Qi (chi): The Fundamental Particle

     Everything is made of chi and everything is chi. Chi is synonymous with energy, spirit, body, and matter. It is the fundamental building block of the universe and it is the universe. As you build with chi, as chi evolves, forms change, but the essence of the form remains the same. They are still composed of chi; they still are entirely chi. Chi is the mustard seed and the Cosmos. It is the multitude of form and the Oneness of form. It is the difference and uniqueness of forms and the commonality between forms. All form and all life is united and divided by chi.
     It is the force that animates life. It is consciousness and awareness. It is intelligent and it is intelligence. It can be contained and it cannot be contained. It can be known and it cannot be known. It is beyond us, yet it is us. It is the medium through which we sense and understand the workings of the universe. We sense the variations in chi through chi; and learn to understand these variations intellectually and communicate them effectively. We sense and learn about the chi that surrounds us and is us.
     Why is it important to understand chi? We have many notions of how to lead our lives well. Many of these ideas are ungrounded from direct perception and exact understanding. If we can perceive chi directly, we can begin to comprehend the universe exactly as it is, rather than rely on beliefs that are dim flashlights in the dark. The better we understand chi, the better we can manage our own lives and the more effectively we can organize and govern ourselves socially.
     In order to cultivate exact understanding, you must base your understanding off of direct perception of the senses. You must see chi as it is, flowing and changing, opening and closing: letting the unknown be the unknown. You must understand your assumptions as assumptions, beliefs as beliefs. They are not exact understanding or absolute truth. At best they are good approximations. At worst they are totally false. You believe in things you can't totally prove exist. You believe in them because believing them gives you something to stand on and hold onto in life. You have beliefs because your beliefs take you towards truth. They are not necessarily true. And if they are, beliefs still aren't perceiving truth directly. They are you deciding that something is true that you don't 100% know is true. We decide to believe because of what we sense. But, we don't need to have beliefs to sense the truth.
     Reality is an infinitely complicated and frequently, if not always, an indescribable sea of what we call form. Our senses tap into the universe in its raw comings and goings. Our minds filter our senses into coherent and meaningful information. We perceive this information as judgement, thoughts, and subjective experience. Our beliefs often strangle our senses into deluded perception of reality. We attempt to force circles to be squares. We see circles as squares. We see every unique shape as a square. They turn raw sensory data into what we believe or assume the world is like. We perceive the world through the filters of our beliefs, and see a world and live in a world that is largely imaginative.
     To see reality as it is, to see qi as it is, we must refine our beliefs and thought. We must refine them to the point of pure awareness. We must cultivate pure awareness and apply it to all of our thought and mind. We must test ourselves in the field of awareness to measure the validity of our self and thought. Through the examination of our thought in pure awareness we distill direct perception of the senses and direct perception of reality. We must examine our self to distill truth. We must examine our beliefs through the light of reason and conscious reflection to know if what we believe is true. We must cultivate direct perception of the senses to accurately judge the nature of the universe, the nature of qi. Our thoughts become living awareness of form rather than beliefs that distort our perceptions of form.
     Beliefs are not bad or always wholly untrue. They are attempts to understand the world we live in. They are based in sense and tradition that can be very helpful and meaningful. They may be the best tools we have to make sense of the world and keep our lives in order. They have a place in the evolution of our consciousness and should not be rejected wholly because of the intuition that there is a better way to perceive reality. They should be carefully examined and discarded only when a deeper truth is clearly realized.
     When you cultivate exact understanding you begin to see how everything is composed of radiating energy fields and currents. This energy is qi. The world is an incredibly complex matrix of interconnected and layered qi fields. Layers withing layers within layers of interconnected and interacting qi. Every particle of qi radiates itself (energy) in all directions at all times.  Every particle of qi vibrates and emits light. This subtle light is the energy that is radiated. So energy, subtle light, and qi are all the same thing. Qi is also sound. Sound is emitted by the vibrating qi as well. Qi is the subtle energy that permeates through all the phenomena we sense. Its the component that unifies what we sense through our various senses into coherent perception.
     Qi is much like water and air as well. It is fluid. It coalesces into streams and pools, yet because it is light it can travel in all directions. Although it is light, it is often dependent on form and fixed to specific locations. Even when it is fixed it radiates itself. When people see auras, they are seeing the radiating fields of qi emitted from the body. Every particle emits light or qi. The different combinations of particles creates unique atoms and thus unique energy signatures from the emitted light. Atoms compose molecules and molecules compose cells and cells compose tissues, so every layer of our physiological composition radiates unique frequencies of light. This light is not merely a spectacle. It is also intelligent and affecting. The intelligent light and energy (qi) emitted by different layers of our physiological composition informs the system of its degree of health. The system (body and organs and tissues and cells) can read (sense) its components and status because it too is intelligent and governed by intelligent energetic qi fields. Qi fields both emit intelligent light and receive intelligent light.
     The nervous system is the main way in which the body understands its composition. The qi(intelligent energy/light) of cells, tissues, and organs is sensed through the nervous system. The cells, tissues, and organs possess quasi-autonomy and awareness. This autonomy and awareness is essential for the functioning of the living structure. Each layer of physiological composition includes the awareness and intelligence of the structures within it and the structures within those structures. Each structure is semi-independent and self-possessing and relied on by the super-structure it lies within. The awareness/intelligence of each structure is included in the structure subsuming it which is why the body can sense the functioning within its cells and we can sense the condition of our organs. Each structure has a different way of being aware of its composition and condition, but each way is dependent on the awareness of qi. Each way transmits information through subtle energies.
     These subtle energies radiate infinitely outwards and can be perceived from anywhere in the universe. Their influence also reaches the furthest extent of the universe. This is why there is karma.
Because what you do literally affects the whole universe, and the whole universe responds. The qi that radiates from your being uniquely pushes and shapes the universe in a way that in tandem uniquely pushes and shapes you. Your thoughts and feelings(your overall energy signature, psychic sum of your radiation) contain emotional and structural imprints and commands. Your body and being, regardless of your awareness of it,  send out intelligent energy to get what they want and need from the world and universe. The universe is composed of intelligent structures which sense this outreach and respond given their disposition to your energy signature. Deeper cosmic forces sense your output and instantly respond through the web of form.
     Our heavenly form lies within what we call our physical bodies. Really our astral (heavenly) form  is simply a finer energy construct that operates within and surrounding our physical energy systems(cells, nerves, tissues, organs, bones muscles). I call them physical energy systems because the physical body is really not solid. We experience it as solid because of our relative, subjective, dualistic and personal-sensory experience. Our physical body is more like an intricate living system of condensed light. What we see as the material components of our bodies are really just condensed qi. The essence of this organic, material qi is the same essence as the essence of the qi that composes our astral bodies. Our physical bodies depend on our astral forms to exist. We need heavenly qi(energy) and heavenly connection to sustain them.
     Our astral body is Light channeled through an incredible complex system of chakras. Chakras are like consciousness machines that create unique structures of life such as the material universe, the sexual creative universe, the universe of form, the universe of individuality, the universe of communication, the astral universe, and the universe of spirit. All of these universes/structures/dimensions are connected to each other in complex ways through the chakra system and are ultimately one with each other existing in one seamless universe.  When we are sick, our physical body is affected, our subtle energy body is also effected. Our chakras are connected to our organs and body components. They work in synergy with the organs and the body to sustain the life of the body and its components/systems. If the chakras aren't flowing in healthy ways the body suffers and can even die.
     When we are cultivating exact understanding of the world, we are not simply learning accurate knowledge of the world's processes. We are cultivating direct awareness of our senses and the world. We are cultivating the ability to see the qi that composes and travels through our bodies and the bodies of the world. With this awareness, which itself is a field of qi, we can perceive the layers of intelligent energy and learn how they interact by direct observation. We learn to see the qi of the chakras and the subtle ways they interact with the body. With this awareness we can actually manipulate our energy and chakra fields. We can ramp them up or slow them down; channel them through different parts of our body; and integrate them in any kind of expression or art. We do this subconsciously or unconsciously already. The more we become conscious of chi and our subtle energy systems the more we can manipulate them: freeing ourselves from sickness and ignorance; and expanding our abilities and personal expression.
