It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!

What is real? What should we do with "our lives." What is life? Is life our story? Is life our past? Is it our future? By now you must know what I'm going to say. Life is now! Life story or situation is past. Hope and fear is about future. Our thinking creates more trouble and problems than anything else in this world. It is easy to understand why we have war. Individuals come from a specific self-centered way of thinking. Which makes sense. They are a self. They think from their self, so to speak. The world they livc in has them as the narrator. The commentator. Oh, you should have heard some of my commentary on the world. In the past, I've known it all. "Of course, I would never do things that way or never run a country like this," etc. While I still write about topics I believe need to change or improve. I write with the intention to spark thought. I do instigate with wild sweeping statements with the hopes of people wanting to disprove and therefore discover the truth on their own. This is a topic I think is often overlooked. The power of thought. Thought can bring us to beautiful places and creativity. When thought is the ruler of a person we begin to see a very scary thing take place. People create their own plays in their minds. You know this practice well, don't you? Let me use an example: "The next time he does that, I'll show him. I'm going to say. . ." I'll leave the rest for your imagination. Keep in mind, although we experience interpersonal conflicts at the workplace or in our homes, families and friendships, we are more often playing out conflict in our minds. When at work or home we see another situation arise and it's the first in days or weeks, yet we react as if it's the fourth or fifth that day. Because in our minds it is the fifth argument we've had with this person today. The only problem is the other person was not physically involved. The argument being imaginary seems real to the one imagining and creating fake scenarios in the mind. Outbursts seem justified to the one who bursts out! The person whom we feel is "wrong" or the culprit gets attacked or wrongly accused of something based on the fiction we play in our minds.

Toxic Thoughts—Toxic World!

The toxicity we create in the mind is very powerful. I believe we create more problems and drama through our thinking than perhaps everything else that actually happens. With negative thought, anger, stress through emotional turmoil, we create an acid environment in the body, this causes the body to create mucus. Mucus, as we know clogs the body and impedes its function and therefore its vitality. This can malnourish the body. Not from a lack of food or nutrients, but from a lack of ability to absorb through digestion, the value of the food. As the body holds on to waste product the blood stream, like the rivers and oceans of the planet, become polluted. All this without even mentioning diet! The entire body is affected by CHOOSING this approach to life.

The Great Conundrum!

The human brain is a very mysterious and very powerful organ. Calling it an organ almost feels as though I'm not giving it proper status. The human brain is so deep in its perceptive capacity, we can't even comprehend fully what this means. Everything about our experience is processed in the brain. Even when we sense through other parts of our body we process that feeling or sense through the brain in order for it to register as something. The delicacy of how we experience our world is profound. And still it is believed by science that we use a very small percentage of the capacity of the brain. We have self awareness. A blessing and a major curse. Very few creatures have this capacity. The gift in that awareness is—the total connection to the absolute oneness of life. Which is entirely missed by just about everyone! The source, which flows through all living things. Call it what you want. It does not matter. Is life and it exists only NOW. But, this brain of ours creates everything we experience. It acts like a converter of sorts. "Through our eyes, through our perception and our experience, the universe observes itself." Not truly a quote, more of a paraphrase, yet the thought is still conveyed. Our minds on some level creates the world we live in. We call it red or flat or wet or hard. It is through our sense systems that we experience our world(s) as we do. Including our interactions with the "other" people on the planet. Yet our lenses have become distorted with the grime of the past. We need to clean our lenses from the residue of the past, which colors the present experience. As though the mind is going through a file cabinet comparing this experience with one from the past and categorizing it for you. Telling you, (this is just like that time when. . . )

"Hell is other people." —Jean-Paul Sarte

Hell is what we create through our projected thoughts of "other people."

A New Definition For "Reality"

There is a funny thing about the human race. It is in our thinking. We have a serious thinking disorder. We kill each other and justify the necessity for this undeveloped, unconscious barbarian behavior! Perhaps we can never evolve the chimpanzee out of us. Perhaps we will always be a murderous creature. I believe we practice virtual murder in our minds through our constant negative screen-play, we develop. Through this twisted habit we practice everyday—without any cognitive awareness, we attempt to destroy people or the image of people we've created in our minds. We create images of people we never truly know. Largely because few people truly know themselves. How can you know me if I don't know me? What I mean by "know me" is this. We live through past experiences and judge the present through the filters of the past. Because of this concept and perception of a self, we create separation from what we consider ourself and our life. As if things, events or life happens to us. We fail to see the truth, which is that we create everything we experience through microscopic decisions we make, through our neurological matrix called the brain. Including our perceptions of another's behavior. We even go as far as to believe we know their intentions as well! This is pure insanity! And yet this is how most people live. All conflict comes from drama which is played out through interaction with other emotional (disturbance) people operating in a similar unconscious way. No one is immune. Except conscious people. I personally don't know anyone who isn't unconscious. Even if you're in a conscious state and feeling centered, another person's pain can arouse yours and right then, you're gone. Coming from pain and therefore, ego. Therefore, unconscious.

I've Got Thirteen Channels Of Shit On The TV To Choose From. . . (Pink Floyd)

(Now we've got thirteen-thousand channels of Shit!)

Now here's the funny part: Most of what is considered "entertainment" is "Reality TV," which is people watching other people's staged dysfunctional, disturbed "reality." We even include in our competition based shows—drama! Yes we see singers audition for American Idol and compete on the show. But the real focus is on judgment of others and the dysfunctional, emotional behavior of the contestants. We sit around and watch "other people's hell," then talk about it. We actually take sides of people we don't even know and live through their drama and pain. Wow! Is anyone steering the boat? Anyone looking to see what is going on while we live in texting world? (Guilty as charged) Or while we obsess over the mental illness we call entertainment?

SINNERS!

(Sin means—to miss the point) Definition for newcomers.

We seem to miss the simple fact that life is a miracle and a gift. We practically ignore life (our true selves). We don't consider the simple beauty that being a living creature is of itself, a gift. Why squander that? That we can go to the beach and marvel at the miles of white sand and blue ocean unfurled before us. And comprehend why our shores look the way they do and formed how they did. As the day turns to night we understand why. At night we look up at that same beautiful sky and see the stars and planets in our galaxy. Understanding the heavens above, too. Our power seems infinite and yet we seem to apply most of it to fiction. To that which ultimately brings more suffering to our already challenging lives. We waste our energy worrying. (Hi mom) We severely waste our energy running our movie projectors in our minds, watching the movies of our lives. Going over the so-called bad events. Our theater also shows futuristic movies, too. Using our past experiences, we create new ones. Playacting in these made-up scenarios, we literally live a virtual life. Make believe. I'm a fan of day-dreaming. To let the mind wander and create is beautiful. This is not what I mean. I mean living in a constant projected reality, through past, present and future misrepresentations of what really doesn't even matter at all. Other peoples behavior. Mind your own business. I say that not with the assumed tone. But with humility. Simply apply your mind and thought to your actions and choices and judgments and business. Our constant analysis of other people takes us out of ourselves. Separates us by taking us out of the now. We are such great masters at living this way, that we miss the simplicity of letting go. Let go of the story and the drama and just be here—be thankful you are here. And try to enjoy this brief, temporary experience we were given.

Be well,

Tom DeVito