lauxa]

We can create paradise.
We can end suffering.

I don't agree.

Paradise: a place of extreme beauty, delight, or happiness.
Suffer: to undergo or feel pain or distress.

I don't think we can even agree on a definition of paradise. You probably couldn't even convince 100 random people to accept the same standard for beauty, or to agree on what would bring them delight or happiness. And how can we ever end all pain and distress?

But I do think we can do better...

Here's My dream, what do you think?

[RRR]

Our dream is similar. I just see the progression naturally leading to no longer needing corporations. I see no need for many of our institutions once food is evenly distributed through local abundance. I see that once this change takes place, people will become powerful on a local level, they will become purpose driven. We will see the decline of materialism

If everyone aspires to the kind of material wealth we have just by virtue of living in a first world country, there aren't enough minerals in the planet to make all the minivans, houses, plastics, any of it. We simply can not continue along our materialistic path, we are going to run out of resources.

Once people have an abundance of food, there will be little need to toil to keep up with the Jones'.

[Lauxa]

If there were many less people, there would be plenty of resources for people to be as materialistic as they wanted.

If there were many more people, there would be no way to keep them sustained with even the basics of food and shelter.

[RRR]

Population control is the elephant in the room of this century. I think we should see where increasing food dramatically leads us. In another post on a similar vein someone cited how first world countries tend to have stable populations yet 3rd world countries are having many more children. I am curious if struggle leads to population increase.

[bellemeadows]

As long as you focus on the mind's idea of solutions to the worlds problems, or even most if not all of the thoughts coming from your mind, you will never be consistently happy, peaceful and joyous.

My mind always has another hurdle for me to cross before I can be happy, and once I cross it, there is a moment of peace, and then the next hurdle. There is no place your mind will not follow you, so moving doesn't help. It is from the mind that such unhappiness comes.

If you think of your thoughts as furniture, instead of expressions of your reality which have any meaning whatsoever, you find that what is left of you, is filled with joy and peace. Just walk past the furniture and find your self. Then do whatever you wish, without all the "thought" furniture clouding your experience of whatever you do. . . .

Blessings from Belle

ps -- pls don't take this post very seriously. While it is meaningful for me, I only mean it to be a point of ponderence (sp?), not something profound or important.

[RRR]

I've had what you might call a compulsion for a few years, I tear the labels off of drink bottles and roll them up, usually stuff them back into the bottle when I'm done.

Yesterday I was at a Health Foods shop, pretty much the only place I shop in town, looking for a job. I wandered around the place contemplating if I would want to work there, and eventually did what I always do, stared at the fridge of teas wondering which one I should grab. I didnt really go by taste or anything and I grabbed mango-orange with mangosteen, I thought eww this sounds unhealthy and bad, and the bottle was even plastic instead of glass, I had a lot of reasons not to take that one yet I did. I was drinking it in my car and peeled off the wrapper which came off nicely, I hesitated pulling it off, thinking about how ridiculous it is to keep doing that. But I persisted and found a message inside the wrapper:

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit" - Nelson Henderson

synchronicities have been in tall order this week. I'll work on ways to start planting trees universe. If you haven't read some of my other posts I've been positing that my purpose in life is to propogate the earth with appletrees.

@Belle: Wouldn't it make sense to engage the thoughts directly? It seems to have worked very well with my interpersonal problems so far, and I believe I'm being led towards my "world peace" thoughts as well. I don't think its a bad thing to be brooding over world peace, I wish more people were.

[apteryx01]

Originally Posted by RRR

I am looking for a place I can get to, it can be out of this country. I want a place where I am free to do what I want. Where the people are kind, the weather is nice, the air and water are clean, where creativity triumphs over monotony, hegemony and monogamy.

Humboldt County, California might be a nice place for you. I lived there a couple years. There is lots of local art, and people are extremely laid-back. There are lots of eccentrics, polygamists, hippies, idealistic college students, beautiful Victorian houses, redwood forests, and weird street festivals. Start in Arcata. There are a lot of rednecks, too (not so much in Arcata), but they're easy to avoid.

San Francisco is magnificent, but expensive.

Almost anywhere in California within five miles of the coast might be what you're looking for, actually.

[bellemeadows]

Originally Posted by RRR

@Belle: Wouldn't it make sense to engage the thoughts directly? It seems to have worked very well with my interpersonal problems so far, and I believe I'm being led towards my "world peace" thoughts as well. I don't think its a bad thing to be brooding over world peace, I wish more people were.

How can there be world peace, when so few individuals experience peace of mind? Has any of your brooding over world peace helped you find a deep sense of personal peace and contentment? Do you feal calm and satisfied most of the time? IMHO, debating about the various methods of developing world peace will never get us there. It is peace in the heart and mind of the individual that will cascade out into world peace. For that reason, I believe the individual experience of peace of mind is much more important than doing anything out there about world peace. These days, that peace seems as scarce as hen's teeth.

The mind was not designed for peace. While you believe your thoughts are personal, and associate with them as you would your children, trying to train them, cultivate the right ones, find the important ones, eliminate the weedy ones, etc., you will not find peace. The mind is designed to ensure you do not find peace. It performs a bait and switch with each of us. The mind will often bring up problems, mull over the possible solutions, and then when each one is resolved, experience only momentary relief until it mind queues up the next problem to keep you occupied with its goings on. When it is not creating and then solving problems (like a hero), it performs endless judgments about practically everything and everyone which are of limited value.

When you "engage" with your thoughts, you create a push pull syndrome. This strengthens your belief in the reality, the importance of your thougts, and puts your mind in even greater ascendance in your life. Your mind is strengthened in your experience, and your thoughts become even more in control of you.

