I've often asked guys what they would do if they met a beautiful girl who invited them to bed and upon disrobing she reveals four breasts. 90+% of the boys say they would grab their knapsack and run home. The rest would find it arousing and as such stay the evening, come what may. One guy's reaction was conditional: he would stay as long as the girl didn't have two breasts in the front and two in the back. A surreal answer to a surreal question....
"Psychedelics helped me realize that my problems are small compared to the world's bigger problems like starvation and cancer. And now I understand what I'm actually here for in the world, which is to make people smile and to remind them that life can be beautiful even when it's not so easy." Jose Martinez is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan where he lost both legs and and an arm. After 19 surgeries, opioid abuse, depression and anger, Jose took a facilitator-assisted psilocybin mushroom "journey" that allowed "him to step outside himself and focus on the good, and what is possible in life, which lately includes sidelines as a Paralympic surfer, an archer and a weight-training enthusiast. He also runs a nonprofit that seeks to connect veterans to nature through wilderness outings." Andre Jacobs, The New York Times, November 16, 2021. Jose represents the triumph of soul over self, heart over mind and the light over darkness. He is no longer a prisoner of war, a captive of his mind, as now his mind is his servant. While seemingly physically limited relative to most people, he has travelled to where few have the strength and fearless will to go: the realm of happiness....
“Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.” Those who are articulate and cogent are articulate and cogent but often mistaken for wise. This becomes obvious when we go to school with them....
“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less." Desiring less is the shortest, easiest and most assured route to satisfaction. Satisfaction leads to gratitude which in turn leads to happiness, the purpose of life....
"The only source of knowledge is experience." Readings and conversations can bring us to certain understandings but knowledge comes by opening our eyes and seeing everything as never before. Those (Buddha, Moses, Lao Tzu and Jesus) who came to know did not have a teacher. Their experience of soul was later recounted and formed into doctrine and scripture, just words....
Years back, on a cold wet winter day, I met a native Indian man (dot, not feather) at Kennedy Airport. He was a security guard, walking around looking for anything suspicious. He said he also worked as a gas station attendant, maybe 70+ hours a week in total. He didn't work all those hours for the money as he made more than he needed in half the time. He worked because to him the only difference between working and not was getting paid while working and not otherwise; hanging out at home or walking in his neighborhood was no different than walking around Kennedy Airport. Moreover, getting paid meant he was helping others with no effort on his part. Our experiences are mostly a function of our attitude....
Eyes open, we see the indescribable beauty of creation. Eyes closed, we see a sad world our mind creates to manipulate us....
"The man who has no imagination has no wings." We cannot see what we cannot imagine. Without imagination we cannot see certain of our abilities or move quickly from and far beyond our immediate circumstances....
"It is better to share than to give." Giving implies a vertical relationship while sharing is horizontal. By sharing, we give and receive and soon we are one....
Materialistic people think that enlightened masters and their serious disciples are silly. Rightfully so, though ironically the enlightened are laughing much of the time and the materialistic people only occasionally....