The Tao of Principle

Principle is originally there; just call it to mind and it is there of itself. Desire is originally not there; if you can just see through it, it disappears of itself. Stopping desire and keeping to principle are basically not two things; to the extent that you have stopped desire, to that extent you keep to principle. Nothing benefits people more than principle, yet those who keep to principle are few. Nothing harms people more than desire, yet those who indulge desires are many.

When people have desires, it is like trees having insects; consumed within unknown, before long they collapse. Those who think desire is fun do not realize desire is like fire; if you do not put it out, you will burn yourself. Your spirit will suffer from irritation, alcohol and sex will wear out your vital energy, producing illness and ulcers, so you cry out in pain day and night. Buddhists who say you suffer from your sins after death do not realize you already suffer while still alive.

–Thomas Cleary

What the Matrix Can Teach us About Life and Rules

Morpheus in this conversation with Neo (‘the One’) in the first Matrix movie:

‘I’ve seen an agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. Yet their strength and their speed are still based in a world that is built on rules. Because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.’

‘What are you trying to tell me, that I can dodge bullets?’

‘No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.’

Many years ago, I entered this movie without a clue of what to expect. Incidentally, I find that these kinds of unexpected surprises, are often the best kinds of transformative experiences. The mind has no time to prepare any expectations for the experience. Instead the mind is just hit with the new reality and must quickly transform itself in response; there is no time to filter or deflect the experience.

The Matrix exceeded my wildest expectations and instilled a newfound curiosity towards the very nature of our experiential reality. At first there was a stream of thought to the effect that, maybe we are literally plugged into a mechanical device which simulates our reality. This further brought about thoughts such as, “What in fact is reality anyways?”

If our conscious reality is simply impulses arriving via the nervous system, then the reality is quite literally a projection in our own minds and is therefore holographic in it’s very nature. This essentially means there is not a solid, tangible, world out there, as our rational minds often like to think. Instead, we have this biological operating system which constructs these rule sets, which govern our impression of reality, in order to function more effectively (by it’s own definition, of course) in our environment.

What I am getting at here is the fact that our minds have a basic rule-set by which they operate, in order to survive in the current environment. This rule-set is generally set-up for the basic survival of our biological envelopes (bodies). However, by no-means are these foundational rules concrete; they are simply the consensus that we have, as a collective, chosen to instill via the socialization process.

When I imply that the rules are not concrete, I mean there may be a different, perhaps more succinct, set of rules; which will at some point, allow us an even deeper connection with the world around us. We have to be willing to look at the current set of rules in a critical light, in order to enable our selves to do this. Clearly there is an inherent resistance to this, which seems to be a product of the Ego not wanting to let go.

If we, on an individual level, can genuinely undock from this control grid, as many have done in the Matrix; then I foresee many of the limitations which now impede our day-to-day lives falling by the wayside.

If such a movement were to come to fruition, perhaps the people who made this conscious decision to undock from the control grid and redesign reality, will again build great societies, where they and their descendants can better self-actualize. A society where novelty is in great abundance, where individuals are no longer a drain on resources; but instead a priceless asset which compounds novelty as they reflect it from their own unique perspective in order to generate a richness of experience which most of us can only dream of in today’s world.

Thoughts on the Gold Chart and Economics

As of September 25, gold has broken through two long-term formations and sits at the neckline of an inverse head & shoulders formation.

Given that gold closed the week at the neckline of such a long-term Head & Shoulders formation, after having shown such resilience over the past few weeks, it is time we prepare ourselves for a significant move, further into unknown territory. The chart above indicates that gold is acting like a coiled spring, ready for the slightest trigger, to send it into launch mode; bringing the price into the $1200-1300 USD range.

When I look at this chart, I am reminded of the 2002-2003 period, when gold was hovering around the $375 range in a large wedge formation. At the time everyone was thinking, “this must be it for gold, it’s already had such a run from $250, the bull run surely must be over by now.”

