STOP HAVING BABIES AND SAVE THE WORLD
In this episode of Enlightenment Today I explore what overpopulation is doing to the world and why our conscious choice to refrain from having children might be the most noble act of our time. The reason I wanted to address such a contentious topic is because recently we broke the record for Earth Overshoot Day. The new record stands at August 1 for 2018 and it’s not a record we should be proud of. If people aren’t going to stop their thirst for material objects then not having children is the only responsible choice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODUdrm3o4qs Recommended Reading https://www.overshootday.org/
You Are Worthy
In this episode of Enlightenment Today I explore why we feel the need to be worthy and why it is wrong to feel worthless. Trying to feel worthy is common among all cultures and societies. We are all trying to prove our worth to others. We want to be accepted by others. We’ll do anything to feel as though we are needed by the world. We’ll continually chase our tail to try and be successful in the eyes of others. We’re essentially putting on an act for the world to try and establish our worth. But why do we feel the need to be someone else to please the world? Why are you not fine just the way you naturally are? The bigger question, is it normal to feel unworthy? So, basically what I’m going to address is why we feel the need to be worthy and is that attitude is even sane.
Learn to Say NO and Get to Work
In this episode Enlightenment Today I explore how to be more effective and productive in life when it comes to creating work that matters. Learn to say NO and get to work. Learning to say no and just getting to work are both two simple principles for creating meaningful content. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJFsTcirIPo Recommended Reading Learn to Say NO and Get to Work blog post Learn to Say NO and Get to Work
Learn to Say NO and Get to Work
Learn to Say NO and Get to Work I received an email from a budding writer. She asked, “How can I get so much done in so little time?” My answer was simple: Learn to say NO and get to work. Both are the two simple principles for creating meaningful content. Procrastination kills all artistic endeavors. The only way to slay that dragon is to get to work and guard your time because its the most precious resource we have. I’m anxious when I procrastinate, so I just get to work and see what comes to me naturally. I try not to overthink about what I want to create nor do I have illusions of grandeur. I just have a trust in the process of writing itself. I’ve learned that if you want to write, just sit down and shut up. Let the pen do the talking. Stop thinking about what you are going to do and just do it. Embrace the grind. Its better than doing nothing and telling people about what you are going to do. I’ve had many friends tell me their intentions and then they don’t back it up with actions. Nothing annoys me more than that, especially when they complain that their creative life is going nowhere. Your intention and action have to unite. This is why I don’t tell anyone what I’m writing about until I have finished. I’m currently writing my seventh book with my sixth book is in the bag. You’ll find out about both of these books when they are ready to be published. But all my work and my future projects (which I can’t tell you about yet because there is no actions to back them up) are built on learning to say NO. You can’t fulfill your creative juices if you are constantly meeting friends and family, playing with your phone, watching TV, surfing the Internet, or saying yes to every opportunity that goes your way. You need to say NO! Make it loud and clear so everyone gets the message. As a content creator, or an artist in general, large chunks of undistracted time is what you need. If you don’t cultivate this sort of creative isolation then you’ll create nothing meaningful. Think of all the great artists you have been inspired by, this is how they did it. It sounds nice to think that artists sit around coffee shops waxing lyrical about deep topics, but we don’t live in a fantasy world. It doesn’t mean an artist doesn’t love their friends and family, it just means they know what it takes to create meaningful art. Saying NO will give you the time to express your deepest nature, but you can’t sit around dreaming about it, you gotta get to work. We can all inspire the world with our own art by following these two simple principles. Do you have what it takes? Don’t be afraid to share your art and heart with the world. SHARE
An Accomplished Taoist
