Monday, August 6, 2012

The Two Planes of Existence

 




Time to break a 10-month silence.
"Being seen and not heard is really not something I do well.  On the contrary, it's something I vehemently rebel against!" - LDW 2012

That quote of mine is what triggered this.  I firmly believe that there are three types of humans on this planet.

One type consists of the vast majority of the human race which keeps itself in a self-created rat race.  They wake, eat, work, chores, relax and sleep.  It is ultimately a mundane routine that due to the structures of society, we are mostly all forced to adhere to.

Within this "average day" we encounter petty politics, peons clambering over other peons to simply be higher on the pile of shit we've created for ourselves.  We cling to ancient ideas and concepts that are ultimately meaningless... some created to give comfort to the masses, but most created to control the masses by those same higher-shit pile peons we battle everyday.

Meaningless.

Go to the supermarket and - if you can - take a step back from your cereal buying or melon thumping and WATCH.  Look around and you will see it.  Like ants in a farm or fish in a tank... dozens of people mindlessly going about their business.  Hamsters on a wheel blindly following guidelines set forth for them eons ago.  Blissfully ignorant of any other way.  Oblivious to the world around round.

For most people, this is Life.  This is all there is.  They live, they die.  If they are lucky, they make a ripple or two in their immediate circle pond, but their impact on the planet is that of a grain of sand on a vast beach.  Meaningless in the big picture.

Sadly, this group is where ALL criminals dwell.  All bullies live and thrive here.  All dictators and despots.  Everyone who needs to control others to support their own lives.

How do we avoid getting sucked into the whirlpool of mundane or worse, into a life controlled by others?  How do we reside on the higher plane?

For those who can ascend and dwell on the higher plane, they would make up the second group.  A very small group who are looked up to and revered - and rightly so. Think Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa. 

They personally have no need for laws or even your average societal structure, they see each other for who they are and they live on a tenet of mutual respect.   They follow their hearts, know what is right, and do not succumb to early primal norms.  There is no higher power for them (regardless of what they might outwardly profess).  They and their brethren are supreme.  They sometimes live alone as a small group.  On a mountaintop perhaps.  Tibet anyone?

Being able to live like this would be true Utopia.

Sadly, to interact with society, the vast majority can only visit this plane in short intervals.  They have to come back down, lowing themselves again to average human levels.  These are the straddlers - the third group.

A small group of beings on this spinning rock that actually comprehend this on a regular basis but cannot seem to separate themselves fully - or chose not to.  They can take a step back and watch as this endless cycle of life continues - unbeknownst to the humans in the first group actually engaged in it, but then rejoin to masses to work their magic.

Some have done this better than others... Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs.  Their ripples affect a great many ponds and they have a lasting effect on society for a very many generations to come.

Humbly I state that this is the group I find myself in.  It saddens me and truly upsets me to realize that.  It annoys me to have to step back and it perturbs me - for the most part - to interact with the rest of society who just don't get it; who don't truly understand - who continue to dwell in their primitive lives clinging to their primitive ideals.

For those of us who can step back... who recognize this... we know existence can be so much more.

The trick is how do we step back and stay back for extended periods of time?

Besides living alone or on that mountain in Tibet, we can do our own form of meditation.  I've traveled alone to Peru and hiked the Inca Trail for four days - dwelling in my own head for most of the trip.  It was fabulous.  I sometimes wish I could chuck my life as it is and do something singular like hike around the world.

So what can we do?

Try to step-back more times than not.  Think before you speak - understand what you're responding to before you respond to it (something I wish I was better at!).  Don't point out how meaningless peoples lives are to them... they won't believe you and just think you're being mean - you cannot force someone out of their primitive closet, they have to first experience self-realization and then they can decide to step into the light on their own.

The world is not what it seems... and the more people realize this and can join the few of us who get it, the better this life will be for everyone.