     It feels good to uncover new parts of yourself. It feels good to overcome challenges and have a firm grasp of what you need to do to go where you want to go. It feels good to see the world unmasked from ignorance and delusion. When I see the same energy flowing through and composing all things in such a broad and intricate way I feel great joy and wonder. I am less afraid of sickness and death; and I feel much more confident in becoming who I want to be by mastering myself. I am more confident because I can see directly how my actions generate harmony or illness in my body and being. I can see the small flows of qi within myself and know how to direct them to be in harmony with Life. And its not only harmony with my life, but with all Life. Qi is the micro and the macro. It is the mustard seed that mystics seek, the indivisible particle and essence of all form. It cannot be divided because even in its smallest form it is one with the Universe. To understand qi, you must realize that all forms are indivisible from each other. That all qi lives in a seamless vibrant sea of energy, being, and consciousness. That as each form is itself, it is also the universe. The form cannot be without the universal background. And the universe would not be without form. When you can see the big picture you can begin to put all of the smaller pieces together in a way that really works. You can begin to rearrange qi in ways that are truly good because you see exactly how things fit together. You realize that this good is Good because all is One and One is All. You begin to understand exactly how things work because you can only see the smallest particle when you can see the whole universe at once. The big picture is not only a space, it is a way of being. It is a way of being that is the essence of form. And the essence of form is the fundamental particle that composes all forms: Qi

   
   

Right Effort, Right Action and Success

     Right effort means knowing what your capable of. It means applying will to the degree that maximizes results. Not too much, not too little. The Goldilocks zone. It means you have a idea of what you want to accomplish, how you want to accomplish it, and you accomplish it as you planned to. Your able to balance your various desires, impulses, and energies during the day as you execute your ambition. You are composed and the work you do is fulfilling.
     It is an ideal. Yet I believe it is also an exact science. I think you can perform perfect action. You can act in perfect balance with the universe and yourself. Actions can be right in different ways and wrong in different ways. Ultimately right action means being totally yourself, completely unbounded in action and in thought. Yet it also can means simply to do what needs doing during the day, however you go about doing it. Righteousness is subjective, relative, and also absolute and objective. Right action is spirit or the essence of life. Chi or pure energy. It is the totality, the Whole, the One, Unbounded boundless consciousness. Its also basic matter, it is the Earth and humanity. It is life as it is now: raw, messy and untouched.
     It is acting in accordance with principles, ideals, traditions, and conventions. Fulfilling agreements and plans; and maintaining relationships. It means being inspired, having desires, feeling, thinking, and being alive. Right action is ultimately us as we are now. It is life itself, working as it does, free and full, wild and alive. It is seeing, being, moving, loving. It is the here and now. It is beauty and ugliness. It is perfection and terror. It is the incredible system of consciousness that we inhabit, that we are. It is smells, sensations, sounds, tastes and sights. It means being whole as we are, yet also awakening to a deeper sense of who we are. Being right as we are, yet searching and striving for something more. Being right, yet also being wrong, and working to be better. To be more compassionate, able bodied and able minded. It is growing and expanding in form and being.
     In the pursuit of good and greatness, we cannot push too hard or too soft. We must find balance in ourselves: in the expression of who we are; and in the force that wells up in us and out into the world.  We perform right action when we are blind and we perform right action when we can see. The right action of the blind that we call good leads to the Good, the Light. And when we have found the Light, the right action we perform leads to God and the Whole, the One. Or the none. The Light leads to Emptiness, and the emptiness leads to the One: the Sea or the Multitude. Here we find ourselves and forget who we are in who we are. We remember that we are as we are. We stand wherever we may be as we are in the shade of the Sun. Asleep and awake as we walk in the twilight of ourselves. Empty and free, full and nothing. Everything and something. We melt into the stars: into thin air.
     Until we dissolve into ourselves. We have action to perform. We have a sentence, or a duty. An obligation, or a responsibility. I think for most of us, we seek the ideal of balance. Whether or not we can achieve it, we can get closer to it in our lifetimes. Nearly all of us have desire, ambition, drive, things to do, and somewhere to go. In this case, this very human case, right action definitely means the action that we can take to strike a healthy balance in our life. Its not perfect, but it works. The more it works, the more it becomes right action: until we believe it is right action.
     To perform an action is to manipulate the world. Manipulate or create or change. When we assess the meaning of right action in the scope of any single isolated action, it means manipulating the world(in the broadest sense) as we intended to: as we envisioned. The elements are mind(vision/plan/intention), subject, perhaps a tool(s), and that which is changed(world or subject). There must be an intention for their to be action and that intention must be made manifest by the act for it to be right. To perform right action, you must manifest what you intend to.
     To perform right action within the scope of attaining a healthy balance in life, you have to perform many actions well in an integrated and thoughtful manner. You have to manage various interconnected elements of your life successfully to achieve adequate health. These elements are the basic components of a human being and a human life. You have to give proper attention to each of these elements. You have to know how these elements effect each other. You can't give too much attention to one specific element and neglect others. When one or several elements are neglected the integrity of the system is compromised. To achieve optimum performance, optimum growth, and to keep the system from collapsing, you must organize your life, your attention, in such a way that you keep each of these elements flowing in a healthy way. There must be balance and harmony in the system, in your thought, and in you action. Each element has unique and specific properties and requires unique and specific attention. You can't eat food to satisfy your need for personal attention. You need to feel included, appreciated, and loved to be well. Food doesn't solve that problem. An inclusive and caring social circle does.
     We are not born aware of the complexities of life. We must learn what makes us thrive through trial and error. We are often working towards better balance and health. We feel and sense that part of us is compromised. We feel pain and we suffer. If we pay attention to these symptoms, we can discover why. We act from a compromised position. We act from partial ignorance and partial understanding. We must take risks. This is where right effort comes in. Right effort is learned through successes and failures. Through honing our abilities, understanding, sense, and intuition. It is a balance of vision (what we wish to manifest in our lives) and capability (what we actually can manifest in our lives). We may not  pursue what is good for us, but we still wish to make happen what we want most; and refine our understanding and abilities to make it so. We refine our effort to manifest what we desire most, regardless of how it affects us or others, unconsciously or consciously.
     Our ability to act in ways that bring about our heart's desire, our vision, is right action. Our ability to apply force or will in necessary degree, to our action, to bring about our vision, is right effort. Our system or being generates force that molds, changes, or creates the world(including ourselves). The force is generated by the content of our being. Our state of mind reflects the content and sum of our being. Our state of mind is also constantly envisioning and acting. Creating our life through ceaseless interdependent vision and effort. The force welling up within us is intelligent. It is not simple Newtonian force with one direction and one strength. The force is one with who we are. It is generated by the content of our being and it is the content of our being. You could say every aspect of our being is intelligent and creative. Every aspect of our being is endowed with a creative force. This force is directed by our state of mind. Our consciousness radiates our creative will upon the world, upon the universe.
     We learn through trial and error, consciously and unconsciously, how to modify our will, or effort, to achieve our vision. We achieve our vision by balancing the various aspects of ourselves through correct application of will. We must apply force appropriately in complex ways to keep the system in balance and harmony. This is the same as right effort. It is largely intuitive, imaginative, and speculative. You have a general sense of the order and composition of your self. You imagine what you want to achieve and you have an intuition(partially speculative) of the correct application of force or effort to apply in a specific way to realize your vision. You learn and sense based upon the result of your actions how to modify your efforts when you attempt the same actions again. You develop a sense of how to optimally expend your will throughout the day and through your life to achieve your goals. If your frustrated in life, your efforts are not succeeding in realizing your ambitions. You may be lacking in effort, overexerting yourself, or not taking necessary action. Its important to cultivate a realistic sense of  what it will take for you to get from where you are to where you want to go. To do this you have to understand your strengths and your weaknesses as well as the worldly system you are working in.
     You can know the action you need to take and not succeed in realizing your vision because you misapply will or effort. You can also know how to properly apply your will to manifest you vision, but you are ignorant of what you need to do to be well. Both are necessary to be successful. Both are necessary to achieve adequate health of the human being.
     Your consciousness and life are sustained by a pool of qi. This qi is the force that you use to take action in the world. It is depleted through effort. We pursue right effort and right action to bolster this qi within ourselves and to use it as efficiently as possible, both furthering our ability to shape the world to our liking. The first gives us more power and the second makes our power go further. When we take wrong action, uniformed or unwise action, it may compromise the integrity of our system, compromising the elements which sustain our level of qi, power, health, or consciousness. The same is true for misapplying force, will, or effort. You can break down components of your system or ineffectively power them, both which undermine the integrity of the system. Without right effort we cannot perform right action. We cannot perform well unless we properly apply our will, qi or force, to the inter-working components that perform the action. This proper effort is itself a multitude of small actions taken to perform the task in mind. We perceive the effort as singular because the smaller actions are more or less automatic. It feels more like we are simply controlling the amount of power we apply rather than making each piece of the system work in sync to move the entire body in a specific way.
     Right action and right effort are truly one and the same. We perceive them to be different because of the preconceived notions we have about them. We assume that force, effort, is itself unintelligent: unacting. The subject is the actor that applies varying degrees of effort, the power that moves through us in not intelligent, it is simply energy. In truth, any effort we take, any movement of power, is actually the action of intelligent systems: whether they are energetic or biological. Energy is intelligent. Effort perceived as using power is a subjective experience. The power that we apply is really a river or sea of action taking place. Action that doesn't necessarily belong to us or isn't necessarily caused by us. What we call action depends on a subject. What if their isn't really a subject? Or their is just one subject whose body composes everything? There would be no action taking place because A. there is no one to act, or B. there is nothing to act on. If everything is one or none, then their are no boundaries for action to take place, there is just undivided power and being. This is why right action and right effort are seen as no action or no effort.
