All this climate change stuff and apocalypse stuff. . .ok, let's just say for argument's sake that it's going to happen. Just for a minute, if you will, let your mind take you there. I don't care if you want to actually believe it or not in real life, this is just a thought experiment.
So. . .ok. . .awesome. How are you feeling? Scared? Angry? Uneasy? Justified? Smug? Excited?
What are you going to do now? Buy lots of gold? Stock up on food and build a secret underground bunker? Start learning how to farm? Move to the countryside and buy some guns?
Ok, sure. Maybe those things will work. . .or maybe they won't. Even if it were true, we still can't really predict what the outcome will be. It's probable that a lot of people would die, it's probable that there would be food scarcity, at least for a while why we figured things out. . .and maybe there wouldn't be anything we could do anyway. . .even processed food has to come from real food that has grown on the earth at some point. Healthy ecosystems are also important for growth. . .so we might be out of luck as far as both our knowledge and traditions go.
Anyway, you could start thinking really deeply about this and try to plan what you would do and maybe get paranoid and actually take steps to improve your situation if the worst case scenario DID occur and try to invest in gold and start growing your own food and/or stockpile food, build a time capsule, invent food that will withstand climate disaster, build earthquake proof and hurricane proof and etc. etc. proof shelters. . .go to war with others who might impede our survival by surviving. . .
wait a minute. . .doesn't all of that sound very similar to what we are all doing or passively participating in already??
My point is that most of us are living in the future. We are living as if we are going to live until a distant time in the future that. . .logically. . .if we continue to live that way. . .we will never reach. We put off things that we enjoy or that we love to do. . .things that fill us with love and laughter and life, because we believe that we will live until a time when we are better able to enjoy those things. The situation will be better, we will be better, they will be better, things will improve and THEN we can do the things we want to do. We can go to that place we've always wanted to go or do that thing we've always wanted to do or see those people we'd been meaning to see. . .
I believe that most people are scared at first, to face the present, because it is so vast and so full of unknown and also potential. We are also trained to think. . .think think think think think think so we don't have any time to actually BE in the present. To really be in the present you have to stop thinking. . .as soon as thought is involved you are transported out of the present to a different place. Interestingly enough, the present is the only thing that really exists. And yet, we're so disconnected from it, distracted by illusions of a future that will never come and a past that never was. We can't see what's happening around us for what it is and be in that moment, the only place we actually have the power to act.
But anyway, back to climate change and the apocalypse and all of that. I'm beginning to find those ideas liberating in a sense because if you take the "pessimistic" scientist's approach, we probably have about 5 years, maximum before we're in the "climate catastrophe" category. . .if we continue at our current rate. Of course, this isn't REALLY as bad as it all sounds because the earth itself will be fine, it will just change drastically from what we know and make the way we are living currently, impossible. We ourselves, or people we love would die, our lifestyle would be completely different, we would have to work together in order to have any chance of survival. . .probably. Animal and human life may cease entirely. . .who knows. . .anything is possible really. BUT ANYTHING IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE! It is not JUST because of climate change or the apocalypse or Y2K or nuclear doomsday or aliens or WHATEVER. . .anything literally COULD happen at ANY TIME. We could all die tomorrow or in an hour or December 21st 2012.
So why are we doing things we hate doing? STILL!? You might die? Or the future would become more uncertain?? Wait. Really?! The future is ALWAYS uncertain. You ALWAYS might die. Why don't you just do what you want to do? Then, if you die, you won't ever regret it. . .no matter when it is!
After thousands of years, thousands of books, thousands of prophets, scholars, artists, scientists, civilizations, politicians, historians, etc. etc. etc. , TECHNOLOGY! We have access to all the information in the world (mostly!) at our fingertips (mostly!) and are we any better off REALLY than before? we're still afraid, we're still not doing what we love to do. We hate each other (which usually stems from fear. . .). We're actually driving ourselves faster and faster towards our own destruction NOW that we have all of the information of our entire human history. wtf is that?? If anything, it is a testament to the fact that WE WILL NEVER SATIATE OUR DESIRE TO KNOW. There will always be an unknown. And that I think, is actually the secret.
To know that you don't know and you will never know and be ok with that. Now is as good as any other time. Not knowing is the most intimate. And if climate change and the apocalypse are the only things that can finally teach us that. . .to bring us back to wonder at the amazingness of simply being, to help us realize that being fully alive and awake in the present moment is all we need to overcome fear and realize our full potential. . .then bring it on.
