Monday, January 2, 2017

Understanding Conditioning -- Volume Eight

In Its Own Mysterious Way

Life always works out -- in its own mysterious way.  That may not be the way we want it to -- or plan for, but it always works out.  That is what happens.  That is life.  

It's more than any one individual can conceive of and comprehend -- because it is the sum of the whole, that the greatest has not mastered in their own lives.  Those are the limits of their universe, though they may think they have seen and done it all.

The world is not just what one person makes of it, but what we all make of it.  When we realize that, then we are part of all of life, and not just our small part of it -- that we hope to grow a little larger.  

 Wisdom of the Ages
  
      For every ailment under the sun 
      There is a remedy, or there is none; 
      If there be one, try to find it; 
      If there be none, never mind it.
 -- Mother Goose (1695) 

More often than not, problems exist because we are not aware of the solution -- but accept the problem(s) as how it was meant to be -- for all time, and forevermore.  But living in these times, one is inclined to suspect that one simply hasn't discovered the right solution, and even if they did, many would not accept them -- or think those solutions are just for the privileged few, of any time and place.

Thus, many think they have to first become kings and queens, or very rich people, in order to be entitled to such privileges -- rather than that they are the right of those who can merely recognize what works and what doesn't -- in today's mass market world.  Some of the best ideas are nearly free -- because the greatest value of a great discovery (invention), is the sharing of it with the rest of the world.  That's how that reality comes into being.  Otherwise it doesn't, and is lost for another few centuries -- until it is inevitably discovered again.

The challenge for many at this time -- because never have so many lived so long before -- are these challenges of "old age," or simply "aging" (badly) at any time in life.  Since so few lived to deal with it, it's never been thought that people can age well -- as commonly as they accept that aging badly is the fate of all -- with no exceptions.  Except now, because of mass media, more are aware that a few seem to defy what we've come to regard as the normal aging prospect -- however usually attributing it to extraordinary means not accessible to most -- just as pharaoh in his day, felt he had the exclusive right to immortality.

Now it is the right plastic surgeon or geneticist too far ahead of his time who is credited with having those powers -- rather than the realm and jurisdiction of most consumers with access to all the markets and information -- most of which is unarguably bad, even with the imprimatur of those who claim exclusive authority on such matters.  But ultimately, authority derives from those who really know what they are talking about -- rather than how much money they received for deceiving others into thinking they do, which is what commercial writing and propaganda is all about.

In a previous generation, it was simply dismissed as the proper province of Madison Avenue -- where it was regarded that it was fair game to say anything one could imagine, as long as one could get away with it -- after hiring all the experts to their side -- to look the other way.  In some places, everybody who was anybody, was in on it -- because the money made it true, at least for them.  Thus we had many boondoggles that became money pits that solved no problems -- but actually perpetuated them -- as their solution.

The majority then became jaded into thinking no solution was really possible -- for any problem anymore, and all in life was futile, and then you die -- after being robbed all their lives of hope that anything worthwhile could ever become of anything, and all one's efforts.  Such people never saw any problem actually solved.  It was simply the selling of one gimmick after another -- falling more into the category of "entertainment," than any other.  One simply hoped to amuse themselves in this way -- until one met their ultimate and inevitable bad end.  "For nothing else was possible" -- in their world. 
That, unfortunately, is still the life for many -- exploited by the few, but not the few they think.  These are the few one would never suspect, because they trade on confidence, and not the actuality of results -- that are even obvious to those who haven't been persuaded otherwise.  That may even be the myth that they live in "Paradise," when everything would indicate otherwise, and convince them that they don't, and live lives harder than anywhere else -- without such sanctimonious proclamations that theirs was the best of all possible worlds, and would be best off not even venturing to find out, never questioning the truth they've been taught by others to believe.
And that is all their "education" and "conditioning" has been -- to let others do all their thinking for them, and repeat it as though they thought of it themselves.

 Feeling Good is the Best High
  
The best reason for being in good health is to feel good -- and not just not to feel bad, which is often the way it is promoted.  In that manner, it is an achievement and accomplishment rather than an avoidance.  Good health, is the capacity to feel good -- and not merely in order not to feel worse.

That difference in outlook and approach, is the difference between being-motivation from deficiency-motivation -- which is the self-actualization Maslow spoke of in the previous century, when he noted that their was no psychology for positive development, but only the psychology for dysfunction, deficiency and inadequacy -- as though that was the "normal," and expected.

He further noted that what we knew of human history and culture, was largely if not exclusively, the work of maladjusted people -- because those were the people who wrote, played music, became "entertainers" -- driven as they were, to be "liked," and approved of because that's what they lacked in their lives -- and thus, drove them to extraordinary lengths for.

To get to that level, they frequently resorted to alcohol, drugs and other abuses to transcend the reality of their actualities, and were applauded by those who also shared and experienced those same motivations and neediness.  Even cultural institutions were driven by those same desires to be "other than what one is" -- rejecting the person one is, in favor of those they should become -- as though that made perfectly good sense, and ennobled one, rather than it truly did, diminish and reject all one actually is -- and understood oneself to be.

In fact, the person one is, was never thought to be a worthy subject of study -- although the wise persons of every time and culture -- had pointed out that the greatest attainment achieved, was simply in knowing oneself -- rather than the ideal they wished to become.  Frequently if not always, it led to mistaking the person one wished to become -- for the person one is, and is apparent to everyone else.  And so we call such people "delusional," because they cannot acknowledge and live in the reality that most people do.

That of course, is the basis for most mental illness -- living in a reality shared by no one else.  In that reality, they can attain unparalleled and unachievable greatness because that opinion need not be correlated and corroborated to any other reality agreed on by any other.  Sometimes that achievement can be obtained at the sacrifice of everything else -- as mass murderers think to do in going out that way.  That is their moment of glory and fame -- but whether anybody else thinks that a worthy achievement, dumbfounds everyone else -- except those similarly deluded.

Hopefully, one doesn't have to be "out of control," in order to experience one's own immense power.  That transcendental moment can be experienced  in all that one does -- when one puts their whole being into it.  That is the integration of mind and body -- rather than the splintering of it.  That is achieved in all the little things one does -- and not just the one big thing one hopes will redeem them from the thoughtlessness of everything else they have done.

That is the goodness one feels in being totally healthy -- and one's being, is one's doing, and not the fragmentation into alternate realities.  That is a very real possibility in this time and age.  People don't have to be motivated by deficiencies and dysfunctions -- to attain their greatest health and well-being.  That can be achieved by just the proper understanding that such a thing is possible -- and not a futile quest for only the vain and inordinately lucky.  It is in fact, the meaning and purpose of every life -- as the "new normal" that is entirely possible for everyone.

It is not the way we were -- but much better. 

The Beginning of Intelligence

The popular notion is that intelligence is what an individual accumulates inside their own brain -- rather than that it is rightly, what resides in everything.  Thus the act of intelligence, is reading that which is everywhere -- and connecting the intelligence in one, to another -- creating a response (intelligence) greater than merely the sum of its parts.

That is the response one experiences when the end result, is much more than they could have imagined, or planned for -- working only with the knowledge (intelligence) in their own brain, but is the greater collective result of all the intelligence involved -- working together.

However, there are many individuals who think that their intelligence and the purpose of it all, is to work against and even compete against every other, thus nullifying that effect, and so the net result, is to cancel out every other person's or thing's contribution and effort, and even destroying it.  In that way, everything they do, results in less, or worse, rather than more, or better.  It does not matter how much they do -- because everything they do, makes things worse than better.

So the last thing you want from such people, is for them to do more -- because they are counterproductive and destructive -- and once that is recognized, have to be neutralized and isolated, rather than ignored or denied.  Pretending it is not happening, or denying it is so, makes any problem, much more so.  That is also intelligence -- knowing the difference.

Not recognizing that difference, is why problems keep repeating themselves -- and even getting worse, no matter how much more time, energy and resources are poured into it.  The problem becomes the solution -- and is perpetuated by the explanation that it is the way it's always been done -- as though that was a sufficient and adequate explanation for why things are as they are.  There is no escape from that circular, self-sustaining argument -- as the only way things can ever be -- because it cannot be any different.

So the intelligent mind knows when not to continue this chain of suffering and ignorance -- by not being that link that supports it, and by that abstinence, breaks the chain of suffering and dysfunction.  That is the act of "enlightenment," where formerly there was only endless darkness and confusion. That is to see things as they really are -- and not merely as we wish them to be, and thinking that is enough to make it so.

That doesn't make it so -- no matter how much one wishes it were so.  Knowing this difference, is the primal act of intelligence -- distinguishing the delusion from the actuality.  The delusion will never solve any problem -- but will be the root of all our problems.  Conversely, once the actuality is embraced, that is the ending of sorrow produced by the multitude of problems created by one's delusions.

That is the beginning of intelligence.

 Life is for Getting Better
 
That should be the guiding principle no matter what.  Simply, relentlessly to improve.  With that as one's guiding principle, life will get better -- as a self-fulfilling prophecy.  It doesn't matter where one is or starts from -- only to get better.  The fatal flaw, is thinking nothing matters, and nothing makes a difference -- so doing "anything," is enough to ensure and entitle one to a wonderful life.  It doesn't happen that way.

The opposite or antagonist of improving constantly, relentlessly -- is having a great ambition -- without doing the little things that gets one there.  Instead, all their time and energies are focused on already being there -- and all the fantastic things one will do when they achieve their great ambition -- but until then, they never feel they have to do anything to improve and get better.  In their mind and fantasies, they are already "there," and just waiting for everybody else to realize that.

They themselves feel that they shouldn't care -- or be able to tell the difference -- but everybody else should, for their benefit.  So there is this essential disconnect of any personal responsibility for their own lives -- only that everybody else should make it better.  Obviously, that's not going to happen -- because everybody's first responsibility, is to take better care of themselves.

Lacking that, no amount of caring by others, is going to make up for it -- because that is the limiting factor that cannot be overrridden by any other(s).  It simply is what it is.  Nobody can care more for another, than they care for themselves -- because that is their essential life force, their power to do anything.  "Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could."

Improving implies knowing the difference -- because if one cannot tell that difference, what difference does it make?  But if one knows the difference, that is an infallible guide no matter what one is doing -- even if they are on the wrong track, because they can right themselves, and get back on the right track.

Make the Best of Every Moment

Life is very fleeting, and nothing in it permanent, and so we need to take nothing for granted -- presuming it will be there the next day (moment).  The bargain one finds today, may not be there tomorrow.  But there'll be plenty of other opportunities -- as long as one doesn't take them for granted also.  In that way, one always fails to appreciate the present moment -- in favor of some other.  The present is never good enough; there is always some better time -- but never the present moment.

And so all the moments in that life are lost -- to some imaginary and fictional better time that is always elusive -- until one runs out of time and days, having lived that way.  That is the unfulfilled life.  Fulfillment for that person comes only in the next life, or in the next moment -- but never in the present, where reality is fulfilled.  It is different for every moment -- and that is the beauty and joy of it, giving every moment, every day, and every life its significance, meaning and purpose.

Nobody can do that for another.  Each person must discover that significance, meaning and purpose for their own lives -- as their own fulfillment, and failing that, is the failure of any life.

The Fountain of Youth

The search for the Fountain of Youth does not exist outside the body -- but within it.  That is simply understanding what makes the vital fluids of the body flow to keep them well-maintained.   The presumption is that that is what the heart alone is responsible for -- without the cooperation of all the other "parts" of the body -- particularly where they prematurely fail.  That is not a secret -- but obviously, the most visible parts of the body -- at the head, hands and feet -- that most people are conditioned to take for granted that they take care of themselves.

Nothing in nature is designed that way.  If there is not constant and relentless improvement, there is only deterioration, decline and death -- that should surprise no one.  One would not expect anything else.  But that's not saying that there is nothing one can do.  It actually is saying that all that one does, makes a difference.  However, one has to make that difference. It doesn't just happen -- because one hopes it would.

So the "secret" of life, is realizing that everything makes a difference -- rather than that nothing does.  That is the essential difference between success in life, and failure.  Those who are successful, leave nothing to chance and neglect -- and so everything they have and accomplish, is because they made it so -- while those who don't think that they have to contribute anything to the cause, unsurprisingly, have nothing worth having.

That is the way of the world -- and life -- that critical understanding of it.  One is the steward of one's own life -- and not that everybody else is to blame, but oneself.  However, the concept of blame, is to place cause outside of the individual -- when the whole secret is understanding that the cause is within each individual -- and failing that vital connection of each to all, is how the life is dis-integrated, fragmented, and undermines itself.

It's not a matter of effort -- but of understanding.  In order to understand, one has to look in the proper place -- which is inside, and not outside -- for that fountain of life.  While the external world has much beauty and power, one has to realize that the internal world has that same power and beauty -- and that within each, is the microcosm of the whole world.  And thus the wise have remarked, that "The Kingdom of God is within."

That is the entirety of the world one actually lives in -- no matter how much one tries to distract themselves otherwise -- in games, politics, religions and other entertainments.  One is the world.  If one can accept that responsibility wholly, while taking nothing for granted -- especially what one "knows," and thus, fails to investigate.  That is the unexamined flawed premise that is at the root of all one's dysfunction, disease and decline.  That is invariably the source of all one's problems -- whatever field one is in.

That is particularly true of how one experiences their personal life -- as orderly or chaotic.  That's what people have joined monasteries and communities seeking: that place of perfect order and functioning.  But before one seeks it outside of oneself, it would be far more prudent and practical, if one were to inquire whether one had that essential understanding of oneself.  Why does the body fail -- if one does not take care of it properly?  Why would anything not fail under those conditions?

The critical point for many -- is that time in their lives when nobody tells them what to do anymore.  They are on their own -- entirely, and that life from thereon, is entirely what they make of it -- for better or worse.  Many think at that time, that things can only get worse -- because they have never learned how to make things better.  Such people accept everything as they are -- thinking no improvement is possible, feeling no responsibility for how the world is -- and their experience of life.

