RANDOM MUSINGS FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT (reprise)

Second Life Prayer for Burmese Dead 46 by Gary Hayes

DEATH AND DYING

There are moments when I can happily contemplate living forever... and times when I would be quite happy to die immediately! In either case, the trick is to nullify the grimness and gravity of the grave - to laugh in the face of the unknown - we really don't have much choice. The alternative is to wallow in melancholy and moroseness and to see Life itself as a curse rather than a blessing.

As a kid I occasionally allowed my thoughts to stray towards the inevitability of someday witnessing my parents' deaths - and I'd shudder at the horrible notion of never seeing Mum or Dad again.

Ironically, after watching my mother endure five years of dialysis and being subject to other medical ignominies (with a meter running all the while which eventually enriched the medical profession by at least a quarter million ringgit - that's right, folks, not only do you pay death duties, you also get heavily taxed as you're dying!) I found myself encouraging her to let go, to allow the currents to take her from the pain and suffering of her bodily existence... I found myself promising her that she would be safe and well protected on the other side of the veil... and, thinking about it, I have served as Angel of Death for quite a number of people over the years.

Often, all one requires is a little reassurance that all of it has been just a colorful drama, a fabulous movie indeed, but the REAL LIFE awaits outside the theater.

Indeed, it's like a show within a show within a show (or a trial within a trial)... What's evident is that when the Book Religions displaced Ancient Wisdom, they deprived humanity of any in-depth understanding of all the different dimensions in which Consciousness dwells - the only recent cultures that paid any attention at all to the scientific study of Death being the Egyptian and Tibetan; so it is to them that we must turn for some guidance to the realms that reside just beyond the EXIT.

The jackal-headed Anubis, Egyptian god of the dead, tending the casket of Sennedjem
in the Valley of the Kings (courtesy of National Geographic)

[Originally posted as a comment on a friend's blog]




VISION QUEST

You live in a hologram designed to harvest your vital energy to fuel a machine of destruction and enslavement. However, every atom that exists is a fractal of the entire universe and is supercharged with infinite potential and cosmic intelligence.

The part of you that is immortal and indestructible (your Godself or Atman) is constantly attempting to wake you up from the robotic trance most humans are born into.

Heed these signs. They are clues that will ultimately lead you out of the labyrinth and into true freedom.

Nobody can force anybody else to step into the Unknown. It's a step each soul has to take - the sooner the better, because we are running out of linear time, and when that happens, it's like finding yourself on a sinking ferry and not knowing how to swim. Glub glub glub!

Even so, there's no need to fear. The only thing that happens to the unawakened is that they get recycled and turned into fertilizer for the next harvest of souls. The Awakened Ones master their own destiny and know what true freedom means.

Good luck on your vision quest!

[Originally posted as a couple of comments on ChanKelwin.com]

ENDING THE NIGHTMARE

The Magic Lantern (also known in German as 'The Lantern of Fear')

The phenomenal world is like a magic lantern show of moving images that ceaselessly change and distract from the ONLY authentic task at hand: clearing our neural and emotional circuitry so that we can individually emerge from our cocoons of illusory powerlessness and victimhood.

As each of us achieves Buddhahood and other degrees of spiritual maturity, the historical nightmare on this beautiful planet will abruptly end.

[Originally posted as a comment on Guru Maha Graha]

OWNING UP TO YOUR SHIT

Most of us are passive consumers of reality - shit happens and we bitch about it. Then one day a light bulb flashes on above our heads and we experience a eureka moment - like Pythagoras who exclaimed: "Astonishing! EVERYTHING IS INTELLIGENT!!!"

What that presumably meant was that he suddenly became conscious of the primordial consciousness permeating the quantum spacetime within sub-atomic dimensions - more poetically expressed by the mystical knowing that the Divine Dwells Within Our Innermost Core.

In effect, we are creators with a small 'C' who will eventually graduate to being Creators with a big 'C'- and then there will be nobody to blame when shit happens because it's only our own shit!