     Their is no effort or no action needed when you are one with the universe. You are the universe moving effortlessly acting ceaselessly. There's no change in position to require change in action. There's one movement of one body springing forth effortlessly. For nearly everyone we don't consciously exist in oneness permanently, we live in the dual projection of our minds where we are separate from the world. We strive. We take effort and action to better our position. We gather qi and move closer to one-pointedness. Right effort and right action are ideals and intuitions we work towards, not our reality. Thus, it makes sense to understand them in a dualistic sense as well as an absolute sense: so we know how to navigate the terrain we pass through and know what to gravitate towards.
     The innate desire to better ourselves through wiser action and more efficient use of force is the undeterring awakening of being towards God-consciousness and beyond. It is an unstoppable force transcendent of our individuality. The awakening of God-consciousness is the highest achievement an individual can garner because it is the full awakening and expression of individuality, of the self. As we progress towards full awakening or liberation, our goals change; and what constitutes right action and effort changes.
     As we awaken our system or self becomes greater in scope and depth. What constitutes right action and right effort becomes more complicated and more involved. The key to achieving success is to understand the extent of your ambition and desire: the extent of your heart and mind. Once you know what you want, you must understand the variables or components of the system that you are working in. The components you don't understand and don't have power over may or may not get in your way. Even if they don't get in your way, the more you don't understand, the more risk you take. A main component of the system you are working in, is yourself. Your own weaknesses often defeat you. They are in fact always defeating you in small ways. Until you understand that the components in your system are interconnected, you will always be blindsided. Until you fix your attitude you will always run into the dirt. Until you get educated, you won't understand the world your working in and the people you have to deal with. This is why it's necessary to adopt a holistic outlook if you want to succeed.
     You have to have a holistic outlook and a growth outlook if you want to succeed in the long term. You have to be willing to change, and you have to see the world and yourself as a system of many interconnected parts. If you don't understand how each part effects and works with each other part, you won't know how to manipulate the system effectively or maintain your well being. There are countless dimensions/aspects/components of the world we live in. The more you are aware of them and understand them, the easier it is for you to navigate. If you are actively seeking to better yourself and your understanding of the world your chances of success are much greater.
     Life is hard and what we learn from our communities and traditional/state education may often not be enough to set us or keep us in a healthy direction. This is more true for people who don't fit in and people who possess more depth than that of the environment they grow up in and inhabit. If we really want to rise above much of the potential suffering in life and make our dreams come true we have to have an integral understanding of ourselves and the world. We have to be able to take wider perspectives stepping outside of our traditional worldviews. We have to learn to see life objectively and accurately understand how our perspectives are limited. We are blinded by our egos, our biases, and our beliefs. To have an effective integral understanding of the world, we have to cultivate our critical thinking and introspection. We have to have a working understanding of the dimensions we inhabit. The physiological, psychological, interpersonal, cultural, political, environmental, subtle, and spiritual dimensions of life. You have to understand how you exist in each of these dimensions and how they interact to determine your health and wellbeing. The more you awaken, the more intuitive right effort and right action become. They evolve out of our traditional values into highly individualized and direct sensing intuitions. We go from believing in a way, to reasoning our way, to feeling our way, to feeling the way, to being the way, and beyond.
     To optimize our ability to act and take right action, we must take care of our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our spirit, our communities, and the world we live in. We cannot continue in personal success if the world around us falters. We cannot continue to succeed if we let our communities collapse into fear, egotism, narcissism, madness, sickness, and hate. We cannot afford to pursue selfish interests without  framing these interests in a wider perspective. We cannot continue to cower in the face of tyranny and oppression. We cannot continue to sacrifice our freedoms for continued pleasure and ignorance. We are maintaining pseudo-security and losing our willpower and sanity to slavery and madness. Our ways are being uprooted and violated. Our people poisoned and assaulted. We cannot continue to be disturbed and do nothing about it.
     We have to sacrifice for the greater good. For those who can see, we have to be the leaders in a sea of disturbance. We have to lead the people into direct awareness of the senses and the sensed. We have to lead the people through chaos, delusion, and great change. We have to establish community in the Light of awareness and in the truth of Oneness and beyond. We have to integrate our sciences and technologies and arts developing integrated understanding and practices. The pursuit of truth and direct perception uniting us in discovery, evolution and expression. We have to go much further than what we thought possible, much much further than most of those that have come before us. I believe many of us were born ready for this task and are awakening to this spirit now in greater detail and engagement than before. For us, it is right that we come out to the world with what we know with great wisdom and care, and sow the seed of Unity throughout the world. We do this with ease of mind and harmony of self and spirit. We let it flow through us into the world. It is divine effort and divine will. Our success is being Whole and sharing our wisdom with the world in the Light of the Divine.
     To achieve your goals, you have to know what action to take and how to apply your energies. To truly take right action and have right effort, you need to sense the Whole act act from awareness of it.  Right action and right effort begin with our instincts to survive and procreate. They evolve into traditional beliefs, personal ambitions, feelings, divine intuitions, and self expression. They dissolve in singular perception of the universe and become supportive of the Whole and All. If we can truly succeed as an individual, it is by harmonizing our will with the infinite and awakening to our deepest natures: pursuing right action and right effort as they evolve in our lives.

Meditation in Martial Arts

     Meditation is an act that brings one closer to truth. It is an act that awakens the senses of perception and insight into the nature of reality. Meditation in martial arts, is developing martial ability in a way that awakens the senses to truth. From my own experience and awareness, I know that many traditional Asian martial arts contain deep truths in their practices. These truths are learned by properly performing techniques and forms in these arts. It is easier to learn these truths from instructors who are aware of them. In the United States and probably world wide, the deep truths are taught less and known less. In many organizations in the United States these truths are almost glossed over completely. The depth of awareness of our societies has shallowed and is shallowing today. This shallowness makes it harder to maintain and learn the deep truths of these arts. The shallowness of our societies is the reason that the depth of these martial arts has dwindled.
     The purpose of Gung Fu, Karate, Taekwondo, Aikido, and probably many other martial arts is to awaken to truth and lead a balanced life. This truth is the Oneness of life, the singleness of subject and object. The truth of these martial arts even extends to living in harmony with the Earth and maintaining balance in society. They teach how to lead, how to grow, and how to take command of yourself. For those with martial spirits, they are joyful gems to carry and study throughout life.
      Meditation in martial arts can be incredibly joyful because of the intensity and vigor they create in practice. Not only do you push your mind further than you ever expected, but you push your body as well. The spirit of martial arts is that their is no limitation on what your body can do and what you can do. You can always push the boundary. Through the exercise of perfecting and pushing the body to extraordinary fitness, you learn the subtle nature of life. You gain control of it and use it in new and exciting ways. Meditation in martial arts is a practice of discovery, liberation, dance, and unleashing and mastering power.
     Meditation in martial arts is about unifying the self through the art of combat. Its taking everything that you are and putting it into your training and your fighting. Its about taking everything that you feel, everything that you think, and all of your body and concentrating them all on one point of striking or movement. This one-pointedness is the intention of any kind of meditation. The difference in martial arts is that instead of sitting on the ground with legs crossed you are leaping, spinning and striking in the air.
     What I like about martial arts and meditation in martial arts is the way in which martial arts confronts some of the realities of life that are often ignored. In martial arts you face the violence in you and channel it directly. I think it's important to become conscious of the violence and aggression within us and to learn to use it in positive ways, to incorporate it into our being. I don't think we need to be afraid of violence or get rid of it completely. Life is violent. We're animals. By consciously engaging with it, studying it, and incorporating it into your life, you learn how violence and aggression fit in our society, how they are apart of our social structure and competition. How they don't have to be bad things. Violence and aggression can be controlled and tamed. Proper practice in martial arts does this in a positive way.
      I think violence and aggression lie at the root of our passions and our vitality. I think that by embracing them with conscious intent to do good and be more whole, we can discover strength and authenticity that we haven't known before. We can discover awareness of who and what we actually are. By understanding violence and aggression and integrating them into our life in a wholesome way, they won't lurk in the back ground suppressed and hindering our health and psychology.
     In sports, you learn about your motivations, and how your emotions influence your performance. You learn the same from traditional Asian martial arts. The same and perhaps even to a deeper degree. I think because of the spiritual element of these traditional martial arts, the inner awareness cultivated by the practices is stronger. This inner awareness includes being and becoming conscious of the emotions and how they effect action and the flow of vitality. The forms in Taekwondo, Karate and Gung Fu direct the attention inward, developing self-consciousness and consciousness. True practice of traditional Asian martial arts is a practice of personal and spiritual growth, the development of consciousness of self and world and the way to balance them.