Because they don't change the reality of their existence, they create alternate worlds of fantasies and entertainments -- to distract themselves from that reality.  When that breach is complete, they then live mostly in the world of their fantasies -- rather than the reality that is common to most.  That keeps one in the flow of life -- rather than becoming a stagnant pond of thoughts and memories.

The circulation of the body also takes place in that same manner -- and that failure, is how the parts begin to break down -- most noticeably at the extremities of the head, hands and feet, which collectively, are the critical faculties of life as we know and enjoy it.  Those are our cognitive faculties that distinguish the quality of our lives, and how we express it.  Yet frequently, that is what we take most for granted, as not needing to maintain -- and improve.

They are much more important, than biceps and quadraceps, as the vital communication with the rest of the world.  That is far more important than how much one can bench press.  Or deadlift.  That is ultimately what makes a person strong -- their vital connection to the rest of the world.  Lacking that connection and sustenance, even the strongest must fail.


But when one is in total synchronicity with the rest of life, one is life -- and the vitality of its most youthful regeneration.  For such people, there is no aging.

There Is A Cure for Alzheimer's (Aging)

The hardest thing to see is the obvious.
About 27 years ago, I got involved with Frank Chopp's Fremont Public Association (Seattle), when caregiving was beginning to emerge as a mainstream topic, with the panic over the AIDS epidemic, as well as other life-ending conditions often self-inflicted as well as what was regarded as the natural consequence of people living longer.

My background and orientation up to then, was really about high-end athletics, and particularly the problem of optimizing growth at any age, hoping that it was possible to remain competitive (high-performance) throughout an extended duration than had been accepted as possible -- if the state-of-the-art knowledge was perfected. It was often noted that this fall from Olympian heights could be very rapid and undoubtedly distressful for those who had up to then known nothing but a high level of proficiency and freedom from injury and dysfunction.  However, it was more likely the case that such high-intensity participation was unsustainable as well as often contributing to their rapid demise through increasing injury, disease and dysfunction.

This conclusion was unmistakable: People's behaviors (and lack thereof), was the overwhelming single greatest factor to their condition and conditioning.  Things seldom just happen.  Individuals are largely responsible for what happens -- and particularly, what happens to them selves -- even though they may think they are doing all the "right" things.  But the results do not corroborate those conclusions.

That happens when we are just flat out wrong in our certainty of knowing what is happening -- when we have not even begun to ask the right questions.  That has largely been the case with Alzheimer's and the other increasing dysfunctions associated with age and aging.  The only true experts are those who have not fallen victim to the ravages of these conditions -- and not those who have in spite of their expertise and knowledge.

Yet billions go to fund this expertise and knowledge -- because that is their game and turf -- that perpetuates the academic hierarchy and status quo, just as in previous times, there was no "cure" for other terminally chronic conditions -- until we jumped to a higher level of understanding of it, which then made it moot.  That is what is happening at the present time -- but not in the traditional academic and research institutions, but in the laboratories of our individual lives -- and how we actualize it.

It doesn't matter how long we live anymore; the important question is how well we can live our lives to the end -- however long that may be.  That is the qualitative shift into the 21st Century -- which renders a lot of the problems of the 20th Century mute.  The essential question is not how can we take better care of others -- but how can we take better care of ourselves, which breaks the dependency-codependency of 20th Century culture.  Obviously, we can't have more people taking care of more people -- but need more people to take better care of themselves to reduce the need for more "professional" caregiving, which as everybody familiar recognizes, multiplies the problems and difficulties.

But that is not the kind of society we want, or should envision.  Instead, we can cut to life without these problems -- which are largely self-inflicted.  As one of the most observant persons in the field of movement and exercise, it was obvious to me that the weakness of the human condition, was largely the inadequacy of effective circulation at the most critical organs of the human body -- at the head, hands and feet -- resulting in the notable decline in brain function, grip strength and foot strength to maintain balance -- areas that are easy to improve, but will not happen with traditional/conventional exercise regimens that don't regard that development as their highest priority, with its focus on the heart function, and core muscle strength.

In order to gauge the effectiveness of the circulation to the head, hands and feet -- it must be measured at the head, hands and feet, and not simply measured and implied at the heart.  The effectiveness of any circulation, has to be measured at the extremity -- and not at its source.  That would be tantamount to putting the thermostat in the furnace -- rather than at the extremity where one spends most of their time -- and then wondering why one is never comfortable.  In the same way, one can only detect the effectiveness of the circulation to the head, hands and feet -- when there is fullest muscular contraction and relaxation just as with the heart, because while the heart pumps the blood out to the extremity, it is the extremity that must pump blood back to the heart -- to optimize that cycle.

Therein lies the problem -- as anyone would recognize visiting a large population of those with dementia.  They never move their head.  The marker for decline in any person, is the atrophy particularly of their neck muscles -- caused by never moving them through the full range of its movement from fullest contraction to fullest relaxation -- which is the distinctive action required to pump any fluid through a hydraulic system.  The heart does that automatically -- but the defining difference, is whether the muscles at the extremity effectively pushes the spent blood back to create room for the new.  Failing that side of the equation, the cells and organs will die and be diminished.

That active, muscular functioning and range of movement by the head, is never exhibited by those with dementias -- as far as I've ever witnessed.  The range and movement of the head, is an indication of its cognitive functioning or decline -- in everyone!  And vice-versa.  The human body is not designed to run, lift or jump -- as much as it has evolved to move its head, hands and feet -- as its primary, health-sustaining movements.  That is not done by conventional/traditional exercise -- no matter how much of it is done.  That is why conventional/traditional exercise is no help -- but rather diverts the flow to all the wrong places -- the core muscles, rather than the extremities which are invariably ignored as unimportant.

That's how the human body fails -- in everyone, some faster than others.  What can we do about it?  Throw billions more money at it -- for the same results -- and worse?  It's a good business for the grant-writers.  Of course they don't want the situation to get any better.  How could it?


It requires a new insight into the obvious.  That different understanding is the turning point -- and not however many billions you want to throw at the traditional/conventional profiteers.  And if you rely on such experts, their answer will be invariably, that they need infinitely more money -- to not solve the problem, which is within the grasp of everyone experiencing these difficulties in their lives.  That is the only way it can be solved -- and not by the caregiving industry. They are the problem.

Sometimes More Funding is Not the Answer

It merely perpetuates the problem.  I remember being rebuked many years ago in suggesting to the Arthritis Foundation that glucosamine might be effective in treating arthritis -- and they were insistent that anybody claiming a cure for arthritis was a fraud, because there was no cure for arthritis, only to revisit their website decades later -- claiming they wrote the book on alternative cures for arthritis -- which was now their major moneymaker.  I remember very vividly in that contact of being told that they did not exist to cure arthritis -- but to raise money to cure arthritis -- and I should be clear in that distinction.

Later, when I met with the research director on Alzheimer's at the University of Washington, she insisted that the head could not and should not move -- as she demonstrated to me in resisting the ability of her head to move, and proudly boasted that any attempt to move and exercise the head (neck) would result in whiplash as the only possible outcome.  So I pretty much gave up on the academicians and researchers who were intent on notdiscovering any cures, but was very determined to obtain as much money for their "research" on costly explanations for why their disease was incurable.

Previously I mentioned I worked with the caregivers at the Fremont Public Association (Seattle), which required me first to obtain training and certification on First Aid and CPR -- at which I pointed out to the instructor, Fire Chief Claude Harris, that if one does perform chest compressions, mouth to mouth breathing is redundant and unnecessary -- to which his response was that I proposed it only to avoid giving mouth to mouth to people with AIDS and other possible unknown communicable diseases.  I said that was an additional benefit of doing only chest compressions -- rather than interrupting those efforts to give mouth to mouth breathing.  I pointed out that when one compresses the chest, the chest (lung) volume decreases forcing the air out of the lungs, but when that pressure is released, atmospheric pressure will inflate the lungs -- just as the self-inflating air mattress I brought with me to demonstrate in addition to the dummy they provided.

That eventually resulted in the protocol coming out of Seattle proffering the hands only CPR as the preferred, state of the art modality -- because it is the only thing that makes sense -- if the atmospheric pressure alone will refill the lungs.  In fact, many decades previously, the resuscitation technique consisted of applying pressure to the back and lifting the arm up to effect the breathing rhythm while lying face down -- until replaced by chest compressions receiving priority as the life saving measure.  So they threw in mouth to mouth breathing that could be done while the victim lay on their back -- as two things they needed to do, rather than the simplicity and effectiveness of only one.

The heart and lungs work similarly -- in pumping (moving) blood and air -- by the alternation of pressure differences.  That is the principle of hydraulics.  My previous concern was primarily to increase the circulation to the hands and feet -- in order to cure arthritis at those sites, regarding it as a circulation deficiency -- that I experienced as arthritis pain in the hands and feet.  As a young child, it was predicted that I would be crippled by arthritis as an adult -- a conclusion I found unacceptable even as much as the "experts" proclaimed that nothing else was possible -- because there was "no cure."

Then when my back pain was so unbearable I thought I'd never walk again, I coincidentally ran into the doctor's presentation of the cure for fibromyalgia that he claimed was the common, generic drug of guaifenesin -- by his convoluted explanation.  I just noticed that I became immediately well from all these autoimmune afflictions that had plagued me all my life, as well as all my relatives and friends, who I suggested it to because as the doctor pointed out, there are no negative side-effects even as much as the disclaimer warns against it as standard protocol, not to take it for extended periods.  Given the choice of excruciating back pain or relief, one is willing to risk the unknown side-effects, which the doctor was very adamant, there are none.  Yet there are dire warnings that there may be.  Meanwhile, the very real pain suffered by arthritics makes life unbearable for many.

This was not the first time medical science had failed me.  Apparently, I was one of the first persons ever encountered with lactose intolerance -- when I volunteered as a medical research subject as alternative service during the Vietnam war years -- and they had never heard of a person being allergic to dairy -- convinced as they were, that it was the perfect food.  About twenty years later, I read the first book claiming to be the first discussing the common frequence of lactose intolerance not only among most populations throughout the world, but even throughout history.

As a trained historian, I have a fascination for literature that was unpopular in their day -- that eventually prevailed.  That's how this country was founded.

Everything You Do Matters

 Everything you do matters -- is a better understanding of life than nothing we do matters.
Life is not a random phenomenon.  Good choices improve one's survival prospects -- and quality of life.  Those who consistently choose poorly, enhance their tendency to extinction.  That shouldn't take extraordinary genius to see.
That is simply the evolution of intelligent life.  "Shirt doesn't just happen."   Good things happen because intelligent life predisposes those outcomes.  Nothing is guaranteed, but one can always influence the probabilities through better, more thoughtful choices (lifestyle).
One makes a habit of a better life; that is what conditioning is about, and fitness.  One makes oneself fit for continued life.  That is true for all life -- and not just humans.  Hopefully one does not require a Ph.D. and "more funding" to understand that.
This understanding and insight, was the beginning of wisdom and enlightenment -- what the ancients called Karma, and modern scientists called "cause and effect."  Life is not random, and all human activity a random walk throughout one's existence.  That is prescientific understanding -- even if explained and justified by a Ph.D.
As such, timing is everything -- and not that one can ever time the markets and conditions -- as some experts are proud to proclaim, as though that was not the repudiation of everything worth knowing.  If one shows up when the movie is scheduled to be shown, one will learn what it was about.  At all other times, nothing will be going on -- and the lights will be off.  That is true for every human event -- including everything conducted with regularity and a reasonable expectation for a successful transaction and exchange.
It's not enough just to do one's own thing -- whenever one wants to -- and think there will be satisfaction in any outcome.  Perhaps the other person feels the same way also -- that they can just do whatever they want to, whenever they want to -- because it doesn't matter, one way or the other.
But assuredly, most things do matter -- even without more funding and research -- because people live their lives as though it does matter, and that's what makes a difference -- especially in one's own life.  And that is what is important -- and not what is happening in everybody else's life.
In that, there is no doing -- but only a supposed knowing -- of what everybody else is doing, as though that was reality, and not one's own experiences -- in the actuality, and the actualization.  And thus the experience of life is fragmented -- into what one is told is the truth and reality, and what one finds out for themselves what is truth and reality.
It is this finding out for oneself in one's own experiences, that reality is manifested, and validated.  It doesn't matter what the "average" is, or the generalization.  Only the individual and specific.  That is the world one lives.

Everything You Know Isn't True Anymore

Maybe it never was.  But ideas have a way of catching on -- despite the realities it purports to represent.  There is obviously what is happening out there -- but what we see and think of them, may be something else entirely.  It's not that it might never have been true before, or at any time, but it might not be true now -- for the best we know.  There is always a better truth that supplants all we previously knew.  So the proper question is not what is the truth for all time, but what is the truth, the best we know now -- and we can begin that inquiry by asking, "How do we know, what we think we know?"

More often than not, what we know, is what somebody else wanted us to know -- and not necessarily if it was the truth, depending on their motives and agendas.  That is, most of what we know, is what its promoters and advertisers would like us to know -- for their own advantage, and not necessarily our own.  That is why it is best not just to hear one perspective on the matter, but others as well, until the weight of evidence and testimony seems to mesh with everything else we know to be true in the world -- even if it is something new and different.

Thus it is not enough to know it has been an old or ancient knowledge that makes it valid -- but whether can be proven in the present moment -- and each experience (experiment) thereafter -- until there is a better truth and explanation -- which is always evolving to be better.  That alone is the hope for the future -- and not simply the young, rich or powerful.  Thus the great advantage, is finding the greater truth -- that is so much more than simply any single truth, or the sum of the parts.  The greater (integrating) truth, multiplies all the previous truths one had discovered -- and not simply adds to it.

Such increments, mean very little -- in the great scheme of things.  It is only a little truth, and not a great one -- that transforms one's world to something meaningfully different.  That is the difference between the thrill of discovery, and the agony of merely doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.  Real change doesn't happen that way.  That is the reason things stay the same, no matter how much we would like to change it.

