28.2.14

Meditation is The Ultimate Bullshit Meter.

Excerpted from:



◊ ◊ ◊

{ Source }
"[...] Today, psychologically and literally, even in our most wise and radiant moments are we each pinned into our place as economic units: bricks in the wall of a labyrinth where it is far too easy to simply hide behind the latest appearance of a new freedom found. Think here on fashion for now, and on the feeling which arises when matching something external to the otherwise internal experience of your person: though we can buy a sense of freedom, we often become chained to its purchasing. 
I think an argument has long stood – which is being argued very effectively today – in that we play a direct role in our physical health by virtue of the attention and care we devote to our emotional health. As my arguments forthcoming are bound to stir up some emotionality I invite you to continually go back through the basics in part one, sit, and experience your physical body in rest and recovery from the movements of its thinking. Do not focus so much on the content of your thinking: you can always return to the content later, and forthcoming, with what I trust will be an increased amplitude for awareness and clarity. 
As you move forward with this technique look always for an open space to your thinking, where you can recognize alone the physical act of thinking. That is: look for the door. Look for a sensation of breadth, width, or height, or internal spaciousness. As we proceed, the sensation of thought-as-movement within this spaciousness will steadily increase, as will the witnessing of its immediacy – that sudden changing of your course away from the task at hand. 
Provocation and inspiration share the same body. Yours. The force of your thinking has its persuasiveness and its pervasiveness, and with complete respect for the intelligences innate to you, I invite you to simply look behind the thinking directly upon the sensation of this force itself. That, in time, is to 'open the door.' It is the thing about meditation which is rather easy to 'understand,' or picture oneself doing, and because of its 'easy' nature we by and large avoid doing it. We resist taking part in something which appears to be a complete nothing, or delay doing so, ever drawn back into the seeming excitement of the day-to-day. Yet we still seem to yearn for something else to do... The causes of this have made me very curious, and by such I've grown to enjoy the fact of a corpulent gulf between what is 'easy,' and what is 'simple.' 
I think the life forces which course through our veins ultimately make us a creature with good intentions. Their constancy tells me as much. Whatever the face of our excitements be, we seek pleasure, curious toward our fullest enjoyment of life. However, when we look at the remarkable prevalence of neurological disorder today, these fun intentions may not be coming to the surface in the way we initially had hoped. Abuse, divorce, addiction, emotional disturbance, the expanding array of diagnoses to our mental states – like the now popular self-diagnoses of personality disorder, or ODD, Obedience Defiance Disorder – when and if we view these dis-eases somewhat topographically, from above, in consideration with the economic factors of today, Western cultures are in a very interesting time to say the least. 
{ Source }

Mental illness is essentially having a seriously industrious day in the sun... 

