Today I was watching this (link) short youtube movie someone prepared, where they used the death of Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple Computers, in conjunction with the new Occupy Wall Street movement. The reason for using these two elements I think, was to point out the promise in thinking different. Both Steve Jobs and the Occupy Wall Street represent for some people, innovation, and change, and so I can understand why some might use Steve Jobs as an idol, to help propel this new movement forward.
This makes me a bit sad, as to me it points to the fact that most of us do not understand what kind of change is necessary, and what is the fundamental problem with our way of thinking, that is the cause of the turbulence we are currently experiencing.
Yes, on many levels Steve Jobs was an innovator and a game changer, but he was also, very much so, an expression of the root cause, that results in the suffering that we are currently experiencing. Not only was he an expression of the root cause of this mess, he was also, knowingly or unknowingly, one of the greater supporters of perpetuating a system, that enabled him to do what he did. To be perfectly clear, I am not saying this because I have any judgment towards him or anything of the sort. As far as I am concerned, what he did was natural. Like the rest of us he played and used the system best he could to fulfill his desires.
Still, with all the creative monument he has left behind, I am yet to see anything that he created that was substantially different from the common way of thinking. Like the rest of us, he too subscribed to the same notions of success, power, and growth, and like most success stories of our times, he too was a 'taker'. He was insatiably hungry for power, and an opportunist. He accumulated, and hoarded as much power and money as he possibility could, pricing his products as high as he could, disregarding the financial state of the nation, and the state of the planet as a whole. If anything, Steve Jobs was one of the most visible models of displaying, and supporting our current reigning paradigm. He was a champion of our current way of thinking.
When I see movements like 'Occupy Wall Street', my main question is, are we ready to go to the root of our problems, or are we going to continue making some noise on the surface, wave our hands around, make some demands, only to find ourselves later realizing that we have just begun another cycle, and are practically doing the same thing. I wonder - have we suffered enough this time? Is it possible that we will actually stop and study ourselves, earnestly learn the root cause as to how is it that we ended up here to begin with? How is it that though we proclaim that we have achieved far and great things, but our fundamental behavior keeps on gravitating towards, and revolving around robbing, cheating, stealing, and killing? How is it that the revolutionary of yesterday keeps on becoming the dictator of tomorrow? And why is it, that we actually believe that this time it's going to be different?
The Marriage of Occupy Wall Street with admiration for Steve Jobs makes me think that, we either don't want to change, or that we are just unaware as to what we are doing. In a way I think both. We don't want to change, as if we did, we would invest ourselves whole heartedly in studying ourselves. But we are also unaware as to what we are doing, as we keep on walking the streets proclaiming that we want change.
Another Option is that we just don't have the knowledge to show us what we are doing. This is very frustrating to me, as from where I am standing it seems so clear as to what we are up agains, to a degree that I just can't understand why is it remains concealed.
We can rearrange the deck chairs on the titanic all we want, but we will never change anything, and we will find ourselves battling the same fights over and over again, unless we are willing to deeply look into the root cause, as to how this ship got here in the first place. If we don't do this then all our activity is nothing but surface activity. analogous to waves on the surface of the ocean that although draw a lot of attention, have no substantial effect on the deep currents of the sea. It is time we start to recognize that one of the main reasons we got here, is that we all believed the ship was solid and that it would never sink. We were so in love with our dream, that not only did we buy into it, we also sold it to our friends and invited them to join the cruise. Then we invited our neighbors, and educated our children to repeat our convictions. Those who denied us, we ignored or ridiculed, as we believed without a doubt that this journey will take us exactly to the place where we dreamt we are going.
Our action are nothing but reflections of the deep currents of our minds.
Everything a result of our minds and the way we think.
Is it time for us to really start looking at things? I do not know. Are we ready to realize what we do? That too, I do not know. What I do know is that there are some fundamental elements we need to consider, and i'm just going to follow with a list of things of the top of my head.
- We need to abolish the notion of "they". We need to start saying "we". The only reason we are in the streets is not because "they" did something to us. The reason why we are in the streets is because "we" did not get the dream we bought into. "we", all of us, when times were good, wanted the houses, the cars, the rising stock market, the electronics, the iPod, iPads, and the vacation homes. "we" all bought into this, and "they" where happy to sell it to us. If "we" didn't buy into it then "they" could not have sold it to us. And the only reason we are angry, is because "we" didn't get to where we wanted to get. If "we" did, then we wouldn't complain. If each of us was personally able to get what they wanted, then we would be happy to be a part of "they" and consider this "we" crowd as a bunch of losers, as "they" probably think.
- We need to understand that there are fundamental behavioral definition that we all perpetuate, that are the root cause of all this mess. We have all bought into silly notions of success and failure, and silly notions of growth. It is time we realized that we have enslaved ourselves in definitions and that no one but ourselves is the source of our jail and predicament. These definitions have no solid ground, are not dictated by nature, and are nothing but a silly childish dream. The more we insist on dreaming the more waking up is going to hurt.
- We have completely disconnected from our habitat. We have lost contact with that which provides us life. Our silly convictions, have masqueraded the immense knowledge embedded in nature. We have lost access to the fundamental inner workings of this planet. This planet is a living example of abundance and instead of learning from it, all we do is celebrate our ability to pillage and rape it. It is time we start feeling that we are making a mess of things, and that we are trashing our own habitat.
- We have to slow down. Our biggest problem is that we are going too fast. At the rate things are going, have no mistake, we are going to speed ourselves off the track. The track can not hold our speeding train much longer. Our current challenge is not how to go faster. We know how to go faster, we have established that. It's going slower that we don't know how to do. That is the real challenge. A true leader will understand this and will stop stating ridiculous promises of grown. The type of growth we have been used to, has out run itself, it is at the end of its road. Time to realize this. Fear not, there will other types of growth, as we will always continue to grow, but this type of growth is done and over with. Now it is time to learn how to slow down. We need to slow down so we can adjust and adapt to the necessary changes coming. Undoubtedly this will move us to the next stage of our evolution, and if we do not slow down this is going to be very very painful.
- We need to re-educate ourselves and our children. If you are not sure where the current education paradigm gets us, it get us right here, where we are. Our current way of educating ourselves is the result of where we are, of our way of thinking, and can only, and will only get us here again. If we want to stop this cycle, if we want to adapt, then we need to think different. It's time to think different. And now is the time to do it.
- We need to spend as much time as possible understanding the root cause of things. Trees grow out of seeds. Our way of living, and where we are, is a result of seeds planted long before we were born. We are now in Babylon again, and we don't understand each other, and we don't understand ourselves. One does not need to be an ancient mystic prophet to understand how this happened, and where we are heading. All one needs to do is be willing, and focus all of ones attention at looking, and investigating. This is not a time for pretense, and there is no time for lies. Truth hearts only because we have been accustomed to pretending. Truth sets us free, as it makes us recognize that pretending is the bondage that hold us. Can we grow up and stop pretending? I would like to think so.
What we are going through here can be a process of growth, or can be a process of death. If we don't see clearly, if we keep on dichotomizing, splitting, blaming, reacting, fighting, killing, and going faster, I believe we will die. If we respond and stop, we will live. It's time we stop. There is really no where to go, and it's time to stop pretending like there is. We think we are heading somewhere fast but in fact we are just running from the inevitable which is to face ourselves. Facing ourselves is the next stage of our growth. We will either be forced to do so, or we can sign up. The result will be the same, he level of pain, substantially different. It is best we understand this and collectively make a decision as to where we want to go from here.
There is really no where to go
And there is really nothing to do but stop and look within.
Inner space is infinite and accessible, always.