But when you do something significantly different then everything changes -- because it is what matters, and makes the difference.  That is the kind of conditioning very useful to have because it makes improvement always possible -- and not all the effort that doesn't make a difference, or in fact, reinforces the status quo and is the probable cause of one's deteriorating condition.

In this way, one is always finding out many things -- whether it is the truth or not, and that is also useful to know -- whether one wants to or not, because then they don't have to go through the trouble of learning it.  It is theirs for the taking.  It is a convenient truth -- or falsehood, that one learns without effort and waste of time -- just going about one's business.  Many are determined not to see the true or false -- but only what they want to see, and that is to waste all one sees and does -- in the course of their living.  That would be paying attention -- to every present moment -- without regard to how they would like it other to be.

Those are the great lessons of life -- learning what is happening -- and not just working to change it into something else -- regardless of learning what it is already.  The powerful mind and life, is not those that can change something into what it isn't, but that which can fully appreciate what it is, as it is -- for that is the greatness and totality of the world.  At all times, something is already happening -- and never that nothing is happening, and so one has to make it -- out of nothing.  That manner of thinking, requires a lot of energy and resources -- to create something out of nothing, or to render something into nothing.

One of the hardest things to accept about the world, is that there is always change; that is the nature of the world, and universe.  The world is not static, unchanging, and one can move with it, or against it -- with great struggle and no guarantee or even chance of success.  But many will be given no options of anything to do besides that which will guarantee them failure -- at least so far.  There is always the hope that one will be the first to succeed -- in doing what has always failed before, but what else is one to do?

Those possibilities have to be created -- and tried, if they make greater sense to do so.  Frequently, that comes about because there is no hope otherwise.  One simply has to do what makes sense -- rather than to go down with what is not working.  At such times, something new is discovered -- and limits that were thought to be physical and immutable, are seen in a new light of being only the imaginary -- and not the only thing possible, and everything else hopeless.  There is another way.

Solving the Problems of One's Own Living

It should come as no surprise to learn that each and everyone has their own unique challenges, problems and difficulties to overcome, and that is the ultimate meaning and purpose of their lives -- and in that manner, showing the rest, how it is done -- in their own efforts.  That is the value of learning from others -- and from everything in life.  All are engaged in their own unique struggles -- some more successfully than others, but we can learn from both the successful and the failings.  

Of course, we don't want to be the failing -- and not that we merely want to be successful at duplicating such failings -- in repeating what they do.  But many learn nothing else -- and that is why we call them dysfunctional: they fail to adapt successfully.  And if they persist, will soon become extinct -- unless the society enables such failures, rather than recognizing and favoring its successes.

It may be that instead of containing the failures and catastrophes it brings, society encourages its spread -- in ensuring that what has brought about such calamities, are the only way to go -- despite the disastrous results and consequences.  The people are implored to charge on -- as thought there are unlimited resources and lives to give to these hopeless situations -- until it is thought, that there must be another way.  And then history itself is changed -- and the memory of the failings, are extinguished and forgotten.

One doesn't have to remember and revere the failings -- lest people forget, because there are always a whole slew of new challenges to recognize and surmount.  Each generation's successes also sow their future challenges -- even as scarcity brings about abundance and a whole new manner of coping.  So in one generation, rampant starvation may give way to rampant obesity, and the strategies for dealing with that reality shift, is not just continuing what we've always done before -- as though that made sense anymore, and for all times and conditions -- no matter what.

Thus the ability to distinguish rapidly changing and different circumstances, is the greatest survival value and skills that need to be honed all one's life -- and especially, when one has grown immune from that responsiveness -- in thinking there is no more to be learned, and unvarying repetition will suffice -- no matter what.  That will not be a happy ending -- in anyone's life.  Those who will be most successful later in life -- who challenge the present paradigm of becoming less able, by becoming increasingly so -- whatever it takes.  It may take everything they have in life -- to ensure their own success.

What is more important for them to do?  Which means it can't be the end of learning and living, but a beginning for even better, and not a retreat and surrender -- that ensures their demise.  It's not that it is hard as much as it has not been done before -- but which is the only thing that makes sense to do.  It would not make sense to give up before one graduates from school, but it makes even less sense to give up when many feel that is the only thing they can do.  Then surely, one does not find out how it could have been otherwise.

That is the condition of aging as we've known it up to now -- and think it could not be any different, let alone better.  But the current outlook and prospects do not seem good -- so there is no harm in thinking any differently.  In fact, one has nothing to lose, and everything to gain -- in thinking differently.  So why not?  Nothing in life, has prepared us to think that way -- but that does not make it impossible, or even improbable.  It is just the way we haven't thought before -- but that has been true of every evolutionary leap in the improvement of life, both individually and collectively.  That is also the ending of the way we've always done it before -- and particularly if that's not working out so well and satisfactorily.

Defenders of the status quo will say that theirs is the only way -- even if it hasn't been working out so well so far, and their answer is that we simply have to try harder (increase funding) -- at what is not working, as though that is transformative at some miraculous point.  It's like dying doing what you love to do -- because that is the only thing one does.  But all that is certain, is the dying -- regardless of what they do, and then it doesn't matter.


Most never get beyond that resignation and acceptance -- thinking it is the ultimately wise thing to do.  But we are not talking about simply doing the same things we've done before without success -- merely thinking that we can get another result, but rather, doing what we have never done before, and finding out if there is any difference -- and that makes the difference!

The Smallest Changes Make the Biggest Difference

The people who accomplish the least, are those who take on the most ambitious projects -- while those who accomplish the most, are those who pay attention to the smallest details.  That's how things are accomplished -- one small detail (step) at a time until the outcome is inevitable -- while those who think only of hitting homeruns, seldom make contact with the ball -- and it is putting the ball in play, that makes everything possible.

It is far easier to write a sentence than it is to write a book -- but to those who do neither, think it is the same.  But if one begins with a simple sentence -- constructed thoughtfully, it becomes the foundation for the next, and shortly becomes that book.  That manner of doing, determines whether we will be successful at anything we do.

That is particularly important when we lose our way -- and wonder how we can get back on track, whether that is recovering our health or building financial security.  You have to first save a dollar.  Failing that, it doesn't matter how good the investment -- if one never has the resources to underwrite it. Health is that same way; the least of our movements, is the road to recovery -- while not doing anything but hoping for improvement, will end in the predictable result.  Nothing else would be possible -- in a cause and effect world.

It is not necessary to plan on running a marathon or lifting a record weight in order to make the simplest movement possible -- which is then repeated a hundred or a thousand times -- but it is invariably the one simple movement, mastered to its greatest efficiency -- rather than the million things going on all at once.  Which step is more important than any other?  So rather than any single repetition meaning more than any other, one is really working against the corrupting influence of "fatigue" -- so that there is no corruption of form, but perfecting that movement with each repetition.  Thus the last, is even better than the first -- because that is the practice of getting better -- by actually getting better.

Unfortunately, this attention to detail and improving performance, is not foremost in most programs for improvement, let alone being the objective.  Instead, it is erroneously believed that simply doing anything -- no matter how badly, is better than doing nothing at all, and of course not wasting any time and attention learning the difference -- which makes all the difference.  Thus some people in their activities and practice, show remarkable improvement and prodigious results, while inattentive people wonder why they don't get those same results -- while fancying that they are doing exactly "the same thing."  Obviously and tangibly, they aren't -- but think that is close enough -- whether running, jumping, singing, writing, speaking, etc.

They ostensibly do the same thing, but always get a different result -- and then they don't even realize, it is a different result -- because of their unshaken belief, that doing anything, is better than doing nothing but paying attention is a necessary requirement for doing anything well -- and knowing the difference.  It is learning that attention to detail -- and what makes the difference between a poor performance and result, from a vastly superior outcome, is always the greatest lesson one can learn doing anything.

This becomes increasingly more important, the less able one has become -- while hoping to recover or achieve for the first time, the capabilities one thinks they want to have.  But it doesn't just come -- because they want it badly enough.  It has to be their primary practice -- in doing anything, and everything -- and particularly in living the life that works extraordinarily well for them -- especially at those times most crucial to any outcome -- the matter of life and death itself.

That's what one hopes to be preparing for -- and not that one is too old and beyond hope for that to happen anymore, which becomes more obvious and apparent with time and age -- in not doing so.  So while one may think they are doing everything "right," everything else in life is telling them it is "wrong," but they reject that logical conclusion in preference for what they wish to believe -- until reality catches up and clobbers them.  Then their response is always, "too little, too late," rather than the right amount, just in time.

At that rate, one is doing as well as one can hope to ever be doing -- for as long as they can.  When they are perpetually "too little, too late," they eventually run out of time and life, and chances to do the right thing.  Not that they have ever known the difference.  And that is why learning the difference -- the quality of paying attention, is what meditation is all about -- the state of mind capable of seeing and observing everything, and not just confirming what one already knows -- as though there is nothing to see and learn beyond that.

But obviously, that is where the answer to any question, problem and difficulty lies -- or there wouldn't be any problem and difficulty.  Otherwise, the problems of the past, merely repeat themselves timelessly -- because nothing else is possible -- unless one asks the impossible question, "What is one missing?"  Those who are too ready with the answers, have merely learned the "right" answers -- that may or may not have anything to do with reality, but know what has been taught as the only thing that can be known, and accepted by most -- even if it doesn't work, and makes no sense to believe in -- invariably that any other way is not possible.


Making the smallest changes, always results in the biggest differences -- over time.  If it's not working now, it probably never did.  One is always finding out.

One Step at a Time

Wise people are advised never to get ahead of themselves -- which means they are thinking too far ahead of their actions and reactions -- and thus have little connection to what is actually going on, from moment to moment.  Thus, obviously, they are never "in the moment," but invariably, "out of it."  That is obvious to everyone else but themselves -- whose actions are inappropriate, because they have little to do with the exigencies of the moment.

So it matters very little where they eventually hope to end up, if they have no idea how to take the first step -- leading to the one thereafter, and in that manner, actually getting to the place they only imagined at the start.  But that "envisioning," is not nearly as important as the awareness of where they are, and what they are doing momentarily -- and can respond to every contingency appropriately -- which is the kind of conditioning that has high survival value, and one can be confident, that no matter what situation arises, they will do the appropriate (right) thing -- rather than just the socially (politcally) "correct" thing -- often with disastrous results.

It does not so much matter, if one always does the right thing, but always gets the wrong results -- no matter how certain they are.  That manner of doing, tends to undermine one's confidence in doing everything, so in the end, they are certain that nothing they do matters, because they never get the result they hope to achieve.  That sense of helplessness and randomness of experience, lead many to feel that bad things happen despite their good actions -- rather than seeing the truth of the matter that it is obviously the wrong action.

Thus the Buddhists were among the first to point out the importance of "Right action," as being the cornerstone of "enlightenment" in this world.  It is not enough, to know one thing, and do something else, and think there could be the productive results of integrated action and activities -- as though nothing is related to anything else.  The essential connection, is the truth of that moment -- and not the promised truth six months from now.  Things that work, work instantly and immediately -- or they don't work at all, which only becomes more apparent in time -- but time may not be what one has to waste.

The truth is not what is learned and remembered, but is rediscovered and reproven from moment to moment -- in everything one does.  It is not just what a few "experts" do, and then tell everybody else the truth of the matter -- but what each discovers for themselves in living every moment.  That is the truth and reality of everybody's life -- and no longer the world of a few specialists and experts who "know," and those who must believe everything they are "taught," by those claiming that authority.

That is what the primitive (prescientific) society was -- the world of a few, who told the others what to do, and what to think -- and that was the way people thought ought to be --  was the only way to be.  Hopefully, we know better now, unless we find ourselves in cultures that still revere those authoritarian hierarchies as the highest ideal -- and long for the restoration of that social order.  That is also familarly, the world of one's childhood -- of which an unfortunate few regard as the best of times, who hope never to grow up -- and always have authorities around to tell them what to do.


They will never become the mature adults who assume responsibility for all that they do -- and are proud of that fact.  Those are the people who come to feel that the world they live in is that of their own making -- and not a destiny beyond their control, and only other people, can do something about -- to make more favorable for them.  The problem with that, is that those others in control, are usually acting in their own best interests, and not necessarily everybody else's -- just because they have the power, and think that is what makes right in every case.

The Best Things in Life are True

In the old days, people would warn that if something sounded "too good to be true," it was too good to be true -- rather than that the best things, are true -- but many will choose not to believe it, and never bother to find out.  "Finding out," is what differentiates the highly actualized people from those who will never find out what their life is -- and might have been.

Such people live only in their thoughts, fears and anxieties -- which separates them from actual contact with reality.  They live well within their "safe zones," never venturing far from where they are -- while moving in ever-smaller circles, so that nothing new can disturb them in the small worlds they already know -- confirming that, as all that can be known.

They repeat that, in everything they do -- never breaking out into the unknown and unfamiliar -- even and especially, if it "sounds too good to be true."  Their minds are already made up -- nothing could be better than what they already know -- even if that knowledge, is the source of all their difficulties and misunderstandings.

That is the world of dysfunction -- but even then, one believes, nothing could be better -- and that which is, "sounds too good to be true" -- even if it is true.  But they've already been warned -- not to go there.  Those are the limits of the known world, and what one really wants to know, is the unknown world.  And that is mainly a matter of conditioning -- to find out the unknown, and not just to repeat what one already knows -- as though that is the limits to what can be known.

Ultimately, that is what we are conditioning (educating) ourselves for -- to move into the unknown and unfamiliar, and not just to go where we've always gone before -- thinking that is the extent of the known, and the universe -- for certainly, it is not.  The unknown, will always be far greater than the known -- of even the smartest person.  And in fact, the smartest person will be the one who knows -- that what they know pales in comparison to what they don't know, and their life's work, is to find out -- what they don't know.

The unwise person, is they who believe that they already know-- everything that can be known, and so there is no need to ever find out -- despite how little they know -- and so the question is not how much that person knows, but how they go about finding out what they don't know.  Those are the people who make a difference -- in every time and age.