I remember seeing the wedges, similar to the current chart, though less volatile than the current price fluctuations. I remember seeing a good-sized wedge in the MACD which had broken to the upside. In fact, it was at this time that Jim Sinclair, the CEO of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration and the author of Jim Sinclair’s Mine Set had a contest for gold community members to draw the relevant trend lines on an Investors Business Daily gold chart that he provided. The prize for this contest was a one ounce gold coin.

Well, I took Jim up on his offer and drew formations similar to those on the attached chart. Including a MACD breakout precisely like the one on the current chart. I made the chart simple yet elegant and intuitive and fortunately for me; out of all of the hundreds of charts sent in to his fax, he chose mine as the winner. What a great feeling that was and what an appreciation I gained for the power that each of us has to understand what is going on in the economic world with elegant simplicity not endless complexity.

It was even more rewarding to see gold advance to $450 by late 2004 and then $700 by 2006. What you have to realize, when you are studying these charts, is the fact that the underlying forces which propel gold skyward have not changed. The governments and central banks of the world continue to employ their disastrously flawed Keynesian economic models which create welfare, warfare and ultimately massive inflation.

Politicians love having all of the “free” money, hot off the printing press, to buy votes, line the pockets of their associates and bail out their friends. That is why these leftist notions of a nanny state taking care of us from cradle to grave, often embraced by Republicans and Democrats alike, is not going to solve the problems it was intended to solve.

This is because everything has a cost, yes even the nanny state, corporate welfare and the like. As the price of the yellow metal rises the buying power of the savings of billions of individuals decreases; so they are in effect robbed in broad daylight by the Keynesian inflationary policies. Is it any wonder that the standard of living continues to decline all over the western world.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” –Einstein

One of these days, it may dawn upon people, en mass; that in general the government doesn’t solve problems, it only creates problems. So the only way to truly solve problems is by strictly limiting the role of government to that of a referee and letting the free market bring about the solutions we need.

Had the free market been allowed to act upon zombie banks years ago, when the problems first arose; these banks would have never become “too big to fail.” Had the free markets been allowed to act, unhindered, in the health care field, we would have more choices and less people unable to get the help they need.

Unfortunately, with the public school educated populace; the first place they turn whenever their is a problem is the government. So we have the Hegelian dialectic, “(problem) oh goodness, what a dreadful problem! — (reaction) what are they going to do about it? — (solution) the policies that were originally sought, but did not find the political support are now widely supported and then implemented without much opposition.”

It really saddens me to see my countrymen repeating this cycle over and over again, unaware and uncaring of the fact that it makes their lives much more difficult and constrained. I often wonder when it will become apparent to them that all of this nonsense isn’t working. Will it be when gold is at 3,000? 5,000? 10,000?

I can’t say for sure when decisive action will be taken; but if history is any indicator, inevitably there will come a point at which the pull of the massively centralized state on people’s lives distorts the culture of these people to such an extent that they decide they’ve had enough of it. This would be the point where they realize that it costs so much more to live in a massive welfare state than the benefits that are derived from it and the productive individuals either demand real change, or they pull up anchor and head for some place which will suit their needs.

The Importance of the Jeffersonian Model

At the dawn of America’s independence, her newly formed government was populated with reluctant leaders; statesmen in the truest sense of the word.  Whereas in today’s world, such statesmanship is practically an anathema; for those who do exhibit statesmen-like principle are often ridiculed, for their strict opposition to the unprincipled, morally bankrupt, tactics of today’s political movements.

The Hypocrisy of the Ruling Party

“I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.”

- Thomas Jefferson

In contemporary American society, there is a considerable hubris and hypocrisy, exhibited by the ruling party and supporters of this party; whether it be Republican or Democrat.  Both parties claim to be adherents of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, yet both parties unapologetically denigrate these foundational principles at virtually every opportunity.

It is as if the principles of equal protection under the law, upon which our republic was founded, have been discarded in favor of a democracy in which favored groups are rewarded using protection rackets and money powers to govern.

