The heartbreak, outrage and fear of the future feels to have hit peak levels here in Australia. This is the worst event I have lived through. Its the worst tragedy for Australian flora and fauna ever.
I have friends who have lost everything, others who have desperately saved their homes, others joining volunteer fire fighting units, lots of intelligent discussion about what action to take and also lots of rage and blame. It feels like apocalypse.
I understand the anger against the government. Almost unrestricted water consumption for mining, major rivers have been sucked dry and poisoned for profit and the artesian groundwater is being contaminated by fracking.
A religious fundamentalist for a PM. A puppet of the coal industry and literally believes Jesus will come sort everything out. The blood boils.
But then again, I’m not surprised, I never expected anything from the government, apart from greed, corruption and inept short-termism.
I think I stopped trusting the government when I was about 5 years old. Didn’t everyone?
I saw how politicians lied and manipulated and acted like horrendous children in parliament.
I studied history and politics and learned about CIA backed coups and assassinations and false-flag events, how government, corporate lobby groups and media actually works to control power and legislation.
Do people actually believe the government has the best interests of people at heart?
Do people really believe that if the next person or party was elected things would be much better?
That feels like wishful thinking at best. What I observe is that the government is part of a system, which is controlled by big business and media…. and who knows what else.
How the Current System Works
Big business uses financial leverage to influence political decisions and media controls mainstream opinion in a way that divides, steers and lowers consciousness of truth.
We are all part of the system by being consumers of products, services and information, in varying degrees.
The more deeply we participate in the system by being reliant on it for our water, electricity, food, opinions or version of truth the more we are complicit in whatever the system generates.
Capitalism in its current form seems based on a premise that there are un-ending resources on Earth when in fact it appears that there are various thresholds and firm planetary boundaries.
It is also based on competition and rivalry that promotes exploitation in the name of profit.
As everyone who owns stocks or shares knows, those who invests in this system always want more…. more, more.
The system therefore is destined to generate the catastrophe of finite resources meeting infinite greed.
The Questions I ask
How can we change our beliefs, thoughts and behaviour so we are less reliant on the current system?
How can we contribute to the rise of new systems that enable us to thrive in harmony with all life?
I can’t get comfortable with blaming anyone or anything for what happens unless I am 100% sure that I am not complicit, through my own choices in the survival of the current system and all the evil or ignorance inherent in it.
It’s so easy to blame the “baddies” for climate change, to point fingers at corrupt politicians and evil companies.
Of course, lets fight for change at the political level. Lets fight for accountability and truth on all levels. But let’s also check in on ourselves. Hold up the mirror of truth.
As above, so below. The government represents the populace.
Horrible to admit. They are lying, conniving, manipulative, truth dodging bastards. So incredibly full of bullshit.
En masse, in many different ways, so are we. I don’t mean to guilt or shame.
Let’s just be strong enough to look at ourselves and our action. I’ll do me, you do you.
Every dollar we spend goes somewhere. Is it conglomerates or local farmers we support?
Shopping at big supermarkets is pretty handy. So is driving places. And flying.
And having the latest iPhone. And all the other little and large ways we use our power and money to support a system that will strip the Earth until there is nothing left.
The truth is that most of us are caught up in the system. It’s almost impossible not to be.
We may say we are trying to make ends meet or trying to survive.
But is it survival we are really going for? Or is it the make-believe thing called “security” that creates the mindset of wanting and expecting constant upward financial growth…. which we hope will make us feel safe, secure and successful?
Just to bring it home: I’ve been looking at buying a house recently. Got approved for a big loan. Went and looked at a few houses.
How do I really feel about borrowing money from a big 4 bank that is probably funding the kind of mining companies that drain river basins?
But what if they offer the best interest rate?
Wow, I’m in bed with the devil if I’m deciding on that level. I got hard choices to make.
Wait a second: Do I even need to own a home? Why does part of me want to own one? Am I still partially run by fantasies created when I was a less self-aware human? Am I a little afraid of missing out on the market going up, up up?
What do I need to live a fulfilling life? Is it really 3 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, a double lock-up garage on a nice north-facing block?…. or is that old me, culturally conditioned me?
They say ignorance is bliss. I prefer to say that awareness comes with responsibility.
I have friends who have raised millions of $ from VCs or private equity firms to grow their businesses, and instantly become beholden to companies higher up the food chain who simply want 3X or 10X return on investment. Do these investors care about the purpose or potential positive impact of the company?
They, as part of the existing system, want more, more, more return on investment.
These entrepreneurs who raise capital and grow tech companies quickly are commonly viewed as paragons of success… embodiments of the American dream… but they become slaves to the system the moment they take those cheques.
