Satori
Don Juan
...something more than a machine
For all our talk of complexity and superiority, we humans are often very simple creatures. We have so much potential, but most of us fail to use it. Society happily encourages this mediocrity, this stagnation, this suppression of free thought. We go to school and learn facts and ideas, but we don’t learn how to live. We usually don’t even appreciate what we do learn, memorizing facts for the test and then promptly forgetting them. We’re told what to think and what to believe. We spend most of our time doing the same things, until everything becomes automatic. We come home and watch TV, and we know that tomorrow will really be no different from today.
We have become robots, running the same programs over and over. Our days are systematic, requiring no conscious thought. Our minds wander about in fantasy while our lives drift along. We revel in television and other forms of escapism. The spark of creativity, of adventure, is dead. There is no more discovery, no growth.
Look at the people around you. Watch them run their routines day after day. Isn’t it frightening? Like a vast machine, mindlessly carrying out its instructions.
Then consider a little child, too young to have yet fallen into complacency. A child is always exploring, always discovering. A child’s mind is free and alive. What has gone wrong?
Somewhere along the line, we’ve decided to abandon awareness. Our consciousness has retreated into our minds, leaving our subconscious to the menial tasks of daily life. It’s easier to live in a fantasy world than the real one, because truly living in the real world requires tremendous effort.
All around me are people who are afraid to try new things. “I’m not good at that,” they say, or “I don’t do that.” What they’re really saying is that they don’t have a program, a routine for that. Trying it now would require action rather than reaction. The same goes for relationships. Countless men want step-by-step instructions on how to deal with women, because they don’t have a successful program to run. Thus is the popularity of pick-up lines and speed seduction. The idea of actively and creatively interacting with a woman, making their own decisions, is foreign to them.
The AFC and the speed seductionist are one in the same. The seductionist has his scripted lines and open-ended questions while the AFC his his flowers and chocolates. The seductionist may be more practiced and successful in his interactions with women, but both are just running a program. They have an objective and they are doing what they think is necessary to achieve it. There is nothing dynamic or true about this. Their words and actions are calculated, mere tools used to satisfy their desire. The relationship with the other person is illusory.
We fear change and seek to eliminate risk. We choose cold comfort over change; but what more is comfort than not having to think or grow? We would rather do what someone else tells us to do, say what someone else tells us to say, rather than forge our own path. We are a people of reaction, inaction. Action is what we need, and now.
So often do you hear people say “someday” I will do this or that. Someday things will be different, better. Yet how can things change for them when they refuse to change? Action in the future is no action at all, because the present moment is the only time that will ever exist.
It is time to wake up and live our lives. Turn off the TV, turn off your mental programs, and explore again. Regain your childhood freedom and do something new. The world can be a wonderful place, undeserving of the escapist attitude we usually harbor. Only when we truly become conscious and take control of our lives can we realize our true potential. When we begin to think for ourselves, we become fluid. Who we are is no longer some concrete thing that limits us, but something that is completely dependent on who we choose to be.
There are many of you out there who aren’t happy about your appearance, but you aren’t doing anything about it. There are many of you who want to get a girlfriend but are afraid to talk to women. There are many of you who don’t like who you are, but keep being that same person day after day. Wake up! Yes it takes work to change things, it takes awareness and action rather than reaction, but this is a good thing! When you awaken to life and become more than just another part in this machine, you will rise above all around you. While the rest of the world sleeps its waking dreams, you will be free to reach the greatest of heights.
For all our talk of complexity and superiority, we humans are often very simple creatures. We have so much potential, but most of us fail to use it. Society happily encourages this mediocrity, this stagnation, this suppression of free thought. We go to school and learn facts and ideas, but we don’t learn how to live. We usually don’t even appreciate what we do learn, memorizing facts for the test and then promptly forgetting them. We’re told what to think and what to believe. We spend most of our time doing the same things, until everything becomes automatic. We come home and watch TV, and we know that tomorrow will really be no different from today.
We have become robots, running the same programs over and over. Our days are systematic, requiring no conscious thought. Our minds wander about in fantasy while our lives drift along. We revel in television and other forms of escapism. The spark of creativity, of adventure, is dead. There is no more discovery, no growth.
Look at the people around you. Watch them run their routines day after day. Isn’t it frightening? Like a vast machine, mindlessly carrying out its instructions.
Then consider a little child, too young to have yet fallen into complacency. A child is always exploring, always discovering. A child’s mind is free and alive. What has gone wrong?
Somewhere along the line, we’ve decided to abandon awareness. Our consciousness has retreated into our minds, leaving our subconscious to the menial tasks of daily life. It’s easier to live in a fantasy world than the real one, because truly living in the real world requires tremendous effort.
All around me are people who are afraid to try new things. “I’m not good at that,” they say, or “I don’t do that.” What they’re really saying is that they don’t have a program, a routine for that. Trying it now would require action rather than reaction. The same goes for relationships. Countless men want step-by-step instructions on how to deal with women, because they don’t have a successful program to run. Thus is the popularity of pick-up lines and speed seduction. The idea of actively and creatively interacting with a woman, making their own decisions, is foreign to them.
The AFC and the speed seductionist are one in the same. The seductionist has his scripted lines and open-ended questions while the AFC his his flowers and chocolates. The seductionist may be more practiced and successful in his interactions with women, but both are just running a program. They have an objective and they are doing what they think is necessary to achieve it. There is nothing dynamic or true about this. Their words and actions are calculated, mere tools used to satisfy their desire. The relationship with the other person is illusory.
We fear change and seek to eliminate risk. We choose cold comfort over change; but what more is comfort than not having to think or grow? We would rather do what someone else tells us to do, say what someone else tells us to say, rather than forge our own path. We are a people of reaction, inaction. Action is what we need, and now.
So often do you hear people say “someday” I will do this or that. Someday things will be different, better. Yet how can things change for them when they refuse to change? Action in the future is no action at all, because the present moment is the only time that will ever exist.
It is time to wake up and live our lives. Turn off the TV, turn off your mental programs, and explore again. Regain your childhood freedom and do something new. The world can be a wonderful place, undeserving of the escapist attitude we usually harbor. Only when we truly become conscious and take control of our lives can we realize our true potential. When we begin to think for ourselves, we become fluid. Who we are is no longer some concrete thing that limits us, but something that is completely dependent on who we choose to be.
There are many of you out there who aren’t happy about your appearance, but you aren’t doing anything about it. There are many of you who want to get a girlfriend but are afraid to talk to women. There are many of you who don’t like who you are, but keep being that same person day after day. Wake up! Yes it takes work to change things, it takes awareness and action rather than reaction, but this is a good thing! When you awaken to life and become more than just another part in this machine, you will rise above all around you. While the rest of the world sleeps its waking dreams, you will be free to reach the greatest of heights.