What Am I To Do?

A young teenaged boy tells his father, “Daddy, I have been thinking about my future and what is best for me to do to have a future I want. And, I have decided it is best for me to go to college and get an advanced diploma which will enable me to get a much higher paying job because it costs an awful lot these days to live well and I want to live well. It will cost even more in a few years. So, it is very costly for me to attend college. I will need a loan which means I will be in debt for quite a few years after college. But I think it is a far better thing to do than to get a low paying job now and be stuck in a poor lifestyle all my life. Do you agree?

The father was silent for a little while then spoke to his son this way-

“My boy, I have listened carefully to what you tell me you think to be the smartest thing for you. Now, I want to ask you to consider just how reliable your thinking is and whether you want to follow your best thinking in a life plan for yourself. So, it is important to find out if there is any other approach that is superior to thinking. Is that not so?”

The boy was confused by his father’s response but said, “I guess that is possible but I really doubt it. I must do what I think is best or just gamble. I want a good life, Daddy.”

Said the father to his son, “ I see what you mean. I did that very same thing when I was your age. I regret it. For that reason I wish to encourage you to find out for yourself whether there is a better way. However, if you go the way you have described and do what you think to be best I will support your decision as far as I am able but if things turn sour for you remember I suggested you look to find if there is a completely different way to live and check it out then. What do you say?”

The boy was pleased his father was so kind to him in the matter so he said, “Father I would like to hear more now about the “other way” to go. Will you tell me more? I do not wish to regret one day that I did what I thought to be right.”

The father spoke thusly,” Son, I suggest that you ask yourself whether there is an intelligence available to you that is superior to “thinking”. We all think. It is my view that thinking is quite a limited tool and is good for what it is good for and terrible as the master of a life. I discovered in me as a fact that a much more reliable intelligence is there. It comes from a perfectly still mind having no thoughts at all. But, Son, it will do you no good to accept what I say. It must come from your own investigation so it is your truth. It was that way for me. Nobody could teach me the truth. It is in me. Its is in you. 

However, I do want to give you this- what I depend upon is that for me to live today fully engaged in the moment that I am in doing what I naturally am drawn to do now, what interests me now, from within a still mind that is not concerned about time and is open to the whole of life is going to be the most reliable course to follow. Does that make sense to you? If so, dig into it and find out. That is a real education! You have told me your God is money in that it alone is going to provide a good life. I will go so far now to say to you that rather than deciding to go into debt just now find another person who needs help today and help that other person, not because he is worse off but because he is you.

“Huh?”

 It Happens This Way

I tell you it happened to you this way.  It happened this way to me. 

I was born. New. Empty of all thought.  As a new-born, life observed the things around the body gathering sense data, storing it in the brain as memories with no limited language involved as every animal does. Sometime in the first year words began to be spoken from memory of sounds spoken to the baby by older humans. Through repetition a language made by humans was learned. Everybody was doing it.

At a critical moment the idea was introduced that later would be called “time”. I was taught to think in terms of time. I got it that there were present people of different ages…and that I was going to “grow up” in time. I was asked in many ways “what do you want to be when you are older”? The effect of this verbal dance was that I built in my brain through memory a fiction that there is a separate “somebody” inside the body who has a “future” and a scheme began to teach “me”  how to make plans for that fictional character I learned to call “I”  and “me” and “myself”. Others called me by a “name”. “Johnny” was assigned to the “somebody” I was supposed to be. 

The important thing is that nobody pointed out that by mastering the game outlined above was I actually going to limit that baby who took the first breath to a life as a stupid, angry puppet manufactured by human beings out of what was originally a quite amazing living creation of an unknown beginning. The human teachers who molded “Johnny” did not point this out because  they had been limited in the same stupid way themselves as robots managed as  pieces of property belonging to a bunch of organized nut cases. It all boils down to the fact that “we” who call ourselves “humans” have made a world that is terrible…horrible… and “we” are all to blame. The inmates are in charge! Anything we do without first making a complete change in ourselves is doomed to make things worse and worse. That is the fix we are in. Do not agree or disagree with this. Find out!