The rest are merely delusional people -- who think that what little they know, is all that can be known.  That is obvious -- to nearly everyone else, and so the work of such people, is to convince as many others, that that is not true -- but that up is down, left is right, right is wrong, good is bad, and even too good to be true -- as well as any other deception they can think of.  That is sowing the seeds of confusion -- by which they hope to eventually make a living, if not rise to the highest offices in the land.

From there, it is much easier to tell everybody else what to think -- while those immune, are those who know how to think -- which invariably means thinking for oneself, and all that entails.  Surely that means finding out for oneself the truth of the matter -- and not just quoting others as though that was some greater truth.  The truth one discovers for themselves, is always the greatest truth -- and not merely repeating what others tell them is the truth, but they never bother to find out for themselves -- until it is too late, and then they realize that everything they thought they knew as the truth, is false -- but that is too little too late, and can no longer change their destiny and fate.

That is what aging is -- going one way, with no change possible.  One is set in their ways, the course is immutable.  So how not to be that way, is the question of every age.  How can one change, and what is the meaning and process of change?  How do we actualize that truth?  How do we exercise it?  And that is the significance of exercise -- to bring about change, and not simply reinforce the status quo and the path we are on -- with no turning back, no change possible.

Certainly, fundamentally, movement is about change -- and how we bring it about, and what are its aftereffects.  It is not just about wasting energy in the greatest way possible -- as many so-called educated people think.  If they really thought about it at all, they would realize how preposterous and absurd such conditioning is.  Yet everybody else repeats it -- as though it is some holy mantra.

As one exercises, as one conditions themselves -- that is what they become.  The fact is undeniable.  If they are not getting the results they want, they must do something different -- and not just what everybody else does, that causes them to age hopelessly in the same way -- despite their denials of that fact.  And that is their problem -- that they continue to do what they've always done, hoping for a different result -- rather than finding out, what it is that gives them a dramatically different result.


That is obviously what they are not doing.  So one asks, "What movements, postures or poses will put one directly and explicitly into the shape one wishes to be in? -- and just do that."  And let go of the rest.

 Easy Does It

People fail when everything they do becomes too difficult and impossible to do even the simplest things necessary to achieve and maintain their optimal health.  Eating becomes a chore, sleeping, bathing, and eventually even breathing.  At that point, life lies in the balance.  If things get any worse, that life may no longer be possible -- but if it gets better, that life is resurrected and recreated -- and that is the importance of "recreation," and also, "resurrection."  "One must die to the old -- and be reborn in the new" -- especially when that old is not working but only ensuring one's end.

Still, letting go of the old, may not be possible for many -- conditioned as they have been, to always make things more difficult for themselves.  That is what they think is necessary to "improve" -- that they first have to create the problem in order to motivate themselves to discover a better way of doing things -- than they always have been done before.  There is no provision in their learning (conditioning), of simply finding a better way -- freeing one from the addiction of that conditioning that fails them.

In this very manner, most people are ultimately their greatest victims -- victims at their own hands.  Only in rare cases, are a few destroyed at the hands and capriciousness of others.  Even those who are, usually play a large part in placing themselves at the mercy of others -- whether well-intentioned or not.  The most common of these "relationships," are the familiar toxic codependencies -- of which it becomes difficult to distinguish which is the victim and which is the perpetrator.

Only a generation ago was there acute awareness of such vulnerabilities -- as people were more dependent of specific others because they didn't have access to everybody as easily as the World Wide Web made possible.  It is even difficult for those who were not living then to even imagine such a world -- now living at the leading edge of communications and information, as every new generation is born into.

So the challenge of the old, and for every generation, is to constantly die to the old, and be reborn into the new -- and living only in that reality, and not the past, or even the future -- but the now, which implies that past and the future, and is the only reality.  How one does in that present moment, is the sum total of that life -- and nothing is more real than that.

The culprit therefore, is all the distractions and entertainment, that takes one away from that focus and mindfulness, that that is what matters -- and not all those things we often think is so important instead.  That is the simplicity of being -- totally there, in the present moment -- when all things are possible.  And particularly, that is the solving of the problems of our daily living -- which is both the simple and the grand -- reduced to clarity.  Otherwise, there is confusion as to what is the actual and what is the imagined.

And that is the way many live their lives -- always in this confusion -- mistaking especially, the complicated for the simple -- and insisting that things always be complicated and difficult, as though that was the end purpose of their lives and activities.  Eventually, life just gets totally out of control -- and consumes all their time, energy and resources.  Every little thing, then becomes a big thing, consuming all their time, energy and resources.

Yet despite that, everything simply gets worse, and eventually, hopeless -- at which point death becomes the only thing possible.  That existence is no longer viable -- and capable of continuing, no matter how great the expenditures and effort.  So rather than effort being a measure of success, it actually is a better indicator of failure -- because sustainability demands economy and efficiency.  Everything that is uneconomical and inefficient must end.  We know that in everything we do.  But some will persist in their denial for as long as possible -- until that is no longer an option.

Then life and choice, is out of their hands, beyond their control. Intelligence is what makes the world simpler and easier -- rather than more complex and difficult.  And that makes all things possible.

The new New Age

The new old age is also the new New Age -- having supplanted both -- as the real nature of new.  Otherwise, it is just the old being called the "new" -- when it is just the same ol' thing.  That used to fool a lot of people -- deceived by a word, and not the actual fact.  Increasingly, that is what the new age does -- integrate the new with the old -- so all that remains, is the new -- and present reality.

By "old," we now mean the world that used to exist before the turn of the century -- when though it was anticipated with great trepidation -- was lost just as "1984," was denied happening.  The world became "1984," but then became the 21st century -- or the new millennium, although the world did not end in the way many thought it would.  Rather, the new just came into being -- and did not have to kill off the old.

It is enough, just not to give it new life -- by repeating it as the way things are -- because they are wholly different now.  Comparisons to the past, keeps those memories alive -- along with its knowledge, which is of the past.  Discovering the truth of the moment, does not reference the old for that understanding -- but seeks to understand the present as it is unfolding.  The mind discovering the new, has no preconceived notion of knowing what it is -- which is the mind of the past, mired in the past.

Previously, every "old" generation thought it was their responsibility and duty to pass on the old ways of thinking and doing -- as though somehow, they were superior to the new -- always.  If nothing else, they became defenders of the status quo -- to keep things the same as they always had been -- at least in their own lifetimes.  But a few, and then the many, began to question whether that made any sense at all -- when it was understood that the truly new, supplanted and included everything that was known before -- in the present.

Unlike previous times, it was admitted that nobody really knew "everything," and far more needed to be discovered, than had previously been known -- especially when things didn't work out so well with the old (past) understanding.  Instead, there is always uncertainty -- in which each has to discover for themselves what is the truth -- in their own experience.  That was previously dismissed as the anecdotal -- or individual experience, that varied from one to another -- which was never allowed previously.  Each was only a cog like every other cog in the great machine of society.

Individual means indivisible or whole.  It is the basic quantum of reality.  It is the one meaning total.  That is the foundation of statistics, and great numbers -- but each is not simply a part of reality, but the whole of reality, for particular individuals.  Everyone does not die of heart disease -- but some people do.  That should be of great concern to those who will, but less so to those who won't, and are more predisposed to other vulnerabilities -- that each discovers as they live their lives.  It is the same way with  abilities and talents.  Properly done, it takes a lifetime to discover, and develop -- and is the meaning and purpose of those lives.

How well each does -- determines their success in life -- in developing the mastery of that life -- from beginning to end.  In this, the game is not over half way through -- or after 20 or 40 years, but lasts the whole lifetime.  Most, in the past, haven't done that so well -- beginning to lose that vital life force at 60, 50, and even 40 -- when they began to think it was all downhill from here, with no further worlds to conquer.

That is the great problem of these times -- the old old age.  It is becoming increasingly apparent that that continuance, is not sustainable -- because eventually, we get to the point that everybody has to be dedicated to caregiving everybody else, and nobody has the time or energy to care for themselves -- which means that things just get worse, and can never get better.  But life has to get better -- or it will cease to exist.  That is the self-evident truth.  Things must get better -- and not simply repeat themselves, as they have always done before.

That is just an illusion.  It was not always that way before. That was just the old culture saying so -- hoping to perpetuate itself for eternity.  But history does not repeat itself -- except for the defenders of the status quo saying so.  Even as they do so, they will deny that that is what they are doing -- preserving the past -- through their songs, habits, compulsions, and dysfunctions of fragmented and disintegrating lives.

Their problems are always "outside" themselves rather than the very core of their being -- internally.  That is where most problems are -- and so can never be solved.  But if they are the problem, then they can be the solution -- just in the understanding of that.  That is the problem -- the understanding of it.  Properly understood, there is no problem.  That is particularly the problem of the old old age.  Previous generations did not realize that everything they do -- becomes them.  You can't do everything wrong, and think that the outcome will be good.  You have to do all the right things -- to produce a more favorable outcome.

The wrong exercises (practice) won't work; they aren't working.  But one has their whole life, to find out what works for them -- and failing that, or failing to try, dooms one to failure, and ultimately (premature) extinction.  There is no guarantee of success -- but that is the chance one has to take, and nothing is more important to do.  Then the prognosis for a whole generation becomes better than we could imagine -- only knowing what we know now.

What changes that -- and everything, is discovering what works -- and wholly living in that new reality, and not just arguing the old against the new.  That is totally counterproductive -- and won't solve any problems.  That's how the world changed in the 21st century -- leaving behind most not born into it.  Old age has always been this failure -- and not greater successes that surely must be more possible given greater opportunities and advantages.

Beyond people living longer, they are living better than was even imagined for the most privileged twenty years ago.  Every twenty years is better than the previous.  So how does one take advantage of that opportunity?  Not by merely living longer, but by living as best they can -- which is not being stupid.  That a few think that that is what is meant, shows their lack of understanding -- that the good is not bad, and other (self-)contradictions.  The good is that which is intelligent to do.  That solves all problems -- and not simply repeating what hasn't worked before -- hoping for a different outcome.


Life doesn't work very well that way.

Mistaking the Effect for the Cause

"Correlation" is the co-incidence of two events happening simultaneously -- neither of which may have caused the other.  It is just noted that when there is an incidence of one event -- the probability of another event occurring at the same time, is that correlation.  

Less well understood, especially by those with just a politically correct (liberal arts) education without any science courses -- is the cause and effect relationship -- that is to say, that one thing causes the other, virtually without fail.  Then we're pretty certain, that one thing, is the cause of the other -- so to see the other, we have to cause it.

Nowhere is this misunderstanding greater than in the field of conditioning for fitness -- where one hopes that by doing certain things, one improves their chances for survival and success -- which is being fit to do so.  So essentially everything a person does -- is a preparation for everything else they will subsequently do, and if all they are experiencing is failure in everything they do, they have to change their behavior to produce the desired outcomes.

But that doesn't happen just because one wants them to; there are preparations and practices one must take to increase the likelihood and probability of those favorable outcomes -- all one's life.  There's never a point at which one can just call it a day and coast on in to the promised land of everything good, and nothing bad will ever happen again.  It requires a vigilance, constant preparation and practice -- or the results become less certain, unpredictable and erratic -- the normal definition of failure, disappointment and frustration leading to depression.

Thus the bottom line question asked by most health professionals, is summed up by the question, "Have you experienced depression in the last several weeks?"  Not to, indicates the resilience and robustness of that individual to feel they can overcome most challenges and difficulties -- and the future successes of that individual.  But that does not require a Ph.D or M.D. to master; it can come from any regimen that empowers one to feel that way -- capable of being successful at what they have to do in life, including all the things healthy people take for granted -- such as their own self-care, grooming, hygiene, cleanliness, nutrition, practices, interactions with others, etc.

Failing those minimal tasks, is a dire prognosis for the future of that individual.  So one hopes to get at least that much right -- for all the days of their lives.  Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, those lessons are seldom taught, systematically and rigorously, which already sets one up for a lifetime of successes or a lifetime of failures, and in the end, even the most previously successful succumb -- thinking they never have to improve anymore.  But all of life, is this evolution of being and improvement -- or there is extinction.  That is the Way of Life.

Still, many think that if they were only rich and famous (first), they would surely become good at something eventually -- and not that it will simply speed their self-destruction.  In the field of physical conditioning, many are prescribed a course that is impossible, and if they don't (can't) do it, they will predictably be in bad shape, but if they could walk on their hands for 100 yards each day, they would assuredly remain in remarkable condition they had never achieved before at any time before in their lifetime -- as though that was any wisdom and usefulness.

Yes, I suppose if one could fly or walk on water, one would have godlike powers -- and health.  So the question one asks, is not what one cannot do that will one day result in their doing so, but what can they actually do -- and improve?  That answer should be obvious and self-evident -- in increasing the range of motion of what movement one already manifests.  By that, one means more precisely, increasing the range of motion one can obtain voluntarily and willfully -- and not by any outside force forcing a range of movement that can be done safely and healthfully (without injury).  Otherwise, we can just snap a head back with the justification that "whatever doesn't kill one, will make them stronger and better off for it."

Obviously, that is the wrong understanding -- but not unlike much advice one hears in many highly competitive and destructive activities -- especially to see how far they can push the limits without injury and death.  There is a certain appeal and thrill to some -- who misunderstand the first rule of survival and fitness is not to be injured or killed by anything one does.  That includes the realization that if one doesn't use their legs anymore, the chances of them becoming permanently disabled are inevitable -- that can be effectively maintained by using them daily, for at least a few repetitions in increasing that specific range of motion -- daily.

So rather than being a hard thing to do, it should be made easy by practice and intent -- even if one does nothing else otherwise.  That is especially so for those who have no better use of their time than to devote it to dissipation and destructive habits -- even if they think that is what their "retirement" should be all about -- hastening their own end until it is over -- as the only way they know how to be.  That is the only way they've seen it done before -- and not that that stage of life now has to be re-created and re-imagined, because it was never possible before.

But that is the challenge of this time and age -- as never before.