I see very little distance between the economic shape of a nation and how we shape our selves. In a word: Bhutan. In two words: Happiness Index. Out from our perpetual blind-spot, The United States as the chief world reserve currency is so in title, yet barely so in practice. That is, the things which herald any nation's place amongst the rest is being challenged - reordered. Regime change at the level of global power is usually, and invariably, uncomfortable. The current world reserve currency hosts disorder, and we, its subjects, prove again the adage: as above, so below. Put succinctly: there is a big thing going quite nuts, and so, kinda, are we.
{ Source }
By an ever thinning veil is our world-view presently changing regardless of how staunchly the prevailing power insists upon keeping the blinds drawn. It is as if the human mind, our institutions, and many of our social contracts, are entering an outright failure. We simply cannot continue to think as we have been lest we accept going legitimately batty, accepting the dichotomy between what we hope to be possible, and what is actually, truly, upon us. 
I am of the opinion that the Invisible Hand may as well come out from hiding now. Its presence hangs over every major Western city not unlike an animated real-estate balloon, or a mickey-mouse hand zipping from cloud to cloud spelling out through the puffy white and into the blue sky behind: 'L-o-o-k! I'm i-n-v-i-s-i-b-l-l-l-l-l-e! Hee-hee-hee!' If the rest of the emperor to this invisible hand be just as naked, if the power which holds sway the actions of our days be in disarray, let us look upon a few rules the hand plays by as our first bit of evidence.
If bipolar behaviour could be made observable at the cultural level I believe the long-standing feud of environment-economy today expresses exactly that. 
Recall, if you will, transitioning from Carter to Reagan (and if you cannot recall this, I think you will be amazed by the radical directions Western cultures followed – or almost followed – by these two men). Our species couldn't possibly be more divided on this issue, and Reagan's words on the environment – and 'environmentalists' – have pretty well stood the test of time since. 
As our economy continues pulling itself apart at the seams – fracking its foundation for further support and sustenance – as the world reserve currency comes up for questioning, as our oceans acidify and as our forests wither, as the permafrost prepares to embrace a warming atmosphere with the gift of an unprecedented release of carbon, so too does it feel as if our sense of self comes apart at the seams. We feel threatened, and any traditional sense for order clings rather dearly to what is familiar and readily understood. 
Because we are not truly offsetting the outcomes for our predicament at the cultural/policy level, a lust intensifies for the narrative of smooth and constant-growth to remain buoyant. "When all the world recognizes beauty as beauty, this alone is ugliness," says Lao-Tzu. And indeed I find such a self-reinforcing denial of situation unmistakably difficult to look upon. We have not entered an economic recovery.
In response, I also see the salience of Mindfulness on the steady increase. It stands right upon the balance point of our most intense wishing. It is an authentic echo from the wilds for fresh air and renewed thinking. It is that quiet and mature power whose song could well retune our public policy. 
Our minds do not wish for us to be sick yet there is an unusual sense of pressure today. There is a constant contradiction, split between the dis-ease of a shrinking Earth, begging us each to raise our standard of accountability personally and culturally, while simultaneously our positivist psychology has us simply humming along as we have been doing. A voice within, ready to scream the name of freedom to each and every hillside, wants to sprout claws and tear through the skins containing it to enjoy better its natural ether. This sickness – or discrepancy at least – is at the level of psyche, and I haven't crossed paths with too many who have developed their immunity. Certainly the cultural narrative which covered the baby-boom is alive and well, but the page is turning – as I believe it will under the dichotic banners of sustainability and exponential growth. And yet, regardless of socio-economic status, we believe ourselves helpless to the unfolding of this larger story: we believe it is Our Nature now to behave solely as economic units, so much so that it can hardly be called a belief next to its being just a plain ole fact. 
Beside such a discrepancy have I found meditation to be key. It is a psychical sieve. It is the ultimate bullshit meter. [...] "



◊ ◊ ◊



Contact me today for


Like and Share on fB

Connect with me on LinkedIn


◊ ◊ ◊


{ Source }

20.2.14

Gen X the Cross-roads. Gen Y the Fork.

{ Source }
       Gen X marks for me a crossroads. A calling out within the species which into our bones the message came 'enough.' Mid-life, I am thrilled to see so many ready hands in Gen Y picking up the torch. It's been exhausting frankly: writing to representatives who are so star-struck by post-war policy – indeed made wealthy and comfortable by such policy – that the limits of growth are simply as much of fantasy as is the reality for so many to ever own a house.
     Certainly environmentalists have tread through every generation, yet the dominant economic paradigm of constant-growth has unceasingly ruled the day. But the day for change has arrived, and those younger than myself feel it very dearly: they own it. They own the need for change, whereas my Gen X cohort simply marked it. (I have long seen the 'X' like the marking for a railroad: a big 'Stop!' sign, denoting oncoming danger.) Attracting young people onto the importance of voting can be as much of a struggle as getting them in for work, and both symptoms appear natural to me when I plot through to the available outcomes, each concluding upon the potential of never-ending debt servicing.
{ Source }
       World currencies used to be tied to gold. Gold gave the currency credit, and if a nation had access to gold, their currency carried with it a trust and confidence. After WWII, all currencies became tied to the USD as a means of nationhood stability. And the USD continued to be tied to gold. 1971 rolls out 'the Nixon Shock,' and the USD was “freed” from gold, confessing insolvency essentially, confessing that the splurge of credit created was too much for the little yellow metal to handle. Flash forward forty years, and this insolvency has become a problem we'd rather continue ignore while the US exports its inflation: witness Argentina, Venezuela... Japan… and witness the price of gold. Greece fights for the drivers seat in a joy-ride traveling at unparalleled speed toward a very real brick wall – an edge. Our web of credit, leveraged evermore to an uncertain future, a culture fuelled more with questions than answers, is truly remarkable. Such monetary policy resembles a big fat spider who got caught in its own web.
{ Source }
    
The question arises: why slave for the entirety of one's life to pay out the comforts for others while the natural world languishes? Surely it is not the baby-boom's fault for the presence of this economic paradigm, as they were babies when it was crafted. As this narrative came out of the horrors of WWII, one cannot lay blame for it being followed so thoroughly either. Re-routing all this effort is bound to bring about a vast amounts of bitchy-ness, but these large economic habits have no place left to store themselves, not ecologically, and ever less so in our minds: an increasing few are positioned to take of their advantage. As the Have become more visibly defensive or socially isolated and nervous, the Have-Not don't give a fart: they follow what is renewable out of necessity.
      Tit-for-tat aside, economic de-growth is truly upon us at the marker of ecology alone. The invitation is loudly upon us to redefine the energy sources which fuel our actions, and subsequently, the thinking-energy which pertains to that. Our sense of self is something that is created and reinforced choice by choice by choice; and like anything else we build, the shape of our self is something we can walk away from at any moment, rethink, and reassemble differently later. Currently, our outward activity is greatly incongruent with our inner, and this calls out in a whole host of ways for our steadfast attention.