American society is ever becoming like many ancient societies, where the national government becomes the centerpiece of everyone’s lives.  They use bread and circuses to keep the people occupied, such that they do not object to the gradual takeover and subjugation of an individual’s right to self-determination.

Some-day in the near future, it may be virtually impossible to make a decent living in America, without working directly for the government or as a contractor of the government.  This merging of the corporations with the government is the very definition of Industrial Fascism.

The Immorality of Unconstitutional Spending

“This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded in principles of honesty, not of mere force.” — Thomas Jefferson

If you consider the extent to which we are taxed and scrutinized, as well as the legal definition of Citizen of the United States, then we are already employees of United States; because in legalese the term Citizen is held to mean Employee. This is how the government gets away with the so-called Income Tax, despite the fact that direct un-apportioned taxes are expressly forbidden in the Constitution. In fact many Americans are already working 3+ months out of the year to pay for the taxes they are compelled to pay by the government. Read the rest of this entry »

Nassim Haramein interview on Coast to Coast AM: August 18, 2009

Nassim Haramein has a promising theory, which unifies the fundamental forces of physics and shows the universe as being a fractal of a 64 tetrahedron grid. This means that the universe is not only infinitely large, but it is also infinitely small; because the 65 tetrahedron grid is a recursive geometric structure which you can go into or out of infinitely.

There is a great deal of background behind Dr. Haramein’s theory. For further research, listen to the Coast to Coast interview below, or check out his foundation’s site The Resonance Project. Read the rest of this entry »

Alternatives to Empiricism: Experiencing Beyond the “Five Senses”

In this western empiricism “box” that we often put ourselves in, we are resigned to acknowledging only the images that enter our minds through the visual cortex. There are, however, other ways of seeing and experiencing which neither involve the eyes, nor objects that the eyes have seen.

This reliance on the so-called “five senses,” as the only valid form of experience, tends to blind us. Because of it, we often fail to experience the deeper aspects of our being. Indeed there is a kind of circular reasoning behind empiricism; there is this implicitly accepted idea that I cannot know anything beyond what the “five senses” experience of the material realm.

Is there really any basis for the belief that there is nothing beyond the “five senses”?

There are a number of experiences one can have, be it shamanic or meditative, which provide a glimpse of realms of being which are altogether alien to the material world.

Intuition: Delusion or Perception?

Toward a Scientific Explanation of the Akashic Experience

Irvin Laszlo | New Dawn Magazine

The intuitions reported by mystics, poets, artists, ordinary people, even scientists, often go beyond the range of sensory perception. In the reductionist culture inspired by classical science, they are dismissed as mere delusion – classical empiricism claims that there is nothing in the mind that was not first in the eye. However, the classical tenet is not universally upheld. It is exceptional in the annals of history, and even in the context of contemporary cultures. Read the rest of this entry »

I am me, I am free: The Robots Guide to Freedom

Ask anyone and they will tell you that they want to be free. What does it mean to be truly free? Is it something that is bestowed upon us by some outside force such as the government?

Actually, true freedom issues from within our very being; we create the freedom or the lack thereof in every moment that we exist. With each passing breath we have a choice; we can be “an infinite consciousness capable of being and creating whatever it chooses” or we can be “an illusion imprisoned by its own perceived and programmed limitations.”

When you look out into the world, is it not obvious that there is a very real problem with people unnecessarily limiting themselves with their own perceived and programmed limitations? Might each of us, no matter how much we’ve worked on ourselves, benefit from some reflection on these concepts?

Chapter 1: The Bewildered Herd

by David Icke

So who the hell are you, then? What lies behind those eyes? When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Do you see the real you, or what you have been conditioned to believe is you? The two are so, so, different. One is an infinite consciousness capable of being and creating whatever it chooses, the other is an illusion imprisoned by its own perceived and programmed limitations.