But they are no more slaves to the system than us if our superannuation/ retirement fund is used to fund companies with a mandate to grow at all costs… if we have not yet done the homework and looked for an ethical fund that actively swerves away from coal companies and towards clean energy.
They are no more slaves of the system than all the people like me who greedily ploughed into bitcoin (too late) secretly hoping to 10X.
When we really get real with ourselves, the problem is that this system we are part of has seeded in our consciousness a Gollum mindset of “more more more”, “my precious”.
But, this is not how nature works. The longer we allow ourselves to be sucked in by the economic fantasy of constant upward growth the longer we will be in disharmony with nature.
If you think “more more more” is a great spiritual thing called an “abundance mindset” you really don’t get it.
Yeah, there’s abundance in nature, yeah spirit, source, consciousness is so abundant its infinite, but encoded into the patterns of the universe are checks and balances, cycles, droughts, famines, tsunami’s, extinctions. Life and death.
Contrary to popular opinion, waking up is not some ethereal journey to be with the harp-plucking angels singing Hallelujah, while we serenely sit in the bliss of unity consciousness. As a wise Elder, Stephen Jenkinson said: “Waking up is to wake up to grief.”
What he means is that when we are in grief… we are finally getting it… and we are being gotten by it. We are being claimed by a story bigger than our own egoic fantasies, bigger than our wishes. We are waking up to TRUTH.
So, the Questions are
How committed are we to FEELING THE PAIN?
How willing are we to grief the death of our old ways?
How committed are we to building new regenerative cultures upon the ashes of our childish fantasies?
How willing are we to cohere with natures rhythms and eternal wisdom and wake up from the dream of chasing “more more more” consumption, security, power, status, likes, followers, dollars.
How willing are we to wake up from the Disney fantasy of security, success and “happy ever after”.
So we can plunge into the gritty, beautiful reality that we are dying…. and that this journey to awakening is one of waking up to GRIEF… the pain of the truth… from which we can rebuild from.
This far too real for most people.
Far easier to avoid… through addiction to thinking, to maintaining that egoic identity… chasing the validation and the dreams.
We’ve been conditioned to yearn for something called “success” that keeps us toiling on hamster wheels trying to get more, which keeps the system alive… which ends up with the planet getting raped.
But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s in our power and it’s our choice to write a new story and fucking burn the old one that parents or culture handed down.
We choose to take on the mortgage. We choose to stay in the city, chase the promotion and pay rise, buy investments in the hope they will just go up and up and up.
We want this thing called “security” that doesn’t actually exist… we chase fulfilment externally…. or we choose to rebel.
We are the system…. and we are self-responsible for changing it.
There’s lots of amazing talk about systems change, a new paradigm, conscious capitalism, Game B… intelligent, heart centred people coming up great ideas.
Many of the discussions I’ve had over the years with folks ranging from permaculturists, billionaire philosopher philanthropist’s, blokes in the pub, shamans, wizards, witches, ecologist savants have been spine-tingling, mind-bending, heart-opening and revelatory.
Custodians of Planet Earth
I firmly believe in the potential for humans to thrive on Earth as wise custodians of this planet. We can do it.
But its clear to me that systems change begins as an inside job.
Nothing changes while we blame and externalise.
That’s the trap …the M.O of the current system is to divide and conquer, compete and blame, whip up fear, create distractions, blame the other side…
Just as the magician diverts attention from the truth, so this trap of blaming and shaming takes power away from the Self to exercise the sovereign right to be free.
Make no mistake, the current system is black magic through and through.
When we are stuck in the polarities of good versus bad, them vs. us, right vs. left, climate change vs. denial, vegan vs. non-vegan — we are caught in the spell.
We contribute to the division of the world and become unconscious agents of the system of control that dominates human existence and the fuckedupness on this planet.
We must go deep within and look for OUR truth.
We will never find it out there.
We must take these catastrophes as planetary opportunities and divine invitations to WAKE UP.
So how do we wake up? This is what I have found:
Every choice we make is the byproduct of some natural instinct or cultural programming that becomes a feeling that evokes a thought… that results in an action.
The deepest cultural programming I have disentangled from is the story of separateness. The conditioning that I am a human, separated from the whole and individuated by means of identity and personality… it shaped everything I knew and programmed me to chase more and feel in-sufficient.
The most core natural instinct I have remembered is the truth of connectedness…. that I AM connected to the whole.
That the source of all life flows through me, that I am nature incarnate, I am the Earth, I AM spirit dressed as man, I am pure awareness, I am the universe human-ing through me.
As I remembered this I remembered I am whole. I am abundance incarnate.
Separateness gives rise to anxiety and fear… and chasing the dragon of more-ism.
Connectedness gives rise to love…. and allows us to feel whole.