Get the book. 
Get the full text:


18.2.14

Dear Mr. Gates.

Bill & Melinda Gates have posted an invitation on Linked In, asking for input toward what would make a better world. This was my reply:


Hello Mr & Mrs Gates,
Thank you for the invitation and opportunity to share my thoughts with you, on how we can make a better world.

In recent years I’ve taken to a study of macro-economics, and am a huge fan of the author Charles Eisenstein and his book “Sacred Economics.” I spent so many years trying to ‘do the right thing,’ and be the best global citizen I could, and what I wound up with was less than desirable: the chagrin of my colleagues. It was troubling, as by our words, it would have seemed we shared similar value principles; but in practice, we were operating quite differently.

Put succinctly, our growth model of economics is reaching its limit. And not just ecologically (which, in my estimate need be of higher priority), but the numbers game of our macro economic situation is steadily directing our species toward some very large decisions for how we wish to live.

I think growth economics puts us all into fight-or-flight psychology: more for me is less for you, and more for you is less for me… Constant growth on a finite planet no longer adds up to profitability - social or financial. Nor does a growth oriented system create equality. Nor access to fresh water. Nor access even to the inalienable rights which are so prized and cherished. This way of interacting - interest based currencies/usury - has run its course in terms of the Ecology, which of course includes our human ecologies.

As the oceans continue to acidify, as the Canadian Prime Minister continues to restrict information toward climate change, as the Fed prints our global wealth and well-fare out of existence… The time when we each need to sit with the emotionality of our collective situation intensifies. In my book, I propose a method of Non-Denominational Meditation by which any person can look back into their body to find a true sense of calling and of place. Becoming more mindful about our time and the way our actions dove-tail into the actions and behaviours of others I believe to be a crucial skill, given the impending changes upon each of us.

I appreciate your mission. And I would encourage people to develop the skills of Emotional Resilience at this time, by which meditation is key. The decisions we face today will truly mark us for all of history.

Thanks again Mr Gates for this opportunity to write to you.

Best & best,
Philip W. Sarsons





17.2.14

More For You is Less For Me. More For Me Is....?

{ Source }
I think much of our troubles today are being mis-identified as something to do with human nature. When I attempt to have a discussion on economics with the average person, they reveal quite quickly an inability to balance a check-book. I've found this to be so for most all my life: people are largely economically... mis-educated, yet every facet of human culture is borrowed into existence by the things we call money.

So this hesitance toward economics, coupled to our use of it, keeps me very curious. I'm inspired greatly by Charles Eisenstein, who sums up much of our economic behaviour as "more for you is less for me/more for me is less for you." I find that this twin statement reveals the underlying psychology for our Situation: constant-growth on a finite planet. It has us instantly into fight & flight, by which some thrive and many do not, or can not. It is our lesser, beta, thinking, priming the situation for a misdiagnosis of what actually is Alpha.

An Alpha is someone who can provide, and I'll argue that the financial elite today does not do this. The money printing of the Fed is corrupting cultures world-wide - and by 'corrupt' I intend more-so to say 'corrode.' Some would rather loudly say 'rob.' Regardless of who-has-more, our futures are being borrowed out of the ecology which permits us to do and think - everything.

Again, Eisenstein is inspiring. As I cover in my own book:

"If we can monetize mini-vans landing on Mars to drill holes in little rocks with even littler laser-beams, what is so crazy about monetizing the cleaning of stream-beds and the plucking of old toothbrushes out of the coral reefs? If we can observe that we have an ozone layer, what would be so maniacal about tending to it in a generative way? The distance between these two sets of activity seems packed with confusion if you ask me. So the key to opening these doors comes alongside the courage to sit, developing a comfort with gentleness, curiosity, and kindness: qualities which are generally seen as antithetical to financial prosperity within consumer driven, constant-growth-economics. I find these nurturing and regenerative actions no less manly than digging things up or paving them over: that is, our currently careless economic Situation often gives rise to an equally careless persona. Our minds are simply too nimble, fast, and creative, to not contribute a solution to any given problem, regardless of its amplitude. So I find cooperation to be tops in confidence: it is the highest ground to rest your mind upon, it feels better, and from its awareness you have much less, or nothing, to lose. Making a positive contribution to a cultural conundrum requires great self awareness and fine self control to create a pervading assertion; one which would truly sooth the emotionality our situation and personalities routinely squeeze out of us."