[Originally posted as a comment on Time of the Sixth Sun]


LAWS OF ATTRACTION AND DISTRACTION

Some friends screened a pirate DVD of The Secret at the Pertak Cineplex three years ago and I was impressed by the glib efficiency of the presentation but viewed the "docufeature" more as a glossy electronic brochure for the American Dream (I know Rhonda Byrne is Australian, but during the Howard years Australia was actually the 51st state of America; and, anyway, she shot most of The Secret in the US with American success gurus).

It's pointless to dismiss a product as popular and commercially successful as The Secret - obviously, like The Da Vinci Code, the DVD (and book) came out at just the right time and struck a resonant chord with consumers everywhere.

The so-called Law of Attraction has long been expounded by many esoteric teachings, though not in these exact terms. Our minds are holographic projectors that apparently reify whatever we vividly visualize or imagine, in accordance with the parameters of our belief systems. Some folks are better at focusing and others get distracted or short-circuited by contradictory beliefs and thoughts.

I don't begrudge Rhonda Byrne's hitting the jackpot with The Secret - indeed I'm more disturbed by J.K. Rowling's lucky strike with Harry Potter (which entertains but doesn't nourish). This is mainly because the basic principles taught by The Secret are sound and will ultimately lead those who practise the Law of Attraction to freeing themselves from the paralysis of victimhood.

I know most of us enjoy conflict and duality because we are addicted to drama (which I define as the dynamic interplay between light and dark, as in a shadow play). And so we enjoy getting an adrenaline rush from raging against rogue political regimes and greed-driven gargantuan multinational corporations.

But in moments of profound quietude, our mind clears and we know that God and Devil are ultimately the Dum and Dee of our bi-polar consciousness. And that's why it's healthy for us to occasionally disengage from getting emotionally drawn into adding our energy to disaster and tragedy scenarios like Darfur, Acheh, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Haiti (and Malaysia, too, if we allow Umno to continue ruling!).

In the holographic universe, events occur across a broad spectrum of emotional charge - ranging from the heavenly to the hellish. At each moment the Awakened Soul chooses its own frequency location. For instance, if we consciously choose at the instant of our physical death to laugh rather than cry, that choice will serve as the trimtab (the tiny rudder that alters the course of a huge vessel) of our destination and destiny.


Somebody posed the question:

"What choice have we got? you have to vote for someone, and [the BN] are better qualified than any other."

First of all, one can choose to unsub totally from politics and simply ignore the elections. It may not be the wisest or most constructive course, but it's an option nevertheless. The next question:

"Who else would you vote for?"

Anybody else really - but only if they promise to abolish repressive laws and restore the mechanisms by which we can monitor the government's behavior and remove unethical politicians from office. And I'm positive that all the opposition candidates have sworn to abolish the ISA, OSA, and so on (that has to top the agenda).




"I hope for a better party to come along, everyone does."

There has NEVER been a level playing field for any political party that opposes the BN. The only time the BN lost its 2/3 majority was in 1969 - and that's what triggered the May 13 massacre. That 'better party' will NEVER come along unless we ALLOW it to! That means giving the underdog a chance. Vote DAP, vote PKR, vote PAS - just don't succumb to FEAR and vote BN!

"We're stuck with BN the same way we're stuck with Microsoft. They're not perfect, but what REAL choices have we got?"

This is what happens when you continue to read the GOP (Government-Owned Press) and watch TV. Voters' FEAR OF CHANGE is what has kept the stinking BN in power. And you DO NOT have to keep tolerating Microsoft. Switch to Mac or Linux. I did so without a moment's regret. And when my iBookG4 conked out in 2010, I switched back to Windows without hesitation (because it's much easier to work around Microsoft's anal retentive anti-piracy safeguards; if Microsoft had the good sense to price its operating system at $30 instead of $150, I'm sure most users would opt for original software and their profits would shoot up dramatically).

"The honourable members of the opposition can't even write a press statement without glaring grammar mistakes."

Come on now, can the BN's Information Minister do any better? Such a barrage of kiasu nonsense you're spewing, my friend. No wonder this country is in such a mess!

Now... coming back to The Secret... I wonder if there's a market for a book on The Law of Distraction...