The Power of Time

Time doesn't just pass -- neutrally, the same for everybody.  Some make it do something favorably, while others do things that disfavor them.  That is really the crux of aging -- that a few wear well, while many others, show a wear and tear before their time.  But it is not time itself that is a destructive force; it could also be a constructive one as well -- as some use it to build better than before, and before that, maintain what one has to optimize its use and usefulness.

That is also the story of every individual life -- as much as some would have us believe that all things in every case are equal.  People make a difference -- in every individual case.  If that were not so, then it wouldn't matter -- that one chooses better or worse.  The result would always be the same, no matter what anyone did.  But obviously and thankfully, that is not the world we live in -- that all in life is a random crapshoot -- and then you die.

That's how we all hope to make a difference -- as we live, which is also the way we die.  Those living with attention to their health and well-being, invariably see that it makes a difference -- while those doing everything to undermine themselves, may get by for a while before it all comes home to haunt them -- though it seemed at the time, that there were no consequences for imprudent choices -- the abuses that one seemed to get away with, the extra calories one could consume because it was there for the taking, the lack of exercise and other practices that one no longer did because there was nobody there to nag them anymore, or reward them for their own good.

And if nobody else cared, why should they themselves?  They never learned at some point in their lives, that nobody will care for their wellbeing, more than they will -- and that is the whole point, and not that they should be doing it for anybody else's sake.  They have to care that much about themselves.  And that makes a difference.

It is much like the miracle of compounding interest -- as a function of time.  The meaningful measure is not just what is accomplished once -- and then abandoned, or undone -- but what is sustained for as long as possible, and thus becomes one's life.  Many people will have a passing interest in many things -- mastering none of it.  Those who become very good at it, do it because that is who they are -- and not to do it, would be undermining their very reason for being.  Then if fame and fortune comes, they have already been well-rewarded by the gifts that they themselves are the greatest beneficiaries and judges of -- because nobody can appreciate that more than they can.  They are self-employed -- in the truest sense of that word -- because nobody else can do it better, than they can themselves.

That is the ultimate life -- and beyond that, are no regrets, no second-guessing -- it is a life fulfilled, which is the significance of every life -- and not just the rich and famous.  Such considerations, make it a trivial striving -- or one who has no idea what they want to do in life, except to become rich and famous.  But there will always be somebody else who is richer and more famous -- but may not be fulfilled by their own richness and self-worth -- which is to discover and create their ultimate best life.

That calling is not just for a privileged few -- but for all, in their own way -- that matters, and when that is done, there is no lack for what everybody else has done.  One has done all they could have done -- and not all the regrets for what one didn't, that accumulates over time, to produce the person one now is.  Formerly, only exceptionally "wise men" thought that way, but with increased standards of living for all, many more think that way as the new normal -- just as many more now become billionaires, and many more elders seem to defy aging as we have known it in the past.

The critical mass changes -- which makes a whole way of being -- commonplace.  But that is not because one person lives to be one thousand -- but many more live to be one hundred so the discussion shifts from quantity to quality of life.  They are no longer statistical exceptions but follow a rule -- that those living with great attention and awareness, live better lives -- and not just because it is the "right" thing to do that nobody expects anybody to.  That ship has already sailed.

It is no longer enough just to know what are the "right" things to do; the only valid question is, are you doing everything you know to be right and true?  If one is, that is the fulfillment of one's being and doing -- in the age of these unprecedented possibilities.  The greatest sorrow, is not doing so.  But what else is more important for anyone to do?  Certainly not all the other distractions -- that take one away from what is important to do.


There is just so much time.

No Amount of Doing it Wrong will Make it Right

Many people are taught to believe that there is only one way to do anything, so that when things go wrong, the only solution is to apply more force (effort) rather than improving their understanding -- of how things are going wrong, and how to make them right.  They insist on staying true to their present understanding -- no matter how disastrous the results are, while merely increasing those same efforts that have not proven successful -- and rejecting anything different.  That would threaten their world view -- as the only way it could ever be.

So rather than anything ever getting better, everything just gets worse for them -- in a one-way downward spiral that they are certain is the fate of every life, no matter what they do.  Of course such despair invariably leads to depression and the sense of hopelessness that is the worst of all human ills -- whether one has actual physical ailments or not.

Conversely, those with an outlook that thinks to try everything humanly possible until something does work, invariably find a way -- that works.  Way before that ultimate solution, they get better and closer to finding the solution and truth of their quandaries -- as rightfully, the proper purpose of all their activities.  Just as often as not, the better way may be something far different from what they set out thinking -- as their solution to their problem, which might have even worked before but no longer does, and might now even be the source of that problem.

The obvious ones are the champion athletes who now only become injured trying to do those things they did easily and effortlessly before -- that now may even be a threat to their continued survival as they grow older and wiser.  The truly wise, at that point, move on to where they can continue to experience success rather than tempting permanent debilitating injury and disability.

Usually, one sees the trend of decreasing reward at increasing risks, and changes course appropriately and moves onto new and different ways of being successful -- even if one was never before. But there is certainly no point, in continuing to do what one always did before -- resulting in failure and poor outcomes.  No amount of complaining and lamenting is going to change that -- yet that is what many do, while actually doing nothing that would make a difference!

The road of history, is littered with many such lives -- as the only thing many thought they could do -- which should become increasingly apparent to many, was not all that could be done -- even and especially in one's daily lives, where it would make the most difference.  People don't all do the same thing -- which accounts largely for their difference in outcomes and fortunes -- no matter how much mass media would like us to think otherwise.  If they had their d'ruthers, everybody would think and do the same thing -- with the same results, but obviously, that's not what's happening, even if one wishes it were so.

The weakness is the lack of fullest understanding of what is going on -- even while there may be many variations of the explanation that no one has a monopoly of the truth on.  That's true for exercise, medicine, investing, marketing, human knowledge and relations.  They are an ever-evolving and improving understanding -- and not simply that the oldest is the best.  Frequently, they are the least perfected -- even if advanced for their time.  

Because of such advances in every field of human activity and knowledge, the state-of-the-art subsumes all -- rather than just being the politically-(socially-) correct half-truth people often argue about.  The better issue, is which is the whole truth -- and not what partisan truth should win out over the other.  That is the endless problem -- and not the solution of evolving a greater (whole) truth.

That greater whole is transformative -- changing everything, and not just one thing -- while everything stays the same.  That is no change at all.  It is simply the same old problem in a different light, using different words.  But nothing has really changed -- not even the understanding of the problem.  


And that greatest understanding, is coming to the realization that everything one knows, is the problem -- preventing them from trying anything truly different.  They just call the same thing (lack of understanding) by a different name -- and think they have solved the problem, which of course, keeps on coming back.

All of Life is a Preparation for Whatever Happens

Everything in life doesn't happen by accident.  They happen because we prepare for them to happen.  In that way, the life we prepare for, is invariably the life we live.  That is the meaning behind education, diet, exercise, and caring -- both for ourselves, as well as for others, which is the world we live in.  That is why we must care for the world as much as we do ourselves -- because it is ourselves.

That is a fundamental understanding many people miss -- thinking what they do with and in their own lives, has nothing to do with anybody else's.  They may even think that they are against everybody else -- and are always prepared to be so, as the whole object of their lives, which of course, makes it hard and difficult for themselves -- and everybody else.

That is how they see life and all that is happening in it -- as a struggle against everything and everybody else -- rather than the cooperative effort to make life the best for anyone, which is themselves and the world they live in.  This way of thinking, is often regarded as the highest form of understanding achieved by only a few, after a lifetime of arduous study -- often in separation and seclusion from the world "outside," in a worldview that seeks to separate one thing from every other.

For such persons, life is predictably hard and difficult, full of self-denial as well as the denial of things as they are -- preferring their self-indulgence as how things ought to be.  But no matter how grand their schemes for self-aggrandisement, it is only about themselves -- and not the world they share with anybody else.  That is the anti-social and criminal mind, and to a lesser extent, the dysfunctional personalities we all hope not to become -- who invariably perish prematurely through some misunderstanding of how life could be otherwise -- with or without them.

Assuredly, life will go on -- whether one makes the best of it, or the worst of it.  The wise choice is obvious and preferable -- but an aberrant few, will never figure that out until their dying day -- and all the days before then.  Those are the few who disproportionately "make the news" -- because they are so spectacularly wrong.

There is that tendency in each one of us -- and not that there are the self-righteous "intelligent," and the rest deserving to be manipulated and exploited for their own self-interests.  The problem is in this cultivation of this self -- in opposition to all others apart from the living without the cultivation of the self.  That's where all their energy and thoughts are going -- and so there is none left for the being and doing that actually matters and makes a difference.

That is to be in the reality that matters -- where all things are possible and is constantly evolving towards the greater.  That is the meaning of a better life -- that one becomes increasingly aware of -- and not that it doesn't exist, until one personally discovers it.  It is out there already -- just for the taking.  That is the world we live in.  It already has been created -- it is just what we haven't discovered for ourselves yet -- in the great collective intelligence.  Knowing and learning that -- is what real intelligence is -- and not what one thinks they alone possess, that all the others don't.

That is the flawed understanding of every person living below their potential and actualization -- finding out and knowing the way that works, usually while stubbornly clinging to the way that doesn't for them -- which is their reality -- but not necessarily the greater, and desired one.  That is the conclusion they have to come to -- that it is not working, and not that that is the best that anyone can hope for.

Such a better life, requires decisions that result in different outcomes -- and not merely continuing to do the same things, even while calling it different names.  That is not progress -- or can make a difference.  The word is not the thing itself.  One has to see that distinction.  Wrong effort, is not the same as right effort -- and calling them the same, will not produce the desired outcome.  In this case, it is that any effort is preferable to none -- when all one's efforts are creating and perpetuating the problem -- and are not the solution that one is "too busy" to discover -- first.

And not only is their solution not working for them, but they also feel greatly compelled to see it not work for many others as well -- as their great mission in life, because they just don't know any better, and refuse to learn anything different -- until eventually, they couldn't if they wanted to. But by then, it is usually too late to make a difference, and too late to care.


So while one can, the truly inquiring mind is interested in not what merely confirms their present understanding and limitations as all that can be known, but of determining what they don't know that they think they do.  Therein lies the solution -- and the greater (better) life beyond.

Lifting Your Own Weight

All my life, I've pondered the question, "What is the most essential movement (exercise) to do?"  Obviously, that would probably be a movement one takes entirely for granted -- but shouldn't.  That is the key to their entire well-being, and differentiates those thriving, from those retreating and withdrawing from life.

The question can also be rephrased, "What is the most efficient way to lift one's own bodyweight?" -- which many offhand will dismiss as impossible, only for world-class athletes, rather than something everyone needs to do daily -- as many times as possible, and doing so, will ensure their good health.  It defines their good health -- and capabilities, all things being equal.  That is the simple act of raising one's (own) bodyweight from a chair or bed, and also lowering one's bodyweight with grace, ease and safety.  

This is particularly important, the older and weaker one gets -- to do this very well, and those who lose this ability and faculty, lose their mobility and basic competency that makes all other movements possible and practical.  Those who lose this facility, are called "incapacitated," or "disabled," even if the capabilities exist, but are never exercised anymore -- at some point in life.

One simply decides at that point, that one can no longer do it -- for one reason or another.  Often, it is for a concern of safety -- that one is too weak to stand up any longer, or one has feet, knee, hip or back pain that makes any movement (change) painful and difficult -- which obviously won't get any better if it is never articulated and exercised anymore.

Yet if there is only one thing a person does, that is the movement that will make the greatest difference in one's health and well-being, and so if a person does nothing else, that would be the movement to master -- and the key to their health, well-being and fundamental strength.  Not coincidentally, the best form for lifting one's bodyweight off of a chair, is the identical movement employed in Olympic weightlifting-- to lift the heaviest weights humanly possible.  That is the movement of greatest economy and efficiency -- and as such, is the fundamental movement that should be mastered by everyone -- whether it is their intention to do a little or a lot.

Learning the proper mechanics and dynamics, also solves most of the back pains and problems of alignment resulting in the abuse and misuse that results in destructive wear and injury.  By using the major (largest) muscles of the legs and back, ensures the proper priority of strength and development, and all else can then be done from this position of underlying, fundamental, "core" strength -- much more so than merely developing six-pack (ornamental) abs.

That (latter) is not an essential development in any practical or useful movement or activity.  The only function is for "show," or display.  Otherwise, it has no useful function -- and may even be counterproductive in producing a development without a usefulness -- as the actual ability to get in and out of a chair or bed easily, competently and gracefully, conveys.  Before one is completely bedridden, they may spend many years being helped into a chair in which they never leave all day.  That is the condition known as infirmity -- or the weakness and inability to do normal things without assistance.

But way before we get to that point, what can one do about it?  That answer is simple and obvious: that is the strength and ability we must cultivate as a priority -- and doing so, will prevent most of the problems of increasing immobility -- from the comfort, familiarity and safety of one's favorite chair.

The beginning position is exactly like that taken to lift the heaviest weights possible -- leaning forward with arms hanging to one's side until one is basically falling out of the chair onto one's legs, and then standing up and completing the movement with a shoulder shrug -- rather than stopping the movement at the lower back, allowing the upper back to remain rounded.  The completion of the lift is achieved when the force generated by the legs is allowed to traverse through the spinal column -- rather than stopped at the lower back, absorbing that force -- causing many people to walk around painfully all day with rounded backs, rather than exhibit a healthy, pain-free arched back as their basic posture.

That is obviously the difference in the healthy posture and a poor one.  That has been the observation, study and practice of yoga -- primarily to develop that flexibility in the spine that allows them to move into an arched position.  The problem is that that is achieved by only using half of one's body -- either from the waist up, or the waist down -- and not wholly and integrally, from the feet on through the neck that restores the fundamental integrity of the body structure to always move completely in that manner.

That's why most "back" movements are ineffective -- for relieving pain and building strength -- because back strength cannot be developed only from the lower back up, or the lower back down -- which are all the exercises we traditionally think of as "back exercises."  The back has to be exercised completely -- from the feet on through the neck -- to revitalize and restore that fundamental strength and functionality of the human design.

