The world and all of its inhabitants are at a critical juncture right now. We are living our daily lives on this beautiful blue planet in the midst of the deep, dark vastness of cold space. Such a fortunate chain of events to be here typing on this keyboard communicating with potentially anyone in the world.

Is this really happening right now or am I the only one who sees how unbelievably amazing this life really is?

If any of us walk outside and just notice the smallest blade of grass it has so many complex and fascinating functions going on, how did this come to be? From a blade of grass to a bumble bee and forest full of Red Wood trees, there is amazement and “the impossible” all around us yet none of us seem to take any notice.

Have we become so conditioned and desensitized that the oceans, skies and green earth have no significance anymore? All of us the entire world is looking to the horizon for bigger and better things, a new car, a new house, fancy clothes and for what?

We’ve taken refuge in the shallow materialistic illusions that are spoon fed to us daily via the internet, magazines and television. Is anyone else out there wondering… where is all this going, how much longer can we keep this facade up?

What is our purpose, its not to accumulate wealth, iPhones, Gucci purses, Rolex watches, etc. These things can’t really be the reason all the stars in this galaxy are in the exact right place for you and I to be breathing!

We all have a purpose on this earth but it seems as though year by year with each new software upgrade and American Idol superstar we are getting further and further away from any kind of purpose at all.

Can’t we see how unbelievably fortunate we are to be alive? Not only are we alive but we’re conscious of this… WOW! Think of all the things that had to happen in the universe in order for you to be sitting there right now reading this blog post! Are you kidding me, this is quite literally a miracle only we’re living like its not.

If we truly lived the miracle would there be war, hunger… shopping malls?

Why are we living such shallow lives when there are deep oceans of discovery and love available to us? We have been bestowed the most precious gift in the universe this planet and the privilege to live consciously but all we want to do is war and battle as to how it all came into existence. Why are we so focused on spreading the “good word” (speculation) of how this earth came to be? Why are we dwelling and guessing on the past when we have everything we need RIGHT NOW?

For me to keep my sanity I’ve got to believe that people really don’t believe what they’re reading when they open a Bible, Quran, Torah or any other book of this nature.

The survival of humanity is not in any book and its certainly not in a church but it is in your neighbors eyes. Look at your fellow man, brother and sister… look right in their eyes. Can you not see yourself looking right back? We all have the same fears and anxieties, the collective consciousness is alive. We need to connect with one another not tell each other how it is and how its going to be. None of us know ‘absolute truth’ and all the pointing to the sky, idol worshiping or putting faith in other men will ever bring peace or satisfy the mind.

We’ve lost touch with one another, we need to wake up! The truth isn’t out there somewhere, its not in next years promotion at your job, the truth isn’t in a new pair of shoes or wrapped in a present under a tree.

The truth is all around us always has been so lets start living like it. Wake up, wake up the people around you, wake up your family, get off the maintenance program and unplug. The whole world needs fixing but you can start with yourself right now. If you belong to a church look at it for what it is… separation from the rest of us. If you truly want peace in the world then you must realize that it isn’t possible in a world of US and THEM.

A world where there are Jews, Christians, Muslims, Catholics, Buddhist, Amish, etc., there will never be peace… how could there be? One might say, well you don’t have to believe what I believe I will still love you but that is the furthest thing from the truth. The religions of the world don’t love one another they tolerate one another at best. Tolerance is not love, love is healing and manifest beauty and bliss as tolerance breeds insecurity, armies and war.

Are you really ready for the truth? Well if you are get out there and find out for yourself! If you search your feelings and are honest with yourself you’ll come to see as I have attaching a label to yourself, wearing a cross or star of David around your neck has nothing to do with the truth but everything to do with… what you’ve been told.

Don’t do what you’ve been told since you where born, don’t do what they tell you to do on television… find out what the truth is for yourself. Please find out what the truth is for the sake of the world.

Peace, Love and Happiness!

I just finished up a nice meeting with a friend that I hadn’t seen in a very long time. This friend of mine I don’t think she’d mind if I’d mentioned her name… Amber. Amber and I have been friends for several years now 17 if I’m not mistaken. In any case as good friends do Amber and I talked about all the usual stuff that friends talk about having not seen one another in many months, who are you seeing now, how is your family doing, etc.

After about an hour of catching up the conversation took a delightful detour from the predestined script of mundane and typical and we dove into a spontaneous dialog about “freedom” and that is what I would like to reflect on now.

The conversation started of with me telling her about all the hurt I see in the world now and wanting to make some changes. She then inquired what I was doing and if I had looked into any organizations or if I was thinking about starting an organization to get people together and “make change”. I replied to her that no I wasn’t looking to join any organization nor was I compelled to start any organization myself. I then went on to tell her how I actually didn’t think me starting or joining any organization would do any good, especially at this moment in my life.

Amber didn’t know what I had meant by that so I went on and explained.