                    UNATTACHED LOVE

“I love you” as it is spoken by people to each other is like a cowboy who throws a rope over a calf. It means, “Do not be alarmed, little one, I know what is good for you better than you do. I will take care of you. Trust me.” At the slaughter house it will have occurred to the now cow “Hmmm. I doubt that cowboy was my friend.” 

How did we get to this point and how long ago? It comes from the thoughts of the speaker and is named “attachment” by those who examine into the human brain. A human is driven somehow to say these 3 little words to others at what is thought by the speaker to be the appropriate time. It definitely means now “Gotcha!” Civilizations teach that one should reach this moment with certain others in order to be “proper”. But, is it?

Without going further at this time, let me offer to you that there is, as a fact, unattached love. No vocabulary will ever reach into it. It is a pure feeling. When felt, words such as “I see the beautiful embodiment you are” might come. It is a whole other thing from what is meant by “I love you” inside today’s societies.  Self is not present. Time is not present. When both parties are together in the same timeless moment there will be a mutual love experienced as a fact, not as a concept. It can be trusted without doubt. When the two, or one of them, are not feeling the presence of unattached love itself it is a matter of how much the actual fact means to them. Will they see what is missing or remain outside love’s direct experience resorting to selfish methods insisted upon by attachment? Attachment carries “possessiveness” in the form of life in a cage. That sucks. Fact of love is beautiful. Concept of love is sorrow. Fact of love allows no room at al all for concepts as it is another dimension from thinking entirely.

I feel like weeping now, not smiling.

 We Hand You Your Hats!

Ye ambitious, faithless, bogus and unreliable scientists who work for governments, who work for private and public funded operations whose very existence corrupts to a high degree the nature of a genuine scientific undertaking in the form of authentic, unbiased searches for truth. We are not as stupid as you think. I represent the rest of humanity. We see through your masks. You guys are so busy seeking a fortune measured by dollars you can no longer be trusted by the rest of us. You may now be on the verge of a trillion dollar breakthrough; I represent the rest of humanity. We are not so stupid as you think. Your dollars fund wars! We are on to you. Even Jesus would never forgive what you do.

Are we going to be made happier by your pseudoscientific scores; so many half truths and lies? Is the world as a whole better off for your existence? Or, do we feel emptier? Lonelier? And more lost?

Let it be known! There is an organization unorganized by the hand of man; a fountain that fills itself! No funding necessary! No leaders; only trusted servants! A child shall lead us. Innocent. Empty-headed. Who will not take a dive. Will not accept a bribe. That nameless child shares the one heart of the rest of mankind. All humans came here as that child. We hand you your hats! None of  the rest of us are in need of your kind. Bow out! You are welcome to join with us at any time you decide to mend your ways. 

All things being equal, the simplest answer is usually the correct one and so it is that for the rest of humanity the remainder of the whole (you) is no less the whole than are we. That is why you will be invited to drop your bogus ways anytime you choose. We ask only of you that you take no steps to interfere with those living here together in peace through love of one another. Not as one nation. No nation. Soon you may sense we are not even here. If your own heart breaks and you begin to feel too lonely, seek us out. 

 People who want you not free will admonish you that with every bit of freedom comes an equal  amount of responsibility. They cancel freedom in one strike with that admonishment and do not apologize. Have you ever really considered for yourself what freedom is?  What it is not, maybe? Is freedom a state in which you are seeking a reward? Seeking your fortune? Or, is it obvious to you that by seeking  a reward you cancel freedom in a single stroke yourself and become prisoner to a hoped-for future? Do you see that tomorrow never arrives? See how success becomes paramount for those who seek rewards. Failure is not acceptable for them. I say for a free human being failure must be ever bit as important as success. Actually, I say, a good, solid real life depends on a possibility of failure. The thrill depends on it. Any other way is not life at all. 

