Phil wrote:
I think "new ager" woo-woo thought/movement is attempting to flip the predator/prey thing on its head. The keyboard warriors and supersoldiers and angry youth are talking about hunting down/removing predators (as they talk about how impossible their hold is on us)
I think the flaw in the thinking is in the approach. A "successful" prey animal isn't one that "takes down" it's predator. It's the one that finds a way to exist in its reality. Key being: NOT TAKING IT PERSONALLY.
The extreme of my thinking has us just accepting being prey...and trying to be the best at it...the dog-eat-dog ratrace we currently live in where we essentially act as predators within our own species. I don't think this is the way to go either...and when I say "accept"...I don't mean just hopelessly helplessly lay down and take the oppression.
I mean to "really understand reality", to see the situation for what it is, and not be in denial of it...not to get "good at it" as it currently is...because if we are as creative as your OP implies...cuz all I could see in it on first reading (very good by the way) is FREE WILL...and if it is in fact real, which it certainly seems enough so for me to think the illusion is good enough if that's the case, I choose to believe I live with FW...so maybe if enough our species can gain awareness enough to help thwart the intra-species predation, then I think there's a shot of effectively identifying...the first step in removing...the next-level predator situation.
Just because it may not happen in our lifetime, and that it may be an as-above-so-below fractal of "bigger fish", I still think it's worth trying (living) for
It isn't just the predator/prey dichotomy.
From the don Juan quote this bit :
All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush,
or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. is what stands out for me. The question whether a path has a heart is secondary to that truth. It's the bit that makes life more enjoyable, but in the end whether your path had a heart or not.
Remember I can't stand the term sheeple? It's the acceptance I have of a human being that will helplessly lay down and accept it's role as prey that causes me to flinch when i hear the term sheeple used. If his or her path leads him or her to that decision. It will be as significant a choice as is the choice of the man or woman that will bring this system down.
I hold the notion that reality as it is cannot be really understood. Well not on a level that we can have a meaningful discussion about anyways. WHy not? Reality is malleable, impermanent if you will. The chakra's that helped so many on the path yesterday and today will change into new abstractions people use to discuss their energy fields and manipulation of it. Heart centered toroidal fields perhaps? The triune brain will be seen through as an inadequate but helpful mnemonic to talk about the importance of hormonal processes instead of the reality it is often seen as now.
Even the choice to be a seeker of knowledge (trying to understand reality), remaining a slave of the system or some completely different life's choices are every bit as meaningful as the other.
You know when I left tot that was the 3d large(ish) forum I was a close member of that sort of dissipated. On every one of the I had a period in which I though we could accomplish something.
I do on occasion not speak up IRL and choose to hold my tongue. And yes it often comes and bites me in the buttocks.
I did follow a school for bio-dynamic farming in the hope of being able to live self-sustainable and set that dream aside for the more accepted lifestyle of a wage slave. I've meditated, reiki mastered, shiatsu therapied etc...
I've been drunk, stoned. In love, bitter, cynical, in awe, moved to tears, bit my tongue in anger. I breathed, I choked. I fought in the astral, freed trapped souls. I read and thought and wanted. I even cried a little
All experiences that led me to here. Nowhere.
For me I am beginning to see that this no where is exactly where I need to be.
It isn't particularly blissful, It in't hellish by a long shot.
There's people to love and small pleasures to enjoy.
Some fresh air to be breathed and paycheck minus bills permitting some healthy foods to be eaten.
LIfe. Don't you just love it...
WIth Love
Eelco