Before you begin, let me offer these words. I’m not apologizing, but I do realize many of you have and or are still working very hard for what you have and believe that it is a good thing to accumulate stuff, money, etc, to live a big life, have nice things and to leave your children with a fine inheritance… Good good…

These comments are not meant as an attack, but instead as commentary on American consumerism, something that has brought our country nearly to its knees, and by extension has made others appear as competition, instead of our sweet brothers and sisters and fellow suffering beings. I ask you consider theses things…. I wish you all only well…

My friends… If we don’t not evolve, then, we have wasted this precious life, if we stay as a human being, as an individual, stagnate, die the way we were born, then, this life has been lost.

I believe our lives, this precious opportunity, is a classroom for each one of us, but unlike school, we are not forced to learn, it is only done through our voluntary, intentional actions. We must evolve, little is learned when we just take this ride, when we just feed our base needs, desires, and lusts… In order to evolve, to raise up to a different level of consciousness, it takes practice, a practice of living awake, watching our minds as the stream of conscience passes before us, as we walk down the street, drive our cars, make love, to ask ourselves, what do we see, and how are we reacting to it?

Many of us live with a very reactive mind, like babies, Id-driven, we feel, we see, we do… Little comes before our eyes that we do not react to, always evaluating what things are, evaluating how we fit into things, it’s all ego, thinking it’s all about us, someone yells, “are they yelling at me?” cuts us off in traffic “dammed fool!”, she smiles “mmmm… she must like me, wants to make love with me”…

Living like this bring us nothing, not looking beyond ones nose, not seeing ourselves as interconnected with all things, not knowing how powerful we really are, not finding out what abilities we have, not seeing our potential. All these cause us to stand still, to end this life as we began it… as a child, one that came to this world with a karmic load, one who leaves it with an even greater one; one who has just sucked air for 70-80 years, consumed this earth resources, and returned nothing….

Please please my friends, realize that our lives are precious, our potential unlimited, and the harm immeasurable when we live this life just lusting to satisfy our needs, wants, and desires. Believe me. This life is soo much more... before my illness, I too was caught up in this rat race, my goals based on things to attain, things that would demonstrate how well I had done, things that would offer me access to people, places, and things I saw as valuable, things that I thought would bring me and my family joy. For me they brought little happiness, much misery, almost killed my body, and severely injured my mind. When I write I write what I know through experience, I don’t sit from afar and judge, I view myself and my life and say the things I’ve learned, hoping that by sharing these I might help some escape the suffering I have experienced…

Lately I see so much of this shrouded in spiritually… The Christians have the “name it and claim it” bunch, who believe god wants them rich, full of this world crap. The new age folks have “The Secret” another way to have what you want, just by placing your intentions there… All good, but it’s not what life’s about… Look at their videos, people standing in front of their BMW’s, big homes and boats … Is this it?

All that stuff rots away… It is a trap, a path to continuing suffering, for we get, it rots, we suffer, we try to replace it, if we can’t we suffer, if we can, we waste our resources doing so, just to find it loses it luster way too fast, then we suffer again. Round and round and round… Why even begin?????

Please ask yourself as I do… What do I value, what do I spend my time thinking of, working towards, what am I saying to my children with my consumerism, is this life to be used as such, is there no better use, no better focus?
When it’s over have I left this world a better place, are my children better prepared to live their lives than I was? Have I not only left them money and property, but an inheritance of wisdom, compassion and joy?

If you have questions, would like to talk, or just make a comment… please feel free to contact me…

I wish you all much joy… gi

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Comment by gabriel on March 5, 2009 at 1:33pm
Dear lady... Wonderful to see the spirit of my words also touch people across the ocean... I’m in relationship with a sweet lady in DK, and although she is cultivation, mindful, etc, even she cannot help but fall into this trap form time to time. The pressure of having children living here and now makes it hard, for they are living in a world that is soo consumed with stuff. stuff, stuff...

Who would have thought just a few year ago that children, 8, 10 year olds would have cell phones in their pockets, and even worse on their ears, attacking their developing brains. This is not only harmful to their minds, but to their body's and most important a drain on middle class folk's pocket, also offering a terrible message to the children, placing them at such a young age on the roller coaster of consumerism. I’ve watched just in this year the cry of upgrade, upgrade as even these young ones find themselves yearning to have the latest gadgets, feeling somehow “less than” because their things are not up to par with their other more affluent friends… A few years ago it was jean and sneakers, not $400 toys, when will this end?

I'm not saying we cannot have some things to make our live more comfortable. I would not like to live as they did 100 years back, some progress is welcome, but comfort and joy are too different things. I do not believe we find any real joy from stuff, only temporary delusion, thinking “ahhhh all is well,” just to see it all slip away as the shit rots before our eyes and again we suffer, back on the wheel of “got it, lost it.” No no... please please... let's stop the insanity!!!

Smiles... gi
Comment by gabriel on February 25, 2009 at 6:19pm
no no.. I don’t see it as ranting at all. I see you as very clear of what u believe and how u live… Good good!

The more of us the world sees, happy, fulfilled, not lacking, more than just caring for ourselves, but also having an abundance to offer others, not material things, not necessarily, but compassion, joy, music, art, love, words of awakening and good healthy foods, the more they will see there is another way..

These things, this energy, will encourage others to reconsider their path, and upon this reconsideration, awaken to things “as they are,” and to create a "new reality" for them...

big smiles...gi
Comment by gabriel on February 25, 2009 at 4:27pm
ah... one more being looking for a new way.. We must! this is not easy, but this is soo necessary... good for u, good for us...

Life is soo much more, but the marketers, the money people, know no other way to make money other than to take it from us, for us to buy, buy, buy… to convince us our life is somehow less without their products in our homes, on our backs, and in our garages...
Comment by Gordon J Millar ~ The Global We on February 25, 2009 at 2:21pm
Hi Gabriel,

I am with you man, we need to wake up and stop worshipping the Cult of Consumerism. I have a very young family ~ 2 pre-school kids ~ and my wife & I try every day to instill virtues in them. We've gone organic, so it costs more but it is right thing to do. Here in the UK the smaller ethical stores are being crushed by the soul-less supermarkets, driven by greed. We are swimming against the tide in the Western world, we are surrounded by so much empty, material nothingness ~ celebrity, vanity, getting into debt to buy stuff that we just don't need.

Thanks for sharing your positvie message Gabriel,

LOVE&PEACE

Gordon
iPeace Co-Creator


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