What does the conversation in your head sound like?

Most people carry a conversation inside of their head all day. They’re constantly judging what situations mean, predicting what’s coming in the future, and what’s going on right now. Most people assume that that voice inside of their head is themselves, and that the voice constantly critiquing and judging is where their intelligence and their power comes from. But neither is true.

The voice inside of your head is really your ego. It’s the part of you that is attached to results. It’s also the part of you that created the entire idea of results. Without it, advanced society wouldn’t be possible, but with too much of it, a meaningful, fulfilled life is impossible.

What’s that supposed to mean?

The dialog inside of each of us judges based on the information it already has. Because it can only judge based on what it’s already experienced or learned, it is incapable of truly grasping any situation outside of its immediate self. Consider a person who’s in debt. Their ego may decide being in debt is a very bad thing, and their inner being may believe that to be true too. So the ego decides to feel bad. It starts a conversation with itself explaining why this happened, and finds someone to blame. But the ego doesn’t possess all information. It doesn’t know whether your debt is temporary or long term, and it can’t tell whether it’s really good or bad.

So you’ve lost money and time, but is the lesson of proper financial management worth more than your time spent worrying about finances? And why is there worry? Where does that come from?

Worry is a direct result of the ego. It sets itself up to become important when there’s a problem. By worrying we get nothing done. Instead, we give ourselves the emotion of drama and of importance of our problems. Instead, we should be concentrating on creating a change for ourselves.

How many of your thoughts are negative and useless? For even the most intelligent people, negative thoughts are a constant threat to happiness and a meaningful life. If we get bound up in negativity, we lose our opportunity to create. This is why we need mental discipline and awareness. Without these, even the most promising of minds are incapable of producing what the world needs most.

So what’s a mental fast?

I believe everything purported to be good should be testable by personal experience. If a religion is really good, incorporating it should immediately improve the quality of my life, and those around me. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t a fit, and I gave it a try. The same with your mental fast. Give it a trial period, and if it works for you, keep it. If it doesn’t, drop it. Move on to the next thing.

My mental fast is freedom from negative thoughts for 10 days. It may seem like an impossible task, but as soon I find myself slipping into a negative thought pattern, I snap myself out of it. I ask myself what actions I can take instead of dwelling on what is or isn’t right with my life situation. If I can’t take any action, I accept the situation for what it is, and try not to judge it. The majority of bad situations from my past have turned out in a positive way, and with the benefit of hindsight, I realize I really can’t judge them as good or bad, even from this far away. I remind myself of this, and I move on.

The benefits are amazing. I’ve been doing this for two days, and already my mind is much more disciplined than it was before. I’m aware of little things that would have nagged me before, and now I drop them without a second thought. I’ve started developing a real sense of gratitude for life. Learning to control my mind in this way has opened the doors for potential. If I can make this big of a change in my thought patterns in two days, imagine what I can do when I really examine the processes of my mind.

So what are you waiting for? Start examining your thoughts, and eliminate the negative and worry. They’re useless.

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On December 28 2006, I read Ram Dass’ book, Be Here Now.

I had heard of Ram Dass from a whole lot of people, and picked up snippets of his philosophy, the main one being the title of his book - BE HERE NOW. It left me a little skeptical, mostly because of how many people worship his writings. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed, it’s that spiritual leaders with blind followers suck.

But I gave the book a chance anyways, figuring there’s something worthwhile in everything popular, it’s just a matter of cutting through the BS to get to it. So I began by reading the first few pages to get an idea of Ram Dass’ point in the book.

It turns out, he was a very successful (by stereotypical American standards) phsychiatrist working at Harvard before he took an extreme spiritual path. He owned a plane, a large house, fancy cars, the whole nine yards. He was frustrated with his life, though, and felt instinctively something wasn’t right. He had so much, yes, but he still felt empty, and all the things he had weren’t adding up to enough.

Then he met Timothy Leary and decided to take psylocibin as phychiatric research. What happened when he took psylocibin changed his life.

He realised that his life was just a game that he was playing very well. Beneath that surface game lied something deeper, more profound, and more worthwhile than just worldly pursuits. He was intrigued, and knew he was onto something. He never had such a profound undertanding so quickly.

So he got more involved with psychedelics, and eventually realized he couldn’t continue with his egotistical pursuits at Harvard. At the same time he also realized he couldn’t achieve true spiritual power while relying on a psychedelic drug to get him closer to a more profound experience. He decided to take the spiritual path of following a guru.

Now, here’s where I get upset. The whole guru thing. The idea that one person has achieved something so profound spiritually they’ve grown above it and assume they can teach better than the best experience - personal. To me, spirituality is something so important that we can’t let someone else tell us what is and what isn’t. We must experience and know for ourselves.

But he followed his guru anyway. And he came upon some profound lessons. Lessons that are found in every religion to some extent. That’s because every lasting religion was started by people experiencing the same thing under different circumstances - the eternal in the now in the eternal now.

What the hell does that mean?

Be here now. This moment we are currently present in is the only real thing we ever have. It’s never going to become something else, it’s never going to stay the same. Wherever we are, we’re interpreting our experience. If we interpret pain is unbearable, it is, if we interpret pain is fleeting, it is. Whatever we decide to interpret as real becomes real.

Be here now. Surf the moment to death. Our lives can end at any point in time. Nothing is a given, the only given is this moment we find ourselves in right now.

Experience the beauty and appreciate every breath.

Couldn’t every religion break itself down into that one sentence? At it’s most basic form, every religion is saying the same thing:

Be here now.

In other words,

Experience the beauty and appreciate every breath.

The desire for a beautiful, amazing life filled with an incredible lover and thousands of friends isn’t real. The only thing that is is the moment we are in right now. Why let this moment be spoiled by petty desires that aren’t real? Surf the current moment to the end instead, in a constant state of gratification and presence. By focusing completely on the current moment, we can experience the eternal. We can focus on truly helping. There is no attachment, there is no death, there is only what we feel what we know right now. The future holds nothing, doesn’t exist.

Does that scare you?

It should. Because it’s so profound and so simple. And because it’s provable by daily experience. When you wake up, you immediately begin interpreting your reality and deciding what to focus on. Are you focusing on the process of awakening, or are you worrying about problems in your life that haven’t affected you yet?

It’s a simple step. The most profound wisdom is always the simplest. Start now… be here now.

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