I explained that I didn’t see how I could possible join or start an organization when I in fact am unorganized. I think a better word to use opposed to unorganized would be “conditioned”. I explained that I have awaken to the fact that I am in fact conditioned and along with that I’m starting to see that everyone around me is conditioned as well.

I can see that the conditioning for me is like looking through a lens, a dirty lense and I’m trying to see the world, reality for what it really is.

I now know that YES I am conditioned and everything that I’ve thought or been told up to this point has been through the filter of conditioning and other peoples knowledge. Everything I know, who I am, what I’m about, the way I walk and talk, etc., is all based on knowledge, knowledge from the past. Seeing this now I’m making an effort to find out who I truly am, break away from this past knowledge.

Amber then went on to say that well if I want to make some change in the world that I would need to actually do something. I can’t just think about doing something and not do anything. I said well that’s what I’m doing… I’m going into myself and investigating my conditioning… getting myself in order. I then concluded that once I get myself in order then perhaps I’ll be able to go into starting an organization or joining one but until that point all my energy is going into the awareness of my conditioning and observing that.

So that was settled and I think Amber now has a better idea of where I’m coming from and where my head is at. The conversation continued on and we started to talk about the state of affairs in the world. I then commented on all the separation in the world our nations, states, religions, sects within religions, etc. I then went on to say that it is a shame for most people in the world don’t even know they are conditioned and are completely unaware that they are sleeping and not free.

Amber playing devil’s advocate then said she disagreed. She said my idea of freedom might not be the idea of what someone else believes freedom to be. She then asked me what is freedom to me? I couldn’t answer the question right away and started to look off into the distance to try and gather the words to communicate exactly what freedom is to me.

At the moment I couldn’t pull the words together, about 30 seconds of silence went by before Amber jokingly suggested that we look up “freedom” on the internet. Luckily we where sitting in Starbucks and I had my laptop with me. This is what we found:

free⋅dom

1. the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.
2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. the power to determine action without restraint.

After reading aloud the definition from dictionary.com once I got to number 3 on the list “the power to determine action without restraint.” that jolted my brain and the words I was looking for fell into place.

Before I share with you what the definition of freedom is I would like to mention that Amber and I did go back and forth with wit and words playing a verbal game of chess but in the end I think we both agreed that no matter what words came out of our mouths… FREEDOM is a fact.

One can have all the ideas in the world about what freedom is, one can talk about it all day and one can have a sense of what freedom is but when you get right down to it, having a sense of what freedom is, or and idea of what freedom is… is not FREEDOM.

With that said here is what I told Amber: Freedom is having the ability to be aware and observe what is going on around you 100% of the time and from that awareness and observation if you act and behave completely from love… that is true freedom. If you can act 100% of the time from love and not live or act with any measure of fear then you are truly a FREE human being.

I think I’ll leave you all with that. I’m glad that I talked with my dear friend today it was an elightening experience… the above words don’t really do it any justice however out of this reflection perhaps you will want to share what freedom is for you.

I would also like to mention that the graphic I chose for this particular blog post was one of the first ones that randomly came up searching flickr.com . How fitting a graphic to randomly find, “Freedom From Fear”.

Peace and Love.

Religion, that word is so loaded with all kinds of different connotations. Depending on where you were born, what your environment was and who told you what is the truth… your idea of what it means to be a religious person often can be extremely different from the next person.

Lets see what the dictionary defines religion as:

re⋅li⋅gion

1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.

Lets face it no matter what you’re religion is or lack there of for most people in the United States and around the world whatever book you pray to or god you worship you didn’t find it yourself… someone told you, this is the truth! Can you really call yourself a religious person at all?

If we consult the dictionary and follow that definition sure maybe by definition you’re a religious person. You have a set of beliefs that have been handed down to you by your parents or an authority figure like a priest or bishop so it must be true, besides you’ve got faith.

I don’t understand how anyone can after reaching adulthood continue to believe in what they were told as a child and not question what they’ve been told and search for themselves. How can you call yourself religious when everything you believe has been told to you by someone else and you take it for face value?

Why are we so stuck up on giving ourselves labels anyway? What is the point of me calling myself a Muslim or a Christian? Can anything good possibly come from separating myself from the rest of my brothers and sisters on this planet?

Can you not see that as soon as you give yourself a label a religion that you are blocking yourself from everything else? If you say THIS is the truth you are negating everything else and in my opinion indicating  just how flickery your “faith” truly is. Wouldn’t this world be a much more peaceful place if we could all just say I DON’T KNOW?

Instead of putting up this front that we KNOW what the truth is perhaps if we all put our faith, opinions, conditioning and backgrounds aside maybe then we’d all have the energy to look into what religion truly is. In my opinion religion has nothing to do with faith, a book or any name you give god. A true religious mind wouldn’t put a name on it at all.

I’m truly curious if there is anyone open to begin a dialog please do reply. Do you really believe what you’ve been told?

Peace and Love.