It has been said many times that to be prepared when opportunity comes is key to a good life. The possibility for failure is critical for such a way. And, moreover, today fully-lived is indispensable to being prepared for opportunity when it shows. Consider a forest in nature. Consider a ball game. In a contest between teams of equal ability, financing, and training the outcome will be uncertain throughout. Time will end the game arbitrarily and a winner declared just to have a winner, don’t you see? Winning is meaningless since it never is real even when the teams are of equal strength. When there is a mismatch, forget it. The real fun comes when there is an upset and the underdog wins! Why is that? It points out how we really do not feel comfortable in contests. In show business it has long been the case that a fan secretly hopes for the celebrity to fail also. A goofy world has been created for humans to go crazy in.

I say that it is far better to say, “Let me be a man” then ever to say “let me be a good man”. Same for the women, of course. The thought to be a good man carries with it a thought of not being a bad one. That is a choice. And that is separation in thought and thought alone since a choosing must create conflict within and without. Conflict leads to sorrow. Is sorrow a good thing? Of course not. 

To ask only to be a man is to be willing to discover truth. To be at peace with the truth of who you actually are is freedom. I say that is the secret behind the concept of forgiveness. It is to admit to another you were just being who you are and to hold that against you is an absurdity. The one forgiven who actually perceives “I am that which I despise” is bound to change instantly without effort. That is the beginning of freedom. Try it. In that way discover you have always been worthy of freedom.

 To speak of God who has been deposed by man from Its Great Kingdom is silly, ridiculous. The Power behind life as we know it from the beginning cannot be banished by man. That is too silly. More wise by far for each man to banish himself from his own flimsy kingdom made by thought over time with smoke and mirrors. The Once And Only Kingdom is, was, and will be. Harmonize with it by removing all concepts that bind your own life. Come empty of choosing for you want finally not to find “what I like” but “what is real”.  You will not be shopping any longer. You must first look into it very seriously and with all your attention see what binds you. Once you see it all the binding elements will be banished from your mind, by your mind, and you will be free to represent the rest of humanity. You can do this if you have the requisite intensity.

 My parents seemed always to worry about money.

It was mentioned often in the walls of our home. 

“We cannot afford it” began every conversation about spending the dollar. 

We cannot, not, not, not

We cannot.

A limited point of view.

Whether we eventually spent it and enjoyed ourselves or not they had to have the conversation it seemed to me. Whether it was a meal out, a new shirt, a vacation, a bigger house, a new car, an acre of dirt 

we had the conversation. 

It really got me when my Dad, the one most convinced that we were poor, would actually bring up the question of whether we might splurge to have fun knowing all along 

he would take the most extreme position finally and eventually assure us we were not going to spend one dime, but first, 

he would torment us by beginning a “whole family’s desire” for something new.

I recall that every vacation went through several decisions not to go before we finally threw things in suitcases and hauled ass or we stayed home as undeserving, miserable people.

Just traveling, with nowhere to go, has given me to know what luxury really is-

I know not where my next meal is coming from. Experts define me as among the poorest of the poor to be pitied.  And yet I have a quiet mind. A quiet mind does not attract attention and cares not to impress anybody. It is that simple. Never does a conversation in my head occur before I act. Such action is uncorrupted by words. And I act from an intelligence that will suffer no nonsense. Trouble-free, this life has magic all over it, and I feel like the wealthiest human on Earth each and every day.

What is clear is it was never the “thing” our family lacked it was simply to be surprised with some new way to see what there is to see. Life, and life alone, absolutely overflows with an unlimited supply of that at all times and there is more than enough for everybody and the supply is protected in such a manner that nobody can deprive another of it. Clear thinkers are not concerned with greed and those others whose thinking is unclear see not the actual wealth though it abounds perceive not the existence even of a human being with a quiet mind. 

Sincerely, Johnny Smith