[Originally posted as a series of comments on Bibliobibuli. 

First posted here on 12 February 2012. Reposted 30 March 2023]

RANDOM MUSINGS FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT (revisited)

Second Life Prayer for Burmese Dead 46 by Gary Hayes

DEATH AND DYING

There are moments when I can happily contemplate living forever... and times when I would be quite happy to die immediately! In either case, the trick is to nullify the grimness and gravity of the grave - to laugh in the face of the unknown - we really don't have much choice. The alternative is to wallow in melancholy and moroseness and to see Life itself as a curse rather than a blessing.

As a kid I occasionally allowed my thoughts to stray towards the inevitability of someday witnessing my parents' deaths - and I'd shudder at the horrible notion of never seeing Mum or Dad again.

Ironically, after watching my mother endure five years of dialysis and being subject to other medical ignominies (with a meter running all the while which eventually enriched the medical profession by at least a quarter million ringgit - that's right, folks, not only do you pay death duties, you also get heavily taxed as you're dying!) I found myself encouraging her to let go, to allow the currents to take her from the pain and suffering of her bodily existence... I found myself promising her that she would be safe and well protected on the other side of the veil... and, thinking about it, I have served as Angel of Death for quite a number of people over the years.

Often, all one requires is a little reassurance that all of it has been just a colorful drama, a fabulous movie indeed, but the REAL LIFE awaits outside the theater.

Indeed, it's like a show within a show within a show (or a trial within a trial)... What's evident is that when the Book Religions displaced Ancient Wisdom, they deprived humanity of any in-depth understanding of all the different dimensions in which Consciousness dwells - the only recent cultures that paid any attention at all to the scientific study of Death being the Egyptian and Tibetan; so it is to them that we must turn for some guidance to the realms that reside just beyond the EXIT.

The jackal-headed Anubis, Egyptian god of the dead, tending the casket of Sennedjem
in the Valley of the Kings (courtesy of  National Geographic)

[Originally posted as a comment on a friend's blog]

VISION QUEST

You live in a hologram designed to harvest your vital energy to fuel a machine of destruction and enslavement. However, every atom that exists is a fractal of the entire universe and is supercharged with infinite potential and cosmic intelligence.

The part of you that is immortal and indestructible (your Godself or Atman) is constantly attempting to wake you up from the robotic trance most humans are born into.

Heed these signs. They are clues that will ultimately lead you out of the labyrinth and into true freedom.

Nobody can force anybody else to step into the Unknown. It's a step each soul has to take - the sooner the better, because we are running out of linear time, and when that happens, it's like finding yourself on a sinking ferry and not knowing how to swim. Glub glub glub!

Even so, there's no need to fear. The only thing that happens to the unawakened is that they get recycled and turned into fertilizer for the next harvest of souls. The Awakened Ones master their own destiny and know what true freedom means.

Good luck on your vision quest!

[Originally posted as a couple of comments on ChanKelwin.com]

ENDING THE NIGHTMARE

The Magic Lantern (also known in German as 'The Lantern of Fear')

The phenomenal world is like a magic lantern show of moving images that ceaselessly change and distract from the ONLY authentic task at hand: clearing our neural and emotional circuitry so that we can individually emerge from our cocoons of illusory powerlessness and victimhood.

As each of us achieves Buddhahood and other degrees of spiritual maturity, the historical nightmare on this beautiful planet will abruptly end.

[Originally posted as a comment on Guru Maha Graha]


OWNING UP TO YOUR SHIT

Most of us are passive consumers of reality - shit happens and we bitch about it. Then one day a light bulb flashes on above our heads and we experience a eureka moment - like Pythagoras who exclaimed: "Astonishing! EVERYTHING IS INTELLIGENT!!!"

What that presumably meant was that he suddenly became conscious of the primordial consciousness permeating the quantum spacetime within sub-atomic dimensions - more poetically expressed by the mystical knowing that the Divine Dwells Within Our Innermost Core.

In effect, we are creators with a small 'C' who will eventually graduate to being Creators with a big 'C'- and then there will be nobody to blame when shit happens because it's only our own shit!