In this episode of Enlightenment Today you will learn what it means to be an accomplished Taoist. We often hear people say they follow the Tao, the Way. But what does it mean and are they truly a Taoist or are they just intuiting their experience according to their own biases and confusing it with flow? When we think of Taoism we have to revert back to the two great sages of Taoist philosophy: Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. The core of Taoism is a way of life focused on having healthy and sane people who are then capable of understanding and aligning with the spiritual core and order of the universe, the Tao. This in turn creates a healthy and sane world. By becoming an accomplished Taoist you will be immune to the inevitable perils you encounter in life. Recommended Reading Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy http://amzn.to/2EgVpTN Tao Te Ching (Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English translation) http://amzn.to/2z6w7V3 Tao Te Ching (Philip J. Ivanhoe translation) http://amzn.to/2iCs0tU Tao Te Ching (Stephen Mitchell translation) http://amzn.to/2hPV6IX The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu http://amzn.to/2hFc1Kt The Way of Chuang Tzu http://amzn.to/2z3VyGJ I Ching http://amzn.to/2zWMSW7 Trying Not to Try http://amzn.to/2z6l0eU Tao: The Watercourse Way http://amzn.to/2zZGn2N Genuine Pretending http://amzn.to/2iDhF04 Awakening to the Tao https://amzn.to/2KdsSBc
History of the Monarchical View | Book Excerpt from Enlightenment Now
History of the Monarchical View | Book Excerpt from Enlightenment Now Tracing our history back to pre-agrarian culture, humanity was a people living in and with nature. We existed in small tribal and shamanic communities taking only the necessities of life, rather than whatever we wanted. Those archaic cultures did not have to seek equilibrium with the environment because they were already naturally harmonious. They perceived nature in all of its glory, as an extension of themselves, instead of our modern approach to nature as a separate and tyrannical lord. Material acquisitions were of no importance, as the welfare of the individual and the community were the main priorities. This is not to say that these cultures were above individual and collective folly, but the stark difference to our modern civilization is that their faults were generally addressed with an attempt to heal any problem through a consensus of opinion in a communal setting. An individual’s problem was the community’s problem and vice versa. The welfare of one was the welfare of all. In such a model, there is no individual above the others who decides what is good for the people. Even the rise of the shaman and holy person did not threaten this communal importance within tribal cultures. The shaman and holy person, though, is respected as the one who has done the internal work to possess the innate wisdom that heals others’ physical and psychological ailments. This is not to say that a shaman or a holy person necessarily held a position of authority over the community. On the contrary, in most cases the shaman and holy person was a hunter and gatherer just like anyone else, but differed in having a keen interest in medicine and healing, in much the same way that certain women of the community had a keen interest in arts and crafts. In this statement we are not suggesting that only men were shamans or holy people and that only women were interested in arts and crafts; that would be a common mistaken assumption. Within many tribal communities in ancient times the shaman and holy person, either female or male, held a place of equal importance to other members of the tribe, which is hard for us to fathom in our current era from a state of consciousness that tends to perceive reality in the mold of layers and levels of hierarchy. There were tribes in ancient times that did kill and shun shamans or holy people as outsiders. But in many cases tribal communities were based on the natural philosophy of mutuality as opposed to the modern view of individuality because individuality had not blossomed as it has in our current era. Tribal cultures are traditionally a partnership society based on mutuality and anyone in those ancient times who sought individual salvation from the group ran the risk of nature’s wrath. Those who were not mutually in sync with the other people of the tribe were viewed to disturb its harmony. Individuality, then, in those times was about how one benefited the group. Everybody had their place within the community by following what their natural God-given talents were. No one had to be assigned duties, as there was no one in the role of a dictator in the community assigning duties to others. In the Taoist philosophy of China, each and every individual has his or her own unique psychosomatic pattern that they express either physically or psychologically, which ultimately brings harmony to the world. In Chinese this unique organic pattern is known as li (理), and by following your li you naturally harmonize with the universal essence and order, Tao (道), which brings harmonic resonance into the world of form, known as ying (應) in Chinese. The ancient Taoist sages understood the natural tribal values brought down from living with nature and then into agrarian society. Invariably our li, in other words, our intrinsic human nature, is linked to art, because art in its purest form is the self-expression of one’s organic pattern. Because of this, the artistic path calls to the artist, and is not the