Thanks kindly. Our 'human troubles' today, our economic puzzles will be solved by courage alone. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please visit http://www.thebookofgardens.com for more - especially if your opinion is contrary to my own. There are two distinct audiences for this book, and how I'd truly enjoy bringing them together. Enjoy the Day.

{ Source }

15.2.14

Meditation is key. It is the ultimate bullshit meter.

{ Source }

Today, psychologically and literally, even in our most wise and radiant moments are we each pinned into our place as economic units: bricks in the wall of a labyrinth where it is far too easy to simply hide behind the latest appearance of a new freedom found. Think here on fashion for now, and on the feeling which arises when matching something external to the otherwise internal experience of your person: though we can buy a sense of freedom, we often become chained to its purchasing. 

I think the life forces which course through our veins ultimately make us a creature with good intentions. Their constancy tells me as much. Whatever the face of our excitements be, we seek pleasure, curious toward our fullest enjoyment of life. However, when we look at the remarkable prevalence of neurological disorder today, these fun intentions may not be coming to the surface in the way we initially had hoped. Abuse, divorce, addiction, emotional disturbance, the expanding array of diagnoses to our mental states – like the now popular self-diagnoses of personality disorder, or ODD, Obedience Defiance Disorder – when and if we view these dis-eases somewhat topographically, from above, in consideration with the economic factors of today, Western cultures are in a very interesting time to say the least. 

Mental illness is essentially having an industrious day in the sun... 




{ Source }
I see very little distance between the economic shape of a nation and how we shape our selves. In a word: Bhutan. In two words: Happiness Index. Out from our perpetual blind-spot, The United States as the chief world reserve currency is so in title, yet barely so in practice. (*1) That is, the things which herald any nation's place amongst the rest is being challenged - reordered. Regime change at the level of global power is usually, and invariably, uncomfortable. The current world reserve currency hosts disorder, and we, its subjects, prove again the adage: as above, so below. Put succinctly: there is a big thing going quite nuts, and so, kinda, are we.

By an ever thinning veil is our world-view presently changing regardless of how staunchly the prevailing power insists upon keeping the blinds drawn. It is as if the human mind, our institutions, and many of our social contracts, are entering an outright failure. We simply cannot continue to think as we have been lest we accept going legitimately batty, accepting the dichotomy between what we hope to be possible, and what is actually, truly, upon us. 

{ Source }
I am of the opinion that the Invisible Hand may as well come out from hiding now. Its presence hangs over every major Western city not unlike an animated real-estate balloon, or a mickey-mouse hand zipping from cloud to cloud spelling out through the puffy white and into the blue sky behind: 'L-o-o-k! I'm i-n-v-i-s-i-b-l-l-l-l-l-e! Hee-hee-hee!' If the rest of the emperor to this invisible hand be just as naked, if the power which holds sway the actions of our days be in disarray, let us look upon a few rules the hand plays by as our first bit of evidence.

If bipolar behaviour could be made observable at the cultural level I believe the long-standing feud of environment-economy today expresses exactly that. Recall, if you will, transitioning from Carter to Reagan (and if you cannot recall this, I think you will be amazed by the radical directions Western cultures followed – or almost followed – by these two men). Our species couldn't possibly be more divided on this issue, and Reagan's words on the environment – and 'environmentalists' – have pretty well stood the test of time since. 

{ Source }
As our economy continues pulling itself apart at the seams – fracking its foundation for further support and sustenance – as the world reserve currency comes up for questioning, as our oceans acidify and as our forests wither, as the permafrost prepares to embrace a warming atmosphere with the gift of an unprecedented release of carbon, so too does it feel as if our sense of self comes apart at the seams. We feel threatened, and any traditional sense for order clings rather dearly to what is familiar and readily understood. 

Because we are not truly offsetting the outcomes for our predicament at the cultural/policy level, a lust intensifies for the narrative of smooth and constant-growth to remain buoyant. “When all the world recognizes beauty as beauty, this alone is ugliness,” says Lao-Tzu. (*2) And indeed I find such a self-reinforcing denial of situation unmistakeably difficult to look upon. We have not entered an economic recovery.

In response, I also see the salience of Mindfulness on the steady increase. It stands right upon the balance point of our most intense wishing. It is an authentic echo from the wilds for fresh air and renewed thinking. It is that quiet and mature power whose song could well retune our public policy. 

