An Excerpt From My Book
As you may or may not know, I am currently writing a book about a man who goes into complete solitude in order to escape the pressures of society and he envisions the way the world is supposed to work in the following passage:
“I’m just having trouble overcoming this fear of society. Sure, it’s nice to live in solitude and I’ve made a lot of progress in many areas, but it’s becoming integrated in a society that is so preoccupied with material wealth and superficiality that stifles me from doing so. I’m not of material gain. I care more about the inside of a person than the outside. But society conditions us to look on the outside and take possessions over knowledge. That’s one reason I got away. There is no more value in truth. The value is in creating a life that others would envy, whether or not the life is true. It’s all about ego. Ego and the gratification of that ego. But when you live alone for as long as I have, the go pretty much disappears. You no longer are your birth name. You just become an entity. You don’t really have a specific ego because you are no longer trying to impress people. There is no drive to do so, especially by telling falsehoods. You learn to get by from being an honest and loving person, even if the only person you love is yourself. It’s not that I fear society, I fear the fact that if I were to become part of it once again, I’d be considered the weird one, the one who doesn’t conform to conventional normalities. People will wonder if I’m completely insane or if I’m some sort of serial killer. The things I do will be suspicious in a world bombarded with fear. Even if I were doing activities that resembled Jesus, people would pass me off as a crazy man because no one acts like that anymore.
And it’s a shame no one does. We’ve isolated ourselves anyway. Most people get up, go to work, and then go back home in their safe little house. So it’s not like I’m doing anything that radical. Most people spend the majority of their time in isolation or with very few people. Maybe I’m not that different. Maybe I need to lead a revolution about slowing down and relaxing and thinking, for Christ’s sake! The whole world is almost devoid of thinking. People have so many things to occupy their time that thinking has become of a low priority. Very few individuals think on a regular basis. This is why most of them can’t have nice things. And by nice things, I mean a sense of inner peace, a feeling of connectedness with nature, and an overall good feeling about where their lives are headed. But it’s not really their fault. It’s society’s fault. The media has conditioned them to believe that in order to be happy, you must buy things that will ultimately not make you happy. It’s because the things you’re after aren’t material, but internal. The internal part of yourself can never go away. The materials will come and go. There is not permanence in material wealth, but there is permanence in spiritual and intrinsic wealth. This is why most Zen Buddhist monks own hardly anything. They don’t feel bound by the impulse to always get more things because they have such a good inner self-image and peace that they don’t need external substance to ground them.
I think that’s what we all crave, though, isn’t it? To be able to be content with the things that nature gave us, the food we were intended to eat, and the peace we were intended to have. I feel that if we could all do this, then there would be no more wars, no more famine, no more greed, lust, and the other deadly sins and catastrophes. There would be no more need for entertainment because we would get that from experiencing our daily lives. There would be no need for processed foods as we would be grateful to eat the foods nature intended for us. These are the things that I wonder about. Could we actually go to a place like this, where everyone lives in complete harmony? A place where people help each other out of compassion and not for a reciprocal gain? That we all give, but by giving we also receive, but without actually receiving anything physical? A place where judgments are left at the door and never picked up again. That’s the kind of place I would like to live in. Maybe if I imagine it clearly enough, it will come true. I can see it so vividly in my mind’s eye. There are only peace, harmony, and unconditional love for one another because we all know we’re all pretty much the same. And we embrace that fact by working together to better the world and erase the terrible state that it’s in now. But we don’t organize anything. Whenever an organization forms, there becomes a need for greed and fear-based conformity. Take Christianity for example. They prey on the fact that they believe if you don’t follow a specific book written over 2000 years ago, you will go to a place that’s so bad it’s beyond your imagination.
The real motive is to decouple the fear mentality from the doing good to others mentality. I want people to help each other because they inherently want to, not because they feel that they have to or something bad will happen. I want people to live to their full potential while also making the world a better place. I want them to become a vibrational match for peace, love, and forgiveness. I want to us rely solely on each other and place trust in one another. I don’t want people out for their own selfish causes. I want people to only exist to help each other and do what inspires them. No more need for people do do jobs they hate just to make money. There will be no need because money will eventually become obsolete as everyone’s basic needs will be met and the rest will take care of itself through people living their passions. It will be a form of mutual connectivity that will most likely never divert back to the way the world is now.