result of personal desires and perceived pleasures. Pursuing your personal desires and pleasures within the apparently secure confines of your own physical and psychological comfort zones is no way to discover your organic pattern or freedom. This vain pursuit actually has more in common with a prison than anything else. That calling which naturally dawns upon our mind is the path of the hero, if we choose not to be distracted by what our egotistical mind is attracted to, because the ego is invariably associated to the hypnosis of laziness and procrastination. Mythologist and philosopher Joseph Campbell beautifully called following this calling “the Hero’s Journey.” He adeptly explained that if you discover your li and follow it—“following your bliss” in Campbell’s terminology—then you not only continually grow along the path of life, but you also change the world through your self-expression as it harmonizes with everything in reality, that is, ying. For example, artists often have the ying ability to bring people together, move them emotionally, and inspire others. Ironically, though, a lot of people strive to become an artist for fame or to appease their own intellectual pursuits and in both cases they usually fall short of the mark. On the other hand, successful artists in a lot of cases never intended to be famous and weren’t originally passionate about their craft, but from following the intuitive calling of li along the hero’s journey they continue to grow and become extremely passionate without any intention to do so at the outset. Establishing harmony between the individual and the community was common etiquette among many ancient natural tribal cultures. The community was an extension of the individual and so the individual is the community. The inner life of the individual becomes the culture. The microcosm and macrocosm are both one
The Way of the Warrior and Path of the Sage | Book Excerpt from The Science and Practice of Humility
The Way of the Warrior and Path of the Sage | Book Excerpt from The Science and Practice of Humility A human has two primary states of awareness or modes of being. As we have mentioned there are those who are drawn into the daily dramas of life and those who have an elevated perspective, capable of seeing a fractal harmony within all life. These two states of awareness run parallel with the conscious state of the false ego and the true self, respectively. The ego perceives the fine details of reality. Like a microscope the ego focuses on the very tiny matters of life, then mistakenly builds its psychology around these insignificant situations. On the other hand the true self is the state of consciousness so pure that it constantly sees that life is pattern; in this state the unfolding universe can be visualized. This state of awareness is a mind of no deliberation, a mind that does not attach itself to any circumstance or thought—past, present, or future. The true self dwells within the spiritual plane and knows the soul vibrations, hence the evolution of perception. We associate this state of consciousness with a teacher of eternity or a sage, and the state of consciousness of the ego caught in the details with the masses or the profane. Both primary states of awareness are built into the universal structure. These two viewpoints have been an area of confusion throughout the ages. Yet both are necessary and together form a cosmic law. The teacher and student relationship is found in all levels of life, whether as parent and child, teacher and student, or— the most mysterious of all—master and disciple. In the immutable relationship between master and disciple, the disciple is still deluded by the mind, whereas the master knows the totality of our being. These two modes are represented in ancient scriptures and mystical stories as “the warrior” and “the sage.” Many examples of a sage teaching a warrior are found in the Vedantic treatises of India, most notably the Bhagavad Gita and Ribhu Gita (Song of Ribhu). The Bhagavad Gita tells the story of Arjuna the warrior and Krishna the sage, while the Ribhu Gita refers to Nidagha the warrior and Ribhu the sage. In both classics the warrior is suffering from his own mind and plight within this world. As he begins to question his mind, the guidance of the sage appears. In both scriptures the whole process is to lift the warrior’s mode of perception out of the details of life into the vision of the Divine. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna attempts to move Arjuna’s awareness out of the daily mundane struggles of life into the vision of Brahman, which is to see the infinite in all things. Verses 31, 32, and 33 of chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gita state: When a sensible man ceases to see differentidentities due to different material bodies andhe sees how beings are expanded everywhere,he attains to the Brahman conception. Those with the vision of eternity can seethat the imperishable soul is transcendental,eternal, and beyond the modes of nature.Despite contact with the material body,O Arjuna, the soul neither does anything noris entangled. The sky, due to its subtle nature, does not mixwith anything, although it is all-pervading.Similarly, the soul situated in Brahman visiondoes not mix with the body, though situated inthat body.1 This is only one of many ways to interpret these scriptures, but this way of understanding the relationship between the warrior and sage is imperative to the practice of the science of humility. These two modes of being correspond to the flow of chaos (warrior) and order (sage) within consciousness. One of the biggest problems to plague this planet throughout time has been the fostering of the warrior’s consciousness and the continual suppression of the sage’s consciousness. It comes back to the individual, so there is no one to blame for this other than ourselves. Our obstinate refusal to look within ourselves to find the true problems in our world has allowed us to further justify our own habitual ways that are slowly killing the human species. For us to ward off this fate, we need to understand where our awareness is rooted. To do this we need to explore the characteristics of a warrior and a sage. THE WARRIOR The warrior is an ephemeral state of awareness that gets swept up in trying to change the world. To achieve this implied change, warriors attempt to impose their will on others. In the belief they are striving for world peace, they cause more trauma. The warrior does not know that fighting for a solution only increases a problem. Why do we fight? Here “fight,” means to have conflict or oppose some situation either within or without. One of the major dilemmas of the human psyche is having the notion that something is either good or bad. When an individual judges if something is good or bad, it comes back to the false psychological state known as the ego: humans judge if something is good or bad according to their own conditioning from birth. Not being conscious of this, warriors seek to change the world according to their likes and dislikes. So a warrior does not truly want to bring peace to the world because he is in fact conspiring against it. The majority of beings on Earth have a warrior’s consciousness, which is evident in the chaos of the physical and mental worlds. Those who believe that what is right for them is the way for everybody else are not truly concerned about another being’s authentic way of life. A warrior harbors an artificial internal conspiracy, that of believing that we are our thoughts and our accumulated conditioning. Buying into the grand delusion of conditioning fragments reality into chaos and separation. The warrior knows the chattering within the mind but is ignorant of
Books for Studying Taoism
Books for Studying Taoism Taoism is a path often confused with being a conventional religion and primarily a form of spiritual cultivation concerned with martial arts and other Taoist arts. This is not completely untrue but its not the entire picture. All forms of Taoist spiritual cultivation and the religion are all based on its original philosophy going back 2,500 years to Lao-tzu and the Tao Te Ching. The problem with many modern spiritual movements is they have lost touch with the original philosophy of what they seek to practice and understand, modern watered down yoga is a good example. The Western version of yoga is just not yoga (watch my episode of Enlightenment Today on Yoga and the Eight Limbs of Yoga to understand the tradition). And this temperament is rife within those interested in Taoism. If you are not schooling yourself in the philosophy, or learning it in unison with your practice, then your practice will be handicapped. A human mind learns anything thoroughly when a framework for understanding has been studied. In regards to the Eastern spiritual traditions, it is best to study the philosophical framework from top to bottom so that your practice means something much deeper, so you can understand the intense process you are going through. Being absorbed in a spiritual process means we are in turn cultivating intelligence along the way. So it is not enough to go to a Taoist arts course, or your local yoga group, if we are just going to hang out with like minds and get distracted with mindless chit chat, turning the practice into a purely physical exercise or form of spiritual materialism. You have to throw yourself in the fire if you are serious about deep transformation. This means a lifetime of study when it comes to the spiritual traditions of the East. Though this shouldn’t be thought of as drudgery, but instead, it is an ever expanding joy you feel in your heart as those rich Eastern traditions will begin you to crack open your mind so it can blossom like a lotus flower. And to allow this transformation to bloom we need the right books to study. But I can tell you there are a number of books out there posing to be Taoist literature and then there are those that are authentic and sadly usually they’re the ones less read. To get a deep grasp of Taoism it is important to understand it in relation to the other great philosophies of the Warring