     This is why many of us practice martial arts. They are a deep discipline of awakening consciousness and creating balance in life. Many of are called to train and participate by destiny and our souls, to further and maintain the arts in our lifetimes. I personally wish to bring the spiritual depth of the traditional Asian martial arts to the mma community, to heighten the level of competition and to bring the sport closer to introspection and serving humanity.
     Traditional Asian martial arts (tamas) awaken the self by awakening the energy centers of the body. The traditional forms cannot be practiced correctly without awakening the energy and sense centers. As you progress through the forms and techniques, you awaken and master deeper and deeper senses and energy centers. It is essential that you have an instructor who can adequately perceive this awakening and can give proper instruction according to your degree of insight and ability or, you posses the intuition and skill to teach yourself. If the organization loses sight of the spiritual depth of the tradition, then practitioner's will be allowed to teach before they are ready to properly teach the art. If the living heart of the tradition is lost, the art will degenerate and it will lose it's ability to awaken human beings. If their is not Light or sight or truth, the leadership cannot navigate through the terrain of life and when they misstep, they won't be able to return to sense, but will continue to fade into darkness and decay. The same is true for all arts, traditions, individuals, and societies.
     Meditation in martial arts opens up doors to great physical ability and different and perhaps new modes of consciousness. When you awaken the energy centers and the senses, you can do extraordinary things and your consciousness changes. The reason tamas are good at getting to the extraordinary is because their practices involve more direct and scientific understanding and manipulation of the vital energies and the body than other athletic disciplines. The knowledge and understanding of tamas are apart of multi-millennium old holistic sciences of the East. Understanding and technique that far surpasses Western science and understanding in many ways. Especially when it comes to the understanding of the subtle energies of the body and the world; and the way these energies effect the human anatomy generating health or disease.
     The knowledge of these arts and ancient sciences comes from millennia of holistic scientific inquiry. This accumulated knowledge is the key within the tamas that generates super physical ability; and consciousness/sensory awakening and expansion. The knowledge is transmitted into the forms and techniques by the highly advanced practitioner upon their creation. It is also passed down, generation to generation via  instructor-student relationships.
     One of the modes of consciousness cultivated in tamas is intuition. Intuitive receiving of information and intuitive spontaneous action. It is through this mode of consciousness that much of the learning is transmitted, especially at higher levels of practice. This faculty of consciousness  also governs holistic scientific inquiry. Through intuitive perception we sense the holistic nature of reality and the bodies in reality. We sense the interconnectedness of nature and develop understanding of its bodies based off of this sense. This intuitive objective science has been kept alive over thousands of years in the East and lives in tamas today.
     Embracing and cultivating this intuitive holistic approach is key to success in tamas. It is the key that drives the meditation of tamas. It is the key that drives meditation in general. Intuitive holistic vision unifies the individual under the force of expanding perspective. The intuition that all of the parts are interconnected is itself apart of the process of a being awakening to direct objective perception of reality. The individual is transitioning from believing that the mind, body, spirit, world and other are separate to seeing all of these phenomena as a single seamless body. Intuitive holistic awareness develops as the individual begins to consciously sense the interconnectedness of the components of their life. The power that arises with this awareness gives the individual what many see as extraordinary physical/mental ability. An individual who can sense the interconnectedness of being can draw and develop power from the interconnectedness of their being. An egoic person is always at war with themselves and the world. What if instead of fighting against parts of life and yourself, you were able to unite those parts and combine their powers for your own use. One who senses the interconnectedness of life seeks to unify themselves in higher orders of integration. The more you can integrate yourself, the more power you can draw and concentrate. If you sense the interconnectedness between yourself and the world, your power is unlimited.
     Intuitive holistic awareness is inherently an awareness that draws power from the singleness or wholeness of life. The inkling that you are interconnected with the world is sense and power drawn from the indescribable wholeness of life. The greater the sense you have of the interconnectedness and wholeness of life, the more you can draw power from the infinite. This tends to heighten your natural abilities and talents so long as the opening to greater power and being is manageable. Too much power can overwhelm the body and the senses, crippling abilities. If you can manage it wisely, you can gain powers that seem super human to general society: going further than what many believe is possible.
     The intuitive, holistic, and objective vision and study of life leads one to more direct perception of the workings of the body. You develop awareness of the interconnected subtle energy system of the body and how to manipulate it. You can more precisely perceive what your strengths and weaknesses are; and more efficiently work to generate health and functioning of the system. Tamas contain knowledge of how to turn on energy centers in the body that are normally dormant: driving ability and health even further.
    The realm of possibility in human endeavor is limited to our understanding of ourselves and of our world. It is limited to what we think is possible and what we know how to do. The Western mind thinks itself to be at the pinnacle of human awareness and ability; and often doesn't consider that many ancient cultures have deeper and greater understanding of the systems we inhabit; and can consequently generate much greater health and ability. Traditional Asian martial arts are apart of the wisdom and understanding of the ancient intuitive, holistic, and scientific thought of the East: a way of thinking and acting potentially older than 10,000 years. A way of thought developed from the interplay of Yogic wisdom; Buddism; Daoism; ideas and systems of Yin, Yang and Qi; and other rich traditions.
     As we become more and more globalized we must be mindful of how our traditions and societies change. We must maintain the integrity of traditions that uphold the integrity of our societies. We must not abandon the wisdom and understanding we have accumulated over the ages in the fires of consumerism, materialism, and thoughtlessness that ravage our ways of life: our connections to our senses. We must adapt in ways that preserve tradition, expand our ability to include others, and protect the sanctity of life. We must use our traditions as stepping stones into the future of high technology, unified science, a unified humanity, and direct perception of truth: the massive awakening of individuals and their occult energy centers to God consciousness.
     Tamas come from a lineage of wisdom traditions. Although they are flawed like any other traditions, their merit deserves close attention: especially as they spread throughout the world; and are threatened by forces that are rapidly destroying tradition and culture. We must preserve the elements of life that bind us together; we must preserve the elements of life that lead us towards deeper and better understanding of the world around us; we must preserve what is meditative and close to our hearts. I think it is important that we study tamas and other martial arts, assessing their validity and worth, because it is important to maintain and further a spirit of uniting human kind in goodness and precise understanding. The spirit of tamas is holistic and intuitive. It is meditative. It is this quality in martial arts that makes them wonderful, enchanting and worth pursuing if your seeking a discipline that will help you bring balance and awareness to your life.
   

Listening

     We live in a world where we attempt to reach out destination through effort. We believe we need to work harder and be more to succeed in ways we cannot succeed now. We need to focus more, to be more engaged, more committed, more disciplined, more intense. These attitudes can and often help us succeed and often are what we need to do, but I feel that often we have these attitudes because we are insecure.
     We are afraid of not succeeding. Of letting people down. We are panicking and we are stressed. We are on the run. We are running away from failure and from falling apart. We are holding on tight to keep control. The problem is, the tighter we hold, the more we actually lose control and the further we get from being happy and leading fulfilling lives. We end up running away from ourselves and our life. We lose touch with ourselves and with reality. We slip into deeper fear, deeper stress, deeper instability and unfortunately deeper insanity. We think by holding on we will remain safe and secure, when actually we are avoiding the senses that would save us. We hold on because we believe we need to. We have these beliefs because from birth we are programmed to be a certain way. We are told what to do, how to be, what is good, and where you will go and what your life will look like when grow up and keep on growing up. A lot of this is groundless. A lot of this is perverted sense by the corporate-consumer world. A lot of this is madness given to you by the insane and unknown. The unknown being people who don't know themselves.
     We consciously or subconsciously compromise our integrity and well being to fit into the world. We do it because we are afraid of being refused by the main current of society. We think we have better chances of survival if we don't listen to ourselves, but adopt other people's belief systems. This is true in a large sense. By compromising our values and integrating into the system, we gain the support of the powers that support it. We do gain safety and security. The problem is the long term trade off. The long term trade off is insanity, depression, dehumanization, and destruction of the planet. It means losing real friendships, losing real happiness, losing vitality of body and spirit. The problem is you've been duped, swindled and enslaved. Enslaved by the system however conscious the intent to enslave is, and enslaved by yourself, by your mind.
     The problem is that a lot of mainstream society is extremely negative and dangerous. A lot of it is not run by good people who care about you, who want to give you products that are good for you. They want to give you things in exchange for something worth more than what they give. They want to cheat you. And they do. Over and over and over again. This is the illusion. Look at all this cool good stuff. Of course its good for you. Of course you need it. It only costs the integrity of the entire planet and the sanity of the species. The reason it works is because it is one of the dominant forces on the planet. And they use their power to get as good as they can at manipulating and hypnotizing us. It works because we are sick enough and detached from our senses enough that we don't hear the alarms going off. Or we do, but we're too weak and too overwhelmed to do much about it.
