dropped out

Why have I dropped out of society and employment? There are two main possibilities:

I am powering towards enlightenment through creating a simple life. Activities are strategically limited to (a) reading and writing about the dharma, (b) meditating, and (c) making ideas available to the world via the internet

… OR …

I am a burned-out case running back to my home base with my tail between my legs[i]. Activities are minimal as there is no energy or appetite for transforming education systems; not even for transforming individual schools. (My main paid employment was as an education advisor.)

The existential purpose-in-life issue is raised. To what extent am I more than a neurotic nihilist living in an existential vacuum? What does it mean to exist and what is the purpose in life? We could draw an academic concept-map to chart the recognised options but I presently have no appetite for it. There may, however, be an appetite for writing about it subjectively.

existence

My present viewpoint is that there is no reason to exist. There is no grand designer with a master plan. We are not ascending arrows in the biological synthesis. We are the vital churn of stardust whose beginnings and endings are unknown and perhaps ultimately unknowable. We can, however, be conscious of our consciousness but that won’t save us when the sun goes out.

As individuals we are social animals that can think and speak according to the patterns of our culture. But this tends to create parochialism and xenophobia. It involves mainly blind acceptance of our culture’s values and world view. This is intellectual laziness and an existential cop out.

Marks and Spencer's Supermarket

Given the potential of the human brain, cultural compliance constitutes (a) a lazy turning away from reality and (b) the ab-use of your brain and mind. In most cases the human brain is like a sports car that is never shifted out of first gear.

We use language to reify commodities. We succumb to hierarchy and become hooked on status symbols. Different sub cultures have their preferred supermarkets and, within a given supermarket chain, there are value brand (aka cheap) versions of products in eye-catching colours. Well-to-do shoppers would rather die than have value items in their trolleys.

And so it is for cars and clothes; houses and gardens; jewellery and cell phones; newspapers and TV programmes etc – capitalist consumerism.

What will people think? 

Who cares and why? 

Turn your mind around – be still and know that self is an illusion – rise above culture 

[i] I have developed Parkinson’s Disease which is a contributing factor