That is the quintessential weight-lifting movement of the human body -- just to lift its own bodyweight into the position it can do the most good and be the most effective.  One doesn't have to buy and lift any additional weight -- besides one's own, in the most efficient, economical and effective manner that ensures their mobility and fundamental capacity to recruit the muscles of the entire body -- all at once, every time.  That is the fundamental dance of movement -- to get up and down tirelessly, effortlessly, gracefully -- as long as one lives.

One doesn't have to run, swim or lift a marathon -- until one can't, and then never gets in and out of a chair or bed anymore.  That is their mantra -- what they must become good at.  Getting in and out of a chair as the most fundamental weight-lifting movement -- and doing so, will ensure one perfects that skill all one's life.

In Memoriam,
Tommy Kono, 2016.

From a seated position, feet flat on the floor, head up looking forward, arms hanging alongside the legs, shift the weight forward until it is in front of the toes, raising the hips and straightening the back with a full shoulder shrug -- in a smooth, continuous motion. 

Slowly lower the hips until one is seated again. Repeat ten times.


Repeat throughout the day as often as one is mindful -- but at least ten times to begin each each day, and ten times before retiring at night.  One has just lifted their entire bodyweight in the most useful manner possible.

Freedom is the Celebration

Many are independent -- but very few are free.  Actually, most people in "retirement," are independent, but very few think they are free -- or act like it.  Freedom is the realization that everything is a choice -- born of decision and no longer the compulsion to do anything as they've always done it before, or even think that it could be any different.  

And that is the beauty of freedom -- to be what one imagines they could be -- not only in their minds but in the actuality -- which is reality.  That's how it comes about -- but not if one insists that only what one has always done before, is reality, and everything else merely wishful-thinking.  Each are equally plausible; it depends upon the commitment and investment in each reality.

If it works, then one should continue doing so -- but if it is not working, one must do something different -- and not just the same thing, hoping for a different result.  That won't change anything -- and what is needed is change.  Change makes all things possible -- because it produces a different result, even if at first, it is not exactly the desired result.  One knows then, whether one is closer or farther, to reaching their desired outcome -- rather than just the predictable same ol' thing.

And thus one learns one thing -- and then another -- but it is a different thing, and not merely confirming the futility and despair in thought and action.  Then one is a slave to tradition and convention -- and not free to find out what lies beyond.  It is the finding out -- for oneself that distinguishes the authentic from the pretension.  The pretentious have no idea what is real; they only pretend to know -- thinking that it is the same, but fails them in critical moments, when they absolutely have to know the difference. 

That is the freedom to find out the truth of the matter -- and not just repeat the truth somebody told them -- as though they thought of it themselves.  But such people have no idea how to think for themselves -- because they only know what they've been taught is the truth -- as though it is the same thing, which it seldom is.  To believe they are, is the reason for futility and despair -- without the hope of ever finding out.


That is why freedom is always a celebration -- of one's ability to find out the limits of their being and doing -- and not as the fearful think, that it is a freedom from those challenges.  The greatest gain, is the loss of that fear.  Then one becomes fearless -- and therefore free, but not before.

A Better Place

Most people don't choose the place they live in but accept the place they find themselves in as the best of all possible worlds.  So they indulge themselves while on vacation -- as the place they would choose to be -- and not where they spend most of their life.  It just never occurs to them that they could.  Only a rare few find themselves where they really want to be -- as though such a thing were possible.

Yet that choice, has the greatest effect on all their other decisions and choices in life.  Many are simply not in the best environment for themselves.  It may be too hot, or too cold, too far from the ocean or mountains for them to feel at home -- in their best environment.  They may be remote and isolated -- and mystified why they feel that way.

And beyond that, is what they make of that environment -- to make it better, optimal as far as possible for themselves -- before eventually realizing they must move on to even better.  The quest always involves a journey.  It is never about just staying in one place all one's life -- thinking one day life will be different.  That is the reality of poverty -- that things never change from day to day, and year to year.  There are no passages in time and rites.  Everything stays the same.  There is no hope for different -- and better.

That may be the differentiating mark of those who stagnate, and those who grow -- not just by one parameter, but every facet of their lives so as to be immeasurable and unrecognizable from where they began.  Then change is very significant and meaningful -- and not just small modifications that don't amount to anything.  Real change changes everything -- and not just one thing.

So, many are unprepared for real change -- as much as they talk and hope about it -- but having no understanding of what it really is.  Real change even takes on a life of its own -- and for that reason, is eschewed by those who want to control it -- or feel they must be in control.  Instead, they will seek to suppress it.  And so the power of good things, is never allowed to happen -- to blossom in its own good time.  There is a season for everything -- but not before its time.

Lots of people want to be told what the truth is -- but very few are willing to find that out for themselves, and that is the real power and joy of it, and its value.  It is the finding out that separates the truth seekers from those who only pretend to know -- because somebody else told them so but they will never know how to find out the truth of any matter for themselves.  And that's what matters -- and not the countless many who say, "Tell us what is the truth, and we will repeat it -- as though we understand and thought of it ourselves."  "Tell us what is correct, and we will follow and chant it," and think themselves enlightened and wise beyond all the others.

They think they know all the answers -- but have not even begun to ask the right questions.  So how could they know anything worthwhile?  Because to ask the right (meaningful) question, is the beginning of understanding -- that no amount of simply knowing all the right answers can ever hope to achieve.  To such people, it doesn't matter what the question is -- they know their answer, regardless.


By asking the right questions, it is possible to discover the answer to any question, but if one only learns the right answers, they may never realize they know nothing worth knowing.

Everything Matters

A person has to do what they have to do.  It's easy to second-guess what another should have done -- or should do.  That's not the rightful province of any person -- to tell others what to do and how to live their lives.  Their primary and greatest responsibility is to live their own lives -- as best they can, and in doing so, set an example for the others -- as to what is possible.  That's the only way any problem has ever been solved.

There are countless people whose lives are a mess -- giving advice and telling everyone else how they ought to live their lives, rather than actualizing their own to the highest possibilities.  Countless people want increasing and infinitely more -- without ever making the most out of what they already have -- which is usually their greatest problem, so no matter how much they have, and want others to give them, they always need more.


But assuredly, that won't solve their problems -- because any more, will just be wasted, like everything else they've wasted.  And that first, is what are they making with their lives -- their body and their health?  Are they in their best condition they can make themselves -- or are they expecting the doctors to make them as well as they can be? -- or for that matter, any other person?  That is what is most overlooked in the discussion of contemporary problems.


Are you making the most of what you already have? -- and then it is meaningful to discuss, whether more is deserved, merited, and will do any good -- or merely be more resources laid to waste, as one has already proven they have done.  "More" is always the easy answer, but very seldom the real solution -- to most problems.  In most cases, the solution is "different" -- and not more of the same thing, that is already the problem. 


For that reason, one should not be fixated on one answer to everything -- but should entertain more different solutions -- than just the one panacea -- which they feel is the answer to everything, while never asking the right questions.  That is always the root of every problem -- that makes it irresolvable, and just gets hopelessly worse, no matter how much more resources, time and effort they give to doing it that way.


That is invariably the difference between success and failure -- and never simply, more and less.  That's what the countless failures need to know -- that the successful, are doing something different, and not simply more of what is failing them.  Only in that realization, is there the possibility and hope for a breakthrough -- to the other side, and freedom from the torment of constant failure, misery and disappointment.


It is not somebody else's fault; it is one's own lack of understanding -- everything.  Therefore, one must begin everything at the very beginning -- questioning all one knows, because it is one's assumptions and presumptions that are faulty, and not the conclusions assuming they are based on the proper understanding.  Assuming one knows absolutely nothing, is actually the quantum leap in understanding -- and not a waste of time the hasty, misguided and hopelessly lost assume it will be.


To begin every day with a fresh mind, is the great awakening of all wisdom -- and not coincidentally, the great teaching of every spiritual tradition.  "One must die to the old, to be born into the new."  To be refreshed and renewed in this way, is never to grow old.  It sounds like a tautology, or simple truth -- that is the most profound understanding in any life.  That is the root and basis of ever-renewing life -- and not simply old ideas, thoughts and words repeated yet again, as though nobody ever said them before.  In fact, everybody has repeated it before -- and that obviously hasn't worked, and so why not begin anew? -- as though one knew absolutely nothing -- and learns to find out.



So it is irrelevant and counterproductive to boast about what one already knows.  The real value, is the capacity to learn what one doesn't already know -- for that is the treasure, and not all the fool's gold, one simply wants more.


Two Kinds of People

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who create problems, and those who solve problems.

The worst pairing, is when a problem-creator, gets together with a solutions-creator -- in the classic dysfunctional relationship of codependency.  The more problems one can create, the more the enabler solves for them -- always resulting in a zero-sum game, canceling out the efforts of one another.  Eventually the problem-solver realizes that the more energy they put in -- is the game of the energy-draining problem creator -- for never in their universe, must everything work well.  If it does, it is their calling, to create a problem -- as the only thing they know how to do, to gain the attention of others.

For in their faulty upbringing, the only time they ever received any attention from their parents or teachers, is when they were bad -- and all their efforts to be good. were ignored, dismissed, or ridiculed.  From a lifetime of such humiilations and shame, they learned only fear, and the power of making others fear them -- even if it was to upset the apple cart others had so thoughtfully and carefully loaded.

These are the psychological heirs of the Vandals -- wreaking havoc as their greatest joy -- because they could not conceive and build their own orderly, well-functioning society.  But they knew they could have a power and control over others, if they merely learned to destroy.  A variation on the theme, is an offer to help build -- while undermining everything others built -- in desiring its failure.  And thus the good society of people, have no suspicion that one is working against them -- which is an even worse crime than those openly opposed and defiant.  Because then one knows -- and allows for that caution. 

Eventually and in all likelihood, they are simply identified and banished -- where they can no longer do much harm.  In the extreme, it is physical isolation and detention while in other cases, it is just the advisement and warning to assume and presume nothing about that person -- and particularly anymore, what they tell one to believe about themselves and their motives.  Those are the villains of history and literature -- the cause of "tragedies."

It was never believed that "bad things just happened," since humanity came into its consciousness.   And that consciousness is to believe that there is a cause of problems -- as well as its solutions, and avoidance from future recurrences -- rather than the trap of despair and hopelessness, that it doesn't matter what one does -- the cards are stacked against one, so all one can do, is rage against them.  And of course, rage becomes an end in itself -- to sow as widely as possible -- as one's calling in this world.

Theirs can never be a better world -- just another precarious step away from doom and misfortune -- expecting one day to succumb irreparably.  There is no "happily forever after," as am objective.  Others can merely be pulled down with them -- as their idea of "leveling the playing field."  Gain and advancement is not possible -- only the mind-numbing repetition of life as it always has been before -- and in fact, devolving from that.  There can never be more, but only less.  And so it becomes their self-fulfilling prophecy -- that life can only get worse, despite any progress in every field of human activity and study.

That is the dark side of life -- while on the other, there is relentless change, progress and evolution -- as the whole object of life at any time.  One is never too old or too young to make that progress -- in everything one does.  That is the only way life gets better -- to work at it, and not despair that nothing matters -- it is all futile and hopeless, and so they go about repeating what they've always done before, no matter how spectacular the failures.  And of course, learning nothing from it.  Never any breakthroughs -- to the other side.


The bright future is always on the other side -- the new world, and not the old world people cling to as the only world that can ever be.  It's not like nobody has ever gone there before.  There have always been the few and exceptional -- who know they have to find out as the whole meaning and purpose of their lives.  The worst that can happen, is never to find out.

To A Better Place (Survival of the Fitness)

The lesson in life is that one must constantly improve -- or be left behind, to perish with those who can no longer move on.  But that fitness is not only about strength and agility, or any other one thing -- but about everything, and how they work together -- to create more than the sum of its parts.  That is the synergy of life -- making it more than just the little details -- but altogether, take on a life and intelligence of its own, and creates marvelous new things and possibilities one could never have imagined before.

The new, is not merely the old reinvented, and improved.  It is something different entirely.  There's a reason it never happened before -- because it took time to come into being.  And then when it does, people wonder why they never thought of it before -- because it is so obvious, simple, and straightforward.  Life does not move to greater complexity but towards greater simplicity.  That is the genius of it.

But many confused and confusing people, think the object of life, is to make everything more difficult and complicated -- so we need them to understand and explain what is going on.  There is permanent job security in that -- or so they think, until people catch on, and realize they don't have to be dependent on them to interpret life for them.  Of course, some people never achieve that clarity -- or think it possible -- but it is always there for the taking.

First, one has to let go of one's previous conditioning -- that what they know, is all that can be known -- and look with fresh eyes unprejudiced by their own knowledge.  That is a great handicap who those who pride themselves on their knowledge -- and want to hold on to that as long as possible -- thinking it conveys great advantage.

The advantage is always that of an inquiring mind that presumes it knows nothing -- and thus, is willing to learn everything.  Such a mind, is a formidable mind -- because it knows and recognizes no limits, and so is free to observe only what is, as the only reality it knows.  The truth is out there -- and not in the words, thoughts, culture and traditions of an imperfect time and understanding -- that its adherents and devotees insist must be for all time.

Reality and truth is not like that; it is in every moment -- in its own time.  It is the best we know at any time.  And time changes everything.  So the solutions of our youth, are not the solutions of our maturity and seniority -- that we now have to rise to.  The life of one time, is not the life for all time, and thinking so, will keep us answering to the wrong challenges of our lives -- despite all we do.  It is simply the wrong thing, at the wrong time and place -- though many knowledgeable people, will insist that one can never properly and successfully time life, and what must be good, must be good for all time, and every occasion -- which is why they are often so disastrously out of step.

And they grow more so each day, with each passing year -- until the final isolation, which is to be cut off completely from life and apart from it.  That is the obvious.  So our challenge is simply, how do we not get that way?  The real tragedy is that many young people get that way and so don't even make it to adulthood -- let alone the golden years of senior citizenship.


