Express the Source

"Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn’t have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents. Without a prison, there can be no delinquents. We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves. When someone was so poor that he couldn’t afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift. We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property. We didn’t know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth. We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another. We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don’t know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.”
John (Fire) Lame Deer, Sioux Lakota, 1903-1976.

"Without the Tao, kindness and compassion are replaced by law and justice."

Lao Tzu

Man's ability to rationalise (a specialisation that Nature provided us) produced the thought of a separate "I", which together with the illusory/deceptive perception apparatus we carry, gave rise to an artificial construct/hallucination in our minds way beyond the needs of biological survival: the human ego.

Combined with the Awareness of our mortality and the consequent fear and anxiety that comes from it the need for survival is further strengthened, leading to an increased sense of separation from the environment and Nature. Thus humanity became unbalanced initiating a parasitic relation with the planet. This parasitic behaviour is known as: civilisation (super-ego/matrix, collective mind-construct/hallucination).

This separate "I" distortion is passed from generation to generation, and in many cases this indoctrination forces in the child a divorce/rejection between mind and the emotional system in the individual, or feelings, the sensitive intuitive system (also known as True Self/Higher Self in spiritual circles) which is intimately connected to Awareness and Nature. This leads in extreme cases to a completely hallucinatory ego: sociopathy, or it's opposite where the individual in order to maintain the connection with the intuitive self, chooses to sabotage the mind, leading to schizophrenia, a state of being not so different from the mystic mindset.

"The complete destruction of the rational intellect aimed at in the training creates an almost perfect lack of supposition of the consciousness. Conscious supposition is thereby excluded as far as possible, but not unconscious supposition; that is, the existing but unperceived psychological disposition, which is anything but emptiness and lack of supposition. It is a nature-given factor, and when it answers, as is obviously the satori experience, it is an answer of Nature, who has succeeded in conveying her reactions directly to the consciousness."
Carl Jung in the introduction of D. T. Suzuki's book "An introduction to Zen Buddhism"

These extreme cases of Self-betrayal that lead to sociopathy result in an inability of developing empathy. As a consequence a certain class of individuals that went into this profound sort of mental hallucination (unbalanced ego divorced from intuition), to the unfortunate of us all, managed to control the masses through the use of force, fear and compartmentalisation of knowledge (absence of empathy is an extreme advantage to those who wish to control). Politics, economics, militarism and so on are a few examples of this. Thus the population sank even further into the abyss of spiritual ignorance, becoming a total robot ready to be used as a tool for production of items (technology) that further increase ignorance working as a kind of anaesthesia for Life (entertainment) and thus subjecting himself to even more control from above (surveillance and propaganda).

In a world where this attitude pervades, where power and control are the norm, individual self-reliance/autonomy, and the expression of who we really are through a free, balanced, independent (connected to Source) ego is seen as something to abolish.

"Human development may follow one of two paths: that of love or that of power. The way of power, which is central in most cultures, leads to a self that mirrors the ideology of domination. This is a fragmented, split self that rejects suffering and helplessness as signs of weakness and emphasises power and control as means of denying helplessness. The attainment of what passes for success in our world presupposes a self of this nature. Such a situation represents the antithesis of autonomy, which I now propose to discuss.
Autonomy is that state of integration in which one lives in full harmony with one's feelings and needs. Commonly we think of autonomy as something else, as something having to do with the assertion of one's own importance and Independence. This applies particularly to the kind of self that, consciously or unconsciously, conforms to the ideology of domination. For this reason, what is commonly described as autonomy fits a concept of the self composed of abstractions. Although capable of rebellion, such a self is merely a reflection of those types of constricting, distorting, selfish qualities that parents, school, and society have imprinted within us. Autonomy is then equated with the "freedom" of constantly having to prove to ourselves and others how strong and superior we are. Whether such "proof" complies with or opposes existing norms makes no difference. What is important is that we must always be proving ourselves, this leads to a warlike stance, far removed from one in which we are able to affirm life. In contrast, having access to life-affirming emotions, to feelings of joy, sorrow, pain - in short, a sense of being truly alive - is essential for the development of autonomy as I understand it."
Arno Gruen from "The Betrayal of Self"

On a more collective perspective the "I" distortion developed also mechanisms to make life less painful for the "I": faith in belief systems that provide meaning for life and the unnatural suffering that comes from the refusal of natural suffering. And also, and in most of these belief systems, the notion of survival of the "I" (combined with the appearance of the body) in some paradisaical realm where we are rewarded by God (the notion of a separate God is another illusory concept of the mind). Michael Tsarion refers to the human world being Mysterium Possessed. God being in this sense a mysterium or illusion created by the mind.

Nothing survives death except that which is not bounded by time: Awareness. Awareness (or Space) is the as yet unrecognised key-element that pervades the whole of the Cosmos. It's nothing/void and yet it is the source of everything including Life. The visible Cosmos is also a living entity. It also experienced birth and will also end, and between the two states unspeakable narratives unfold, human and non-human. And behind it all is the eternal Source that pervades/Is everything.

This connection with the Cosmos is the piece of the puzzle we're missing but also the one we will never get hold of through reasoning. It cannot be grasped and used, only understood through felt experience. The answer can only be provided by Awareness through the intuitive system. The intuitive system is above reason, it is superior to reason. And above the intuitive system is Awareness, Nature, the True Source. So in this way what is known as the True Self, becomes the No-Self, a much more profound understanding of the human predicament and of the whole of reality. One that can actually help us to become more caring for ourselves and for each other, not as an ideal, not as another concept, but as a feeling, a profound sense of care that can use reason as a tool for the expression of harmonised patterns of thought and action. Ending in this way the unharmonized dependant ego (disconnected from intuition/awareness) collective hallucination.

The Treasure Map

We are but a combination of conditions/elements, a temporary form in which there is no independent Self. Death is the end of the "I" thought and of the perception apparatus, freeing our intuitive self and Awareness, returning it to the Great Ocean of Life that lies behind all this.

"Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing is the meaning to the phrase, "Form is emptiness".  That all things are provided by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, "Emptiness is form". One should not think that these two are separate things."
Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure

This might seem like a not so optimistic perspective to some but to me it lifts me up, and fear becomes much less pervasive. This is not a theory, this is what can be felt and known if you find out and feel who you really are. It brings a completely different way to experience oneself and the world. We're all in this together, alive. And we're all gonna end.

“We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorised and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”
Charles Bukowski

Civilisation is a mass hallucination that forgot who we really are. The result of this hallucination is very much obvious by now to anyone who has eyes to see.

Find out who you are, the answer lies within. And express yourself, express the Source within you, this is our Sword of Truth that might end all this bullshit! We really have nothing to lose!

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
Jesus Christ