Am i just tripping?
Everything that happens in our lives, whether we choose it or not, is part of our lives, there to be lived. Everything that happpens to us is real and is part of it. Some of us are irresistibly drawn to repeatedly taking the plunge into the unknown, and this is because we have seen positive changes in ourselves and our lives that seem to be intimately connected with those states of consciousness that have been called a hindrance to our survival, amongst other things!
An old theory of psychedelics and consciousness was that these "altered states" are normally filtered out as they would prevent our "physical, day-to-day survival". I say that our natural state is those states of inter-connectedness and awareness that have been so long repressed and resisted that they now initially appear "altered" and "alien" upon re-discovery. They are not a hindrance , but may be necessary for our survival and evolution as a species in the current situation. Communion, transcendence, spirituality, synchronicity, magic, healing, all these are not "higher" things but primary human dimensions!
Anyone with eyes to see is now seeing what our "civilisation" runs on and how it's procured, and what the consequences are and can be. I'm not talking just about oil. Apart ftom the direct victims,the witnessing or just the sensation of deep violation has already destroyed or crippled the lives of countless human beings everywhere. Many of us engage in activities that are directly or indirectly the cause of death and great suffering. Justice often seems to be justice for the powerful at the expense of the weak. The human race seems to be unconsciously hell-bent on destroying or crippling itself and every other living thing.
From an outside perspective, we could be seen as a potentially dangerous species in its adolescent phase, mindlessly playing around with our toys and occasionally ganging up and smashing everything and each other up , caught up in basic territorial and emotional squabbles. We alternate between love and hate in ways that disturb us. We are addicted to a technology and a culture of deceipt and violence, on a mass scale, which seems to be threatening our survival, and we simply turn it all into Hollywood films and continue with business as usual!
I'm not talking just about oil. I'm also talking about fear. The food of any demons , of any form, that are upon us is our fear. Like someone brilliantly wrote: fear of love of fear of love of fear of love......The power of our love is the most fearful thing we can't face.Overall we seem to be struggling with all those faculties that supposedly distinguish us from other animals. As a species and as individuals, we seem to be still only partially emergent from our cocoons, if not abortively so.
Many of us want change. Yet how much are we really doing it, being it? How much political and direct action, how much fighting, how much peace, how much permaculture, how much yoga and meditation, how much ritual, how much reiki, how much raw food, how much tripping and partying, how many drugs doth it take?
Too much or not enough? I say none of these is enough on its own, or even all of them together. Too much today may be just about enough tomorrow. We need to realise completely the nature of the trip-trap we find ourselves in, which is to realise the solution.The only solution i have found is action , in whatever way we're inspired, to denounce, firstly in ourselves, all forms of abuse, hiding, fakery, lifelesness , grasping, isolation, selfishness etc. and fearlessly reassert, by example , the real, the soulful, the living, the giving, the creative, the inter- connective, the cosmic, the far-out! The grounded and the spiritual. What we know human life on earth can be. What we can be.
I believe the alternative has been exhaustively explored in our twisted semi-collective imagination!
harken , harken!:Cynicism is a terrible, disfiguring character trait if used by the individual who is forced to carry a bitter chip. He will use his cynicism to cope with the weight of life and all its trials. But cynicism harnessed to your advantage can help debunk fraudulent mysteries that prevent us from sharing in what is possible and what is ours. At all times cynicism must be balanced with a belief and faith in the intrinsic goodness of our fellow man. Nobody really wants to be bad, even when they are pulling the trigger or handing out the towels for the non existent showers.... It is only by nurturing the goodness that everybody wants to express are the doors going to be held open for you.
(The KLF)
Anyone looking honestly at life will see that we live in a constant state of suspense and ambiguity. Our minds are perpetually shifting in and out of confusion and clarity. If only we were confused all the time, that would at least make for some kind of clarity. What is really baffling about life is that sometimes, despite our confusion, we can also be really wise! This shows us what the bardo is: a continuous, unnerving oscillation between clarity and confusion , bewilderment and insight, certainty and uncertainy, sanity and insanity. In our minds, as we are now, wisdom and confusion arise simultaneously, or, as we say, are "co-emergent." This means that we face a continuous state of choice between the two, and that everything depends on which we will choose. This constant uncertainty may make everything seem bleak and almost hopeless; but if you look more deeply at it, you will see that its very nature ceates gaps, spaces in which profound chances and opportunities for transformation are continuously flowering- if, that is, they can be seen and seized.
(Sogyal Rinpoche)
The secret lies between the moments.
The whole of human memory and history may be but a train of thought gone awry in the mind of -who?
A tragicomic drama of forgetfulness, fear and loathing. Some One overwhelmed and lost in the chaos and magic that is this new age of wonders and horrors. A moment of hesitation and fear leading to a cascading train of events, each one leading [me,you,him,her] further away from awareness of self and nature and into a cycle of self-created illusion. We have forgotten who we are, or we are finding out.We are involved in the redefinition of humanity, the birth of a new self , new consciousness.
Only facing and understanding that which seems to be "too much" can help us move on . That which we often try to avoid, demonize, negate. Our resistances to integration take many forms, and many , often acute, ways are necessary to erode these resistances.
There is only one reality, and it is inescapable. It is the reality that we constantly re-create for ourselves, with varying degrees of awareness. Yet love and spirit is behind everything "real" and it is love and spirit that constantly offers us ways out of the murk. Psychedelic plants and mushrooms are one of love's and spirit's many ways to reach us , through the earth, open our eyes to it and ourselves. Oh, yes, and the elves!
The only "thing" that gives life any meaning, any coherence, any reality, and makes it more than just bearable, is love, in its highest and most ordinary sense. Spirit is love. It is the only "thing" that is really free, to give, to take, to live. Without it, everything becomes folly , illusion, and leads to misery and isolation. We have the power of love, of spirit, to give, only if we consciously accept it as the compass in our lives. If not , we are "free" to wallow in the murk, indefinitely.
We are really only as free as we allow ourselves to be.
When i remember the nameless,
all fear melts away
like ice turned into water ,
shadows eclipsed by the rising sun...
Am i just tripping? Is anyone?
Home : Image Gallery : Texts : flash : Audio : Do It Links : About