{ Source }
Our minds do not wish for us to be sick yet there is an unusual sense of pressure today. There is a constant contradiction, split between the dis-ease of a shrinking Earth, begging us each to raise our standard of accountability personally and culturally, while simultaneously our positivist psychology has us simply humming along as we have been doing. A voice within, ready to scream the name of freedom to each and every hillside, wants to sprout claws and tear through the skins containing it to enjoy better its natural ether. This sickness – or discrepancy at least – is at the level of psyche, and I haven't crossed paths with too many who have developed their immunity. Certainly the cultural narrative which covered the baby-boom is alive and well, but the page is turning – as I believe it will under the dichotic banners of sustainability and exponential growth. And yet, regardless of socio-economic status, we believe ourselves helpless to the unfolding of this larger story: we believe it is Our Nature now to behave solely as economic units, so much so that it can hardly be called a belief next to its being just a plain ole fact. 

Beside such a discrepancy have I found meditation to be key. It is a psychical sieve. It is the ultimate bullshit meter. 




Notes: 
*1 - Over the course of editing this [section], the number of countries included as 'safe' reserve currencies increased – including Canada. At the time of writing, the global financial system is now rather outwardly dancing to its own tune of diversification, looking for as many soft landings as it can find. Factions are developing faster than I can form my sentences; new financial mechanisms are being created out of thin air, and it is difficult to tell into which direction this new global market may bend. 

*2 - Wu. JCH. Tao Te Ching. Shambhala 1990.

24.1.14

That Rainbow Connection Thing.


I love being 40.

Everyday I'm able to sing to myself "We have done just we set out to do!" I recognize my privilege in that every day that passes I am able to keep doing just that: face-down forward into goal setting and achieving, and my-god-it's-not-easy, but odds aside, here's my latest:


18.1.14

What The Heck is the I-Ching. (Part I)

Have you ever had that moment when you realize you have become so deeply passionate about something and then think: "Maybe no one knows what I'm talking about anymore..." Luckily, the I-Ching is a well traveled thing, - many people have at least heard of it - and in having moved toward working with others from the past few years I am avoiding this pitfall. 

However(!) Just in case(!) I'm going to write a few posts to introduce my guests to just what-the-heck I'm doing. 


I host for I-Ching readings, and each one proves to be a very meaningful experience for my guests. And(!) it always proves to be a step-along-the-path for myself. I-Ching is truly one of the great Wonders...

Sitting with others contemplating I-Ching is truly my favourite thing to do. It is perhaps one of the oldest methods for decision making, inner contemplation, peace, and experiencing oneself by a seamless extension of nature. The I-Ching is the study of Yin & Yang, the two most universal energies to all things, all people, and all time.

The process revolves around crafting or uncovering a question unique to you. We all have multiple themes and relationships running through our lives, and underneath our actions and busyness resides a question: perhaps scratching under the surface with a bit of unrest, pushing you forward, holding back its clear understanding... Sitting with I-Ching is a time to uncover this question, and to use meditation to reveal the process by which you may proceed with greater certainty and understanding.

{ source }
It never ceases to surprise me how deeply calming (and relevant!) I-Ching is for the questioner. I-Ching simply reveals 'what-is,' pointing a way to greater sensations of Acceptance and even Gratitude. And here's an interesting thing... I never want to know what your question is. ...

I'm not a psychologist or a counsellor or anything like that. I am quite simply 'well-traveled.' (Like, getting-old.) I speak only toward the actions of Yin & Yang at the time of our reading, which allows you your much deserved Privacy. And it allows me to speak with ease about the thing I've studied so dearly. 

The method is easy to follow, step-by-step, and progressive. I take you through this at your unique pace - like untangling a ball of Christmas-lights(!..) When you first 'take them out of the box,' it's kinda like "Why, again, do we do Christmas?.." But, strand by strand, the thing gets lain out in a highly manageable sequence, you set up the tree, and by the time the sun goes down there is a thing of beauty to gaze upon. ... Such is Your Question. The first reading acquaints a person with the breadth of I-Ching, and subsequent readings deepen your own process of discovery.

Even though I keep rather busy, my time is flexible. I do not charge for the I-Ching session (just yet!) however, I do have my own published book on the subject ($25 www.thebookofgardens.com) and am donating 20% of proceeds to Johnson's Landing to aide in transition and recovery from the largest landslide to hit the region in 12,000 years. 

I'd be very happy to step through the book with you after we sit together over tea, your question, and a guided meditation. I would also be happy to work with you on-line as well if there is too great a distance to travel to me for tea.

Enjoy the day - talk to you soon.

Phil