     We cannot afford to be too weak and too overwhelmed to do much about it. Its now or near-total collapse of the good on Earth. We have to stop taking the red pill and take the blue pill. It's time to listen to our senses. To listen to ourselves. To turn off the tv and get to work. We may not even know where to begin to start. I have know idea what I really want to do with my life. I have no idea what my passions really are. The truth is that their is an incredible amount of good work to do right now. We may not know how to connect to life and society in original ways. That's ok. Figure out what you can do now and do that. Be open to the possibly of getting to know yourself more, of listening to yourself more and understanding your world and life more. If you open up enough, a torrent of wisdom, creativity, and sense will flood into your life. Life is ready for you to step up your game. Life is waiting for you to step up and hit the ball. We need heroes and we need leaders. We need people with big cajones who want to have fun. Our communities are thirsty for positive leadership and inspiration. Their are huge holes to be filled. Holes filled that will make life so much more fulfilling and easy.
     The key is being kind to yourself. Being patient and understanding and loving. This process is meaningless without love and consideration. It is not a ball to be beat, but a child to be nurtured. We need nurturing. Massive out-breaking of love. We need people to open their hearts to life and to each other. We need people to be brave with sharing their feelings and listening to the hard truths of the world. We need to understand that we can't get along by forcing each other around. We have to listen to each other until we find common ground to work from. If we listen to each other enough we will come to love and appreciation of one another. We won't be afraid, frustrated or hateful. We will understand and see beauty where we saw hate and division. We will feel like rejoicing and we will know what we need to do to solve our problems. When we don't listen to how we feel and we don't have people to truly listen to how we feel and what's going on in our lives with an open heart, we become afraid. When we don't listen to our fears, we begin to close off to the world. We don't stay awake. We start to get mad, to go mad. To get confused because we aren't seeing or thinking clearly. We get resentful and start to blame people for how we feel. When we blame them enough for our problems, we begin to hate them. If we think we're to blame we hate ourselves. We become sick and our perception becomes distorted. We get so sick that we want to hurt ourselves and others. We take drugs we don't need to take. We get into abusive relationships. We manipulate each other and do things we know are wrong. We become destructive. Self-destructive and world destructive.
     To heal these wounds, we need wide open tender-loving listening hearts. We need non-judgment and appreciation. We need people who are ok being as they are now. People who are ok with how you are now. People who love you as you are now. Wars don't solve these kinds of problems. Violence doesn't solve these problems. Hate doesn't solve these kinds of problems. Fear doesn't solve these kinds of problems. If we want to unite the world, or even to unite ourselves,our family, or our community,we can't do it without love and kindness. We can't do it without listening to the pains in our hearts and having the strength to do so. Without loving ourselves, our family, and our community more than we hate them and more than we are afraid of them.
     It takes strength to open your heart to the truth. It takes strength to turn to love. It takes fearlessness and self sacrifice to walk the path of Christ. To turn away from darkness and to be vulnerable in the Light. Its not easy being true. But is is harder living in a world without order, without decency and without good will. If you want to pursue the Good and the True, you have to face your feelings. You have to face the pain inside of your heart. You have to resist the temptation of evil in your life. You have to stand up for yourself and for those around you. You have to learn the word of God. The Word of Truth, the Way of Christ. Christ lives in your feelings. Christ lives in your heart. Christ belongs to the world, so you too must belong to the world. You must be prepared to follow the Light into darkness to liberate your Soul and the Soul of the World. You must be prepared to redeem the world. In order to redeem the world, you must first redeem yourself.
     You must grow beyond means of might and compulsion. You must grow beyond the conventions of your people. You must step outside of the box and you must put aside the security that you know. You must continually face the unknown as consciously as you possibly can. You must let the past die and be willing to let your life fall apart. You must give up everything you have and know for the presence of this moment. You will not find your life in your thoughts and ideas. You will find your life in yourself as you are now. You will find your self in yourself as you are now. In your pain, in your confusion, in your misery, delusion, fear, suffering and ignorance. In your goodness, in your love, in your laughter, in your happiness and in everything.
     It all begins with the heart. It all begins with a choice to listen to how you feel rather than to ignore how you feel and who you are. It begins each and every moment. You can rise and you can fall in each and every moment. When you do not or cannot listen to your heart, you fall. When we do not or cannot listen to the hearts of each other our society falls. Its not enough to have policies to govern us. We need wise and willing hearts to sow our lives together with listening and love. We can't know how to solve our problems if we don't listen to our hearts. By listening to our hearts and to the hearts of each other, we can learn why their is hate and why their is suffering. When we turn towards hate with hate we don't listen. When we turn towards people we don't agree with, with judgment and with certainty that we are right and they are wrong, we don't listen. When we don't listen, we don't solve our problems. When we don't listen, we stay angry, we stay afraid, we stay divided. We don't learn. We have to have the heart and the strength of character to face what we don't like for the sake of the integrity of the human species and the integrity of life on Earth. We don't need to win. We need to work together. We need to hear what is being said. We need to listen.
     Love will change this world. Love will change our hearts. Love will bring us together and make the bitter sweet. Love will turn rubble into roses, rust into shine, carelessness into carefulness. Love will end hatred. It will end fear. It will end suffering. It will end division. It will end sorrow. It will bring the Kingdom and the Seat of the Lord to the mountains and the seas of Earth. It will bring the Kingdom of Christ into our hearts and into our lives. It will bring Heaven to Earth. We must not be afraid of what we cannot control. Not be afraid of what we cannot see. We must not be afraid of monsters and demons. Of sickness, death and darkness. We must not be afraid of each other or ourselves. We must not be afraid of what has happened to us, what is happening to us, and what may happen to us. We must know that we are Children of God and that we are not of this world. We must listen to are hearts and answer the call to live the life we must. We must stand together in freedom and Justice. We must stand up to tyrants and dictators. We must cast down unfairness and cast Light onto the world. We must sow evenness into the foundations of our buildings, into the foundations of our hearts and our sight. We must sow evenness in the words we speak and the steps we take. We must listen to the Word of God and see it live in our lives.
      Listening is the way to the truth. It is recognizing the deeper harmony of life and being able to act from it. It may stand out in a world where people are asleep. In a world of violence, force, and abuse. It is dancing with life instead of dominating it or being dominated by it. It is seeing things as they are, seeing through what you are taught to believe. It is being still in crashing waves. It is seeing yourself in the other and it is letting go of hate and bitterness. It is the melting of winter ice and the coming of spring. The flowing of a stream through green fields. It is openness and evenness without form or ground. It is being without thought among thought and form. It is recognizing what you know and what you don't. It is being the seen and the seeing. It is as you are now, walking and waving speaking without saying. Listening is the return to the field. It is seeing your legs and feet in waving green grass. It is seeing where you stand without stepping away from where you are. Where the end of your sight is the beginning of your sight, and the beginning of your sight is the end of your sight. Where the apple falls onto the grass and makes a sound. And the sound on the grass is the grass waving in the wind.

Building in Light

     It is necessary to build life out of Light to be truly happy, to be wise, and to have wholesome communities. The reason why so many of us and so many of our human communities are suffering is because the lack of Light, within us. We try so hard hard, individually, socially and politically to make change through new ideas and new techniques or even by old ones, and so often come up short without making significant change or accomplishing what we set out to do. I feel like their is a huge lack of satisfaction in the planet and I believe it exists because we lack the Light and consciousness which provides the integrity for fulfilling our lives and living wisely. We are ignorant of the essential truth of reality, the ground of being, and because of it, struggle to achieve our goals and lead lives of integrity. We are ignorant of the Light, Oneness of life and full of ungrounded ideas which drive us apart. Without sight of the Light and the One, and without examining our beliefs, we will continue to struggle to survive, thrive, and organize ourselves intelligently.
     The truth is that all life is one and although we vary in talent and ability, no one of us is any better than another. We are all apart of the same Oneness and Light that are the ground of being and of life. We are all Light and Oneness. Our dogmatic ideas of superior sex, superior nationality, superior race, superior religion or belief, or superior self are ungrounded in any real sense. Certain  sexes, countries, races,religions, or individuals may generally have higher capabilities or intelligence in certain dimensions of life, but this does not make them better in an absolute sense. It doesn't make them separate and superior from other human categories and human beings. It makes them different with some potentially higher developments of certain intelligence and abilities. These beliefs hold the same assumption that the group or individual is separate from the other than they rise above. Their identity  that I am this and I am not that is false. We are not separate. We are in fact one with our enemies, the other, our hate and our suffering.