The problem with the world is that we were born into it. We weren’t born before it was created, so we’re not really wholly responsible for the way it is. But we’ve become so accustomed to it that we just take it for what it is. We don’t really know where to begin to start correcting it, so we place those thoughts in the back of our minds in a filing cabinet with a lock on it. And when we go to retrieve the information, we realize we don’t have the key for the lock on the filing cabinet, so we decide to accept the world as it is and not make significant steps to change it. And then the cycle perpetuates to the point of utter materialism and gluttony as a society, which leads to the depletion of our natural resources, which leads to the extinction of mankind. And we will never see it coming. Even if we do see it coming, we’ll be too late to stop the disaster that will ensue. ”
There, I hoped you enjoyed the little snipet from my book. I’m really enjoying writing it, as it is simply a “continued journal,” as the man in the book was completely given up using dates and times to run his life. It’s kind of like reding someone’s organized thoughts continuously. It’s a very itneresting book to write, that means it will be fun to read for whoever ends up pulishing it.
November 16th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
[…] If you’re somewhat creative, then you know that following conventional norms is most likely not the best way to go about living your life. If you conform to all these supposed standard ways of living, then you will be stifling the creative person that you are. And this will lead to an array of unfulfillment and regrets. I really can’t state enough that following what you feel you should be doing in life is the best thing you can possibly do, especially if you have a unique approach to doing so. I realize that sometimes people don’t know what it is they want to do with their lives. It’s not an easy decision to make. Sometimes you may feel that there are too many possibilities. And you feel pressured to make a choice, but I think the common flaw is that most people look to external phenomena when they should be looking inside to determine what it is they should do with their life. Everything I write comes from within myself. It doesn’t come from any external conditioning. I try and create value by looking deep inside me and just letting the thoughts pour out. That is why I value journaling so much as a problem-solving tool. But if you are a creative person, then why not get creative in all facets of your life, regardless of whether or not you have a definite purpose for your life? If you feel you could make money is a fun and creative way, then go for it. I’m going to start experimenting with this. I have some items I’m going to sell on eBay to bring in some extra cash, at least enough to supplement my meager income from the grocery business. My main goal is to make enough money consistently to not need to have a regular job through multiple income streams. I’ve been working on a book I’m writing. You can get the excerpt here. I’m enjoying creating this person, this entity, that is so different from anything I’ve ever read and inspires me to write more and more about. I’m also working on improving my drawing skills so that I can start drawing some funny cartoons/comics. I’m becoming more of who I know I am. I feel that if I can unleash my creativity to the extent I want to, I will be able to have some amazing ideas that will lead to many endeavors that will unlock everything I could dream of. Having the ability to entertain yourself is very valuable. This way, you never feel bored. I could not leave my house in over a year and I’d never be bored. I get more bored when I’m at work because there is no time to think of good ideas. I can go on vacations without ever going anywhere. Having a creative mind is so valuable. If we all could see that, we’d all be off the dreaded drug called TV. How many of you have taken the time to read a book in the last month? It’s so much easier to watch the movie, isn’t it? But there’s no thinking involved when you watch a movie, just passive watching. I must credit my creativity from my early reading. I used to read about a 160 page book a day when I was in elementary school. I read many of the classic books, as well as the Goosebumps series. I read the Chronicles of Narnia, and other very creativity-centered books. They allow the mind to wander. I enjoy stimulating my mind much more than stimulating my body through watching TV. So if you want to be creative, just start thinking. Once I decided to be creative again, my dreams became so vivid I could almost touch them. I remember the most minute details from them. It’s almost like my mind works 24 hours a day and I am allowed to think of ideas even when I’m unconscious. It’s a pretty cool feeling. I have the power, just like you, to become a creative genius. We all have talents, but most times they go unnoticed because you’re stifled by “real life.” They say that your creativity shrinks in size as you get older. Don’t let that happen. Grab it while you can. And live the life of non-boredom. […]
January 26th, 2007 at 12:32 am
In reacting to social norms by going into solitude, your reaction appears to be more of an escape rather than a quest for meaningful self-discovery. I agree with the previous post that “following what you feel you should be doing in life is the best thing you can possibly do.” You have creative potential which is the key to your personal fulfillment. Consider your life to be like a treasure hunt. Rather than compare yourself to people around you like whom you’re not, set out to identify and expand on the person you are.