States period of China. To understand the mind of Lao-tzu it is important to understand that period of time and the other sages that shared that time with him (if he did exist). One of the best books to understand the basis of Chinese thought is the Readings of Classical Chinese Philosophy by Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. Van Norden. Both Ivanhoe and Van Norden are esteemed scholars in the field of Chinese thought and have dedicated their lives to the study of its philosophy. This book includes all the classic texts of Chinese thought, including the works of Lao-tzu, Confucius, Mencius, Chuang-tzu, and more. This book is not just a great start but a great source book going forward. Even though Ivanhoe and Van Norden cover the classics in their anthology, it is good to get the classics on their own and some different translations to see some different scholarly perspectives. The Tao Te Ching is obviously imperative if you want to understand Taoism. There are a host of translations out there, some are authentic and some try to modernize the text. The second classic to study is the Chuang-tzu text. Some of the stories within the Chuang-tzu are something we could read in an afternoon but contemplate for a lifetime. He especially articulates the Taoist view of impartiality and mutuality as opposed to a mundane belief in good and bad, right and wrong, a righteous sense of morality, and a rationality that disembodies our mind and body. In my personal collection I own the Burton Watson translation which I love, but there are many great translations out there. A third classic to consider, though not considered traditionally Taoist, is the Mencius text by Mencius. Mencius is a Confucian but many scholars, and even myself, believe that much of his philosophy is Taoist rather than Confucian. To learn more about Mencius its best to watch my episode of Enlightenment Today on Mencius. On top of reading all the classics, there are a host of great contemporary scholars and teachers who explore Taoist thought very deeply. Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. Van Norden, who I mentioned earlier, have a host of great books exploring Chinese thought. Both have translated some of the classics, including the Tao Te Ching and the Mencius. Another scholar you need to know is Hans-Georg Moeller. Moeller has significantly shaped the way I think about Taoism. His recent classic Genuine Pretending,co-authored with Paul J. D’Ambrosio, is a must have in your library, especially if you want to understand the mind of Chuang-tzu. Moeller’s other books, such as The Philosophy of the Daodejing, Daoism Explained, and his translation of the Tao Te Ching are must reads. Edward Slingerland is another scholar you need to know. Slingerland has done a great job popularizing Chinese thought through his book Trying Not to Try. This book is a great exploration of wu-wei from the differing perspectives of the great sages from the Warring States period. But even though this book was for more of a mainstream audience, it still has great depth and is not just for beginners. Slingerland also has another great book on wu-wei called Effortless Action which is far more academic but that is precisely why it is a deep read. Personally I was introduced to Taoism through the philosophy and not the practices of Taoist arts,
Effortless Living OUT NOW!
Effortless Living is out now (published March 13, 2018). I’m excited for everyone to read it and hopefully it will inspire people to look deeply and seriously into the ancient teachings of wu-wei as explained by Lao-tzu. This book had a natural gestation period which was much longer than my previous books and ironically (or synchronistically) mimics some of the natural Taoist philosophy and wisdom I share in the book. Some of the key elements of the book are: • A guide for achieving an enlightened mind through the art of non-doing • Details meditation practices, focused on stillness of the mind, along with Patanjali’s yoga methods to maintain a consciousness referred to as “being in the zone” • Builds on Taoist, Confucian, and Hindu principles along with scientific findings to support wu-wei–the art of non-doing, non-forcing–as a way of life • Explains how wu-wei practitioners cultivate intelligent spontaneity and effortless action to allow the natural harmony of the cosmos to prevail Effortless Living is available in all book stores and also online. Explore the links below to discover all the publication deals available: Amazon Paperback http://amzn.to/2z0EG3Q Amazon Kindle http://amzn.to/2kat381 Inner Traditions https://www.innertraditions.com/effortless-living.html Trusting life and allowing life to be as it will without our conscious interference is the wisdom Lao-tzu brought forth which is still alive today. This wisdom is more relevant now than ever. Not only is this wisdom practical and sane, but it is also an antidote to a world that has got itself in a big rush, become so opinionated, and misinformed on the nature of life. Effortless Living is the way forward into peace and sanity for all.