     The Light. The Light carries the Truth of the world. The Light carries the Truth of the Self, the Vision of the Infinite. It carries the Awakened Being and the Universal Self, The Christ Consciousness within all form. This is the Truth of the World. Until we live in Christ, the Universal Soul and Being, we will be blind and lost. Awakening to Christ Consciousness is the full awakening of the individual self into the Self. The Self is the faint background of all that the individual self perceives. The Self, the Universal Self, is the truth that humans struggle to perceive and to live by. It is the balance we attempt to attain and maintain through our aspirations, thoughts, and beliefs. The truth of the Self is that all beings are one, all religions are one and founded on the same truth, and all beliefs and all thoughts are one. No one or no thing is superior in fundamental worth for no one and no thing is separate from the whole. We come to this truth through the unfurling and radiating of the Light within our consciousness.
     As the Light awakens in the mind, it carves out delusion as it transmutes darkness into direct perception of the senses and the sensed. As darkness transmutes into Light by Light, the individual realizes the non-division of the object of sense, the faculty of sense and the subject who senses. The Light carves away the primary delusion of the duality of the individual and the world, revealing the undivided reality of the Eternal Self, the ever-present Universal Self radiating behind the clouds of delusion and ignorance.  The Self that has always been throughout space and time and will always be. It is the foundation and body of Life.
     When we are ignorant of the Whole and live in darkness, we will be unaware when we are unbalanced. We may know of some ways in which we are unbalanced and have intuitions of our position, but we are unaware of the exact state of our ignorance. The resulting overestimation and underestimation from misperceiving our environments leads to unbalanced action and unstable foundations of being. Without understanding the Whole, we cannot fully understand the part and how it fits together best in the Whole. We put the parts together with altogether unclear direction and are forced to live with precariousness and innate weakness in the structures we inhabit.
     When we become aware of the Whole and the Light, we begin to see for the first time how we are ignorant of truth. We sense directly the full extent of our ignorance, at least momentarily. While our minds and Life are awakened by the Light, we can see how we are weak and how we are strong. From these observations we can take action that produces Levity in our lives. Action that reduces our ignorance, increases our awareness, lightens the load and opens up our lives more to receive the Light and the Truth. We can build in ways that truly better the world and ourselves.
     Seeing the Light doesn't necessarily mean your instantly perfected or fully liberated. I think it may be possible to be completely enlightened, but for nearly all of us we live partially in truth and partially in confusion and darkness. Even most those awakened to the truth of Oneness and beyond life half lives in Truth and in Samsara. The Light and the Truth shine clearly in parts of our minds, but not in all of them. The Truth waxes and wanes as we pass from darkness into Light(presence), into darkness and into Light. We may initially recognize this as our failure or ineptness, but as we mature we realize that as much responsibility and control we may have over life, we are equally powerless to change our circumstances. And equally important, we realize that one does need to awake or fully awake to truth. We are the Universe evolving and awakening from nothingness into being and beyond. Our individual identities are drops of water in the ocean. We recognize that even in darkness, ignorance, pain and suffering we are One with the All. We cannot change the essence of who we are, not even when we awaken more to Truth and Light.
      I think that their may be eternal forms such as Light and Oneness, but I am not wholly convinced that they are eternal, or that anything is eternal. I feel what seems to be a perfect truth in the reality of Darkness passing into Light and Unity Consciousness as the eternal body of the universe, but I also wonder and feel truth in the notion that they are passing forms and temporary perspectives. I feel that their may be no eternal state. Maybe their's room for both views to be true.  I do know that however temporary these forms are, the process of awakening to the truth of the Oneness of life through Light and awareness is a real process that many of us pass through. And as temporary or as incomplete of a truth it is, I feel my understanding of it is worth communicating to others. I know that it helps people find ease in their lives and be more compassionate and careful human beings. I feel compelled to write because I feel that it is my personal responsibility to share what wisdom I have. I believe that it is worthy  to pursue truth and vitally important that  more of our species adopt a similar approach towards truth as I have in my own life. A serious, and thorough objective analysis of ourselves and our nature. A unfailing commitment to uphold and pursue truth for the betterment of ourselves and humankind. A moral responsibility to change our own lives as we grow in understanding and insight. Last a duty to share our insights with each other to keep ignorance at bay, to create the best possible society, and to challenge the status quo, protecting what vitality and integrity our species may have. To communicate our thoughts as clearly as we can to ourselves and each other creates room for our insights to deepen, giving us better ability to do what we must do in life.
     I know that Light, Oneness and the Truth resonate with people in extremely positive ways. Ways that regardless of the doubt of eternal nature and absolute veracity of these ideas/realities, will bring goodness and ease to the world. I feel compelled to use these ideas with careful articulation and continual assessment to spread truth and goodness throughout human society. I want us to unite in truth and goodness and build society and culture from these two pillars. I see how so much of what we are doing is unwholesome and dangerous. Mental illness grows when we fail to nurture our community members. Without Light, we cannot see what we need to be well, we cannot raise our our children properly and meet the needs of our community so society degenerates. I feel that their are several reasons why our social structures are falling apart. 1. Materialism and consumerism 2. Rejection of dogma and tradition, outgrowing of dogma and tradition,weakening of dogma and tradition 3. Active suppression and intentional disruption of society 4. Technological growth 5. Globalization 6. Information Age 7.Rise in negative attitude, defeatism, nihilism and general disheartedness 8. Expansion of consciousness  All of these factors contribute integrally to societal degeneration and change. There's a lot of societal degeneration that is negatively impacting us, but their is also a lot of breakdown of old social norms that's positive impacting us. There's actually a huge amount of positive change in societal structure. I focused initially of how our society is degenerating because of the strong feeling of the lessening of social unity and social strength that has been going on for at least the last 70 years and is becoming more and more apparent with each year. I observe the lessening of Light and strength in our communities, generally speaking of course, world wide.
      The Light and strength of our communities was and is still to a lessening degree generated by tradition, usually tradition inseparable from religion. Traditions operate on a social code. Certain behavior is approved of and certain behavior is taboo. Traditions are the same as the social expectations of your society. People commonly assume that upholding the traditions, social expectations, is the best way to act for the benefit of the individual and society. This assumption is not always true. The degree to which a tradition or social expectation is good is the degree to which it provides for the needs and desires of the people. The degree to which a tradition or social expectation is bad is the degree to which it fails to fulfill the needs and desires of the people. Tradition is doing something because that's the way your supposed to do it. Our traditions are weakening because less people are adhering to them, the general fervor surrounding them is diminishing, and the content of the traditions has lost depth and significance. This is happening for many different interconnected reasons.
     The first reason is that people are outgrowing traditional ways of doing things. People don't fit inside the box as much as they used to. People are more individualistic and complicated. They want to do things the way they want to do them. The way they want to be and live doesn't fit in the generic package. They see the holes and the problems with traditions and see a better way of doing things. A way of being truer to themselves and to each other.
     The second is that a lot of traditions and social dogma fails to fulfill the needs and desires of the people. Materialism, consumerism, egoism, superficiality, and thoughtlessness are some of the dominant religions and traditions of today. These creeds are killing the soul of the planet, dooming our future, and consuming what positive culture and tradition we have for the sake of profit, self-interest, and mindless pleasure. They drive us insane as we struggle to find some truth to hold onto and struggle to put/keep our lives together. Part of the reason why some outgrow traditions is because the corruption of tradition and society has forced them to become more conscious to remedy the malnourished condition of themselves and the world. If the traditions and mainstream society worked, they wouldn't need to grow outside of them. We are sold the empty promise of security and fulfillment. We sell our freedom, our individuality, our minds, our health, and our well being. We sell this to each other and to our children. These heartless traditions of today come at the cost of sense we have accumulated through the ages. They weaken the good traditions  as they erode the path we took to get here, marring our memory and vision into oblivion.
     A third factor diminishing our traditions and our society is our relationship with the rapid growth and evolution of technologies. The health of tradition and society depends on the sensibility of the population. When we become removed from our senses, we inaccurately perceive the world, and cannot care for ourselves appropriately. In a large way, the evolution and proliferation of technologies. has dampened elements our sensory awareness. It has been apart of the transformation of consciousness from the visceral to the mental and we have gotten rather disconnected from the visceral and obvious. We have become disconnected from the land, our bodily senses. This has weakened us vitally and made us susceptible to delusion. The more disconnected from the land, the more deluded we have become and the more deluded we become, the more we become disconnected form the land and our senses. We can build all of the advanced technology we want, but if we can't use it wisely, it is more of a burden and a threat than a tool. As we have become disconnected from the land, our bodies and our feelings, we have lost connection to truth and the source. We have lost Light and consciousness and our society and traditions have become underground from reality. The rise of technology comes with the rise of the thinking mind, the ego, a disconnect from the ground that undermines the vitality of the individual, compromises the senses, and weakens society.
