free thinking

I had a mental image that I think was quite descriptive and meaningful, so I am going to share it. It was my image of the end of the path that Mel and I walked. The image is as follows:

The dark light seeped through the clouds, falling on the scene below. The sea is wild, with waves lashing against a cliff jutting out against the sea. On the face of this cliff is a ledge, and I am chained up against the face. Next to me is Melanie, holding my hand, and unchained. The wind is whipping against us and sea spray is flying around. We both know what is about to happen, and are scared. We look at each other, and then look in front of us. An enormous wave raises out of the ocean, and towers above us. It crashes with enormous power against the cliff face. The violent force of it leaves me stunned and struggling to breathe as it pummels me against the cliff face, held fast by the chains around me. The wave subsides and I start to catch my breath and get my bearings. I raise my dripping head and look next to me. Mel is gone, my grip on her hand was not enough to hold her. She has been taken away from me.

I am in shock, disorientated. The chains have become loose, and I unwrap them from my body. I slowly climb my way up the cliff face, scared of the height and the drop below. I finally get to the ledge and pull myself over it. I stand at the top of the cliff and look out over the sea. The sun breaks through a cloud, and a ray of light comes through, and lights up a bit of orange, that is Mel’s dress, as the current takes her away to another place.

That is the best way I can describe it.

I was watching an interview with a scientist lately where he illustrated a concept that made quite an impact on me, and I think will be a principle I keep in my mind for good. He explained how historically the ecological movements tended to not quantify the value of Nature, and was based on a more altruistic motivation of preserving Nature because it was beautiful and important. He laid out an alternative view that was clear and compelling. A natural asset should be viewed like any other fixed asset. A fixed asset should be maintained in a good state so that one can continue to benefit from ongoing economic benefits. It would be absolutely foolish to destroy a valuable asset to receive some short term gain that is negligible compared to the value of having the long term use of the asset. Everyone understands this when it comes to a building. One would not destroy the building and sell the rubble as filling material when one could maintain it, and lease it out to tenants and receive ongoing annuity income from the asset. While it is clear with an asset or a factory, people don’t seem to yet view a coral reef or a forest in the same way.

Coming from the world of finance, I enjoyed his argument, which can be used very effectively. I then wondered why it was not commonplace that such a logical principle was followed by mankind as a matter of course. I realized that this is because it is not mankind making the decisions, but individual men. And the problem is that the individual men are making their decisions solely from the perspective of them as individuals, and

What essentially happens, is that as you delve into yoga, your life philosophy revolves around reaching for self-improvement, in every facet of your being and existence. As you become familiar to the practices of mental yoga, you watch every thought and emotion and learn to recognize its true nature, and its effect on your being. And parts of your personality that you thought were intrinsically you, you realize where simply entrenched customs of perception that you are able to break down or remould, with the exercise of will.

And that is what is boils down to. When you start practicing yoga, you start to practice your will. As you practice and strengthen your will, you come to learn that it truly has no limits. Nothing in the universe is too strong for your will to conquer, never mind some demeaning or harmful practice that you currently are stuck in.

Yoga changes your life to a dynamic state. While more in it than you were before, you are able to stand back from your life and evaluate it, and your path through it. Instead of being stagnant, or confused by a multitude of rules and perceptions, your life boils down to one guiding thought: If it advances my state of development, it is good for me. If it retards my development, it is bad for me. And these thoughts lead you to make radical choices about your life.

Because you realize that none of it is what it seems. Everything about our lives is designed for one thing – to be the lessons that we need to learn to advance as a human being. Your specific life, that you are living, is designed so intricately and on such a grand scale that it is beyond comprehension. So have faith in where you are, and who you are, and make the most of this incredible opportunity to live in human form, and grow in awareness of your spirit. That is what life is about, and that is how you should see it.

Otherwise, you are wasting your time here on Earth.

On Sunday I was watching a documentary about environmental issues. Being from a finance background, I was constantly wondering about the cost aspect of it. Sure, there is a lot of good work that could be done, but who would pay for it? The needs of the human community are so vast, are there really funds available to save a snow leopard?

But then they made a very good point. The amount of money that they are talking about is not a lot, in comparison to what is spent on warfare. A modern smart bomb costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, enough to sustain an important, targeted project. The millions of dollars for a sophisticated jet can sponsor the environmental protection programme of entire countries with limited resources. I would go so far as to say that the costs paid by the American taxpayer for the war in Iraq, could come close to funding every ecological project being run globally.

There is a pressing argument currently regarding the “development” of third world countries. USA and Europe tell them not to chop down their forests, and the poor countries understandably say ,”Hey, you chopped down all of yours, now you want us to keep ours, and we need to live from using it.” But it is essentially important for the good of mankind that we do protect those forests. There are alternatives to the slash-and-burn that the developing countries want to practice, but it would require funding from the First World, funding that they do not have available.