The Skill of Martial Arts is Yin Over Yang | Book Excerpt from Effortless Living
The Skill of Martial Arts is Yin Over Yang | Book Excerpt from Effortless Living The science and practice of martial arts are based to some degree on the science of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This is evident in the fact that TCM focuses on how our body is a miniature inner universe. When we know and understand this inner universe, we begin to know the greater, outer universe and see how both function the same. Martial arts make use of this idea through movement methods that are supposed to open up the meridian channels of the body. This allows qi to flow freely, so that the mind and body are in harmony with the effortlessness of the heavens. This experiential knowledge attained by martial artists is supposed to transfer over into daily life, as it did with Thor Heyerdahl. Trust, then, is at the heart of martial arts, as they are based on the fundamental Taoist philosophy of wu-wei. The problem with martial arts is, as I have mentioned, that they have been infected with the cultural tendency toward doing, which becomes an intellectual game of striving for a so-called goal. Our whole world is invested in the energy of yang at the expense of yin. Our modern habits of doing, control, and force are deeply entrenched in both spiritually oriented and combat-oriented martial arts. And yet the core of both methods is the same, as martial arts are about transforming your character to reveal your true nature. This is the spiritual heart of martial arts, but it has been misinterpreted by Westerners and also by numerous people in the East. Many people think that the spiritual transformation in martial arts is about attaining powers or experiencing some altered state of consciousness similar to a psychedelic experience. This way of thinking is the “amateur spirituality” to which Chuang-tzu alluded. Amateur spirituality is the attraction to peacock consciousness, meaning that people still have the yang habit of showing off or telling other people about how peaceful and lucid their state of mind is. The irony of peacock consciousness is you find these people always talking about themselves, to the point where the listener feels ill and exhausted. This is especially true for those people trying to attain supernatural powers, called siddhis in Sanskrit. Such proclamations prove that no real transformation has occurred. All that has occurred is that one has become a well-trained show pony. This show-pony attitude is yang-oriented and has nothing to do with the basis of martial arts. As a result martial arts in the modern world are based on the perpetual activity of yang and failing to embrace the nondoing of yin. We discover this yang-over-yin temperament in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), which is best-known through the organization of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The athletes of MMA are well-trained; many of them function at a rate of peak performance, which can be quite a spectacle to watch. But the problem is that many mixed martial artists and spectators believe martial arts are about talking trash and beating the hell out of the opponent. Though this may be entertaining for the spectator, we should not delude ourselves into thinking this has anything to do with martial arts. Rather it is just martial arts on steroids, polluted with the idea of yang over yin, doing over non-doing. This attitude inclines one toward competition because of its innate characteristics of force and control. If mixed martial artists, or any combat sport athletes, for that matter, were serious about martial arts, they would need to understand and embrace the essential tenet of cooperation. Cooperation in martial arts is evident in the internal practice of pushing hands, known as tui shou in Chinese. In the practice of pushing hands, each person is feeling and moving according to the energy of the opposing person. Pushing hands works to undo our natural instinct to resist force with force by teaching the body to yield to force and redirect it. Force does not exist in this practice, because in feeling and moving according to the energy of the other person, we are accessing our receptive yin nature. Yin evokes the art of cooperation. Although it may appear that pushing hands is a form of competition, it instead is a dance, as you essentially need two to tango. Even so, pushing hands, like many other aspects of martial arts, has succumbed to the tendency toward the yang characteristics of competition and peacock consciousness. In both spiritually oriented and combat-oriented martial arts and MMA, the yin art of cooperation is at the core of all forms of cultivation. For example, if a mixed martial artist is trained properly, he or she will know that there is no opponent other than himself or herself. You are essentially testing yourself against your so-called opponent. The only opponent is yourself, and your perceived opponent is a mirror of where you are in your training. The mirror of the opponent reflects back to you your spiritual development as well as aspects of your character that have not been transformed or cleansed out of your psyche. So no matter what form of martial arts we are talking about—including MMA—the essential heart of the art is to blunt your sharpness. Blunting the sharpness is a phrase used by Lao-tzu in the Tao Te Ching to describe the softening of one’s rigid personality. In martial arts, it is about evoking the yin qualities of humility, compassion, forgiveness, respect, and honor. For thousands of years, martial arts have been mistakenly seen as practices to cultivate the yang, masculine characteristics of power, force, and control. This incorrect perspective has only increased our tendencies toward competition and trying to stand out in the crowd. Martial arts are not based on yang over yin but on yin over yang. They are a practice that mimics life, as the majority of