Which of these “yous” is controlling your life? Infinity or limitation? Self love or self disdain? Freedom of thought or a prison of the mind?

Sadly for the overwhelming majority of people on this planet all but the privileged few – it is the conditioned mind which prevails. They live their lives within their programmed limitations of thought, view, and action. It is a world of I can’ts and I daren’ts and I mustn’ts; of I shoulds and I musts and I ought tos; a world of conforming to what someone else says they must be or should be. While the real them sees only solutions and opportunities to learn and evolve, the programmed them sees only problems and reasons not to do. They live life behind bars in a cell of their own making. The world itself reflects the sum total of these billions of individual prisons. The Earth has become a global Alcatraz, a spinning ball of control and imposition dictated by the few at the expense of the many. Freedom? Free-what? How do you spell that again? The human race has not been free for a very, very long time, well before recorded history. But the trick is to persuade us that we are free – then we won’t do anything about the walls that surround us and the warders at the door. Walls? What walls? You’re free! Warders? What warders? You’re free! Read the rest of this entry »

I Lose My Mind Beneath The Sea: The Golden Boy Swallowed by the Sea

And The Endless Crowds Of People
They Walk Upon This Stone
Where Will Their Memory Go
Where Did Their Minds Come From
And I Was Only A Child
When I First Looked In Your Eyes
And Saw Your Body Rise Over The Ocean

We Saw The Golden Boy Bleed Love
Onto The Sand Like Rain
While We Were Injecting Colours
Into Our Open Veins
And Deep Beneath The Water
The Dead Black Silence Crawled

Far Away Across The Ocean
The Golden Boy’s Beneath The Sea
The Golden Boy Swallowed By The Sea

And Love Is Sometimes Violent
And Violence Has No Constraint
And I Can See Inside You
Yes I Can Feel What You Think
And With This Knife Of Silver
I Will Release Your Soul
And Throw It Out Into The Ocean

Nine Million Miles In A Straight Line
In A Place Just Like This
In A Ship On The Water
Where No Dimensions Exist
My Hands Are Holding Your Picture
And The Image It Shifts
I Tear It Up And Scatter It Over The Ocean
The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed By The Sea

~swans

What is usually thought of as love
Is actually its opposite
The destruction of diversity
The antithesis of compassion

It is this idea that I must make you exactly like me
I must assimilate your mind, into my way of thinking
So that we may all be mere copies of one another
Without a single difference between us

Its all meaningless rote and ritual
Devoid of any fruitful existence
Stands between us, like a raging inferno
Burning anyone who gets too close to our boundaries

Are we really so different, at the core of our being?
Is not most of what we seek, one and the same?
But there is this mechanism in our conditioning
Often stifling our ability to extinguish the blaze

Why We Produce So Much Catastrophe

“We reproduce catastrophe because we ourselves are traumatized – both as a species and individually, beginning at birth. Because we are wounded, we have put up psychic defenses against reality and have become so cut off from direct participation in the multidimensional wilderness in which we are embedded that all we can do is to navigate our way cautiously through a humanly designed day-to-day substitute world of symbol— a world of dollars, minutes, numbers, images and words that are constantly being manipulated to wring the most possible profit from every conceivable circumstance. The body and spirit both rebel.”

~David Watson, The Pathology of Civilization

What’s the Worst Thing about Becoming a new Parent?

You might think its the bodily trauma of pregnancy and birth, or the constant stream of dirty diapers, or the sleep deprivation. There are many negative things that people often associate with the journey into parenthood; but I submit to you that there is something else altogether, seldom mentioned, which goes far beyond all of these things.

The worst thing about becoming a new parent, is how people who wish to control you, treat you. Yes, you heard it right. When you don’t have a kid on the way, you are of little matter to them; but once they hear that one is on the way; all of the sudden, they want to know everything about your life; they want to become good buddies, give you their “sage advice,” and guilt you for anything that you don’t include them in.
Read the rest of this entry »