But they could indeed fund all of this, instead of building bombs to drop on women and children, bombs dropped in an effort to get control of the natural resources in that land. Its amazing really. You like a lifestyle of boundless consumption, run out of resources, and then attack other people to get their resources. That is exactly on a level with a tribe of baboons, and does not demonstrate any human evolution.

This is not a rant against Americans. It is a fundamental problem in humankind today. The individuals who control the allocation of resources, are generally low, greedy, self-serving pigs of humans. Humans have enough resources at their disposal to properly manage this planet that we live on, yet we just destroy it a bit more every day. Global leadership is severely lacking here. Maybe it is starting to turn, I really hope so, and that the few signs we see are not just lip service paid by politicians to growing global popular trends.

There was another example the next day. The UN did a fund raising drive for $62 million for emergency relief in Uganda, where freak rains have isolated and ravaged large parts of the country, and survival has become desperate. They raised $2 million instead.

It all starts with you. The money that you have control over, the power you wield in this life – do you wield it properly? No matter how small or how large your sphere of influence, you should be proud that your influence is full of wisdom and integrity, and not just basic greed.

I know that one is not supposed to hate. But I hate spam and associated viruses from the bottom of my heart.

Due to spam comments, I have had to disable all kinds of comments on this site.

Because of some kind of comment that was actually a virus, I have had to restore and lost every single posting since the middle of 2007.

Spammers should be set fire too in public, for wasting our time, energy, and bandwidth. Die you scum.

As for those who write virusses – die too. Painfully.

Thinking.

I had a few discussions recently with people of a scientific background that left me thinking.

My point of view is that if they are doing their studies without understanding what lies behind everything, they are missing the point completely.

For example, if you understand all the finer details of how evolutionary biology works, but don’t understand the evolution of the spirit as it unfolds through different states of being, then what you know is very, very limited.

I have mentioned before one of the little snippets that probably gave me more of a negative bias towards science than I should have had. I was reading a book on cosmology, and the authors summarized the birth, formation, expansion, and coming contraction of the universe, and the timelines for this. All the while as I had read the book, I had marvelled at how in synch it was with the way that Vedic teachings have always described the formation of the Universe. Then they even mentioned it, but their interpretation really filled me with disgust. “It is interesting how similar this is to the description of the cycle of the Universe offered by the Vedas, but this is obviously sheer coincidence.”

Because it was not reached through methods familiar to them and understood by them, they could not understand how it could be real knowledge. Blinkered fools. While it seems fantastic, this is how people thousands of years ago could come to the same conclusion – instead of looking outwards with radio telescopes, they looked inwards with a consciousness sharpened by a lifetime of training.

All being and nature has an underlying reality.
All existence is one.
When you look into yourself, you can understand your self and your nature.
When you understand yourself, you start to understand all. Because you are a small part of that all. A microcosm of the macrocosm.

I have recently come across the dumbest movement I have ever seen, and horrifically, it calls itself part of the “freethought community””. How ironic is that, that we chose the same name to describe our world views?

They want a world free of “supernatural beliefs and mysticism”. Their resounding argument is that people believe in an all-powerful and loving god while their children are handicapped or abused. They don’t see how it can make sense.

And that is simply because they can’t see. They can’t see deeply enough into the nature of life to make sense of it all. Their movement is akin to a bunch of 3 year olds forming a society to rebel against the fact that people stop wearing nappies as they grow up, because they feel it is more convenient to just pee in their pants.

What their movement and other atheistic movements are, is a rebellion against the dogmatic views upheld by most organised religions. But we are dealing with two warped and narrow-minded viewpoints. It is easy for either to point the holes in the other, because both are based on stupid, simplistic assumptions.

The religions are often just as bad. Every religion is founded upon the teachings of a true master who is divinely inspired. Once that master passes on, his followers distort the teachings until it fits the level of understanding that they are capable of, and then they force others to agree with their inept and weak interpretation. No wonder it breeds resentment.

Life is a huge and fantastic and wonderful and moving experience. Mysticism is nothing more than trying to understand the mystery that is life. Moving into this research, takes us into truths more exciting and exhilarating than any fantasy. Most importantly, what people who have not experienced it do not understand, is that it is very easy to verify all mystical teachings – through experience. And experience is the only way that you will ever grasp it.

Cool. There are actually people reading the blog, and from all over the world. I apologise that I have not been updating it much lately, but I have been staggering a bit under my load. Too bogged down to blog

I have been receiving e-mails from readers, which are very cool. How they stumbled over to the site, and really enjoyed it. And I see quite a few people marking it as a “favourite” on their browser too, which is good. Hope you return

If you want to leave a comment, please note that I have had to block all comments containing links. Draconian, I know, and apologise, but I had no choice, spam was drowning me. Think of all the time wasted with e-mail and now mobile phone spam. There really should be a severe punishment for such people.