Survival is the fitness.  That is the reality of the matter.  That which is dying, disabled or dead, is not fit -- and one has to change.  Life is not an entitlement -- no matter what you do.

Wiser Is Better

Many people grow old without becoming any wiser; many even boast that they stopped learning in kindergarten -- when the formal education begins for most.  That's how life is different now, when the opportunity and necessity for learning something new, never ceases.  That is the great promise for life in the future -- that one out of conditioning and necessity, never stops learning. 

 One observes that one can't teach an old dog new tricks -- but there is reasonable confidence that one can teach a young dog new tricks -- and that is what makes them "young."  Rather than age defining the learning, it is the learning that denotes the age of the mind, and general health of that individual.  We have never seen things that clearly before -- mistaking the effect for the cause -- and correlating all the wrong things.

That is especially true of problem-solving -- that done successfully and well, keeps one alive and thriving, while those not so successful, experience a difficult life -- and have no idea how to change that.  In the worst case scenarios, they simply get worse -- all their lives, and even drag down the lives of all they have contact with.  They are the classic "toxic personalities" -- that there is no denying that they exist -- more commonly in some places than others.

So a great part of life, is learning to avoid such "black holes" -- and moving toward the light, which signifies life and nourishment.  Life evolved in light -- and not darkness.  The total deprivation of light makes life impossible.  Light is energy -- which makes growth possible.  Light is information -- which tells us which direction to go.  Thus we move towards the light, just as plants do.  That's why it is so important, that the first words of God, is "Let there be light."  That's when all life begins -- and the knowledge of it.

What makes anything "food," is that it has energy -- from absorbing the light.  Those are the basics of life -- seen simply, and for us to go on, we have to revert back to the basics -- of questioning all our assumptions, as though we were learning everything new for the first time.  Because the world is always new in that way -- but the mind makes us old in thinking it is the same old world of yesterday, and the past gone by.

That is the problem of "aging" -- and not simply growing through the years.  The mind gets old and lives in the past -- never solving the problems of its own existence -- and dying to the possibilities of the future.  While the "problems" of aging are well-known and documented, the promise of successfully solving those problems, are not thought possible -- and obviously, therein lies the future.  Can one solve the problems faster than they arise?  And is it even possible, to live without creating these problems in the first place?

Can we see life without the problems? -- which creates the need for a solution, and our economic opportunity, or advantage?  Then there is only the basic response to what is -- which is never a problem.  It is simply a choice one makes to the appropriate information one is wholly aware of, and the realization that all one's problems, are the inappropriate responses (choices), and not that the problems are inevitable no matter what one does.  That is always a fatal conclusion -- leading to death, deterioration and disintegration.

It is the failure to integrate oneself with what is going on in the world -- cutting oneself off from vital life in the present reality, while choosing to live in the darkness of one's own memories, thoughts, knowledge, and beliefs -- as though they were reality itself.  That was the conditioning (education) of the old -- being supplanted by everything new.

But not if one convinces themselves, that everything older is better.  That which is better and best, is new -- and constantly renewing that fact, and not simply a habit of always doing things that way -- which is often the problem.  The problems we have, may be due to that fact that we always do things that way -- while not realizing that doing things differently, may be the solution -- and better, that no problem will arise.  It is simply doing the "right" thing from the very beginning -- or at any point thereafter.


However, no amount of the "wrong" thing, will ever make it right -- no matter how long one persists at it, or "forces" it to be right -- through denial or deceit.

All the Time in the World

It never fails to amaze (amuse) me to hear people who need to do something important and necessary, say they don't have the time -- because they are doing everything unnecessary and unimportant.  Of course the most important and necessary thing to do is tend to their health -- which is the basis for everything else they do in life, and determines the quality of their lives.  That's nearly indisputable -- but then after that briefest second of clarity, resume the busyness that is responsible for their poor health, condition and quality of life.

Undoubtedly, they have been conditioned for self-destructiveness, rather than self-actualiztion of their own greatest well-being and good -- both intentionally, as well as thoughtlessly by those with their own self-aggrandizing agendas.

Even those one would think have all the time in the world to do anything they could hope for or imagine, often are trapped in their own self-destructive tendencies and inclinations -- rather than simply letting them go, which would already put them way ahead in the game.  It could even be that they have to push themselves to the breaking point each time as the only way they know how to be, or were conditioned to think is necessary.

Nowhere is that mindset more damaging than those mistaking needless competition and competitive strategies, for actualizing their best health and well-being.  In the former, one may have to sacrifice their health and well-being, to outshine all the others -- especially if one is not genetically-gifted for that battle.

Everyone I know who thinks they have to go-all out every day of their lives until they drop dead of a heart attack or congestive heart failure, will succumb to their own self-inflicted injuries -- in that way.  Most former super-athletes, go out that way -- because they cannot overcome that previous conditioning and mindset that would have allowed them to live many more years merely enjoying the gifts they were blessed with, instead of pushing their luck and limits to the breaking point -- sooner or later.

What is instructive to see is how the many "world champions," are able to make that adjustment to simply long lives in good health, rather than the all too typical story of their premature fall from grace, and many years of infamous poor health before their shockingly young end.  That is particularly true, for many of the strongest, largest and fastest people who ever lived.

There has to be a lesson for less gifted people -- as well, because those genetically predisposed, often cannot help themselves -- being the way they are.  They are so highly specialized and programmed, than they cannot be any other than they are.  So while they are young and competitive, those attributes may be what gains them that advantage, but once they retire and still think that is the winning formula, may experience nothing but injury, pain and torment -- with very little of the benefits -- yet persist for the no longer can recall and related "benefits."

That is simply how they think they ought to do things -- and the "only" way they know how to do anything -- all out, or not at all, when the solution more often than not, lies somewhere in between.  More often than not, a little goes a long way -- while of course, zero will remain zero, no matter how good one's intentions.  Regardless, the valuable and instructive exercise, is simply "finding out."  That is what most "too busy" people, never have the time for.  And that more than anything, is the key to well-being and happiness.

In that condition, one is always improving, and life is getting better -- and if not, their condition is what it is.  There is no denying the facts -- that what they are doing, is not working, and in fact, working to undermine them.  Yet they go on in that way, ignoring and denying the obvious -- which are the problems of their lives, invariably thinking there is nothing they can do about it -- when in fact, they are primarily and ultimately responsible for everything happening in their lives.

How do people get that way?  Unquestionably, there are a few things one cannot seem to help or hinder, but it is far from most, or everything one does in life -- or in most cases, does not do -- even if one has all the time in the world, to do anything one could possibly imagine doing.

Thus, it is very important first, to just stop whatever it is one is doing and thinking -- which is the quality of mind called "meditation," and just be aware.  In that state of mind, all things are possible, and all the time in the world to do it.  It doesn't have to be perfect at first -- especially the first time one does anything.  But only doing in this consciousness and attention, makes possible this improvement -- and no amount of doing thoughtlessly and compulsively what one has always done before.  No amount of doing that, will ever make a difference -- and effect the desirable change and outcome.  In fact, and quite probably, that is the cause of one's problems and difficulties.

For all the truly important things in life, there is all the time in the world to do it -- even if it takes one's entire life doing it.  For the unimportant things in life, there is little or no time for it -- and that is why one never has enough time for it, despite all one does -- first.


That's not the same as doing the right thing -- even just to find out.  That makes all the difference in the world.  Problems and difficulties do not arise DESPITE all we do; problems and difficulties arise BECAUSE of all we do.  That is the key to understanding what we are actually doing -- and the condition we are in. 

Always Be Changing

The characteristic that most distinguishes those living badly -- is their resistance to changing -- particularly when everything in life is demanding that they do, and rather than flowing with that intelligence (information), they choose to deny it -- thinking in that manner, that they can get everything else in the world, to conform to their demands and expectations for it.

And so life beats them down -- relentlessly and unmercifully until they either relent or succumb.  There just is no way of denying reality -- which is the sum total of intelligence, and not just one's own thinking to prevail over it.  That is the critical failure of life -- inevitably resulting in death, but even before that, destruction and injury along the way -- until that final moment.  But before that end becomes manifest, there is much that one can do to improve their chances of prolonging and enhancing their lives -- no matter what.

Life is always the choice between better or worse.  One need not know all the answers at first.  One simply can choose between better or worse -- in that particular moment, and that results in the next, and not that starting from zero, one has to choose the perfect solution from the many choices available -- while thinking that it doesn't matter, and that they are all the same, and will get them to the same place, despite all they do.

To their way of thinking, nothing makes a difference -- and so "shit just happens," and there's nothing anyone can do about it.  Of course such a perspective and outlook, will ensure many disasters in that life -- thinking that nothing they can do, makes any difference in their lives -- instead of the more prudent realization, that everything they do, makes a difference.  And because it does, they also have to allow and provide for a margin of error -- as well, not just from others, but also from oneself.  In that way, they leave very little to chance and error -- and more often than not, realize their desired outcomes.

That is often the difference between winning and losing -- in mere games, which is the conditioning we think to obtain in our play and games.  We are practicing and conditioning ourselves for that success -- of achieving that well-being and good fortune -- and moving beyond to the next level of challenge that ensures that response.  Not to rise to the next challenge, is the beginning of the end.

And so how does one condition themselves for that responsiveness?  That is too always be changing -- especially when in doubt as to the proper course.  One has to retain that ability to change -- no matter what.  Because even if one chooses poorly, one can choose and change again.  Conversely, even if one chooses wisely but then never changes again -- life will eventually pass them by, and leave them behind -- stuck in their ways, that while appropriate and advantageous in another time, no longer serves that purpose.

The great shift from the last century to this, is from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance -- and how one deals with it.  If one continues to consume as much as they can, that will be one's undoing -- in a world of plenty, when the advantage than goes to those who master restraint and discipline.  They will not clutter every inch of their living space so that there is no room to enjoy it.  That is the disease of the acquisitive and accumulative (possessive) personalities in times of scarcity -- that literally bury them when all manner of things are too abundant and accessible -- giving way to the excesses of the present in consumption for its own sake.

Sure, one can, but is it wise to do so?  When is enough, enough?  Even for the good things?  Even medicine abused, can be too much of a good thing.  Those were the excesses warned of even in the ancient times -- when assuredly, things were much scarcer -- even in the most prosperous civilizations.  But then, usually all the abundance could be had by only one --for their exclusive enjoyment, and so there was great striving to be that One.  Such a mentality now, is destructive and ruinous.  There is plenty to go around -- if nobody hoards it.

Hoarding is wanting things just for the sake of having them -- and not using them wisely, if at all.  In fact, that is a great part of the hoarder's joy -- that they never use it, or can enjoy doing so.  Eventually they hoard so much stuff that they just get buried in it -- thinking they can take it all with them into the afterlife.  And in that way, they sacrifice their present life -- not making the most of it, and the present time -- taking only what they truly need, and letting go of all the rest.


In that way, there is plenty to go around.  But not if they think they need to have it all -- and be that way for all eternity.

All of life is a preparation for this moment

People who are sadly mistaken, think that nothing is related to any other.  So it comes as quite a shock to them, to learn that they may have had a hand in the outcome they are presently experiencing.  It might be as obvious as their poor health and condition.  What they did -- or didn't do -- is the reason they are in the shape they're in, and not that they had no part in it.  

It is safe to say, that those who are the happiest and most content, are those who think they are mostly responsible for their own fate and outcomes -- and therefore do something about it, rather than lamenting how unfair life has been to them, and given them nothing they deserve.  In all likelihood, they have gotten what they deserved -- and if they don't like it, it is  time to look into their own actions and their consequences, and see the error of their ways and understanding.

For this, they don't need to begin with a perfect understanding and mastery, as though such a thing were possible -- and easy.  They simply have to get better at what they are doing -- just a little bit each day, and of course, they have to start -- and not think of more excuses not to.  All the excuses in the world, are no substitute for the tiniest bit of action -- in making a difference.  That is especially true when asking why most people age badly, while only a few age well.  Those latter, are those who have bettered their understanding of life -- and what it takes to be successful at it.

Not just to be successful at all the trivial ways people may become distracted at -- but deeply engaged in their own lives, so that it makes a difference -- in everything they do.  It might be even what they don't do anymore -- realizing it is bad for them, and leads to disastrous results.    That would include competing with others, and even oneself -- incessantly, as though it were good and a wise thing to do.  The inevitable result is an unnecessary and avoidable injury -- that leads to a premature and permanent impairment and disability -- no matter how many blows one thinks they can absorb.  It doesn't make them better and more impervious to damage.

It obviously predisposes one to injury -- and with that, a loss of that exercise, articulation and expression -- as happens to so many thinking to retain the recklessness of their youth by indulging in it as long as they can -- until they can't.  That is textbook denial -- rather than an understanding and acceptance of its consequences -- before it is too late.

The signs along the way are obvious -- and obviously trying to tell one something important -- but one has to be listening, or it falls on deaf ears.  That's why it is so important to want to learn.  If a person is not disposed in that way, no amount of teaching is going to make a difference.  One will simply resist it all the more -- thinking that is the proper function of their role in life -- to resist the efforts of every other.  Such a person can never benefit from the efforts of others; they reflexively try to undermine and undo it.  That's what they've been conditioned to do all their lives.

And ultimately, the person they undermine most, is themselves -- because they cannot help themselves. That's the way they are -- and have no way of being otherwise.  Such persons are beyond help.  Shit happens, and there's nothing they -- or anybody else, can do about it!  That's just the way the world is -- according to their understanding.  

So thinking it does make a difference -- makes the biggest difference, which is understanding before any further effort is applied.  Lacking this proper understanding, makes all further effort arbitrary, futile and counterproductive.  Then once the understanding is valid, the effort naturally follows -- but never  does before then.  


So, many people's efforts seem to be in vain, and the belief that it can't make a difference, no matter what -- because they don't have this understanding leading to proper effort.  And there, they do not inquire further -- but accept their dismal fates, as what must be -- and many will agree with them, and encourage them along the way.  They say they wish it could be otherwise, but they do nothing to prevent it.  Nothing will change, as long as people keep doing what they've always done before.  That is the reason it happens.