For me, I've found it much more peaceful and satisfying to treat them (thoughts) as furniture, and enjoy the peace of the quiet to be found between the thoughts. That quiet enables a contact with a "self" which is way more delightful than riding wave after wave of thoughts which are most often different sorts of judgments and opinions. Ride the wave of good opinionating, then the wave of bad opinionating. It can be extremely fatigueing. Once you realize there are wave after wave of endless problem solving and judging and opinionating -- much of it negative, it seems so pointless. Plus how can you know your "self" if you are associating with the endless chatter of the mind?

Much better, in my experience, to stop wasting energy with useless judgment and opinions, and just be. In the being, doing is easier. It is easier to make a difference in the world, and much easier to find the space of compassion instead of the space of judgment.

Plus without so much judgment (the mind is the master of judgment), there is a freedom unlike anything you will experience while you ride those endless thoughts. If your goal is riding the wave of thought after thought, and perhaps even taming them, do not expect you will find your peace. If your goal is peace and joy, I suggest you look elsewhere. There is much to find beyond the mind. But if you are fully occupied with the mind, which delights in entertaining you, and keeping your attention on its endless chatter of thoughts and problem solving, you will never go there.

This post is not about judging the quality of your thoughts. I am not equipped to judge, and I wouldn't even consider it my place to do so. I am speaking of the value of thoughts ruling one's inner world vs. experiencing peace of mind. To me, there is no comparison.

Blessings from Belle,

ps -- again, pls don't take this seriously. We all do the best we can in life. On my journey, I had to give up thoughts to find peace. Once I did that, a whole new world opened up for me, and it was sooo much more lovely, and caring, and peaceful. You are on the right path; follow your heart, it will never lead you astray.

[RRR]

I will never be peaceful as a slave. Nor will society ever be peaceful as slaves. My depression woes are a side-effect of an oppressive culture, upbringing, and my passive aggressive responses accumulating poor results and my general confusion and forgetfulness about my own behavior. YouTube - Procrastination...
the truth about school

kedzer posts a lot of good links to sites about unschooling and on procrastination. I believe we can expand our ability to stop bullying beyond schooling and parenting and eradicate our big bully government and culture by improving our environment, ourselves, and our culture.

I'm not taking your post personally at all belle, I love hearing other peoples opinions because they are all usually applicable to me in many areas Even if I disagree I have to examine my own beliefs.

Its not that I want to force world peace, but I would be very happy to build an environment where I believed it could take hold. I don't see how we can have world peace where people are forced to do jobs they hate, where people are FORCED to do anything, with force I don't see peace. I would like to help build I society where we don't feel forced to do anything, I am not trying to say I want to force people to live this way, I just want the option myself and believe a lot of other people feel the same way, I'd gladly like to work together with such people to build a nice place.

[RRR]

Wow.. I've had a huge freaking grin on my face for a while. I like the concept of not having to do anything. I feel much better right now. I stupidly ate some pudding and now I have a stomach ache, I probably won't do that much more in the future. I was timing Thanksgiving as my "i'm not eating this crap anymore" catalyst.

I am figuring out ways to leave Dayton. I have people who would house me in NC, Brooklyn, one or two in Cali, and potentially one in Arizona... I don't want to mess with rent, I don't want to mess with freezing my ass off. I'll see the life of homelessness and if it appeals to me, or if I can find a way to panhandle and find ways to do stuff I like without having to sacrifice by doing things I hate. If I could sell my car...man that would be ideal... If I could sell my car I'd get an apartment or put it in the bank and be homeless if anywhere is warm enough this time of year, maybe couch surf a few places. I'll look into that.

On my DMT trip today I was first contemplating the meaning of friendship, and then I went into a testing facility and worked with two entities to increase my ability to create love. Love kind of works like a frequency, I was working towards expanding my frequency, it was colorful and felt very familiar..it was a cool experience. I worked on being a better friend after that. I smoked some pot and found myself very anxious in my dirty cramped car, probably gotta work on my set and settings, and clean that mofo up to see if I can sell it. Haha..its dirty right now, and missing a mirror, needs the coolant filled, has some trim coming off...selling it is going to take some doin.

[Pequod]

@ Belle
Thanks for your posts. Your experience matches mine. I used to be very preoccupied with worldpeace etc but in the end I realized that there cannot be peace in the world when there is so much negativity in our minds. I used to think that I am the thinker, but truth is I'm being thought. I don't have thoughts, the thoughts have me. True peace can only be found by seeing who I really am. I now know it's not egoistic to try to find personal peace, it's the best gift I can give the world!

[bellemeadows]

Originally Posted by Pequod

@ Belle
Thanks for your posts. Your experience matches mine. I used to be very preoccupied with worldpeace etc but in the end I realized that there cannot be peace in the world when there is so much negativity in our minds. I used to think that I am the thinker, but truth is I'm being thought. I don't have thoughts, the thoughts have me. True peace can only be found by seeing who I really am. I now know it's not egoistic to try to find personal peace, it's the best gift I can give the world!

Thank you for sharing, that is lovely. This is definately my experience. I believe my peace is the greatest gift I can give the world. And for me, it has been a much greater challenge; with much greater rewards as well.

Blessings to you, Belle

[bellemeadows]

Originally Posted by RRR

I will never be peaceful as a slave. Nor will society ever be peaceful as slaves. My depression woes are a side-effect of an oppressive culture, upbringing, and my passive aggressive responses accumulating poor results and my general confusion and forgetfulness about my own behavior. . . .

I'm not a slave to anything, have never been a slave to anything or anyone. I guess that gives me a freedom not everyone finds.

I'm glad you've found your path of joy. Blessings, Belle

[RRR]

thanks apertyx01

I've pretty much concluded California is an ideal first move.