     Many of the dominant religious-traditions/societies of the past and present, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism held/hold people together with social doctrine. We reached the Light, the Truth and the heavens through these religious traditions. They worked for most people. They are not perfect and contain a great amount of delusion. In some ways their was greater social unity. At least among members of the same community. As we become more globalized and unified as a species  the older traditions are threatened and weakened. With exposure to other traditions and beliefs, we have additional reference points to judge truth and fiction. It's easier to see where our traditions are weak and underground and where other traditions are stronger and truer. Once mono-tradition communities are now multi-tradition communities. Their's more competition and more mixing. Right now the world is in the middle of this mixing/blending. As we mix and open up to new ideas we are vulnerable. The stable ideas/traditions/ways of the past that have rooted us in relative security and health are in question and new ideas/traditions/ways are open to adoption/integration into our present ways. These traditions/ways are the safeguards of our health and well-being. When we question them, we make the life flow of their power more uncertain. Our judgment is based off of these traditions. So when we question these traditions, we question our judgment. When our judgment is in question, we are uncertain about how to act to ensure health and well-being. Some of our sense and judgment is adequate and some is not, but while we are uncertain and questioning, we haven't figured this out yet. We doubt some sense and judgment that insures our health and well-being, and in doubting let in dangerous practices and ideas into our lives. We ignore some good sense and practice, and are partially blind in our quest for something truer. We don't perceive that we are engaging in dangerous or untrue practices/ideas because we willfully ignore some sense/way that we had or we're naive/ignorant without sense in the first place. Perhaps we lack the sense to follow the senses that we have.
     These traditions that are still followed by the masses, but are weakening in general throughout the world, created Unity through doctrine and belief. The dogma and belief and tradition were and are mixed together with sublime truth in a palatable pill for the masses. This is how we found and how most of us still find God and truth and meaning in our lives. Another key element arose and is arising from the same force that is globalizing and unifying our various world cultures/traditions. The realization that truth and God don't belong to any of the religions or traditions alone. The realization that belief isn't necessary to reach God. That God can be perceived directly without creed or dogma. That truth isn't dependent on the traditional narrative, but is objective and scientific. The transcending of dogma and tradition to a truer more direct perception of reality.
     One of the troubles of the great blending is that the untruths of traditions/society are pointed out, but the truths of them aren't distilled and reformed in deeper understanding and insight. We see the relativity of tradition and religion, the superficiality of social interaction through the medium of dogma, the complete fallacy of much mythology and literal interpretation of religious texts, and throw out the whole notion of God, meaning, and a spiritual universe. We fall into soul-darkness and assume the world is meaningless and pointless. We live in such angst that we can't see the Light within ourselves, the being and the truth that are here now. We become pessimistic, nihilistic and terrible. We ignore many of the strong and true ways of our society because of this attitude when they can still help us.  We have lost our faith in life and in human society. This stepping away from dogma, this expanding of consciousness, is another huge force destabilizing society. Dogma is one of the main forces that binds our society together. As we negotiate the terrain between dogmatic order and and trans-dogmatic being, life is unclear, unstable and the integrity of society is compromised to varying degrees because order and sense and power aren't set as fixedly as they have been in the past.
     The information age and globalization have been essential to the distillation of truth from dogma, culture, and tradition as well as the proliferation of culture/ideas and the increasing opaqueness of truth, meaning and morality. The information age, globalization, expansion of consciousness and culture, and the exponential growth in technology are all co-arising and interdependent phenomena. They are inseparable and key elements of the transformation of our world order.  Technology has sped up our globalization, our sharing of ideas, mixing of cultures, and distillation of truth from dogma and tradition. The rise of telecommunications and information storage on the internet have sped this process up even more. Access to ideas and cultures is a click away with a computer and access to the internet. As culture and ideas spread faster, truth is distilled faster. It's incredible what we are learning about every dimension of human experience through scientific inquiry. This isn't limited to material sciences. But in any way that scientific thought can be applied. We're learning exactly how the systems we inhabit function and interrelate as we shed millennia of malpractice and ignorance. The most exciting part is learning how all of the different fields of study, all of the different systems and dimensions of life, are deeply and irrevocably interconnected. How each dimension of human experience, of life, is directly connected to every other dimension and how to create wellness and health and function for individuals and society, we must understand, view and treat these dimensions holistically, not separately.  This is the most positive consequence of globalization and the information age.
     Telecommunications and the internet have also intensified the spread of misinformation, unwholesome culture, and pseudo-science. The internet is a pool of information. That doesn't mean its true and useful information. Its easier to lie and be deceitful, when you don't have the person right in front of you. When you don't have a strong system to enforce good behavior and you don't have direct social response to your actions. You can engage it in secret in your personal space where it doesn't effect your social circles directly. This makes it easier to spread misinformation and to create unwholesome culture and behavior. This misinformation and negative behavior undermines the positive social structures we have. It also makes it more difficult to know what is true and meaningful. The same is true of texting and social media. They make it easier to be deceitful, spread misinformation, and create and make normal negative destructive behaviors. Children and people communicate less with others directly. They leave their homes less and are less involved with the community. They can sit at home, be "safe" and communicate through their phones and the internet. We are losing interpersonal skills and people's identities and perception are becoming further and further removed from what's actually going on. It makes it easier to inhabit false personas and harder to know what we actually feel and think. We live in this imaginary hallucination of who we think we are and what we think is going on, when we really hardly have a hint of how we think or feel and what we actually see because we have never developed, or have forgotten, the skills needed to interpret and understand the world as it is. Also the programming of many search engines on the internet also shows users more extreme versions of the content that they are viewing, which isolates individuals and forms isolated disconnected communities, beliefs, and cultures. The more we become disconnected from our senses and the world, the easier it is to adopt negative behaviors and untrue ideas. The easier it is to intensify this feedback loop, the easier it is to be manipulated, and the weaker and more dangerous our world and society become.
     The last factor contributing to the weakening of tradition and the destabilization of society at large is maniacal lust for wealth and power and the intentional effort to subvert and control human populations. Their is a massive attempt now to undermine the integrity of society internationally to consolidate wealth and power. Their is well thought out plans to systematically dismantle the trust and sense that holds us together, to rape our humanity and steal our wealth. To isolate us, to make life extremely competitive, and to obscure the truth as much as possible. Even to make us sick mentally, physically and spiritually. To pit us against each other individually, socially, nationally, racially, religiously, and politically. They want us divided. This is happening top down from fully conscious intention to semi-conscious corporate culture to compliance with the corporate/consumer/sell out system that is coming to dominate our world. This goes further than acting simply to maintain corporate profits. Its intentional, thought out, systematic action to rule the world and partially to destroy it. Our food is poisoned, our culture is destroyed, our traditions lost, our air and water contaminated, our land destroyed and polluted, our minds sickened, our souls lost. Much of this is due to intentional direction to undermine the integrity of society, but not all of it. Its happening because of a spectrum of motivation from pure malevolence to egotism to survival. From conscious understanding of action to basic ignorance of the consequences of action. And its inseparable from the forces of globalization, technology, expansion of consciousness, and the information age.
     Humans are subject to err. We are ignorant in many ways of ourselves and the world, and we probably have always been this way. As we globalize, unifying as a species, and undergo incredible change in belief, behavior, environment, and consciousness, fundamental change to the very structure of our lives, we are vulnerable and must be vigilant to meet the demands of these great changes in competent and wise ways. We face climate change and massive resource shortages. Nuclear destruction and systematic subversion of truth, liberty, and justice. Incredible corruption and terrible widespread mental illness. Fear and unwillingness to change and the rise of nationalism, racism and hate. Collapse of ecosystems and severe disconnect from reality. Many of us cannot or will not be able to deal with this change consciously and wisely. We should not expect everyone to. But the demands of the present require drastic change from many if we are to avoid incredible suffering and establish a world united in a deeper harmony and truth than we have known in the last several thousand years. I believe that we must unite to maintain our way of life. If we don't we will collapse into chaos and barbarism. We must carry the Light from our ethnocentric dogmatic traditions to a multicultural an increasingly trans-dogmatic future. I believe this was the intention of Jesus Christ. To seed the truth in the awakening of monotheism and prepare humanity for massive awakenings to trans-dogmatic direct perception of reality.
     We must change. We must live to serve humanity and truth. We must put this before self-interest and the status quo. We must put truth, justice, righteousness and soul before conventional thinking and behaving. We must unite in truth and Light across race, religion, nationality, gender, and socioeconomic background. We must tackle the problems and needs of society head on and fairly. We must be willing to share what we have for the common good and work very closely with each other in the establishment of wisdom and goodness on Earth. We must not worry about the future, but worry about the present. We must care for what we can now with the full commitment to expand our powers as much as possible to the fulfillment of Good on Earth. We must transcend hate in Universal Love and forgiveness, yet hold accountable each other for our actions and treat each other appropriately for what we have done. We must seek wisdom in all matters and know that nature is infinitely complex. We must treat our bodies with respect and learn to understand our feelings. We must answer the call to act in ways we have never acted before and do things we never thought possible. We must rise in truth from the chaos of the world and see clearly what is to be done.
     To build in Light we must come together. We must rise.