The Critical Path

People who think that everything is going wrong, are often surprised to realize that everything going wrong is the result of only one fatal error that makes everything else go wrong, and that correcting the one, would make all the others go right -- and not that one has to redo and reinvent the wheel in everything one does.

That is the surprising but hopeful news -- that one has to find the key to everything going right, and not the key to every door -- as though somehow, they are not connected and related to every other. That is the critical path -- that determines the success or failure of every other.  It is the assumption that all the others are based upon -- that should have been examined critically and not presumed that one had perfect knowledge to proceed.

It is always the simplest and most basic assumption -- that one has gotten wrong -- that threatens the most elaborate of theories and explanations resulting in confusion and disaster, in even the simplest of activities and executions.  Often, it is attention to the beginning and the end, while paying no attention to the process in between -- and whether that made a real difference.  That is frequently the case when one thinks the mere passage of time is sufficient to make a difference -- while not inquiring whether any processing actually took place in that interim.  The most familiar of this occurrence, is when a machine one has used reliably for quite some time, no longer works -- yet one is not aware of that passing.

They merely expect that after 30 minutes, the clothes will be washed, or the food cooked or chilled, and the clock will still tell the right time -- unfailingly.  So in using any machine, or relying on another, one also has to maintain the possibility, that something could go wrong -- even if it hasn't before -- and provide for a backup and failsafe in such an event.  The reason for multiple smoke detectors is so that they never all go out at the same time, or are disabled in the same manner -- to use their batteries in a less critical capacity, such as entertainment and recreation.  That is a critical failure in judgment -- that leads to no further other.

Yet a few people do such things -- as ride a bicycle on a dark road, wearing dark clothes and no lighting -- and expecting somebody else to see them, and assure their safety.  Such people are disasters waiting to happen -- but way before then, are the many signals along the way before the final rupture.  They'll take care of it -- after it happens, and so it invariably does, and all their hopes and dreams that it never does, are shattered in that instance.

There is no failsafe provision against things going wrong.  It is merely hoped that they never do.  Time after time, such people are disappointed -- that there is just one critical factor missing that would have changed everything -- and they are just that one missing link from perfect understanding and execution, getting from here to there.  That is the critical path -- that makes all the difference, while everything else, makes much less of a difference.

That is what they have to determine -- as the most important thing to do.  Failing to make that discrimination, will keep them wandering in the wilderness for all their days.   Many even pride themselves that they are incapable of making any discrimination -- as though that was a badge of distinguished accomplishment.  That means they are totally dependent on others to tell them what to think -- because they have never been thought how to think -- for themselves.

They are merely rewarded for the correctness of their answers -- and knowing the right people to follow in this respect -- as though knowing that, was truth itself.  So one asks, how do I know, what I think I do?  Was it just a falsehood planted in my memory that is beyond my asking?  That is the root of all one's difficulties and problems.  That is the critical path one dare not trod.

But asking that one question, is the key to life -- and all its answers.

Evolving Life

The Future is being created as we actually live it.  It's always been that way.  That should be the lesson for those who make it into old age.  They have to continue to improve each day -- and failing to do so, will make them get worse, deteriorate and finally die.  That is also true for people at every age.  One either gets better, or one will get worse -- and that should be the lesson instilled from the earliest days.  That is the significance of education.

Learning is for the purpose of improving -- and not just accumulating facts for no greater purpose than having it and flaunting it -- as a few still think.  That is a useless education.  It has to have a meaning and purpose to be worthwhile -- and life sustaining, revitalizing and recreating.  Many lose that meaning and purpose somewhere in their lives -- and are cast adrift from that march of improvement, and even think it their purpose to resist all further change and improvement -- even when it makes life immeasurably easier and better for them.

They just think the value and strength is in resistance -- and deliberately condition themselves in that manner -- never realizing that the whole point in conditioning, is to make life easier and better for themselves.  That is the only point -- in everything they do.  Yet for whatever reason, some people think the whole point in life and their individual calling, is to make their own lives as difficult and hard as possible, and to make those they have contact with, also as hard and difficult as possible -- as though there was some great advantage and virtue in doing so.

Obviously, such people have learned all the wrong lessons in life -- and getting back on the right track, largely requires this reorientation to the right meaning and purpose for what they do.  Otherwise, everything they do, only results in their own self-destruction -- until ultimately, they are no longer viable and vital as human beings -- and eventually no longer recognizable as human beings.  They are just life -- but without the meaning and purpose -- of one doing their best to continue to improve and evolve.

For what? -- many will ask, thinking life is arbitrary in this and every other respect.  It is as it has always been -- to express and enjoy the greatest life one is capable of, which undoubtedly, will be different for everyone but everyone's lifelong unique challenge.  When that stops, one is obviously in deterioration, decline and hopelessness -- and drifting away from the river of life into their own stagnant pools of existence.

That is not how life invariably is -- but the beginning of the end for many.  Those are the markers of simply heading the wrong way -- and not the inevitable result of living a long life.  The mistakes pile up and become overwhelming -- until one realizes at any time, that one can simply let it all go, and begin life anew the right way.  That is the importance of dying to the old, and being reborn in the new -- that conveys everlasting life,to those living in that flow.

That is no great mystery in life.  That is what everything in life shouts -- but a few have grown weary of listening, and so they do not hear the voices encouraging them along the way -- guiding them to the right.  They are convinced that others are there to thwart them at every turn, and so their lives are consumed in constant and endless battles -- to the end.  That end comes as a relief -- as the ending of struggle, pain, misery and suffering, and finally the eternal rest of peace.

But life doesn't have to be that way, or end that way -- to those paying attention, and taking better care of themselves -- rather than neglecting and abusing themselves as the major activity of their lives.  That can be done in so many ways -- one regards as their personal vices -- the failure to take good care of themselves, and so others have to take increasing care of them.  That is always the rearguard of human society.


What is hoped for, is to remain in the vanguard of the future developments and evolution of human society -- in living the better way, which is always being perfected, not by anyone else, but individually, as we live and manifest them.  It is not merely reliving history, refighting the previous battles, repeating life as its always been lived before -- but doing what hasn't been done before.  That is the unthinkable -- where humanity has not gone before.  That is the promised land of ever-evolving life.

Learning All the Wrong Things

It's not so much that people never learn -- as much as it is that they learn all the wrong things, and are convinced (persuaded) that it doesn't make any difference -- as long as one is learning.  But usually, along with such "learning," is the resistance to learning the difference between the "right" thing, and the "wrong" thing -- for which the self-designated "teachers" insist, is never necessary because they'll do that for them -- rather than the most important thing to learn, and the whole point of learning.

Those who cannot make such distinctions (discriminations), are of course incapable of distinguishing right from wrong -- in virtually everything they do, and others have to do that for them -- often than not, forcefully and definitively.  Those who are uncertain, or incapable of making those distinctions themselves, invariably become drawn into the chaos and confusion of the utterly lost.

So one of the great achievements in every life, is this ability to distinguish right from wrong -- and not fall into the despair that nothing matters, and the spoils go to the most ruthless in taking them.  That is the most primitive understanding of things -- and proof of learning the wrong lessons.  It may seem to work initially, but soon, everyone catches on to that manner of being and doing, and learns to avoid them, thus such people, are always on the prowl for fresh victims -- who are not yet "on" to them.  Invariably, they are the easiest people to run into -- because they have to go through many to find the few who are worse than they do -- wreaking havoc and mischief in their wake.

That could range from domestic to international affairs and treaties.  What is common in every case and matter, is the belief that anything one can get another to believe, is reality -- and not that reality is not just their agreement to see whatever they want to.  Such like-minded people are capable of convincing themselves of anything -- until they run out of other people's money, patience and goodwill.  That is the world of delusion and wishful-thinking -- over the sorry truth.

So when things go wrong, they have no way of making them right, or even knowing something is wrong in the first place.  To them, that is just the way things work -- and not that it could ever be better.  That is particularly true with age -- and what they think is "normal."  There is simply nothing they can do to alter that fact -- and so they do nothing, despite the fact they have all the time in the world to do anything they really wanted to do.  Instead, they dwell and ruminate over all the things they cannot do -- as the only thing they do anymore.

Naturally, the world for such people, collapses and grows smaller with each passing day -- because they are not expanding that world, as every meaningful life has to do.  It doesn't matter what they did fifty years ago -- or even ten.  It's the same advice we give to the young, yet think somehow, the old are immune from it.  The whole trick to staying young, is not plastic surgery and other advanced procedures, but approaching each moment as though learning it for the first time, with no preconceived notions of the possible and impossible -- but just "finding out," never presuming to know.


The one who says, "I know," is invariably the person who has learned all the wrong things -- thinking it is everything there is to know.

ReCreating Life

The defining aspect of every life, is not what a person does for work, as much as what they do for recreation -- which as the word says, re-creates their lives.  Not surprisingly then, exercise frequently is a leading example of this recreational life -- and other activities one engages in -- not because somebody else pays or rewards them to, but because it is how an individual rewards themselves.  

For some, that would largely entail eating as their favorite pastime -- naturally resulting in their overweight or obese condition -- invariably and unmistakably the result of what they do -- as their favorite activity in life, just as the lean and fit exhibit their preoccupation.  And that word means as it says, "before all else."

Many others would claim they engage in no recreation or recreational activities -- because they are entirely preoccupied with making money -- in everything they do, and so have no such alternative universes to retreat to -- as that word implies, "take a break from."  Implied in this, is that they have no time for anything else -- no time to revive themselves, no time to recreate themselves, no space for reconsidering and rethinking everything they do in life -- including complaining about how out of control their lives have become -- rather than reflecting for a moment, that it doesn't have to be that way -- but they themselves make it so.

They could just as well do everything in their lives very differently -- and that feeling -- and control of their lives and outcomes, is what determines their quality of life, which is the summation of everything they do and are in their own life.  It's even difficult, for some people to realize that they "own" their own lives -- so much do they feel that they are merely pawns to everything, and everybody else -- which is the life in despair.

People get that way -- if they don't do anything else -- to re-create a different scenario and story of their lives.  For some, it is as easy as rewriting that script -- to a happy ending -- as their favorite recreational activity.  Nobody might pay them for such a work of literature -- but the great benefit is not that others pay them for it, as much as that is what the life they reward themselves with -- by envisioning and detailing it.

In this way, the distinctions of fiction and non-fiction comes to an end -- and one lives wholly and newly in the integrated world of their own making.  That is how reality comes into being -- rather than remaining the division and fragmentation most experience as their lives -- thinking that is the world for everybody else also.  Only if they think it so -- and their teachers might also, as what they were taught to -- by the many fragmented minds that is the only way reality can be.

Yet there have always been a few who have described a wholly other vision of life -- without the divisions and conflicts they engender -- as souls of these other planes of existence, that most feel they can merely admire -- but not live -- because they are living the lives they do live, with neither the time nor inclination for any other.

Some seasons of the year enforce a greater degree of inactivity that may allow this greater introspection of a less harried life of peace and contentment -- and the vow to do better at attaining it in the coming year.  Their resolve grows greater even as the days grow darker and shorter.  They promise to themselves to do anything -- if only the days will get brighter and longer again.

They've made it through one more cycle of their lives in that way -- but only in the survival mode.  The bigger picture -- is whether they go further and beyond that -- as the foundation for subsequent years, and not just repeating the same old cycles and rituals year after year with diminishing vigor and conviction.  That is obviously the "greater lives" the prophets and madmen speak of.  Surely, that is "not of this world."  Or could it be?

That is the question of our lives.

Recovery Ability

The single greatest lesson in athletics and sporting activities -- is learning to recover, or recovery ability.   That enables one to deal with any situation, and in doing so, improving their subsequent ability.

When one no longer can, or even shows an interest in doing so anymore, than improvement is no longer possible -- and permanent, irreversible decline the only thing possible.  This quality, more than any other, differentiates and distinguishes people into the thriving -- from the dying, the winners from the losers.

It doesn't have to be a competition -- but each individual's choice -- of whether to get better, or not to.  That ability to improve to accommodate ever-greater challenges, is what we all hope to achieve -- implied or intentionally.  If one runs a marathon, but never recovers from that effort and instead goes into irreversible injury and decline, or worse gets killed, that achievement is moot -- although admittedly, discovering one's ultimate limits.  Obviously, that is the point of no return -- and the preference, is never to go past that point -- as long as one lives.  Again, a moot point.

The only time one desires to "go there," is when there is no choice, and it is necessary for absolute survival.  Those opportunities come frequently enough -- for one not to have to program them as a regular occurrence in their lives -- as the foolish think is necessary, often to "prove" themselves of continued viability.  In that way, many bring about their own premature end -- rather than increasing and enhancing their survival chances.  That also fairly describes what we call "aging," or decreasing fitness for continued survival -- let alone thriving in their environment, and getting better at it.

Recovery ability is what makes it possible -- and indicates the direction one wishes to continue -- and avoid the direction that diminishes those chances.  And in whatever age, time and condition one is in, there is always that choice and action available to them.  That is what life is.  So to think otherwise, is already the beginning of the end -- when one claims they have little or no choice.  They can change that.

That is the meaning and purpose of every life -- and if not, or it doesn't matter, then shortly one will be dead, and it will not matter.  That is the division between the living and the dead -- to the extent that it matters, and one should be clear about that -- and then everything else arises from that.  That is the basic assumption upon which one proceeds to do everything else.

The results of that thinking, is self-evident truth.  One doesn't need to be convinced otherwise.  Yet many seem to go to great lengths to persuade themselves and others, that what is obvious to everybody else, is not true.  Frequently, that is to say that one is getting better, when one is obviously getting worse -- and then one is on the slippery slope where nothing is ever as it seems.  That is Alice in Wonderland.  But one doesn't have to go there -- or read the book -- to see those manifestations in everyday life and situations.


The trick is determining how accurately the perception matches and meshes with the reality -- which is to observe the true as the truth, and the false as the false, and to be able to tell that difference -- and not be dependent on someone else to tell them so, and correct them.  That dependence, is always fatal.