[Originally posted as a comment on Time of the Sixth Sun]


LAWS OF ATTRACTION AND DISTRACTION

Some friends screened a pirate DVD of The Secret at the Pertak Cineplex several years ago and I was impressed by the glib efficiency of the presentation but viewed the "docufeature" more as a glossy electronic brochure for the American Dream (I know Rhonda Byrne is Australian, but during the Howard years Australia was actually the 51st state of America; and, anyway, she shot most of The Secret in the US with American success gurus).

It's pointless to dismiss a product as popular and commercially successful as The Secret - obviously, like The Da Vinci Code, the DVD (and book) came out at just the right time and struck a resonant chord with consumers everywhere.

The so-called Law of Attraction has long been expounded by many esoteric teachings, though not in these exact terms. Our minds are holographic projectors that apparently reify whatever we vividly visualize or imagine, in accordance with the parameters of our belief systems. Some folks are better at focusing and others get distracted or short-circuited by contradictory beliefs and thoughts.

I don't begrudge Rhonda Byrne's hitting the jackpot with The Secret. This is mainly because the basic principles taught by The Secret are sound and will ultimately lead those who practise the Law of Attraction to freeing themselves from the paralysis of victimhood.

I know most of us enjoy conflict and duality because we are addicted to drama (which I define as the dynamic interplay between light and dark, as in a shadow play). And so we enjoy getting an adrenaline rush from raging against rogue political regimes and greed-driven gargantuan multinational corporations.

But in moments of profound quietude, our mind clears and we know that God and Devil are ultimately the Dum and Dee of our bi-polar consciousness. And that's why it's healthy for us to occasionally disengage from getting emotionally drawn into adding our energy to disaster and tragedy scenarios like Darfur, Acheh, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Haiti (and Malaysia, too, if we allow Umno to continue ruling!).

In the holographic universe, events occur across a broad spectrum of emotional charge - ranging from the heavenly to the hellish. At each moment the Awakened Soul chooses its own frequency location. For instance, if we consciously choose at the instant of our physical death to laugh rather than cry, that choice will serve as the trimtab (the tiny rudder that alters the course of a huge vessel) of our destination and destiny.

Now, coming back to The Secret... I wonder if there's a market for a book on The Law of Distraction..

[Originally posted as a comment on Bibliobibuli. First published here 2 March 2010]

"Why did you turn your back on SUCCESS?"

A few years ago an internet movie called The Secret got lots of people buzzing about "the Law of Attraction." It spawned a slew of seminars, workshops and spin-off merchandise. Among these was Bob Proctor's "Science of Getting Rich" program. Somebody who must love me a lot decided to purchase the package on my behalf and lure me into the adrenaline-charged world of supersalesmanship.

To me it was just another multilevel marketing scheme (or scam, depending on your timing and innate talent as a hustler). I decided to give it a go, and even created a blog to promote the Science of Getting Rich - but, alas, my enthusiasm didn't last more than six months. This final blogpost was published on my now-abandoned "Secret Science" blog on 7 October 2007. It stands as a permanent testimony of my lifelong unbelief in "all that glitters"...

This is it, folks. Here's where I get off!


Much as I appreciate M's efforts to initiate me into his high-flying world of supercharged entrepreneurship and his dream of unbounded success, I realize - having attended Bob Proctor's launch of the SGR program in Malaysia - it's not my scene. I look around at the people who are drawn to these events and seminars - and, although I can sense the good intentions in all of them, I can't help seeing them as a flock of seagulls, constantly thinking about fish... fish... and more fish.

So I've been seriously contemplating deleting this blog. But perhaps there are a few items in here some of you may find useful, so I've decided to keep it online. However, this is my final blogpost. I won't be updating Secret Science from now on.

Let's just say I've checked out Bob Proctor's Science of Getting Rich program and it's not something I can feel passionate about. No doubt it's an impressively packaged portable seminar, and some people have put an incredible amount of effort into getting it in the market.

The study materials are extremely well designed and of high quality - and it certainly does a good job promoting the Law of Attraction as a way of life. However, for the techniques taught to really work, one has religiously apply the principles.