One state

One state


     As I see it now, every state of consciousness and every form is unity consciousness. Oneness and boundlessness. Every state and every form is actually oneness. It seems like we suffer because we lose sight of the whole in identification with particulars and heart belief that they these particulars are separate from other things. This seems to me now to be the primary delusion of humanity. That I am this and this is not that, which I am not. When in reality it appears now that my identity is boundless and all inclusive of all forms. And when I believe that I am this and I turn off to something else I become lost and suffer. I see this in others and I wish they could see the world unbounded and know that they are complete as they are. That their striving for something is the cause of their suffering. That in order to be free from suffering one sees that their is nothing to attain. That their is no difference in anything, for their is only one state of being, undivided all inclusive being.This state of reality is found when one sees that as they are now, they are whole and all.
     It doesn't matter if your ignorant, or negative, or mean, or dogmatic, or in great pain and confusion. The actual state of anything and everything that arises in your consciousness is unity consciousness. Boundless and all including here and now. In this state, all people are one, all life is one undivided being. This doesn't belong to anyone, it either belongs to everyone or nothing. It doesn't belong to any religion, or any idea. Nothing is superior in this state. For everything is one thing in this state. How could anyone or anything or any idea be superior if their's no competition? Its an empty field or a field that is the player. Everything and everyone are one point of infinite awareness. Their is no one way to get here because you are here now. What you feel now is this. What you feel is not this, is this for this is everything, including everything that you think isn't it.
     We live in a world where most people are identified with themselves. We strongly believe that I am this and this is right, I am not this and this is wrong. Most of us don't recognize that we are in fact one with everything and that their is nothing outside of ourselves. We constantly strive for something more and continue to suffer. When you see that as you are, you are one and all and all is one and you, a part of you stops striving. It is the not seeing this that is suffering, the identification with part that is painful and terrible personally. The whole is what the part struggles to become and deeply moves to express. It is the realization of this oneness and singular state of reality that eases suffering in life. With this realization often the grip on attaining things for the individual person relaxes. Part of the individual has become the one. You begin to see the world outside of the perspective of a limited individual.
     Time instead of going forward, begins to be the reality of the present moment. You realize that goodness is alive in this moment and can't be found anywhere else. It can only be found here. Happiness can only be found in this very moment. You can't find it by avoiding life in the here and now, by living in the past, the future or in you mind. Real vital life is found here and now. The heart is here and now. You are here and now. This is a very different direction than aspiration.  Life begins to revolve more around satisfying the demands of this moment. From the aliveness of this moment. Ideas take on an living feel and essence in contrast to ungrounded idealism and speculation. You see through the limited nature of dualistic ideas and seek to integrate them into a living awareness of a whole. To bring and open them up to living consciousness. You begin to see how so much of what humans experience is partial truth and how rare living truth is. And you see clearly what it takes for life to grow and how so many people are not being nurtured appropriately. How this lack of nurturing is the cause of our social breakdown and so many other problems. How acting from this awareness applied correctly can remedy the ills of the world, bringing about personal, social and environmental balance.
     We need leaders acting from this consciousness. So many people will follow those with the strength and vision to uphold this awareness. People are aching for salvation. People are aching for something real to life from. People are ready to follow something true. We have suffered so much that we are beginning to intuit what we actually need to thrive. In a deep way. In a holistic way. Many feel our organism telling us that we must live in balance with our ecosystems, with each other and with ourselves. We feel the threat of our times and life seeks a solution in greater integration of living systems. We know that we cannot continue to live the way we are living now, the way we have lived for countless generations. Life demands unity. Tribalism and religious dogma no longer suffice for many of us. We are awakening to the biological need to integrate as one species. We cannot keep fighting each other and abusing the ecosystems. If we do, we face devastating social collapse. The madness of the planet is reaching an extremely dangerous level. We must face this, we must evolve.
     Not everyone will evolve, and not everyone needs to. Just the people who can and are called to. We don't need everyone or everything to change. We need to change the systems that we live in, so the hierarchy of power upholds the integrity of life, not the integrity of personal gain. We need the wisest and most capable human beings to be our leaders. And we need the most dangerous individuals kept in check by a system that is aware of the threat of recklessness and carelessness. A system that responds to these individuals not by just imprisoning them, but by healing them with mindfulness and love. We need a system that is capable of doing this. A system that is capable of change. Capable of adapting to the unstoppable flow of life. A system that doesn't need to continue to produce more goods, but can be stable. A system that responds to the needs of life. Built and in every facet of its existence living awareness of the necessities of life and of life itself. The system needs to be awake and organic. We need to recognize that the system is not a collection of ideas and laws, but a collection of compromising individuals. We shouldn't agree with any system or part of a system that is incapable of upholding the integrity of its body, the people and the universe they live in. The system is the people. It is the planet. It is the awareness of the universe. When we don't uphold the integrity of the system, the system doesn't uphold the integrity of ourselves.
     The system is composed of people. It is people. The system is an extension of our beliefs, culture, thought and being. It is the governing tool created from social compromise. The parts of it that work are the parts that effectively satisfy real needs and desires of the compromising individuals, the society. The parts that don't work, the dead parts, poorly satisfy or don't satisfy real needs and desires of the society. In democracies, the power is supposed to reside in the people. If the people become corrupt in spirit, then the government becomes corrupt. And if the government is corrupt, the the laws don't serve the needs and desires of the people and the people suffer because their needs and desires are not being met. In order to have a good system, we need to have good people.
     What makes a good person? Good people can effectively provide the necessary elements of life. They can only do this by being aware of the necessary elements of life. The necessary elements of life are the elements that provide wellness. A good person must be able to create wellness. As long as the individual is ignorant of the necessary elements that provide wellness, the individual cannot do good and life breaks down. As long as individuals live dogmatically and in dualism, they won't be able to be truly good. Thus, it's necessary for the individual to be awake to the reality of reality in order to properly address the demands of reality and create balance in life. This is why Jesus tells us to take the smote out of our eye before we begin to teach others. This smote is the identification with the part, the turning away from the present in fear and the ignorance of the Good that is unity consciousness. You need an awake system to respond effectively to life and you need good people to maintain the integrity of that system. Good people are people that create wellness by providing the necessary elements of life. People must be fully present to know what these elements are. Ergo, you need people awakened to unity consciousness, the full spectrum of life, the one state of reality, to have a fully functioning social system. A system capable of avoiding the pitfalls inherent to governments composed of dogmatic and dualistic thinking and behaving individuals.
     Life is not black and white. Governments are neither wholly good(awake, fully functioning) nor wholly evil(ignorant, non-functioning). Likewise, we don't have to be fully awake all of the time to progress towards world peace. Its a thing accomplished in countless small steps. Goodness exists on a spectrum from smallest circle of service to boundless area of service. In fact their's no difference between the worst act and the best because the worst act is not separate from the best. We perceive them as being distinct because of our ignorance of unity consciousness, our perception limited to dualistic, part-identity, and dogmatic thinking. Strangely, we don't need to bring all of our awareness to unity consciousness to be aware of it because unity consciousness includes ignorance and limited thinking. Unity consciousness does not arise when an individual is perfected or a society is perfected, it is what is going on here and now. Unity consciousness includes our barbarism, tribalism, ignorance and suffering. It takes individual awareness of the Whole to individually do Good, as individual ignorance creates chaos and suffering, but we can still move towards the Good without directly seeing it ourselves and governments can still be relatively stable and increase their good without operating entirely from unity consciousness.
     I would call this movement towards the Good, the relative, subjective good. Like fixing a tire, or satisfying your ego. Within each motivation of action lies the intuition of Unity Consciousness, which is the Good. Everything evolves from particle-awareness to Whole-Awareness. Every action evolves from smallest service to greatest service. Thus, each of us is called to perform different goods, which exist in different places on this spectrum. And the degree to which our action is good to ourselves, is relative to the degree to which it creates wellness in our own life. The degree to which an action is Good however, is the degree to which an action sustains the integrity of all life, the Whole. To make progress towards the Whole, we need not be Good, but we need to elect to act as good as we can. To serve life as much as personally possible in the here and now. The trick is realizing that the greatest good you can do is relative to the moment, to circumstance. Life is spontaneous and ever-changing, if you stick to one pattern, one set of rules, you'll get left behind.
     So do good and eventually you will do Good. Eventually you will wake up to undivided consciousness. You will see the Light and the Truth and know God as yourself. You will see through dualistic, dogmatic thinking and desire something more. You will feel the call of unity as many of us do now. You will seek inclusion, spiritual awakening, and take personal responsibility for life on Earth. You will cherish your body and the bodies of others as well as the feelings of yourself and those around you. You will learn that your feelings are the gateway to the divine and a guidance system that replaces dogmas of the past. You will learn to trust yourself, love yourself, and open up in ways you never imagined. You will know a truth stronger than the Earth. You will see that you are all and all is one.