You are free to resume your present thoughts and life, if you want to. Go forth and love :)
So. . .ok. . .awesome. How are you feeling? Scared? Angry? Uneasy? Justified? Smug? Excited?
What are you going to do now? Buy lots of gold? Stock up on food and build a secret underground bunker? Start learning how to farm? Move to the countryside and buy some guns?
Ok, sure. Maybe those things will work. . .or maybe they won't. Even if it were true, we still can't really predict what the outcome will be. It's probable that a lot of people would die, it's probable that there would be food scarcity, at least for a while why we figured things out. . .and maybe there wouldn't be anything we could do anyway. . .even processed food has to come from real food that has grown on the earth at some point. Healthy ecosystems are also important for growth. . .so we might be out of luck as far as both our knowledge and traditions go.
Anyway, you could start thinking really deeply about this and try to plan what you would do and maybe get paranoid and actually take steps to improve your situation if the worst case scenario DID occur and try to invest in gold and start growing your own food and/or stockpile food, build a time capsule, invent food that will withstand climate disaster, build earthquake proof and hurricane proof and etc. etc. proof shelters. . .go to war with others who might impede our survival by surviving. . .
wait a minute. . .doesn't all of that sound very similar to what we are all doing or passively participating in already??
My point is that most of us are living in the future. We are living as if we are going to live until a distant time in the future that. . .logically. . .if we continue to live that way. . .we will never reach. We put off things that we enjoy or that we love to do. . .things that fill us with love and laughter and life, because we believe that we will live until a time when we are better able to enjoy those things. The situation will be better, we will be better, they will be better, things will improve and THEN we can do the things we want to do. We can go to that place we've always wanted to go or do that thing we've always wanted to do or see those people we'd been meaning to see. . .
I believe that most people are scared at first, to face the present, because it is so vast and so full of unknown and also potential. We are also trained to think. . .think think think think think think so we don't have any time to actually BE in the present. To really be in the present you have to stop thinking. . .as soon as thought is involved you are transported out of the present to a different place. Interestingly enough, the present is the only thing that really exists. And yet, we're so disconnected from it, distracted by illusions of a future that will never come and a past that never was. We can't see what's happening around us for what it is and be in that moment, the only place we actually have the power to act.
But anyway, back to climate change and the apocalypse and all of that. I'm beginning to find those ideas liberating in a sense because if you take the "pessimistic" scientist's approach, we probably have about 5 years, maximum before we're in the "climate catastrophe" category. . .if we continue at our current rate. Of course, this isn't REALLY as bad as it all sounds because the earth itself will be fine, it will just change drastically from what we know and make the way we are living currently, impossible. We ourselves, or people we love would die, our lifestyle would be completely different, we would have to work together in order to have any chance of survival. . .probably. Animal and human life may cease entirely. . .who knows. . .anything is possible really. BUT ANYTHING IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE! It is not JUST because of climate change or the apocalypse or Y2K or nuclear doomsday or aliens or WHATEVER. . .anything literally COULD happen at ANY TIME. We could all die tomorrow or in an hour or December 21st 2012.
So why are we doing things we hate doing? STILL!? You might die? Or the future would become more uncertain?? Wait. Really?! The future is ALWAYS uncertain. You ALWAYS might die. Why don't you just do what you want to do? Then, if you die, you won't ever regret it. . .no matter when it is!
After thousands of years, thousands of books, thousands of prophets, scholars, artists, scientists, civilizations, politicians, historians, etc. etc. etc. , TECHNOLOGY! We have access to all the information in the world (mostly!) at our fingertips (mostly!) and are we any better off REALLY than before? we're still afraid, we're still not doing what we love to do. We hate each other (which usually stems from fear. . .). We're actually driving ourselves faster and faster towards our own destruction NOW that we have all of the information of our entire human history. wtf is that?? If anything, it is a testament to the fact that WE WILL NEVER SATIATE OUR DESIRE TO KNOW. There will always be an unknown. And that I think, is actually the secret.
To know that you don't know and you will never know and be ok with that. Now is as good as any other time. Not knowing is the most intimate. And if climate change and the apocalypse are the only things that can finally teach us that. . .to bring us back to wonder at the amazingness of simply being, to help us realize that being fully alive and awake in the present moment is all we need to overcome fear and realize our full potential. . .then bring it on.
You are free to resume your present thoughts and life, if you want to. Go forth and love :)
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