Sometimes, things are so simple. Whenever I spend time in nature, I’m back in my body, heart and spirit. Nature engages all the senses. Even ones I’m not usually aware of. Nature comforts – I’m part of a whole that I cannot understand. And it’s fine to not be able to understand intellectually. Not everything can pass through the mind.

In nature I perceive wholeness. This wholeness is regenerative. It’s an essential break from the dividing duality I usually experience when I function solely from the intellect.

I want to abide in this wholeness. It is possible to live a life in this knowing, this grace, this appreciation.

In nature, there is only now. There is no past to torment us, no future to live up to. There is no struggle for enlightenment (or any other mental concept), because none is necessary.

We are free in the moment. The moment is not the past nor is it the future. The breath anchors us to the present because the breath is always in the moment.

This moment sees full freedom of choice.

It is pure potential for limitless creativity.

It is free of the subject and the object – a formless flow of pure energy.

Consider the infinite possibilities that the universe contains.
Imagine planets and otherworldly societies as yet undiscovered.

Consider the age of the known universe.
Imagine eternity.

Consider the myriad differences in human cultures across countries.
Imagine vast, untouched natural landscapes with little or no human presence.

Consider that the Earth and the human body are mostly composed of water.
Imagine endless oceans, the sky touching the sea.

Consider the emergence of life in a universe that seems silent to the post-industrial mind.
Imagine that the entire universe is life and is simply waiting for us to realize this.

Awaken.

“the world is no longer experienced as consisting of things that are lasting and solid but rather as something that vanishes almost as soon as it appears – like dew drops at sunrise, like a bubble on water, like a line drawn on water, like a mustard-seed placed on the point of an awl, like a flash of lightning; things in themselves lack substance and always elude one’s grasp – like a mirage, a conjuring trick, a dream, the circle formed by a whirling firebrand, a fairy city, foam, or the trunk of a banana tree.”

- Buddhaghosa, The Path to Purification (trans. Rupert Gethin)

“… happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.”

- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow

“In each atom of the realms of the universe,
There exist vast oceans of world systems.”

- The Flower Ornament Scripture

Feeling misunderstood, disconnected and frustrated this past week (from being a legitimate, fully accounted-for part of society again), I posted this to my facebook profile yesterday:

“Seems like nobody wants to express their true selves anymore – even if it is something beautiful and positive. Everybody is so afraid and cares more for social convention than real living. Nudity is wrong, sex is wrong, humour is wrong. But power, competition and aggression are praised. What kind of society are we building? Are we making things easier or more difficult for one another?”

I received a response to this from N Sampath Kumar (by way of a friend) so awesome that I share it here:

“something is fundamentally wrong with this world – we make love in private and wars in public, as if war and killings have a greater sanctity and social acceptance than love…

…in an ideal and saner dimension, it ought to be the other way round…

…the soul is already wearing a dress, and we call it our body-mind, and then we wish to cover this body with heavy clothing even in summer time, we are wearing dresses upon dresses upon dresses, and masks upon masks and masks…

…after a while we suffer from self-amnesia, forget who we are, and begin to believe that we are the masks we created for ourselves…

…it is obviously an insane situation for the entire human race… but then humanity has got everything upside-down, everything is so topsy-turvy that to straighten humanity will take some doing…

…planet earth and all its resources belong equally to all of us 6 billion people inhabiting it now… but then you take my share of iron, steel, elements, earth, silica, glass etc, without seeking permission from me if we can use this 1/6 billionth resource to make a car… and then you sell me a car made with resources that already belong to me… and then you want me to buy it with some stupid coloured paper carrying imprints of pretty stupid people from the past… and you make me slog it out to earn this coloured pieces of paper to buy this car made from my materials… and when i say why i should slog it out because 1/6 billionth of all the apples and oranges and rice and wheat and much else besides already belong to me… you say this is how we have functioned till now… and i say… one day i will change all this… what Planet Earth needs is a radical change, a complete transformation, a functional mutation really… and i say to them… i don’t have to live on your terms… you 6 billion insane folks will one day have to live on my terms on this very Planet Earth lol…

…i have a plan… perhaps i can… this world is God’s madhouse… and someone has to set things in order sooner or later…”

It’s so incredibly beautiful to have a vision of what humanity could be – given that more of us consciously choose to focus on developing our higher faculties and abilities (love, compassion, creativity, collaboration) instead of constantly beating the drum of violence and competition.

I feel pretty blissed out today, listening to Perry Farrell’s various musical projects, imagining a better world and bringing this better world into being through my actions and interactions with this world – in whatever little way that I can.

I am incredibly grateful to N Sampath Kumar for sharing his thoughts and his vision and to my friend Ketna (who is one of my favourite artists in Singapore, and who inspired me to continue on this path) for connecting us.

The future starts with our imaginations. What is the most beautiful world you can imagine? What is the most beautiful life you can imagine for yourself?

“The experience of a tragedy sends you off in one of two directions. You can take your tragedy out on everyone else, or you can spend your life trying to get to a better place. I am trotting towards the better place…”

“True friendships aren’t easy to maintain. People will let you know their best side and do a very good job at hiding the rest of themselves. When it’s all said and done; their capacity to love is what you discover in them. They will either leap out larger than life, or prove to be a cheapskate. Have empathy in the later case, because it really is their problem- not yours…”

“I have always maintained; you don’t need many friends, or lovers. You really, only need one…”

If you don’t already follow Perry on Facebook, you should. Besides having written Ocean Size (one of the most amazing, inspiring songs I have ever heard in my life), his status updates make my day.

(Photo credit: No idea, but if you happen to know, tell me and I’ll fill it in. I love this image.)

“I am reborn. This is my dawn. Real life has just begun. Deliberate Living: conscious attention to the basics of life and a constant attention to your immediate environment and its concerns, example -> a job, a task, a book; anything requiring efficient concentration (Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you).”

- Chris McCandless

(Thank you, Nabilah)

“We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the Cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff.” - Carl Sagan

“Consciousness is evolving throughout the universe in billions of forms. So, even if we didn’t make it, this wouldn’t matter on a cosmic scale. No gain in consciousness is ever lost, so it would simply express itself through some other form. But the very fact that I am speaking here and you are listening or reading this is a clear sign that the new consciousness is gaining a foothold on the planet.” - Eckhart Tolle (read the full post here)

(both of the above via @unfolding who keeps a wonderful tumblr over at metaconscious.tumblr.com)

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“The reasonable [person] adapts [themself] to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to [themself]. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable [person].” - George Bernard Shaw (via @goatsfoot)

“It has been said: 95% of everyone you meet is sound asleep.
That remaining 5% live in permanent AWE. Choose.” - @TWM71

“Being responsible and conscientious in accomplishing crap merely means you’ve increased the amount of crap in the world” - @ClopenSet

“Don’t whine about not having enough time or energy to write; do not think that only under altered circumstances would you be able to write. Instead, go and write, and go and write some more; your circumstances will alter themselves.” - Sheila Bender (via @theseance)