It is from this KNOWING of connectedness that true change naturally unfolds.
It is from this KNOWING that our choices and behaviours emerge downstream as the natural, loving, regenerative flourishing of the Earth, through us as conscious conduits of Oneness.
And so our Self-awareness determines the quality of love or fear we give ourselves, communities and planet.
It determines whether we are part of the problem or solution.
How we perceive ourselves determines whether we are embodiments of the old system or the new.
Let us remember this in these initiatory times.
Let us not take our eye off the ball and become so captivated and enraged by what happens out there, that we de-prioritise the work of activating, evolving, remembering and awakening to the loving awareness that we are.
This first and foremost is a crisis of consciousness… so let us deepen our commitment to the inner work to scrub ourselves clean of cultural brainwashing and re-wild our minds, claim our sovereignty by creatively Being the change.
Resources for Waking up
How? Here are some ways I commit to…. a resource list for Waking Up:
- Meditate — commit to the practice. Have no time? It’s urgent, prioritise meditation. Doing so will help you re-connect with what you are beyond the mind. This is the most revolutionary and disruptive action you can take. Close your eyes, repeat the mantra “I am Loving Awareness” until your mind still and your heart opens to the truth of the words… or use one of the many apps such as One Giant Mind, and join my friends at Mindfulness.com where the best teachers in the world will share their nuggets.
- Learn about consciousness —Read this flow state paper by Justin Faerman. On my path, reading spiritual books like this, this and this, as well as psychology and neuroscience books like this, this and this helped me understand my mind, and to integrate my personal path of awakening with solid scientific understanding. This allowed me to transcend the aversion to “woo-woo” that our culture spreads and find my own truth.
We are living in an amazing time where scientists are diving deep into uncharted territory to explore the interconnecting cosmic field at the roots of reality… how we ARE the universe, how inter-connection works. If you are not on this edge, get on it… Learn about Professor Ervin Lazslo, who wrote Science and the Akashic Field and Dr Jude Currivan, author of The Cosmic Hologram.
Personally, some of my most profound realisations on what I am have come through being in my body, having a direct experience of being a wild animal, ancestrally related to lizards and fish and 4-legged creatures. For this, Simon Thakur is a world-class teacher of Ancestral Movement. You can listen to me and Simon dialogue on flow and consciousness here. - Create kinship with wild places & remember YOU ARE WILD —don’t let “nature connection” be a clichè in your life. Actually fall in love with a place… get out there and let it claim you… and listen good. Real good. Become a guardian, secret agent and ambassador of wild nature… and bear witness to the wildness that awakens within you. Witness all the ways you are domesticated. In your mental maps and patterns, in the soft soles of your feet, in your aversion to creepy crawly things… all of these and more are frontiers of awakening.
- Learn about systems change — Educate yourself on Buckminster Fuller, listen to podcasts with Daniel Schmachtenberger, Jordan Hall, John Vervaeke… read work of Joanna Macy, Daniel Christian Wahl, Anneloes Smitsman and The Earthwise Centre, Charles Eisenstein, Giles Hutchins…. check the Rebel Wisdom youtube channel, the Emerge magazine & podcast, Voice club… join the Truth Seekers FB group… listen to the Flowstate podcast.
- Go directly to the source of wisdom — create experiences that rip you out of your shell, tear open your mind, expand your heart… learn from plants, study the pre-religious mystic knowing revealed in ancient spiritual texts, connect with the sun... get off social media and all media more and more… learn directly from Source.
- Read poetry and mythology —Poetry is the language of the heart- poets and storytellers are the rare, fringe characters who rebel, witness and channel truth from the edges… read them…. be one. Statistics and science will take you so far… there is another language that speaks to the soul. Find it and become fluent. Start by reading and listening to Michael Meade, Martin Shaw, David Whyte, John O’Donohue, Sharon Blackie, Robin Wall Kimmerer.
- Play — when the grief is deep, go through it… and find joy and laughter. To enlighten is to lighten up. Laugh and laugh at the cosmic joke.. seriously… keep your sense of humour alive in these times of grief. It’s vital.
- Learn to garden: Grow vegetables, plant seeds…. this is revolutionary behaviour. Explore off-grid living, take a permaculture course… unplug, go on a solo vision quest into wild nature.
- Create — art, express yourself wildly… be true to yourself and honour the incredible, multi-dimensional being you are… Find the others… those who inspire you to create a new story. Jam with them, support them
- MOST OF ALL, Go deep within — Find YOUR truth. The truth of what you are. Do it for yourself. Do it for the Earth. Do it for all the future generations of all species.
THIS IS THE WORK
Blessings on your journey, reach out if you need help, apply to join us on a Vision Quest if you feel the call.
