Stop wanting things and start letting them

Do you ever find yourself in a messed-up situation and notice after the fact that the warning signs were there all along, then wonder how you could have possibly missed them? Well, that’s happened to me twice in one week and, as always, wanting to get to the root of the problem, I realized they had a common cause: namely "wanting." We make a big fuss about desire in America. We build ourselves up to believe that if we want something bad enough, it is attainable. “Follow your dreams. Be all you can be.” But it’s "wanting" in the first place that draws us away from who we really are.

Lao Tzu was the first philosopher to say so in China hundreds of years before Christ and the Greeks.  His Tao Teh Ching is one of the most important books you could ever own. It has a very holistic approach towards being human in tune with the universe. He doesn’t pound us with a God, he tells us about the Way. And he teaches that to be in harmony with yourself and the world around you, you simply have to NOT want. Everything should flow and be natural. In other words, stop trying so hard to make things happen and instead let them. Of course, that doesn’t mean sit in your room and do nothing. It’s simply a different attitude towards the things that you do. You stop letting the ego dominate by saying, “I did this. I want that. I will achieve this.” Stop using the word mine. Instead say, “I am compelled to do this. I see this coming to fruition.” Instead of it being mine, it’s now part of the Way.

The ego blinds you to what’s right in front of you. I’ve had my wake-up call and I hope to continue to break away from the ego that’s being constantly fed through the media by tuning out. You have to stop wanting things to happen the way you’d like them to. You simply have to make a sincere effort and let it happen the Way it’s meant to happen. There lies true happiness and wisdom. And yes, it’s hard to do at first. But like with everything, where there's a will there's a Way.

“When one’s task is accomplished,

One lets go of it and seeks no reward or recognition.

Because one does not claim credit for oneself,

One does not do any damage to oneself.”

Excerpt from Lao Tzu's Tao Teh Ching

The Illness killing Humanity

The way I see it -- and I see it quite clearly -- humanity is suffering from a fatal two-fold illness. First is our refusal to love. Second is our refusal to accept responsibility for our lives. The lack of love is evident by the abundance of greed, selfishness and aggression bred of fear in the collective human psyche in our times. If there were love, these evils would not be so predominant across the board. What brought to mind the lack of responsibility is interesting.

I make plenty of mistakes in my life but I try at least to be aware of them, so I can identify why I make them and try to amend the personality traits that lead to such harmful decisions. I don't want to continue being unhappy and I understand that it all begins with attitude, even if changing that attitude requires time and effort.

All of us who are unhappy with where we are in our lives refuse to accept that, outside influences aside, our attitudes put us there. And if perhaps we are not responsible for being put there, we are certainly responsible for staying there. This is very difficult for the human ego to accept because it's stubborn and proud.

Some time ago I realized that if I am unhappy with my job and the idiots surrounding me, all I need to do is observe their behavior to understand the same attitude and personality problems that led me to ending up around them. It's a scary and distasteful exercise to undertake but it is accurate. If you honestly and sincerely want your life to change for the better, your best bet is to observe those qualities in others that you find odious and acknowledge that you also have them and must eliminate them, because that is what's holding you back from progress. However, that requires accepting responsibility for your life and we have all been born in the media-driven generations that want to be party animals forever. And so we stay in this mode until we reach a mid-life crisis and see that we've done nothing with our time but sulk and perpetuate a victim mentality, and now our most productive years are past us and we have nothing to share with our children but bitterness and grudges. Sound awful? It sure is.

We must accept responsibility for our lives and stop making excuses for our failures or a life spent refusing to act. It is better to do something than to live in fear of it and do nothing. Success or failure doesn't matter. It's the experience and the growth that comes with it that does. And your attitude determines ultimately the outcome; nothing else. If it didn't kill you, then you can only grow stronger from it. But we are so mentally embarrassed of even trying and possibly failing that we end up doing nothing, sulking and blaming anyone but ourselves.

This is certainly the modern disease, purposely implanted to keep us from making true positive changes in our lives and, by doing so, on the planet Herself. I cannot deny that I suffer from this disease as well. Waking myself up from it and injecting the antidote is an ongoing daily struggle, but one that I must fight. But that's because I genuinely want to be happy and embrace love in my life, and that journey begins by changing the mental attitude. Perhaps not enough people have a will to experience joy, happiness and love.

That's the true crisis right now on this planet and nothing else, not the economy or lack of resources. We refuse to live in harmony with the Creation. If not enough of us turn around, we will make ourselves extinct. Stop worrying about money and pining after things you cannot take with you to the grave. What matters now is the future we build together. What resonates is cherishing the moments we share with one another.

We are the Masters. Our Becoming is in our own hands.

Magus' Speech at the Battle of Feingloria

A recording of the speech Magus gives the Brotherhood at the Battle of Feingloria.

Conceived while I lived in Findlay, the battle is a dramatic confrontation between the Brotherhood and a local gang sent to riot in a town so the government can declare martial law. The Brotherhood catch them outside of town before they invade and find military already staged there. Although it is a hopeless cause for the Brotherhood, their leader Magus motivates them with a speech and leads them into battle.

I've been re-writing this speech for years now. The other week I had a sudden inspiration and let the words speak themselves and recorded myself. I couldn't post the audio as is, so I added some visuals to turn it into a video. I'm posting it for those who want "an alternative to this: the living dead."

Sorry for the audio quality. I don't have sophisticated recording equipment. It is what it is.