And now we find ourselves sliding towards the end of the year. In some ways, it is similar to last year, in that I never managed to quite get a grip on it, or kick myself into proper shape, mentally, physically, and spiritually. But if I look back, I can see a lot of ways in which I progressed, and areas where I have developed my life. So I suppose I should be satisfied with that.

I started fight class, and enjoyed it even more than I feared it. Had to take a break due to this old body being injured too easily, but will be back again first thing next year. One hell of a way to release frustrations!

The bass playing has really moved along well, I am confident of being able to lay down a storming, grooving, earth shaker for any song. Started dabbling with 6 string too, my total collection of guitars is now 5 beauties . Apologies to all for some of the dodgy vocals on the tracks, but the only way to learn is to try.

Haven’t spent enough time taking photos, but also haven’t spent enough time in exciting new places. That will change in December, when I am in Mozambique, a country rebuilding itself after being ripped apart by civil war for decades. Even better, I will largely be underwater. I snorkelled again in Mauritius and was struck by how much I have always loved being underwater, so am currently getting into it again with an Advanced diving course. I plan to take some spectacular underwater shots in Mozambique, if my blasted housing arrives from Canon before I sue them.

The one thing that I have neglected this year, is my writing. Although I have been doing a bit of it with my blog. That was part of the reason that I started it, to get the writing parts of my brain back in form. When you don’t use a part of your mind, it starts to atrophy, and my writing was being overshadowed by my number crunching. Next year I am going to sit down and finish book two, and I know I will love it when I get back into it. Writing is my favourite thing to do.

I am pleased when people comment that they enjoy reading what is on the site, because it is laid out in a logical manner that they are easily able to understand. It is easy to write in a complicated style that makes you seem clever, the challenge is in laying down complex truths in a manner that anyone can understand.

Apart from my holiday, this December I also move into my apartment, first place that I have owned and not rented. It is going to be good to have a base. With that, and the job going well, I feel really well placed for next year, and determined to make the most of it. This life is really an amazing opportunity, when you break it down into what it really is.

A chance for your soul to interact with the universe around it, learn about the universe and itself. Communicate with other beings at higher and lower stages of development, all made of the same divine spirit matter. To be alive, is something so spectacularly profound, and the meaning of it passes us by every day…

There is a silent epidemic sweeping the world. Developed countries have realised that it will destroy their medical budgets. It is causing more medical problems than all cancers combined, smoking, drinking, or any other health problem.

And what is this terror? Obesity.

Can you believe it?

Humans are so unable to do a simple thing like control their weight that they are ballooning into massive blobs that consume all kinds of resources. Medical resources, time, money, effort, wasted on this self-inflicted state.

(Note: All other photos on this blog are mine. This one, I did not take.)

Let me make one thing clear – I don’t hate fat people. I have recently met some very overweight people that are good people and impressive in some aspects. But I can not understand how they allow themselves to get into that state.

I am not talking about a bit too curvy or some extra padding, none of us are perfect, but when people are more than 50% extra of what they should be, there is something very wrong.

More people in the USA are fat than a normal weight. The amount of money spent on medical problems directly caused by their weight, dwarves the amounts spent on development of emerging countries. Money that could be spent to change a society, is being spent on chemicals to help fat people disguise their symptoms.

Our bodies are wonderfully designed, but we have to treat them in the manner in which they were designed to work. We are not supposed to be sedentary. We are not supposed to down fizzy sugary drinks, or eat processed junk food laden with fats and devoid of minerals.

It is quite simple – if you are healthy and fit and eat a decent diet, you will not be overweight. If you are fat, it means that you can’t control yourself. Or, what I think is quite prevalent, you simply don’t know how to live.

And that is the real problem. People today are ignorant of what a healthy lifestyle means. It means balance and proper care. I am studying Avurveda at the moment, the medical tradition based on the Vedic teachings. It is fascinating, and it is based on preserving wellbeing, rather than treating symptoms of disease. There are such simple things we need to do. Eat wholesome food, as unprocessed and vegetarian as possible. Reduce stimulants. Exercise.

I am studying Avurveda at the moment, the medical tradition based on the Vedic teachings. It is fascinating, and it is based on preserving wellbeing, rather than treating symptoms of disease. There are such simple things we need to do. Eat wholesome food, as unprocessed and vegetarian as possible. Reduce stimulants. Exercise regularly. Sleep enough. Do yoga. Apart from not being fat, you will feel healthy and energised and just plain good.

The last few weeks have made me look really hard again at modern life and the medical industry in the west.