That's the rub. I'm not a religious person and am, in fact, averse to religions.

I've spent the greater part of my life deprogramming myself from all belief systems. Why would I now choose to install another belief system - no matter what it calls itself - even if it promises me everything a human being could possibly desire in life?

I enjoy producing things: music, books, DVDs, great meals, whatever. But when it comes time to marketing myself and my products, I find it tedious in the extreme. Some people are just natural-born hustlers. Take M for instance: within three weeks of signing up for the SGR program he sold enough units - just by sending out a bunch of emails - to recoup whatever he paid plus at least an additional $10,000 in pure profits.

M the self-made multi-millionaire is surrounded by high-flyers like himself who wouldn't hesitate to fork out $2,000 - just to bring a smile to his face! And that's because the majority of his friends are inclined to spend a lot more than $2,000 on a weekend of fun - whether flying to Costa Rica for a tan or Phuket for a massage.

I believe in live and let live. It's purely an aesthetic choice that I'm attracted to what's natural rather than what's artificial. For example, I value getting a warm greeting from a stranger because he or she likes my aura; I'd sense it immediately if they smiled at me only because they can see I'm a big spender.

I've never traveled first-class in my entire life. First of all, I've never worked for a big corporation long enough for them to send me on a business trip; and I've always believed in living frugally. Even with a billion bucks in my bank account, I'd hesitate paying $10 for a cup of coffee in a branded location when I know I can get an even better cup of coffee 200 yards down the street for $1.

My daughter just returned from a vacation at an exclusive beach resort in the Philippines where she paid $15 for a glass of orange juice. Deep down in my heart, I know that this sort of lifestyle is out of whack with the natural universe. It leaves too large an ecological footprint and perpetuates a socioeconomic hierarchy wherein rank is acquired through financial status. I've seen how extremely rich people spoil their kids who can't help growing up as brats. Some remain brats their entire life - just look at Dubya.

Some of my friends tell me they have a plan: they'll work themselves to the bone for 10 years and make a huge pile. Then they can be free to master their own destinies and help everybody around them, set up charitable foundations, and so on. Hate to say this, folks, but that's a total fantasy ungrounded in reality.

The energy system is a closed loop. The more you pile on your plate the less remains on the table for those who haven't arrived for dinner. You believe in infinite abundance, you tell yourself; more food will soon be delivered from the kitchen, so there's plenty where that came from. Well, this may be true - but only up to a point.

The overfed are often undernourished in other areas of their being. Those who are out there grabbing as much money as they can while they can usually don't have enough time to sit down and engage in intelligent conversation. And when they're on vacation they just want to put their feet up, order a champagne bucket, and admire the view - they don't want to discuss heavy topics (like how come the IAEC has never been allowed to inspect Israel's nuclear arsenal or who orchestrated the 9/11 false flag operation and subsequent cover-up).

Lack is the shadow side of greed. So Bono and Sting with all their money can afford to play philanthropists and world-saviors, establishing foundations to preserve the rainforests or feed the war orphans. Bill Gates can pump millions into subsidizing the pharmaceutical companies so Africans can afford AIDS medication. There are days when I think this sort of lifestyle would really suit me. Hell, I'd love to be David Bowie for two or three months!

However, just about every problem you see around you is the result of human egotism, greed, and insensitivity. Empires are built by individuals consumed with megalomaniac visions and endowed with monomaniacal determination bordering on religious fervor. Such individuals may be admirable in their own way - but few are known for their wisdom. Becoming enlightened and living consciously doesn't require that you be a member of the Billionaires Club. Indeed, it gets harder and harder to feel empathy when you're too well padded and insulated from raw reality.

This is why I'm not over-the-moon about the phenomenal success of Rhonda Byrne's movie, The Secret, and the growing popularity of her book. The message, simply put, is just too glossy.

Anyway, I've rambled on enough. I just wanted to conclude this blog with a final message - but to go any deeper into the subject would require a 50,000-word essay. Even if I did write that essay, the ones who really ought to read it probably never will, simply because my name isn't Deepak Chopra. But, as they say at McDonald's, "Have a nice eternity!"