It is beyond the comprehension and understanding of nearly all of 'us' (myself included) to fully appreciate how much of what we perceive and believe to be 'reality' is nothing more than a trance or illusion, albeit an extremely persistent one. It was with this thought in mind that I came across this quote in an article I am re-posting here on TIF.
"In the contemporary world what counts is the goal. To reconnect with the Earth and the Sky what matters is the present, not the destination. Trance or shamanic states of consciousness have to do with the present and with getting out of the most dangerous trance: our conditioning and daily conventions."
I needed to read this article three times before all it had to offer began to sink in and soak my mind and body. Resist the urge to skim it and instead kick back and read it several times for the pure pleasure of knowing such knowledge.
As much as we would like to ‘believe’ we are all clear headed, logical individuals who only deal with verified ‘facts’ while shunning hearsay, rumor, ‘hope’ and ‘belief’, the reality is to some degree or another we integrate all of the above, and so much more, into our personal cognitive operating system. The tendency when reading such a statement is to immediately emotionally trigger, become annoyed or even angry, and then listen to that soothing inner egoic voice as it assures us we are not the one Cog is looking for.
Regardless of whether we attribute this cognitive juxtaposition to raging ego, genetic predisposition, normalcy bias, cultural conditioning or simply denial, critical thinking, if ever truly deployed, is often limited to those times when we ‘believe’ it is in our best interest to think outside the box. But even then, our effort is severely limited by the tendency to hold on tightly to the comforting handrails when venturing into foreign territory. Continue reading The Death of Hope and Belief→
Hello. My name is Mrs. Cog and I am a compulsive gardener. It has been 4½ months since my last harvest.
I live in the woods, I like to make things grow and I suppose I have a dissident sneaky side that challenges me to do these things. Sometimes I think about stopping this behavior. It just isn’t socially acceptable to plant things on other peoples’ land, but I do it anyway. It seems I am a guerrilla gardener. Continue reading Confessions of a Guerrilla Gardener→