I had a minor ailment, so I went to see a specialist. While he was accurate in diagnosing the symptom, his prescribed treatment left a lot to be desired. First of all, a symptom is just that, an indication of an underlying cause. So, surely it makes sense to treat the cause, and not the symptom? Well, his prescription was aimed solely at the symptom, and he did not even try to consider what the cause was. Secondly, his treatment consisted of prescribing anti-histamines and cortisone, two substances that you do not want to be putting in your body. And thirdly, the items he prescribed were very expensive. So, I left not feeling satisfied. It reinforced my view on the big shortcoming of the traditional western medical services. There is an industry about treating the sick. It should be about keeping healthy, a state of wellbeing. Like with the Ancient Chinese, where your doctor received a retainer and had to pay you if you became ill, because he was failing.

I knew the symptoms were due to allergic reactions, and this at least he could confirm. But what he missed, is that our allergic reactions are pronounced when our bodies are in a toxic state. When our bodies are in a clean and healthy state, we would have hardly any allergies. Or hardly any ailments, for that matter.

Anyway, I knew that my system was not at its cleanest, mainly because I have not had my annual week long fast in more than a year. And while I live fairly healthily, for a while I am being very strict to give my physical system a chance to catch up. Absolutely no alcohol, coffee, sugar, fried foods, white bread, red meat. The coffee and sugar were most difficult for me to avoid.

Being removed from it, and watching the way people eat with a keener eye, has been a slightly stomach turning experience. I just can’t believe the crap that people put into their bodies. I am at the point where I stop and have outbursts at people I hardly know – “Dammit, look at the crap you are putting in your body. Haven’t you heard that expression, that your body is your temple?”

Because, it really is. It is our tool for this life. The material body that together with the mental system, provides the spirit with the vehicle it needs for this life. While grosser than spirit and not as sacred, it is still a divine gift, and the way we treat it is nothing else but negligence. Our own actions are vandals, and the spirit inside us must wince at what we do to it. Our bodies are designed to work perfectly in a natural setting, but look how we abuse it.

Preservatives that give the suppliers longer shelf life but sit in your body.
Colourants that serve no practical purpose but make the food a garish colour, and then pollute your body.
Huge quantities of highly processed sugar that give you a buzz, and then a dump so you need more.
Heavily processed food, completely lacking in nutrients and prana (life force) so you may as well not even eat it.
Fried food, saturated in fat.
And then we keep our bodies trapped all day in large steel structures of sky scrapers, with the same effect as a Faraday cage, preventing any electric charge reaching our bodies so our batteries literally run flat. Living sedentary lives, getting no exercise, our bodies wasting and becoming soft and fat and weak.

It is not right. I want to spend a lot of energy in my life working on this, not just my own habits, but those of others. Help them find a better alternative. I think a chain of healthy food outlets is a good idea later.

Like everything I write about, there is nothing better to assist with this than yoga practice. They say that the food a person eats is a direct reflection of their state of development. As you get more in tune with your body and spirit, you can no longer tolerate certain things. And as you improve your diet, this also improves your spiritual position.

The food we eat directly affects our state of being. Apart from the physical health aspects, it directly affects our minds. Delinquent children taken off sodas and burgers, suddenly calm down. A mind in a body that eats bacon and other assorted crap, can simply not vibrate at a higher level and be able to perceive finer aspects of life. Through poor living, we trap ourselves in our own morass, and then wonder why we get stuck.

I know we are supposed to keep an even keel, but there are some things that really piss me off, and I am sure you too. So, feel free to vent your frustrations right here and say what pisses you off.

SPAM – goddammit i hate it. logging on now, i had to wade through 65 spam postings onto my blog. the blog is done with effort with good intentions, and some asshole scum post a generated comment with a dozens links to either poker, forex trading, teen sex, or mature nudes. All spammers deserve to die.

No free time – A career is great. Being productive, earning a living, being able to afford to buy the things you want. But when you sit in meetings for 9 hous, and then have 232 unread e-mails, and by the time you get home can’t do anything creative or fun, it sucks a bit

Traffic – No need to explain this one. Such a waste of time. And you know you should just be able to relax, listen to music, think, whatever, but all you can do is get frustrated.

Global stupidity – Things we have been warned about for decades continuing unabated. The Amazon still being chopped down. Oil still being sucked up and burned away. Water being polluted. Biodiversity diminishing. All with awful and obvious consequences for humanity.

Inequality – Americans being fatter than ever, from overindulging in junk food and sweets. Spending billions of dollars of sham diet products. Which millions of people starve in the world. If they just got off their fat asses and got some exercise and stopped eating crap, and that money wasted on rubbish products was rather used to develop countries and help people have normal lives. Makes no sense.

Sports administation – Sports, especially in SA, being ruined by administrators who are not focussed on the pursuit of excellence, but on their own political position

Violence – Bombs going off, killing innocents. Children with missing limbs. The bastard fools doing it thinking that they are pursuing a righteous cause, and acting in a virtuous manner. It is never good to dismember a child.

But at least, it is Friday